Realm of Lead Addiction

Thrilling Tales - British Commando

2012-01-28T13:40:00.000-08:00

Another mini done with the intention to speed things up. The pic brought out some of the rougher bits like the highlights on his jacket and the eyes but overall I´m happy given the time spent.
I will add another 2-3 minis over the coming weeks before starting the auctions.

Thrilling Tales - Miss Marple Wannabe

2012-01-22T13:57:00.000-08:00

I recently picked up a rather large lot of Thrilling Tales miniatures from Artizan with the intention to keep a few and paint these for charity (a FuuK member´s sister london matahon in this case).
Having finished the first one today I can testify (TESTIFY!!!) that they are nice to paint and a welcome change from many overdone fanasy figures of late. While I took some short cuts I´m rather pleased given the time spent (roughly three hours) and think that the limited pallete works rather well. Next up is a British Commando. I will auction them all at once and quote the respective ebay link.

Charity Auction IX - Undead Blood Bowl team

2012-01-05T10:50:00.000-08:00

First up for auction to continue the charity paintathon in 2012 is this Undead Blood Bowl team sculpted by Gary Morley.

I painted this team about ten years ago and just came back to it to cover up some chips and put some highlights here and there. Playing this team in several seasons and one-off games over the years I guess I have close to 100 games with them under my belt before I switched to Dark Elves and Skaven. While I would go for different skin colors now, the rather ecclectic skin tones dealt with the 'Is that a Zombie or a Skeleton?-No,it´s a Wight'-issue!'.
And here is the auction link:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260929141716

Past and future addictions

2012-01-01T05:47:00.000-08:00

Get ready for another "2011-in-review" blog post as fits that time of the year.

Summing up 2011 wasn´t as much a disaster paintigwise as 2010 was but there still were a lot of missed opportunities and misguided projects. Let´s start with the positive things though.
Painting minis for charity may have been the most worthwhile thing that has ever come out of this pasttime for me. Apart from motivating me to finish stuff it of course served the purpose to turn neglected lead into money for a good cause. I don´t want to pat my own back here but thank all those who spread the word, placed bids and spent their hard earned cash to get more than 416 GBP together. Apart from several ebayers whose names sadly escape me now I want to mention Kev White from Hasslefree for doanating a good chunk of money for a single 28mm mini. I´m going to continue the charity marathon in 2012 with the DUST board game minis and a touched up BloodBowl team of mine.

Rolling Death

Furthermore in 2011 the airbrush has proven to be a valuable asset in mini painting. While I have owned an airbrush for a couple of years by now I finally tried to use it for more than just basecoating and started to put down basic color tranistions on larger areas. I hope to get more experience in using this tool in the coming year as both the time saved as well as the smooth blendings produced make up for the preparation and cleaning stages.

And now onto the less stellar aspects of 2010.
I painted just a single vintage Citadel mini. Given the fact that 90% of my collection is made up off 3rd ed fantasy minis this is quite embarrassing and leads me to the most glaring shortcomig:
Lack of focus. Once again I tried to get into historical gaming, spent money on ECW and Roman armies and quickly sold everything. When will I ever learn that painting 200+ minis is a thing of the past for me. Apart from that I started a lot of projects that were left behind after spending several hours assembling and converting the buggers (see my glorious CC diary for an example of failure and procrastination).

Unfinished buisness

This has led me to the conclusion to focus on one main project which will be a 3rd ed mounted Orc and Goblin army. I´m really looking forward to this as it leads me back to where the main interest of this hobby is for me. In addition I will try to get a selected few sngle miniatures painted with the aim to improve my painting skills and leave the comfort zone (a bit of sculpting and freehand mostly with a more streamlined color selection).

What´s left to say is that I hope to provide regular updates for those that follow my humble hobby efforts and look forwad to see more great stuff from the interwebs painting community.

CC Day ? So far, so little

2011-12-23T12:14:00.000-08:00

Well, my take on painting an Inquisitor retinue faild rather badly as real life struck. At least the retinue is assembled, corked up and treated with Milliput juice so that I have something to get my teeth into with the start of the next year. I ponder if I should add a Ogryn-sized guy with a heavy bolter for support or simply get going.

I wasn´t completly idle though and nailed the color recipe for the red tunics by painting up a mini for the FU:UK painting competition. The pic is a bit crappy as the reflections of the flesh and blade drained out the color transitions. I tried to stick to a very striking color selection and keep the simple things er.. simple. The result is a bit too comical for my taste but I'm glad to be done with this minsias it´s rather fiddly.
So long and happy holidays to all of you.

CC Day 10 - Master Scriptor

2011-12-11T03:26:00.001-08:00

Yes, I´m a blatant rip-off merchant as this mini is directly inpire.. I mean copied from John Blanche´s excellent wraith conversion. Apart from the obvious main body it is made from an Alkemy Avaloian head and the hands of a Helldorado mini. The chest piece is a plastic visor from a GW Empire captain.
With the gang complete I hope to get them primed today and start painting.
In the beginning I had plans for an Ogryn sized weapon servitor but in order to get at least one mini finished for the FU:UK painting competion this one will be a later addition.

CC Day 8 - Archo Flagelant

2011-12-09T11:42:00.001-08:00

With the last two characters requiring some green stuff work there wasn´t much to show yesterday. The fourth figure is a charging archo flagelant with some trusty kitchen equipment. The torso and hips are of Necron origin while the legs were taken from unlucky Kroot mercenaries. At first I just wanted to give him an array of power cables but then I found an old Eldar power fist in the bits box to supplement the running pose. One more to go and I can finally dust off the airbrush.

CC Day 6 - Ferro Priest

2011-12-07T15:07:00.001-08:00

CC Day 5 sadly had to be cancelled due to real life commitments but I mangaed to finish the mini that started it all. Some time ago I got most of the Alkemy Avalonian range really cheap and ended up with two countryside priests.

I really wanted to trun one of them into a 40k character by giving him my favourite plastic bit ever: the filed down Chaos Space Marine power fist. The remaining parts come from the Necron and Sisters of Battle ranges and need a bit of green stuff here and there to cover some gaps.

CC Day 4 - Robo Chicken

2011-12-05T13:57:00.001-08:00

I always thought of the small and quirky things that are pictured a plenty in 40k art as one of the integral elements that make up the 'charme' of imperial lackeys for me. Due to this I had to include some servo-skull thing.
This ones made out of an Epic Space Marine sentinel with a metal servo-skull and the obligatory shopping list attached. Not the best picture but I promise to upgrade my photo setup.

CC Day 3 - Reilc Bearer

2011-12-04T13:51:00.001-08:00

The first and most straight forward of the group is finished: a robed figure displaying the bones of some imperial saint. Well, someone has to carry all the unneccessary clutter around.
The basic figure is an 80s chaos sorceror with the relics taken from a 2nd edition imperial missionary. A Necron foot and some Eldar power cables and Bob´s yout uncle.

Christmas Countdown - Day 2

2011-12-03T11:45:00.001-08:00

With the bits agglomerate of bits dividing into smaller chunks that will make up the individual figures I want give a bit more insight into the project. While I don´t play 40K anymore I´m still intriuged by the fluff. Like many others I think that esspecially the characters that normally hide in the background are the most interesting aspect being both mysterious and effocative. In contrast to Space Marines where even their digestive system is explained in detail these characters hold enough possibility to come up with something of your own.
Thus I´m going for some imperial henchman with a slight inquisitoral vibe. I´m not too fond of the Inquisitors themselves as they in most cases end up looking like Sean Connery in power armour with an oversized sword added for good measure and want to do a goup consisting of
-a 'Master Scribe'
-a priestlike character
-an icon/ reliquiary bearer
-a bipedal servo skull
-a close combat serviotor thingie

But first the intended color scheme. Definetly nothing innovative but why change what´s been tried and tested.

Christmas Countdown - Day 1

2011-12-02T11:03:00.001-08:00

I know I´m a bit late to start a Christmas countdown but bear with me. Over the last year I had a very meager outcome of finished pieces and amassed a collection of ready assembled minis where I struggled to balance my overcomplicated color scheme. This coupled with the intention to take on a group of at least five minis that are done with the principles I put down in my last post is the starting point of this whole affair.
As a subject I´m going for a group of 40k henchman that will be connected by a conventional but bold combination of red and metal. Below you can see the starting point of the project: a collection of bits spanning 25 yeras of miniature history and failed personal projects (name all the parts to claim the title of supreme miniature nut).

More ramblings to follow tomorrow.

Irresistible force meeting...

2011-11-21T14:11:00.001-08:00

This weekend I stumbled upon two inspiring artcles by Steve Buddle (here) and Coopdevil (here) which relate to an issue I´m still to solve:
How to balance enjoyment and technical expertise in miniature painting.
The recent minis done by John Blanche show that in order to come up with a characterful mini you don´t have to commit yourself to 20 hour-blending-marathons but instead a spectacular result can be achieved by going for the right mood with tried and tested techniques.Similar to Coopdevil I originally picked up the brush to get minis to play with and field armies. Like him army painting soon became a mind dumbing excersize for me and I switched to painting single figures. With time I came to grips with more advanced techniques and while my results improved the time spent also increased. A lot. Finally painting minis on 'my showcase' level became a chore too as I sat there and spent hours upon hours on blending, feathering and other ways to flink minute amounts of pigment onto ickle toy soldiers.I still haven´t found the holy grail that balances all isuues but I will try to illustrate some thoughts on the following mini from Rackham´s prime time which I think exemplifies SB`s juvenile miniature painting phase- over detailed, hyper blended show pieces with extra blink.

early naughtyies Ape-Orc

Let´s name the time killers straight away.
-color selection
-details
-NMM
-effects

Even if one is able to replicate the technical skill I guess this mini would take at least 30+ hours to paint to a similar level so let´s think about alternatives that save time without sacrificing a pleasing finish:

-Airbrush
Simply buy one. Either to preshade the mini in balck and white and then tint the areas with glazes or use it to get nice color transitions on the most prominent areas. Do not underestimate the time you save on cloaks and other large areas using this tool. On the mini above I would do the skin with the airbrush and tweak it with some glazes and a few sharpish highlights
-Real metallic-Metals
First things first: RMM takes as much time and skill as NMM but a solid basecoat followed by a wash with Tamiya Clear and some highlights are much more convincing (and gritty) then a grey area with a single shade and highlight.
-Details
Details are what bring a mini to live. That said don´t waste time on unnessescarry clutter. On this one I would underplay the weapon handles and skulls and focus on the horns and runes.
-Color selection
Limit yourself to five colors at max with a few essentials added (bleached bone, black, dark brown, purple ink for me). It will save you time as you go along and make up differnt shades out of yout base colors and give the mini an 'artsy' mood instead of a rainbowlike apperance.
-PigmentsRust, dirt, battle damage, smoke etc. are things you can spend countless hours on if dome by hand and acrilics. Pigments can achieve the same in a much shorter time with a much more realistic outcome.

