Monday night has become a 'painting' night now. I get home, get the dinner on and paint up some figures. My favourite miniature watches a movie with her son after school and I am left, for one night only, to my own devices for a couple of hours. Tonight, I started work again on my four skeleton horde figures. Battling changing eyesight, poor light and wonky brushes.
I made some progress layering paint over three models reflecting on the time I used to do this regularly, with confidence and speed. But its was a struggle. I found myself wanting to let rip on something a little different than bare bone.
So I went back to my little box on donated lead and found this little gnome. I've always had a fondness for gnomes (as does my favourite miniature who has placed two characterful chaps in our garden) so the chance to paint one up struck a chord with me. At first I thought this little chap was a member of the famous C11 range of Gnomes but after a little bit of research I found out that he is a member of a boxset - the Adventures Starter Set... not a release I was familiar with at all!
With a release date of 1985 it was certainly before my entry into Warhammer and sits firmly with second edition. I'm not sure who sculpted this figs so if any of you know please pass it along. Looking at the selection below you can see that they were a pretty mixed bunch of chaps. A knight in armour (who I had in my original leadpile, if rather broken and missing a tab) caught my eye as did the Young Fighter who was also part of my old collection.
Once he was dry I just highlighted up like I always did. Much of the muscle memory is still there but the technique is very rusty. But I feel like there has been a bit of progress after last week's effort.
What do you think?
In the end it wasn't just me that got interested in the paint set. My partner's son picked out an old plastic elf from a useful collection of items donated by Michael from https://angelbarracks.co.uk/. I was very appreciative to Michael for sending a couple of bags of flock and some static grass as it will allow me in the coming weeks to put together a scenic board to actually photographs these models slightly more sympathetically. Thank you for your generosity.
My partner's son had painted a few figures with friends before and had a some experience with the more modern washes (which he had in his possession) and here is his first model. His mum and dad were very impressed with his efforts, as was I as getting the initial model in any collection complete is a challenge. Michael's static grass helped finish off the base here in a more modern style than mine.
Michael, we salute you!
In other news, we have appointed an architect to begin drawing up plans to modernise the house. As I have said before, there is some irony that a man that spent many years writing about the '80s now lives in a house unchanged from that time, and a fair few years before. So who knows, I might end up with amore permanent set up again one day? At the moment I just get everything out on the kitchen table...
My M.O.T also went well. The car passed which means, fingers crossed, I might have a tiny bit of budget next week to spend of figures that catch my eye. I've seen that obscure bargains can still be found on eBay and there are a number of retro shops around here in Essex that may well contain a stray metal figure from our time period... so who knows...
Really nice work. I'm glad you're able to make time at the painting desk, even if it's a makeshift one.
ReplyDeleteIts not even makeshift... its ramshackle but I don't have to worry about getting paint on anything as one day its all going to be ripped out. Just like every other room in this house.
DeleteWicked stuff, glad the odds and sods are proving useful.
ReplyDeleteThey most certainly are... one man's junk is another man's treasure.
DeleteExcellent paint jobs, young and old! With changing eyessight, speaking as someone who has now had retina surgery on both eyes, if you're 50+ and get strobing light flashes in your eyes, see an eye doctor ASAP! :-)
ReplyDeleteThanks for the warning... I trust you speak from experience. My eyes just cross whenever I try to put a paintbrush alongside a figure. I can see the figure just fine on its own. The paintbrush too. Put them both together and it goes fuzzy.
DeleteGlad to see you’re keeping up the posts and making progress with the minis. I’ve had a break from painting and even in a few months the skill level seems to drop off - but quickly comes back. We salute you!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the encouragement. With half-term around the corner I hope to be able to get some more figures finished in daylight. You are right about the skill level though. So much muscle memory in things like this... at the moment the muscles don't always do what the mind commands. Here's hoping that changes.
DeleteVery happy to see you are making progress with your journey back to the hobby. Also gladly surprised with the dark elf. Good job both!!! Looking forward to see more entries here.
ReplyDeleteNothing like completing your first figure. Both for the rookie and the veteran. If you know what I mean...
DeleteOrlygg, your gnome looks fantastic. I love your idea of painting him using a period-authentic style and colour palette. I've also flirted with this idea as a way of reconnecting with the less-complex joy I experienced painting as a kid (i.e. no highlighting, almost no washes), but I've never had the courage.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned your eyesight. One thing that really helped me was replacing my Ikea desklamp with a proper hobby lamp (a NEATFI). Honestly, it made all the difference in the world. I really did feel like I was going back in time -- suddenly details that I thought were permanently lost to me shot back into view.
