Crisis Imminent – Hoping To Head Of A Workbench Disaster – Help Needed

[sleep when Im lead]

Hi,

I've been fostering for a few years now and for the first time I am looking after this wonderful little kid who has taken to painting figures. This is great and something I want to encourage and I spend a load of time trying to help him out with it.

But...It is causing few problems and I am not just talking about there being more paint on the table that the minis. But there is. (Nearly as much on his clothes and the carpet too but I have found a way to handle that).

The first thing I am struggling with is the dwindling lead mountain. In three days he has painted more figures than I have in the last sixth months. I am going to run out of stuff to let him paint in about a week (The mountain is not that big). Other than that I will have to let him paint stuff that is actually in the queue. At a quick tally it's nearly £200 worth of figures. So the question is, where can I get some cheap figures? He isn't that bothered about what he paints but he is 11 and is just learning. Please don't say eBay as having had a look it seems people want to rob me blind.

Secondly, the actual paint (and some beloved brushes when I wasn't looking) he has gone through is huge. Has anyone got any suggestions about paint that is good enough but not at the premium end of the market?

Finally, anyone got any tips on how to teach an eleven year old to paint?

Thanks, in advance

Fred

[Steve F]

For cheap figures, try em4 plastics: £5 for 20 ACW; 21p each for Orcs; "Space Rangers" £2.55 for 5.
http://www.em4miniatures.com/acatalog/FANTASY.html

For that matter, if you are teaching him to use acrylics, there should be no problem with Airfix, Zvezda or HaT polythene figures.

If he insists on metals, try Irregular: not great sculpts, but infantry typically about 90p each.
http://www.irregularminiatures.co.uk

[sleep when Im lead]

Cheers Steve,

Irregular might be worth a try actually. Think I might have blocked them from me memory.

[Scott]

Denizen also. Fantasy and Sci-fi for about 1 pound each.

[FramFramson]

Reaper bones seems like the obvious answer here. It's practically the exact reason the stuff exists!

Not sure who's got the cheapest paints these days, but for paint I'd just go for whoever's got the best price-to-volume ratio while still being miniatures paint. Some people are able to use craft paint, but the kid might be too young an inexperienced to know when he can get away with using craft paint and when not to skimp and use proper miniatures paint. I've heard that Coat D'arms is a bit cheaper?

[Admiral Alder]

The best paint I've found is the Valejio range, they released "Game Colour" which is the same quality, but has fewer colours in the range, it has quite a high pigment ratio so can even be watered down to make it last longer.
Whatever paints you use, it really is essential to mix them well, this means that you get the right ratio of pigment to medium on your palate.

In terms of technique: I personally get bored quickly; so what I would suggest that he paints the areas which are least interesting first, such as all of the dull leather browns, or all of the wood, and then move onto uniforms or details.

[Timbor]

If he is painting so fast, perhaps encouraging him to spend a bit more time on the painting quality could help slow  him down?  Suggest a basecoat - wash/ink - highlight approach.  I imagine once he sees the improvement in quality, he will strive to better in that regard as well.

As far as cheap miniatures, you can usually find sets of GW starter plastics, like Island of Blood or the Battle for Skull Pass for relatively cheap secondhand if you know the right places to look.

[sleep when Im lead]

Cheers Guys

Sorry for the delay in posting back. I've been in hospital for a few days passing Kidney stones. I am told it's worse that childbirth so I guess I've had twins.

Thanks for the advice it's given me some food for thought.

Cheers

Fred

[FramFramson]

Ouch, my Dad's had those so I know something of how much that takes out of you. Get well!

[Archie]

My youngest son is eleven and also paints faster than me.

I find he waxes and wanes over when he wants to actually do it so you might find you get a natural break.

Might I suggest you intersperse some game time into his sessions ... "lets game with what we painted yesterday" etc

As to learning how mine resists my advice but has flicked through the Foundry Painting book by Dallimore but mostly is willing to watch YouTube videos.

In the house we all have our own brushes. Sadly they will go through them quicker than we will go through ours. There is no brush sharing. Periodically I buy him new brushes although he has also biught some himself at shows which impressed me.

[fastolfrus]

Where are you based?

If you are near anyone else on the forum they may have stuff on their lead mountain you could paint?

[westwaller]

What about looking out for those packs of plastic miniatures at your local toyshop, newsagents? The classic ones are the toy soldiers, but I have seen bags of knights as well that were good enough and actually seemed to be upscaled 1/35? Versions of airfix 1/72/15mm stuff. It is worth looking for big job lots on ebay too though. If you look outside of the wargaming stuff and maybe search 'toy soldiers' or toy knights then you may have more luck.

Mantic games plastics used to be fairly cheap I think.