Reaper Paint-and-Take & NMM

02297: Kaballah the Colossus is the figure I picked to use for the Paint-and-Take. I highly recommend that, no matter what your skill level, you take part in this if you have the opportunity.

This past weekend I had some free time Saturday morning before setting up a big Napoleonic game at Millennium X in Round Rock, Tx (you can see the pictures here: http://huzzahm10.blogspot.com/). I decide to take advantage of that time to get a little tutorial on painting NMM (Non-Metallic Metal) from the guys at the Reaper booth where they had set up their Paint-and-Take table.

The Paint-and-Take is a way for Reaper to introduce people to their paints, brushes, and miniatures. I had been talking to the Shawn about their "triad" system which matches three colors to provide a base color, deep shadow, and highlight. I have been using various brands of paint like Adikolor and Vallejo, and I use a similar method except that I mix my own to arrive at my own "triad". This isn't a difficult thing to do with a little knowledge of the color wheel and a few tricks like knowing that red and green make gray. However, it is an advantage to have most of the mixing and matching done for you. Furthermore, when painting lots of figures or adding to an existing group of painted figures, having a "triad" provide consistant results.

So, since I have no experience with the Reaper "triads" and no experience with Reaper paints I took my place at the Paint-and-Take. I was instructed to pick a figure and take a seat. There were a buch of different Reaper figures that had been cleaned and primed (white) available. I pick an Arabian fellow that I thought I might actually use sometime in the future and took my seat. Ron, who was conducting the session handed me a "0" brush which was in pretty good shape considering its public use, and bade me to have fun.

I did the typical thing blocking in colors highlighting, and dry brushing to see how well the paints did and I was pretty impressed. The paint has a slightly creamier texture than the Vallejo that I'm used to and it stood up well to extreme thinning (with the tap water available). It also dry-brushed well though I did have to work at getting the brush dry enough.

I had had a conversation with Shawn in the Reaper squad the night before about the various paint sets they were selling and, in particular, one that had caught my eye. It was a set devoted to the technique of using regular flat colors to trick the viewer's eye into thinking that they are seeing shiny metal (this is the same thing that happens when you look at an oil painting--the cover of the latest Reaper catalog is a good example). Shawn was good enough to come over when he saw me at the Paint-and-Take table and give me about twenty minutes (an eternity in a convension venue) of one-on-one instruction in this technique.

The resulting figure is here for you to see. This took about an hour (including the instruction time on NMM). Shawn painted the front of the blade and I emulated his technique on the back. Obviously, this is going to take a lot of practice to perfect and there is just so much one can do in an hour with a single "0" brush. But I'm satisfied that I got a good start. I did buy the set (which now included the superior "Master" paints rather that the original "Pro" paints).

Notice the armor and how the painter tricks the eye into think "metal" with a few colors and skillful placement of highlights and shadows. Examining real world shiny objects and how the light plays on them helps a great deal.

Note that the paints have be replaced with Master series paints. There is a cross reference in the box for the colors used in the in the instructional brochure inside.