[unofficial weekender] It’s downhill from here

[blinky465 17178xp 1]

@zoidpinhead great job – they look much more than “just” speed paints! And staying just the right side of the “no dicks” rule 😉

Paintbrushes are a great point of contention too.
I guess it’s because they’re so subjective (and each brand can be so hit-and-miss as well).
And because brushes can change how you feel about painting too. Scratchy, firm, soft, bouncy, snappy… different brushes suit different people.

I love the Pro Arte Renaissance (green handled) brushes; a couple of their number twos and a single 000 from Windsor and Newtown Series 7 and I reckon that’s all I need (it needs to be a decent W&N – get a good one for eyes and you’re set; get a bad one and you’ll hate whichever clown told you that painting eyes really isn’t that difficult after all, and, honestly,  you should do it first, on every paint job).

I had a Humbrol Coloro (lime green handle) brush that was just perfect for speed paints. So I bought myself some more this week, as I dipped my toe back in hobby-painting. They are dreadful. So even if you have a favoured brand of brush, it seems like you need to keep your fingers crossed and hope you get a good one!

Despite what other people have found, I’ve never had a bad GW paintbrush. My orange-tipped “standard” brushes lasted my far longer than they should have done and I recently bought a small “artificer” brush and it’s an absolute joy to use with both speed paints and standard acrylics (though perhaps a little one the small side for painting hulking great orc armour).

@grantinvanman I know what you mean about contrast; I love how easy snakebite leather and skeleton horde are to use. But many of their colours can be dreadful and leave a “washed out” finish.

@pagan8th what makes pens quicker/easier to use than a brush? Is it simply not having to manage your paint on palette, or keep loading the brush? I fancied trying brush-tipped acrylic pens but could see myself how they would be quicker than a brush – interested to understand how they help.

 

[grantinvanman 6248xp 1]

@blinky465 agreed – they are either too pale and yield no result, or conversely too dense and might as well be a thinned paint. I’ve been experimenting with gloss varnish airbrushed to give better “flow” to the contrasts, especially if I want to get it in the crevasses, and not just pool on the surfaces. Snakebite Leather has responded best so far, when thinned with contrast medium… it’s a lot of work for a supposedly simple paint method!

Paint pens are good – I have a bunch of both Gundam and AK. They have massive limitations for getting into hard to reach areas, though. The metallics are generally amazing – mirror metal finish.

Brushes! I have been playing with synthetics, and have come back to remembering why I gave up on them years ago: they don’t last! A high quality brush will last for years; synthetics sometimes might last a week of hard painting. I’ve given up buying any more synthetics.

 

[pagan8th 13365xp 1]

@blinky465 it think it was quicker for a number of reasons.

For a start there’s not shaking the paint and prying the lid off.

You don’t have to reload the brush ever so often, it’s just there.

Using a tip instead of a flexible brush I felt more confident with my application of paint.

When I swithed colours there was no need to clean the brush and seal the paint before choosing the next colour.

It seemed like there was less risk of colours flowing into one another, so I just plodded on to the next colour.

I’ve not looked at it properly yet… I was doing other stuff yesterday… and not expecting greatness as I wasn’t wearing glasses at the time… but if it takes a wash ok, then I might use it to get through armies quickly.

However… I think I prefer to use a brush for minis that matter to me… army leaders… RPG characters… boss monsters…

But when you have around a 100 Afrika Corp glaring at you because they have only been primed and based coated… it feel like it’s going to help me. The won’t win awards… but when viewed from arms length they will do for me.

Even if it’s just used to paint bases without risk of ruining the painting on shoes, or feet it feels like it’s worthwhile to me.

And I can’t knock the paint over… so no more desperately looking through my collection for anything that needs the spilled colour before the paint spill dries up and is lost forever.

[sundancer 43722xp 2]

And staying just the right side of the “no dicks” rule 😉

Those aren’t dicks. Just plastic knobs. But be aware of any Justin with clippers! A man who bins perfectly good minis can’t be trusted! *g*

[limburger 22081xp 0]

Either I was delusional and thinking I had posted or the new forum ate my post … or maybe I posted in a different thread while thinking it was the weekender ?

I shall blame the infernal evil day star for this.

Anyways.

Did I blame the evil day star yet for my lack of hobby this weekend ?
I feel I need to do so. Bloody heat is no fun and this 60’s era house ain’t designed for hot days (it was 30 degrees inside and I think my pc couldn’t stand the heat either).

