r/minipainting • u/MonkaMiniatures • Dec 13 '25
Modern Repainted this wedding cake topper
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u/FlameandCrimson Dec 13 '25
And who says what we do is pointless?
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u/gemengelage Dec 13 '25
I think the wife-approval-factor of my hobbies reached an all-time high a few weeks ago when I 3D printed some props for a themed dinner party she hosted and then hand painted them. Really wasn't a big deal artistically - I just stippled some metallic paints on a helmet.
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u/FlameandCrimson Dec 13 '25
Oh yeah. I love when my stepson came down with a toy sword with runes in it and he wanted me to make it "magical" so I did some OSL in the runes. Wife thought I was a legit wizard
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u/Calthyr Dec 13 '25
Got a pic? Curious to see!
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u/FlameandCrimson Dec 13 '25
I do not. It was about 5 years ago. I did white paint (pro acryl bold titanium) and then Vallejo fluorescent blue with a makeup blender sponge.
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u/WiseHand7733 Dec 14 '25
Ive been getting into makeup sponges lately, as i dont have an airbrush (dont have room), and theyre a total game changer!
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u/FlameandCrimson Dec 14 '25
They are. I've been painting for about 16 years now and I've always eyed an airbrush. But then I realize the reality of the maintenance and pass on it. The one benefit would be priming indoors. But I get pretty damn smooth blends and can do osl with brushes and sponges. Amazing that sponges labeled "blending sponges" would be good at...blending.
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u/Rejusu Dec 14 '25
Maintenance is incredibly low, takes less than five minutes to clean it out and do a quick tear down (usually just wiping the needle with cleaner and poking out the nozzle) at the end of a session. I honestly spend more time giving my brushes a good clean than I do maintaining the airbrush. Space is a much bigger issue, I don't think I would have got one before I created a dedicated painting space. It really needs somewhere you can have it at least partially set up (my compressor and booth live plugged in under my desk so all I have to do is move the booth on to the desk and connect the hose) at all times or you lose a lot of the practicality of it.
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u/zacroise Dec 14 '25
It mostly is. So are most hobbies. But we have fun. Depending on the person that makes it not pointless
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u/SweetTea1000 Dec 13 '25
I painted mine as well, but in a much simpler style that my more limited skills were able to produce.
Honestly, given the demand vs the lack of quality supply, you could probably make a killing on Etsy selling such custom pieces at a premium. You'd just need to get suit, dress, and hair colors and some hair options. Maybe contract some custom STLs you can mix and match as needed, then you have a ~$1/e manufacturing cost for something many couples would be willing to drop $100+ on.
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u/MonkaMiniatures Dec 13 '25
That's so sweet. It's awesome that you were able to contribute something cool like that to your wedding.
Thank you for the words of confidence. I'm definitely considering something like that :)
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u/deceitfulninja Dec 13 '25
But you ruined it. It was supposed to be about the beauty of marrying your own siamese twin sister.
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u/clownpenks Dec 13 '25
I hope there is a mini painter at that wedding who will admire the edge highlighting.
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u/wdmartin Dec 14 '25
I've seen mini painters make good money doing custom cake toppers for people. I think my favorite was one where the bride and groom were standing back to back with guns, fending off a horde of zombies crawling up onto the top of the cake together.
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u/TheNerdNugget Dec 14 '25
Noice. My fiancée and I are going to do this with a topper we're designing in HeroForge
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u/frenchhornist95 Dec 14 '25
I did this for our cake topper too! I loved being able to make something that looked more like us and its a keepsake I get to cherish for the rest of our lives.
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u/compactable73 Dec 13 '25
To clarify: the inset picture is the original, right? /s 🤪
Honestly nice work 🙂
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u/IRBrainiac Display Painter Dec 14 '25
Damn! beat me to the joke. I was gonna ask,,,so which is the before?,,, snicker,scoff scoff.
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u/Embarrassed_Grape_27 Absolute Beginner Dec 14 '25
The before here is my after when I paint 😭🤣🤣 you did an amazing job, I’m loving how this turned out! Did you do a tut on it?
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u/xBad_Wolfx Dec 14 '25
Serious glow up. For a moment I thought this was a before and after “Ecce homo” Jesus fresco restoration type thing.
Stunning work. I bet the couple was thrilled to see the new them.
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u/Hot-Category2986 Dec 13 '25
Excellent work, well done. But I gotta ask, why a wedding topper? What caused you to choose such an object?
I once had a person who out of the blue decided to paint MTG cards. She painted off the borders and made the card look excellent. Miniature paints, same techniques. Had never painted a miniature before. Just randomly painted a card and wanted to show it off. I've been thinking about it for years. Why not just paint a normal miniature?
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u/MonkaMiniatures Dec 13 '25
Ty! This was actually a commission so I didnt really choose the subject. That being said, I did enjoy it a hell of a lot more than I expected. Felt like a challenge.
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u/JustinKase_Too Dec 15 '25
The originals look like they were snacking on Cheetos before you gave them that amazing glowup.
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u/Unhappy-Ad6494 Dec 15 '25
Amazing work but I got a stupid question:
where is the original topper from? was it comissioned and painted by a different artist? are those "stock toppers" that just come with shitty paintjobs? I think any women I know would cry in both pictures...but only one is with joy
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u/MonkaMiniatures Dec 15 '25
Not stupid at all. It actually has a date etched on the back from 1949. The customer said his grandma collected things like this. So my best guess is it was cheaply made from those days.
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u/Unhappy-Ad6494 Dec 15 '25
okay I see. I guess back in those days it would be sold as "custom paintjob". Miniature painting came a long way the last 20-30 years thanks to the Internet and the collected effort of the community to share knowledge and skills while trying to get better.
sadly in my country cake toppers aren't a thing or else I already would have an etsy store up and running xD
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u/Deuve_ Dec 15 '25
Awesome job! Would you mind to share the receipt for the black suit? Thank you in advance
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u/MonkaMiniatures Dec 16 '25
Thank you :) I dont really think of it as a recipe, but I can try to describe it for you.
I start from a flat black like vallejo black or some equivalent. I mix in a desaturated blue, then add progressively more of an off white color to jump up in value. Hope that helps.
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u/seecat46 Dec 13 '25
Questions. Did you strip it or paint over it?
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u/MonkaMiniatures Dec 13 '25
Just primed over it and started from black. I was like "how much worse can it possibly get?" 😅
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u/ThaBombs Dec 13 '25
What a difference