I have a couple of FFG games now. I was considering painting the models up in this game. Which in turn might force me to paint models from all my other FFG gams. Normally I don't bother, but my FFG games are starting to become my prized treasures in my game collection.

I used to play table top mini games, and always painted up my armies. I don't lay those so much anymore, most of all that going the way of ebay. But the itch to paint up Runewars is strong. The game looks fantastic. Plus with the plastic mountain bits, the immersion factor of this game is strong. Painting up the models seems like it would just lock it in.

On that note, has anyone painted up FFG games before? Anytips out there?

I painted my Runebound figures, and just finished painting all of the Battlelore base set figures. The process will basically be the same as you used for your other minis. Use a good clear coat so they will hold up to handling. A lot of people like a thin polyurethane. I use future floor polish mixed with Tamiya flat base for a matte coat. Several companies out there make paints and clearcoats formulated for plastics. As far as the paint itself, I personally like acrylics, so I can paint in the house and not worry about the fumes.

simpatikool said:

I've got a handful of Descent heroes painted. Always trying to find time to do more...

I've also painted all my DOom minis (except expansions) and they're made of the same plastic. Assuming you're using standard miniature paints, the big thing I find is that it doesn't always stick as well to this plastic. Some people say wash the mini in soap and water first, but I don't know if that helps. Just make sure you've got a solid base coat (might take a couple passes) and then everything is fine. I haven't had any issues with chipping or fading on the ones I painted.

I painted my War of the Ring units...all 200+ of them. I imagine it will be a similar scale for Runewars. This took me a little over a year of on/off painting in the evenings to complete. One thing that helps when it comes to painting "armies" is that you can usually work on all units of a particular type at one time, since they all have the same color scheme. For example, painting 36 orcs wasn't too hard since I basically used the same painting strategy on each. Tedious, but not difficult.

On the other hand, I started painting my Runebound heroes years ago and only got through half of them before moving on. They are much more time consuming per unit, since there's a lot more detail to each hero. Of course, these same heroes will pop up again in Runewars (I will have at least 3 minis of each, given their appearance Descent, Runebound, and Runewars.)

So painting holds a huge appeal to me, but I'm more concerned about finishing those heroes than for the 150+ army/neutral units!

For a Base coat, did you all use a primer? Like you would on say a metal miniature of the Warmachine/Warhammer ilk?

Thanks again for the pointers guys.

For mine, I used a spray can of white primer from the local hardware store. Tape them to a board, then spray LIGHTLY from a distance, since cans (or paint bombs as they're called in the modelling world) tend to put out more paint than needed for small figures. I've never had any problems with chipping or peeling.

simpatikool said:

Not me. I just covered them with a coat of black paint using my brushes and then went to town once that dried. I am considering a spray primer for future work though, since there are A LOT of mins to cover. (No pun intended) =P

simpatikool said:

Well, I'd LOVE to have some the Gamesworkshop paints etc, but I'm just too cheap.

To prime the figures, I slightly thinned glue (elmer's glue) with black paint added. Once it dries it forms a very nice surface for the paint to adhere too (and it's not sticky at all.) I usually just use acrylics for painting and then I actually seal with, you guessed it, more glue (add some black, not a lot, to add a little more depth to the figures, as it fills in the cracks and crevices nicely). Again, once dry, the figures are not sticky, but they aren't "glossy" either.

Once I get the money together to get this game I'm going to paint my heroes but leave the basic army units unpainted. Keeping the primary scheme with the army units games it easy to tell at a glance who is where; this is the same reason I haven't painted my CaveTroll minis.

However, I painted my Drakon mini's and it really helps the look of the game plus helps non-gamers play because people can remember "I have the mostly green one" instead of "What's a dwarf?"

Having had a chance to play this at the Sneak Peek last week I can cleanly state that to me, the heroes MUST be painted. The whole time I was playing I was thinking how much better they'd look with even a 5 minute splashjob.

The non-hero minis seemed a little... I think bendy is the word I'm searching for, and I'm not sure how well they will hold up to wear with paint on them. The heroes however all had a bit thicker feel, and since there are less of them, and they are all just grey, not colored based on your faction, I could easily see them getting painted.

That being said, I don't have the time for that, so I'll just be leaving my minis as is.

i gonna have Mike,from bluemoonminiatures.com paint my talisman minis for me. he could prolly paint these for you.

Hey,

What's up ya'll. I'm planning on painting, but I wanted to know which paint set works best. So far GamesWorkshop colors are good but I wanted to know if FFG has their own... (yeah I'm new so what... hee, hee).

I have a smattering of paints from various companies. Reaper, some GW, some PP, and some basic model paints from model shops.

I use liquitex soft body acrylic and matte medium. It's a lot cheaper than specialized mini paints and gives you a lot of flexibility in how you use the paints.

ive painted every single runebound ,descent journeys in the dark,Well of darkness,Altar of despair,tomb of ice, mini...... so i am thinking of painting the Nuetral units , and maybe color scheme the player units later on....and i use a base coat of just regular flat black spray paint.... works the same

I am thinking of just doing a wash over each mini. I would use a wash that is a darker color than the figure and just wash it on over the unprimed figures. This should be simple, quick, yet still bring out details and allow the figures to show off thier factions colors. Anyone have experience doing washes over this soft plastic? I might try this on one of the undead, as I have some GW leviathan purple wash that should work well. Also thinking of doing devlan mud over the neutrals, but not sure if that will darken them too much.

simpatikool said:

i have painted before and i sugjest thick paint cuz you cant prime or all the detail is gone.

cadamec said:

Another thing that you might want to try is to put a base coat of the primary colors on the fig then give the whole thing an ink wash (chestnut is best i find). I'm going to do this with teh heroes, but I'm going to leave the faction units unpainted.

Farin said:

Actually, for these particular figures I find that even a couple layers of paint will begin to mask the detail, so I wouldn't recommend laying it on too thick. Maintaining detail on figures like this is less about drybrushing and inkwashing and more about re-painting the differences so they are visible afterwards, if you see what I mean.

For example, the hairline on most figures will almost certainly be obscured by the time you get down a base coat and skin-toned coat, no matter how thinly you manage to work. So keeping that detail is more about remembering where the hairline WAS and painting the hair colour to follow the same line, since the actual moulded line will be gone by then. It's a delicate process, which has really made me appreciate just how painstakingly detailed and carved other minis like GW's are.

I'm not saying you shouldn't paint these minis, of course. I'm not even saying it will be that hard (it hasn't been especially difficult for me), but it is a different process from other minis lines that were expressly intended to be painted.

I will be definitely be painting my figures for sure. With how big these pieces are it shouldn't take too long to get them all done over a short period of time. I will have to post some pics as I get some of them done. Should make the game stand out even more.

Great! I’d love to see how they turn out

I’ve been thinking about painting mine too, but as has already been said, the plastic seems very soft, just looking at the swords on the death knights makes me wonder how long the paint would even stay on. I’d be interested to hear if anyone has managed to paint any of them yet, as my painting experience tends to be with larger 28mm scale miniatures.

Either that, or I’ll just experiment with one poor reanimate. I’m sure he won’t mind. ^^

A soapy scrub and a light priming will help the paint stay on as well as a matte coat once completed will also help. I will post some pics upon completion of the Dragons just to give a wee taste. I think this game will look even more dramatic with a decent coat of paint on the figs. I mean those 3D mountains just add that something extra and with a full set of painted figures would make the game just pop!

if you check out boardgamegeek.com, someone posted the demons looks pretty good