I haven't tried this myself yet, but another trick I've heard that can help when removing flash and mold lines, is sticking your mini in the freezer for a while beforehand. This makes it easier to scrape stuff off.
The first miniature I painted was a warhammer mini and now he sits on display at my local game store in the diorama they made along with a few other minis i painted after him
If you used the hot/cold water trick, you could both straighten the umber hulks mandbles and get it to stand properly clear of the ground. I am a bit surprised you did not show that trick in this video as it is a good method to improve, straighten or even reposition minis such as these.
That is good technique, and I probably should have mentioned it. Next model that I reposition for a video I will make a point to mention it. Thanks for the feedback.
I've found that as long as you're careful of fiddly bits, and the pressure you're applying, a brass wire brush will strip off primer ridiculously fast without doing any damage to the model. At least with the Wizkids stuff. I definitely wouldn't recommend doing this on a reaper model though, way too soft.
I am pretty sure with my 'soft' touch, anything I stripped that way would end up looking like a shapeshifter turning into what the model is supposed to be 😅
Frustrating as hell. They're great mini's. Bloody chore to have to clean the universal big mold lines before painting them though. Plus you can see that detail is lost, the civilian merchant figure is meant to have coins in his hands. He has a grey lump instead because of the primer.
The heavy application of primer, possibly to gap fill, I agree is a major frustration. I would love if they had an option to buy them in assembled and unprimed.
A really great video! I really enjoyed it. The newer Nozul's minis are pretty decent when it comes to the priming phase. I do remove all the seam lines with a knife, but unless the primer is too thick (and sometimes it is on certain figures), I just use Vallejo Surface primer added via a brush over the areas where I have removed primer with the knife. Sometimes you do get a miniature or two in the blisters that are just too heavily primed -- eye sockets filled in, and details obscured. When that happens, you need to strip away the existing primer and just prime those minis yourself. Just a bit of comment on the 5th edition minis: A lot of the Nozul's minis have excellent sculpts, but they're far from being perfect. Sculptures do a decent job of getting the scale of figures correct, but not always. For instance, the drow 2-pack figures seem to be far smaller in scale with other elves and humans. Too small, I think. I almost never like the super-thick bow strings on the Nozul's minis, or the weird, squared off bows that have only vague resemblance to real bows. In my opinion, the sculptors and general art direction of the 5th edition stuff no longer harkens back to medieval fantasy armor and things that you'd see in the classic AD&D and D&D games. A little more chainmail and scale mail armor would be nicer. I'm not really much into the video game look of modern D&D if I'm honest. D&D is the grand daddy of all fantasy roleplaying games, table top, video game or otherwise...so why is the new direction trying to have the same looks that every other game has?? Doesn't work for me. Your mileage may vary, of course. I've been playing and DMing since the mid-1980s. Just sayin'. Also when you do get a modern mini that supposed to be wearing "chainmail" it has sort of weird look to it. Huge links that make little sense -- sort of oversized "S" shape patterns that don't look like mail at all. Just strange. Regardless of the knit-picking, I do think that the sculptures on the modern minis are far better proportioned than the minis of old. I really appreciate that. Also the detailing is generally pretty good, but I'd like to see a bit more variety in designs, and there's nothing wrong with keeping a few of the artistic traditions either. Just my two cents.
I agree about them getting better about not slathering the primer on, so stripping isn't as essential. Cleaning up the mould lines will require touching up the primer as you mentioned. If one is going to be doing a zenithal undercoat it might still be worth while to strip, just do you don't have an extra layer of primer under everything, but that is very much personal preference. WRT scale, I could have sworn there was something in the lore about Drow being shorter than other Elves, but that is a hazy memory if it is true at all. The thickness of the bow strings I agree is frustrating, I assume it is a product of their casting process. I agree that the 5th ed art style has definitely changed from the more classical Elmore and associates aesthetic.Thankfully a lot of companies are still doing nice old school/classic styled models, but with updated sculpting/casting techniques. I would love to see someone pick up one of the more exotic older aesthetics, like the Dark Sun style, and do a a large set based around that. I like WizKids' stuff for the availability both in price and actually being able to find them in local stores. The models/scupts I think are kinda hit & miss as you alluded to. I like a lot of the monster sculpts they have done, not as many of the characters. I tend to pick and choose what I think looks interesting from their lineup, as opposed to being all-in on Nolzu'rs or something. Comparing the prices I was paying in the 90s for models and quality I was getting to what is available now, it is arguably one of the best times ever to be getting miniatures :-)
Primers are generally thicker than normal paints, so need to be thinned significantly if brushing on. If using generic rattle can primer, you want to stay away from things that say things like 2x coverage or how they only need one coat, since those are more for spray outdoor furniture etc and will clog details.
That's Chinese manufacturing for you. I would rather put them together in pieces too. Make them easier to paint them and could clean sprue lines before hand. The Reaper Bones stuff I got recently was really white and a softer plastic. I used my War Painters brush on Grey primer and man I could see the face details so much better. It kind of looks like you hold your airbrush a little far away from the mini when you're spraying the grey primer back in. The primer is a little beaded up like it dried too much before it hit the mini. I've painted cars too and this would have to have been sanded back down. All in all, really nice points you made.
