Weekly Waffle #300
1st October 2022
I’ve not had a massive amount of hobby time this week but I have been doing quite a bit of travel and that has given me some time to reflect on what has happened in my hobby life since I started doing the blog. Now before you panic and run a mile I’m not going to be all doom and gloom just a look back over the past seven years, yes seven years in which a lot has changed. So if I was to rate my enthusiasm and ability in the hobby now compared to where it was when I started I would have to say that I think the enthusiasm level is lower but the ability level is higher. Which I don’t think is really that unexpected, but on the ability level side of things I would say that it is in no way as high as it has been in the past. And that was something that I wanted to explore a little bit. As has been obvious from some of the gaps in the blog over the last twelve to eighteen month I’ve had something of lull in my enthusiasm for the hobby which I’m going to put down to the fact that I’ve been doing it in isolation. In as much as I’ve not had deadlines to get something finished for an event or just to have a game on game night. Coupled with lots of changes in my personal life and hobby time just wasn’t really there. I have talked about it before but now that lockdown is over and we have the chance to get together again I’m starting to get my mojo back to paint, and I’ve even got some kitbash / conversion ideas floating about that should come to live in the not to distant future.
With this new found enthusiasm what I’ve been finding is that I will start to paint something and it just doesn’t turn out how I expected it to. The brush doesn’t do what I want it to and the result is just not there. Which when you think about it in the cold light of day makes perfect sense. We can’t all be master painters in contention of a Crystal Brush or Golden Deamon with everything we paint. But our skills, great or small, are perishable if we don’t keep on top of them. Now painting every day is one way to keep horning them but even if you are only painting at the weekend it is much better than doing nothing for a long period of time. Because when you do pick that brush up again you will really notice the difference. And that is where I find myself at the moment. In a place where my mojo is being tested every time I pick up the brush, but all you can do is keep plodding away. It’s not like you are starting from scratch again, although it can feel like that at times. You just have to get back into the habit and skills that may have taken you years to learn the first time round come back in a few weeks or maybe months depending on who much your painting. But if you stick with it you will get back to where you were and you will then move on and get better. Or at least that’s what I’m trying to convince myself so that I don’t fall into the doldrums again.
Having said all of that I think a key step in the process is to manage your expectations and pick projects that will push you but not break you. Don’t decide that after a break you are going to come back and paint a Golden Deamon entry in a couple of weeks. For most of us that would just break us. But getting a unit table top ready and being happy with it is whole other thing. Then move on and do another unit but put a bit of extra time into the lead or a special character. If like me you are partial to a bit of D&D just pick up a really nice model that you want to paint because you may use it for a new character, when your DM kills your existing character off. Because they do that from time to time, especially when they are frustrated with their own painting.
With this thinking in mind I have been looking through good old YouTube for any tips that could help me get minis finished a bit quicker and I came across something that is new to me called ‘Slap Chop’ on ‘The Honest Wargamer’ channel. Now there is nothing magic about this and it’s only aimed at getting a mini table top ready in quick time, seems to be about fifteen mins for a standard mini, but it looked very interesting. Have a look at his video for the full story but in essence you prime your mini black, then give it a heavy dry brush with grey and then a light dry brush with white. It’s the last stage that is the most important as this is aimed at picking out all the edges and essentially doing your edge highlights before you even add any colour to the mini. Then you paint the mini using contrast, or equivalent, paints to give you a table top mini in quick order. On Ninjon’s channel he takes it step further by doing some additional edge highlighting for a bit of extra pop. I’ve been stuck with a way to paint my Rialto Assassin for Carnevale so though I would give this a go and you can see the result below.
Now to put this into some perspectives it took me about forty minutes from starting with the primer to what you see above. A lot longer than the fifteen minutes for a speed painted model but that is lighting fast for me. To paint something to this standard before would have taken me a couple of hours so it is very much a fast way of painting, at least it is for me. It is certainly something I will be doing more of and I’m hoping that the simple fact of painting more will result in my brush control coming back and I can then start to add more details and bring in more techniques. At the end of the day for me it is all about finding the easiest way to get the best results for any given job. As most of the things I paint will be for use in games then that’s what I’m going to concentrate on and will see how things go.
I’ve got the Shipping Guild to work on next and I think this technique is now going to be front and central for them. If I can do things at a similar speed then there is a very good chance that I could have them finished for next week. I that is statement full of potential catastrophe but after managing to get the Rialto Assassin done in the time I did I really don’t think it is an unrealistic goal. Granted that doesn’t include the time it takes to clean them all up and build them ready to start priming but I’m going to give it a go. The other thing I need to do is remember where I put all the bases that I have already painted, which is the only reason the Assassin isn’t on a base. I painted up about twenty of the street bases so they would be ready when I needed them and now just can’t remember what I have done with them.
That’s all I’ve got for you this week but as I’ve said I’m hopping for a slightly better update next week. Until keep yourselves safe, enjoy your hobby time and I’ll look forward to having more you next Saturday.
