Jason Just Learned About Painting Miniatures

In this podcast episode, the hosts delve into the world of miniature painting for Dungeons & Dragons enthusiasts. They recount their personal journeys, from initial attempts as amateurs to honing their skills and discovering the joy of painting miniatures. The episode provides a comprehensive guide for beginners, covering essential supplies like paints, brushes, lighting setups, and miniature selections. Additionally, they touch on optional but beneficial tools such as miniature handles, magnifiers, and wet palettes.

The hosts also discuss the advantages of having a dedicated painting space and introduce advanced tools like airbrushes and high-quality sable brushes for experienced painters. They stress the significance of community involvement in the hobby, offering suggestions on connecting with fellow painters through online platforms and local game stores. Practical tips for storing painted miniatures, as well as ideas for customization and kit-bashing, are shared to inspire creativity among listeners. Overall, the episode fosters a supportive atmosphere for listeners to exchange painting stories and tips, contributing to a thriving painting community.

Jason's actual stuff: 
Army painter start set: https://amzn.to/3xWSVdd
Reaper starter set: https://amzn.to/4dt2Bwu
Light with magnifier: https://amzn.to/3xUfgs3
Paint Puck water cup: https://amzn.to/3UbMfPK
Paint palette: https://amzn.to/3UmwfdQ
Brush Set: https://amzn.to/4aUdTYW
Wood handle: https://amzn.to/3UCJb0J
Tweezers: https://amzn.to/44mcLL8
Side cutters: https://amzn.to/49ZS6O9
X-acto knife: https://amzn.to/3xUfgIz
Wet Palette: https://amzn.to/3wf5FLQ
Desk: https://amzn.to/3WkchmF
Heat gun: https://amzn.to/3Wpagpz
Apron: https://amzn.to/3WpaqgF
Paint storage: https://amzn.to/3JDDCIZ
Airbrush: https://amzn.to/3UCJxo5
Mini storage: https://amzn.to/3y65Auj
Size 1 sable brush: https://amzn.to/3xUjY94

tell us about your journey with miniature painting! [e-mail] or helloadventurerspodcast.com/voice

Episode Transcript

(00:22):
Adventures, the podcast for role playersand game masters who want to level up
your game. We are Dungeon MastersJason Portiso, I'm Joe McCall and Jim
Crocker. Everybody is here. It'sawesome. It's just this is just listen.
Let's let let's just put the showto the side for a second.
This is just nice. Yeah.People are planning things around D and D

(00:42):
and then showing up on time andbought me donor I did rewarning. I
would bring sorry Jim, but he'shundreds of miles away. Now, mail
me one, just like stick itin and envelope. I will, I
will one of those priority mail flatrate mailers and just send it on them.
Yes, not sticking in a regularenvelope. Lick it shut. Yeah,
see how that goes? All right, so it seems to be melted.

(01:04):
Yeah, someone bit our mail?Yeah right, all right, so
yeah the ants in my mailbox?Well thank you. That's right, all
right. So what I wanted totalk about today was I seem to find
there's just endless, endless ways toDepending how you look at it, either
immerse yourself in this game further,or you can look at it as making

(01:27):
things as complicated as possible, andit's consuming your whole life with this game.
Are you talking about LARPing? That'sthe that would be the next Stele.
Okay, that's pretty immersive. Ithink if I go any more immersive
is going to be LARPing, andI want you to punch me if I
ever do that. I think thenext seven is ren Farris maybe, and
then it's LARPing. Okay, isren fairs LARPing? Renfairs are LARPing.

(01:49):
I've never been to a ren fairs. Oh you're missing out. Yeah,
my wife worked at one for atime. That's awesome. I've been to
my share of rend fairs and aright, let's let's let's do let's do
it. Like, are you talkingabout LARPing. I'm not talking about LARPing,
And no I'm not trying to I'mnot trying to bring this back on
track at all, but I'm tryingto say this is even further off track.
One of my favorite stories that mythat my wife tells all the time,
and I know I use the termwife and fiance and or to changeably,

(02:13):
wife is easier to say these listenersdon't know they but I'll but listen
I don't think I don't need themthinking it's two different people. Okay,
we were at a renfair miles milesfrom home, at least an hour drive
from home, and she was literallyjust talking about like how everywhere I go,
I run into somebody I know everywhereI can't escape it. So we

(02:35):
go to find the guys that aredoing like the there's a there's a name
for the type of like sparring wherethey're trying to be as like period accurate
as possible, and it's like they'reactually sparring, they're actually hitting each other.
So I go over and check thoseguys out, and and I hear
from across the field the guy infull armor goes Portiso, I mean one
of the guys fighting, Was itGordon? Uh No, it is one

(02:57):
of the guys from an an oldand old game stores hanging out. So
listen. So all that to say, I've got my ends if I ever
want one. Same, but no, we're actually talking about today is so
we did an episode on using andcollecting miniatures that was at a six levels
of miniatures of miniature. As thatwas a pretty early episode. You go
check that one out. One ofmy proudest episodes. I think that was
I think that was just great content. So since then, and I think

(03:21):
I even said in the episode,I'm totally fine with a blank, gray,
unprimed miniature sitting on the table.I think it looks great. I
think I'm I think I'm on recordrecorded saying that phrase. Can we insert
that audio here? No, becausethat's more work for me and I'm not
going to do that. Just justimagine it. Okay, go back and
listen to that real quick. Justlisten to me say just now because I

(03:44):
just said it. So today's episodeis how I just got into painting.
Yeah. Yeah, painting is fordms that don't already have enough prep.
That's fantastic. Like if what youwant is more prep yea to you know,
if you find yourself of free time, yeah, a lot of free
time and unused space in your house, if you just want to fill it

(04:04):
up with more crap and cash goldhard well, well we're going to get
into that because it doesn't have tobe expensive. It does sound very expensive,
and that was one of the hurdlesthat made me take so long,
but we're we're going to get intothat and how you can do it for
I'm never going to call it cheap, but you can keep it like reasonable
and with a on budget you don'thave to spend games workshop kind of money.

