Another New Studio

Well our last landlords here in Warrensburg apparently fell off the face of the planet so we had to move house unexpectedly. We managed to find a much larger rental property for only about $150.00 more than we were paying a month and we were paying very low rent there. It's a three bedroom house with a separate garage and a really big yard. Still moving cuts into painting and terrain making time not to mention game time. The studio is about 50% larger than the old studio but I couldn't get as much shelving into it as I could the last one due to the layout so I put a lot of my model kits and long term WIPs on my other two shelves out in the laundry room. I think it's going to work out pretty well and I don't feel so crowded in this room.

Here is the left side wall from the door. I managed to get two five tier shelves up. I still need to rearrange my shelves to get the most important projects in each room. There is quite a bit of finished terrain on these two shelves. Eventually I want to have only WIPs on these shelves but I don't have enough nice shelving in the living room to display it.

Here's my painting desk in the right wall. I've got a smaller five tier shelf in the corner because that's all that would fit there. My paint desk is still not in order but it is in place.

Here's a shot of the left hand corner behind the door. I have some more short shelves and as you can see there is a small closet in this room as well.

Ah yes and here's Gordon the studio gorilla reading my copy of Savage Worlds a game I haven't played yet but am dying to try. Gordon seems to like it anyway.

I've shown you what is and now you get to see what could be. This is the garage. The last people who rented this place apparently stole the garage door. They also stole the refrigerator and stove. I'm not sure why. Anyway we're trying to get the door replaced and I hope to get the garage re-wired since the old wiring has been cut. Pretty soon I hope to turn this into the uber terrain studio.

Technical Difficulties.

I've been having computer problems lately so I haven't been able to update anything. I think I've got things figured out so I should be able to add some new post soon. Stay Tuned.

Longest "Speed Paint" project ever.

So I've decided to do a Warhammer 40K army and the only I still have enough figures for is my Sister's of Battle army. I started collecting this army several years ago. I'm thinking at least nine years ago and perhaps longer. I painted up a five sister battle squad straight away because in their first incarnation the minimum squad size was five then I started painting these seraphim. I got everything done on them other than their hair, weapons, and other small details then let them sit on my shelf collecting dust because I decided I hated 3rd edition. So Wednesday night I pulled them out dusted them off and finished them up. My painting style has changed over the years but I think these gals came out as a good table top squad. They arn't very heavily highlighted or tightly detailed but they they do have enough contrast for army figs. For instance their armor is just one layer of drybrushing over black but it gave me the exact look I wanted for them. They are from the Order of the Iron Rose my own order and I wanted their armor to look like brushed iron. Now I need to try to keep the rest of the troops painted to this level and try not to over work them. Of course I plan to paint the characters to a higher level but I'm pretty happy with this level as a squad.

Gamer ADD

Howdy folks. Sorry about the lack of quality updates. I have been working on things. Too many things. In fact it's starting to look like a case of Gamer Attention Deficit Disorder. I have just way too many ideas and not enough time to work them all out. No amount of organization or planning seems to be helping me. As soon as I get stuck in on one project I get another "great idea" that diverts my attention and resources away from projects I should be working on. I hate it when this happens as it usually just causes me to have a lot of unfinished stuff laying around.

Games I'm currently involved in:

Shadowrun: Fortunately as a player and we aren't real miniatures heavy on the Shadowrun game. The GM has a bunch of the old Ral Partha Shadowrun minis in various stages of somewhat painted. I'm glad at least he's doing miniatures in some form because SR combat can get "interesting".

Serenity: I'm running this game and doing a ton of miniature projects for it but I'm starting to waver. I've only finished minis for about half the party and one of the PCs doesn't have a mini at all finished or not. I've still got a half painted fed squad and a pack of reavers that are still in their blisters. I have finished several NPC types but I'd say I still have 50-100 minis to finish for this project. The game is currently on hold until September due to schedule conflicts among the players.

