I really enjoy doing model kits and painting minis. I mostly have Warhammer stuff and most of that is Skaven, but I have lots of smaller one-off things painted just for funsies or as contest entries at the local Warhammer store.
I never thought I'd get into this stuff since I'm not really an artist, but I've come to learn that miniature painting is actually a lot more technical than traditionally artistic and a lot of the appeal comes from optimizing techniques and paint schemes to strike a good balance of looks and ease/speed. Especially when you play Skaven and you might have over a hundred little guys on the table, keeping it fast and simple is mandatory if you want to finish an army before you turn 90.
Anyone can apply ink washes and do drybrushing and the results can be really satisfying, so even if you think this wouldn't be your cup of tea you might be surprised!
Click any image to expand.
 This an old metal model of a Space Wolves captain. This is one I put a lot of time and effort into as a contest entry. The base is made with Mod Podge Dimensional Magic over a painted undercoat, scored with a knife, and washed with ultra thinned white paint. |
 Tau Broadside Battlesuit. Tau stuff is basically just gundams, so I painted this gundam-style using flat colors and enamel panel liner. It really pops next to typical Warhammer styles. This was my first (and so far only TwT) contest winner! |
 The first clanrat where I worked out the fur and skin tones I ended up sticking with. |
 A test with some new alternative Vallejo paints and also seeing if I could save time by using the fleshtone wash on the whole model. |
 Something a little different, this is a gunpla-style kit of a Sega Astro City cabinet. The Mushihimesama Futari graphics are custom printed, I have higher quality ones now but they're not in this pic. |
 This is an SD Freedom Gundam. These SD kits are very cheap (<$8 usually) but don't have much color separation, so they're great if you like painting. Other than the big area base colors, this is mostly manually detailed. |
 A Skaven doomwheel, definitely the kind of model you need to paint in subassemblies. |
 Detail on the periscope lens |
 Skaven Grey Seer. This time I tried going more contrasty with the highlights, going for a bright cartoony Warcraft 3 kind of look. |
 The other side. I did this as a one-off contest entry, the style doesn't quite match the rest of my Skaven stuff. |
 A Termagant, this is the primary Tyranid ranged battleline unit. This is all just contrast paints and drybrushing. It's fast and easy and anyone can do it! |
 Winged Tyranid Prime. The wing effect is done by glazing thinned pink contrast, it came out great for how little effort it takes! |
 Admech Sicarians. I never ended up getting into this army so it's a one off, but I really had fun on the bases. These are pretty old so it's not as nice as my newer stuff. |
 An Ork Boy. I got the combat patrol for Orks, but Tyranids came shortly after and I ended up shifting my focus towards them for the time being. The armor paint is done via stippling and then a layer of brown wash, I wanted it to look sloppy and worn. |
