NoVA Open 2019 here I come!

Greetings and well wishes folks!  What a wonderful end to the summer and I hope that your time in the hobby has been well spent.  I will be brief tonight because I am off tomorrow to head on out to NoVA Open 2019!  So I've got some pictures for you all and just a couple of quick talking points, so let's begin!

Right to the point: I met all of my hobby goals for this convention.  That's right, all of those models painted up...and then some!  I hit a slump earlier in the month of July and I think it was because I ran into some problems with the A Song of Ice and Fire models.  Everything I tried just didn't go right.  Priming went bad so then I had to strip the models, which ended up not working as well.  Then the color scheme went funky and so on.  It was discouraging at first but after a small break from painting I went right back and picked up Infinity.

Two Yu-Jing starter boxes later I started on my Aristeia team, managed to paint up some figures for some folks I know, painted up a Battletech started box birthday gift, and here we are: the night before NoVA.  It's a good feeling when you get everything you wanted to painted up and done.  Might just need to get another event to motivate me for certain projects...but we'll see.

Without further ado here are some pics of the stuff I've painted up in no particular order:

It's been a blast painting up some of these models.  My only complaint with the Aristeia models is that the plastic they use makes it annoying to clean off properly.  Still, I feel my progress in knocking out the horde of grey/white/black unpainted models is going well, and I look forward to continuing the trend and seeing where I go from here/

That's all tonight folks.  I must continue to prepare for tonight and hopefully, if I can remember to take some pictures I will share them with you!  Until next time folks game well and happy hobbying!

Mid-Year Painting Progress Report

Good tidings my fellow wargamers and welcome back!  For my American friends happy recent 4th of July, and for everyone else, I hope you have had equally fun times with friends, family, and hobby time.  These past 2 months have been pretty productive in terms of the hobby and I am very excited to show you some pics of my completed projects.  Hopefully, things have been equally productive for you all in whatever fashion it has been, but let's go ahead and get to business!

In my previous post, I already went over the new fad that is Contrast paints from GW, but I still attest to their usefulness.  They've become a quickly added tool in my overall repertoire and have helped me save a lot of time and energy on getting started with the basecoats.  One thing I have noticed, especially for skin/flesh, is that they've helped me figure out which areas to highlight and have helped take the guesswork I've been mostly operating on in the past.  I'm still figuring out how to best use them to not only get some pretty decent effects but also to just keep shaving time off my paint.  Speaking of time...

The progress over 6-months board

So it's the halfway point to the year and I have to see that I've been pleased with being able to stick with my goals of painting more models.  Comparatively, I would rarely paint anything but would always tell myself "I don't have time" or "I just wish I could."  Going along the idea that any progress is better than no progress at all I've now reached the 6-month mark and I've been recording models/units that I've finished painting.  Looking back it's been pretty amazing to see what I've been able to knock out, but also how long it took to finish each one.  As you can see around 6/15th when Contrast paints dropped I think my paint time went by considerably faster (please note I recorded when I felt like I was 'done' with that group so even if I painted a unit for let's say Infinity, I wouldn't feel like it was done until ALL that faction was painted up).

Sons of the XVth Legion

Not only did I spend a lot of time painting, but I also ended up getting some gaming done as well!  That's right sometimes I do actually play these games.  I've been making an effort to try and get into the communities more in my area.  I live where there are a lot of groups who play a lot of different games and yet I often have said the same thing I said to myself when I wanted to paint, "I'm too busy, I don't have time, blah blah blah."  Well, I'm trying to change that and before June was out I ended up playing in two events: a local Steamroller event and my first Blood Bowl tournament!  Both were great events, and great chances for me to get to meet new people, play with some familiar faces, and lose a lot of games!  Regardless of my ability to win, I am just happy to get out and engage in the community more.

So I've finished several projects these past 2 months.  As far as my goal for being ready for NoVA I am almost there.  I think I've got a couple of Aristeia! models to finish up (after I select my 4 fighter group that is) and I've got the Infinity event to also work on as well.  I finished my Horus Heresy Zone Mortalis event force and shortly after Contrast was released and I completed both starting warbands for Warhammer Underworlds shortly after my Malifaux crew was finished.  Suffice to say I've been pretty busy with painting to have reached these milestones!

