73 - Back! And On A Mission!

First off, apologies to my mates in the Tale of Even More Painters challenge. Unfortunately, I was unable to participate in the last 4 challenges because of real life (holidays, work, graduate school applications, etc.). Overall, though, it was great fun and I hope everyone enjoyed it as much as I did. It really did improve my painting/ modeling/ conversion skills and, in fact, in the time I've been away from the blog, I've actually assembled and converted an enormous amount of unpainted miniatures in my (not very much) spare time.

Which brings me to why I've decided to resume updating this blog. I'm not exaggerating when I say I've assembled quite a horde of unpainted miniatures over the last 3-4 months. They sit on my shelves, their gray and white metal exteriors silently accusing me for being such a lazy bastard. Well, after watching "Julie and Julia" with the wife, I resolved to embark on a journey of my own. For the next 365 days, I shall paint one miniature a day! Here are the ground rules:

1) I am allowing myself to prep models ahead of time (i.e., clean, assemble, even prime). In other words, I don't have to start fresh with a model still on the sprue every day. So long as at the end of the day, I have a completely painted, shaded/ highlighted, and based miniature, I will consider that day successful.

2) If I happen to miss a day or two, I will force myself to make up the missed miniatures over a weekend or a day-off from work. Bottom line - I need to have 7 finished miniatures at the end of the week or else I will consider the experiment a failure.

3) Ultimately, real life can take many strange and unforeseen twists and turns. There may come a time when I might have to put this project on hold. (I can already anticipate a week to 10 day cross-country trip to the West Coast sometime in May-June which would certainly interrupt my painting.) If something truly out of my control (i.e., anything other than sheer laziness on my part) forces me to stop painting for a bit, then I will try my best to make up the loss in painted miniatures. At the end of 365 days, if I can count 365 painted miniatures then I will consider this project a success regardless of whether I painted one a day or 7 a week.

4) At some point in this experiment, I might have to convert my one miniature a day into x number of painting points a week. For now, though, I'll try to stick to my one miniature a day project for as long as possible. If I have to resort to painting points, then I'll set the number of points at something equatable - like 7 painting points a week with no carry-over points (i.e., even if I painted a vehicle or 2 monstrous creatures in a given week, I won't carry the 3 left-over points into the next week).

5) For the first few weeks or so, I'm tempted to finish up some partially painted miniatures I have laying around just to get warmed up. I have about 4 Blood Ravens and 6 or so Orks sitting unfinished at my painting station that really need to get finished. We'll see. I'll definitely fully disclose in my daily posts whether or not the miniature I finished was already partially painted or not however.

Well, that's that. I'm glad to be back blogging and painting. I'll have to start visiting the various blogs I enjoyed out there as well. See you all tomorrow with painted miniature #1!

Note: the image for this post was used without Games Workshop's permission. If Games Workshop objects to my using the image, please contact me and I will take it down.

Leia Mais…

72 - First Attempt at a Scenery Piece/ Diorama (TOEMP #7 Bonus Challenge)

Well, it's not much to look at, but this right here is my first crack at creating a miniature diorama. It's not quite finished, obviously. A lot of painting still needs to go into it as well as some more landscape bits. Overall, though, I'm pleased with how it turned out. It may be rough around the edges (literally and figuratively) but it pretty much turned out the way I expected it to.

So, what is it? Essentially, it's the courtyard of a section of a bombed out Imperial city. The two wall pieces (made from foamboard) represent ruined buildings while the rectangular thing in the middle is a kiosk of sorts decorated with Imperial regalia and festooned with spotlights and speakers to blare out Imperial propaganda day and night. The plastic pieces come from a variety of kits - the piping along the walls and on the cobblestone floor are from the Stormblade superheavy kit and the Ork Stompa kit; the lamp post and the light fixtures are from the Manufactorum kit; the bits for the kiosk are from the Bastion kit; and the railing along the tops of the walls are from the Chaos Rhino and Land Raider kits.

The most interesting part about this diorama is the flooring. I was able to find 2 large rolls of textured plastic in gray cobblestone (which I used for the courtyard) and red brick (which I used for the sidewalks) styles at my Michael's craft store. The rolls were intended for miniature Christmas dioramas but they are the perfect scale for hobby miniatures as well. Best of all was the cost - I think I paid about $15 per roll, and when stretched out, each roll is almost 6' in length and 2' in width. Compared to the insanely overpriced textured plasticard I found in hobby-specific stores, the price was unbeatable.

