[unofficial weekender] It's Friday and the sun is shining!

[sundancer 42985xp 0]

Close the curtains and stay inside!

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Read all of this before you start as it will save any trouble later.

First thing you must do is make your “pledge”. It can be anything gaming related, big or small, and you don’t even have to finish it. No, in here, happiness is the road. Have fun doing whatever it is, but it is not a race. Accompany your work with pictures or we might think you are do something sinister and just using us for cover.

You are also presented with a few questions. It is to get the conversation started. Try and keep your answers ‘conversational’, no text speak, and certainly no “basically”. This is how we all get to know each other better. While you are here feel free to tell us a story, show a picture, joke, tales of love or woe, or just add your own little bit. This is the whole point…in here it is just us.

If you have never taken part before we may bark and bite, but we also like a cuddle! It is all done in the best possible taste and it is character building. feel free to give as good as you get.

A few other things to note: NO RELIGION & NO POLITICS! Glasgow pub rules are in effect. If you need to make a better point then it is fine, but don’t take the piss. And always keep it civil.

Play plenty of music to go with your work. Loud and through proper speakers. Write us a playlist of things we might not have heard before.

Now, after all of that there is only one ‘real’ rule in here and it cannot be broken: NO DICKS! (Exceptions may be made for little fighting men with little plastic/resin/metal wieners)

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Questions of the week:

1. What is your current favourite form of distraction?
2. Are you engaging in online tabletop simulators? If yes: which one are you using for what systems?
3. Why do I almost forget the thread but never my #TGIF?

 

[sundancer 42985xp 0]

1. Sleep. Because I still work and am occupied most of the time… no POS working for me (currently)
2. Nope
3. I should ask myself that when I see myself again…

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

Pledges! To get this bad boy finished. This week, I accidentally discovered that my wife quite likes making miniature dioramas. Which is brilliant, because, tbh, I’m a bit fed up with all this terrain-making and want to spend a bit of time painting a few of the many minis I’ve printed in recent weeks!

 

To the questions:

1. I spend a lot of time on the computer. It’s my job (but work has pretty much dried up at the minute) but it’s also a great distraction. Other than that, I’ve really been enjoying painting and learning about “classic” art techniques. And I learned a couple of new songs on my guitar, but there are no open mic/jam nights to go to and subject them on my adoring audience 😉

2. I’ve never understood tabletop simulators. It’s like comparing actually driving with playing a racing game. I don’t think I’ll be engaging…

3. Other than these last twelve months, I’ve worked from home for almost 15 years – so struggle with what day it is at the best of times. It’s Friday already? That came as news to me. Everything feels a little surreal and like-being-on-holiday-but-not-on-holiday at the minute. Friday you say? Wow. That means I’ve just gone five days running wearing slippers instead of shoes. I really should make an effort to get out (further than walking to the end of the garden to my little workshop!) – it’s hard to gauge when the “quiet times” are going to be when everyone else is off work too.

 

[danlee 22443xp 0]

This weeks pledge is chapter 9 of Tainted Grail and to assemble and green-stuff gap fill Zacharias the Everliving for my spring cleaning project.

 

1. What is your current favourite form of distraction? – I need to work full time from home and look after the kids, so I have even less spare time than usual.
2. Are you engaging in online tabletop simulators? If yes: which one are you using for what systems? – The closest I might get is to play a video game version of a board game. For example I’m tempted to play the Tainted Grail PC game after completing the board game to explore the other story choices.
3. Why do I almost forget the thread but never my #TGIF? – To be fair the past few months you seem to have remembered ok.

[danlee 22443xp 1]

For all the extra hobby being done and project updates this thread seems quiet this week.

 

I just finished Chapter 9 of Tainted Grail and you can find my write up here: https://www.beastsofwar.com/project/1467741/

[tuffyears 23171xp 1]

sneaky little plug

Fallout 2020

[sundancer 42985xp 0]

It’s Sunday. I have my coffee and will now endure XLBS 😉

@tuffyears I’ve seen what you’ve done there…. 😉

[sundancer 42985xp 0]

Some music for your enjoyment: https://youtu.be/e0-2XxgHIXk

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

A little more progress on this month’s Titan Forge minis. I think I’ll bases these two n’er-do-wells and call them done.

I’m slowly learning that contrast is everything in the miniature world; not just dark and light in the painting, but contrast adds interest in other areas too – a young woman and an older man, for example, immediately creates a “story” between the protagonists and invites speculation – who are they? are they related? father and daughter? colleagues?
Really enjoying painting up this month’s cyber set!

Will post an update when the entire diorama is finished….