(04:27):
No, there's other stuff out therewe're going to call that would that's
what gives that part of the hobbyof an expensive reputation. I think,
yeah, and is GW because that'swhat people think of when they're joining mimis.
But they have Warhammer forty K,which is already expensive, So what's
another one hundred bucks on top ofyour five thousand dollars army. But the
the person that got me into paintingis another one of the dms for Dungeons

(04:47):
and Drafts. So I'm going totalk to him and see if i can
get him to come on the showand talk about his journey in painting,
because he is light years ahead ofwhat I've got. So basically, we
did an episode at this point,it was only a couple of weeks ago,
where we interviewed the founder of Dungeonsand draft Thomas Solar. And I've
been dming for Dungeons and Drafts fora couple of months now and through the

(05:08):
Discord group, all the dms arekind of chumming with each other, and
it's a very cool group. Ifyou're a DM, I you should absolutely
check them out. And if you'rea player, you should check them out
and go play. But one ofthe regular dms was hosting Dungeons and Crafts
at one of the breweries and I'mvery good friends with and he posted the
discord and say, hey, wegot some low sign ups on this one
and off night. Any dms wantto come by, you can come in

(05:30):
for free. And I'm like,if it's free, it's for me,
and I haven't. I had thenight off. I never painted before.
I never really considered it. Let'sgo check it out. And I sat
in for like a two hour eventand it was a little less instruction me
than I had pictured in my headand a little more just they hear some
paints, everybody go have fun.And I was like, cool, I
guess I'll just slap some paint onthis thing. And I painted one of

(05:50):
the worst miniatures anyone will ever see. And it's not I'm super I'm still
proud of it. Okay, ifit was two dimensional, I put it
on the refrigerator. But the importantthing was I was hooked. I had
such a good time doing this,and the fact that I was sitting at
the table with other dms that alsowork the same types of events that I
do, and we got to kindof commiserate about players that we the types

(06:14):
of players that we love to seeover and over again, and problem players
that we've had problems with, andall kinds of stuff, and it was
awesome. And I do that funthing that everyone else with the ADHD has
where I go all in on somethingimmediately. So today's episode is going to
be about my so far very shortjourney to painting and the things that I've
been learning so far, and Iknow that I have infinite left to learn.

(06:38):
So this is going to be thekind of episode where I'm going to
encourage you guys listening to chime in, send us to send us your painting
stories, send us places that I'mgoofing, send us places that you think
I should go next, and otherthings. In this part, like this
is like a subtopic, Like youget to the Greater D and D topic
and then the miniatures topic, andthen within the miniatre's topic, there's the

(06:59):
painting. Yeah. So like downyeah, as you know, Niche is
down as much as you need to. We'd love to hear your feedback on
this out so me, especially becauseI'm so like new in this part of
it. So that's Hello Adventurers Podcastat gmail dot com, or you can
just send us a voicemail Hello AdventurersPodcast dot com slash voice, and I
don't have to hear it. Soenough babbling, I think we should get

(07:19):
into what I've been finding. Yeah. Cool. So the first section I
have this set up as section numberone. This is the gotta haves,
the things that you absolutely must havein order to be able to do this.
It is physically impossible without some ofthese things. These are the obvious
ones. But for the sake ofmaking a list, let's get these out

(07:41):
of the way. So number onerushes and paints. Yep, yeah,
obvious because it is you can't fingerpaint. It is very hard to paint
without brushes. It is very veryhard to paint without paint. Say what
kind of paint is it? Sothese are usually acrylics? Okay, I
don't And again but when we phraseit this way, every paint that I
have and everyone that I've seen atthe store has been acrylic. Okay,

(08:05):
that is not to say that otherones don't exist. So it's not any
kind of super specialized pain. It'sjust acrylic pain. No, these are
really just general acrylics. Now,what what's going to set apart of paint
made for miniature painting versus like justgeneral cooks that you would buy at any
crafton hobby store is the well,the surfing size. First of all,
the mature painting is usually in hyou know, nature bottle, very small

(08:28):
models with the little squeeze because youdon't need mutt, right the miniatures,
Yeah, just a couple of ounces. Yeah, a dabbile do yeah,
as they say, so I findmyself the first time I did it,
I was like squeezing like a goodamount of paint and then I was absolutely
wasting my voice paint and and hejust kind of laughed it off because it
is relative. It can be relativelycheap to get paint, and it's just

(08:48):
like, okay, we see everyamateur do this, and I'm like,
oh no, I'm that guy,like the kid using the ketchup for the
first time, exactly for me usingketchup now. So literally like like two
drops at a time, it makesa little bit of water into it to
fin it out, wow, andand like it does you know, and
if you and if it drives up, you just put another drop in.
Yeah. Whatever. So I've beenusing less and less paint and to the

(09:09):
point where if I have like aspot that only needs like a tiny little
bit of one color, I willjust kind of like to put right into
the bottle. Yeah, whether there'sthe dropper of the top, so I
was kind of speeze to the topand get a little drop. But yeah,
they're just general acrylics. They maybe different consistency. They might be
a little thinner than your average acrylics. I don't know if that's true orfo
I'm making that up, but usuallywant these to be a little on the

(09:30):
thin side. That's why you'll you'llyou'll thin a mouse in water. You're
gonna need a good light source.There's a lot of little like nooks and
crannies on these little guys, alot a lot of places for shadows.
So you want a good even lightsource, soft light source that's from a
large area, and something that isdaylight white color in the five to six
thousand kelvin range. For those ofyou who know your you know your lights.

(09:54):
I do know, light is measuredin temperature from something like like two
thousand in three thousand calvin up tolike eight nine thousand, and the cooler
the light, which is like moreof a blue tint, and then the
higher the number of the Fonzi light, yeah, and then the other the
warmer the light is it has likejust got that, and then a warmer
light will have like a yellow oreven orange tint to it, where like
you're just like like look around yourhouse, your your living spaces, your

(10:18):
your living rooms, your dining rooms, your bedroom should be a warmer light.
They're gonna be a little on theyellow east side, whereas your workspace
is like your laundry room, youryour garage is gonna be a little bit
a little bit cooler bluish type oflight. And if you walk into like
a department store, like like likea big box, like like a Walmart
type of place to fluorescence are usuallya little on the blue side. That's
why you kind of get fatigued lookingat them so long. It has to

(10:39):
keep you keep you awake, iswhat it is. But that's that's weird.
Warm is usual a little more inviting, but for stuff like this,
we want it to be a daylightwhite, which is like right smack in
the middle, which is about fivethousand calvin. A lot of the lights
I've been finding have variable temperature,so you can compensate for other lights in
your room. I've got pretty warmlights in my office, so sometimes I
can compensate for if there's like lightspillage. But that's that's going too much