Well, I won't be counting this particular diorama complete for TOEMP's 7th challenge just yet. I still have 1 more day to try to paint it up a bit. I very likely won't be able to make it in time for the bonus points, but I'm glad I made the effort. It was a lot of fun and a great learning experience. Next time I try to make scenery,though, it will most definitely be something I can use on a tabletop.

Please click here for more pics.

Leia Mais…

55 - Snakebite Clan Orks 2,505 Points Army List

My submission for the TOEMP Challenge #2 is coming along nicely. I've decided to paint up a 5 man squad of Blood Ravens Terminators (the shooty kind that came in the Black Reach set). I would've liked to continue building on my Ork army, but it turns out I don't have any Ork Elite or Heavy choices in my current collection! (I've decided to use the 5 Nobz - at least 2 of them - which came with the Black Reach set as leaders for my Ork Boyz mobs, plus 5 Nobz doesn't quite reach the 125 pts. minimum for challenge #2.) Since I've also committed myself to building up a Blood Ravens army, painting up the Terminators works just as well. As an aside - the intended purpose of the TOEMP to get the participating bloggers up and working on their backlogs has been a splendid success, at least for me. I don't think I've ever painted this many models in such a short time before. Before I know it, I'll be able to buy new models again! (Don't think I've forgotten about my committment to the Painting Points system either!)

Since posting will be a bit sporadic due to my focusing on meeting the deadline for Challenge #2 (August 27), I'm going to put up a few army lists over the next week or so just to keep the blog active. So, without further ado, in honor of the 8 Orks I painted up for Challenge #1, here's my Ork army list.

Snakebite Clan Army List - 2,505 Points

Legend:
Completed
Work In Progress
Assembled
On Sprue
Not Owned

HQ - 200 pts.
Warboss attached to Nobz (Elite choice) mounted in a Battlewagon
- power klaw, shoota/ skorcha, boss pole, 'eavy armor

Big Mek
- kustom force field, cybork body, boss pole

Elites - 745 pts.
Nobz (10)
- stikk bombz, 4 big choppas, power klaw, 'eavy armor, Waaagh! banner, Painboy

Lootas (10)

Kommandos (10)
- 2 burnas, Boss Snikrot

Troops - 990 pts.
Ork Boyz (20) x 3
- big shoota, rokkit launcha, Nob w/ big choppa, 'eavy armor, bosspole

Nobz (10)
- stikkbombz, 4 big choppas, power klaw, 'eavy armor, Waaagh! banner, Painboy
- Trukk w/ red paint job, reinforced ram

Deff Dread
- close combat weapon, kustom mega-blasta, armor plates

Fast Attack - 365 pts.
Warbikers (3) x 2
- Nob w/ power klaw, boss pole

Deff Koptas (3)
- 3 twin-linked rokkit launchas

Heavy Support - 200 pts.
Battlewagon
- killkannon, 'ard case, grot riggers, armor plates, wreckin'ball, 2 big shootas

To get to 2,000 pts., minus:
- Deff Koptas
- Deff Dread
- 1 Warbikers Mob
- 5 Kommandos
- wreckin' ball, grot riggers from Battlewagon

Leia Mais…

53 - 4 Ork Boyz Done! 4 More to Go! 2 Days Left! (TOEMP Update)

Just a quick update on the status of my TOEMP challenge #1. The 4 Ork Boyz I posted about yesterday have officially been completed - shaded with washes, highlighted (although not as much as I've recently been doing, solely due to time constraints), and based.

I believe I will take Kuffeh's suggestion in my previous TOEMP Update post and try to extend the choppa on my Black Reach Nob. With that minor conversion, I'll be able to reach the 75+ point threshhold for challenge #1 while shaving 2 models off my to-paint requirement. Now, this little strategery honestly has nothing to do with trying to "win" the challenge or anything quite so unseemly. The Ork army lists I've drawn up have always had the Nobs who lead my Ork Boyz mobs wielding big choppas - due to being a noob, however, I had assumed the Black Reach Nob models were already equipped with big choppas because their close combat weapons looked different (more elaborate) than your typical Ork Boy choppa, but after reading the Ork Codex more closely and searching the web a bit, it turns out big choppas are universally two-handed weapons.

