Impressions

 While I'm back and getting very close to finishing the current work in progress squad, I decided to write up something that's been on my mind for a while. This relates to how miniatures are painted and what the end goal is.

I've seen a good deal of talk about how to make something look realistic, how to make reflections behave as they would in real life, or how a particular highlight should be done. There's a certain element to that: a viewer will notice immediately if something doesn't "look right' - a blue reflection from a fiery battlefield would look peculiar for example. It's also somewhat untrue given the scale.

When painting miniatures then the viewer is probably going to see them under different lighting conditions to which they were painted, and under different lighting to the setting in which the model is placed. Already this is at odds with realism: the angle of lighting alone is going to differ depending upon where the model is facing, where any overhead lights are, etc. Size plays a role too: sunlight diffused through cloud layers will be noticeably different to direct overhead sunlight on a cloudless day. The sheer distances involved make volume interactions differ on a small miniature compared to an eight foot tall armour plated killing machine.

Ultimately, painting for realism is not the actual goal. Painting for the impression of realism is far more popular. Taking this further and instead it can be painting for an impression.

Early on the folks at the 'Eavy Metal team learned that contrast is key. The photography and magazine printing technologies of the time required a high level of contrast to make the miniatures show up properly in publications and showcase them to customers. The human visual system keys on contrast for object definition and recognition: contrast of colour, contrast of brightness, contrast of depth, it's the difference that matters. This is the entire concept behind edge highlighting: define the outline to make viewing a model easier.

Freeing the mind from the shackles of realism and focusing on painting to form an impression lets you play with the model and guide a viewer in many different ways. Cylindrical objects painted as panel modulation suggests height over shape, edge highlighting can accentuate OSL effects, or by their omission create an impression of shadow without actually needing to darken an area. Exaggeration of lighting can make a flat surface curved, or a curved surface flat. I typically don't align the direction of light with a helmet so that I can focus the viewer's attention on the head more easily - abandoning realism gives the flexibility to adjust perception of the model.

It's not just highlights and shadows, but the very colours used can do this too. Painting a specific vampire in moonlight allowed me create an impression of a night scene without making the model dark. It's quite high in value in places, and then the yellow eyes stand out extra against the blues and purples otherwise used. If the model was truly at night then barely anything would be visible.

Going beyond this to the very brush strokes used, the choice of blending or not, and there's still a world of artistic possibilities to explore. I saw a post once of a model that didn't win a competition, yet was undeniably one of the most visually striking models on display. It simply wasn't painted as what is normally expected. Miniature painting won't come into its own as a more widely accepted art genre until that range of expression is opened up.

What does this have to do with my own painting? When it comes to painting Marines then it impacts which colours I'm choosing, and other than Blood Angels it impacts how "far" I'll go. Does the model look like what I was going for? If so, I can leave it there. Blood Angels are the exception - I'm trying to be less exacting when I paint them, but their whole core ideal is artistry to tame the rage within, and I like to depict that with my approach.

Food for thought at any rate.

-- silly painter

Year in Reflection - 2025

2025

Looking back over the past year of painting, one thing sticks out the most to me: I got so very few models painted. It's not like I wasn't motivated, there was just a lot of more higher priority tasks or situations that prevented me from getting anything hobby related done. This was something I knew might happen and while frustrating, it wasn't surprising.

Throughout the year I tried some other approaches to painting red, learned more about airbrushing (and bent another needle, still not sure how), reorganised paint storage with custom racks, and...didn't do much sculpting. I still want to do more sculpting, but it takes a bit of time, space, and concentration. Perhaps once everything calms down then I can get back to it. Weirdly the best of all was the custom paint racks: cheap, tailored to my needs, and makes paints within easy reach. When I do have time for painting then it's becoming more efficient because I can quickly get the paints I need. This leads into something else I've been improving with the past year: put the paints I need on the palette and get something done. A pouch, a sword, whatever it happens to be - just paint one little part to completion. That more than anything else kept me going throughout the year.

I wanted to get more models painted. That didn't work. I also bought more things, mostly because they looked cool and I wanted to pad out for free shipping. It seems that I'm slowly being drawn towards Horus Heresy. Something about the designs reminds me of older editions of 40k, and the setting is certainly darker in tone than modern day 40k. There's nothing bad in there, on the contrary there's now a wider range than ever to appeal to a lot more people. Some of the older Horus Heresy models are spectacularly detailed (see the Crimson Paladins), but the newer plastics appear to be what I can best describe as higher detail, but plainer design. The manufacturing processes are definitely improving, while the sculpts can be painted effectively from a more limited colour range, and so they feel easier to assemble and paint compared to what I'm used to. Let's see if that translates to getting 30k models done more quickly than their 40k counterparts.

Earlier in the year I practised with painting reds by using a yellow undercoat and then covering with a Contrast paint. This absolutely works to see where highlights are going, and gives a vibrant result, but suffers from one major drawback: the need to be precise. It was only towards the end of the year that I made the realisation that I shouldn't be using the airbrush to do all of the armour. Use it as the foundation to later perform fine-tuning on; go back to the original airbrushing paints I was using now that I can thin the paints properly, use those for a rough sketch only, and refine the armour with glazing as necessary later. I'm eager to paint more squads with this idea in mind, as it might just be the final piece to my army painting puzzle.