These are just a few basic ideas. Feel free to add your own.

Toad Bounty Warrior

2011-11-02T13:27:00.000-07:00

At long last another update.My LGS flocked their Alkemy stock so I picked up a few minis for small change. Part of my spending spree was a box of Auroc toad warriors which I tried to turn into steam punk characters. The first one is this Bounty Hunter which has parts form GW´s Kroot range and a silly hat added.After basecoating the mini with the airbrush and adding the basic transitions I reworked the skin and later blocked in all details with teh good old stuff. I tried to go for a blue-red/ orange paint scheme with various brown tones for the fiddly bits. Again what was supposed to be a qiuck paint job became a several week long excersize in procrastination...

Charity Action VIII- Blood Bowl Chaos Dwarfs

2011-08-11T12:05:00.000-07:00

Inspired by laughingferret and his excellent CD team I simply copied his idea (all probs to him) and set about removing all kinds of oversized weapons from Confrontation dwarfs. Out of a sudden Bob´s your uncle and we have a Chaos dwarf team for the best GW game ever.
The Stoneotaur or Minomental stands in for the Big Guy entry while the exo-steam-whatnot-suit Thermo warriors are Bull centaurs. The bog standard Thermo guys are CD blocker and the Gobbos are of the Hobo flavour.
Paintingwise I used every dirty trick in the book. Airbrushed basecoat, zenithal airbrush highlight followed by an Army Painter wash. Some fancy source lightning and Kev Adams Goblins for good measure.
The team is on ebay with all proceeds going to Charity
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260834274499&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Charity Auction VII - Nurgle Saucerer

2011-07-17T06:47:00.000-07:00

I picked this mini up on a whim as it was the only miniature from the recent Chaos range that takes my fancy. While the sulpt itself could use some polishing it made me experiment with the airbrush again to speed things up and is on ebay with all proceeds going to UNICEF UK
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Strom-Magic-CHAOS-SORCERER-Nurgle-painted-/260816862612?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3cb9e57d94

I recently stumbled about a Miniature Mentor tutorial dealing with Thomas David´s airbrush based speed painting technique and wanted to try it myself. Everyting that follows is thoroughly explained in said video and I will only give a brief summary.
After a black undercoat I gave the mini a zenithal coat with dark grey to get an idea where the shadows and highlights should go. Following that I applied dark green paint zenithally or at an up to 60 degree angle and proceeded by adding yellow to the mix and finally white. The brighter the colour the more I tried to concentrate on the areas where light would fall. In between I applied dark blue from below to take the edge out of the shadows and give it all a more vibrant look. The pic shows the result before a green galze was added for saturation and manually done i.e. painted on shadows and highlights.

Lorna the Huntress

2011-07-07T00:11:00.000-07:00

Lorna the Huntress from Reaper´s p-65 range is the latest mini that escaped the painting table. Originally planed as an interlude for a weekend she took me two weeks to complete.
The p-65 seems to stand for affordable and soft and I would refrain from going for this cheaper variant in the future and buy the conventional reaper ranges instead. I would consider this as a rather simplistic miniature as there is no unnecceassary clutter and meaningless deatil all over the place. Lacking such 'assets' impact has to be achieved through more elementary aspects of colour choice and placement.
First thing here was to chose two complimentary colours. Cyan blue and magenta hues in the armor and clothing and the skin respectivly are the dominant colours atht are supplementedby a neutral leathery brown that doesn´t take away from the main colours. In order to give the eye some structure to go along as well as balance the miniature I tried to integrate basic geaometric shapes as can be seen in the pic. The arm-sword line divides the mini and creates a more dramatic effect while the areas surroundung the face are kept dark to make it 'pop' more.

Zulu Army of Doom

2011-06-18T01:07:00.000-07:00

In a discussion about political correctness in wargaming a wise guy said:
'If you have to explain it you most probably crossed the line'
Given the paragraph below I crossed the line and then some.

Back in 2006 I was an eager fantasy tournament nut and on the outlook for a new brok... erm balanced army as a follow up to my chaos dwarfs. Lizardmen were all the rage back then as they offered something in every facet of the game. In short they made an average player look good. Problem was that I have never been sold on the Jurassic Park gone fantasy look. Dinosaurs had lost all appeal to me when transforming robots and manly socialised He-Man figures (Fisto- what were they thinking...) entered my childhood.
Browsing for alternatives I came about some old Citadel pygmies and the idea was there. A Zulu-Pygmie like tribe riding on ferious jungle animals. In hindsight there is so much wrong about the image but back then I set out and started painting pygmies, savage orcs and various animals. The pot bellied miniatures and pink colouring of the lips that doesn´t help to portray me a an tolerant individaul free from racil stereotypes. I´m sorry if I offend anyone with these pictures. Pretending to be unaware of the ehnical stereotyping these minis `play with`while painting several dozens of them and accentuating said prejudices even further would be straight out spineless but I never had any intentions to belittle racism or even portray it using toy soldiers. This army was meant to be a pisstake on GW´s spikes and skulls syndrome and all the evil dark brooding stuff of doom.
Yet it is perhaps my best painted army and received good comments in the past from those that regarded it as a collection of toys belonging to a perhaps strange yet politically seasoned guy.
So then...

Slaan, Saurus-trainers-hero and scroll caddy.

The rank-and-file.

The bent stuff.

And more of the same.

Fraser Gray tribute

2011-06-04T07:10:00.001-07:00

When it comes to miniature painting the old saying that `if I have seen farther than other men, it is because I have stood on the shoulders of giants` holds true to all contemporary painters. Without belttling their work or skill it was down to the painters of the 80s to apply the techniques used in 54mm painting to the then rather new 25mm fantasy miniatures that lay the foundation for todays pieces. While John Blanche, the most profilic giant of times past, is still influencing the world and imagery of GW´s core systems a lot of legends of old seem to not have stepped into the digital era. There are noteable exceptions like Steve Blunt (see the blog roll) but one of the painters whose work was so much ahead of his time seems to has vanished: Fraser Gray.

To get an impression of what we´re missing out today have a look at the clickable pics. Miniatures blended to perfection, sporting lucid color schems yet with a sense of realism and surreal shield and banner designs. Full froth on.

Concerning the mans techniques the small snippets in eavy metal state that he used alcohol based paints which partly explains the blendings. In addition he construcued his bases out of plasticene with bits stuck in and then coated this with epoxy glue with grit sprinkled on.

I cannot praise these highly enough. Whenever my motivation slips a glance at those pics makes me want to pick up the brush again. I hope that Mr. Gray is still fiddling with toy soldiers and turning them into pieces of art today. It would be even better if he could show them to us.

Charity Chick update- Thanks to Kev White

2011-05-14T02:58:00.000-07:00

Just a small update to say thanks to Kev White, freelance sculptor and owner of Hasslefree miniatures, who put in a bid of 55,01 GBP for the Race for Life chick. I´m really chuffed by the generosity shown and the most straightforwrd way to show appreciation is to drop by in the hasslefree web shop and spend some money there.

http://www.hasslefreeminiatures.co.uk/

Charity auction VI - Race for Life chick

2011-04-30T09:16:00.000-07:00

Back in 2009 frother Dags issued a miniature especially for a cancer research charity called Race for Life. The below mini was sculpted by Andrew Rae and is limited to 100 copies that weren´t available commerically. With a slight hiatus of two years I finally got around to painting it. Contrary to the other charity auctions this one isn´t done using ebay´s donation app but runs on the FuuK forum. If you´re interested in this Branjolinalike lass for your Zombie or generic modern games check here and place a bid by Saturday May 7th:
http://www.frothersunite.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=32773

Avalonian Recruit

2011-04-24T08:28:00.000-07:00

Real life reared it´s ugly head and coupled with the beautiful spring weather put an end to most things miniature related. As a result I´m looking at one meager figure that got painted and no sign of the second charity Blood Bowl team. I hope to amend this in the coming week.
Some months ago I stumbled upon the range of Avalonian figures from the Alkemy game. After the Retiarius which you can see in the last post I set about painting one of the grunts. This recruit was originlly intended as a quicky but lasted on the painting table for over two weeks. I went for a rather monochrome set of hues for the clothes which all feature some palish green with a strong contrasting face showing rather extreme red shadows. A nice if rather fiddly figure with a haughty appearance.

Alkemy Avalon Retiarius

2011-03-06T08:18:00.000-08:00

A charming gent with caressing touch from the sadly defunct range of Alkemy from Kraken miniatures. I `designed´ the color scheme with Kuler- a web based application that lets you select a pallete of five shades and tweak them.
While I like the mini, the severed heads and slightly oversized tentacle makes it a bit busy and rather time consuming to paint. In other words I´m still searching for a compromise between time and quality.