Of course, at this point in the challenge - with 2 days left on the clock - I'm not going to complain too loudly about not having to paint an extra 2 Ork Boyz models hehe.

So, I've got the Nob, the Big Shoota Boy, and 2 remaining rank and file Ork Boyz left. They are primed and I will attempt to put down some basecoats tonight (at the very least, get the skin done). I'm wondering - is there a deadline on Monday for TOEMP submissions, 73rd (of Unforgiven Angels)?

Leia Mais…

52 - TOEMP Update

Well, the August 17th deadline is right around the corner, and I've been trying to fit in as much painting time as I can in between work and various social obligations. While it's definitely been a challenge, it has also been a great learning experience. For one, I realized just what a friggin' slow painter I am! I'm about ready to move into the shading, highlighting, and basing stage on the 4 Ork Boyz I started 4 days ago. All told, I've probably put in about 4-6 hours total on these 4 models, a much faster pace than I've managed before. Consequently, the paintjob is a little bit "messier" as well, but I'm pretty satisfied overall with the results.

Up next are the remaining 4 rank and file Ork Boyz. I'm hoping that they'll go much faster since I've learned a few things about speed from these first 4 Ork Boyz. Regardless, even if I manage to finish them in a day or so, that'll leave me with another day or so to finish up the Nob and the Big Shoota - highly unlikely, I'm afraid at this point. I've been toying with the idea of just doing 6 rank and file Boyz plus the Nob and Big Shoota for a combined 73 points (since I already have 2 painted Ork Boyz from earlier to round out this 10 model unit), but that leaves me 2 points short of the stated challenge of 75+ points. I guess I could consider the Choppa the Black Reach Nob I'm painting a counts-as Big Choppa, but I dunno if that would be kosher for this challenge? Better yet, does anyone know if the choppa the Assault on Black Reach Nob model is carrying can legally be considered a Big Choppa under the WYSIWYG rule?

Leia Mais…

50 - The Big 5-0!

It's been almost exactly 5 months since I started this blog, and more than 9 months since I picked up this hobby in earnest. I still remember the first 2 miniatures I painted - a metal Star Wars female smuggler figure which came with the Star Wars Galaxies Collector's Edition box which I've had in my possession for, oh, 6 years now, but never actually did anything with, and a plastic Lord Recluse figure which was packaged with the City of Villains game. At that time, I knew nothing about thinning paint, I had the brush control of an 8 year old boy loaded up on Jolt! cola, and techniques such as drybrushing or using ink washes to supply depth to the figures were foreign to me. Needless to say, those 2 figures were put out of their misery.

After those 2 kinda miniatures, the first legitimate miniatures I actually purchased were 2 Games Workshop Warhammer Fantasy Battle figures - an Empire Templar Grand Master of the Blazing Sun and a Sigmarite Warrior Priest. I bought both figures working under the assumption that I'd give this hobby a try by painting up some individual miniatures rather than to invest in a regiment box only to discover I really didn't have any interest and thus waste 10 or 20 figures as a result. Boy, was I wrong. For anybody out there who is curious about entering this hobby, but not sure how to start, let me advise you from experience - do not start your painting hobby with Special/ Independent Characters. They are designed and sculpted for more experienced painters. I almost drove myself insane trying to figure out how to properly paint all the fiddly bits and varied textures of the Templar Grand Master. The Warrior Priest was less intimidating, but I still had to make 5 or so attempts at painting him before I was even semi-satisfied in the result. The Grand Master, on the other hand, is still sitting unpainted on my workshelf after having gone into the Simple Green wash for the 4th time about 2-3 months ago. I'm almost convinced that had I started with, say, a simple Empire State Troops box, my early experiences with this hobby would be far less frustrating.

