I had intended to discuss my experience with Scibor in my previous post but found it was easier to make the topic of its own post. This week, I have the time and space to really delve into it so let’s talk about my experience painting them and look at some past projects and what I’ve learned from them. I have an update on the current project as well.
My first attempt was definitely interesting. I bought a couple packs of dwarves for absolutely dirt cheap from Cool Mini Or Not’s webstore and it took no joke, six months for them to ship my order. I honestly never thought I would get them and that subpar experience kind of continued through painting it. I started this one in early 2019 and the pictures I took are surprisingly dark. I have to think I was having trouble taking pictures of the metallic paint as these are really dark and to be frank, the two above don’t look that great and the contrast in the metallic paint is hard to see. There are a few things that look good, like the horns on the helmet but by and large, I wouldn’t say that was my best work even for back then. I did learn some important lessons with that one though like how to shade metallic paints to get a good look. I also learned that non-GW sculpts can be tricky to assemble. This one ended up getting thrown away because the head of the hammer would not neatly glue on top of the pole and the banner which looks quite nice and I was getting close to being ready attach to the other pole was even worse. I tried everything and could not get it to stay attached. I was definitely disappointed at the time but I did get over it fairly quickly because I tried another Scibor dwarf not too long after.
While the first dwarf didn’t go well, I did learn quite a bit from it and I was left with a desire to do even better on the next. I bided my time and looked for a Scibor sculpt that wouldn’t have the gluing issues that the previous one had. When I saw this guy, I grabbed him and decided to go full on with a display base. I certainly painted the metal better but made some dumb mistakes like not painting the display base very smoothly and I didn’t carefully paint his eyes and it wasn’t until I was close to being done that I realized they were a little off which made this guy not seem like he was display worthy. Unfortunately, his shield was really hard to glue on and fell off multiple times before I thought I had it secured. I had this guy stored away in my closet and the shield somehow fell off again so my frustration finally reached the point where I threw him away and I don’t regret it all that much. I knew I could do better and more recently, I finally have.
You might be asking yourself, why do you keep buying these sculpts if you had such bad luck? Some of the luck was created by myself and I do feel that I learned something as a result of the frustration. But more importantly, Scibor sculpts are affordable. You can buy the specific sculpt you want on eBay in the US anyway and not have to get a whole unit like the vast majority of Games Workshop releases. Scibor does what Games Workshop won’t for the most part too. He sculpts dwarves, chaos dwarves, ogres, space marine variants, and quite a few other things that GW either doesn’t make anymore or barely ever releases anything new for that particular army. The minis are a fairly high quality resin with minimal clean up as well and they take paint well without washing so all in all, there are plenty of good reasons to check them out and I encourage you to do so. Scibor also has pretty inspiring social media feeds where he constantly shows off sculpts painted by professional painters so that is worth a look as well.
So that brings us to this guy who is now pretty much done besides the base. I’m not sure exactly how long I’ve been working on him. A couple of weeks anyway and I’m very pleased with how he has turned out and I think he is one of the best things I’ve painted yet. The shield in particular really came out well and really draws the eye. One thing you can really see from looking at this dwarf versus the previous attempts is that taking pictures of NMM painting is much easier than TMM. Taking high quality pictures of miniatures that have a lot of shiny metallic paint is really tough and I’ve never figured out how to do it especially well. I feel like painting in NMM is going to help me show the quality of my painting better so I’m excited to be painting in this new style and we’ll see where it leads me too. I’ve got plenty more to learn and I believe that I can and will get better in the future as well. I’m lucky to have a friend who knows more about NMM than me who can give tips and guidance when I get stuck as well.
I received the base I want to use for this guy this week and while it is prepped and ready to paint, I realized I need a larger GW paint handle to paint it effectively so I ordered that today and will hopefully get it soon. Otherwise, this project will probably be on hold for a short while until I get the necessary equipment. I’m happy to jump back into Fallout and get some more gaming stuff done as a change of pace from the display painting in the meantime. I also have the next week off from work due to a summer break so I should have plenty of time to rest up and get plenty of painting done in the near future 🙂
Kuribo's Painting 
Always a pleasure to read your posts and see your painting. I admire your skill in painting as well as photography. And I like learning from your experiences…. so thanks!
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I appreciate all your support and kind words! If nothing else, I like to share what I’ve learned and I figure if I can improve as much as I have, then surely others can too 🙂
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I can see why you’re pleased with the latest figure! 🙂 I’m looking forward to seeing him on his base. Having said that, to my eye, the two earlier figures look fine, but you’re the best judge of what you can be happy with!
