Everyone raise your hand if you've heard that question before. Now those of you who didn't raise your hand, stop lying and raise yours too.
Honestly, I find it easier to describe what a role-playing game is than describe a miniature, tabletop war-game hobby. All I have to look to do is look at the person questioning me on an RPG and say the magic words "Dungeons and Dragons" and a light goes off in their head. Of course, then I usually have to defend that particular hobby against the claims of cults, satanism and drug use, but that's not the point of this article.
For all of you who struggle to describe this hobby, and time and money sink, of ours, here are some suggestions to get you through that awkward moment.
Once again, a comment in a recent article of mine prompted me to express my opinion about something intrinsic to our hobby, primer choice. In "A Matter of Opinion: The Glue that Binds", a poster who shall remain anonymous, *cough* OldSchoolTerminator *cough*, mentioned that I shouldn't even get him and his group started on the opinion of what primer works best.
Now who am I to pass up an opening like that, hmm?
With the release of the new Necron codex and figures, you had to of known this article was coming, right?
After having bought a codex myself this past Saturday, I started looking through it. My first thought was "Ooooh, Shiny!". No seriously, it was. I've already admitted to having that particular Syndrome, so lets not be too surprised over that either. Luckily I got out of my local shop with only having bought the codex.
My second thought though was, "Oh dear Lord, I wonder how many Necron players we're going to see at Adepticon this next year"
Enter, the "Bandwagon" Syndrome.
After having finally finished assembling my Paladins for my Grey Knights Army that I'll be bringing to Adepticon next year, I took a look at my list of things to finish and pondered what to build next…
1 Rhino with Forge World doors for my Strike Squad
Convert and build Kaldor Draigo
Convert and build 1 Vindicare Assassin
I was beyond done with stock assembly considering that was the vast majority of this army, as well as the reason I've yet to really update anything until now here, so I decided to break up the last three things to model to mix things up a bit…
First up, Kaldor Draigo!
Or more to the point, and the question that was posed to me earlier this week, where do you get your inspiration from?
Good Lord, where DON'T I get inspiration for projects from these days?
Many times I think that I have such a hard time finding inspiration for an army I want to do, not because I don't have sources of inspiration, but because I have so many to choose from! I've started and stopped projects in the past because I've hopped from inspiration to inspiration, and now I tend to over-think an inspiration for an army theme because I want to make sure I can be happy with it after spending hundreds of dollars on it.
Let's take a gander at some of my favorite sources of inspiration.
Yes folks, that right. There is more than one type of glue out there, and don't let your local GW store tell you any different. No matter how much they want to sell you that pretty little (emphasis on 'little') bottle with their logo on it, shop around and try out a few brands before you pick a favorite!
Or just read this article and take it from my experience on what has and hasn't been able to glue my models, and my fingers, together reliably.
Since this is one of the "A Matter of Opinion" series of articles, please note that the only glue brands and types I'll be offering any opinions on will be ones I've had personal experience with. Lets dive in, shall we?
Recently I answered a friend of mine's question about how I go about starting an army. The article resulted in some comments, of which I am always grateful for, that brought up a bit of an addendum in my mind.
In said article, I placed making an army list before purchasing the models. The simple reason being that it saves me money…and makes my wife breathe a little easier when the dent hits my wallet. However, this was not always the case. I didn't always plan far enough ahead so that I knew what to buy. I used to buy what scratched the hobby-itch and build my army from there.
So which is the better way of thinking?
As most of you know, I'm putting together a Grey Knights force for the Tournament Circuit next year. One of the best things about this army is that I get to play with the newest, as well as some of the most advanced, plastic kits GW has released to-date. As an avid modeler, you would think I'd be excited to dive into these detail-rich new plastics.
So why do I feel like I'm just going through the motions?
A friend of mine is new to the hobby, having yet to put together his first army. He's very enthusiastic, has been devouring 40k books like crazy, and has picked the Imperial Fists to be his first major project and completed army. We've brainstormed various conversions for his Fists and he's even bought the vast majority of parts, pieces and bitz to make them happen.
The other day he came up to me after I got to work and asked me something I wasn't quite prepared to answer...
"So Tim, after buying everything I needed for the army... Where do I start? What do I need to do first?"
You just... I mean... You... Crap. No one has ever asked me that before!
We've all done it. Be it because we stayed up until 3 am for three months straight getting an army ready for a tournament, played one system over and over again until we bled plastic, metal and resin, or the latest codex release just irked you so badly it made you throw up your hands and scream "Overpowered!" to the heavens. We've all burnt ourselves out on this wonderful hobby we indulge in at one time or another.
Well if you're like me, you've invested a goodly chunk of change into the hobby, no matter what your game system of choice. Every time in the past that I've gotten burnt out on my hobby, inevitably I look at all my models and kits that I put so much effort into, or have yet to even open, and feel like I'm wasting money every week I'm not playing, modeling or painting.
So how do we avoid hobby burn out?
Peruse the interwebz and blogs relating to this hobby of ours, and you're bound to come across the great debate of whether or not you should concentrate on playing to win, or concentrate of the story, modeling and painting aspects of the game.
Are you a Hobbyist, or a Gamer? Do you play to win, or do you care more about how your army looks and the story behind it?