Nipples. You know you want to.

Charity Auction V -Blood Bowl Chaos team

2011-02-24T11:09:00.000-08:00

This is the first of three Blood Bowl teams that will get painted for the Charity paintathon. The miniatures are from the 3rd or 4th edition fantasy Chaos range. With the help of the airbrush and some army painter here and there to block in the flesh colors I needed about 30 minutes each. A fact that makes me feel optimistic about the completion of the other teams before the end of April.
Please click the auction link for more pics.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Blood-Bowl-old-school-CHAOS-TEAM-painted-/260742935230?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3cb57d72be

On a non miniatures related note today sees the releases of two the best 2d shoot ´em-ups of the last years. With main programmer Yagawa behind the wheel these get sadistically brutal and will keep me busy over the coming weeks (once I get them that is...). Everyone who likes games to be challenging, fast paced and intense instead of interactice B-movies should consider importing them.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Ckkng-FKEs

Charity auction IV -Plaguebeasts

2011-02-18T04:19:00.001-08:00

Back in 2005 when I was still playing WHFB tournaments the demonic legion list from Storm of Chaos was the perfect conglomeration of balancing issues for people that were looking for a bent, low model count army. After getting wiped off the board with a nice Chaos Dwarf list (no Taurus, just one Earthshaker, one unit of Hobbos) I went pure filth and came up with a Nurgle-Tzeentch list that thankfully never saw action (mostly because I went for a similar cheesy Lizardmen list). These Plaquebeats were one of the few finished units. Back then I was still using a black undercoat before applying the base colors and drowning them in an esoteric brown wash before highighting.
As you might have guessed from the title these are up for sale with all proceeds going to Unicef UK.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Daemons-Chaos-3-PLAGUEBEASTS-NURGLE-painted-/260739243013?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3cb5451c05

Charity auction III Pistol Wraith

2011-02-11T05:57:00.000-08:00

I painted this mini in 2004 shortly before I dropped out of Warmachine. I really liked the first releases but had no ambition to paint the more overladen later miniatures. Back then I simply laid layers of increasingly lighter paint on top of each other and didn´t bother with light sources ad other more technical stuff. The source lightning around the eye as well as the weathering on the robe were recently done. Please excuse the quality of the pics but my camera couldn´t cope with all the black it seems (again might be me).
This is one is also listed on ebay with all proceeds going to Unicef UK.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Warmachine-Cryx-PISTOL-WRAITH-painted-/260735514046?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3cb50c35be

On another note this blog just reached 50 followers. Thanks to all of you for keeping an eye on my undertakings and adding a comment here and there. Your interest is highly appreciated and I hope to make this blog a bit more interesting by upating more frequently and add a bit more content instead of just using this place as a personal gallery. First step I´ver taken is to set up a gallery of my more recent works. It´s not complete and I will add to it regularily.
http://spikehead.weebly.com/

Finally a pic of things to come: VSF Judge Dredd

Charity auction II Skaven Warlock Engineer

2011-02-04T14:39:00.000-08:00

Another attempt to speed things up. Again all base colours were done with the airbrush including the cream to brown transition on the robe, which I only had to rework a bit. As the metallic parts and clothes needed more shading and highlighting than the Warlord´s equivalents this one took me one or two hours longer.
While the IoB minis are the best plastics I´ve seen they still lack the crispness and detail of metal castings. This becomes evident on the pistol and some undercuts. With the characters done I will turn my attention to the Rat Ogres which will in part end up as Russian Super-Mutants.
This one is also for sale with all proceeds going to Unicef UK. Please get bidding or spread the word.
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Skaven-Island-Blood-WARLOCK-ENGINEER-painted-/260732110764?pt=UK_Toys_Wargames_RL&hash=item3cb4d847ac

Charity auction - Skaven Warlord

2011-01-27T09:25:00.000-08:00

Right after getting back into miniature paintig I realised why I got out of it in 2009: days if not even weeks spend on a single figure.
Thus I decided to see how things could be speeded up without losing too much quality. All basecoats and basic gradients were done with the airbrush. Fur and metals recieved a wash with army painter. Rust was done with pigments. In the end it took me close to four hours to finish this guy. Given all the gubbins as well as taking into account the oxidation and light sourcing around the eye I guess it´s OKish.

Moreover the important aspect is that this is the first piece I inend to sell for charity. There are further minis also to be sold when painted up with all proceeds going to chartity including Blood Bowl teams, a Mordheim Gang and some limited Fuuk minis. My goal is to raise 500 GBP until I´m entering the last resort of actually existing socialism in August.
If you know someone who might be interesed in this Island of Blood Skaven Warlord of uber doom please spread the word. Highly appreciated.
Auction link:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=260728486738

Colonel Marbles

2011-01-19T23:32:00.000-08:00

I´m a bit on a roll when it comes to painting miniatures recently but knowing myself this will all end in stagnation rather sooner than later. Colonel Marbles is the informal mascot of FUUK: Britains leading web presence for sublime discussion of philosophcal subjects regarding lead, knobrot and goats. Sculpted by Kevin White it was a joy to paint despite it´s true 28 mm size. Again there is nothing really fancy as I cncentrated on the technical aspects, which also explains the plain base.
Meanwhile I startred on the first mini to flock for charity and hope to have the critter finished by the beginning of next week.

Orc Champion

2011-01-16T16:34:00.000-08:00

Long time no see. And to my shame an even longer period of time passed without any newer stuff. In a recent buzz of activity I returned to the painting desk and tried to rediscover my abilties with the hairy stick. In fact it´s the first mini I painted to "my-very-personal-display-standard" after a hiatus of about 18 months where I just painted stuff for the tabletop. Thus I neglected the more fancier stuff and tried to concentrate on the technical aspects of pigment flinging.
When it comes to greenskins no one does them like Kev Adams. In my book his 3rd ed O&G range surpasses the newer stuff easily when it comes to character and individualisation. That said this one is from the 4th ed rock lobber but bears the mark of the goblinmaster.

Despite the fact that I´m writing this by the middle of January there is still the annual recollection/ resolution thing to be done.
In short I failed miserably and blame life, arcade shoot em ups and the machine of soon to be impotence known as bicycle.
When it comes to resolutions there is really just one. I want to raise at least 250 GBP for charity this year by flogging painted stuff. While this might appear as a steep target I have several Blood Bowl teams, single minis and a painted army to unload. This is also the point where you, the fine gentlemen that read and subscribe to this blog come in. I will post stuff that is going to be sold for charity and would appreciate if you would pimp it if you cojsider it appropriate. Thanks in advance.

Chaos Dwarf army

2010-10-15T11:41:00.000-07:00

As there isn´t anything new to show I´m going to present you stuff from the cabinet that hasn´t been touched in ages (2007 to be precise).
When it hit me that the stuff GW releadsed back in the 80s was so much more characterful than their newer stuff I got rid of the majority of minis to fund my holy grail of Citadel goodness (and spent weeks on ebay in the process): 80s Chaos Dwarfs
I painted these within a month for a game. A mixed blessing as they are painted but things could be done better (faces and red highlights). I always wanted to do shields and pimp the bases. As you can see I have done nothing.

18 warriors with a converted standard

The characters. Note the Dwarf Lord of Legend gone traitor.

Big guns, small guns, lethal guns, deadly guns...you get the picture. All members of the NRA, they are evil bastards after all.

Bull Centaurs. And yes cut up Marauder CDs

Dwarf grunts

2010-07-28T08:21:00.000-07:00

The walls of reality are about to collapse, burying me and my lead pile as I actually managed to paint 26 miniatures this month. I could try to extrapolate this but the world´s lead resources wouldn´t suffice I guess. That said they are basic paint jobs which took about 40 minutes each. Still they help me to get back into the swing of things and make me contemplate picking up display miniatures again. Next I will try to paint the artillery section comprising three warmachines and crew.
I you want more dwarfs or scantly clad women and help a good cause then have a look over here and here. Thanks

Dwarf Shooters

2010-07-15T02:24:00.000-07:00

With just five miniatures painted up to now this year has been a real failure paintingwise. Besides a general lack of time I really couldn´t motivate myself to continue with spending 15+ hours on single models. A recent chat with a mate will hopefully end the miniature drought as both of us are going to assault the lead pile and hope to return victorious with painted fantasy forces to actually have a game with. While there is no real organisation behind it all (no rule system, no set army size, no time limit etc.) this may all go down the drain rather sooner than later but as long as there is enthusiasm left I hope for regular updates.

In order to get an army of reasonable size painted I try to get down to 30 minutes per mini at max. Thus I chose colours with good coverage, that take my standard washes (Vallejo glazes) well and need only few highlights (two at most). Although these minis took a bit longer, now that the colours are set I hope to crank the more heavily armoured guys out more quickly. While not up to the usual standard I would like to show here, I hope to get back into the swing of things with this project. Oh no, I just said the evil word. Immense failure is about to follow.

Dwarf Bombard

2010-05-19T13:53:00.000-07:00

These are the first miniatures I started and actually completed in 2010. A rather dire output but I´m positive about future additions to the display cabinet. I wanted to start with some basic stuff to get back into the swing. These minis are part of a display set that originally contained five crewmen and a vac-formed gun emplacement as the merry men of frothers told me. As nice and characterful as these sculpts are they feature wobbly details a plenty with not one single sharp edge in sight. Still they blow most of the modern stuff out of the water in my retrotyped eyes. Sadly I forgot to put mushrooms on the base for that special old-school touch.