(11:01):
unto light. So you want youwant a good light source that'll wash into
like the little shadowy areas and giveyou a good accurate color response. Of
course you're gonna need miniatures. Lotsof places and Pott we did a whole
episode on that. So to getstarted, I got these, I guess
starter kits. We'll get into thosein a second. But the starter kits

(11:22):
that I that I bought came withminiatures. And I have plenty of friends
who will resin print, will useresin three D printers to make me stuff.
Of course I compensate them accordingly.And there's tons of places you can
get miniatures that are already made.Go back and find the episode that we
talked to about them. You're gonnaneed a water cup. You probably already
have them. It doesn't ruin thecup. You can just use a cup,
make sure you wash it thoroughly beforeyou try using it for other purposes

(11:45):
later. But most people will kindof have a water cup made and you
know, like kind of set asidefor designated You use your D and D
mug. You bought it a conthlike that, and that becomes part of
like the ritual of it all.This is supposed to be a relaxing things
like this is my water cup.And then do not mix your water cup

(12:05):
up with your ice coffee cup.Although for my my artists, my painting
friends, my my fine art friends, they have told me that drinking your
paint water accidentally is a write ofpassage. At some point I noticed the
other tase. I had my icecoffee with my straw in it, right
next to my water cup with mymy brush in it. And I was

(12:26):
trying not to put my brush inmy coffee and not to put my straw
on my paint water. And thelast thing you needed some sort of palette,
just a place to put paint soyou can thin them out to the
paper plate, so you could doit. Yeah, you do the free
version, then replace paper towel.You are gonna need paper towels as well
to dry off your not only todry off the rushes after you washing them,
but also to kind of like awick off the excess those are You

(12:48):
absolutely gotta have paint brushes, alight source, miniatures, a water cup,
and some sort of pallette. Youget these things and you can get
started. All of these things,except for the light source and the water
cup are going to come in alot of these starter kits. I actually
got three different starter kits just tomake sure my basis recovered. Yeah,
one I to befad. Two ofthem were like a like a Step one

(13:09):
and the Step two type of things. So I got the system through there
that was from that was from WeeperMinis. I have two separate starter kits,
and then I got the one fromArmy Painter. I just saw that
on I just took a quick lookon Amazon and those first one that popped
up and I got that because that'sthe brand. My friendly local Game store
happens to Parry, so I wentover and supported them, and that's the

(13:31):
one I've been working on now.It just showed you some of the minis
that I that I've been working on. There If you look at my dming
instagram which is at Jason the DM. I got pictures of all these up
there, so you can check thatout. And these and these kids come
with all the starter stuff. There'spaints and these brushes in there, but
there's miniatures in there, so that'llget you started. That's what you absolutely
need. How many brushes do youwant to start with? Do you are
there different to start with? You'refine with just the one. Most of

(13:54):
these kits are going to come withwhat is called a number one brush,
which is just a general like youknow, not too big, not too
small. You can get details,you can get broadstrokes. The starter kits
are going to come with the brushesthat you need, and then as you
kind of gain preferences and learn youknow where the shortcomings are. Where there
they where the strengths and weaknesses ofdifferent types of brushes are, that's when

(14:16):
you can start expanding your collection,expand out. Sure, Yeah, I
did get myself a set of miniaturesbrushes. There's like like ten or twelve
brushes in there, all different,all different sizes. I'm just going to
call them gages because that's all Ireally know how to call them. I
don't really know that if there's likea word for brush gages zero exactly,
yeah, one and two and stufflike that. One of these that I
painted, I actually had to goreach for the five zeros, the smallest

(14:37):
one. I d Yeah, it'sa she is wearing a what I what
I interpret to be like a ribbonnecklace. Yeah, and I needed that
ribbon to be like fine, fine, fine, Yeah, I think,
but I think there might be somepeople a little nervous about like do I
need a whole set of brushes fordoing different stuff? And yeah, when
you get started, that'll be that'sthe expansion stuff. Yeah, to you
know, even just the one,you can do most of what you need

(14:58):
to. Yeah, and that,you know, it seems like too like
it really depends on how much finedetail you really want to sure pain or
get into so well, and youknow, in fairly short order you'll have,
you know, one of your brushesthat you've kind of worn down and
you turned that into your dry brushand stuff like that. This's all but
this is probably this I maybe gettingahead of less. Yeah, we'll cover

(15:22):
all that in a second. Thoseare those are the absolute got of halves.
So let's get into the nice tohaves. Hello Adventurers, just stepping
in here to remind you guys thatwe're actively looking for submissions for our Hello
DMS episode that gets reported every month. Send us your burning D and D
questions to Helloadventurers podcast at gmail dotcom, or send us a voicemail by

(15:46):
visiting Hello Adventurers podcast dot com slashvoice. Don't forget to begin your message
with Hello DMS. You can't waitto get your questions and talk about them
on the show. Send us yourquestions today. That's Hello Adventurers Podcast at
gmail dot com. Poorly the voicegoing at Toloadventurers podcast dot com slash voice.
Now let's get back to the show. This small list here is things

(16:14):
that I would recommend maybe getting allin the in the first batch, but
you don't need it if you're Iknow, if this is a gift,
Maybe this is maybe these are someof the parts that lay the person you're
giving you too might be might getthemselves, or you may have a more
preference on some of these and youdon't just want to grab like the starter.
So I call these the nice tohave. You can absolutely get away
without them, or you can diwhy these which is another reason that happened

(16:36):
separate. So number one of mynice to have is a handle. So
this is like a grip that anothermader was I'm going to made a plastic
and they give you just a moreergonomic way of holding something so small,
oh okay, okay, and soyou'll be like it'll be like a wooden
like pommel that fits in the handnicely, and then the miniature will sit
on top of it. The onethat I have, the miniature will sit

(16:59):
on a stand with like like likethat blue like sticky tack stuff that your
kindergarten teacher used to put on thewall with, So that sticks the miniature
to the to the base, andthen the base sits on the handle with
a magnet and this way you canrotate it three sixty. Oh that's interesting.
And then mine has a small handleon the side that you can rest
your hand on and steady the wholething. And the other ones will have