2026

Going into 2026 I have the same goal as last year: get more models painted. I by far enjoy painting single miniatures more than squads, but I need to clear some of the backlog. There's just too much piling up and it's getting depressing. I'll need to get squads of troops done, but the simpler the better.

There is another tactic I might try as well. I paint a lot of Blood Angels. I always will. Yet looking at some of the models in my storage, I wonder if what makes them difficult is the repetitive nature of always painting red armour. I should just try painting different Chapters. The Guilliman model will need a retinue, so Ultramarines seems the logical choice to try out, and there's plenty of box art to use as a reference. I also probably won't care quite so much that way, and maybe, just maybe, I can try not to be such a perfectionist if the models aren't Blood Angels.

Other than that, I would also like to paint more larger scale models. I strongly suspect the airbrush will be the key to unlocking that for me - paint the basics, then go back in with a brush later to refine everything.

Fen Model Show 2025

 This is a followup to the previous post but focused on the Fen Model Show, which I had a chance to attend recently (and where I saw Two Thin Coats on display). I have yet to pull photos from my camera, so this will be another text-only post.

Overall I quite liked the event. I guess it needs to be compared to Kontrast Festival, even if that's not entirely an apples-to-apples comparison. Before anything else, however, there was one major issue when attending - and it was nothing to do with the event directly, but more some of the people there. Display areas are always crowded as people shuffle along to look at all the models and appreciate the effort put into items on display, but as a result there's also a continuous pressure to look and move along so the next person can see them. I tried to go through with my camera as fast as possible and get snaps of anything that jumped out at me, and tried to arrive early to beat the crowds (spoiler: that didn't work). A group of about 3 or 4 people however were _constantly_ in the way of everywhere I tried to turn. They just stood chatting and blocking access to everything. I believe one of them was an organiser too, who should know better. The polite and sensible thing to do would be to stand back slightly and let others pass by, but nope: they stood in the display area, they stood at the entrance, they stood at the stalls, and in two cases just pushed in front of myself. Rude little buggers. I held my tongue for my own sake (I didn't have anything on display personally and wasn't in a rush, I just don't like being blocked when I want to move) but someone else did tell them to step out of the way. It still left a poor impression and honestly is a deal breaker: I won't be in any hurry to go back if I'm not entering anything personally.

It wasn't poorly laid out, but anyone running such an event by now should recognise this is going to happen. Even a sign to remind me to basically keep it moving and allow others to have a look would be enough. You can't force people to file past, but you can hint at people to stop being pricks.

Actually this is something kind of important - I was so put off from dealing with the above that I purposefully tried to avoid looking at the models....when at a model show. It defeats the whole point of going there really, so it would be nice to see the problem being addressed in future. It's extra annoying because it's a paid event.

There was a good range of vendors with product to display. Not many, but a good range. Plinths, 3d prints, resin prints, brushes, paints, accessories, sci-fi, fantasy, historical, movie (I _really_ wanted Vasquez), etc. Even Element Games was there (with a bust by Angel Giraldez tucked away in a corner, so I picked that up). When I was at Kontrast Festival last time I had found the models to be much the same: mostly female, mostly sexualised, nothing particularly jumping out as different. Maybe that changed this year, don't know as I didn't go, but there was a wide variety at the Fen Model Show. Male, female, human, animal, robot, it was really all there.

This expression of diverse possibilities extended into the models on show as well. The competition wasn't about winning first, second, third, so much as about showing off models. Everything was welcome, there was no particular requirement - and I even saw someone showing off his daughter's models next to his own. I think I enjoyed that so much more than everyone trying to be the best to win and it naturally encouraged people to enter models that were just plain different. It wasn't really same-y for 90%, which is what I was feeling from Kontrast Festival. There were "frogs of the world" on display (that was really cool), a Weta (I think) Abaddon, scale model cars, creepy boats, goblins, tanks, floral shops, embossed cards, dioramas, pugs, and more besides. I could happily have strolled around the display area a few times if it were more comfortable to do so, but as it is I'll just have to go back over photos.

If I do start to enter competition then I'll go back to these places, but without that I'll probably avoid them in future. The stalls were good to browse, but I shouldn't be spending so much right now. Highlights were Two Thin Coats (the guys there were friendly and really knew their paints, shout out to one of them for pointing me in the direction of Major Brushes for a cheap synthetic that looks very promising to use for day-to-day painting), Element Games (can the event runners next time fix the accessibility so everyone can go to that area too please?), and Fantasy Wood Works (miniatureplinths.com, some very nice wooden plinths, also friendly people and I'm trying to get a custom size arranged from them).

-- silly painter.

TTC - Two Thin Coats

 No pictures here because why bother?

I finally attended a model show (more on that in another post) where the Two Thin Coats range was displayed. I've been keeping an eye on this paint range for a while, wondering what sets it apart from others. There's the obvious youtube ravings, but I don't trust them at the best of times because even if it's not a commercial then their perspectives on the matter are almost certain to differ from mine.

Let's back up though and start from the beginning.