Signs of Life

2010-03-25T07:24:00.000-07:00

After some real life issues and a newly sparked interest in 2-D console shoot'em ups from the 80s and 90s I actually picked up a brush to finish the first and last of my Russian Civil War minis. Having meanwhile sold the remaining lot I failed miserably with this project. Whils I like the period and the Copplestone minis I just can´t stand the idea of painting dozens of grunts in muted colours. For the future I will go back to Citadel retro lead and a few chosen single minis destined to be display pieces. At first I will start the anti-lead -rot campaign though and hope to get five minis a week to a condition where they can stay unpainted for the coming decades without crumbling to dust. Hardly interesting, but a necessary task.

The future is red.

2009-12-31T08:10:00.000-08:00

Let`s start with the positive aspects of 2009 concerning the hobby front. I dabbled with military modelling and got the hang of some stuff like pigments and tuperntine washes as well as trying some new techniques on a smattering of selected single miniatures. In addition I actually managed to finish a project (Alien Hulk) and painted one unit of Citadel/ Marauder dwarfs. Success !! Sadly my plans to level the lead mountain failed. While I streamlined the collection (remaining Epic stuff gone) I bought a heap of old Citadel greenskins and couldn`t help but acquire some soon to be oop Rackham minis.
So what´s on the horizon for 2010 ? Certrainly no Warhammer and certainly no commission work due to real life commitments. I hope to get going on the Brest-Litowsk project and add a unit to my communist forces a month with a few armoured vehicles inbetween. An army of considerable size will take me at least the first half of the year and will hopefully leave me with some time to paint the odd single mini. Everything else (dwarf landship, oop dwarf units, greenskins) will be seen as a bonus. The biggest change is that I will try to abide to a strict hobby budget. Most probably such sane aims will be laid to rest as soon as something new and shiny comes into view.

Happy New Year and thanks to the 17 followers of these ramblings.

SoBaH Frotherheim Dwarfs

2009-12-26T13:17:00.000-08:00

Frothers Unite will run a participation game at Salute 2010 called Frotherheim. Think Mordheim with the Songs of Blades and Heroes rules. This dwarf gang is my contribution to the event and will be auctioned off for charity soon. The minis are from Black Hat`s Uncharted Seas range and were rather straight forward to paint. Nothing fancy as these are destined for tabletop use and greasy fingers.

On another note I started a new peoject. Brest Litowsk. Bolsheviks, armoured cars and Germans to follow alongside megalomanic plans.

weathered metal tutorial

2009-12-09T12:43:00.001-08:00

Perhaps this tutorial might come in handy.

Please excuse my meager presentation-Fu.

Weathered Metals

My aim on this mini was to combine the "grimey" aspects of metallic colors with the zenithal (positional) highligths found on NMM parts in order to get a weathered while "stylised" result.

At first place your bare metal mini under a strong light source and take a pic. This will help you later on as to where place reflections and shadows.

There are two principles to keep in mind:

-Thin your paints down so that they are nearly transparent. A wet palette is a must here. Baking paper, make-up pads and a plastic lid is all you need (Buying make-up pads gives you funny looks so grasp the opportunity to stock up on lip stick too.)

-It is far easier to darken a color than to ligthen it up.

Silver areas

-Basecoat chainmail.
-Thin down some brownish orange and apply it in strokes towards the point where the deepest shadows are. The first strokes will be merely visible but the more strokes you apply the richer the graduation will get. Due to the combination of high dillution and minimum paint on the brush individual strokes will dry within seconds.
It´s basically "feathering". ( http://www.coolminiornot.com/article/aid/273 )
-Add some redish brown and continue like above but minimize the space you are working on. The darker the paint the less area there is to apply it to.
-Continue this way until you reach a deep brown color.
-Thin down your base color and feather it where the shading process began
-Add some white to the chainmail and place light spots and highlight appropriate edges. Be careful here, More is less

Everything in one amateurish pic:

The arrows indicate the length of individual strokes.

Gold parts:
VMC Old Gold+ VMC Orage Brown base
Shade with Tamiya Clear+ VAir Burned Umber
Dark Shade with VMC Black Brown
Highlight with bsecolor+ White

Bronze parts:
Brazen Brass + mid Brown color
Shade with Tamiya Smoke
Highlight with basecolor and buff

Veridigis:
Mix up some Tamiya Smoke and VGC Vile Green and add this to the area in question. Add some Vile green and continue. These stages are just there to smooth everything a little bit
Use pure Vile Green around the rivets. Again less is more.

Some more examples:

vehicle weathering tutorial

2009-12-02T04:23:00.000-08:00

Everything that gets talked about here are essentially old and tested methods used for military modeling but might come in handy for miniature related things too (chipped power armour, rusted weapons, battleworn shields, speed painting micro armour etc.) What really amazed me when I discovered pigments, turpentine and graphite was that really effective results could be achieved with very little effort and a fragment of the time the usual highlighting/glazing routine takes.

The Ford T is a Matchbox die-cast from their 1:56 yesteryear series that I bought second hand for a fiver. The details aren`t that great but it should suffice for the wargames table.

Stage 1 Preparation
I used masking tape to cover the front shield and used superglue to fix the wheels and front axis. A soapy wash to get rid of all the grease and dust later and it was priming time.
Here I used an old GW dark green can I had lying ariund to get a solid base coat to work from. Any dark colour should do.

[img]http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o64/pulperspikehead/179-2.jpg[/img]

Stage 2
The colours applied here were quickly done with an airbrush and will only show as chips and rusts afterwards. I used VA Rust for the metal parts and VA Dark Earth for the wooden (I think) cabin. A light colour was used for the leather top as a quick basecoat for later.

Stage 3 Chipping
This was done in two stages. At first I used Humbrol masking fluid which I applied with a bit of blister sponge. For smaller chips and micro damage I covered the lower parts with a coat of hairspray and sprinkled cooking salt on top of it before it dried up.
Then I applied a unified coat of the basic colour with the air brush and left it to dry overnight.

In order to reveal the chipping take a brush and try to remove as many salt crystals as possible. For the removal of the masking fluid soft rubbers or paint shaper jump to mind but the tool I found to be really up to the task is the multifunctional index finger used in a circular motion.

Stage 5 Oil Wash
Now it's time to add shadows and tint the basic colour. Mix a small spot of burnt umber oil paint with turpentine and cover the whole model with it. Due to the minimal surface tension the mix will run and sit in the recesses without any hazzle. Wait for an hour or two and take your trusty blister sponge again and polish the whole mini. Due to the slow drying time of the oil-turpentine mix blotchy patches and pools can be removed easily. Take care to not wipe the mix for the recesses tough. For a more interesting finish add soem green or black to the mix and aim for specific areas. Watermarks can be done by dotting unthinned oil paint onto the larger surfaces and wiped downwards with a brush that holds turpentine only.
Scratches were done with a soft pencil and underlined with white paint. Tamiya Smoke was used on some parts to give an oily finish. The transfer came from a tank kit. Some Tamiya Topcoat sealed the oil-turpentine mix.

Stage 6 Dusting
Orange pigments with turpentine were used to give the impression of really heavy rust. Beige pigments were used on the chasis and the leather top. Another application of topcoat sealed the pigments. All that was left to do was to paint the front lights and sponge on some acrylic paint on the leather top to tie it in. Done

Bozo the Clown

2009-10-01T15:27:00.000-07:00

The undead version at least. Finished some weeks ago after it was pushed around on my painting area since July.
All time hobby-low at the moment. After 15 years it`s time to leave for pastures new I guess...

Back on the pitch

2009-09-11T12:29:00.000-07:00

No, this blog isn´t dead yet. Last month saw a lot of changes on the hobby front that will most hopefully result in more frequent updates that are more than a halfhearted attempt to post my most frequent work.
So what's changed ? Warhammer is done and dusted. I haven't jumped on the most recent band waggon and thus do not own Space Hulk Version 3. And I'm playing Blood Bowl again. Yes, glorious times ahead. After a two year long sabbatical that followed after the demise of our former league I actually found a couple of guys for playing the most bestest miniature game to ever grace the face of this petty planet. I could brag on how much I enjoy Blood Bowl but it would bore you to death. Instead take a look at my freshly painted Skaven team "Vermin Vendetta". With four games in I already have a MA 10 gutter runner and a ST 4 thrower. Beams of sunlight illuminate the sky from out of my posterior.
What else ? More Blood Bowl of course. I´m contemplating to paint up a truly chaotic Chaos team and upgrade my old and dusty Undead to a Necronmantic team. In between paint will get thrown at selected miniatures solely destined for the cabinett.

Green Phase

2009-07-26T07:35:00.000-07:00

Once every year I'm fed up with painting one mini a month to the best of my abilities and feel the urge to churn out some tabletop miniatures (not that they are going to be used in a game...). Last year I speedpainted a Warmachine army and sold it shorty afterwards when I realised what a load of gamey shit it was. This year I took all the left over Orc and Goblin stuff that won't be used for the proper painted army (to be finished in 2034) and went into painting overdrive.
It's always interesting to see if I can adapt some of the things I use for single minis for rank and file chav. Here I managed to use the airbrush for more elaborate fur effects and get some softer transitions on the flesh.

regressive spikes'n skulls syndrome

2009-07-18T03:24:00.000-07:00

I got to grips with the incest taboo, I no longer want to kill daddy and I realised that penis envy explains every kind of behaviour. What I still havn't left behind is a certain obsession with chaosy overdone GW tad. I realy like, no love the old Jes Goodwin Chaos Champs and most of the other 3rd ed stuff but despise the newer stuff for being bland and boring.
I had the parts for this one lying around for over a year and wanted to get it done. Some things learnt but not the most pleasant painting affair.

As it's already July I guess it's time to look at those new year resolutions again.