Well, after those first 2 disastrous attempts at Games Workshops figures, I decided to switch over to Reaper Miniatures for a couple of reasons - 1) since my painting skill was nowhere near the level required to properly paint those 2 Independent Characters, wasting GW level money on anymore figures (or even troop boxes) seemed irresponsible, and 2) Reaper's price point was right up my alley and I could buy 1 or 2 at a time rather than commit to 10-20 figures at a time. So, from early January to late February, I invested in about 20 Reaper Miniatures. At roughly $3 per figure, it seemed like a reasonable investment over the span of two months. For anyone interested in Reaper (which I highly suggest - they may not be Warhammer legal miniatures for table top gaming, but as hobby miniatures they are affordable and of an excellent quality), I'd suggest two on-line retailers for good service and excellent discounts - Miniature-Giant and Miniature Market.

This is not to say I did any better with Reaper Miniatures in terms of painting quality, but at least I wasn't feeling guilty about slapping on thick layers of paint on $15 figures. For me, Reaper's line of miniatures were my apprenticeship in this hobby. They allowed me to work on brush control and painting in thin layers, and because they're metal, allowed me to dunk them many, many times into Simple Green without fear of the cleaning solution melting or warping the figures.

The next step in my slow descent into the insanity of addiction in regards to little miniature figures was when I discovered the absolute steals and bargains one could find on eBay. Of course, eBay is far riskier than buying it from a dedicated retailer, and often in order to get the really, really good deals, you have to purchase the sprues without the box (in order to cut down on shipping, apparently), a careful and cautious approach to eBay has pretty much allowed me to to accumulate almost $2000 worth of miniatures at practically 50% the cost. Granted, because eBay offers so many bargains, I also ended up buying much more indiscriminately than I would have had I only had a 20%-30% discount available to me, so the amount saved was kind of rendered moot by the quantity purchased. As for eBay dealers who I've found to be excellent sellers with large inventories and A+ customer service, I'd recommend Discount Games Store, MacPac51, and Wizard Games (also known as Red Dragon Games). I'm sort of reluctant to give shout outs to these guys (especially the first two since they also offer free shipping!) because the last thing I want to do is have more people bidding on their auctions and thus lose out on some of the more incredible bargains available!

Well, this about wraps up post number 50. I've noticed that traditionally, most blogs devote a retrospective to their 50th post, so here you have it. Post 51 will be coming fast on the heels of this one because I've decided to participate in a cooperative painter's contest that Admiral Drax blogged about and I want to tell you my plans for it! See you soon and thanks for visiting.

Leia Mais…

47 - Blood Ravens 2,500 Points Army List

Still working on the Kroot Carnivore and the Skaven Plague Monk. I'm pretty much just highlighting them and putting the finishing touches here and there, then they'll be ready to be photographed. ETA a day or so.

Meanwhile...here's another army list! Again, I'm mostly doing this for housecleaning reasons - I tidied up the sidebar by removing the full army lists and instead replacing them with a linked Army Lists Archive. But the only way (as far as I know) to create a link is to actually publish a post on the blog. I realize I could've backdated the posts, but since my blog's been a little quiet while in the aftermath of the Sternguard tutorial, I figure might as well pick up the slack with some hobby related posts.

So, without further ado...

Blood Ravens Army List - 2500 points

Legend:

Completed
Work In Progress
Assembled
On Sprue
Not Owned

HQ - 445 pts.

Captain
- power sword, boltgun

- Razorback

Command Squad
- apothecary, company standard, champion, meltagun, plasma gun

Librarian (attached to Terminator Squad)

- terminator armor, stormbolter, Null Zone, the Avenger

Troops - 565 pts.

Tactical Squad (10)
- meltagun, multi-melta, sergeant w/ power fist

- Rhino

Tactical Squad (10)
- missile launcher, lascannon, sergeant w/ power weapon

- Rhino

Scout Squad (5)
- 4 sniper rifles, heavy bolter, camo cloaks

Elites - 595 pts.

Terminator Squad (5)
- assault cannon

- Drop Pod

Sternguard Veteran Squad (5)
- heavy bolter, plasma cannon, sergeant w/ power fist

Dreadnought

- heavy flamer, extra armor

- Drop Pod

Fast Attack - 450 pts.
Assault Squad (10)
- 2 flamers, sergeant w/ combat shield & lightning claw

Land Speeder Squadron (2)

Space Marine Bike Squad (3)

- sergeant w/ power weapon
- biker w/ meltagun

- biker w/ flamer

Heavy Support - 445 pts.
Land Raider
- multi-melta

Predator

Vindicator

- siege shield

To get to 2000 pts., minus:

- Predator

- Sternguard

- Drop Pods

- Land Speeders

- Scouts
- Flamer from Space Marine Bikers

Again, all comments, criticisms, advice, etc. are welcome.