(17:21):
like different ergonomic like grips, andso this is something that sits in front
of you, and he sits inyour hand. Okay, yeah, it's
small, it's it's it's gripped likeI think, like almost like a well
size wise, think of like likelike a bicyle handle. Okay, so
it's like that fits in your handand it's just a little a little more
just ergonomic for holding it for along time, and you can get you
can hold in different positions. Someof them will have like more around their

(17:44):
bases. You can hold them upsidedown or grip them differently. And I
mean, I guess the other thingmeans to be said is this isn't anything
that I'll like, you know,a parent need on moltipliers you've got sitting
in your toolbox is not going toaccomplish as well. Well, this is
one of the things that is theeasiest and maybe first maybe for a starter,
it may be even best to DIY. So when I sat in on
that dungeon and craft session, hejust gave us all bottle caps like off

(18:07):
of like like like like twist offcaps, like like off a two letter
of bottle. And that was enoughto just like sit in like you know,
two or three fingers just so I'mnot touching the base in the mini.
Yeah, and then not to kindof twist it in the position.
It's not the most ergonomic thing inthe world, but it was free,
right, and if you're having apublic event, that's perfect. I've also
seen people using quirks, like likeI have a wine bottle, and that's

(18:30):
a little bit longer, a littlemore ergonomic, and it's a little softer,
so it's no nicer to grip.For so far, these miniatures that
I've been painting have taken me abouttwo hours, so that's that's a while
to grip something. And I willsay the first one that I did,
I did without a handle. Ididn't have anything in the house. I
didn't well, I have bottle casts, but I did not have any like
sticky tack. I had no wayof really attaching it. So I just

(18:51):
held it the whole time And donot recommend it. Can you can,
but I don't recommend it. Itwas it was a lot. Yeah,
you know, you don't want togive yourself carpal tunnel for no reason.
Right, that's a handle, Andthen I have small tools. So even
if you're getting the miniatures straight outof the box Preff manufacturer, they might
they might be like some burrs inthe in the plastic, especially if they're

(19:15):
like if you're if you're friends threeD printed them, or if you three
D printed them. You know,bits from the supports could still be on
there, and a lot of theones that I've been getting from Army Painter
are like snapped together, so theycame in on like is she kind of
like a board game when you popout all the pieces the first time,
So there's little burs from the plastic. So your basic toolkit is going to
be like like flat and sidecutters andan exact o knife and like tweezers.

(19:38):
So these are just going to kindof like as you file. Would you
use a file on that at all? I think the exact dough is just
going to do the job job justas well. And if you, I
mean, if you really want tosend stuff down drumm then I mean you
can get drummle if you want tospend money, but just to like an
emory board that you'd use it,Yeah, okay, it's perfectly good for
you. I think that's what Imeant said. File nail file like a

(20:03):
nail file. Yeah yeah, yeah, It's not part of my kit,
but yeah, absolutely anything to justget like those little birds all down.
Those are the things are gonna doyou want to fix up the most.
So in my personal kit. Igot some cheap tweezers. I got the
cheapest exact on knife I could find. I got the cheapest sidecutters, and
I will say with the sidecutters,make sure you get the flat side ones
because you want to get right upnext to the piece and I clip those

(20:23):
off. And that's another one wherea lot of those companies, your Army
Painter and your Reaper and stuff likethat, will sell a kit that has
all that included in there. Forthank you, thank you for bringing that
up, jim My recommendation. Yes, those companies will package them with their
brand on it. Absolutely don't buythem. The sidecutters that I bought look

(20:45):
Iantic Golf, everything down to thered handle through the sidecutters that I bought
from the just from home depot andnot even like not even like a mom
and pop shop, just like homedepot or Afraid or something. Joe,
guess how much they work from homedepot? Three dollars four but yeah,
okay, And I guess how muchArmy Paintern wanted for the same exact thing.
Nine twenty bucks? What, yeah, twenty dollars five hundred percent markup?

(21:11):
Yeah, complete insanity. They hadthe exact O knives too, for
like triple the price. Then thenyou can get from Staples when I go
for like ten bucks eight eight fora basic one. Yeah, for twelve
you can get one of the niceergonomic handle and they're Tweezers set a set
of three tweezers they wanted ten dollarsfor and I got the same exact thing

(21:32):
on Amazon for two. Wow.It's it's just unreal. There's the markup
on those. So yeah, thesepaints are these paints are places are fine,
and your friendly local game store willcarry them, and they'll be there
because you're already gonna be in afriendly local game store. And if you're
in a pinch, go ahead.Convenience. Not my money. I'm not
going to tell you how to spendit, but christ guys come on like
like just army painter, get ittogether. Twenty bucks for for for side

(21:53):
cutters is stupid. Yeah. Yeah, if it was at least a little
closer, like I'd prefer to giveit to a it's it's such a great
somebody other than am such a grift. I don't love giving giving Amazon money,
but they bring it to my house. So and that's the energy I
have, so I like, Idon't. It's it's not a grift.
It's it's what it costs to getit through that system and put it on

(22:18):
the games on the game store shop, right, someone who used to own
a game store, like, it'snot a grift, it's it's that Home
Depot is vertically integrated and own's theirentire supply chain. So it's absolutely it's
going to be much much cheaper.Yeah, and they have not because it's
engaged in criminal activity. There's nota gift grist from the game stores.
It's a grift from army, fromarmy painter where he's saying, the stuff

(22:41):
you buy directly from army, andI mean there there overhead is going to
be a lot different than than HomeDepot and Amazon too. However, I
don't think it's it's that to thatso so worse than a grift. It's
capitalism, all right. So that'sthat's your small tools. I also haven't

(23:03):
here a magnifier. These minis areby very definition miniature. They're tiny.
There's some little spots in there thatlike just just getting the brush in there
just so it's a little tough.The minute that you told me about painting
miniature is the first first thing IYeah. The first thing I thought of,
though, was that scene from fortyyear Old Virgin Shorties, like you

(23:25):
had silver pants and now they're blueor something like that. He's painting the
little miniature with the giant magnifier inhis apartment. So the light that I
got has magnifier in it. It'sa ring light with a with a tight,
nice magnifier in it. And ifI don't even magnifier, I just
don't look through it. And inalterly, uh in uh thirty years,

(23:48):
you'll be able to read newspapers withthat. Yeah, sure, try Like
three, I did find out thata reader reading glasses are an inevitability,
and that's just kind of how Iaging works. So if you have readers,
don't feel bad about it. Everyonewill eventually. Can Lasik fix that
something? Damn it? Lasik startslosing its effectiveness after age thirty five.
Oh, son of a gun.I missed the boat on that one.