1. Sreamlining the collection
Well I sold a few minis (about 100).

2.Not to buy more than I paint.
Epic fail. Old skool orc army on ebay and Ludik Bazar selling the remaining Rackahm stock raised the lead mountain.

3. Stop commision painting
yep, apart from one small job which was too lucrative too miss.

4. More time for projects
Success. Sold the Nam stuff, finished the Alien Hulk minis, painted one regiment of dwarves.

5. One display mini a month
Success too. Left the comfort zone on some minis and missed out on larger stuff but one new bugger to add to the cabinett each month until now.

6. Warhammer hiatus.
Well, I have had two games. They forced me to it though. Really. But a speed painted Orc army to catch up on the painting front might see me playing old crappy Geekhammer again. Watch this space for Zappo Grannyflayer Undapants on his land Wyvern.

First Bloork

2009-07-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

Alomst three months after buying a heap of greenskins on ebay on the cheap (and stedily adding reinforcement) I managed to actually paint one of the buggers. The basic idea is to combine muted armour and clothing with garish green skin. I still have to see if purple lips and reddish noses add to the overall appearance or not. This one is intented as a crew of a riding beast I´m convewrting about to convert out of a Schleich Hippo. Given the 'lightning fast progess' I apply to miniature painting at the moment it will be finished by 2012. I hope.

Renato Ramirez

2009-07-05T04:13:00.000-07:00

This character comes from the growing range of Golgo Island figures distributed by East Riding Miniatures. In case you havn't heard about them before make sure to check them out. It features a collection of weird, esoteric villians and scum bags competing for bananas. Lots of senseless fun to be had in a game settimg that doesn't take itself too serious and conveys the charme GW lost when they started producing toys instead of manly lead figures. With the monthly ranting done I can proudly proclaim that I have started on several new projects and bought loads of soon to be oop Rackham stuff but lack the time to finish anything for at least a month. Yeah me.

Avian Wonders part II

2009-06-14T15:15:00.000-07:00

Some time last year I bought a 20mm WWI plane in order to turn it into an alternative gyrocopter for my dwarfs. As with most projects I start I forgot abou it, lost some parts and then almost ditched it.
Some weeks ago I decided to finish my WiP projects and got going on this one again. The plane gave me an excuse to apply some tried and tested modelling techniques and rummage through my transfers. I intended to go all Red Baron but dished the triplane idea as well as crosses on the tail fin.
In the not so forseeable future I will add a scenic base which will feature a gobbo with binoculars about to get bombed out of his entrenchment. I hope to get a less overexposed pic of it too.

Cadwallon Militia

2009-06-05T15:03:00.000-07:00

I bought the Cadwallon Militia box when my LGS flogged all it's Rackham stuff. Really nice sculpts from the best range they produced before going PPP. As I painted the first one from the set in rather neutral colours I wanted a different look for this one. The tunic turned out a tad to yellowish perhaps but I'm happy with the way the metals turned out. Bugger to take pics of due to the sword.

Puffed Sleeve Alliance

2009-05-31T01:12:00.000-07:00

As the attempt to update the blog with new stuff every week failed this time I have to do with showing some old projects. The vertically challenged lot you can see here are part of a non-human empire army that comprises Halflings, Dwarves and Ogres. I intend to mainly use old Marauder minis that came in a kind of frilly Landsknechts dress. At the moment it looks more like a bog standard dwarf army but there are Halfling knights on ponies and a fieldkitchen steamtank in the pipeline. If this won't scare my undead-daemons-of-eternal-doom playing opponents than I guess the colour scheme will take it's toll upon unsuspecting adversaries.

Low altitude with high attitude

2009-05-22T07:06:00.000-07:00

I decided to finish some projects I started but never finished instead of venturing to pastures new. These eight guys and an upcoimg WWI dwarf airplane were the last things I fiddled with before I went on some self flagellation trip and started putting 20+ hours into single minis. As you might notice by the hole those burn through your retina I'm still trying to find the perfect dwarf colour scheme. Next batch will be cream, bourbon red with lime green so get your radiation protective gear ready.
As those who actually follow this blog form the beginning might know I'm a huge fan of Citadels imperial and Marauder Landsknecht dwarfs and have quite a few more to paint. A huge dwarf army I painted on commision as well as the already mentioned single figs left the stunties neglected but I hope to squeeze in a couple of them here and there...this could have been less ambiguous but you what I'm saying.

Space Oddity

2009-05-16T01:54:00.000-07:00

Another bad Bowie reference. At least I refrained form writing Major Tom on the base rim.
The mini comes from the range of late 80s limited edition minis featuring such classics asthe chaos toilet.
It was intended as a short distraction but cluttered up my painting area for two weeks. The tattered white space suit was rather frustratimg as was the lack of definition in the bones. I tried to limit myself to only apply weathering to the aircanisters as rust and dirt splashes could have distrated from the realistic subject..

Achtung, Schweinehund !

2009-05-09T03:33:00.001-07:00

Some months ago I stumbled upon a recension of Harry Pearson's book on another blog and felt intrigued to buy it. Summing up it`s an amusing read that combines the biography of a wargamer, snippets about the history of wargaming miniatures as well as entertaining yet thought-provoking anecdotes about our pastime.
Although I´m born about 20 years later than the author in a country whose commemoration and perception of WW II differs, it made me realize that all those bendy plastic Wehrmacht figures my granddad bought me on the fleamarket may have well planted the seed for mountains of lead to build up once adolescence came around. Without the danger of glorification Pearson succeedes in conveying the ways a child gets enthused about the broken reception of one of mankinds greatest cartstrophes and keeps a fascination with warfare throughout the ages that is perserved in adulthood within the at first glance unreasonable and childish medium of tabletop wargmaing and figure collecting. But Pearson doesn´t belittle the fact that our hobby has an entangling nature to it and can grow from harmless escapism to a self imposed isolation.
That said the book wil have you chuckle and nod in agreement continiously. There area lots of gems every one who is into wargaming will recognise and approve of instantly. Thus the author gives a convincing summary of the weird and eccentric habbits of a wargamer without simlpy labbleing him as a socio-phobic geek. Especially historical wargammers will find the information given about the UK's first miniature manufacturers and the exploits of a certain H.G. Wells as well as the introduction of wargaming into the higher ranks of the prussian military interesting.
In short you won't rergret picking it up.

Flattened bank account

2009-05-01T01:27:00.000-07:00

Due to real life I havn´t touched a brush in over two weeks. As I´m rather fed up with spending 20+ hours on fantsy figs at the moment this generously offered flat figure came as a welcome change.
All I know is that this is a french dragoon and that I will most definetly have chosen the wrong color for the button on his underpants. No clue about scale (it's about 28mm high), manufacturer or anything else. Although it was done in one sitting it required a lot more work than expected. Everthing has to be framed with blacklining and in order to deter from the two-dimensional nature of the sculpt (which I only partly succeeded in) highligths have to be a lot more exaggerated.

On another note the lack of time didn´t prevent me from winning this orc army on ebay I kept telling myself I don´t really need. That said unpacking a vintage metal Orc army from the 80s is a very satisfying past time activity. Not so funnily I made exactly the same mistake explained here. Will I ever learn ? Probably not, but it was so cheap...

Life on Mars

2009-04-16T13:03:00.000-07:00

This is the first 4ok mini I painted for myself over the course of the last five years and was a nice change to the fantasy figures I normally paint. Sadly this Adeptus Mechanicus is my only Rogue Trader era mini as I really enjoyed the retro sci-fo look Mr. Olley put into it.
Paintingwise I tried to emulate the multi-coloured effect on the metal parts I saw in an old Rogue Trader illustration, had a go at some subliminal source lightning effects and once again searched for the "red to end all reds".

Proper Troll

2009-04-12T03:48:00.000-07:00

In the late eigthies GW released four board games around the comic character Gobledigook which were designed to get younger gamers into the miniature hobby and featured such metaphysical titles as "Oi, dat's my leg". Staying true to form they were all rather crackbrained and as a parent I would fear for the mental health of my offspring. Trolls played a central part in all of them of them and this one up here comes form Citadels 3rd ed range of trolls and fits the image from the games very nicely.
I tried to get natuaral yet still saturated colours and work on volume. For this I used lighter, off-yellow shades on the top parts and blueish shades on the lower parts. I´m not so content about the facial hair but wanted to stay away from too garish colours.

Somethings foul in the state of GW

2009-04-07T14:26:00.000-07:00

With the first sunny days of the year and the start of uni courses hijacking my painting sessions my newest minis are still lacking their scenic bases but there is still sufficient time for some general ranting ... on second thoughts that should be read as reasonable perceptions on the state of GW.

Ridiculous army lists with an unhealthy dose of power creep, the seperation of fantasy chaos and its descent into the pits of boredom, the end of the archive mail order range combined with the slow but inevitable death of Specialist Games and now WAB puts the final nail in the coffin that holds my loyality to the company. As a lot of older gamers will testify GW has long lost the creativity and charismatic "mentalesness" of the 80s and turned into a manufacturer of streamlined toys, yet their high street presence made them a spawning pool for many a gamer that ventured to pasturers new and in the end supported more esoteric and fan based rules systems as well as various boutique manufacturers like Hasslefree and co who took on GW´s heritage.
With the most recent developments my sympathy for GW has finally ended but I also understand that the following adaption of the quote from Mark Twain holds true for their rule systems- Tabletop games are like vagabonds. If you are nice to them they will return in company. I have been very nice to GW's games systems and nutured them well with regular amounts of leaden reinforcments, infusions of acrillic paint and recreational time on the gaming table. To make it short I will continue to play Warhammer and it's sci-fi afterbirth from time to time but I won´t spend money on GW product. Huh.

