Tag: Miniature painting

My Funny Valentine

Love strikes in the most unexpected moments… You catch a glimpse of perfection, the true beauty itself and your fate is sealed. Love fogs your senses and you don’t care anymore if there’s another one that is younger, more modern, better armoured or has more firepower: you’re in love with the Valentine Tank.

Joking aside, Valentine is a British tank that was manufactured in the highest numbers during World War II, it was used probably in all the theatres of the war and had more than a dozen variants. The distinctive look and the diversity of this tank make it a very interesting subject for my hobby.

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Goodbye 2020, Hello 2021!

Well, last year didn’t exactly go as planned, and I’m sure I’m not the only one who feels that way. 2020 wasn’t the best year for gaming: game shows were cancelled, and due to the lockdowns and the restrictions, there were only a few face-to-face games. I was also very busy at work, and I had many exams which left me with far less free time for my hobby than I expected. Sadly, I had no chance to paint with my nieces either.

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The More the Merrier

After finishing the first three squads of the 15mm OutRim Coalition Infantry , there was no turning back. I had to go on.

I have painted standard troopers, medics, squad leaders and SAW gunners so far, but I decided to add more support weapons (plasma guns and two different missile launchers), snipers and two assaults squads. I used the SG15-RC09 and SG15-RC04 sets from Ground Zero Games’ OutRim Coalition range.

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My First Steps in the 15mm Universe

Though I haven’t planned starting a new army or collecting anything in 15 mm scale (all my minis are in 28mm), I knew there’s no turning back and decided to buy some minis from Ground Zero Games, after reading the Stargrunt II rules. The range is surprisingly huge, there are many factions with distinct appearances, units and equipment. After carefully considering, I chose the OutRim Coalition and ordered a starter pack and a few vehicles.

The figures are very neatly detailed, there is no real sign of mould lines and they are full of character. All the figures are in power armour (no skin to paint! 😊 ), and there are marine assault troops, command and comms squad, anti-armour and light anti-armour support squads, three different heavy weapon teams, a heavy power armour squad and grav bikes in the pack. That is almost 100 figures in total.

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Soldiers of Fortune

If you’ve been following this blog, you might be wondering why haven’t I posted anything since the beginning of 2020. The end of 2019 and early this year was extremely busy with a lot of work, studying for exams, and visiting family (which also means that we’ll soon have a new entry in the “Painting with my nieces” section too). I also spent a significant amount of time with building and painting my brother’s Christmas gift in December, which is what this post is about.

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New Year – Same Old Me

This is the beginning of a new year, the time when people make resolutions. They start a new life, sign up for the gym, start a healthy diet, ditch alcohol and tobacco… and before the end of January, they get back to their old routine. The gyms that were full of new year resolutioners are back to the regular guests, snacks and comfort food find their way back to the more and more liberal diet plan and a good pint or a drag of a cigarette still does the magic.

I never really believed in new year resolutions and dramatic changes, but there are a couple of things that work for me:

  • Learning from past achievements and mistakes
  • Determining what needs to be done differently and making the necessary changes
  • Planning the next period

    • In this case, it’s not for my life in general but for my hobby only: the games I play and the minis I build and paint.

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    Carts before the Horses

    In my previous post I briefly talked about the difficulties with following schedules in my hobbies and this time I have another perfect example of how strict plans have to be abandoned sometimes. When it comes to miniature painting, I always face a huge scheduling conflict. Should I work on the army I started painting for a wargame, or rather paint the minis that are needed for the RPG campaign I run, or maybe paint these miniatures that are not really needed, but look too much fun to skip?

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    Painting with My Nieces – Summer 2019

    Undeniably, it’s autumn. Summer is gone and it’s time to recall a happy memory from July.

    After our December visit to the family and our painting session with my nieces, it was beyond question that we would have more of these. Both of them and I enjoyed it a lot and I got the mission to find a decent Gryph.

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    Painting with My Nieces – Christmas 2018

    Being an uncle is entertaining – you bring presents, you know all the cool stuff, and you are a lot more fun than the rest of the adults.

    Since we live in the UK and my nieces (6 and 8 years old) are in Hungary, I can see them only twice a year, so I try to make every visit special and memorable. Instead of just heaping them with random gifts, I always buy something that improves their creativity or their skills. To give a few examples, we have made gypsum mermaids and butterflies and we have painted them together. I showed them how to mix colours, I explained them colour theory, and I taught them techniques like edge highlighting, drybrushing and extreme highlighting. They are always curious and receptive, and the most rewarding thing in this process is that I can see that they use what they learnt earlier.

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    The “Oscars”

    The local RPG club, where I spent several hours every week in the past year either playing or running a game as a DM, has recently become one year old. There were loads of ideas on how to celebrate the anniversary: throwing a party, having a cake, a charade, etc…  – everyone was excited and busy with organizing the event.

    We decided to give some kind of an award or memorabilia to gamers who have really outdone themselves. There was a surprise only two of us knew about: Crooked Dice Studio had a miniature with an uncanny resemblance to one of the iconic members of the club. The head, the pose and the cargo short were spot on, so we decided to paint them in gold, silver and bronze and make them our “Oscars”.

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