I agree about the airbrush distance. I had been working on brush distance around the time I made this video. I previously was too close and heavy in the trigger so was putting down way too much paint. I obviously overcompensated while priming these models 😅
I totally agree that rebasing WizKids models can help a lot with presentation. If I recall correctly from when I was working on this video, I was trying to limit the scope to just improving the actual paint job. Because things like basing, reposing and kitbashing are probably each a video in of themselves and things I am not great at 😅
Heavy Canadian accent - love it! Don't agree with your assessments on wizkids but I am not detail oriented like you are. I will say the wizkids sculpts are much much better than reaper bones so we differ a lot on that. Keep up the good work!
I suspect in Bones vs WizKids it is going to be a preference in aesthetics thing. There are many WizKids minis that I like, but I feel at times that they over emphasize the fact that their plastic can hold sharp edges really well, so end up with little baroque details that don't make sense. Not to say that Bones are perfect, they definitely have issues with not accounting for the fact that PVC doesn't hold detail as well as metal, so get melty looking areas. Though I really like how the Bones 4 KS minis turned out. My personal favorite series of minis coming out right now is Reaper's Dungeon Dwellers series. They are old school fantasy mini design with modern precision engineering. They are what I wished my Ral Partha figs back in the day looked like 😀 I should probably do a video on them, to at least justify the pile of unpainted metal I own.
Simple Green alone is not an effective method of removing the primer from miniatures. If you want to remove the primer from WizKids minis, there's an important step you have to complete first: paint the minis. When acrylic paint is applied to primer, there's a chemical reaction that bonds the paint to the primer. This chemical reaction binds the paint tightly to the primer, but it also weakens the primer's hold on the model, which makes it a lot more susceptible to chemical solvents. So before dipping it in Simple Green/Purple Power, throw a quick layer of cheap acrylic paint onto that mini, and let it dry. It'll make your life a lot easier, than trying to remove raw primer.
That is good to know, I wasn't aware of that. That explains why the few painted models I have stripped were easier, I just assumed it was different primer. Thanks for the tip 😀
I haven't tried this myself yet, but another trick I've heard that can help when removing flash and mold lines, is sticking your mini in the freezer for a while beforehand. This makes it easier to scrape stuff off.
I could see that potentially helping by making the plastic brittle.
The first miniature I painted was a warhammer mini and now he sits on display at my local game store in the diorama they made along with a few other minis i painted after him
If you used the hot/cold water trick, you could both straighten the umber hulks mandbles and get it to stand properly clear of the ground. I am a bit surprised you did not show that trick in this video as it is a good method to improve, straighten or even reposition minis such as these.
That is good technique, and I probably should have mentioned it. Next model that I reposition for a video I will make a point to mention it. Thanks for the feedback.
I've found that as long as you're careful of fiddly bits, and the pressure you're applying, a brass wire brush will strip off primer ridiculously fast without doing any damage to the model. At least with the Wizkids stuff. I definitely wouldn't recommend doing this on a reaper model though, way too soft.
I am pretty sure with my 'soft' touch, anything I stripped that way would end up looking like a shapeshifter turning into what the model is supposed to be 😅
Frustrating as hell. They're great mini's. Bloody chore to have to clean the universal big mold lines before painting them though. Plus you can see that detail is lost, the civilian merchant figure is meant to have coins in his hands. He has a grey lump instead because of the primer.
The heavy application of primer, possibly to gap fill, I agree is a major frustration. I would love if they had an option to buy them in assembled and unprimed.
Have you done a video on the 3 step priming method that you use? That would make for a good tutorial as wel
I haven't yet, but I will definitely put it on my list of video ideas, thanks for the suggestion 😀
Sprue is on it's way! Huzzaa!
I am looking forward to seeing how their sprue'd minis compare
A really great video! I really enjoyed it. The newer Nozul's minis are pretty decent when it comes to the priming phase. I do remove all the seam lines with a knife, but unless the primer is too thick (and sometimes it is on certain figures), I just use Vallejo Surface primer added via a brush over the areas where I have removed primer with the knife. Sometimes you do get a miniature or two in the blisters that are just too heavily primed -- eye sockets filled in, and details obscured. When that happens, you need to strip away the existing primer and just prime those minis yourself.
Just a bit of comment on the 5th edition minis: A lot of the Nozul's minis have excellent sculpts, but they're far from being perfect. Sculptures do a decent job of getting the scale of figures correct, but not always. For instance, the drow 2-pack figures seem to be far smaller in scale with other elves and humans. Too small, I think. I almost never like the super-thick bow strings on the Nozul's minis, or the weird, squared off bows that have only vague resemblance to real bows. In my opinion, the sculptors and general art direction of the 5th edition stuff no longer harkens back to medieval fantasy armor and things that you'd see in the classic AD&D and D&D games. A little more chainmail and scale mail armor would be nicer. I'm not really much into the video game look of modern D&D if I'm honest. D&D is the grand daddy of all fantasy roleplaying games, table top, video game or otherwise...so why is the new direction trying to have the same looks that every other game has?? Doesn't work for me. Your mileage may vary, of course. I've been playing and DMing since the mid-1980s. Just sayin'. Also when you do get a modern mini that supposed to be wearing "chainmail" it has sort of weird look to it. Huge links that make little sense -- sort of oversized "S" shape patterns that don't look like mail at all. Just strange.