[horati0nosebl0wer 19649xp 0]

1. Current distraction is lots of work but I am hoping to get into base building when I can.
2. No tabletop for me. I’m looking at upgrades to pc hardware for after all this and I have bills paid.
3. *shrug* I’m getting time in and now catching up on CoG life.

With so much time indoors I believe that normies are finally catching on to how we hobbyists tend to spend time. RPGs, and comics became mainstream and now music the likes of “Weird Al” Yankovic seem to be bubbling up from high pressure creativity.

In that silly vein we must all be a little braver in our day I think

[blinky465 17028xp 2]

Today I learned something about painting – my brush technique sucks. I’ve watched countless videos on youtube about how to paint this or learning to create a certain effect, but never anyone pointing out why my basic painting sucked.

It all started when I added a bit “too much” water to my wet palette. And suddenly, it started working beautifully!

Obvs, thin your paints. This is important. Using a too-wet-wet-palette sometimes causes the paints to separate and thin out a bit “too much” on the surface. This is actually a good thing. Here’s why:

When you mix the paint back together on the wet palette, it gets right inside the bristles. It’s also slightly thinner than the jelly-like goop straight from the pot, so it flows off the paintbrush better. The difference between having paint *in* your brush, rather than *on* the tip is immense.

If you paint with paint *on* the tip, it doesn’t come off the brush so easily. And when it does, it might come off in a blob. Or, as you stroke your brush along the model, it only comes off in places, not along the entire length of the stroke. Given how difficult some of us find it to get the brush into exactly the right place in the first place, it’s really disheartening to hit just the spot you were aiming for, but no paint comes off! This means three or four strokes (instead of one) just to get the paint to leave the bristles – and a raggedy, blobby finish on the model!

Also, mixing two colours together on the palette to create a particular shade not only creates a nice range of colours, it *also* encourages the paint to get right into the bristles. I used to use four or five or more different pots of paints to create a gradient effect – now I just put a couple of drops of the “start” colour and a few of the “end colour” onto the palette and mix with the brush I’m painting with. Once done, twist the bristles in the paint to reform the point and – here’s the crucial bit – touch onto a paper towel to remove the moisture. Now you’ve got paint but not water in the bristles of the brush.

I’ve always been a bit stingy with my paints – using a single drop where necessary and, when it was all used up, putting another drop down. My waste was almost zero. I’ve only just realised that this was also holding me back – because I’d continue using a paint that was already past it’s best (instead of simply decanting more) which made painting after two or three hours much more difficult that at the start of the session.

Yes, miniature paint is expensive. But if you’re replenishing pots one or two, every now and again, there’s no need to be stingy with the paint (if you’re using a wet palette) – it’s far better to have too much wet, flowing paint on the palette, than not enough slightly-drying-out-but-still-workable paint, just for the sake of a couple more dabs!

 

Sorry to everyone who already knew this.

But for me, it’s been a bit of a revelation today.

This morning I was using tiny dots of paint, it was drying out on the palette and I would rush to use it up. I tried to keep a point on my brush (usually cleaning it and shaping it in my mouth) and put only the tiniest amount of paint on the tip, to help it keep its shape.

Now I whack plenty of paint onto the palette, keep the palette good and wet, mix my own colours, get the paint right into the bristles and I’ve found that painting this way is quicker, more accurate and altogether more enjoyable.

If only just one of the youtube videos I’d seen in the last 12 months had started with “this is how paint works, this is how it goes from brush to model” I’d have been doing this a long time before today!

I’ve got three cyberpunk police characters to paint up to finish my Titan Forge diorama tonight. I’d been putting them off, dreading actually putting brush to model, because I felt like I couldn’t improve upon the zenith highlighting and would only be doing a damage limitation exercise in trying to get some colour onto them.

Now I’m actually looking forward to painting them!

 

[blinky465 17028xp 1]

As for music, remember when the new millenium was an exciting prospect and we were still trying to work out why those six clowns in Friends loved hanging out in coffee shops so much? They feel like much simpler times from all the way over here. This reminds me of what it like to feel excited for the future, not old and cynical…

[danlee 22443xp 1]

@blinky465 actually I didn’t know that about paint. I’ll have to remember it when I paint my next model.

[horati0nosebl0wer 19649xp 1]

@blinky465 The idea that paint should be about the consistency of skim milk is what most people see as a good idea of where you’re painting. It holds up to airbrush standard as well with how you layer. The best results I’ve gotten have been put over a zenithal highlight and then built up. The drawback to this is the learning curve for mixing on the fly. The best I’ve gotten has been layering one color over another with a peek of hue through the upper layers.

[sundancer 42985xp 0]

@blinky465 that is a write up. Very much appreciated. And yeah penny-pinching gets the best of us 😉

On another note: Its Monday, hope you’re all well. 🙂

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