Tabletop Miniatures Talk, Anyone?

Currently there are two gangs available for Necromunda.

The Eschers, Amazonian women warriors:


And the Goliaths, 'roided up beasts:

I got my first box of the Goliath minis yesterday, and have assembled five of them so far:

Each one is about 10 pieces, give or take. Some of the decisions on pieces seemed silly at first (such as all heads being two parts - neck/mohawk and face), but the way they go together is pretty darn brilliant.

All of the places where pieces go together (except for the leg armor plates and grenades, which are optional) have some method to insure that A) they fit together well, and B) align up properly.

As I haven't bought GW minis in nearly 20 years, I'm especially blown away by this construction. I'm used to all flat joints that you have to figure out how to align on your own. (Granted, it's easier to customize poses with flat joints, but it's still doable in plastic.) The shoulders on these especially are amazing - the mold line is between the chest straps and the deltoid muscles, so you can't even tell they're separate when assembled!

All ten assembled now, save for the guy with the "Rivet Gun" on the right. That thing is so big I need to paint his body before gluing it on.

I admit I have little to no interest in tabletop miniatures or the games that use them. Even when I play D&D I use a die to represent my character on the grid.

So I'm just popping in for the pictures and to let you, ABz B👹anaz , know that you do amazing work.

Same here.

I barely had the patience and dexterity to paint 1:48 airplane models when I was a kid. Can't imagine trying miniatures, but I love seeing others' work. 

Two nights ago, I was attempting to work on the bases for the Goliaths above, and was getting very frustrated. The Craft Smart metallic paints are TRASH. I tried both bronze and silver, and both came out of the bottle extremely goopy despite heavy shaking, would not mix with water for SHIT even on a wet palette, and would take at LEAST 3 coats to look halfway decent.

So last night I broke down and bought some Citadel paints from the Games Workshop store. I was there to make a trade, so I figured I could spend $20-25 on the expensive shit to see how it worked.

I tried out Leadbelcher when I got home, which is their gunmetal color.

HOLY SHIT, this is 100x better than craft paint! I put a small amount on my wet palette, mixed in some water, and it came out PERFECT. A single coat is good enough to cover the models over the primer, and it didn't change in quality from when I first put it on to when I scraped the last bit off the palette to finish the gun I was painting. If the other paints I bought work this well, I am going to be very happy.

Still, each half-ounce paint pot is $4.50...so I do still intend to try out some Vallejo and Army Painter ones.

-Also, I've apparently been pronouncing "palette" wrong for 30 years. Dammit, a "PALLET" is a wooden frame you store boxes on in a warehouse, so I assumed "PALETTE", being spelled differently, would also SOUND different. NOPE! Both "PALlet" and not "pal-LET".

And here's my take on the Goliath ganger bases:



I'm pretty happy with these. I like the "rust all over" look, though I also like the way the official ones at the top of this thread look, with rust in the lower elevations only.

SLIGHTLY more progress, barely able to even tell the difference at this point:
(Another layer of green on the armor, finished off the horns, the middle guy's sword/knife, touched up the flesh, added corrosion on some edges and dirt on their feet/legs, and painted the base edges black.)

As planned, working on Five (Khorne) Guys, Murder and Die:

They came like that. GW has been doing a lot more sculpted bases, which are cool. The Shadespire miniatures all come with modeled bases, and they also sell packs of other base styles including "Hero bases" with large pieces of scenery on them. They also have textured paints for making your own bases. The "mud" on my Plague Marines above is a thick paint that you slab on and push around to make it look muddy.

Go to THIS LINK and check out the "Bases" category.

My next project:

A Genestealer Patriarch looming over the body of a dead Imperial Fist space marine.
I got the Deathwatch:Overkill box for Mrs. B's Genestealer Cultists, and this was the first model I saw when I opened it and just HAD to do it first! It comes with a space marine helmet in one hand, so I wanted to add the mangled body to go with it. (Other views here: imgur.com/a/Ci86i )

They all look great! If you're having trouble with shading, I strongly recommend the Citadel Shades. They're a bit pricey as most GW stuff is, but they are AMAZINGLY good. When I started painting again and was using craft store paint, I used the Shades on top of it and it looked just as good as with better paints. The "Nuln Oil" and "Agrax Earthshade" shades in particular are really nice for metallic stuff.

Ha, I seriously doubt they could offer a competitive salary to mine, and/or relocation.