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