My answer to that is a question in and of itself; Why do I have to choose?
Ever heard of the "Three Color Minimum" requirements for painting when looking into tournaments? I've seen some armies where that was taken quite literally. Heck, I've seen that recited as a mantra in the past. Luckily for the sake of our eyes, the prevalence of these paint jobs are not the average, and in fact have been in decline for quite a few years now.
So what is the average? That's where a much more common mantra enters into play... Tabletop Quality.
Let me first say that there is nothing wrong with a Tabletop Quality army. The vast majority of them look excellent on the tabletop... Hence the term itself. I'm not trying to preach some elitist opinion that everyone needs to spend 10 hours per fig, I'm just trying to avoid a reinvention of the "Three Color Minimum".
It doesn't take much, so let's dive in.
The Black Templars were really my first true army. The first one I ever built from the ground up and took pride in.
And then I sold it.
Yes, yes I know. Even though the funds from that sale made my Centurions possible, I still regret that decision somewhat. At the same time, though, I really dove into converting head-first with this army. Today I'm showcasing the Chaplain from it.
...Are belonging to Cast Resin? Ballast and Static Grass? Rocks and Bark from the backyard, or Cork maybe?
With all the options we have available to us in the modern age of the hobby now, what do you use to base your models? Is it really that important that the base your model sits on look good? Does it warrant the price of the more modern, third-party resin bases or are the tried and true methods of yesteryear still classic, and classy, enough to showcase your hard work?
How do you choose?
We've all done it. Walked into the local shop and saw the new codex, army book or boxed set that just came out, and your hobby A.D.D. kicked in. The next thing you know, you've got a new army, whether you finished the one you were in the middle of or not, using previously mentioned new, shiny codex/army book/boxed set.
Let's not confuse this with "Bandwagon" syndrome... Though similar, the "Oooooh, Shiny!" syndrome refers to anything brand new, whether it is competitive or not.
So how do we avoid this wallet-sucking syndrome? Do we even want to? I mean, just LOOK at the new Ogre models!
Tools of the Trade: Painting, included pretty much everything I currently have at my disposal at my paint station...except the paints. This was done purposefully as I have what I think people should have as a matter of fact, when painting. Then I have what paints I use, as a matter of personal opinion and, what works for me.
Since I didn't want to leave the topic hanging, we're going to start a new series titled "A Matter of Opinion", and we'll dive right on in with the paints I use, the companies I buy them from, and even a bit of what I'd like to try in the future.
Let's divide the paints into three categories; opaque, metallic and wash.
I had an Art Professor back in college that was known for many things, but one was his brutal art critiques. There were horror stories about critiques in his classes... So when I scheduled my first of many of his classes for the first time during my freshman year, I was terrified. I mean, how was I going to deal with such harsh criticism of my work?
Our first critique came and went... The world didn't end, and my personal view of my art didn't come crashing to a bitter fall. So what did happen? Probably the best and worst thing that ever could have...
He was honest with me.
We're going to take a look at how Good Criticism plays an important part in our hobby, concentrating on three key areas; Giving it, Receiving it, and most importantly Asking for it.
Let me tell you, when people like Chris Borer and Mathieu Fontaine tell you that they can spend 40 hours on average per competition miniature, they weren't kidding!
Currently I'm about 10 - 10.5 hours into the painting of the Ordos Xenos Inquisitor for my Golden Demon entry. If you include the time spent converting and sculpting, as well as the time spent on the base during my vacation, I've got over 20 hours worth of work in him.
Let's see where that's gotten me.
Vacation is over, and the Inquisitor build is complete! Above is the bare model and base, awaiting primer.
I ended up spending most of my time on the base, trying to create a story of sorts in his little 28mm environment. So let's dive into that first...
This was the first Forgeworld model that I finally assembled, painted and actually used in an army, much less a game of 40K. Note that I didn't say this was the first I ever bought! The first I bought was a Grey Knights Dreadnought... About 7 years ago. That I lost about a year later when I moved.
Losing that Dreadnought didn't really teach me a lesson though, as the next year I bought at least 4 squads of Red Scorpion upgrades, and some various other bits and bobs at a Games Day. Those ended up sitting in my Bitz Box for 3 years before I finally found a use for them
But I DID use them eventually, and for my Centurions even!!!
That got me thinking though, did I "invest" in the future of my hobby, or just waste money?
The Devastators are done! It always surprises me how much more time Terminators take me to do than a powered armor marine does. They aren't that much bigger, and the painting premise is the same, but it usually take me about half again as much time to paint one Terminator as it does to paint one standard marine.
I approached the two Dev Squads armor the same way I did the Terminators, in reference to the black to granite shading, highlighted with the 1/1 ratio of granite and bleached bone mix for the highlight. Once I finished that, I dove into the tabards...
I wanted to conclude this impromptu series with what you might find in my toolbox for the painting aspect of our hobby. More than just brushes play a part in producing a quality paint job on a figure, and we're going to touch on what I think you need to stock your own proverbial toolbox with to get the most out of your hard work and hours of dedication.
Brushes
Let's dive right into the meat of the matter with what brushes to use, and when to use what style.