Citadel paints are great. That's my opinion on the matter of course, but they get the job done, are widely available, flexible enough (with water or flow improver), and have a very large range. I even prefer their bottles for their own range of base and layer paints. They're also not paints that are aimed at a youtuber - they're aimed at essentially young teenagers, or parents of teenagers, or people who dabble in the hobby without getting too serious about it. That is the target audience, and the Citadel paint range fit that audience very well - but can also be used by people who are a little more into the hobby. Citadel also came out with the Contrast range of paints that everyone else has tried to copy (with varying degrees of success).

To anyone young and starting out in the hobby, I would absolutely say go pick up a starter set from Citadel.

I don't think Two Thin Coats are aimed at that audience. They can be used, sure, but the audience I think is the slightly more experienced painter. There's going to be a lot of overlap with Citadel paints in levels of experience of course, but the point is that the ranges are not in direct competition and to me instead can complement each other. More on how that will work (for me) in a moment.

At the show I approached the testing area to try out the white (White Star). I have no particular problem with White Scar (from Citadel) other than it dries very fast and can be a little difficult to thin properly and work with it when the weather isn't particularly friendly. I had heard that Two Thin Coats' white was very nice, so I thought I'd see for myself. Yes - it is very nice. It's definitely more translucent than the Citadel equivalent and as the name suggests it's best applied in two (or more) thin coats, depending on what is being covered. It also flows more smoothly across the surface - which is hard to describe without trying it for yourself. It has lower viscosity than most from Citadel, but good surface tension.

If I had to guess, slightly more pigment and flow improver in the Two Thin Coats range. The latter also means the working time is longer than what I'm used to, making wet blending almost trivial for me. I became rather experienced with glazing to combat the fast drying time of the Citadel range (which is generally going to be better for beginners) but now I'm at the level where some of what I would like to do is better achieved with a longer working time and being able to blend together on the model.

Here is where the paint ranges starting to complement each other comes into play. I think I will prefer base coating with Citadel paints because of the faster drying time - I can apply multiple coats more quickly, and depending on the paint it might need fewer coats for complete coverage. Using Citadel to sketch out initial highlights, then I can come in with the Two Thin Coats paints and smooth everything out. At least that's the idea - I'll need to build up a selection of paints first, which I'll only do as I need to replace my existing ones - everything I have works fine, but now I have further options when needed.

Finally, I tried Doom Metal. It's a nearly black metallic which is exactly what I've been after for a while. I was getting annoyed at everything metal being bright silver or steel, and wanted a darker look for e.g gun barrels. Doom Metal fits the bill nicely. The Citadel metallics work mostly just fine for me, but there are a few gaps and I think the Two Thin Coats range will fill that niche without me constantly trying to mix up something.

Finally: TTC are a much more matt finish, but this doesn't bother me because I always varnish my models anyway.

I've yet to try them through an airbrush, but I think the TTC range is impressive and what I need to continue to improve my painting at this stage of the journey. Right tool for the job and all that.

-- silly painter.

Year in Reflection - 2024

It's that time again, when a lot of people (myself included) look back upon the year gone by and reflect on what went well, what didn't, and what to adjust and try in the coming year.

2024 in Review

My goal for 2024 was to finish works in progress. That failed pretty miserably. I have a dreadnought still in progress, others not started, and instead actually added more to the list. There's valid reasoning behind it all, and it's the most valid reason of all for a hobby: because I felt like it. Would I like to have cleared the plate and started fresh for 2025? Absolutely, but not at the cost of making it feel like a chore. This is purely a hobby and at all times inspiration, motivation, enjoyment must be the goals or what's the point? While I would have liked more time to dedicate to the miniature painting hobby, I did have fun, so I guess it's a win overall.

Recently I started to dabble in conversions, kitbashing, sculpting, and other forms of customisation. This isn't really feasible to do across a whole army because it takes more time to complete individual models, but it was necessary to keep me interested. Between the woke nonsense invading aspects of the hobby and some of the more interesting design choices inflicted upon my favourite faction (Sanguinary Guard are supposed to have wings!), my enthusiasm for 40k in particular was fading rapidly. It still is to a degree, and my spending has been cut back in response - and yet somehow I believe I've actually bought more models this year.

My rule of "1 model bought for every 2 models painted" fell apart this year, but it's not all that bad. The main reason is actually Combat Patrol Magazine - there are some great deals to be had with that, and I didn't want to pass up the opportunity. The incredibly cheap starter of a Terminator Captain allowed me to make a decent conversion of Karlaen, starting me down the kitbashing path. The Infernus marines I plan to convert with Devastator weapons because it would look cool. The Terminators are another relatively cheap option to practice sculpting with and bling them out to something more Blood Angels. There's an upcoming Chaplain on a bike that I might buy as well just for a rainy day. Outside of that magazine there's also some purchases from local gaming stores, etsy, and ebay either because again it was cheap at the time, or because I needed conversion parts.

The Sanguinary Guard situation was a boon for Greytide Studios. They came out with their Crimson Lords pack at exactly the right time - just after the official release of the updated Sanguinary Guard without winged jump packs, suddenly here's a third party offering to give people exactly that. I naturally ordered enough parts to kit out a few models, but instead of going for the "official" new sculpts, I decided that push-fit assault marines would be just as good. I could get them for a fraction of the cost, and there's enough conversion needed on the official models anyway - why would I pay full price for models that I needed to hack apart just to make something proper out of what they were supposed to represent to begin with? With enough spare parts in the bits box I think this has turned out rather well, and yes sculpted muscular chests should have nipples.

