So the "exact" dimensions of the Legion figures are 34-35mm based on a comment from Sorastro. Additionally, exact size has been debated since the Legion boards opened.

In an effort to learn I have read a lot of commentary here regarding 28 mm and, specifically, heroic scale. I have done a bunch of reading to understand some of this. And I still arrive at these "new guy" questions ...

I own ZERO minis. If I wanted to practice and paint a few, 28 mm heroic is a larger figure. Would that figure potential scale to Legion models in the future? Was thinking about getting these and there are some figs that are not that different than Rebels

https://madrobotminiatures.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=9_19&products_id=156

Is the proper scale for this game ... 1/48, 1/52, 1/56 ? Or does it really not matter and would be a matter of preference? I have read the article below. It references 1/48. Thought I would get opinion of folks that have been doing this a while.

http://theminiaturespage.com/ref/scales.html

Any help appreciated

Hey Dash Two! At this moment I think it would be best to learn techniques rather than trying to get a test figure that is the appropriate scale. The techniques will be the same regardless of the model's scale (within reason). The techniques of priming, base colors, washes, highlights and detail painting are pretty universal.

I've also found that painting figures is generally more forgiving than painting X-wing minis.

12 minutes ago, Dash Two said:

So the "exact" dimensions of the Legion figures are 34-35mm based on a comment from Sorastro. Additionally, exact size has been debated since the Legion boards opened.

Yes. And this is basically all we know...^^ Sorastro measured the Luke... He's 35mm tall. Expect Vader to be much taller...

I'm with Force Majeure. Get some paint and brushes and some miniatures you like the look of and WANT to paint. Doesn't have to be Star Wars but, well... IA is right there, you know...^^ Watch one of Sorastrosvids, get the mini and the colours recommended and give it a try.

You could also grab one of the GW/Armypainter/Quartermaster/Vallejo starter sets with a couple of paints and a few miniatures for around 20-30€. They should get you a taste without spending too much.

Thank you guys. Much appreciated

I was in the same boat a few months ago. I Sharpied my Armada squads, and never was beyond that.

Slowly I started to pick up paint to do the bases, and then tried the squads. Then I transitioned to painting the squads completely. Recently me and some friends got into playing Zombicide Black Plague. I've picked up more paints, and started doing those figures. I suppose it's all practice for Legion when it arrives. And I love doing a few figures a week now, it's kind of therapeutic.

I'd recommend watching some videos; @Sorastro 's are definitely worth a look. And I'd recommend painting anything you can justify doing. Ultimately you'll find your skill. And not everything needs to be your best work. Some will look good, some won't. Just keep trying.

I'm a veteran painter and I agree with what the others have said here. Just some grab some mins that appeal to you and practice on them. If cost is an issue then Reaper Bones minis are very inexpensive and have enough detail to practice on. If price isn't an issue then buy yourself some of the 'easy to assemble' 40k models -Primaris Marines perhaps - and practice on them. I think they will have a lot in common with the upcoming Legion minis in terms of quality and detail.

You should reach out to your community and find a shop where people play with painted miniatures. You should be able to find someone there who knows how to paint and is willing to share their experiences. You can learn a lot by watching Youtube videos but having someone on hand who can give you one on one advice is very valuable.

J--

Another viable option is practicing on cheap plastic toys. Like plastic skeletons that are found cheap online and in stores.

Thanks for all the feedback. Once work is not in the way ... funny how it happens ... think I am going to order from the link I posted. You can get 5 man fire squad for $20/US. Can put them together. Go. See what I can do.

On 9/17/2017 at 8:03 PM, Stasy said:

I was in the same boat a few months ago. I Sharpied my Armada squads, and never was beyond that.

Slowly I started to pick up paint to do the bases, and then tried the squads. Then I transitioned to painting the squads completely. Recently me and some friends got into playing Zombicide Black Plague. I've picked up more paints, and started doing those figures. I suppose it's all practice for Legion when it arrives. And I love doing a few figures a week now, it's kind of therapeutic.

