Comments - Floor Polish

James has a question!

Ok, could I make a photo request? It's kind of creepy. Could you take a shot of the floor polish so I buy the right stuff? I'd like to pick some up and try it. I have at least 30 figs awaiting paint. I haven't picked up a brush in over 5 years, but you're giving me the bug again.

Here you go, James:
This is the stuff we use. We both have little bottles (shown) that we put a bit into so that it doesn't dry up on us (dollar store is a good place for mini bottles), and I use a palette (also dollar store) for mixing up my paint, water and floor polish. You use up a lot less paint this way, so it's a good method for preserving some of those really old paints.

I used to love some of the TSR lines (I think they were TSR anyway) - the humans had an almost cartoon feel. I hate overt realism in figs. It's much more fun to paint and look at caricatures.

We have some of the old TSR ones (mostly L's as he's been painting a lot longer than me).

I always use Testors metallics and then wash them with inks. I used to keep brass, gold, silver and an even brighter one (aluminum?) on hand (and often blend brass over a base coat of gold - really makes it pop). Their white is pretty much indispensable. There's something about the light pigments (white & yellow especially) that just doesn't work with water-based paint. They dry up in no time and tend to be 'grainy.'

We use their white for our primer - we both primer by hand (meaning with a brush, as opposed to spray primer, which tends to sink into the fig and obscure the details). Primering by hand is also great for really noticing the details in your fig.

I've never found a yellow I really like, either in Testors, Partha Paints, or Citadel/Games Workshop.

I have some paints that are ~15 years old myself - these giant glass bottles of citadel paints. I loved them. There was a hobby store that went tits up and was selling them for $.25 each, so I bought one of everything they had. Super smooth but not thick, a slight satin sheen to some of the hues, but still very nice (a spray coat of matte varnish takes care of that). I think I have two of those left.

My art teacher says you can just buy acrylic paints in the art supply stores - all acrylics are basically the same thing: liquid plastic with pigment. Only the consistency varies. But I'd never use one of those giant tubes up.

When our friend's gaming store closed down, we bought tons of the old Reaper Miniatures paints so we wouldn't ever run out.

I see you also have posts about fashion... they frighten me.

It's okay, you don't have to look at those. Just click on the "Sheila Figs" or "L Figs" link at the bottom of the post and you'll only have to look at the painting posts.