From the time investment in sculpting, to the newer models that need a lot of thought about colour choices, to health problems, work problems, and other problems throughout the year, the number of posts has been steadily declining. I simply don't have as much time throughout the week to get enough done to be worthy of a post. That's not to say I'm not painting - that always fluctuates - but there's not always enough interesting new things each week to dedicate to writing up anything about it. This is partially also down to actually spending longer on each model - if I spend a week making golden armour look nice, then that can be summed up in about three sentences and I won't spend the time writing about it. I'm trying to adjust for that and hope that next year I can post more regularly again, if only to keep up the motivation to paint a little bit each day (or close to it). More works in progress to switch between could potentially help here.

One of the success stories from 2024 for me was that airbrushing finally "clicked" and my skills with that tool improved dramatically. Some recent models (coming soon) have almost completely eliminated the speckling / noise / grain often seen when using an airbrush. I've learned to thin the paints better, use more layers, control the trigger better, and experiment more with filtering. All of this combined gives a far superior result on the model, makes cleaning the airbrush that much easier (I virtually never get a clogged nozzle anymore) and makes me faster by virtue of being more comfortable with the tool. I'm still learning a lot every time I pick it up too, so it will be interesting to see how much I progress in 2025.

Drybrushing was another technique that I managed to improve upon recently as well. I still can't use any paint from the box and get the consistency correct, but I did learn to use the Citdadel dry paints far more effectively. Layering up highlights without a large jump in value seems obvious but was also a piece of the puzzle to allow me to get better results. I'll still likely keep to terrain and basing with this.

And to wrap up success stories for now: metallics. I learned to treat them with a lot more respect and get greatly improved results out of them. The secret for myself was really just to treat them as any other paint: layering, glazing, mixing with other paints. Commander Dante was almost an accident where I started to experiment with with that, and I wonder why I didn't do such things before.

2025 Resolutions

Going into 2025 I'm actually planning to have several models in progress to begin with. I have some time right now for airbrushing basically, and so I'm using that to get initial base coats and highlighting sorted across several models. I would of course like to get them all finished earlier in the year if possible as well.

I would like to post more regularly again, but that remains to be seen - there are a lot of non-hobby changes coming once more in 2025 that might leave me with very little spare time on occasion. The hobby is nice to have, but sometimes it needs to take a back seat.

I would like to continue sculpting and get to the point of being able to bling out models to fit a theme or army better. I paint a lot of Blood Angels, and the newer models from Games Workshop don't have that artistic styling which the Sons of Sanguinius are known for.

All of the above being said, I think the number one aspect I'd like to improve is the ability to paint squads quickly. My backlog concerns me a little and I'd like to whittle it down if I could. Not agonising over every little detail would help, and simplifying the palette would also be useful. I've been trialling this with the Legions Imperialis models, and it's been working there, but I need (or at least would like) to translate that into larger scale army painting. That is my intended painting focus for 2025 - just paint some models.

-- silly painter.

More Misfortune

 The next animation dropped today, and as I feared: woke through & through. Girlboss soldier who is more moral and upstanding than any male counterpart, saves the day, better in battle than any other, etc etc etc. I was going to write that the Commissar would be mentally broken in battle and the girlboss would have to save him, but they made the Commissar broken _before_ the battle (during which, of course, the girlboss has to save him).

Enough of the Cadians everywhere. That's pure narrative laziness at this point. Try be more original.

Enough of every single damned 'hero' character being a girlboss. Iron Within? Girlboss in charge and better than anyone else. Broken Lance? Girlboss in charge and better than anyone else, naturally has to put down a failed male character. The Tithes? Even the Astartes-centric story was female in charge of Cadians. The others had female in every single position of power, without fail. Tech-adept female, psykers female, in-charge soldiers female - but the problem is female and always bossing around, putting down, and showing up male characters. Every single time. Even the Commissar mentions being a burden to his mother: not his parents, specifically his mother. 

The forced ideology is painfully obvious, and it's ruining the entire franchise. I see the new Kill Team models and immediately they show of course: female girlboss in charge of everything. Does the kit come with options? Near as I can tell, yes, but I can't see the kit without thinking of that now, without thinking of the animations, the ideology being bludgeoned into everything and the massive attempts at indoctrination. The grimdark setting is supposed to be a parody of such things, not an instruction manual. I don't see the setting, the parody, or even the hobby.

It's all just so unnecessary too. Games Workshop was handling diversity just fine a few years ago. Diversity does not mean "gender swap some leader and try to put down men at every opportunity". That's just pure bigotry, hatred, and sexism. Just make a good character instead, focus on a good story, and people will barely notice any diversity at all.

So I've cancelled my WH+ subscription. I'm suddenly no longer interested in the new Sanguinary Guard, even for kitbashing purposes. Or the new Blood Angels Captain. Or much of any new 40k models at all outside of Lemartes and Astorath. I'm going to just start pulling back from 40k entirely now, because all I see is agenda everywhere, and I shouldn't need to battle just to enjoy the hobby. 30k and Imperialis fortunately remain....for now.