Regardless of the knit-picking, I do think that the sculptures on the modern minis are far better proportioned than the minis of old. I really appreciate that. Also the detailing is generally pretty good, but I'd like to see a bit more variety in designs, and there's nothing wrong with keeping a few of the artistic traditions either. Just my two cents.
I agree about them getting better about not slathering the primer on, so stripping isn't as essential. Cleaning up the mould lines will require touching up the primer as you mentioned. If one is going to be doing a zenithal undercoat it might still be worth while to strip, just do you don't have an extra layer of primer under everything, but that is very much personal preference.
WRT scale, I could have sworn there was something in the lore about Drow being shorter than other Elves, but that is a hazy memory if it is true at all.
The thickness of the bow strings I agree is frustrating, I assume it is a product of their casting process.
I agree that the 5th ed art style has definitely changed from the more classical Elmore and associates aesthetic.Thankfully a lot of companies are still doing nice old school/classic styled models, but with updated sculpting/casting techniques. I would love to see someone pick up one of the more exotic older aesthetics, like the Dark Sun style, and do a a large set based around that.
I like WizKids' stuff for the availability both in price and actually being able to find them in local stores. The models/scupts I think are kinda hit & miss as you alluded to. I like a lot of the monster sculpts they have done, not as many of the characters. I tend to pick and choose what I think looks interesting from their lineup, as opposed to being all-in on Nolzu'rs or something.
Comparing the prices I was paying in the 90s for models and quality I was getting to what is available now, it is arguably one of the best times ever to be getting miniatures :-)
Thank you I have recently got into painting. But the primer I got and was painting was so so thick I couldn’t see anything. It was terrible
Primers are generally thicker than normal paints, so need to be thinned significantly if brushing on. If using generic rattle can primer, you want to stay away from things that say things like 2x coverage or how they only need one coat, since those are more for spray outdoor furniture etc and will clog details.
Great video, thanks!
Nice tutorial! Thanks!
Your welcome, glad you liked it 😀
That's Chinese manufacturing for you. I would rather put them together in pieces too. Make them easier to paint them and could clean sprue lines before hand. The Reaper Bones stuff I got recently was really white and a softer plastic. I used my War Painters brush on Grey primer and man I could see the face details so much better.
It kind of looks like you hold your airbrush a little far away from the mini when you're spraying the grey primer back in. The primer is a little beaded up like it dried too much before it hit the mini. I've painted cars too and this would have to have been sanded back down. All in all, really nice points you made.
I agree about the airbrush distance. I had been working on brush distance around the time I made this video. I previously was too close and heavy in the trigger so was putting down way too much paint. I obviously overcompensated while priming these models 😅
The mold lines, gaps, and over abundance of primer on nolzurs is a buzzkill but the price point is nice. Just wish they made some non primed
I agree, I would be borderline willing to pay a premium for some of their models for a unprimed and unassembled version 😅
What about rebasing the model?
I totally agree that rebasing WizKids models can help a lot with presentation.
If I recall correctly from when I was working on this video, I was trying to limit the scope to just improving the actual paint job. Because things like basing, reposing and kitbashing are probably each a video in of themselves and things I am not great at 😅
Thanks. Subed.
You're welcome, thanks for the sub
Cool👍
Thanks
Heavy Canadian accent - love it! Don't agree with your assessments on wizkids but I am not detail oriented like you are. I will say the wizkids sculpts are much much better than reaper bones so we differ a lot on that. Keep up the good work!
I suspect in Bones vs WizKids it is going to be a preference in aesthetics thing. There are many WizKids minis that I like, but I feel at times that they over emphasize the fact that their plastic can hold sharp edges really well, so end up with little baroque details that don't make sense. Not to say that Bones are perfect, they definitely have issues with not accounting for the fact that PVC doesn't hold detail as well as metal, so get melty looking areas. Though I really like how the Bones 4 KS minis turned out.
My personal favorite series of minis coming out right now is Reaper's Dungeon Dwellers series. They are old school fantasy mini design with modern precision engineering. They are what I wished my Ral Partha figs back in the day looked like 😀 I should probably do a video on them, to at least justify the pile of unpainted metal I own.
Simple Green alone is not an effective method of removing the primer from miniatures.
If you want to remove the primer from WizKids minis, there's an important step you have to complete first: paint the minis. When acrylic paint is applied to primer, there's a chemical reaction that bonds the paint to the primer. This chemical reaction binds the paint tightly to the primer, but it also weakens the primer's hold on the model, which makes it a lot more susceptible to chemical solvents.
So before dipping it in Simple Green/Purple Power, throw a quick layer of cheap acrylic paint onto that mini, and let it dry. It'll make your life a lot easier, than trying to remove raw primer.
That is good to know, I wasn't aware of that. That explains why the few painted models I have stripped were easier, I just assumed it was different primer.
Thanks for the tip 😀