Just a few examples how it can be done.
Need imperial guard ? Get 80 for couple of bucks:
here
Need transports ? get the original the Rhino was copied from for half the price:
here
Ridden monsters, chariots anyone. Your toy store is worth a trip:
here

The list can be added to but these are just the first that sprung to mind.

Fallout Boy

2009-03-22T10:07:00.000-07:00

I got my greedy hands on some sprues of those Westwind WWW II heads with gas masks and wanted to incorpoarte them in some Pink Floydish thingie.
I forced myself to try some new techniques on this one. At first I normally wouldn't add weathering to a surface I spend half a lifetime blending to almost pure white. Trying to shield the paint job with maskimg tape from air propelled paint to get a nice star shaped symbol also turned out to be a nerve wrecking excersize. The flesh is a bit rough in places which actually turned out rather well for this mini imho.

It´s a collectors thing you wouldn´t understand

2009-03-13T08:33:00.000-07:00

I painted this reliquary bearer a few weeks ago for an online competition that went under the heading "Changs your style".
I tried to go for a more Blanche-like look with lots of reds and some freehand moitifs. Didn´t help that the mini dropped from the desk when it was halfway done.

On another note I will try to actually use this blog for blogging and not just an online gallery with brainfarts of my own.
After the Alien Hulk project I will complete the second 1/1200 Ironclad VSF fleet and post some insights about the rules and such. Then I´m contemnplating to turn a lot of scrap minis into a speedpainted-cheapskate-IdontpayyourstupidpricesGW-project. Time will tell, stuff will get painted in the end.

Back to the Hulk

2009-03-07T06:16:00.000-08:00

I finally managed to paint the second squad of Marines up. Mostly because I actually played a game with the first bunch. This rare occurence triggere an almost unknown maotivation to actually finish what I started. Only 14 aliens to go now...

En Vogue

2009-02-18T13:51:00.000-08:00

Fresh from the forges comes the newest set of chaos armour. Impress your mates on your road to damnation with this springs hippest codpieces. Leaves enough room for some tactical musings too.

Piggy Recon Vehicle

2009-01-22T02:17:00.000-08:00

The I-Pork Mk. II was developed by meatshield industries inc. to serve as a scout vehicle in the porcupine army. It was first put into service at the bacon campaign during the great sausage wars where it infiltrated the opposing army of mech-cows commanded by the dreaded general udder.
Do your duty, get fat.

Master of immense smackdown

2009-01-20T01:46:00.000-08:00

No nice stories or scientific papers this time. It just hurt.
At first it´s beyond me why I chose this bland nurgle guy over the old 3rd ed champs I have lying around.
Then I forgot to remove some nasty flash from the primed figure. Good start. Following this I played around with the armor and came up with a shade comprising seven Colors without writing down a single one of them. Next gripe was when I had to rip the head from the half painted figure to to be able to paint it. Smoothing down the shoulder pads meant that after the base color was on I was looking at a surface so blank it wouldn´t take paint without leaving drying marks.
Well, I like the face and at least it's a bit different from the rest.

Colonial Marines

2009-01-12T02:55:00.000-08:00

Aren't 80s action movies great. Storylines a five year old can grasp, wackymonsters and ideas for endless pulp-wargaming projects. Aliens comes as no exception here, thus ever since I saw Tom Weiss' project to pimp his old Space Hulk game I wanted to just copy...erm draw inspiration from it.
This is the first squad of Terminator subsitutes. Lovely Grenadier sculpts distributed by EM4 nowadays. No fancy blending, washing or wanking on these, just basic Foundry style.

Resolutions for 2009

2009-01-01T09:51:00.000-08:00

Resolutions for my favourite geek activity. I hope to look them up in a year and to have succeeded at a few at least.

I will try to

-further streamline my collection. There´s still a lot of stuff that will never get finished and has to be sold off.

-not buy more miniatures than I paint. This year I bought less than I painted and sold which good but still not good enough to level the lead mountain

-stop accepting commisions as it takes away too much time and motivation.

-expand my WHFB hiatus over the whole of 2009

-try to paint one mini a month to my best level. This ratio should guarantee enough time for ummingn and ahing over the paint job.

-dedicate a bit of time to my 20 mm Nam armies, Alien-Space Hulk adaption and a regiment of dwarves or Halflings.

Shuffling along

2008-12-31T06:18:00.000-08:00

It doesn´t come as a surprise to me that the last mini I painted in 2008 is a Weird War II Grman Zombie with a moustache given the changes over the last 18 months. Basically I turned away from painting fanatsy armies and tried to improe my skills on single miniatures while adopting new techniqes. All in all I still painted about 350 minis, whereas more than 300 were commision pieces on tabletop level. Forecasts are a difficult task as Mark Twain taughtus but I will try to paint up one display miniature each month as well as adding to my NAM forces and my Hafling-Dwarf-Ogre army. That said I will mess up for sure and more probably start a few new projects, abandon half painted minis and procastrinate around this siege giant some more.
Happy New Year.

Veteran Sniper Olga Devotchka

2008-12-26T04:26:00.000-08:00

I really wanted to paint a miniature that fits the festive season. Something that succeeds in conveying the tranquility and peace of the time.
I finally picked a russian lass with armored boobs and a huge rifle. At laesr it comes in winter camo.
Merry Christmas.

Academic musings

2008-12-11T03:36:00.000-08:00

As it is not only my aim to show you painted miniatures but also provide you with academic content todays entry sees my remarks about he phallic horse (http://i117.photobucket.com/albums/o64/pulperspikehead/3729.jpg) Considered as the evil genetic twin of the common pony it instills horror in little girls (guess why) and belongs to the biological family of "abused, domesticated animals once important to human cicvilsation but since the asset of public transportation only good for eating". It lives on the icey planes near the equator and feeds on buttercups. Additionally it is very hostile and attacks every intruder to its realm from the rear, causing lifelong sexual traumatisation. These vile creatures are caught and slain by emancipated women to end their futile dreams of omnipotnece. Then attractive gents like the one in the pic use their gracile work equipment to remove a tiny gland from the horses' left nostril whose secretion is fermentated, lubricated, distillated, thrown away as someone messed up a step and then poured into moulds for handles used on ceremonial bog brushes. Although looking like bog-standard bog brushes these artifacts are used in the festive season to be rubbed into the faces of family members to shy them away after receiveing their presents.

I wil add this article to Wikipedia once I received my doctor title.

No one expects the Spanish Inquisition

2008-11-23T14:16:00.000-08:00

Catholicism as it used to be. A trusty hammer to maim some infidels, some snazzy reliquiary and a fancy robe to impress the sisters from the order of the holy rectumage.

The wonders of high gravitation

2008-11-23T12:17:00.000-08:00

I really have a soft spot for Citadel's Hobbit rip off going by the genuine name of "Halflings". Due to this it isn´t a surprise that the latest offerings from Bob Olley may get me back into sci-fi gaming after suffering from Space Marine fatigue.
I just need to find some nice tanks and field guns.

Igor the evil henchman

2008-10-19T02:28:00.000-07:00

Everyday life can be such a chore. Luring children out of the safety of the village, scraping curious intruders from the keep's pitfalls, milking the bats and kidnapping juicy virgins for your master to have bite has all lost it´s appeal. It all became apparent to Igor as he stumbled across a copy of Camus "the stranger" some days ago in the "french literals killed in a car accident" corner of the local library. As the labour union for brain amputated henchman told him there isn´t much to do as his master already is into all this vanity of all existence stuff. At least they are about to move house due to the increase in visits made by religious zealots armed with stakes and garlic claiming to just check the gas meter. A chage is as good as a rest they say...

Immense productivity

2008-10-12T05:45:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update to show the last completetd stuff from this week of sheer painting frenzy.
Some nice old dwarfs who made sure that their equipment matches their limited altitude as well as a Warmachine figure in en vogue stripes.

It´s the numbers that count

2008-09-30T03:22:00.000-07:00

At first I´m sorry for the lack of updates. Real life happened and took away almost all of the time I normally have for geeky stuff. Regular readers (perhapps a bit over confident considering the five or so people who came here by accident)can rest assured that a few ideas for articles and more painted stuff will make it here over the next few weeks. Despite teh time issues I found a few seconds to burn money on some more miniatures. In this case I managed to finally complete the first range of Mararuder dwarfs by getting my hands on the drummer. Irony is that I already had that mini but sold him as I was keen to keep only those minis I really liked (what a fool I was). Two years later and he is joining his 7 pals in my cabinetts. The 13 other figs he came with don´t hurt either...uncontrolled impulse buying at work here.

But what really grinds my gears today is the MegaloMania found in Wargames.
Recently I discovered my old ESCI Vietnam figures in 20mm. Fixed on the subject due to the nam section on warfactory.co.uk I started contemplating about potential forces for a side project. Nothing large. Just a few bits.
I ended with a imaginary wish list of about 80 Viet Cong, 40 GIs, 4 Hueys, 4 M113 and a smattering of heavier armor.
Looking across the net I do not seem to be the only one as people buy whole Space Marine cahpters or recreate the Battle of the Somme in 28mm.
What´s gone wrong in our heads that we amass lead mountains as high as the Alps before even putting some paint on the first basic grunt.
I don´t know and I don´t really want to care as I´m of to buy some M113 APCs.

mechanical steam device of improbabale levitation

2008-09-01T08:26:00.000-07:00

Is it a bird ?
Is it a plane ?
No ! It´s a dwarven Gyrocopter from the late 80s. Back from the day when dwarfs...never mind just read the previous blog entry.

This magnificent piece of engineering comes complete with a steam cannon to grill somebodies behind from abaove as well as a dwarf with a fancy scowel dropping bombs on unsuspecting victims. Who cares about aerodynamics or the need for a fin rotor when all you need is a coal driven pressure cooker and some subliminal camoflage to leave the ground behind.