(24:11):
The cataracts also an inevitability. Andone of our sponsors is every time I
listen to our podcast, it's lasokay lasic dot com and and side note,
one of the podcasts that I thatI edit professionally is run by an
entomologist. So I'll so I've gotall eyeball facts ready to go. This
show is fantastic A lousy with eyeballtame. The last thing I have on

(24:33):
the nice to have is a wetpalate. Now this is actually like a
real piece of gear that you probablyshould be getting. This is this is
probably some people put this in thegot to have list, but you can
absolutely get by and do fine witha normal palate as opposed to a wet
palate. What you've got that lookdifferent between a wet palate and a not
wet palate. Sure, wet palateis is exactly how what's implied. It

(24:55):
is wet. It uses. Youcan use something as simple as a paper
towel, but there are like thisfor it that is designed for it.
But it sits on top of waterand keeps the paint wet so that the
paint won't try out. This isalso great for color mixing and for thinning
your paint. I will say thatmy understanding of wet palletts is not quite
there yet. I don't have one. I don't use one for Bob Ross

(25:18):
using a wet palette. I don'tremember. I don't remember him painting a
tiny little uh orchie either, Sowe're gonna put a happy little orc over
here. It's not a sentence.So for the sake of this episode,
I'm not going to comment too muchon wet pallets because my understanding of them
is so little. But do youknow they are different, and I know
that they are very like they're likepretty ubiquitous across most people's kits. Tell

(25:38):
me about your wet paltte Hello Adventurespodcast dot com slash slash voice. That's
that's the that's probably my next stepof my purchases. My wife would have
more information on or any of theresources that I'll give it the end of
the episode. But yeah, wetpalate, I'm gonna puts the nice to
have this next session. Were goingto call kind of once things that just

(25:59):
make the whole experience just a littlebit nicer and kind of like puts you
in a little bit more of aheadspace of like this is a thing that
I'm planning to do now and notjust like a little like oh, miniature
studio kind of yeah you no,no, I mean that's that's the next
Yeah, like I kind of wantlike a little like a like a like
a shed. Sure there is alot to say, but having a dedicated

(26:23):
and that's for any hobby or oranything like Like when when we moved into
the place that we that we livein now, one of my absolute non
negotiable prerequisits was an extra bedroom thatI so I can have an office.
You gotta have. That was mygotta have because I do work from home
a lot, and I need adedicated space so it feels like I'm working
or else I just never get anythingdone. And it's been a godsend.

(26:45):
I do a ton in there.So now like one corner of my office,
I have an extra like fold updesk that I had already that was
using for other things and that's nowmy miniature station. So having a dedicated
space is like just kind of likewhen you're in that space, this is
the thing you're gonna do. Andwhether it's you know, if you're you
know, if you're in school,you've got you've got your dedicated to like
homework space. If you're working,if a specially press work from home from

(27:07):
home, a home office is justawesome. You already have spaces like this.
You probably don't even know it,or we probably probably don't even recognize
it as being that thing. Youhave a dining room, it's in the
name. This is where you havedinner. Yeah, you got you got
dedicated spaces. Although I did justsee an article that if you're a millennial,
you may not have a dining room. That's dining room. That's I
heard millennials are killing in the diningroom. That's the newest thing that we've

(27:27):
killed. Three are supposed to recordyour podcast. That's where we're live from
the dining room. This is moremy this is the board game and DVD
room than it is my dining room. I think I've got like three meals
here. Ever, all my mealshere have been at the stable playing Dungeons
and Dragons or podcasts. Yes,we made so I'm going to added to

(27:47):
the kind of wants list where youwant some sort of dedicated space and maybe
a dedicated desk. I think that'sfair to put that in the in the
in the kind of wants section.Yeah, that worked ou pretty well.
What I have on here already isa heat dryer. This is like you
can get these for like under twentybucks. I think I paid twelve bucks
for mine, like a heat gun. A heat gun. Okay, if
you do any kind of like solderingtype of work, you probably already have
one of these. I already ownedone because I had it in my soldering

(28:08):
kit. This is how you shrinkshrink tubing. Some people might have it
for like restoration type of work,so you can like soften up glue so
you can peel things off. Wegot ours so that we could do the
plastic on the windows for the winter. So we're in the northeast here.
Yes, anything any quarterly shrink tubingor heat activated adhesives something I already have.

(28:32):
You might already have one. Yeah, and if you don't. The
one that I got myself, itwas twelve bucks. It was cheap.
So why heat guns? So paintdoesn't dry instantly and watching it dry is
famously boring, as I've been told. But I was just going to use
like my little fan that I haveon my desk for when it gets hot
and moving air across paint will dryit a little bit faster, but the

(28:57):
heat will dry even fast. Yeah, I was gonna say too. And
it's more these you can't just useyour hair dryer. It doesn't. It's
not enough. It doesn't get hotenough usually, but also it's not as
directed. So because we tried touse our hair dryer for that again,
for that plastic sheeting short around thewindows, it didn't do the job well

(29:18):
enough. Yeah, that doesn't work. Yeah, it doesn't really where they
say to use it. It doesn'twork well enough. So that's where the
heat gun. So just yeah,now, from a lot of the DIY
articles that I've read on painting yourhair drying, it might be enough for
miniature so it'll take longer tho,yeah, of course longer. But this
this dedicated heat gun, I'll justlike, no, I'll give things like
a wash coat, hit it witha heat gun, and then by the
time I go refill my re filmmy coffee, then it's all good.

(29:41):
And the other thing I have onhere just to kind of keep yourself not
only keeping yourself from getting paint everywhere, but also this kind of gets for
me. This is another step inthat getting in the headspace of this is
what I'm about to do. Ineed to get other distractions out of my
head. And maybe this is apsychological thing for me, but I put
an apron on here Okay, acool like canvas or denim apron. All

(30:03):
all your all your barber friends haveone, all your tattooer friends have one.
I'm thinking, I'm thinking worse smockand you could just go like you
did in preschool or kindergarten. Yourdad, your dad, Yeah, I'm
backgroud. Yeah. The problem ismy dad was a smaller size to me.
Now, So Dad, can Iabsolutely destroy one of your shirts?