You are not the first to mention a daylight bulb. I am doing my research at the moment to see exactly what will work best. A new lamp or a new bulb. As for the colour palette... its very liberating to be free of modern convenience and modern pressures. Taking things back to the very beginning has brought back a little simple joy to the process. In the days before the internet, the first look at the details on a figure came when you split open blister packs and those little metal marvels fell into your hands.
Delete"As for the colour palette... its very liberating to be free of modern convenience and modern pressures.
DeleteTaking things back to the very beginning has brought back a little simple joy to the process. In the days before the internet, the first look at the details on a figure came when you split open blister packs and those little metal marvels fell into your hands.."
People are often their own worst critic.
The thing I find when painting is you do a good job but when you see a mistake you made, or when you look back and think, hmm maybe I should have done that stitching a different colour, you think the whole thing is not that good.
There is always that feeling that you could have done better, and you can easily beat yourself up over it.
'This is not as good as I could have done' can easily become, 'this is not good'.
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No matter how good you are, there is always someone better, and that better person is often easy to find when looking online.
Plenty of the stuff shared online is shared because the posters know it is good, especially on socials like Instagram/Twitter.
If you head to more nerdy places that are out of the way, you will find a lot of paintjobs that better represent the average paint job.
So you should be comparing yourself to the normal, not the above ‘tabletop standard’ stuff you see being shared all over the place, if you want to see how good you are.
Comparison is the thief of joy as they say. - President Theodore Rosevelt
Always remember Rule 32: Enjoy the little things. - Columbus
It was nice to read your thoughts about the process of painting Mike. And how we can ebe our own worse critics at times. My painting philosophy at the moment is just to get better (: This can be put into two separate goals. Comfort and technique.
DeleteI am working in a very poorly lit kitchen that hasn't been renovated for nearly 50 years. Its dusty and dull. I have borrowed a lamp from work and I've got the optivisors to aid me. Things are certainly improving but nothing beats daylight and that is a scarce commodity this time of year here in England. Between us we have 4 children who need constant delivery to different destinations which takes up most of our time. So time still is in a premium. But when I do have the time, no matter how short, and decent light (like today) those moments are magical. I am working on producing figures that when painting feel like my old style. What was my old style? I suppose something that would have been worthy to appear in WD back in the '80s and early '90s is all I am going for. The many tutorials you seen online now with their rows of shades just seem to result in identi-kit paintjobs. There are few individual 'styles' out there (at least from what I have seen). I used to love recognising a mini by the style of the painter.
Enjoyment is key for sure. There is one guy online whose work I would recognise by his style. I am now wondering if mine has a look or is just another paintjob.
DeleteI don't drybrush or use contrast paints so I imagine by not using common quick paint techniques my models are a bit different, hmmmmm. Off to go and see what people on blogs I follow do and if I would know their stuff from other sites..
This is a double whammy of nostalgic treats. The gnome was one of the first Citadel Miniatures I ever bought, I remember ordering it from the 1991 Red Catalogue along with a handful of knights, Norse, and Gandalf from the Fellowship of the Ring boxed set, then waiting what seemed to be forever. I struggled to paint it because I was eight years old (and my dad painted Gandalf for me). All lost in a house move some years ago so it's great to see one painted in the authentic style.
ReplyDeleteYour blog's been saved in my favourites since your original run, but I didn't expect to find any new content when I clicked the link. Really great to see you back, you've been an inspiration on my collecting, painting, and crafting. Hope to see more in coming years, you'll always have an audience!
I am glad you like the blog. I enjoy reading fellow enthusiast's stories of how they discovered this hobby and the wonderful '80s Citadel models of our era. I am intrigued by what you mean by the 'authentic style' though...
DeleteWell - you mention in the post that you were working with a limited palette, which I remember doing back in the very early '90s with my own. And I know you're using original paints as much as possible. The simple textured base really helps too. There's an overall quality I can't quite put my finger on, but that just immediately evokes the era!
DeleteAs for how I discovered the hobby - Combat Cards! The yellow "monsters" set specifically. And the first model I bought was an "Ambull", from a very old school games store in Carlisle, before Games Workshop opened a shop there.
Nice paint job, good to see you have managed to sustain your effort. Just a couple of hours a week self care makes all the difference! That set was firmly aimed at the D&D/RPG market so not really related to Warhammer at all other, hence the eclectic mix of characters. I note they were still listed as 25 mm models as well and also no elf!
ReplyDeleteYou are right, they are an odd mix of figures to put out. But these were released before the juggernauts of Rogue Trader and Warhammer were well established. GW was after all a stockist of RPGs and fantasy gubbins originally. And you are quite correct about little and often. I'm late home tonight so no painting for me but there's hope later on in the week, and half-term is around the corner with all its lovely daylight.
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ReplyDelete