From the workbench of the esteemed Horati0nosebl0wer

I’m back to doing some comparison on filter media for my airbrush. I have finished up with my filter that I’ve had in my Benchvent setup. Ive purchased media Micromark recently at a significant discount. There are issues that I need to address now.

The filters I purchased with the Benchvent system are great and work well. Materially they are constructed inside a frame of regular cardboard with some bird wire inserts stapled for stability. The media for filtration is spraybooth fibreglass for the purpose of painting at scale. The downside is the filters are pricey for the average user. The math looks like there is a steep hobby tax when looking at the main material costs considering box frames, wire and media. Labor is normally your biggest cost and if it’s all automated and run in large volume that should be significantly lower.

Overall, at a present cost of $139.95 for 6 filters and then $59 shipping(Dec ’24) I have reason to pause for this consumable product.

Considering other cardboard box filters ordered to custom size using paper media at an assumed MERV 11 rating the price drops to $96.25 from other manufacturers. This again is for a set of 6 that ship for $10 (Dec ’24). The drawback is variance in size and the ability of the media to catch spray in the air.

I purchased some material from Micromark for a size similar to my air filter seeing prices I thought were pretty good. They have 1st stage media as pads for $5.95 (x5) or rolls for more and 2nd/3rd stage filter media at $16.95. After picking up the pads and some media, I found it was just fiberglass and woven charcoal media and no cardboard. Their units are all direct exhaust from the bottom and not upright like my own. Its a pain to learn the lesson here of a good price but I can share the info so others are informed.

My final thought was to make my own and, despite prices going down markedly, the effort of storing media not in use and the effort of making my filters really outweighs the benefit of price.

All in all I believe custom sized paper filters will be my go to and just glue some prefilter or polyester batting used in sowing to the fronts. It should work well to allow me more filter changes at about the same cost as the premium stuff.

A simple PLA dice tower that I’ve had on the Pile of Shame now completed. The drybrush work came out very well and I touched it all up with AK Interactive Streaking Grime (AK012). Because of the surface being stone I dabbed it on an had it pool a bit. Raising it and lowering forcefully as if it were a dip I was trying to remove helped the material flow in the seams between stones.

The added green element is good visually. I’ve decided against adding moss tufts to give more color variety to the tower. As much as I want to, as a useful terrain piece, it will be handled far too often and they’d be pulled off eventually.

I believe I have an answer to my issue with painting armies in a timely manner. I must first have the parts in place before I start… and an actual idea that I’m painting an army.

This all comes from my first build, contrasting it with my present build and forecasting my next one. Having a plan instead of just winging it with the accumulation of units seems so simple but wasn’t obvious in the performance. There’s a difference in being present and experiencing directly to removed analysis. That all being said I am pleased to say that the current Harryhausen Hellenists (a working title) are coming out better than I expected with a loose plan.

My next army concept to work out is still split between doing Joseon Koreans or Warring State Chinese. I have both armies on standby with figures ready to be primed and get painting underway. I’m still a bit mixed on how to carry on with the projects as it seems painting is the easy part now. Giving all the inspiration and sharing visual input to what led my brain is the key to the thing. I could show “here’s unit 1, 2, 3, etc. painted and that’s the finished army”. Its good to see that but I want to share my process of.. well… processing visual information and give others something to munch on for their own ideas.

If any of this is helping anybody else out I’d be glad to hear back from people. Yelling into the void only works as I play Dredge or other Lovecraftian games.

A test of Miliput black with a GSW roller on a plastic round edge 30mm base. I recommend in future using a roller on a flat surface and then a round cutter for the center. It should give more even pressure and keep details sharp.

Beyond that I’m not sure how much use my rollers could get in the future with large scale creativity in designing bases for 3D printing. *shrug* Analog creating still has a place with me and some things can still find use. May thos small crumb of insight help anybody reading.

It’s good to let your enthusiasm rest from time to time. It may be detrimental if you get too wound up on one project coming away from another but it’s a risk you need to run sometimes. I did a quick pick me up of some fake Rubric marines and have the impetus to jump back on my Greek project. I also have been inspired on another backburner idea and let my creativity run around a bit to have the mental juices flow.

I’ve also sat and played with satin varnish as a break to matte in order to let the minis shine a bit. The Green Stuff world concrete basing material wasn’t quite what I anticipated but it suffices for use. I’ll keep to the process of making texture on plasticard for my display basing and any terrain in future.

