Part of this particular project was to experiment with some new-to-me paints I received a while ago. My mom in law had done some paint by number pictures and had a bag of leftover paints; those small plastic pots that come in the sets. They were acrylic so I thought it couldn't hurt to try them for painting minis. It was an interesting experience.
I may have mentioned before, but I may not have, that there's a little rule about free stuff: it's not free. You may not have to pay money for it, but more than likely you'll have to spend time
First off, the paints were very thick. It took quite a bit to thin them, for which I used water and Future Shine. It worked well enough, except for one pot where the paint acted like I was trying to apply it to a grease splattered area. It really took a lot of mixing, adding small amount of water or Future, mixing, adding, mixing... So, unless you enjoy mixing paints to the consistency you like, I guess I wouldn't recommend buying these ones if you have access to something else. It has also made me wonder if I should get a mixing medium as well.
The paints also seemed to stay tacky longer. I happened to touch one of the archers as I was transporting them to a shelf to dry and it was a bit sticky, even after sitting on the table for about 10 minutes. I wonder if it is an effect of the paints or of the Future I added.
The really nice thing about these paints is that there was a large variety in the bag. I'd guess she gave me about a hundred of these little pots and I don't think any two of them contain the same colour. I could pick three greens from about ten and two browns from seven as well as a good colour to use for fair skin. So, I guess at least part of the time I used for thinning the paints was made up by not having to mix colours.
Also experimenting with sticking moss to the bases. The glue I tried will probably not work out, but it's Testor's plastic cement, a liquid glue that looks and acts just like water, and I'm sticking moss to primer.
The finished paint jobs came out pretty well though and I'm pleased the effort didn't just go to waste like the wasteland cars I took a stab at (they look like someone drove them through a septic lagoon, of course, maybe someone did). I may still add an all-over wash just to pick out some detail, but here they are:
