From the workbench of the esteemed Horati0nosebl0wer

With this week’s XLBS in the bag and chewed over for a bit I think I’ll think some more and mull over the matter a little longer. I think this stream of consciousness format works well on project. It is using this blogging technology as intended. I’m on topic of what’s going on in my head as a larger meal than the mini morsels you may be teased on with Vtubers or X account blurbs.

So, here’s my latest idea as inspired by my last batch of minis. I’ll put together more Verrotwood cults. With a count of a whopping 4 models I think I can manage those kinds of numbers without anxiety around if I would be getting them done. The first brain baby to birth is a cult consisting of a a little girl and her murderous animated dolls.

I started off with the movie of Plank Face from 2016.

I remembered the bunny masked girl in the film and thought I saw something in the Verrotwood book with the same and perhaps an alternate cultist head sprue done in plastic that also had pig head masks. I looked but only found stls for Frank the Rabbit from Donny Darko as stls. I did find other creepy images to run with.

From there I went down a hole of gothic lolita street fashion from Japan. Got reupped on my info about subgenres to that fashion trend (elegant goth loli, sweet loli, wa loli and erololi among others). Off to Pintrest for more pages on Victorian lawn dresses I then was struck with remembering the game Rule of Rose.

I hit the brakes on fashion and turned to the horror of little girls. The Children was creepy and the uncanny valley of children in general from other movies is pretty bad. Most recently M3G4N hits that nail on the head. Thus to Myminifactory did I go and found the following which are perfect and being printed by a friend of mine after I wrote a short blurb on my head canon.

Momma never let her have any dolls, then little Lydia found Lord Stuffington. He’d talk to her sometimes when they played. His voice was a bit fuzzy, a little like a low dog growl, the creak of wood in her house with breaking glass and the jimgle bells on a hat. It made her a little dizzy and other sounds like they’re behind a cotton fog. She didn’t feel very good when he did too long.

During one of their games said he was alone and needed friends. He wanted an army but he needed her help to lead it. He made her his captain and said she could have more friends just like him. Now she gets all the dolls she can ever want to play with and no one can ever tell her no again. She and her army of dolls get all the nicest things after the screaming stops.

The Unmade are finally built and painted. I scrapped the GW bases and threw the eight warrior models onto 30s and the leader on a 40. Overall I’m good with the outcome. I am, however, sad to see my stock of old Army Painter tufts that used Mininatur shrink. The Wasteland color scheme works well here.

Time to turn to The Corvus Cabal

Blargh! Its 35°C and I want to divorce this weather. Staying with metric for a moment I will say I miss living at around 1.6km above sea level. The air was dry at about 7-13% humidity but it was a dry heat. My mustache is in dire need of looking dignified again. I don’t think I’ll be able to go about without gel in the ends to avoid the puffed out look from wax melting.

Ok, rant aside and going back to the reasonable world of Freedom Units I think the outside of 102° is a bit excessive for roaming around. It was because of this I have used my local library and actually finished a whole book. Its a small step as it wasn’t very massive but I accomplished it in one sitting. Now, time to find a job and paint more minis.

I think this new place can be called home in the hobby sense now. I’ve put up shelves, got supplies on the wall and I finished a model I’ll be sending back to Colorado. My 3D crack dealer has my new address and I’m still sorting through the random boxes of stuff. The important things of minis, books and clothes are all sorted and getting set as I attempt to manage this new space. Giftmas cannot get here soon enough as I dearly need the closet space at the moment.

This move has proved to be a refurbishment for myself ànd it seems like one for my brother. Playing handyman around the house was not in my plan as it’s his place. Uff

I am beat. I packed up all my boxed stuff on Thursday in a truck before heading out to drive 8 hours. I knocked out in my car that I was towing for a few hours before getting on the road for another 7. I got in with my brother to do half of the unpacking. I’m showered with food in my belly and glad to see that all my magnetized armies survived. Yeah, the minis I haven’t worked on shifted and as far as I know nothing broke. The only casualties were a couple of flute beer glasses but I think those can be replaced soon enough. Time for sleep. I’ll have all the rest of my crap unpacked after the rest. Good luck to the rest of you and best wishes for hobby while I’m on a short hiatus.

Its almost time to move again and the majority of my things are ready to get put into a moving truck. I’ve got holdout hobby that have been kept from being squirrelled into boxes and there’s progress for balancing out my headspace. Surprisingly, the single day figures I’ve completed in the past few weeks, future reveals, are pretty good.

The stress of a hard timeline like this with prepped single figures on the side is a good lesson in how to manage one’s Pile of Overwhelming Potential (your PoOP) or the Hoard of Shame. The Spring Clean also pushed this idea on me. I think I should be more mindful of this fact instead of going on a sliding scale for my projects.

Inspired by this week’s XLBS I’ll post what I think might be a good checklist of army building for the n00b/lost/frightened when making a force without an officially licensed set of minis for an IP.

• Select a theme of the army for head canon building
• Select a base range of figures on visual aesthetic that appeals to you
• Allow for specialist add-ons that might violate base set range but ties in with main theme of army (refer to the Rule of Cool)
• Bring cohesion to the collection with visual cues: scale, overall main color/s, heraldry, weaponry, style of basing , and other motifs prevalent among the minis.

So I was given the recommendation by ai in YouTube to look at videos that make digital kitbashing easier in Blender. OK, not a bad thing to have knowledge of but creepy as hell to have my sense of privacy intruded upon. That aside, I find that the following very much will make my life very much more pleasant in modifying digital files in future. I just need to sit and devote time to get experience in practicing these things. I have hope to field minis I need for my insane future armies.

I went from food to stuff in general. I have enough stuff. The collection urge has gone from not having anything to not having enough. Once enough was attained it became too much to manage. Curating that stuff needed to occur for volume and  interest. The moderating factor of painter experience level plays a role in what gets collected as well. The effort level demands increased time and proportionally decreases the amount of output. What I can achieve at a level that makes me happy only goes as fast as I do.

I zeroed in on my minis and value metal minis for the sake of tradition in art, nostalgia in that tradition and the security of weight in hand while holding a figure. I value the skill and talent of those with hands and minds trained to make physical miniatures. I see the value and merit of digital format miniatures for the sake of access to quality designs. I see the bespoke nature of boutique figures/busts to be worth the cost as unique and limited pieces. The limited pieces are really justified as fully painted objects beyond mere possession.

If you can’t spend the time to learn the tools to digitally kitbash you have general figures. If you develop as a digital artist do you have time to be a great painter? As we see time and time again, “crap” models can be salvaged by a good paintjob and decent models can end up as absolute ass.

It may seem like my present army painting is the epitome of all that is contrary to my idea. I feel as though it is a culmination of curation at scale to unique and creative themes. With better experience I hope to paint more at a better level than I do now in faster time.

From all this I will reduce my Pile of Shame with fostering the interest in mini painting as Paint and Takes. Little by little I will show people what it is to enjoy the artisanal versus slop. It starts somewhere with single figures that makes us feel connected to unique pieces. The problem of feeling inadequate in skill is where we stumble. Our hands stop on account of our heads. I hope to show others that good work can be achieved and promote good hobby in my community. I hope this inspires some local efforts out there too.