I had a sit down while doing some magnet work and considered the notion of what AI can do and has been doing to and with our hobby. Artwork generated through recirculated digital images can be used to create new models for us gamers but it comes with the price of over engineering. Death by Detail seems to be in full swing with where GW and others are going and I think that scale creep is a symptom of it.

To draw down detail to manageable levels a human sense of what a human can work with is required. The supernatural among us who do great things with paint show that simple figures have intrinsic appeal that a painter merely draws out and amplifies through their own skill. This isn’t something a program can reproduce (hopefully ever). From this we are likely to keep seeing great products from 3D sculptors which will amaze us from the outrageous limits of creativity.

On a related note I think that the future of miniature agnostic games will continue to be bright as long as people understand how to build armies. If figures from disparate lines are brought together then the ties that bind them need to be very strong. As the physical material of an army comes together the paint then comes to connect. As a final part to the process the basing finishes the whole deal and makes the whole cohesive. No program to date has a means of building and painting what we love, because of that we need to flex our minds and fine muscle memory. Making better looking stuff by hand is the best way of keeping this hobby/cottage industry/craft(?) moving in an upward trajectory for quality.

You can’t program an army theme and have it physically in hand to play without the human mind. Positronic brains are not yet a reality.

Thanks to the Wonder of Ye Olde Interwebs I have found a means of returning to a process I haven’t played with for some time. Getting a formal class in oil painting taught me the process of a burnt umber breakdown, a value sketch of a piece in a neutral hue, and then dashing all my preconceived notions on color theory by assignments in using split complimentary hues but shifting all colors used in the same direction (warmer/cooler). Needless to say, it breaks the brain and opens up a different way of seeing and applying paint.

This thinking sprang forth, as it was mentioned that Ninjohn didn’t use basic black/white primer. I saw his process and I got to thinking that I’d go about emulating this as well in my own work at scale on a future army. Yes, I will do the insane and spread my love over an entire army in a non-Slaanesh/Crispin manner. Those people I will complain to please bear with me as I go about my madness. I think I have nailed something down to push on with developing my painting.

Horati0, what is best for mini painting?

To crush your enemies in competition, drive them before you with award in hand and hear the lamentations of their women (kind of a pipe dream as spouses rarely accompany for these kinds of things)… or to be an unemployed barbarian

Once more on the employment merry-go-round and it’s getting old. To keep spirits up while doing the search for work I’ve gone about getting my brush in motion as might’ve been evident recently. I’m just about ready to wrap up all the Giftmas givings and keep punching out the random things sitting on the backburner.

Thanks to what I have in store for Lloyd I’m getting onboard with my display pieces once more. Motivation is motivating when going from victory to victory. Let’s just hope he sees it that way as well (heh heh heh).

I got something big finished. A dire wolf from Mierce that I meant to add to the Viking project from some time ago now will be presented to a friend of mine. I show this off with a straggler from the sprue of Vikings and you can see there is quite a bit of resin atop the 80mm base. The pose was a bit awkward to work with but using bits I hope it looks more interesting than bare grass.

So I’ve been busy with things as of late. My friend who regularly runs his D&D campaign had his last game two weeks ago before the school year killed off all his time. I got in some random models he was sure to use.

Addendum of GW Khemri at random. I received these a few years from the generosity of a site member with intent of doing another project for display. That didn’t happen but I needed a small victory in slaying the gray. It was a day at the FLGS for bs and slinging Speed paint. Pretty good for not caring too much. I think there’s is definite use for these paints for mass battle games in short order.

The same friend who I did the Romans for had dropped this 3D printed Madcat Mk. II on me a few months back. I sat and considered what to do until I finally got motivated and did some painting. As per the title this is the Beta Galaxy for Cland Ghost Bear in Battletech. I had to do some hunting online for the decals despite having a respectable collection of hobby stuff otherwise.

As one off piece in FDM for my friend it works by me to work in 10mm(?). Overall I’ll stick with 25/28s as I have so much yet to do. More on the way.

So I’ve gotten more done for my friend running a longstanding D&D campaign. A quick segue from the Romans and desert halflings for cash. It doesn’t help that I finally had some Battletech decals come in. It means I have yet more to do.

Took a break from the Greek mythology for a little bit as I get the fauns painted, the Amazons assembled and arrange the recent shipment of centaurs.