Does this one person matter? No, not likely. To repeat: it's not diversity I mind, it's the constant being lectured to that I mind. I'm simply stepping away until that nonsense fades. I'm hoping it will, but not expecting it anytime soon. To anyone thinking "no great loss", or "glad to see you go if you think that" then just remember: the more people stay away because of this, the less of the hobby there will be. It's a hobby to enjoy, not a platform to preach, and if people start leaving because that's no longer the case, then it's not a going to be a hobby anymore, and won't be entertaining.

In the meantime, I have plenty in my backlog to paint up. So I guess there's a silver lining: not spending money on new models.

-- silly painter

The Unfortunate Community

 This is one of those posts that has little to do with painting, but everything at the same time. It impacts the motivation for painting, and is leading me away from Warhammer 40,000 and Games Workshop in general.

In part this is inspired by what I've seen regarding a recent Code of Conduct being applied to the open source wine project. I have no issue with the CoC as I've read it (not in the current iteration anyway), but I firmly believe that these are things that should be debated (in a civil way, of course). They're not always a force for good, particularly when applied as enforced behaviour rather than limits on behaviour - and there is huge difference between the two. Enforced behaviour does not accept opposing viewpoints, where as limits on behaviour are mostly "don't be a prick". In one particular corner of the Internet, opposing views are frowned upon (even being perceived as critical of Valve is cause to be attacked there, whether true or not) and someone who obviously doesn't like CoC's was immediately attacked, insulted, and told to get lost. Someone literally admitted to waiting for a comment so they could attack. That is a toxic environment, that is not fostering an open community, that is excluding people - ironically the very thing they claim that a CoC is supposed to prevent.

This is not a problem with a Code of Conduct. They're simply a guideline. This is a problem managing a community, and it follows on to ..... female Custodians.

I have no problem with female Custodians in principle. It was handled extraordinarily poorly on introducing them, but the idea standalone is fine. The idea isn't standlone though. It's being shoved down everyone's throats with a battleship's turret rammer. The recent animation The Tithes: Harvest is proof of this. It was a conscious choice to use a female Custodian there, and from a narrative perspective a rather poor choice at that. Yes it shows perfectly the arrogance and ultimate failures of the Custodes, but it lacks the balance of already establish characters such as Valarian and Aleya. Male and female viewpoints are a part of that balance. Combined with every single person of authority being female in that show, and the increase in this everywhere (all the of Imperial Guard commanders are now female, the Imperial Knights animation was this again, the Skaventide animation has female guard captains everywhere, the Iron Warriors animation again has the heroine as better than everyone else, the list goes on) and the show can only be seen as an agenda propaganda tool. The preview of the next episode of the Tithes I predicted a female girlboss in charge within the first two seconds. I was right. I'm sure she'll be super morally above everyone else, always right, and more fearless than any male. I'll try to remember to edit this when it comes out - but even now I'm already biased as a symptom of what's really going wrong.

The problem is that it's all so obviously ideological agenda driven. It's not world building, it's not expanding on characters, it's shoving ideology down people's throats. This used to be a safe space for geeks of all kinds, and now it's being taken over by some ideological investors who for reasons unknown are trying to putrefy everything they touch. I think this is being forced on Games Workshop personally through some investors; before then GW was actually doing diversity properly in simply giving people options.

The consequence of this enforced ideological diarrhoea is that it becomes the identity of the intellectual property. I don't see a great show with a Custodian in it. I see yet another agenda driven pile of crap. I don't see a great new model - I see yet another girlboss. I don't see a diverse range of options, I see exclusion. Even the recent Space Marine II game: a couple of years ago I wouldn't have blinked twice at the battle-brothers. Now I see token representation whenever I see their faces because it's being hydraulically rammed into everything. I see it if there's ever a weak male character, especially with a female superior. It immediately ruins gameplay, stories, lore, and communities. I never saw that with the original Space Marine where the Imperial Guard commander was female and awesome - but the others (male mostly) were also just as battle hardened and poised. Was this agenda? Yeah, probably - but it wasn't obviously so.

Swinging back around the unfortunate community reactions, the amount of harassment, insults, attacks, and bigotry is disgusting. What's worse is that all of it is being done by those claiming to be against such things. I would be attacked for daring to have the opinion that from a narrative perspective a female Custodian was a poor fit. Or if it's a female Custodian, why not a male blank? That too is apparently cause for being attacked (yes, really, I've watched that happen). Any form of opposing view is immediately under fire, and it's being done in targeted manner: people are gaslighting to then claim their moral superiority. Goobertown Hobbies was guilty of this in my opinion, smugly proclaiming himself righteous while putting down many hobbyists using an argument that simply wasn't true. I stopped watching his channel because of that. I much rather watch people with viewpoints I'm against, but who debate and put forth reasons without stooping to attack others to make themselves feel better.

None of this is unique to Games Workshop, tabletop gaming, etc. It's been happening throughout the movie industry for a while (where it's now crumbling in a spectacular fashion): Star Wars, Star Trek, Doctor Who, Marvel, etc. I'm hoping that coupled with the massive success of Space Marine II will convince Games Workshop to push back against the agenda and just stick to pleasing their core audience while still giving diverse options as they once did. Otherwise, every time I paint a model I'm just going to be thinking "how will they turn this into gender politics, wonder if they'll try use this to enforce stupid pronouns everywhere, I wonder if I'll be attacked for using one colour over another on this model". I used to want to experiment with a wide range of skin tones. Now I don't - now I just want to paint Caucasian skin tones in defiance of the real bigotry.