A nice kit back from the day when dwarfs...

Ye good ol' times

2008-08-26T10:30:00.000-07:00

Dwarfs are like beautiful women.
Squat, bearded and featuring gnarly noses.
Well, perhaps not. Unless you have some special fetish that is.
Let´s start again by proclaiming that the late 80s Citadel dwarfs as well as their Landsknecht brethern from Marauder make up the most characterful range of minis ever.
No other range has managed to portray the image of a fantasy race better than those beer loving, goblin smiting, girly elf pansies mocking gems of miniature sculpting.
They cannot be praised enough infact.
Sadly GW decided to alter the appearance of dwarfs and made them look like Viking wannabees covered in chunky armored festooned with plate sized runes. No more puffy sleeves, gnarly noses and lovely details. The one responsible for those changes should be slapped senseless with a bag of jelly for such folly. Don´t let me even start about those Warhammer boxed game monstrosities.
As I bought a dwarf army on ebay lately featuring 80s metal only (it was a bargain I keep saying myself) I will start painting up an army of the stout fellows over the next months.
Stay tuned for more ramblings. And yes real dwarfs wear tights and fancy clothes.

Mad Dog

2008-08-21T05:09:00.000-07:00

The computer screens surrounding him seemed like prison walls. His head-set felt like a crown of thornes. His back hurt, his fingers stiffened from endless typing and his eyes went out of focus trying to read the last stock market values. He was one of countless slaves that dwelled within bureau blocks in the financial district of New York. It wasn´t hope for a better life that kept him fastened to his workspace but the the fear of unemployment.
At first he didn´t even notice the breaking news. Later he joined those that gathered at the windows to observe the ensuing mass panic from their apparently safe vantage point. Finallly he ran as fast as he could towards the fire exit as a flock of zombies broke through the main entrance and began to devour the juicy secretarty he always wanted to date.
But as he ran through the empty streets he suddenly realized that mankinds downfall was his way into a new life. A change of profession was at hand. An abandoned firefigther vehicle triggered a long forgotten emotion. As a child he always wanted to be like them. Smashing doors and rescueing the innocent from allconsuming flames. He graabed an axe and a lone helmet.
From then on he was only known as Mad Dog. Roaming the the urban areas of a once prospering society intent on lobotomizing the zombie sourge. The new american hero, free from the need for personal hygiene.

I heartly recommend Max Brooks World War Z by the way.

Battle Lore

2008-08-16T04:35:00.000-07:00

This week I had the opportunity to try out the fantasy strategy game Battle Lore from Days of Wonder. After a four year long Warhammer tournament frenzy changes are highly welcomed and a boardgame seemed like a worthwhile break from GW´s fantasy flagship.
Battle Lore is played on a gaming board divided into hexagons that can be altered by using single files to represent different terrain features. The game is seperated into turns where players activate their units comprising either infantry or cavalry by using command cards. The first player to seize a set number of banners from destroyed enemy units is declared winner.
Graphical layout and the 15mm gaming pieces are up to date and will satisfy the spoiled wargamer. Although the minis included are amde of bendy plastic they are pretty sharp castings and easy to paint.
Without going into too much deatil about game mechanics the best part of the game is the synergy between command cards and unit coordination. Command cards let you activate either a certain unit type all over the battlefield or up to three units within one part of the field divided into center, left and right flank. Furthermore units are harder to drive back and gain the ability to counter attack if three are in adjactent hexagons. Thus you have to try and get multiple activations on successive turns in order to overcome your opponents troops through concentration of force while coordinating your force with mutual support in mind. Through bad luck can give you a harsh blow due to a string of bad command cards anticipatory play gets rewarded. Fast to learn, hard to master.

There isn't much of a meta game like tinkering with army lists or finetuning unit sizes which is a nice change as it allows for grander strategies to be applied instead of winning by an inflation of special rules.

Another interesting aspect is that the game can be played with a historical setting in mind or as a fantasy game including magic, monstrous creatures and the well known bunch of tolkienesque races. Due to the manageable amount of stats, basically a combination of categories within unit types and equipment, own additions can be made easily if the supplements released thus far do not suffice anymore.

In conclusion a nice distraction from traditional wargaming that fills the gap between streamlined games like Risk and very time demanding ways to waste disposable income like Warhammer.

Once upon a time pt.2

2008-08-12T14:06:00.000-07:00

I finally finished painting Zombie No.2. I can spend endless hours adding glazes to rotten skin and swelling intensities. It´s the Zen of miniature painting for me.

As I still feel drained after my last journey into the world of prose and the misapplication of adjectives I will merely leave a couple of terms here for you to turn into a nice story:

Laugther and joy, approaching flock a shambling zombies, selfoverestimation, biten in the crotch, breakdown of vegetative system, brain turning into ooze, fluffy kittens, end.

Lead Rot 101

2008-08-11T05:07:00.000-07:00

Lead Rot 101

There is one thing that wakes the ingenuous collector from his peaceful sleep and fills his heart with dread. It instills these who fill their attics with shiny leaden objects they are never going to paint with sheer terror. A phanomenon so vile that only people who stepped bare footed on a metal Night Goblin Spear Regiment seem to have nurtured such evil.
Imagine to open your display cabinetts to have a look at your priced possesions. Notice the small amount of white powdry stuff on your favourite miniatures. Act now or all that remains will be a pile of dust as your collection has withered away.

Know your enemy

The process in question is called lead rot and a well known process when it comes to antiquities like organ pipes that contain a lot of lead and are exposed to all kind of climatic conditions. The reason for relativly new lead miniatures to crumble away mostly goes back to the boom in the miniatures industry in the mddle of the 80s. Faced with increasing prices for lead the manufacturers of the so called Nottingham lead belt used polluted lead alloys to cast miniatures. These alloys contain a lot of other questionable materials and seem to be the ones that are most likely to rot away.
In the following paragraphs I want to give some brief information about the chemical context and ways to prevent or stop lead rot.
Most of the stuff is taken from miniature fora and acts as a kind of summary.

Organic compounds are the chief category of substances acting harshly upon lead, and Acetic acid is among the most destructive of these carbon compounds. Acetic acid acts upon lead and transforms it into lead carbonate which is the white, granular, powder we frequently see on lead ship model fittings. The museum objects conservation community has been aware of the phenomenon for several decades and the chemical process that causes it is well-understood.

The chemical process is: Acetic and some other acids, in the presence of carbon dioxide, catalyze with lead to produce lead acetate and lead hydroxide. Lead acetate and lead hydroxide together react with carbon dioxide and form lead carbonate. Lead carbonate then releases acetic acid and the process becomes self-sustaining. It is important to recognize that the formed lead carbonate is not just a substance clinging to the surface of a casting, it is the surface of the casting transformed to powder. For practical purposes, a portion of the lead is gone and lead carbonate is left in its place. The lead carbonate releases acetic acid which can continue the process until the lead part is progressively consumed from the outside.

Wood exposed inside display cases with relatively stagnant atmospheres will create an acetic acid-laden micro-environment where lead artifacts will corrode even without being in physical contact with the wood. In addition to materials forming the surrounding exhibit case, the model itself may be made primarily from wood.

All woods will emit acetic acid to some measurable amount, but the following woods sometimes used by modelers are known to be harmful to lead:

Very Harmful
Unseasoned oak (white and red),Plywood and chipboard,Teak,Basswood Sweet chestnut
Fire-proofed woods,Rot-proofed woods

Moderately Harmful
Seasoned oak, Larch, Ash, Birch,Beech
Red cedar

Less Harmful
Sitka spruce,Douglas fir,Pine,Elm

A general rule of thumb can be applied: Hardwoods emit more acetic acid than soft woods. But any wood will fall into at least the minimally harmful category.2
Please note that also paints, glues, and other miscellaneous materials may cause lead rot to a lesser degree.

Solutions

Prevention
The single most important element is to provide your cabinets with plenty of ventilation at least complete air circulation twice a day. I use bags of SILICA to keep the moisture down and can be purchase in most office outlets.If the cabinet are air tight you might want to drill a one inch diameter hole in the case and keep the cabinet out of the direct sun.

If you intend to seal a mini in its bare metal state, I've found the absolute best material to do so is shellac. And no, I'm not talking about a spray can of clear lacquer paint or a pot of wood shellac from the hardware store. I'm referring to genuine shellac chips from the lac beetle dissolved
in denatured alcohol. It's easy enough to find if you just tell someone you need shellac chips for French polishing. Pop into an antique store and it's likely someone there can tell you where you can get some. The Shellac then seals the mini away from oxygen, and you'll never have to worry about it again. Best of all though is that if you ever decide to unseal the mini, you don't have to soak it in any sort of corrosive compound to remove the shellac, just drop it in a tin of alcohol and in about 5 minutes the shellac coating will be dissolved away. Rinse in clean alcohol and your mini is clean of the sealant.

Affected miniatures
First of all you have to clean the miniature, this can be done by using a short soak in white vinegar followed by cleaning the miniature with a toothbrush with toothpaste.
For heavily affected areas you can use a dremel or something similar with a cleaning and/or polishing bit. Do not forget to let the miniature dry on a paper towel or use a hair dryer thoroughly.
After cleaning and before any repair, conversion and painting work you have to prime the miniature. do not use any water based primers/paints for this. the best way seems to use a polyurethan (PU) paint because this will seal the miniature hermetically. you can get this paint in any colour and even clear, if you prefer to display your miniatures in bare metal form.

http://www.dt.navy.mil/cnsm/lead_01.html

lead addiction gone wiki

2008-08-10T02:51:00.000-07:00

I started a wikidot about my various ongoing, unfinished or not even started army projects.
Although I seldomly play these days and concentrate on painting display figures, churning out armies still holds a special appeal for me. Furthermore I want to keep this thread from degenerating into a painting blog and hope to continue with "interesting" articles no one reads. Another benefit of the wikidot is that it gives me a visual scale of my miniature addiction and should keep me from starting new projects (stop laughing please).