A friend of mine got through trade school and aside from his Madcat Mk II on the backburner I thought to do these guys for him. As he informed me of the series Stieger’s Tigers I thought it would be good to give him something we might be able to play in SAGA. There’s a bolt thrower on standby to paint as I get these guys taken care of. Hopefully I can get all this and some of Giftmas before the next big leap into mini space.

Back In the saddle again and happy to say work is being pushed along. I had a friend stop by for a few days and I’ve decided to paint up the TTCombat desert halflings that’ve been sitting around doing nothing. I showed off my Arabian Knights to him, got the feedback that the work was very good and noted that the Arabic banners I had meticulously put on had been affixed upside down on a few models. Note for anyone else, be familiar with the language to toss onto your models.

Beyond that I surprised myself with the beautiful result of the airbrush application VGC Gold Yellow (72.007). The new Vallejo bottles really do a good job to give a better idea of what the resulting paint will be and I’ve not been let down. I’ll compliment this with some Express Color later to make short work of these little guys.

I bought this specifically for preserving beautiful leaves I had made using GSW punches and real leaves. As the product says it is for actual plants I picked it up to make bases more eye catching. The directions state to have the vegetation soak in the bottle for 24 hours. It’s just seven hours for the soak time now and all the color has leached from the leaf matter.

Granted, these leaves are two years old so it might be a variable to taken into consideration but the colors are pretty good for the age. Overall, this has left me questioning if the product was a wasted purchase.

Yes, perhaps harsh for a decision but it does bear out in this initial test. It may also be a matter of time submerged so I’ll try again. For the moment I’ll call this a fail .

I’ve had time to sit and think about quantity versus quality. It stems from the gaming convention last month and the judging of my figures. Receiving the feedback that my work was at that of high level gaming is supportive that I do well enough but not so much to compete outside of a gaming store. Now, after the exhilaration of the competition, I’m thinking in terms of making my models present better. I know I can do better. I want to be able to give myself that sense of “shiny” and simultaneous “I did that”.

I don’t feel bad about my entries as they are the best I have so far. I want to have better results and still maintain a high level of productivity. The quality of number and the quality of end result stand at seeming odds with each other.

Right now I am trying to paint a large figure and make it quite presentable but I find myself asking if it’s worth it as a gaming piece. To put in all the extra effort of adding in more shadows and highlighting with greater care seems like I’m putting in too much. I have more figures and plenty of work to do. I think that drops my need to go ham on the gratuitous detail despite the fact it is a huge monster. Ugh, balancing “The Force of the Brush” is indeed a real thing now as I become aware of it. I am thankful for Speedpaint and my airbrush for future effort.

Having seen this book and purchasing it myself I believe I can push my painting with practice further up the ranks. I already have an idea for next year of trying out NMM chrome on a unit of mechanized cavalry. This aspiration is a small unit outside of the army I am continuing to work on. Again, being realistic on effort.

Not much to report but a spot of information to share from thus weekend’s convention. I had my first in person sculpting class and it gave me more insight into how I’ve been going about greenstuff wrong. First, the ribbons of blue/yellow was a known bad investment. What I didn’t know was that keeping the separate blue/yellow sticks in the same tube or container was not good either. It seems, from my class, that the vapors from the material can cause the reaction of hardening.

Using material that had been kept in their own small plastic bins and later mixed with equal parts of Apoxiesculpt made for a pliant putty that did in fact start to set in an hour. A few hours later it was set solid. I was very impressed and with the pointer of when to start sculpting things like hands I feel like I can raise my kitbash game. It will also help with the rig that the teacher was kind enough to give each of us and keep.

Outside of that I won a first place in the painting competition for Group (my Arabian Knights commander on horse with entourage) and placed third in the Single Figure category (same army, leader on the giant scorpion). I’m feeling good and think I’ll start on getting my entry for next year together. Like other thing, a little work at a time can lead to outstanding results. I might start going to other cons for this kind of thing now. There’s a big world and I’m a small fish that needs to grow beyond this bowl.

After digging around in my past photos here’s what Warren’s army looked like all ranked up before I sent them. The bases were painted to reflect the same kind of detail as the Little Big Men Studios shield transfers.

The gifting time is here since I saw a future gamer without his own army. Here is the handiwork of a Noseblower with purpose.

Its not a spectacular effort to wow the crowds but it passes my muster for a serviceable selection of 4 points or more. Here’s to a first foray into weird and wonderful non GW fare. Maybe we might see a bright new OTT-er pup on the boards.