Work often takes me off on adventures, and today I am reporting from Melbourne- Australia's cultural, if not official, capital. The one thing I can definitely say about Melbourne is it takes care of its geeks. Sydney, now bereft of any miniature shops other than GW should take note!
So after a wonderful day of site seeing (including the must see minotaur store), the call of the hobby summoned me to Mind Games where I had a good go at emptying their shelves of Bob Ridolfi minis and other Reaper shiny things.
Naturally I had to open them and have a improvised game of pchoo, pchoo in the hotel with my new dollies! Bob Ridolfi's aptly named incredible woman is just breathtaking as is his Allura Succubus. I grabbed some chronoscope figures and microsrt tech crates for Stardred too...
Sadly my holiday spirit was cut short by food poisoning, so I am currently surviving all alone in my hotel with nothing but gastrolyte, poweraid and hotel priced toast.
I am accepting sympathy comments below... and donations of miniatures ;)
Anyway, the thing I really wanted to blog about is, whilst there, a young kidlet was taking his first steps into warhammer hobby (learning how to pester his dad into paying for GW products by getting really excited and waving one expensive and one really, stupidly expensive option so the day would pick the cheaper option- bravo kid!)
Dad, however, won my respect by using the exact same tactic back on him - resulting in the kid happily buying a goblin starter paint set). I can just imagine the lad getting home, racing through his homework (the dad reminded him in an admirably firm and yet nurturing way about that responsibility) and proceeding to dunk and splatter his way to his first wrecked brush and that wonderful thing that is 'my first mini!'
I wanted to give him sooooo much advice, but giddy from what I suspect is an acute, super hybrid mutation of manflu and salmonella (I dub thee manellazilla-rex) I could only grin and think of the night I dunked my first snotling into a pot of goblin green and tried to paint eyes on with a 60p newsagent nylon watercolor brush. No advice can compare to making your first mistakes, and I really hope he keeps those goblins for years to come.
So I got thinking about what advice I would give a boy with a boys attention span. What are those, lets say, five golden tips to get you started.
Mine would have to be...
1:hey kid- undercoat- dont skip this! A thin, even undercoat is like a clean sheet of paper to work on.
2: hey kid- aim to just get everything neatly colored in before moving onto learning to shade- and do this on all your figures in the box before you buy any more!
3: hey kiddo- less paint on brush=more control! Only put a little paint on your brush, scrape off blobs onto the lip inside the pot and touch the brush to kitchen towel to soak up excess moisture that could flood your models details. You tell the paint where to go... Not the other way around!
4: hey Kid- to steady your hands put elbows on table, lock palms together, breathe out and hold your breath as you slowly stroke the brush. Dont forget to breathe afterwards.
5: kidster- hey dont worry if you make a mess and it does not look anywhere as good as the eavy metal ones... You can always strip the paint off with dettol and try again and again til your happy!
What would your five tips be?
I spent a bit of time in Melbourne some few years ago and before I got back into playing around with little men! Great city though.
ReplyDeleteCommiserations on the rebellious gut - who knows hotel priced toast might have the edge on regular toast?
My tips would be -
1. Chop off the annoying sticky outy bits left from the sprue before applying paint.
2. Buy some inks!
3. Try mixing some different colours instead of using them straight out of the pot
4. Master the art of neat drybrushing
5. Stop comparing yorself unfavourably with 'eavy metal!
Tips? Only have one not covered before...
ReplyDelete1. Wash your assembled minis before you paint them!
2. Use a plastic lid for a palette
3. Thin the paint on your palette with a drop or two of water.
4. Several coats, especially with yellow.
5. DON'T BUY MORE THAN YOU PAINT, DAMNIT! =)
I would also advise the kid to learn how to count above one (1).
ReplyDeleteHi Dave,
ReplyDeleteOn a completely different note; if your feeling any better before you head home you might be interested in having a look at the "victorian hobby centre" (on swanston street near flinders street station). and no, i don't work there, they just have a lot of cool hobby stuff to gork at.
lastly, i was a bit disappointed to read that there aren't any hobby shops left in sydney (apart from GW), as i'm actually heading up there in a few weeks and thought i could peruse the hobby shops. oh well, not to be :(
cheers
Funnily enough I did and picked up a handful of brushes- very good store.
ReplyDeleteWhen in sydney there is a game store opposite kings comics in the city that stocks massive amounts of roleplaying game stuff, also in the QVB there is a huge hobbyco- moderately expensive and poorly restocked (plus I ordered some plastic dowel from there.... Uh... Three years ago and have not yet got a call to say ots in), but a great place to buy GW stuff without having to be accosted by cultish staff and horrible music (Behind the qvb is a jaycar electronics store where you can buy a half dozen drill bits ideal for pinning in a bag for the price of 1 at hobbyco).
But thats about it. Oh- well there is a ccg orientated game store on george street near central- but they have a limited mini section.
1. Take those horrible mould lines from hell off your sweet delicate mini
ReplyDelete2. consider adding some putty where the parts join and leave these horrible gaps from hell
3. Less paint on the brush often means less paint in the details (if you want to keep them that is)
4. You only progress in this hobby by painting things you're not used to... (and yes you can always strip the paint few years later and paint those incredible chaos champions countless times)
5. Consider basing your mini once it's done since an unfinished base can turn the most lovely model into the most horrible crap from hell
Sheers Dave for sharing as always...
Thanks for the info Dave.
ReplyDelete