I'd recommend watching some videos; @Sorastro 's are definitely worth a look. And I'd recommend painting anything you can justify doing. Ultimately you'll find your skill. And not everything needs to be your best work. Some will look good, some won't. Just keep trying.

This is pretty much how it went for me. I'd never painted anything before Armada so I tried sharpies and paint pens at first (They did not turn out as well as @Stasy 's did). When I didn't like that I watched some youtube videos, picked up some cheap paints and brushes and practiced on a few micro machines. Eventually I worked my way up to painting my squads and after about a year and a half nearly everything Armada that I own, squads and ships, has been painted and I'm genuinely happy with how almost all of them have turned out and occasionally get asked to do commissions for people. The thing I find most important to keep in mind when painting is that you'll inevitably be your harshest critic. This is at least in part due to holding the mini a few inches from your face when it will almost always be viewed by others from at least a foot or two away. And don't be afraid to mess it up it's pretty easy to strip off a bad paint job and redo it.

5 hours ago, Megatronrex said:

This is pretty much how it went for me. I'd never painted anything before Armada so I tried sharpies and paint pens at first (They did not turn out as well as @Stasy 's did). When I didn't like that I watched some youtube videos, picked up some cheap paints and brushes and practiced on a few micro machines. Eventually I worked my way up to painting my squads and after about a year and a half nearly everything Armada that I own, squads and ships, has been painted and I'm genuinely happy with how almost all of them have turned out and occasionally get asked to do commissions for people. The thing I find most important to keep in mind when painting is that you'll inevitably be your harshest critic. This is at least in part due to holding the mini a few inches from your face when it will almost always be viewed by others from at least a foot or two away. And don't be afraid to mess it up it's pretty easy to strip off a bad paint job and redo it.

Awesome. Based on a quick experiment with an X-Wing model (z-95) I have learned the value of a mistake and, then, Simple Green. My biggest obstacle will be my perfectionism. Like, whatever I paint will need to look like "x" photo so the feedback very much appreciated.

13 hours ago, Dash Two said:

My biggest obstacle will be my perfectionism.

That's a serious problem for people painting mini's. I was painting some deathwatch stuff and using the 'Eavy Metal pictures as a guide. Needless to say I was starting to hate what I was doing and wondering if I shouldn't just chuck my paints and brushes. I'm a good painter, but nowhere near pro level.

But guess what, I don't have to be. In fact there is a point in which it's hard to tell the difference between pro and good levels. When you have your models on the table in terrain and are a few feet away from them... It's hard to see the imperfections you'll notice when you're looking at it from 6 inches away under really good lighting.

My Legion mini's won't win me any awards, even the ones I take a lot of time with for RPG's are unlikely to win an award. But they do look good when they're being used on a table.

I'll recommend this video though it's full of good advice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Yve7bislU0

Yeah, when I do the Zombicide models I give myself a week, barring any hectic schedule blocks, to paint a group of minis. After that, I finish what I need to, and move on.

I just did an AWESOME wolf in the last week, and I'm proud of my work, but I'm sure there are techniques I could try and make it pop. But rather than chase perfection, I move on. I'll improve on the next one.

17 hours ago, Dash Two said:

Awesome. Based on a quick experiment with an X-Wing model (z-95) I have learned the value of a mistake and, then, Simple Green. My biggest obstacle will be my perfectionism. Like, whatever I paint will need to look like "x" photo so the feedback very much appreciated.

As others have mentioned, I'd probably first define what success looks like. For most people, there are two general categories of painting... table standard and display standard. Display standard is meant to look amazing up close. Ideally, there are no visible brush strokes, no colors bleeding into the wrong area, etc. Display standard is reserved for models you'll be displaying as artistic achievement in a case.

Then, there is table standard. Table standard is meant to look good from about three feet away. In other words, they look good on the table when you're standing next to the table. From three feet away, you won't notice a few brush strokes here and there. You won't notice if there is a speck of green paint somewhere wrong. You won't notice if your shading isn't quite right.