Leia Mais…

46 - Imperial Guard Cadian 265th Regiment 2,500 Points Army List

Even though I don't see myself playing a game in the near future (due to work and family life conspiring to strip me of any free time other than the late-night painting/ hobby sessions I can scavenge up), I've found that drawing up army lists can be a productive thing for hobbyists for a couple of reasons:

1) An army list can serve as a very focused shopping list for hobbyists who find themselves buying kits and models without any kind of rhyme or reason (guilty as charged). Not only can that sort of buying habit be expensive but it can also result in miniatures languishing on sprues many months later because you honestly have no idea why you even bought them in the first place. But if those miniatures are part of an army you're constructing...well, that's your motivation right there.

2) An army list can help you build up momentum and maintain motivation for painting. Sometimes painting one miniature here, one miniature there can result in the desire to paint kind of petering out and dissipating. But if you're able to see a mob of 30 Ork Boyz slowly appearing before your eyes, or a full regiment of 20 Empire State Troops all resplendent in their colorful uniforms and heraldry lined up in neat blocks on your hobby shelf, the grandeur of it all might possibly make you want to add to it. In other words, using large, organized units of miniatures to get you motivated is like that social psychology experiment they ran many years back: when the researchers had just 1 or 2 people stop and start staring up at nothing in particular on a busy city street, none of the passing pedestrians bothered to see what they were staring at. But when the researchers had 5 or 10 people stop and stare up at the sky, suddenly almost every passing pedestrian would also stop and see what was going on. It's the power of numbers reaching a critical mass.

3) Army lists are just fun to put together and as a result, the very act of doing something fun that's hobby related helps to maintain your interest in the hobby as a whole.

Now with the preamble out of the way, here is the Imperial Guard Army List I've been messing around with for the past couple of months. Rather than keeping it posted up on the sidebar, taking up space and cluttering the page, I'm going to publish it as a post, and then create a nice, tidy link on the sidebar instead. In the future, all of my army lists will be done this way, and the sidebar will thus contain a collection of links to army lists rather than the entire lists. Of course, publishing them as posts isn't purely for housekeeping purposes. As a novice to the wargaming aspects of the hobby, I welcome comments and criticisms. In the event I do eventually play games with my armies, having them be fun to use (as opposed to poorly put together) would be great.

Imperial Guard Army List - 2,502 Points

Legend:

Completed

Work In Progress

Assembled

On Sprue

Not Owned

HQ - 372 pts.

Company Command Squad

- Colonel w/ bolt pistol, medi-pack, Regimental Standard, vox-caster, plasma gun, Bodyguard, Officer of the Fleet, Astropath

- Chimera w/ camo netting and hunter-killer missile

Lord Commissar attached to Veteran Squad

- power fist and carapace armor

Elites - 305 pts.

Ratlings (5)

Storm Trooper Squad (10)

- Sergeant w/ power weapon, flamer, meltagun

Guardsman Marbo

Troops - 740 pts.

Platoon Command Squad

- Lieutenant w/ power weapon, Platoon Standard, vox-caster, autocannon team

Infantry Squad (10)

- flamer, vox-caster, missile launcher team

Infantry Squad (10)

- grenade launcher, vox-caster, heavy bolter team

Infantry Squad (10)

- meltagun, vox-caster, mortar team

Infantry Squad (10)

- grenade launcher, vox-caster, autocannon team

Heavy Weapons Squad (3)

- 2 lascannon teams, heavy bolter team

Veteran Squad (10)

- Gunnery Sergeant Harker, vox-caster w/ shotgun, demolitions charge w/ shotgun, meltagun, heavy flamer, sniper rifle, lascannon team

- Chimera w/ heavy stubber, dozer blade

Fast Attack - 438pts.