Well, that's it for today and it's been a pleasure sharing with you my progress.  It's been a little surreal to look back over the past half-year and to think about how far I've progressed when before I painted like...never.  I hope to encourage you if you were in the same boat as I was with wanting to paint and not actually doing it, just do a little each day if you can.  Some progress is waaaaay better than none at all and if you just try daily then eventually you'll get that model done.  Or that unit, or army, or whatever it is.  Eventually, it'll get painted up with your efforts because even if it feels like it takes forever you're still doing something. 

I hope you're all making progress in your efforts whatever they may be and until next time happy gaming!

It's popular! Yet another Contrast paint post!

Hello, fellow wargamers and tabletop enthusiasts and I hope you are reading this under good fortunes.  It’s a little early for my bimonthly post, but as the title suggests there have been some big changes to our hobbying world with the introduction of the new Contrast paints from GW.  I managed to grab some for myself and like many others, I’ll give my opinion on them and show some stuff that I managed to get painted in a pretty rapid pace (compared to my usual that is).  So without further ado, here’s yet ANOTHER Contrast paint opinion piece!

I won’t lie, I have been hyped with these paints since I heard about them from the beginning.  I like I imagine some other collector’s out there, have a stupid amount of unpainted models.  Like an embarrassing number of them.  The kind of number where you might say I have an addiction problem.  So an advertised method was with less effort I can get tabletop quality standard pretty quick, and that certainly has my attention.  Then I started seeing what pro painters had been able to do, then the pictures of random folks online and their results, and so on and so on.  I had not only bought a hype train ticket but I upgraded to first class and have been counting the days, but despite the hype, I also have some aged wisdom and wanted to secure some of them so I can see what I can work with.

After I painted the first model here is my emotional reaction:

With the test model completed, I then started on a Malifaux crew I had that was lightly primed.  I usually prime my models black and leave it at that, but for a brief period, I did some models in grey with a zenithal white.  I have to admit, I did not like how the priming turned out because I felt that the grey had a gloss kind of texture to it while being flat in color, and the white was a satin finish.  So bear that in mind with these pictures, but I have to say that the paints did wonderfully!  In the time it would have taken me to finish the set of Witchling Stalkers I was able to knock them out, some Freikorp Specialists, the Purifying Flame, and a model from Heroforge for Pathfinder!  They did their job well and I was able to apply a single coat down and get a pretty good overall effect.  I did some minor blending with the paints on the Purifying Flame to get the flame effect and while yes it’s not a perfect transition it did get the job done in a matter of minutes.

Now I am not naïve enough to think that these paints will do everything and anything I want them to do, but damn if they didn’t perform up to par with what I had hoped they would do.  Most of the models shown, except for the Heroforge model, had some extra work done to them to finalize the appearance.  A couple of edge highlights here, some weathering pigment here, and some additional shade washes there made the models go from basic TTQ to maybe a slightly better TTQ (I’m not sure, you be the judge).  I think these paints will shine with the more organic textures than they might with armor plating, which appears to be the general consensus amongst the community, however, I’ve seen some seriously good with on armored models like Space Marines and Stormcast.  Cloth, fur, leather, skin, and so on will probably be the textures that don’t require any special attention, whereas armor might require some attention to things like excessive pooling.  Another thing of note is that they didn’t seem to be forgiving in that if you paint over where you intended to then you’ll need to either slap on some covering paint similar to your primer or touch it up with a layer paint similar to the Contrast.

I’m sure veterans and new painters alike will be able to take advantage of these paints, but I can’t help but to also think about the people in our community who don’t have the time to paint or just aren’t able to paint well.  I’ve got some friends who are colorblind or struggle with hands that shake to a degree that the prospect of basecoating>shading>highlighting>blending>etc with traditional acrylics can be somewhat daunting or challenging and in some cases off-putting.  What about the veteran with arthritis in their hands so that they can only paint for so long before it becomes excruciating?  So a paint that can help some people overcome those challenges and help those who struggle with the mechanics of fine detail painting achieve some level of TTQ that they can be proud of to bring to the table is definitely a good thing in my book.  I also think some tournament players who want to use the new or updated armies and want to use them solely for the game purpose but have to paint for the tournament will enjoy these paints as well and ideally will cut down the time to be ready for the next event.  Folks like me with a ton of models who just want them painted will probably also like these paints if it presents with an opportunity to clear the paint queue some.