So I'm not sure what I'm going to do here. I'll wait and see I suppose. I've already changed my mind about buying a couple of Custodian models. This is again not a gender issue - it's because I no longer see Custodes, I see agenda whenever I look at them. I won't sell those I already have, but I'm not motivated to paint them either. I've passed buying other models recently too. This toxicity coming from those claiming to be against toxic behaviour is making the hobby unpalatable, driving out the very people who built it in the first place. I'm not even recommending it to parents of the core audience anymore. Maybe Horus Heresy is still alright. For now. 40k though, is in some serious trouble.

Most unfortunate.

-- silly painter.

Kontrast Festival 2024

 I had the good fortune to attend Kontrast Festival 2024, and so decided to write down some notes to compare it if I have the chance to attend again in following years. I was supposed to attend last year, but technical issues prevented me from going. So here's the good, the bad, and the ugly as I saw it.

The Good

The quality on display was top notch, and there was plenty of vendors, entry to the venue was free, and there was also plenty around for children to do. It happened to coincide with a Polish day for children, so the general area was really nice for families. Painters seemed friendly enough, though I didn't say hello to any in person (I figured some of the more well known would have too much of that already and I didn't want to intrude upon what little free time they might otherwise have).

The Bad

Too many people is actually one of the problems. The display areas just couldn't cope with that many people constantly hovering around. If I were organising, I'd probably setup a one-way route to walk through: gives everyone a chance to see everything, encourages people to not stop and hog space for too long, etc. I simply couldn't see as much as I wanted not because I had places to be, but because it was utterly boring just standing there waiting for a gap to move forward into. These are miniatures, you need to be close to appreciate them, and a glimpse between people from across a room just isn't going to do it.

I went to one presentation (I won't say which) and it was...well, it was a bit boring, ran over time, and didn't really match what was said. Perhaps the other presentations were better, or I was simply expecting more. Either way, that one presentation was kind of useless from an information perspective - better to just watch the youtube video of it later. I'm not sure how to make such things better in person unless you have a chance to talk and socialise, neither of which was on the cards for me. The presentations could play a large part of the festival, but perhaps need to be looked at differently.

The Ugly

This is going to be very controversial. It's just my opinion, and I can entirely understand it not being popular, but it's generally good to have opinions that aren't just in an echo chamber. This is nothing to do with the festival itself, but rather a comment on the state of the community I guess: everything was just uninspiring, unoriginal, repeated.

The models on display were all painted to a very high technical level. So much so, that perhaps people got a bit lost in the technical details and forgot the bigger picture. While there were of course some standouts, about 90% of the models had exactly the same super-matt finish (possibly for photography reasons, but these were on display in person), very similar colour palettes, very similar blending, very similar styles. Maybe I was missing a lot from having difficulty in seeing what was on display to begin with, but I didn't notice any cel-shading for example, no cartoon looks, didn't see gothic horror, bold black & white sketches, or the whole range of artistic ability that 2D art has enjoyed for hundreds of years (if not more). While yes a 3D model actually limits a lot compared to canvas, I didn't notice a whole lot of experimentation (there was some, just not a lot). Maybe presentations can focus on that.

The other part I noticed was related to what was on sale. The vast majority of larger scale models were scantily clad sexy females. Neko Galaxy is a little more unique, but almost entirely female sculpts. I was actively looking for something male, and heroic (or at least not monstrous). There was a barbarian from Mindwork Studios (next to a scantily clad sexy female), and the frost giant looked almost right but the style of that studio isn't quite what I was after. Radio Miniatures had the best - but that was historical gaming type stuff that isn't for me (though I was still very tempted, the scale was too small for what I was looking for). I would've liked to see druids, forest archers, barbarians, wizards, etc, for the fantasy stuff, and more on the sci-fi, cyberpunk, etc, side of things. I can understand that when painting a model for a while then it helps to be a pleasing subject, but at some point it all just becomes the same and I would've liked variation to be explored more. 3D printing helps artistically here, but 3D printing still doesn't match the quality of the resin casts that I saw.

That's a Wrap

And that wraps up my impressions. I know some of it sounds a bit unfair to say the least, especially as I'm not anywhere near the top levels and haven't entered competitions myself, but for what I look for and how I want to progress as a miniature painter, that's my thoughts. Actually realising how much of it just looked the same over & over is going to help me going forwards as I start to find my own style and how I can focus on experimenting with my own works. These reflections are after all mostly for myself to look back upon later rather than a soap box to shout from.

-- silly painter.

Year in Reflection - 2023

 Thanks to holidays, travel, and the usual sort of end-of-year enterprises, this is a few weeks delayed than I originally planned, but still wanted to write out a reflection of the past year in painting.

Originally for 2023 the plan was for it to be the Year of the Dreadnought. That didn't work properly. I only managed about half the number I wanted, but in return I did paint other models so it wasn't a total loss. Actually I'm not at all disappointed in the year, as I never intended to paint too many models to begin with, but it would have been nice to complete the Librarian.