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This is very belated but thank you for the kind words, John 🙂 I look forward to showing you the finished work, later on this weekend!
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The last guy is certainly very well painted (so were the previous 2 in my eyes) so let’s hope he manages to stay glued together less he suffer the same fate as his earlier brethren. Better hold onto that shield and axe little guy!
I’m still distracted by the beard. So hairy. 😀
I’ve not heard of this company but I am no lover of dwarves. Are these wargaming miniatures or display models? Still 28mm?
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Many thanks, Stew. I was relieved that everything but the axe head was a single piece on this latest sculpt. It meant there was only one piece I had to nervously glue on 😀 Scibor makes “alternative sculpts” for Warhammer and Warhammer 40k, mostly armies/factions that GW doesn’t make anymore. I would guess that these are at least heroic 28mm but maybe 32mm or whatever scale GW is using both the Warhammers. If I don’t forget, I’ll post up a comparison of MESBG vs. Scibor and you’ll see what I mean. I don’t think they’re compatible scalewise, unfortunately.
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Not a figure supplier I have heard but with so many out there it’s hardly surprising. The sculpts do look good so given your interest I can see why you are drawn to them. Practice makes perfect as they say but perfection in our hobby is I find hard to achieve. Invariably there is always something we feel we can improve upon but that keeps the hobby interesting which therefore makes it a good thing as far as I am concerned. In time we all find our own style and only you will know when you have attained a level you consider to be acceptable. As far as these figures go I think they all look very good but we are typically our own worst critics.
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I think Scibor would mostly be known to Warhammer players as their products fill a niche within those games. They do make some fun sculpts and are worth checking out if you have a desire to paint a fantasy or sci fi mini 🙂
I couldn’t agree more with your thoughts on painting. It is best not to strive for absolutely perfection but to make something that you are as satisfied with as you can. There will always be mistakes or bumps in the road and you have to be able to roll with those as best you can. Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, they were interesting to read and think about 🙂
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Sad to hear you threw the earlier ones away. At least in the photos, they look really good and would probably have made someone (a D&D’er or someone else) very happy.
Amazing painting, that final dwarf looks spectacular!
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It was therapeutic at the time to get something that had me mad a couple of times and dispose of it but I think you’re right that someone could have enjoyed that mini. Thanks for the kind words as always, my friend! 🙂
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I hope you didn’t really throw the figure away, could have thrown instead into a bits box for shield, weapons, etc. I do however understand frustration when painting isn’t going well and want to throw the figure out, I have some figures that I have stripped to bare metal many times and still haven’t finished.
Different resins require different glues, some require super glue and some require just standard model glue. Others might require a bonding agent. Does Scibor have a glue that they recommend?
It is interesting how much detail newer sculpts have, for my eyes they sometimes have too much detail to pick out and paint.
I am enjoying your pushing yourself on improving your painting, the results show the dedication.
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I did throw it away because it was only three pieces and at the time, I only painted MESBG which is a slightly different scale. It was therapeutic to throw it away after I’d realized that I’d never get that particular mini done to the standard that I wanted. I probably am a bit too quick to trash projects that don’t work out but I don’t tend to do that with anything that is for gaming since I’m shooting for a lower standard there.
Scibor does not recommend glue but you’re right that it could be the glue I used at the time was the issue. I wish I could remember what I used but alas it is too long.
I hope you enjoy what I have to share this weekend as I think it is my best work yet. I’m going to try and catch up on your work on OR soon as well. If I don’t forget, I may have a mini you might be interested in that I no longer need/want so I’ll be in touch 🙂
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Ooh I do like these! Awesome paint job.
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Thanks, mate!
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I’ve alrteady commented ont he second Dwarf, but I think you shouldn’t sell yourself short on the second dwarf. He’s also got a sweet lookling NMM shield, and I really like the soft effect you’ve achieved on the lion-face cloak. Hell, the first dwarf looks good to me! 🙂
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Haha! The second dwarf is actually TMM, if you can believe it. I don’t know why the shininess of it is so muted in the pictures because in-person (or under the lights, I guess would be more accurate), it was a lot more reflective. It is a lot of fun playing around with metallics whether it is TMM or NMM though and so while the second and the first dwarf didn’t work out, I learned a heck of a lot from them.
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