Now in the span of 2 days, I am almost done with my Malifaux crew and I have to say it's been great to paint with.  Now one thing is for certain in that the undercoat does have a HUGE impact on the quality of the paint.  Like I said before these models had zenithal priming with some areas obviously not primed.  In those areas, I had to go back with acrylic layer paint and do some touch-ups and/or paint over the Contrast.  Regardless I think the overall effect has been positive and in 2 hours I knocked out 4 models that I might have taken a couple days to work on (a day is about 3 hours on average during the workweek).  So I stand by my original statement that these paints, for me, are a big time saver and will help me go through that model queue real quick.

On this last one, you can see near the bottom of the lab coat the primer spatter not covering the entirety of the coat.  Will it matter from 3 feet away? Nah.  However, it's something to take note.

That’s all today folks, I hope you are making progress in your projects and enjoying yourselves.  If you also picked up some of these paints feel free to share a link down below and share what you’ve been able to get done with them.  If you didn’t pick up any of the paints, feel free to share a link down below and share what you’ve been working on.  My next trial with these paints will be to see how many Crucible Guard models I can knock out before a Steamroller event on Saturday.  I’ll be back at the end of the month with my overall update on what I’ve been painting and how it ties in with NoVA.  Until then happy wargaming and happy hobbying!

Painting progress and the fight between motivation and discipline.

Good tidings to you my fellow wargamers and miniature enthusiasts and welcome back for your bi-monthly reading here at my den of ramblings.  It’s been a couple of months since we spoke but a lot of things have been going on so we have a good amount to discuss.  I hope things have been well for you all in whatever you are doing in life, and so with that let’s get to chatting.  So get a drink, sit comfortably, and relax while these slow beats soothe your soul…or let these pictures do something for you.

So last time we talked about my painting progress, some goals set out because of NoVA/other events, and saw some work being done.  I’ve been putting in some work on the projects, but I have to say these past few months have been semi-slow in terms of progress.  I’ve had some stuff going on in the real world that it made painting take a back burner and in turn caused a slow down on my overall progress.  It’s not been necessarily a bad thing that real life has taken priority, but it is what it is and as a result I don’t feel like I’ve gotten as much done in terms of model count as I had the period before.  Add in the fact that I ended up spending a lot of time assembling models and having to wait for bits and bases to roll in, time just keep plodding along and I was not making a lot of progress.  Though I had a lot of things going on, and I felt like I had excuses, there was something else in the back of my mind and heart that was inhibitive of my overall progress.

Which in turn has made me introspective when it comes to my hobby time because I certainly felt a difference in mood and outlook this period than I did before.  Before I felt like a machine, churning out models (60 some odd iirc) at a pretty intense speed from what I’m used to doing.  During this period I felt more like a grazing cow, sometimes taking a bite but otherwise just moving slowly.  When we look at this period and see I have reached about half that number, which admittedly I probably painted about half of those days, I knew something else was at work.  While I can point to a few things going on that slowed my progress down (studying for a state credentialing board, visitations with family, a friend being deployed, and house maintenance) I also recognize that there were more than a few days that I didn’t pick up the brush because I just…didn’t want to.  Like my motivation was suddenly…dried up and withered away at times.

Motivation is a funny thing like that, especially for me in this hobby and I feel like painting is in a weird spot in the hierarchy of this.  Motivation in general can be a great start to a task and is a great opportunity for growth in a particular area.  A lot of things can motivate us to begin projects or to continue past ones.  For example I can read a novel about the Horus Heresy and then I’m motivated to start working on my Thousand Sons and bring their tragic story of hubris, honor, treachery, and sadness to the table!  I can watch an episode of Game of Thrones and then I’m motivated to clean and paint up some A Song of Ice and Fire models so that I too can bring the raw fighting prowess of The Mountain to my enemies’ lines!  Motivation! Yeah!

