Bare Bones Learn to Paint Kit: Basic Techniques

I've bought the army painter dungeons and dragons set, the Vallejo model color, game color and game air paint case sets, assorted loose paints of all brands and this reaper set (plus the other reaper kit). This kit is just phenomenal.You get 11 paints, 2 really nice taklon brushes, 3 figures and a case that normally costs fifteen bucks on its own. Plus, the step by step painting guide is wonderful. I'm not a beginner (sort of an advanced beginner with lots of knowledge but not a ton of minis painted yet) but I went through the guide and painted the minis. I had a blast.I haven't decided if Reaper is the best paint you can buy, but this is 100% the best starter kit. I wish I'd bought it first and I'm still enjoying it even with all my other paints and figs. I don't really want to buy even more paints but my experience so far is tempting me.Here are the pros.Crazy good value. If the case is $15, the brushes are $3 and the figures are, say, $2 each, these paints come out to $6 for 11, which is 55 cents each or about a buck an ounce. I put the paints from my layer it up at in this box, so I can still fit ten more paints in it and use the other box for storing my lose scale color paints.I love the viscosity, coverage and flow of these paints. They require no thinning beyond being on a wet palette to get a nice two-layer coat. They go on smooth, not blotchy. My army painter war paints tend to go splotchy if I don't use thinner medium but these thin fine with water.Dropper bottles are awesome, settle for nothing less. These have an interesting design where the dropper tip is tapered where it enters the neck of the bottle. This makes is very easy to pull the tip off so you can put metal balls in or stir by hand. I use three balls per bottle.No caking or drying. Not for me anyway. They mix easily with some mixing balls because the viscosity is so thin, almost like my Vallejo air paints.Dries nice and matte. Shiny when wet, not when dry.These made me believe in synthetic brushes. I now believe that taklon brushes deserve a spot in your toolbox after painting a few minis with these. Between the two sets you get a #2 flat and rounds in numbers 000, 0 and 1. They hold perfect points and have better stiffness and "snap" than my kolinsky brushes. Only my WN series 7 brushes compete with point retention with these. My davinci and rafaels tend to lose their point as soon as the paint starts to dry. The down side to these is that they'll probably last half a dozen minis or fewer before they're too frayed to use while naturals can last years.Now for cons.The case doesn't close easily. Dumb oversight, frankly. You can either squeeze the case really hard every time you close or try to trim off the bottom of the foam tray. Also, the case is nowhere near the quality of the Vallejo case and the foam is cheap and warped. I wish I could get some nicer, dense foam to cut to size for the cases.Three bottles had paint dried in the tip. I used a paper clip. Didn't seem to affect the actual paint.Bones minis are real hit and miss. The skeleton is exceptionally poor quality, the orc is mediocre and the Knight is not bad. They don't hold a candle to the wizkids d&d minis and are in a different league altogether from metal and hard plastic. Soooooo floppy with no detail. Swords attached to legs. Hands that look like waffles.Reaper labels are the worst.No consistency in cap colors. I got paints with black, gray and white caps. No, the caps didn't match the "line" (bones, hd or core colors). Seems amateurish.No wash included. I have plenty of my own to choose from but it sucks that the guide has you water down a standard paint to use as a wash.

I have spent quite a bit of money on Reaper Miniatures stuff over the years. From their old metal minis back in the days to their paint lines, and have even been in on multiple of their kickstarters for miniatures. As to the Learning to Paint kit from Reaper, it's a great way to get into painting miniatures!I'll start with the miniatures. The miniatures included with this learn to paint kit are of a material they lovingly refer to as "Bones". This material is EXTREMELY forgiving, it doesn't break easily, and one of the best aspects of it is that if you give it a quick wash with warm water and some dish soap and let it dry, you can then paint directly onto the surface without having to prime the mini! This is absolutely fantastic because you can start off with the painting right away. There is a slight chance that the minis might be warped due to packaging, don't despair, they're easy to fix: just get some water that's boiling and make a bowl with ice water. Submerge the warped piece for several seconds in the boiling water until it's soft, bend it to the shape you want it in, then quickly put into the ice bath. This is the official way of fixing the warping directly from Reaper, and I can attest I've done it on multiple Bones material miniatures. The paint sticks exceptionally well to the Bones material, so much so that after it's painted you can bend the piece around and the paint will not crack or break off of the mini. It's by far the most forgiving material I've worked with painting miniatures, from resin to plastic to metal.As for the paints, I can say that I personally have at least 50 different Reaper miniatures paints. I picked this particular learn to paint kit up for the case and the colors in the kit, as I was in need of most of them. They have really good coverage, although normally you will need to do a few coats, especially if you thin your paints at all. Not really a problem, but worth mentioning. The color selection is good to get you started, or to supplement paints that you already have, and there is FAR more than you need for the minis included if you use small amounts at a time. I would recommend picking up a cheap plastic palette so that you can squeeze a little paint out at a time and not make a mess. Another pointer is to keep a safety pin or a needle near where you paint, as occasionally paint will dry in the nozzle of the bottle and you might need to use that to push through it. Most companies that have dropper bottles like this have similar issues with that, so it's not limited to Reaper.Lastly, the Learn to Paint guide. It's fairly basic, they really don't get into any difficult techniques, and they do a good job showing you the steps and how they achieved the looks that they show you. If you are indeed learning to paint, follow the guide, be patient, and try not to be too harsh with your first attempts, as you will more than likely not do well right off the bat.This is a great gift for someone new to the hobby, or if you're wanting to try out painting minis yourself.