As for 2025 so far?

Spring clean challenge was and always will be a great idea. It reminded me that I had to finish my hobby room.
It’s not done yet, but I blame the evil day star for that … I don’t feel like doing anything when it’s hot outside and inside.
So getting the motivation to do anything is extra hard.

Maybe we need a fall/autumn prep challenge ? (I’m never sure which is the correct English and which is the American variant for that one).

Every season could do with its own unique challenge. Spring shouldn’t hog all that glory.

In other news … I’ve had to deal with UPS and their idea of ‘customer support’.
First filing a claim because they claimed that they had delivered my Port Royal pledge (my security cam showed no such attempt).

Today there was an actual delivery attempt (as recorded by my security camera), but the note got stuck inside my mailbox (which is why I didn’t notice it until I saw the footage) and then the infernal UPS website didn’t show me where he had left it (in theory a pickup location nearby … ).

Oh … and the UPS app has one of those ‘AI’ chatbots. The bloody thing can’t understand anything a real human types, which makes it useless. I will try contacting a human tomorrow, if I remember to do so during office hours.

So while I could have been tinkering with ‘Port Royal’ the heat and UPS made sure that didn’t happen.
With the weather cooling I hope to find enough motivation to do something else instead.

[sundancer 43722xp 0]

That sounds like… fun? XD

Challenges during spring, autumn and winter sounds fine but summer should be left as “we all to nothing but BBQ and chill”.

[pagan8th 13365xp 1]

The challenge in summer is not to melt.

[zoidpinhead 12712xp 1]

Challenges during spring, autumn and winter sounds fine but summer should be left as “we all to nothing but BBQ and chill”.

Says the man who challenged us all to a painting competition 😉

Maybe we need a fall/autumn prep challenge ? (I’m never sure which is the correct English and which is the American variant for that one).

@limburger – ‘autumn’ is British English and the Americans use ‘fall’.  I doubt the Brits will be offended if you use the wrong one, but we generally use the word fall to mean someone/thing taking a tumble.  In the US ‘autumn’ is considered to be the literary/poetic form and ‘fall’ is for everyday speech.

Good luck battling the chatbot tomorrow.

[sundancer 43722xp 1]

Says the man who challenged us all to a painting competition

Um….. I…. gotta go!

[limburger 22081xp 0]

@zoidpinhead I’m not too worried about offending anyone, but I like to keep my English consistent with British standards instead of whatever Americans did to it  🙂

@sundancer : doing nothing can be a challenge too 😉

BBQ’s are only fun when they’re the old fashioned coal powered variants and not the gas-powered variants. The latter are glorified kitchens and lack the smell/taste of burning coal that make it interesting.

 

 

[jeffersonpowers]

I’ve painted less than half of the models that were top of my list to get done at the beginning of the year, but I’ve still managed to paint just over 150 so far, plus a fair amount of terrain, so that’s something, I suppose?

My other goal for the year was to play more. In particular I set myself a goal of 25 games involving painted miniatures (not including roleplaying games), and to try to write up battle reports for all of them. So far I’ve managed two games of Savage Core, four games of Shatterpoint, and four games of Star Schlock, plus one game of Hairfoot Jousting that I haven’t written a battle report for (not sure how interesting that would be). That’s 11 games total so far, not quite where I probably should be at the halfway point but not too bad.

Pledge: well, I haven’t managed last week’s pledge, so…

Music: lately I have been listening to the Battlestar Galactica soundtracks quite a bit. At five volumes (season 4 is two discs) it can fill up an afternoon pretty easily.

• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by jeffersonpowers.
• This reply was modified 4 months, 3 weeks ago by jeffersonpowers.

[sundancer 43722xp 1]

Soundtracks are a great listen from time to time. No lyrics that will distract me. And usually it’s all at a nice pace

[jeffersonpowers 363xp 0]

I love listening to soundtracks for just that reason.

[jeffersonpowers 363xp 1]

@zoidpinhead that is very impressive. I can’t seem to manage good skin tones with Speedpaints, any tips you’d like to share?

[sundancer 43722xp 1]

FUCK!

Ozzy is dead?

That came sooner than expected.

“No more tears” was my first self bought vinyl record.

Thanks for your music and your madness. Say hello to Lemmy, Ronny, Bon and David for me.

\m/ #RIP

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