Aside from the original plan failure, a fair number of detailed models were done or started (Jain Zar, Azrakh, Horus Ascended, and more) and some squads of Marines completed. Counted in the squads were quite a few tricky ones to work with or determine colours for, which always increases the time I spend on them, and course there was adapting to the scale of Titanicus and Legions Imperialis. It was a year of learning, and there was a lot of that.

One of the best outcomes of the year was stepping up a notch with the airbrush. The proper thinning of airbrush paints finally clicked, and I have a better feel for using Contrast through one now as well. I'm looking around for something to try that on again, which will likely be another squad that I can practice my new red approach on. Using the airbrush certainly has some drawbacks - there is that "grain" that often shows up, however I'm starting to lean towards not caring about that so much for squads: it's not too noticeable from any sort of distance, and the ease of highlights is worth the trade-off. I will still revert to normal brush highlights for more special models (e.g Horus) but the airbrush can still give a rough outline to start from.

In general I'm starting to be a little less fussy with the models, and this is a good thing. It means I can paint a little bit faster, and get through my backlog. I still want my skills to improve, and there are times to be fussy, but I'm going to be far more selective about that in future. Actually my handling of paint is probably just fine by now, but focusing more on colour and light is what will take me up to the next level.

Next (this) Year

The coming months I'm not really planning anything grand. I want instead to focus on finishing what has grown to a considerable number of works in progress. Terrain, a vehicle, several characters, all deserve to be finished so that I can clean up the painting area properly and start making inroads into the backlog again.

I will collect more Epic (Imperialis) models, but going to try and stick to only buying another box once the previous is painted. It's unlikely I'll be playing games, which will help keep the numbers down, and the Rhino transports taught me quite a lot about how to paint them effectively. I think individual tank models will be no more difficult than 40k scale Astartes, and for me might actually be somewhat easier.

I would like to return to oil paints on miniatures again, but not with oil washes. I want to pick and paint a model entirely using oil paints to blend and work at the colours in a more canvas painterly fashion. It will have to be something without too much detail, the oils will have to be applied as thin as possible, and it will take a month or two to cure probably, but it would be something different and exciting to try.

And with that, time to push fresh paper on the wet palette and get some painting done.

-- silly painter.

Year in Reflection

The Year in Review

Not quite any more models completed yet, although a couple are very close, now that I'm back and recovered I thought a year in reflection was in order. Essentially I want to go back over the year of painting, if I achieved whatever goals I set, learned anything new in particular, and what I plan on doing next year.

Officially I have completed 50 models this year (and two more to be done in the coming days) so on average that makes one model per week, with a few caveats: a good number of the models were actually started last year, and Necrons make up a portion of models done. So while I can fudge the numbers and feel good about, the reality is that I didn't really paint as many as I wanted. There's nothing to really blame: I have been away quite a lot, but at the same time I'm incredibly slow to paint even when I know exactly what I want to do.

The "Project 20 Marines" taught me that I really cannot batch paint. It's just too demotivating to have so many lined up, especially when it's the older tactical squads where every model is as detailed as any characters and requires individual attention. Primaris Marines on the other hand are more similar and I have fewer troubles getting through those. With this in mind, I will very likely keep one or two Primaris on the go at all times as kind of "gap filler" between other projects.

The Ultramarine Lieutenant was a good deal of fun for something different and allowed me to play more with getting a good blue ready for whenever I paint a certain Primarch. The formula worked very well, giving an intense cobalt blue finish, but does rely on the airbrush. Covering up mistakes will be tricky but not impossible, and I'm certain that will be the approach I use on Guilliman. Further on the Ultramarine I attempted to use oils, and I've come to the conclusion that I don't like using oils on miniatures. They simply don't flow as nicely with fine details compared to acrylics (at least not for my experience level with each) and so I intend to stick with acrylics going forward.

Azrakh has not progressed since the last update, however I'm constantly looking at photos; the NMM effect really works on the model and I do want to explore it more. I still think the use of NMM is more limited to anything that looks part of a diorama where the lights sources are more controlled. NMM also helps define details with greater levels of contrast, but also takes an incredible amount of time to get done. I will continue with Azrakh soon enough, but it's a model that will have to be done in small stages. It should be noted that I'm purposefully replicating boxart, something I've grown more comfortable with purely because it represents practice with less mental heavy lifting.

The Crimson Court was a fresh break from Space Marines, letting me explore more organic shapes and the texture of clothing. Painting each in their own style felt more natural than attempting to give them matching colours, and ultimately lead to one of my favourite results of the year: Gorath the Enforcer. The dark moonlight effect really sells that model, and it just goes to show what can be done with a very limited palette. I'm keen to try something similar again, although with different colours, and have Cypher picked out for this.

 Tools

One thing I haven't written much about is any change of tools. I've been impressed so far with the new (white) synthetic brushes from Games Workshop, and they're now my go-to brushes for the majority of my painting. The bristles will form a slight hook as with any synthetic brush, but so far it's been quite manageable. One brush has started to deteriorate slightly, however I'm quite unkind to it and it's lasted far better than any other that's received such levels of punishment.