Armoured Sentinels (2)

- heavy flamer w/ hunter-killer missile, searchlight, smoke launchers and camo netting

- plasma cannon w/ hunter-killer missile, searchlight, and smoke launchers

Devil Dog
- searchlight, smoke launchers and storm bolter

Valkyrie
- lascannon

- heavy bolters on sponsons

Heavy Support - 645 pts.

Leman Russ Battle Tank

- multi-meltas on sponsons and pintle-mounted heavy stubber

Leman Russ Demolisher

- heavy flamers on sponsons, pintle-mounted storm bolter and dozer blade

Basilisks (2)

Again, any comments, criticisms, tips, advice, etc. are heartily welcomed, although it should be obvious from my list that I'm not out to create the hardest army possible. After all, only 3 of my infantry units are mounted in Chimeras, so I'm clearly not pursuing the all-mechanization strategy that seems to be very popular out on the interwebs. Also, if there's a more streamlined way for posting army lists, please tell me. I know that it's verboten to post unit/ upgrade costs on a point by point basis, but I'm unclear as to whether or not there are other protocols for posting army lists.

Leia Mais…

45 - In The Meantime...A Painting FAQ

Well, it looks like that Sternguard tutorial kind of took a lot out of me. I've been painting still, but a bit more slowly than a week ago. I do have 2 miniatures (the Kroot Auxiliary and the Skaven Plague Monk) almost ready to be photographed and posted about, but for now, they're both probably still a couple of days away. So, in the meantime, I'll provide a link to a Painting FAQ that I found very helpful when I first started with this hobby. It was compiled way back in 1995 (is it possible that 1995 was almost 15 years ago?) by Brenda Klein from apparently months of discussions on the rec.games.miniatures usenet forum, so some of the tips, tricks, and advice might be outdated, but in my opinion it's still very worthwhile as an introductory source for new and intermediate painters. When I first started painting miniatures, I honestly had no idea what was meant by terms like "washes" or "drybrushing" (let alone how to do them!), and more often than not, most tutorials tended to assume that a person would be familiar with them, and as a result would give only the most cursory of definitions about those techniques. Thus simple, straightforward FAQs like the one Ms. Klein compiled were invaluable in helping me understand the foundations of this hobby at a time when annoying obstacles and frustrations might've made me abandon it.

Leia Mais…

36 - FtW Collaborative Post on Motivation

What motivates me to paint miniatures? Well, I think at this point - only 7 months into the hobby - motivation hasn't been a major issue. I'm still in the honeymoon period, I guess, because I try to get a little bit of painting and modeling in every night. In fact, I find it very therapeutic at the end of the day. Painting miniatures is almost like my version of zen meditation - I get totally wrapped up in the tiny details of a model, the careful brush strokes, the layering of paint, etc. Get some good grooves going in the background (currently on my playlist: Orgone, the Black Keys, and the Postal Service), and everything else just fades away into the background.

But I also have a track record of getting really involved in something (be it a television show, a band, a video game, etc.) for about a month, totally devouring every scrap of information about it, dedicating hours of every day to thinking about it, and then...poof...30 days later, I abandon it and move on to my next obsession. Now, if this ever happens with me and miniatures...well, then, that's almost $800 worth of models collected over 7 months down the drain. Not cool. So, while I may still be enthusiastic about the hobby right now, there's no time like the present to start planning for burn-out. Here's my top 5 tips for getting motivated and re-energized about the hobby:

1) Paint a variety of models. Don't just stick to one army or one genre or one game system or one company. If all you're doing is painting Imperial Guardsmen day after day, and all that's awaiting you on your painting table are more Guardsmen, then it's not hard to see why you'd be burned out after a couple of squads. Instead, spice things up by painting a High Elf hero character or even some Reaper or War Machine or Hasslefree miniatures every once in awhile.

2) Start a blog. This isn't because I'm an attention-whore. In actuality, I started this blog purely to chart my own progress in the hobby. Having people come and visit every once in awhile is just a bonus (and a great one, at that!). For me, at least, blogging is a big motivation to paint because I'm just naturally drawn to filling up a blank screen (or a blank piece of paper) with my thoughts. And since my blog is about miniatures, the best way to have anything to talk about is to actually paint up a model. I guess it's the English Lit. major in me.

