Day One: Thursday 24th March 2022
Well then the first full day and I only have one class today and that is Wet Blending which is a skill I’ve wanted to learn for a long time but have never really got to grips with. I’ve had some sauces over the years but I’ve never really understood why it worked sometimes but not others. Having had a bit of a hobby break over the last few month I’m feeling refreshed and ready to learn something new, or at least give it a go . So with tat goal in mind it’s wet blending 101 with Aron Lovejoy. A couple of coffees and I as feeling good to go and got myself there nice and early so that I could be teachers pet and sit a the front of the class. Or more accurately being old now I need to sit at the front to be able to see what is happening.
He showed us two techniques, the first he called ‘meet in the middle’ which is just what it says were you take a shadow and a mid tone, start at opposite ends and meet in the middle. The idea is to load the brush correctly so the paint starts to run out at the point where the colours meet. That way you get a slight overlap of wet paint which combined with the right amount of brush pressure gives you the blend. Watching Aron do this the results are fantastic, when I try it not so good but this is about learning a new skill not mastering it in ten minuet’s. So whilst my efforts didn’t look very good I feel that I understand the process and it’s just going to be a case of practice, practice, practice before I get something I will be happy with. The process makes sense to me and that is the real take away from this. No the very badly painted practice model.
The second technique was a more traditional wet paint on wet paint. You get a lot more control this way but the flip side of that is that it is much harder. Again I now fell that I have a really good understanding of the process and it’s all about practice . The key to this is all about brush control and in particular controlling the brush pressure so that it puts the paint where you want it. As Aron said the more pressure, and this is fractional differences, you put on the brush the more you are smashing the paints together.
That’s now two techniques for wet blending that I think I have a handle on and take away and practice. The one thing that really surprised me though was that we were told not to thin our paints. Everyone else seems to be saying lots of thin coats and this all about thicker coast, but the key was that they have to be smooth. Keeping the paint as it comes to of the bottle and letting brush do the work is the key. But it’s going to take a lot of practice
Being the first day I’ve had a wander round trying to get a feel for things and I have to say that my initial feeling is that things are little bit flat. There are lots of people here already so it’s no a case that it’s a very large venue with not a lot of people. I can’t really put my finger on it other than to say it’s a bit flat. For example I’ve just had my first walk through the vender hall and haven’t really seen anything new that makes me want to pick it up. Ok I’ll grant you I have picked up some Free Blade minis, but I’ve pick some of them up every time we’ve been. I only got them today because in previous years they have sold out when I’ve back later in the weekend. Other than that there hasn’t been anything that has stood out to me.
Now not to be all doom and gloom I had a walk through one of the gaming hall’s between games and came across this Admech army that I absolutely loved. First of all I’ve never seen one in this type of colour scheme and then it looks like just about every model has been converted in one way or another. The pictures don’t really do it justice but I’ve included a few anyway just to give you a feel. The army belongs to a guy called Dave and I had a good chat with him about it, saying I would like to steel some of his ideas for my Orks. He was really happy with that and considered Admeck the Orks of the Imperium because of there almost unlimited potential for conversions and kit bashing.
That just about sums up day one. Wi-Fi access is a bit tricky with upload speeds being really throttled so adding images to these updates takes a long time, but I taking pictures and will share them with you as soon as I can’t. That’s it for today so whilst this is uploading I’m heading out for some wings and beer followed by a few more beers. But I’ll be back with more tomorrow.