(30:25):
Go to good Will? Go togood Will get a get ax Yeah,
you know, depending on your size, or like two or three sizes larger
button up shirt for a dollar.Yeah. I think between you, me
and Jim, we can just eachhand a shirt to the left and then
everyone's fine. But I got myselfa canvas apron. Not only does this
function as a smock and keep allmy shirts nice without me having to change

(30:48):
clothes and to get into the headspace, but there's also pockets and stuff.
So if I want to keep myexact dough with the sheath on in a
convenient spot, I don't have toreach across the desk and stuff like that.
And you cool, I'm sure init. My wife has told me,
yes, I do. She saysI'm a handsome boy. Even just
like having my phone and like youknow, out of the way. I'll
keep an iPad on the desk becauseright now I'm watching tutorials as I do

(31:11):
it, so I'll have something towatch, but also playing music and stuff.
So if you'se some music on yourphone, look like a Michelin start
chef with your tweezers like sticking outof it real cool. No, I
look like a modern chef like covenanttattoos and completely cracked out. Yeah,
star chef. I feel like we'resaying the same it's getting you redundant.

(31:32):
So so in the kind of onesthis is like if you if you really
just want to just get the nextstep, So that is a heat dryer,
an apron or a smock, andsome sort of dedicated spase. Uh
my fourth section here, we're goingthis down the line. This is as
you these are things that I wouldnot fully recommend in your first batch of
purchases. I would I would workwith these things for at least like three

(31:55):
to six months before moving on tothese things and list and this is probably
where you're going to start getting intoinvesting. Is a good deal? Yeah,
And not only do you not wantto get these immediately for the investment
reasons because like, you don't needto spend this much money up front,
but also like in my case,at least, you want to have a

(32:16):
couple of months under your belts thatyou can develop preferences. And this is
something that I've always done with likemy guitar students. I was a guitar
teacher for nineteen years, and Ialways recommended my students get the cheapest guitar
that won't fall apart, and thenyou know, instead of spending one thousand
dollars now, spend two hundred nowand then get a good one hundred dollars
guitar later. Once you know whatyou do and don't like, because you

(32:37):
don't want a thousand dollars guitar thatyou don't like. I have several,
but that's because I'm impulsive. Butthese are things that like you want to
know, like why are you buyingthis thing? What problems is it solving?
And maybe borrow someone else's in certaincases and see like you know,
what is it about this particular one? Like what am I looking for when
I do purchase one of these things? So for example, so let's just

(32:58):
go down the list. My numberone down the line is an airbrush.
And the reason I put this lateris because it is a whole technique in
and of itself. Yeah, andnot one that I am ready to start
learning, because I'm still learning basictechniques, I mean, and not everybody
has a space where they could doit. It's actually pretty I mean,
like you got to make sure it'svented and all this kind of stuff.

(33:21):
Yeah, it's a whole thing.It's it's like borderline a different hobby almost.
Yeah, and the you know thanthe painting with the brushes. Yeah,
Now, air rushing for miniatures itis easier to do it fully indoors
and as opposed to like resin threeD printing that wet thought down the past
episodes, the ventilation that you needis not nearly as complicated. It can

(33:42):
be as simple as a fan.But they make boxes for these with like
air purifiers in them, so likeyou can do it without without you know,
doing your whole house. But youcan't just you don't want to just
spray it into a shoe box either, No, right, not getting so,
So that's why I'm putting it downthe linecause it's a whole different set
of things to buy also completely differenttechniques to learn your brush stuff first,
and like you know, if youhave friends with air brushes, maybe you

(34:05):
try out one of theirs. They'vetried different ones and see like how they
you know, if someone has athirty dollars one and someone has three hundred
dollars one, Now, how doesthe action feel? Is it really worth
the ten times price? Yeah,there's little hobby air brushes I know you
can get at like Michael's that.Yeah, I think I had one at
one point. But this is whereyou that's where you want to have a
gearhead friend. You want to havesomebody that works on cars. Yeah,
yeah, yeah, they'll they'll haveaccess to that and probably you know,

(34:28):
if any you know, anybody thatdoes any kind of like detailing on choppers
or anything like that. That's sothose are the guys to talk to.
But to your point, Jim,it really is. It's a totally different
Maybe it was you that made thepoint. Totally different technique. So I'm
not friends with an intuitive, I'mnot friends with any car guys. But
you know who I know who doesown hair brushes. People are into nails,

(34:49):
oh sure, nail or air brushesand your barbers, depending what kind
of like stuff they do. There'sthere's air brushing with with like very particular
fade type of cuts. I didnot know that. Yeah, those are
the people I know with it withairbrushes and hobbyists. Of course, next
is gonna be storage. You're gonnabe You're gonna add a lot of mini
to your collection, and you're gonnawant to put them into You're gonna want
toss them in a bin less thanyou did when they were unpainted, because

(35:10):
now you got stuff to scratch andruin. There's all kinds of storage options.
You know your use case better thanI do. There's all kinds of
portable ones that are like like pickingpluck foam, so you can bring them
to games more easily if people cometo your house to play. There's more
like they kind of look like minifridges with like trays in them. That
seems to be the most popular ones. And then some of them just look

(35:30):
awesome and you want shelves and sothere's so there's all kinds of options for
that, but you're gonna want tothink of some sort of storage once they
start getting to be too much foryour desk. Right now, they live
on my desk where I paint them. Now that we talked earlier about about
getting higher end brushes, this iswhen you could get early on, so
at least you learn the difference betweenhow an expensive brush feels versus a cheap

(35:52):
one. But like I said,the kits came with a cheap brush.
I bought myself a set of decentbrushes, and then I bought myself one
single high end brush. A lotof the wikis and the articles that I
was looking at suggested even just havingeven just one of a size one high
end sable brush, So that's whatI did. I got that and I

(36:14):
have not used it yet, butI even getting one early on will kind
of show you how a high endbrush will retain, paint, will spread,
and you know all the qualities ofa brush. And even holding on
to just the one number one sableand just having that in your arsenal for
like for detailed type of stuff issomething you want to want to look into.