BMAP: This is my family pulp adventure game and it's stalled due to the fact that I'm not ready to continue to the next scenario due to not having all the minis or terrain done yet. Moving house really hurt this campaign and our one non family member player now lives like 90 miles away. Hopefully I'll get back on this "soon"

Games I'm suppose to be working on:

Blackfeather: Another pulp adventure game set in the U.S. Only played one session of this game so far.

Star Wars Star Destroyer Liberty: I was suppose to start this Clone Wars era campaign over a month ago but I just can't get it together.

Warhammer Fantasy Battles: I'm suppose to be helping get a Warhammer league going at one of the local game shops but I'm not up on the current rules yet and my armies are still half packed up from the move.

Warhammer 40k: Never tell anyone you have enough minis to make an army for this game. They will immediately start pressuring you to join their 40k game group.

Games I really, really, really, want to play:

Sky Pirates: Still working slowly on a campaign that I plan to run spanning both "Weird Wars". I have planes and some minis but can't get a group interested yet. Probably a good thing due to other projects. This one will have to simmer on the back burner for a while I'm afraid. I'll certainly work on it but only a little at a time.

Santa Carlito Zombie Republic: A recent idea for a Zombie outbreak game I plan to set on the fictitious Caribbean island of Santa Carlito. I may even do this as a multi group campaign where each "team" can affect the story line.

Other game project ideas:

The Adventures of Jack Harrison: A pulp adventure featuring the Jack Harrison model by Reaper Miniatures. I plan to use only Reaper miniatures for this game and their RAGE engine for the rules. I plan to make it a convention game and hope to run it at Recruits Convention in Lee's Summit Missouri some time in the future.

Starfarers of Sol: A sci-fi setting based entirely on our own solar system without aliens.

Deadlands: I'd really like to play a Deadlands campaign.

Pirates: Yeah pirates.

Arthurian: I've had a number of abortative attempts at doing a rpg set in Arthurian England.

Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying: I keep buying the books but can't get people interested.

Mordheim/Necromunda: Yeah the two GW games I actually want to play but everyone else wants to play the money pit games.

Dry Brushing Update

I have started a unit of Dwarf Clansmen from the Warhammer Fantasy "Battle for Skull Pass" boxed set. I'll try to add some pics tonight but it's been a really busy week. I think they are going pretty well though.

August painting project "Speed Techniques"

Alright my July miniature a day project was a bit of a bust but I still finished quite a few more minis than I have on several previous months so it wasn't a total loss. Now I've decided to do another speed oriented project exploring the usefulness of various speed techniques I've encountered over the years. I'll try a different technique each week and I'll try for about five models per technique.

Dry Brushing
First up will be dry brushing. Now dry brushing is considered a very basic technique and it's often looked down on by contest and display painters but it can be a very good way to achieve quick and dramatic results. I will try to paint five models using entirely dry brushing as a means of highlighting and I will try to get the best results I can as quickly as possible.

Minwax Dip
I've never actually tried this technique but I've seen it used in several tutorials. Basically you block in the colors on a miniature then dip the mini in a pot of Minwax finish and shake off the excess paint. I think the trick to this technique is to use colors a shade or two brighter than you normally would to get the best results. I'm gonna give it a try anyway.

Emphasised Washes
This is a new technique I've never seen but it makes sense. I first heard of it on the Reaper forums in the speed painting section but the origional article was posted on Cool Mini or Not. I've not tried this one either so it will be a first. Here is the article.

Tanks and Trolls Wash and Highlight technique
I've been using this technique a lot lately although I think I've been taking it a bit further than the origional article. Still it's faster than doing different color washes for each color. I'm going to see if I can't cut back a bit and do some more like the origional article.

Miniature or more a day update.

Well sadly all good things must come to an end. I just can't keep up. I'm now four days behind and I had better quit before I burn myself out. I still managed to get quite a few minis done than I did last month and I may paint a few more by the 31st but I'm not going to push myself to get 31 done. I've just got too much going on between working full time and running a weekly game not to mention family time. Perhaps some day I'll be able to do it again and do better but right now is not the time.