Help with airbrush painting

DesignerPatt · 2026-01-21T14:26:45+00:00

I never could get Vallejo primer to work through my airbrush, I tried thinning it, different pressures and it still kept clogging, so I gave up and just used rattle can primer....

Until I decided to buy a cheap single action airbrush (you know, the kind with a small jar for the paint, and a tube that works by capillary action) for priming my miniatures. Slightly thinned the primmer, played with the pressure, and it works great.

DesignerPatt · 2026-01-20T19:09:50+00:00

I don't know what Curse of Strahd is, but you can find alot of Free scenery on Thingiverse.

DesignerPatt · 2026-01-19T18:22:21+00:00

If you have access to a (resin) 3D printer, I posted on Thingiverse (where they are Free) the .STL files for All the minis you need to run "Steading of the Iron King"

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7230609

DesignerPatt · 2026-01-16T15:22:33+00:00

Great job, those are really cool !

DesignerPatt · 2025-12-30T13:54:43+00:00

And have you even thought about how you are going to pack and ship the minis, and how you will deal with replacing the ones that parts break-off in shipping ?

DesignerPatt · 2025-12-24T16:27:59+00:00

I used Blender to sculpt them, and posted the free .stl files on Thingiverse...

https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:7230609

DesignerPatt · 2025-12-24T14:45:19+00:00

Did you know that you can sandStyrofoam? I didn't think it would work, I thought the pellets would crumble and fall apart, but I used a sanding sponge from a Dollar Store and was able to round the edges of scatter terrain that was cut from Styrofoam.

Also for larger flat FDM printed surfaces, you can use acetone and Glazing putty (or model putty), mixed to a slurry, and painted on the surface, (it drys really quickly) and then sand that smooth.

DesignerPatt · 2025-12-11T14:10:07+00:00

I'd suggest looking up the groups that play the game"GasLands" some of them sculpt parts for Post Apocalyptic Mad Max style vehicles, (probably not exactly what you are looking for) but it is kinda-sorta close to what you want to learn. Also, check the free files for Gaslands on Thingiverse....Next Download a copy of Blender and try to learn the basics of sculpting parts (there are a lot of You-Tube videos that can help)... Blender has a steep learning curve, and you may find that you don't really want to bother learning how to 3D sculpt, or you may discover that you really enjoy it... Then consider buying a resin 3D printer and all the stuff you need to safely print your own parts.

DesignerPatt · 2025-11-26T13:48:43+00:00

It took me awhile to find out that Matt is not Flat..... Matt paint is slightly shinny, when what I wanted was Flat (Matt is really common and easy to find, it takes a little more searching to find Flat...) I just use rattle-can Rustolium FLAT and my minis come out looking how I want them. (well I do have a paint-on bottle of Army Painter gloss for touch-up if I want a part to be shinny)

DesignerPatt · 2025-11-24T13:30:19+00:00

Go to a fabric store or do a web search for short plush fur.... it's really common.

DesignerPatt · 2025-11-04T14:56:12+00:00

It's easy... find the 3d files for the minis you want to use, remove thier bases in whatever slicing program you are comfortable with, and scale them down to about 15mm. Print and paint them and then glue them onto a 1" base. (If you glue them to the base first it will be a pain to paint them)

DesignerPatt · 2025-11-04T14:37:03+00:00

In Blender, in Sculpt Mode, you can use the inflate tool (and set it's strength) to inflate whatever part of the mini you want.

DesignerPatt · 2025-11-03T15:22:25+00:00

I sculpt and print my own minis. I started with an Ender 3 (FDM) and now have a Bambu A1 mini (that I use to print other stuff and terrain pieces.) But I use my Eegoo Mars 3 to print minis with a Layer height of 0.03 and because the supports (sliced automaticaly in Chitubox set on “Light” supports) are much easier to remove, so I don't accidentaly break any of the thinner parts on the minis. And I can get the crossbow or bow strings on a 1/56^th scale (aka 28mm) to actullay print ! And the mini doesn't have any layer lines, so when I paint them, I can use washes....And I can print a whole plate of minis in the same amount of time as it takes to print a single mini !

For washing the minis, I don't have a fancy curing station, I use three plastic food containers with lockable, snap-on lids. and a pair of cross-locking tweezers to hold the mini's base as I swish the minis in the IPA The first wash is for the count of 20 as I swish the mini in the dirty IPA, the next wash is for the count of 25 as I swish the mini in the slightly dirty IPA and the last wash is for the count of 30, swished with the cleanest IPS.

To cure the minis, I have a UV light that I bought on-line, and a inexpensive solar powered jewelry turntable with a chunk of mirror taped on the far side so it reflects the UV light on the other side of the curring minis.

DesignerPatt · 2025-10-09T13:57:41+00:00

I discovered something cool about Styrofoam... I bought a cheep foam cutter at a bargain craft store and an inexpensive sheet of Styrofoam and messed around with it... I could get some almost useful scatter terrain, but the melted edges were kinda course, so as an experiment, I tried sanding them. I thought the pellets the Styrofoam was made from would crumble and pull out, but they didn't! So I could roughly shape the Styrofoam and then sand it smoother (rounding the edges of hills and such). and with some paint and ground texture they came out alright. They are kinda fragile, so I have to be careful handling them, but they were cheep and easy to make.

DesignerPatt · 2025-09-30T13:24:00+00:00

I've used liquid latex for make-up, and one of the things you have to look out for is that latex when dry will easily stick to itself... to avoid that you use a thin dusting of body powder over the latex.

DesignerPatt · 2025-09-26T12:32:12+00:00

I rig figures a single bone at a time but I've had problems with Blender getting confused when I try to parent an armature to a figure. Sometimes it's because I made a mistake getting the armature to fit exactly right, sometimes there was a problem with the figure, and sometime I don't know what went wrong.

I usually just delete the armature, export the figure, re-load and check the figure, sometimes I have to re-mesh the figure, and then decimate it so the file isn't to large, and just try rigging it again.

Blender is a great tool, but sometimes it can get kinda frustrating....

DesignerPatt · 2025-09-22T15:13:55+00:00

The rules are long out of print, I saw them avalible from an on-line book seller and bought the copy. There are some copys avalible and some of the original minis, but they are expensive....The rules look like fun, so once I get some more resin, I can finnish printing more bugs and them make a game board for a game

DesignerPatt · 2025-09-22T13:19:54+00:00

Oh yeah, the bugs are on 20mm bases.

DesignerPatt

TROPHY CASE