(36:37):
A lot of them are not recommendingnecessarily getting a whole set of high
end stale table brushes. There's noreason to spend one hundred dollars on brushes
where like it because this one brushwas ten bucks. Yeah, and like
you know, ten bucks to dropin the bucket compared to everything else.
But that adds up when you havelike fifteen brushes in your personal Yeah,
so I don't mind spending ten buckson one brush and then my entire other

(36:57):
set. I think it was twentyfor the whole set. Okay, it's
just that bad. So so those, I think are the places where you
can really grow. That's your yourairbrush, your storage options, your sable
brushes. Oh and if you wantto get into making the the miniatures yourself
is of course getting into resin threeD print thing, which we talked about
on the Miniature Collecting episode. Notmuch new to be said about that,

(37:20):
just to just be aware of howmuch space and ventilation that they need.
And yeah, they stink, theydo, like resin smells yep. And
it doesn't just smell, it's toxic. Yeah, yeah, you can't.
You can't breathe that all day orat all. So I do have friends
that live in apartments and they buildthemselves things to make it work in the
closet, and it was working forthem, and so there there are options.

(37:40):
So like, just just be safe, be careful and know what you're
getting into. But if this islike a huge thing for you, where
there's a will that is a wayyou can find something. It may end
up taking up space in your housethat your partner may want, may not
want it to be taking up space, and it may increase your your investment
too. To your point, youhave to make something special, yea,

(38:02):
and I just get like hook upwith someone who's like a knitter or something
like that, and then you youshould be able to claim you have at
least as much space for your moniesas they have for their yard. And
then and you guys will get alonggreat fantastic. Now, if you can't
find a I can't find space orjust really just don't want to it,
just kind of work on that withwith printing it yourself. You know,

(38:23):
we'll get to this in the nextsection. But find me someone who can
print for you and just I knowit's awesome. A few bucks to use
the printer in their downtime has beenworking for me. So your mileage may
vary, but that'll be part ofour next section, which we'll get to
now. My last section here thisis doesn't really go into like things to

(38:44):
buy or things to get or studyor anything. And this is I'm calling
this community. This is absolutely ahobby that you can do totally by yourself
and probably be fully fulfilled. AndI think I'm you know, I'm sure
there's plenty of people out there whopaint on their own for their own uses
and little ambient music on and justyeah, the way we do absolutely do

(39:06):
you know one of them doesn't knowthe ambient music you can throw on death
metal if you want whatever, whateverrelaxes insane class maybe shout out, rot
out. But I was watching episodesof What Did I Have On the other
day. I was, you say, I gotta like game drums in the
background or something. The other dayI like, stop and laugh my ass
off for a few minutes. Butbut this is something that, like most

(39:30):
hobbies, is enjoyed better in groups. And it's because this is also a
skill. I think a community andsome sort of group that can like bounce
their ideas and bounce their knowledge offeach other is just makes it that much
more fulfilling. So these are justgeneral places to find communities for kind of
anything. This isn't really like aspecific two miniatures type of thing. But

(39:52):
your Facebook groups, your your subreddits, your discord groups, all those are
gonna be great online places. Imean, there's there's a reddit for everything,
but man, even more so,there's a face. There's probably a
handful of Facebook groups for everything,absolutely every absolutely, and they're great knowledge

(40:12):
bases as somebody that's you know,into a lot of different hobbies. Yeah,
I can't recommend Facebook groups and lookup look up ones that are local
to you too. So like nowherebased in New Jersey, there's a New
Jersey D and D players Facebook group. That's how I found Jim. That's
how I found my local game store, That's how I got into a lot
of my dming stuff. So theFacebook groups were a great place to find
community for that. The r slashI think it's mini's painting, may be

(40:37):
mini painting, miniature painting, Iforget exactly what it's called. But there's
a great subreddit that seems pretty prettynon toxic actually, despite the paints being
very toxic. Don't don't drink thepaint, but definitely go check out those
comments. They seem to be prettysupportive of each other so far. And
then there's there's there's gonna be discordgroups just a general D and D group.
A lot of them will have aseparate area for miniature show Off and

(40:58):
that kind of thing. I mentionedLondon Draft, so there's one for the
dms. Mostly it's a coordinate whatgames we're going to take over. But
we've been talking about our paints alot on there, and we were starking
a little bit about Games Workshop andhow much it costs before. But that
is a hobby where painting is abig part of that hobby and so if
you look for, you know,stores that sell GW if they're having paint

(41:19):
days and things like that, youknow, we're times when you can get
together and paint. They're happy tohave you come in and bring your D
and D minis as well. Sothat's another place to kind of look for
that community of people that are thatare painting, and not just that are
painting, but that are painting alot. Yes, you know, where
it's a big part of that.And you know, for the most part,
my experience with that was that,like everybody was always happy to have
new people come in and show them, you know, tricks and tips and

(41:42):
stuff like that. So another placeto look for that is is those you
know miniature gaming community. That wasactually my next point was the i r
L. The i r L placesto make communities. And not only well,
you're funding local game stores. Youryour local store probably sells paints and
we probably love people to come inand talk about paints and buy them from
them. And if a lot ofgames whos will even have like paint classes
or even just like a like aget together paint like it's like a sip

(42:05):
and paint type of thing. Andif your game store doesn't have one,
talk to them about starting one.For some game stores, just having the
extra foot traffic inside would be enoughfor them to say yes. Others might
want to charge like a like adoor fee, like a like a table
fee, which we paid at thedoor, and that's that's fine too.
These places are paying their rent basedon their square footage, and it's you

(42:28):
know, they usually it's just goingto be to cover your material costs that
man sometimes sometimes, but also likeyou know, they're paying for their square
footage and they have to maximize theprofitability of that square footage. So if
they ask for just a space fee, you know, don't don't get many
grief for that. But you know, if they're including like paints or a
miniature or anything like that. Someoneincludes snacks if they If they can't include
stuff like paints, then then that'scool too. But if your store doesn't

(42:51):
have a paint night, talk aboutstarting one. We just just started one
at our local store. Cool andthey do it on a night that I
can't go. I've not been toone yet, but the the person running
it has played in some of mystore games there. He's awesome. He's
one of the ones who's in printingmeanings for me and just just all too
happy to do it and talk aboutit. It's just like people who are

(43:12):
into it. When they find newpeople who are into it, they love
to talk about it. So youlove you love to see it. And
of course, so that's your feminicalgame store and the last one in I
L group, your playgroup. Ifyou're playing a game, just you know,
see if anybody else wants to joinyou. And because you know I'm
going to it our next game.Jeff, Yeah, man, I would
love to host you know, paintparties just here. I think we should