Set the expectation. My goal is to paint the Rebel Troopers, AT-RT, Stormtroopers and Bikers to a table standard. I'll then paint Luke and his dad at a higher, display standard. I tend to paint the centerpiece models of any given army to a higher standard. People tend to spend more time looking at them versus looking at a basic trooper.

So... if I have painted the Rebels to a table standard with Luke at a display standard, I've perfectly executed what I set out to execute. My perfectionism has been appeased.

1 hour ago, KrisWall said:

I tend to paint the centerpiece models of any given army to a higher standard. People tend to spend more time looking at them versus looking at a basic trooper.

Another thing that helps with that is it's much harder to spot mistakes on an individual model when it's mixed in with 6 or more of the basically same model.

In Bolt Action for example, any one of my 82nd US Airborne may not be that great of a paint job, but when you're looking at a blob of 10-12 of them it's really hard to pick out any mistakes, and when you're looking at a table of 50+ of them picking out much detail is really hard to do. Of course since the whole point of a military uniform is to blend in and the table is a railroad grass mat with trees on it... That helps too.

One other tip that just occurred to me is how important good basing is. Going again with my BA stuff since that's what I'm still currently painting, quite often the model will look ok, not great but not bad... Which IMO is fine when I'm painting 50+ models with tabletop quality. But when I do a nice base on it, the model can really jump up the scale in terms of quality. You can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear, but a nice base can really go a long way to making a mini pop, and likewise a bad base can detract from a well painted model.

1 hour ago, VanorDM said:

Another thing that helps with that is it's much harder to spot mistakes on an individual model when it's mixed in with 6 or more of the basically same model.

In Bolt Action for example, any one of my 82nd US Airborne may not be that great of a paint job, but when you're looking at a blob of 10-12 of them it's really hard to pick out any mistakes, and when you're looking at a table of 50+ of them picking out much detail is really hard to do. Of course since the whole point of a military uniform is to blend in and the table is a railroad grass mat with trees on it... That helps too.

One other tip that just occurred to me is how important good basing is. Going again with my BA stuff since that's what I'm still currently painting, quite often the model will look ok, not great but not bad... Which IMO is fine when I'm painting 50+ models with tabletop quality. But when I do a nice base on it, the model can really jump up the scale in terms of quality. You can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear, but a nice base can really go a long way to making a mini pop, and likewise a bad base can detract from a well painted model.

I can't agree enough with the basing comment. A top tier, masterwork painted model looks unfinished with an unpainted base. A table standard model with a really solid base tends to get lots of compliments.

I sincerely appreciate the advice and links/tutorial suggestions. This weekend the plan is to build some terrain to paints/mess with

Have not had time to order a few minis

One other thing I'll mention, because it's quite possibly the single most important thing you can do. Thin your paints.

That may mean squirting a little water into the cup or using a wet palette... But however you do it, make sure you do it, because nothing else will improve the look of your miniatures more. Using 2 thin coats lets you add the color you want to the model without covering any of the detailing or depth of the model itself.

Here's another tabletop minions on how to make one for about 5 bucks... I made one based on the video and it cost me maybe that much, the biggest expense was the parchment paper, at like $3, but I have enough of that to last me until I can no longer paint. Although I do have my eyes on a kickstarter for a wet palette that looks rather nice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=96mjmqWTPfM&t=1s

I forgot to add a personal testimonial to the above post.

For a while I painted with straight out of the pot, and I had some fairly nice looking stuff. Stuff I was fairly proud of to put on the table. Then I saw video I linked above and tried using a wet palette. I'd always show my finished stuff off to friends and my wife, and they'd tell me how nice it looked.

After I showed my friend something I did with the wet palette, he made the comment "You know your other stuff was decent, but this one is actually really, really good." So I went from a "Yeah that's nice" or "I like that." to "Wow that's really, really good" or "You've actually become a really good painter" simply by starting to use a wet palette.

