I've actually done a good, I dare say great, job painting some of my minis in the past, but evidently miniature painting is a perishable skill and my expiration date came and went sometime in the last five years since I last painted something.
I could show you pics of minis I'm proud of, but I'm also lazy and they're roughly stored away in another room, and this post is more about my recent, shitty paint job.
My local comic book store, that has a decent RPG selection, was hosting a miniature painting event and I scored a spot in the event. For better or for worse I also had forgotten about this event and I had a date later that day so instead of painting it in the store, where I could watch a painting video, I took it home to paint where I figured I could use my personal painting "stuff" as well. A bit of a double-edged sword. If I was more skilled, having my own setup to use would have been optimal, but since I'm not.......that painting guide would have been useful.
The kit was $20 and had a Manticore mini, two brushes, and a selection of paints. I do wish there was a painting guide, but the idea was to watch the video........so a URL to the video would have been awesome as well. That way, even in the store I could watch on my phone and rewind/fast forward at my leisure.
One good thing about being at home with the mini was that mine had a severely cupped base, which I could easily fix at home with some hot & cold water before supergluing it to a thicker base of my choice.
I didn't use most of the colors in the kit, choosing to use a few colors and mix on my own. Luckily there was a generous quantity of paint in the pots, easily enough to cover the entire fig with each color if wanted. I think of the Manticore as a top-tier (but not #1) apex ambush predator, so I wanted a more muted color palette than what the picture on the box implied. I did try to do some subtle thinned down coloration using a drop or two of paint and a bunch of matte medium. The main body was one color with this thin opaque darker reddish-tan color on top and a lighter yellowish on the underbelly. I thought it'd look cool to have that color darken and extend to the base color used in the wings and the tail. I did the same thing with the "veins" on the wings. I think it was a good idea, but I didn't pull it off.
Instead of using the wash supplied, which I should 120% should have done, I tried making my own and effed it up so bad. How bad? Yeah I went and tried to wash it off in the sink bad. I got most of it off, dried the mini with a hair drier, and then watered down my wash even more and re-applied. Meh....
I felt rushed, because of my date, but I personally think I needed the pressure or I would probably gotten little more than basing done.
Overall though I loved the idea of a painting event at a game store and I really hope that this can be a more regular thing. The store gets the traffic, you get a social event with other like-minded players\gms\whatever label you use, and you get to brush-up on your panting skills (pun intended). I've already started getting my supplies together and am setting up a painting desk in my office just for working on terrain and minis.
I really hope WotC keeps supporting this type of thing. I do hope though that they pick a better intro mini to work with. Something with fewer tight spots (that tail) and fewer mold/flash lines. Still, you got to pick a cool mini to get people in the door.