(43:34):
do a sip and paint here,you know, so come over a couple
hours early, will a little paintminiatures dedicated night. Yeah tonight, that's
fine too. We're gonna we're gonnasip and paint. We're gonna chug,
chug and paint. Yeah yeah,that slam. A couple of sixteens are
But that's that's been generally in myfindings on my couple of weeks as a

(43:54):
new miniatures paint. Thanks for bringingthat to it. So I'm gonna recap
all of that. So that isyour Section one is your gotta has.
These are your absolute must. That'spaints, brushes, a good light source,
a water cup, some sort ofpalette, and of course miniatures.
Section two is nice to have.This is a handle, a small tool
set, a magnifier and a wetpalate. Section three is your kind of

(44:16):
once that is an apron, aheat dryer, and some sort of dedicated
space. Four is down the line. That's your airbrush, your storage options,
a sable brush or a sable brushset, and a three D resume
printer or a friend who can threeD resume print for you. And then
your community. Online communities include Facebookgroups, Reddit and discords and your IRL

(44:37):
groups are your already existing play groupand your friendly local game store or possibly
your podcast co hosts, and that'sit. And this has been like,
this has been taken up like agood amount of my time recently, and
I this is time that I wouldhave absolutely wasted. I've mentioned several times
on the show. I'm an audioengineer for a living. I do concert

(44:59):
work. So my normal bedtime formyself is like three am. That's just
when I get home. That's justwhen I when I get tired, and
I'll kill those last like two hourslike on the couch watching TV or on
my phone watching YouTube, or justdoom scrolling or just endless Reddit, endless
Reddit, end listening Instagram. Iput a parental control on my own phone

(45:21):
to make me stop scrolling through Instagram, Reddit and all those after. I'm
even embarrassed to say how much timeI gave myself and I run out every
day, and so having just eventwo hours set aside to not do that,
and they actually have something to showfor it. I got the miniatures
on the table in front of meright here. They're really great. There,
they're really it looks like I've beenpainting for as long as I've been

(45:43):
painting, and comparatively, I mean, it's just I'll go look at my
DM instagram that is at Jason thed M, and I will put a
picture of the the one that Ipainted at the at the Dungeons and Craft
event versus the one that I justdid like two nights ago. Yeah,
so pretty, it's pretty clear.Great. One of the great things about
this as a hobby is that youget better at it very quickly when you

(46:06):
first start doing it. Yep,and like there there's a whole lot of
One of the things you'll learn,especially if you start to talk to some
people who have been doing it fora while, is there some shortcuts and
tricks that just once you learn them, your stuff, you know, it
kind of just levels up very quickly. Yeah. And you know the one
you did, the very first oneyou did, compared to the one you

(46:27):
do just like ninety days later,the difference is huge. And that's one
of the super fun things about it. Well, this is about twenty you
get better at it's already a lot, yeah, mostly interesting, and it's
just it's just fun and like andit's just it just feels good to like
walk away with something that I helpedcreate and like this and this is a
one of a kind I made this, and it's it's a very satisfying hobby.

(46:49):
A lot of my other hobbies includethings that don't continue to exist when
they're done, board gaming and theD and D game we have. You
have stories to tell them. That'sabout it. And you know, and
even as a musician, very fewtimes do your record. You know,
for the amount of times that Iplay Initiative versus the the handful of songs
I have recorded, there's not alot to take away with a lot of
the hobbies I have. And thisis cool because every time I do it,

(47:12):
I'm gonna have something to take away. So yeah, this is this
is my current ADHD fixation and youknow, money dump and things to do
that. But if this is yourfirst time hearing about how to get started
in miniatures and now you're peaked,I would love to go with you on
your journey. I would love tohear how you how you plan on starting,
and I would love to see youryour first paint. So you can

(47:36):
send us your comments and everything toHello Adventurers Podcasts at gmail dot com,
or you can just tell us howexcited you are, or tell us how
long you've been painting, or tellus your favorite painting story. That's Helloadventurers
podcast dot Com slash Voice and Ido want to get Mike on here,
who's the one who got me intoit. Some of his painting stuff that
he sent pictures of are I'll showyou. I'll show you, guys.

(47:57):
These off off Mike. Unbelievable.The the the floor is like easy to
get to and the ceiling doesn't exist. It's completely nuts with some of the
people have pulled off. So superexcited to continue with this. Anything anything
to add boys, No thanks forsharing that with us. Cool. Decided
to try myself. Did I missanything huge that like a game store owner

(48:21):
would would have recognized that I missed, You know what, maybe maybe one
thing sure, and that is thatone of the things that you can get
into that can be fun, whichis like a little kind of a next
level kind of thing, is modifyingsome of your minis. You know,
like like like you you clip asword off of somebody and you you know,
take the axe off someone else andyou switch them around or something like

(48:44):
that. That's a thing that youcan kind of get into with you,
you know, with your your superglue and your advance and your clippers,
and that can be a lot offun doing that kind of that kind of
kip bashing, you get a littlebetter at it. One of the minis
manufacturers now comes with like module pieces. There's different hands and different weapons and
different facial expressions and like, yeah, they're a little bit more expensive,

(49:07):
but like you can paint them alland swaps. Yeah, and that is
a thing that the GW guys.You you get folks that are playing GW
there way into all that kind ofmodification and stuff like that, and they'll
have a lot of good advice tricksand tips and and you know, and
what they call bits bins right fromall the like just you know, extra

(49:28):
weapons and stuff that that come ona sprew for a you know, spru
Fall, Space Marines or you know, Fantasy ORCS or something like that.
So that that can be another kindof fun direction to go in the g
W also for creative do they alsodo the Star Wars mini's games that then
I don't think so now, okay, Fantasy, Okay, okay, one
of the other main major these guys, All right, cool, thanks for

(49:52):
face for capping that off, JimJoe, We're good. Yeah, cool,
Want to come point paint with me? Yeah, let's do it right
now. Guys, thank you somuch for listening to Hello Adventurers. We
are your host Jason Portizo, JimCrocker and Joe McCall producer, editoring engineer
Jason Portiso. Music by Nick Sperior, artwork by Kristen Broderick. You can
reach out to us with any feedbackor questions by emailing Hello Adventurers podcast at

(50:12):
gmail dot com. Hello Adventurers isa GTP audio production. Goodbye,