Within the past couple of weeks I saw a meme/quote about motivation compared with discipline and in this time in my hobbying life it truly resonated with me.  You know how sometimes you see a quote and it does nothing for you until you find yourself in a new spot in life and next thing you know it’s like “ohhhh…there it is?”  That was me in this instance and I realized that instead of relying on motivation to keep me going (because that’s obviously worked before right?), I would need to start cultivating discipline to paint on the regular.  Then if you think about it, painting regularly probably requires the most discipline out of the other aspects of the hobby (for me at least).  When you assemble models there’s an end result that happens relatively quickly and there’s several rewards attached to it.  You have the model assembled and you can start playing games with it.  If you choose not to do anything else then most of the community won’t say anything because they too have unpainted models.  Painting though…painting takes some effort.

With painting you don’t get immediate results like you do with assembling and unless you have some great skills then you sometimes risk your model looking vastly different than you intended it for it to be.  If you are a slow painter then that squad of 10 guys might take you weeks to finish and when you look at an entire army it starts to look like a yearlong project instead.  It’s very easy to get discouraged with painting, especially with the advent of social media the great miniature painters can show off their amazing work and make it seem like they woke up one morning and painted a masterpiece before their morning coffee is done.  So it takes discipline to not only keep painting despite not necessarily wanting to and to continue even though the results are not immediate and are risky.

Couple that mindset of discipline>motivation with that I am to enjoy my painting time versus making it a secondary job of churning out models, I think I was able to find my painting groove again.  Maybe not at the same speed as before, but I even felt like some of those models had lost quality due to time constraints.  So with my shift towards discipline I am also shifting towards making the models good quality instead of quick quality.  Will this mean I will hit some of my deadlines?  Probably not but I will plan accordingly so that the armies that NEED to be painted (i.e. my Zone Mortalis force) will be done by the event time, and then I’ll return back to the others as needed.

So a quick update on where the projects stand:

·         Zone Mortalis (Warhammer 30k): 

o   32 models

o   Progress/Pitfalls: Models have had their assembly finalized and their insignia from Pop Goes the Monkey came in.  Army specific paints have been acquired.

o   Current status: Ready for priming

·         Aristeia!

o   4 models

o   Fighters outside of the core box have been acquired and a team of 4 has been selected.  They have been cleaned of mold lines which that ranged from hardly present to “holy crap that’s a lot and annoying to clean.”

o   Current status: Ready for priming

·         Infinity After Dark

o   A 300 point Yu-Jing force

o   Progress/Pitfalls: I was short of some models but due to some generosity from WaaarghPug I now have enough for 300 points and then some.

o   Current status: Some models are ready for painting, the new models require assembling/cleaning/priming and so I am about 50% ready

·         Blood Bowl:

o   Dwarf Team of 18 models

o   Current status: Painting and basing are complete and pre-varnishing has been finished leaving the final matte varnish spray.

·         Warmachine:

o   Crucible Guard 75 points, 2 list format consisting of 67 models (!!!)

o   Progress/Pitfalls: Models were assembled but had to wait on MDF base inserts from Laser Craft Workshop LLC (great customer service btw) but they are ready for painting.

o   Current status: 20% of the army has been painted but basing is being reserved for a final “done with the army” phase since I plan on putting in some effort in making some dope bases.

I’m overall pleased with my progress and as much as I have been enjoying painting up the Crucible Guard I know I will have to pause the overall project to take care of the NoVA Open projects.  It’s a situation of “do I keep working on the Crucible Guard until the event,” or “do I get those NoVA units out of the way first and then go back to my other stuff afterwards?”  Not sure on the answer to that just yet but I’m sure I’ll figure it out in the near future.

As always I want to extend thanks and appreciation for my local fellow wargamers to including WaaarghPug, The Ordinary Wargamer, and Mininomicon for being sources of painting and hobbying encouragement.  Insignia for the Thousand Sons can be found here again and the bases I used for my Crucible Guard can be found here again.  I want to also thank you the reader for spending your time here on this blog and reading the article, if there are any questions or comments please leave them and I assure you I will get to them.  Thank you for stopping by and I hope your wargaming and hobbying adventures continue to prosper in whatever format you want them to be.  Until next time, happy gaming folks.