13 hours ago, Dash Two said:

Have not had time to order a few minis

If you live in the States go to Walmart, Target or Toys R Us and pick up a Magic The Gathering Planes Walker board game. It comes with about 15-25 miniatures already assembled and you could easily prime them and start painting right away. They're not very detailed but roughly the same size Legion will be. You can start practicing different techniques and not get to bogged down in tiny details because the models themselves are not super detailed.

Or I imagine you could find some cheap Heroclix figures on eBay or at Local Game Store.

21 hours ago, VanorDM said:

One other tip that just occurred to me is how important good basing is. Going again with my BA stuff since that's what I'm still currently painting, quite often the model will look ok, not great but not bad... Which IMO is fine when I'm painting 50+ models with tabletop quality. But when I do a nice base on it, the model can really jump up the scale in terms of quality. You can't make a silk purse out of a pig's ear, but a nice base can really go a long way to making a mini pop, and likewise a bad base can detract from a well painted model.

Speaking of basing, you're referring to painting, and adding texture effects to the base they stand on? This was distressing me because my brain could only think of "well what if i paint and make it look like forest floor for Endor, or sandy for Tattooine, and then I build a Hoth table??"

I guess you just live with the fact that your base is the "environment" that it is and don't worry about the table environment?

14 minutes ago, manoftomorrow010 said:

Speaking of basing, you're referring to painting, and adding texture effects to the base they stand on?

Yes, that's exactly what I'm referring to.

Quote

I guess you just live with the fact that your base is the "environment" that it is and don't worry about the table environment?

Yep, it's the biggest problem when basing a model. There's not even really many neutral options that look good. You could paint the base black, and that would work ok on any surface, but it would add nothing at all to the miniature, and may actually detract from it.

So you're stuck doing things like basing a model with forest turf, and then having it look odd on a snow field or interior map. But no matter what you do that's going to be an issue. So base it with environment that you'll play on the most and don't worry about it when it's on something else.

Myself I base most everything with forest turf, because that's what my table at home looks like, and what the tables at the LGS look like. So it works in 90% of the games I play. But for the Shadowrun RPG characters I painted I gave them concrete and asphalt bases because that fit better with where they'd be most of the time.

It will be a bigger issue when you have Snowtroopers/Hoth Rebel troopers... Makes almost no sense to base them for forest green, but that's where I'd bet they'll get used the most, of course it makes no sense to use them at all on a forest or most interior maps since they're really just standard stormtroopers/rebel troopers with cold weather gear.

Unless someone wants to make up a list of nothing but those types of troops and additional leaders. Which would naturally be rather spendy.

There are clear bases that you could use... but I don't know if that's your style. Some people don't like the look and others do.

Another (unlikely) route to go is to magnetize the feet of your figures and create bases with different environments that you can attach them to. You can purchase thin metal discs that you can attach to a base and then apply whatever environment over you like on it. If you use neodymium magnets, they should be strong enough to hold onto the base pretty well. I haven't used any this small, but 1 mm x 2 mm cylinders should be small enough to insert into the feet of most figures. Neodymium magnets are freakishly strong.

30 minutes ago, Force Majeure said:

There are clear bases that you could use... but I don't know if that's your style. Some people don't like the look and others do.

Another (unlikely) route to go is to magnetize the feet of your figures and create bases with different environments that you can attach them to. You can purchase thin metal discs that you can attach to a base and then apply whatever environment over you like on it. If you use neodymium magnets, they should be strong enough to hold onto the base pretty well. I haven't used any this small, but 1 mm x 2 mm cylinders should be small enough to insert into the feet of most figures. Neodymium magnets are freakishly strong.

I really like the magnets idea It may be the route I go further down the line...

Thanks everyone! That magnet idea is really cool! I'm planning Endor terrain, so I'd probably do the forest floor type of base for the core set if not trying the magnet idea.

I would double check, but I think a GW space marine is about 35 mm tall. If they are too small try a Primaris Marine. They are supposed to represent huge warriors in their "heroic" scale games. You can pick up a single Primaris figure for like $5 with the new rules (the rules are also downloadable as free, hence why they are so cheap) I think you can pick up a cheap space marine in one of Games Workshop's paint sets.