3) Don't beat yourself up for putting a half-painted model down and picking up a new one. I'm that way with a lot of things - my apartment is filled with half-read books piled on the coffee table, on book shelves (naturally), on end tables, nightstands, etc. Every once in awhile, I'll pick one of them up and breeze through it in a day or two because my mood at the time was just in tune with the book's subject matter. It's the same with half-painted minis. I won't force myself to slog through a mini I'm rapidly losing enthusiasm for because that's the best way to turn this hobby into a job, in my opinion.

4) If you're not in the mood to paint, then assemble. If you're not in the mood to assemble, then convert, etc. etc. This hobby is multi-faceted enough to cater to a host of different interests and moods.

5) Read blogs or watch YouTube videos about the hobby. Sometimes all it takes to re-ignite that interest in the hobby is to read and watch someone else's enthusiasm. Enthusiasm is contagious, after all.

Leia Mais…

35 - Coming Down To The Wire!

Just a quick post to remind everyone that the poll from Post 31 will be active until 11 PM tonight. I can't remember if it's 11 PM EST or PST, but either way, it ends today!

At the moment, the Blood Ravens Sternguard conversion is leading the Eldar Guardian by 4 votes, 9 to 5. So if there are any Eldar Guardian fans lurking in the wings, now is your chance to come in and pull off an upset!

Thanks to everyone for voting. I'm pretty excited about starting this series of tutorials. Hopefully, I'll be able to produce something useful. Stay tuned!

EDIT: Whoops! It looks like yesterday wasn't the last day! Today is the last day until the poll closes. 17 hours to go...

EDIT 2: The polls have closed and a World in Miniature News is ready to call the race for - the Blood Ravens Sternguard with 12 votes! Coming in a distant second was the Eldar Guardian, but don't worry Guardian boosters because while I was waiting for the poll to officially end, I went ahead and painted up the Guardian anyway. I should be posting the results of that paintjob within the next fews days. All that's left on him are the wash and the highlights. Again, thanks to everyone who voted!

Leia Mais…

34 - Hi, My Name Is Paul and I'm A...

It's become very obvious to me, seven months in to this hobby, that is has the potential to be very costly. Now, all hobbies are obviously luxury pursuits - we do them because we enjoy them not because we need to do them to survive. As a result, hobbies, by their very nature, will require disposable funds. The problem, as I see it now, is that certain aspects of a hobby can become compulsive, almost like an addiction. When it comes to this hobby of miniature figures, the compulsion for me is the collecting. It doesn't matter that at this point it would take me two or more years to get through every unassembled figure I own, or that the great majority of these figures are part of armies I have no intention of collecting, or that there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason behind my pattern of collecting (other than, "Oh, those guys look cool - must have!"), I still find myself buying kits on a weekly basis. Now, I've managed to off-set this compulsion somewhat by only buying at rock-bottom prices off of eBay, but the volume of my weekly purchases is threatening to overcome even that minor advantage.

So, I've decided that I have to do something to reign in this burgeoning addiction. The plan I will adopt is very similar to the one lone pilgrim has popularized on his blog - the Points for Painting formula. However, since I've already gotten such a head-start in my collecting of figures, I'll be adding a slight modification to his formula.

First, I'm going to start myself 25 points in the hole. Thus, according to lone pilgrim's formula, I'll need to paint up 25 infantry models or a dozen cavalry/ bike (and I'm going to add Independent/ Special Characters into this category) models or 2-3 vehicles before I'll allow myself to buy any more model kits.

Second, after digging myself out of that 25 point hole, I'm going to adopt a 1:1 ratio for determining what I'm able to buy next. In other words, painting up 10 infantry models will allow me to buy a 10 figure infantry kit, a 5 figure cavalry kit, or a vehicle kit, etc. Hopefully, this will force me to not only slow down on my compulsion to collect, but also re-connect the collecting part of this hobby (which has grown all out of proportion in terms of its importance) with the assembling/ painting/ basing/ diorama/ gaming parts of the hobby.

The bottom line is that I really need to get ahold of this strange need to buy every single model kit I can lay my hands on. If any of you have any other suggestions or if you too suffer from this particular compulsion, please feel free to post your suggestions or stories in the comments section.

