For this week I’m hoping that some sort of normal service will be restored. As promised last week I managed to drag my thoughts together and get the review / update of Adepticon published this week so I hope that gave you taste of what it was like. And if there any of you out there planning your own trip I would highly recommend it, I’m hoping to be back again in 2020 so I may see you there. So what have I got for you this week? With this being a waffle I’ll start with a bit filler and that has been that I have finally gotten round to cleaning up my workspace and setting up a permanent, or at least semi-permanent home for my light box. I did this last time I came back when I was feeling all enthused and it really made a difference to how productive I was, for a while at least. It’s setting up the light box that will have the biggest impact as it will mean I don’t have to move things around each week to take the photos I need for the waffle. I’ve also been through my camera bag and I’ve now got my camera set up so that it is tethered to my laptop so I don’t even need to mess around with memory cards. Just take the picture and its imported ready to be uploaded so everything is now nice and simple. I’ve also made some changes to my airbrush set up on the back of some advice that Darren got whilst we were away. What I’ve done is add a second water trap and pressure regulator to my existing set up. The idea is that I can run the tank on the compressor and quite a high pressure and this is then stepped down at the second stage to the pressure I need for whatever I’m working on. The idea is that I always have more pressure in the tank than I need so everything stays nice and even at the airbrush, or at least that’s my understanding.
On the back of Adepticon and the boost it has given me to try new things I’m planning on varying the type of painting I do this year. Specifically I’m going to start to paint some larger scale stuff, similar to the Jynz model I painted for Crystal Brush and some busts. The idea for the busts came from one of the classes I took and I think it will provide a nice challenge. The only issue I could think of was that I hadn’t really seen anywhere, certainly in the UK, selling these types of models. I now know that was because I had really been looking and after a quick search on Google I can up with a few places the most promising of which was Elgreco Miniatures that appear to have a vast range to choose from. So watch out for something a bit different over the next few months.
The main thing I wanted to get cracking with though was a gang for Necromunda. Al and Pete are keen to play and was happy to go along with it as a way to start to get more gaming in and I was looking to an Orlock gang. That was until I saw and Esher gang in the Crystal Brush cabinet that had was painted in pink and turquois which has inspired me to do something similar. I was hoping to have got started by now but the models hadn’t arrived so I’ve just been pondering exactly what I’m going to do with them.
In the mean time I’ve dragged Roboute Guilliman out of my to-do pile and made a start on him. Basically I just wanted to crack on with something that I can put down at any time. That’s because I painted up some Ultramarines as a present for a mate’s son some time ago and now he’s getting more into the game this is going to end up in his collection. But it’s while off his next birthday so I have plenty of time to get him finished. I messed up somewhat when I built him by adding the eagle things to his backpack, which has made access to several sections really tricky. But because I’ve used plastic glue I didn’t want to try and break him apart. I’ll just have to chalk it down to experience and think on it as being a good exercise in brush control. I’ve managed to get quite a bit done by aiming to get some painting time in each day, even if it’s only ten minutes.
Another thing I decided to do following having a dabble at Crystal Brush is to seek more feedback on some of my painting projects and to that end I’ve posted Jynz on Cool Mini or Not to see what people think. It’s renowned for having quite a harsh and discerning audience so I thought it would be a good place to get some honest opinions. At the time of writing this I’m currently ranked 9310 out of 9310 artists so the only way is up, or out. I’ve currently got 26 votes and a score of 7.6 which I am really happy with and I think I will add some more work on hear over the next few months. If you want to have a look for yourselves you can find it here.
That’s it for this week. I’m planning on carrying on with Roby and getting started on the Esher for next week. Until then enjoy our hobby time and I hope to catch you all again next week.