I mostly keep older brushes around to help transfer paint onto a wet palette now. This is helping to keep the good brushes from wearing out quite so quickly I've noticed, and also helps control how much paint is within the tip; more control of paint on the brush helps with more control over painting.

I've been starting to keep a small drop of flow improver on the palette and using that to thin paints rather than water. The flow properties compared to water are much more favourable with pigment manipulation, and it ends up saving considerable time in trying to get an even coat.

Lastly for tools, I now use a pair of magnifying lenses. They really help see details, and my eyes are not going to get better in the coming years so I'll take what help I can. Coupled with one of the fine tip brushes (a really good sable hair, the artificer series from GW are sufficient for me) and it makes painting details (especially eyes and lenses) so much more pleasant.

Next Year

I'm happy with a few select models forcing my painting skills to improve, and these won't be done in any hurry; I'll finish specialised models in months, not weeks, taking them well into next year. Equally, I want more practice in just getting through models without over thinking them - thus the intent to keep simple models going in the background at all times.

The big challenge for next year however will be some larger "miniatures". I'm dubbing 2023 as "The Year of the Dreadnought". I have many of those war machines to paint up (nine at current count) and I want to finally get some of them done. At least one will also be the focus of some heavy conversion efforts - the old plastic Contemptor variants could use a bit of reposing, despite the effort that will involve.

I'm hopeful that my understanding of the airbrush, coupled with a healthy dose of paint scheme inspiration from around the Internet, will help complete dreadnoughts more quickly than normal.

There is every chance that plans can change of course. I may simply be inspired to paint something else when the next round of models is finished, or travel plans can interfere, and so on. I'm not going to force anything upon myself: if plans start to feel like a chore instead of motivation then they will change.

-- silly painter.

A Note on Skin Tones

When I first started to write some of these posts, the entire idea was to keep track of what I was painting and how I was painting it. The how is particularly important when painting up an army: I want to replicate the style across all miniatures in an army to make it look cohesive. The how is also important in learning new techniques, painting theory, etc: I can look into what I've done before and make certain tweaks the next time around. It's this last point that has prompted today's post.

No photos today, apologies, but the camera is being packed away in preparation for holidays.

I'm painting a 3d printed model just for something different, at 75mm scale (whatever that really means!). There's a good deal of skin showing, being the exact reason I chose the model. I wanted to practice skin tones and how lighting works across a body. This is something rarely done with Games Workshop miniatures, which normally show faces, hands, sometimes some of the arms. Exploring more of a whole body on a larger scale will hopefully transfer that knowledge into the smaller scale and improve my painting overall. So that's the intent.

This new model didn't work as I wanted, but then I should never have expected it to. I've learned a lot, and that's what counts. The number one issue is lack of colour variation. I really need to exaggerate the lighting and shadows to give more visual interest, which other than subjectively making it look more pleasing also adds information that more immediately identifies the shape and form of the model. I tend to go with subtle, and subtle gets lost with any sort of distance and ambient lighting.

Particularly across larger models with organic shapes, smooth blending everywhere is hard and takes a lot of time. I've been trying to rush this model, so spending days on a single finger wasn't an option and I relied heavily on the airbrush instead. The colours used:

• Dryad Bark across the entire model.
• Barak-Nar Burgundy (normal brush) in some shadowed areas. Ultimately this was lost in the later layer noise (more on this in a moment).
• Thondia Brown for a general mid tone over most of the model.
• Mix Deathclaw Brown into the pot, about 1:1 with the previous step and an equal amount of thinner, for initial colouring.
• Mix more Deathclaw Brown and thinner to add more blended highlights.
• Mix Cadian Fleshtone and thinner, concentrating on the upper facing surfaces only.
• Mix Kislev Flesh and thinner, mostly around the face and larger surfaces.

The final skin tone I quite like. The colours themselves make for a tone that I could explore more. The thinner used is also critical: I really got the feeling of building up translucent layers that blend together nicely. This is really something to keep in mind - thin, smooth layers are possible with an airbrush with a little care.

The problem really is that the end result looks very flat. I have tried to go back in and add some shading, add some extra highlights (Baneblade Brown has worked well for that), but it would have given more contrast had I done more of that with the airbrush. Burgundy shadows for example, they were completely covered and very little showed through by the end. I have some plans on how to adjust this approach in future:

• After the mid tone step, add the shadows more strongly with the airbrush. The shading can also be done with a paintbrush without much thought to blending. Later stages or reapplication of the mid tone can soften shadow edges.
• The stronger the underlying shadow, the more it will show through later. Very thin airbrush layers will help to keep control of this.
• Use more colour variation. Even in basic ambient lighting there are subtle reflections off the surrounding environment, and artistically exaggerating this on a miniature often gives a far more pleasing result.
• Following all of the above, more exploration of pressure on body parts can help too. Crossed legs, hands resting on the face, etc, all can potentially impact blood flow, colour, shape, of those areas. Drawing attention to that gives subconscious visual clues that make the viewer read the entire model far more easily.

Also, headset magnifying lenses with a nice pointy brush is a really great combination.

With that, it's likely to be a month until my next post due to holidays & travel. I'm not taking paints with me, that's far too much hassle. There are terminators, jetbikes, NMM, and more waiting when I'm back; I've not forgotten about any works in progress.

-- silly painter.