From the workbench of the esteemed Horati0nosebl0wer

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.

The biological creation of mirror life has not yet occurred. The dystopia of the rpg Paranoia is presently developing. The doom of “Prometheus” and the notion of creations destroying their creators gives me a sense of dread for our species.

The building of worlds is a human process of mental modeling. With ai this is no longer a unique exercise of human faculties. Our hyperposition brain are capable of making a reality of things that are not and unmaking things that are real.

The limit of lifespan and our execution of those visions makes humanity unique. Before we achieve the positronic brain, this is the miracle of unlikely occurrence we need to celebrate. Making small worlds of unreality to play in with our hands is good.

I’m back to doing some comparison on filter media for my airbrush. I have finished up with my filter that I’ve had in my Benchvent setup. Ive purchased media Micromark recently at a significant discount. There are issues that I need to address now.

The filters I purchased with the Benchvent system are great and work well. Materially they are constructed inside a frame of regular cardboard with some bird wire inserts stapled for stability. The media for filtration is spraybooth fibreglass for the purpose of painting at scale. The downside is the filters are pricey for the average user. The math looks like there is a steep hobby tax when looking at the main material costs considering box frames, wire and media. Labor is normally your biggest cost and if it’s all automated and run in large volume that should be significantly lower.

Overall, at a present cost of $139.95 for 6 filters and then $59 shipping(Dec ’24) I have reason to pause for this consumable product.

Considering other cardboard box filters ordered to custom size using paper media at an assumed MERV 11 rating the price drops to $96.25 from other manufacturers. This again is for a set of 6 that ship for $10 (Dec ’24). The drawback is variance in size and the ability of the media to catch spray in the air.

I purchased some material from Micromark for a size similar to my air filter seeing prices I thought were pretty good. They have 1st stage media as pads for $5.95 (x5) or rolls for more and 2nd/3rd stage filter media at $16.95. After picking up the pads and some media, I found it was just fiberglass and woven charcoal media and no cardboard. Their units are all direct exhaust from the bottom and not upright like my own. Its a pain to learn the lesson here of a good price but I can share the info so others are informed.

My final thought was to make my own and, despite prices going down markedly, the effort of storing media not in use and the effort of making my filters really outweighs the benefit of price.

All in all I believe custom sized paper filters will be my go to and just glue some prefilter or polyester batting used in sowing to the fronts. It should work well to allow me more filter changes at about the same cost as the premium stuff.

A simple PLA dice tower that I’ve had on the Pile of Shame now completed. The drybrush work came out very well and I touched it all up with AK Interactive Streaking Grime (AK012). Because of the surface being stone I dabbed it on an had it pool a bit. Raising it and lowering forcefully as if it were a dip I was trying to remove helped the material flow in the seams between stones.

The added green element is good visually. I’ve decided against adding moss tufts to give more color variety to the tower. As much as I want to, as a useful terrain piece, it will be handled far too often and they’d be pulled off eventually.

I believe I have an answer to my issue with painting armies in a timely manner. I must first have the parts in place before I start… and an actual idea that I’m painting an army.

This all comes from my first build, contrasting it with my present build and forecasting my next one. Having a plan instead of just winging it with the accumulation of units seems so simple but wasn’t obvious in the performance. There’s a difference in being present and experiencing directly to removed analysis. That all being said I am pleased to say that the current Harryhausen Hellenists (a working title) are coming out better than I expected with a loose plan.

My next army concept to work out is still split between doing Joseon Koreans or Warring State Chinese. I have both armies on standby with figures ready to be primed and get painting underway. I’m still a bit mixed on how to carry on with the projects as it seems painting is the easy part now. Giving all the inspiration and sharing visual input to what led my brain is the key to the thing. I could show “here’s unit 1, 2, 3, etc. painted and that’s the finished army”. Its good to see that but I want to share my process of.. well… processing visual information and give others something to munch on for their own ideas.

If any of this is helping anybody else out I’d be glad to hear back from people. Yelling into the void only works as I play Dredge or other Lovecraftian games.

A test of Miliput black with a GSW roller on a plastic round edge 30mm base. I recommend in future using a roller on a flat surface and then a round cutter for the center. It should give more even pressure and keep details sharp.

Beyond that I’m not sure how much use my rollers could get in the future with large scale creativity in designing bases for 3D printing. *shrug* Analog creating still has a place with me and some things can still find use. May thos small crumb of insight help anybody reading.

It’s good to let your enthusiasm rest from time to time. It may be detrimental if you get too wound up on one project coming away from another but it’s a risk you need to run sometimes. I did a quick pick me up of some fake Rubric marines and have the impetus to jump back on my Greek project. I also have been inspired on another backburner idea and let my creativity run around a bit to have the mental juices flow.

I’ve also sat and played with satin varnish as a break to matte in order to let the minis shine a bit. The Green Stuff world concrete basing material wasn’t quite what I anticipated but it suffices for use. I’ll keep to the process of making texture on plasticard for my display basing and any terrain in future.

I had a sit down while doing some magnet work and considered the notion of what AI can do and has been doing to and with our hobby. Artwork generated through recirculated digital images can be used to create new models for us gamers but it comes with the price of over engineering. Death by Detail seems to be in full swing with where GW and others are going and I think that scale creep is a symptom of it.

To draw down detail to manageable levels a human sense of what a human can work with is required. The supernatural among us who do great things with paint show that simple figures have intrinsic appeal that a painter merely draws out and amplifies through their own skill. This isn’t something a program can reproduce (hopefully ever). From this we are likely to keep seeing great products from 3D sculptors which will amaze us from the outrageous limits of creativity.

On a related note I think that the future of miniature agnostic games will continue to be bright as long as people understand how to build armies. If figures from disparate lines are brought together then the ties that bind them need to be very strong. As the physical material of an army comes together the paint then comes to connect. As a final part to the process the basing finishes the whole deal and makes the whole cohesive. No program to date has a means of building and painting what we love, because of that we need to flex our minds and fine muscle memory. Making better looking stuff by hand is the best way of keeping this hobby/cottage industry/craft(?) moving in an upward trajectory for quality.

You can’t program an army theme and have it physically in hand to play without the human mind. Positronic brains are not yet a reality.