Oh, and by the way, the poll is still active, so keep voting if you'd like.

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32 - Cool Highlighting Technique for Vehicles

I found this video while searching YouTube for tutorials on putting together Rhinos, Vindicators, and Land Raiders (oh, my!). In a nutshell, the guy (who goes by the handle AwesomePaintjob) in the video suggests using colored pencils for hard lining the edges of vehicles as an alternative to using paint brushes. The result seems pretty good and as the guy says in the video (paraphrasing): "While some of us may be unused to doing detail work with a paint brush, we've all used pencils before."

Remember, the poll from Post 31 is still active, so please vote if you haven't already. Thanks!

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24 - Foundry Miniatures Painting and Modeling Guide Review

The internet has definitely made the hobby of painting and modeling miniature figures much less frustrating and more accessible to the beginner. There are innumerable sites available that provide excellent tutorials, tips, and videos on everything from priming to base coating to basing to varnishing, etc. But as a lover of books, nothing beats being able to flip through pages, taking your time studying photographs of well-painted figures, devouring step by step instructions from the comfort of a sofa or your bed or your workstation. And in my opinion, Kevin Dallimore's Foundry Miniatures Painting and Modeling Guide is one of the best how-to paint miniature figure books out there, especially for the beginning hobbyist. Here's my review of the book.

Pros: 176 pages of glossy, high-quality pages filled with Dallimore and other painters' miniatures. Dallimore breaks down the book in a sensible way - from painting miniatures in one color for the beginner (essentially, painting models purely with basecoating, eschewing the more advanced techniques of shading and highlighting) to the more involved two-color and three-color methods (where he explains how to use lighter and darker colors either through ink washes or layering to achieve a greater sense of depth). Dallimore particularly spends a great deal of time on how to paint flesh properly and convincingly. The step-by-step tutorials are invaluable. Unlike other how-to books where the author might show a picture of a primed figure in one photograph and then a fully painted figure in the next photo accompanied by some vague textual descriptions about how this magical process was accomplished, Dallimore walks the reader through every single step in the painting process. Photographs of the work in process figures are shown from multiple perspectives and varying degrees of completion. He also does an excellent job of explaining the more mundane aspects of painting such as the proper way to drag a brush across the surface of a model or how thinned out the paint should be for a particular painting technique. While the great bulk of the book focuses on painting figures, about 30-40 pages are also given over to general tutorials on basing, converting, and building scenery/ dioramas.

Cons: There is a lot of repetition in this book. Dallimore admits this up-front in the first few pages of the guide, but it still doesn't make reading the same exact descriptions of the same exact painting techniques any more enjoyable. While it's understandable that a certain amount of repetition would be required when explaining the painting process in a step-by-step manner, I can't help but feel that much of that repetition is just filler. Also, Dallimore adopts the technique of demonstrating the one-color, two-color, etc. methods on the same figure. Again, while I can see the logic behind structuring a how-to guide in this manner (after all, it allows the reader to see just how different these various techniques are when you see them applied to the same figure), the sheer monotony of seeing the same figure over and over gets a little tiresome. In addition, the guide doesn't really address in any detail the super advanced techniques for painting miniatures, such as Near-Metallic Metals or glazing or wet blending. A four-color method is also mentioned in the introduction, but never really expanded on, or at least I couldn't find anything more advanced beyond the three-color method. There also isn't an index. Granted, the Table of Contents is pretty thorough, but I actually remember one instance when I wanted to find the page where he talks about painting tattoos and had to basically flip through the book page by page in order uncover it. Finally, Dallimore's painting style might not be for everyone. Personally, I find it appealing in a cartoonish/ characterful way, but certainly not at the level of many of the more recent Golden Daemon winning painters, especially from Europe.

In conclusion, I'd highly recommend this guide to all beginning model painters and even intermediate painters. I'm not sure if more advanced/ seasoned painters would get anything out of it because my feeling is that the longer you've been in this hobby, the more you've developed a particular style and technique that works for you. It retails at $39.95 hardcover, but I was able to purchase it off of Amazon for $26.37 (a 34% discount with free shipping). Well worth the price, in my opinion.

Photographs of front cover and interior pages taken from Foundry's webpage advertising the book. The webpage can be found here.

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