Making miniatures in MS paint - SPESS MUREENS!

[Mammoth miniatures]

I hate sculpting digitally. Despite being a teched up zillennial, My entire skill base is analogue to the point of parody (I can carve marble but can't use excel)

BUT i am also aware the the miniature industry is moving more and more towards a digitally focused distribution system, and whilst I still prefer working with me hands, I also think this is a pretty cool thing as it empowers small time creators to get their work out into the world. So it is that every few months i circle back around to trying my hand at digital sculpting, and ever few months I get frustrated and give up, slinking off back to my cave of monster clay and silicone.

but no more! for you see I have discovered the ultimate cheat sheet, the most wonderfully simple 3d modelling software that even my knackered old laptop can run without bursting into flames - A software that lets me design tanks and soldiers on my lunch break and print them off that same evening - I speak of course of the one, the only...MS paint.

that's right - MS paint.a few years ago microsoft gave it a bit of a facelift that happened to include a very simple 3d modelling system - mostly just basic polygon shapes that you can move around. But with a bit of work that's all you need to design some neat stuff. Everything I have designed so far is scaled for 15mm, and I'm having great fun with it.


Here's the first lot of painted minis - I've gone with a true scale 15mm look, nice and tiny.







The actual sculpt in paint - as you can see, it's just a somewhat byzantine arrangement of polygons.

and the four infantry - Once the initial sculpt was done it was easy to repose them.


A walking fortress - This was the first thing I've ever printed (I got the printer as a motivator to learn digital modelling.)



And the first thing I designed, this one printed at 25mm scale - A sort of semi 40k tank based on a piece of my own illustration.

[snitcythedog]

Just wow  .  This might inspire me to give it a go.  Now I will have to find a computer not related to work that runs a Windows operating system. 

[Mammoth miniatures]

Another sculpt done whilst waiting for resin casts to cure - this one scaled to 28mm. A sort of robo gunslinger.


Again, done in ms paint and then scaled to 28mm in 3d builder , so all just basic windows software.

[fred]

These are very cool

Had no idea MS Paint had had any update, let alone one to add in 3D modelling!

[The Dozing Dragon]

You sir are an inspiration!

[floating white bear]

Oh, very nice. I am hitting the wall in 3D Builder.  I will have to give the ne "paint' a go.

[Mammoth miniatures]

Oh, very nice. I am hitting the wall in 3D Builder.  I will have to give the ne "paint' a go.

Yes I also find 3d builder to be a bit odd - mostly just because of it's unintuitive controls around object selection.

You may have to download paint 3d,apparently Microsoft consider it a bit of a letdown so they don't install it by default anymore.

[CookAndrewB]

Interesting. Have you used TinkerCad at all? Sounds similar. Wondering how it stacks up side by side.

[zemjw]

I've just had a play with Paint3d (turns out it's on my work machine )

All I can say is that you must have the patience of a Saint I'll stick to my current software, even if I'm not producing stuff as good as yours

[Mammoth miniatures]

Got back from salute and decided to paint up this little dude sinceI sold a fair few of him on the day.

Nothing fancy, I figured I'd do him in a similar scheme to my stargrave troopers so he can perhaps act as a support droid.

I think he's rather fun, Although obviously very fragile - future robots will have thicker legs.








This is another advantage of printing that I'm just discovering. I could probably have sculpted this dude analogue, using some 0.5mm brass wire and some plasticard, But there's no way I could reliably cast him for sale. But the printer can churn out 10 of him in an hour whilst I get on with something else, And I don't need to worry about accidentally snapping him in half as I wrestle him out of a silicone mould.

[Mammoth miniatures]

Some more 15mm stuff - I always wanted to do a western 15mm project but there's not a huge range out there that I like, mostly because i prefer a slighter, more realistic scale of mini.
So i made some of my own on my lunch break - A gunslinger, a sheriff, and a bandit (still to be painted)

They are perhaps a bit TOO small, But they measure 15mm from foot to head and can be picked up easy enough without breaking, so I think they'll do for now.

At this scale detail becomes a bit of a non issue - they technically have sculpted faces but really the nose is all that comes out visible, so the limits of MS paint are covered up.








"alright...Maybe you and I can just call it even, and no one needs to get stepped on."


Is this showdown very small, or very far away?

[Cacique Caribe]

Nice pair of figures.  I wish I could get my hands on a couple of each!

Dan

[Mammoth miniatures]

I sculpted this big tank a few weeks ago and finally got round to slapping some point on it. This was an MS paint/microsoft 3d builder effort, so still just basic off the shelf software.

I like it, Enough to make it avaliable to others via wargames vault.
https://www.wargamevault.com/product/384380/Mauler-28mm-sci-fi-tank

[Daeothar]

He sculpts in frickin' MS Paint 

That must be the nuttiest thing I've heard since somebody told me about Excel Games. But they're an actual thing.

And apparently 3D miniature sculpting in MS Paint is too! 

I absolutely love it! My hat off to you, good sir, for your efforts. Seriously; this is awesome! The sculpts look really good; I'd pick up that robot without hesitation; It's really cool.

And it's obvious you're getting the hang of it too; those gunslingers in 15mm are excellent as well and obviously much more detailed.

You are one hell of an inspiration to any budding or aspiring 3D artist. Testament that one can achieve great results with the humblest of tools, as long as one perseveres.

Please keep at it; I'll be following this thread closely

[Mammoth miniatures]

Going for the GW legal team C&D speedrun.

I love the mk1 rhino, but they're getting a bit silly on ebay. So I sculpted this one - Again, All MS paint.
I have this one scaled at 15mm and 28mm - here's the 15 version which i'm really pleased with - So much so that I may do a small horus heresy force at this scale.

This and the tank from the last post (and all this stuff actually...) are all up on the mammoth miniatures patreon.