The wiki is at a rather skeletal stage at the moment but I will try to flesh it out with pictures and some info about specific projects over the next weeks.

http://realm-of-lead-addiction.wikidot.com/

Once upon a time.

2008-08-01T21:42:00.000-07:00

Once upon a time there lived the pious Johann Doe. Born as a peasant lad his way was that of the plowshare, not the sword. But dire times demanded dreaded measures and so he was recruited for the kings army to defend the realm. With the opinion in mind that a good defence is the best offence his worried parents added a skirt of chainmail to the family armament that comprised a trusty buckler. An oversized, unwieldly club was the only weapon at hand for Johann to crush his foes as funds were exhausted.
And a lot of crushing and maiming and other cruel stuff were to be done. A mighty undead horde led by Ivan the Tooth was about to attack the kings castle. Filled with dread brave Johann waited for the battle to begin and a high rate of casualities. The first one was the defence plan devised by the king´s captain. Screams of terror rung from the defenders as the enemy's wizards schooled in the art of necromancy animated the remains of those burried in the castle's graveyard to get back to unlife. Things were looking grave (pun intended) as bloated corpses hurled themselves at the now doomed defenders. Doom. Doom. Eager to hold on to his life Johann gave his first undead opponent a taste of family buckler which resulted in sizeable piece being torn out. Struggling to keep another festering corpse at a distance he overlooked assailant No.3 who sank his teeth into Johann´s unprotected arm.
Things went downhill fast from here on. A strange fever shook him, bubbles erupted from Johanns mouth and few moments later he smashed on the ground head first.
His way into undeaddom had considerable implications for his future life or the lack of it. His skin turned from green to purple, his hair fell out, an unpleasant scent surrounded him. A change of character also set in as he became rather lethargic. While he was thinking hard about how to apply the theory of economic growth presented within the theory of progressive semi-dependent rural conditions to his families cesspit before the incident his thougths turned to be less subliminal.Mostly went like this:
„Ahhhhwouargh....“.
Sometimes he discussed Zombie metaphysics with his rotten mates:
„Ahhhhwouargh....braaaiiinnns....“
And so it went on until he was fully decomposed and everyone else was dead too.

I always thought that coming up with a background story for your miniatures was a waste of time. At least I gave it a try.

Bargains- or how to put a dent in your bank account

2008-08-01T11:48:00.001-07:00

What might seem contraty at first is one of those traps most collectors and gamers have wandered into carelessly since toy soldiers exist. It involves starting with some cheap purchases just to end with a several expansive buys following the original bargain.

There you were grabing this bunch of minis for a couple of bucks that apparently make a nice starting point for a new army or range to collect. You wern´t really interested in that particular bunch of miniatres if it would not have been such a steal. In fact you may have browsed through the exact kind of minis countless times without any urge to turn this into a full blown army or completed range. You would almost have had put an end to the exponentional growth of the lead mountain at home, if it hadn´t been for that very bargain.
I myself have done so a couple of times without any trace of knowing the inevetible. I fully knew that wrong listed 10 Wardancers on ebay don´t make a Wood Elf army, a discounted Starter Box of Warmachine isn´t sufficient for later games and that the 3rd ed Warhammer Orc army a friend tries to flog doesn´t translate into a playable 7th ed army. Still the lure of saving money in a hobby where the pricing seems to rise without end made me fall into the trap.
Because what might seem as an immense saving at first soon turns out to be just the first step to burn lots of money. As low as your first investment might have been the aim to just make those final purchases to round it off will cut deep into your bank account.If you ever tried to get specific a miniature to complete a range or a popular unit type for cheap you know what I mean. Before you know it you spent almost the same amount as if you had started out with the retail price. Besides money there is time. If you buy miniatures second hand you will most likely end up with some savings. That is until you add in the time to strip paint, repair damage and replace broken or lost bits. Ever stripped a whole Skaven army and amassed the now missing shields and bases ? I still do.
But we are talking money here first and foremost. Hence it´s time to differentiate between the perils at hand.

-the ebay offering
The most treacherous of them all, full of malign content. They seem ridiculously cheap at first. That is until ten seconds before the end when all those spybots kick in and the price increases faster than faculty. Furthermore there seems to be some kind of psychological reaction involved which makes me lose the more on common sense the less seconds there are until the auction ends. I have seen minis go for insane sums or at least alot more than the retail price. If you notice bargain items too early there is the tendency to get convinced that you have to have that item or, god forbid, to have already shelled out on other stuff to complete the stuff listed in the auction.
The solution ? If you can´t beat´em, join´em. Get yourself a spybot. Set a reasonable price for the item of your choice and and force yourself to forget about it. Do not look at the item again until it has ended and , for heavenssake, do not contemplate about further purchases to complement the stuff.

-the brick and mortar bargain
The three magic words: „while stocks last“. What we´re dealing with here is also known as artifical shortage. You may well be the only one to show interest in the discounted items or the seller's stock is so big that he will still try to flog his „limited“ bargains in a couple of years time.
No matter what, we will fall for the trap and feel the urge to buy as otherwise it will be gone forever.
In this case before filing your basket and proceeding with downsizing your funds ask yourself why any sane salesman would sell stuff below their market worth. Has the manufacturer gone belly up ? Game system gone oop ? New edition at the horizon ? No gamers within several hundred miles ?
There is no point to invest in stuff that is never going to get used (I know that this must seem as a surprise to the fellow wargamer and is of no importance to the collector). No matter how cheap it´s still wasted money.

-mate's rates
The most amicable way to increase the lead mountain. No cut-throat environment, no small print should stand between wargaming buddies. But your gain can be somebody else's way out of the hobby. Helping your friends to get rid of their stuff is nice. Filling your own attic with horrendous amounts of geek material without ever using it is not.

To sum up only buy bargains when they will complete a collection or army. Try to avoid the other way around.

Cute, isn´t it.

2008-07-29T03:00:00.000-07:00

Happy happy, Joy joy.
This very morning the luverly postwoman brought me a package from Hong Kong. It contained the
1/72 Akuyaku #1 kit from Tasca
A crossover World War I Anime tank designed by Miyazaki that comes complete with 24 earthpig like crew figures. A wonderful kit full of character. The chubby chasis with all those gun turrets looks the part. I never though that engines of destruction could look so cute.
It was a long and hard decision process I went through as I pondered whether to save up for my unborn children or invest in another piece of geek material to increase the pile of unpainted stuff. In the end I shelled out the cash with a heavy heart almost drowning in sorrow about this wretched attribute of mine called modesty.
Luckily it all vanished once I opened the box (actually it also only took mere seconds from seeing the kit on the frothers forum and hitting the buy-it-now button on evilbay).
I began carrassing the sprues gently. A smile came to my lips as I saw the crew mascot. I caught myself issuing orders in a squeaky voice ("Main battle turret, fire at will !").
It will probably get painted in ten years or so. Still the pleasure of burning disposable income has never been sweeter. I´m a happy geek.

Procrastination as a way to paint armies

2008-07-28T05:02:00.000-07:00

I recently read an article in one of those "student today, overpaid tosser tomorrow " magazines about the common habit of delaying impending work.
The main theory behind this was, that all thee unfinished work and projects we keep pushing before us are actually the main driving force thats responsible for all of our completed assets. To be more precise whenever a seemingly immense workload crops up we unintentionally search for alternative work commitments due to the possibility of failing with the aforementioned project at hand or due to the sheer time and effort it is going to take.
Hoe does this all relate to painting minis ?
Easy, get in the lead of this project at work your job depends on, start your thesis, save the whales...
In the end it really doesn´t matter what exactly you are about to embark on, just make sure that it seems like a enormous task, a never ending project that demands extreme commitment. Think of climbing the worlds highest mountain, whose summit is covered by the clouds and you get the basic idea.
Now everything falls into shape as procrastination kicks in. Before you know you will churn away at the lead mountain and blaze through you half-dried paints.

Some hints for the beginner:
-there is the principle that no matter how much time you plan to devote on a project the workload will always expand to fill said time frame. So plan for less time. You will never finish within time anyway.
-Faced with an immense task do not rush for new time wasting activities. Stay with the old, paint minis
-live fast, die young. People that need immense time for their commitments are those that spend an immense amounts of time on blaming themselves for laziness, while those that follow the opportunistic path finish earlier.
-the more repetitive and boring at task is the more it will be pushed back. Set yourself some challenge but keep the cut time frame in mind.

Visualisation

2008-07-26T15:33:00.000-07:00

or what this all about.

The Beginning

2008-07-26T14:59:00.002-07:00

At first I want to make clear to all those who view this blog stuff as a place to talk about religion and politics to be completly off track. Discussing such topics should be done under supervision of skilled and educated personel in order to cut back on prejudices and unfounded assumptions. Sadly most people that meet those aforementioned criteria know the suffering they are about to meet and leave the internet community to spam endless wikipedia entries.

But no more about pathetic things for this blog should be entirely devoted to thy precious art of painting and collecting lead miniatures and the variety of interdependency it implicts upon the fellow collector. So bear with me as I start seemingly endless sermons about this fine timewasting activity born of youth neurosis and fed by masculine thirst for death and destruction to please all that looks female (I get to the almost complete lack of females in this hobby at a later date).

I will surely forget about this blog and update very infrequently as all things internet have only a temporary grip at my wandering mind (in short I havce the attention span of an untrained monkey).

Still I would never refrain to stop you from ripping your hair in immense anticipation for the next two installments:

ebay- burning disposable income

Procastrination as a way to paint minis