From the workbench of the esteemed Horati0nosebl0wer

I was struck by a few thought as I was looking over a few Kickstarter projects after following the progress of things I’ve backed. It all started seeing a video about a supermarket service that sends you what they claim to be the best food items without the cost or ethical baggage.

I don’t want to be box shipped the wonder of exotic spice and flavor without experimenting and experiencing the thing firsthand. I enjoy the physical experience of the ingredients that go into my food. I’m willing to enjoy the process of creating said food for good or ill as learning how to make it myself if I want to repeat the process. I’m not a foodie. I have no feed of food porn that causes me to drool when the name of channels are mentioned. I might well be close to a spartan epicurean (let @avernos ponder that one and give historically relevant facts upon the idea) with that you might pair great drink to accentuate the flavors on minimal resources. Gastronomy is not something I study, leave that to the French and Michelin rating people, but what comes out well in taste is something I like to live. Good food can be had by simply expending the time and effort to make it.

I find the notion of instafood that isn’t crap ramen deplorable. Even when you’re scraping by on meager money making that humble foodstuff exciting and pleasant to stomach isn’t a chore but necessary in order to pull yourself out of the doldrums. The first world problem of stating before dinner “I’m bored of chicken tikka masala and I don’t want any African peanut stew” all the while a portion of the planet removed from their source of origin iritates me to no end. To pull out of a rush delivered bottle, a commodified meal that takes someone else’s real time and effort, and turn to complain that the flavor is boring or the fact it needs to be heated is too much of a bother gives me a headache.

The further point of making food an ethical dilemma is to address the point of Maslow’s hierarchy where one doesn’t need to be bothered by the question of “Is there food?”. Two places on opposite ends of the pyramid make for great fodder of addressing the ridiculous for their juxtaposition. Excel and build to great heights but realize you have to build on something “base” first. Food is just something taken in to keep the human motor running.

With my rant over I might add to this year’s “Try Eating/Drinking This” event for the OTT crew.

Finished up the second of the previously featured minis and its good to give some “oopmh” to the paint work. I’m thinking that I might well drop the cash on a small photo booth in order to get consistent lighting for my figures. I know of a local company that sells backgrounds of various colors that might give better results as well.

I find these older figures a little relaxing in not needing to be painting with laser precision. These will be good for my in between work to destress with. I’ll be dropping entry for the  Halloween competition in order to get ready for Giftmas and I might do a few more at the 25mm scale to gear up.

While cleaning up the workshop (i.e. my room) I moved my stripping agents, not the kind I’ll have when I become an evil overlord, I keep in paint cans to free up shelf space. Normally I have something standing by in the one of Simple Green that works well for most of the stuff I rework. This time I found my “purple stuff” can was occupied. Opening it I found that the enamel nightmare I was given to save had indeed been restored to clean metal. It was now recognizable as the 1984 black dragon from the Dragon Lords series of figures. There’s a small amount of damage with the end of the tail knocked off but it can be replaced to look much better than what it had been. I really like giving old figures new life.

So I’ve been hobbying more and one thing leads to another with finding there’s stuff going on in the mini painting world around me. I’ve gone and committed myself to more work. I’ve been finishing the Orktober project slowly but surely and trekked out to gather my entry into last month’s competition today. As it is still Orktober I’ll shamelessly plug in my current orky project as it please me so much to see this come together after nearly a year of sitting in my Hoard of Shame.

What I got from the competition wasn’t the best of feedback when I got the printed notes for response but it turned out to be a larger deal than I guess the shop anticipated with 23 entries. Overall I’m glad to have participated. Thinking that, when last I checked, there was a painter that’s regularly been at Reapercon and has painted for some of their box art I’m not so butthurt after taking a breather and getting some food in me. I really think that infants have the best destress strategies of either eating or napping that might well be emulated.

After hearing that there is another contest for Halloween I put my money down for another figureto then go home and go about to building. I had already been working on another copy of the witch on a jack’o’lantern and decided to build once more as a second shot and probably give it away as a gift later. The new purchase was the Reapercon Iconic: Bonehenge Priestess. It got the use of some 5 min epoxy (damn I love how useful this stuff is for minis) and the addition of a headstone I sawed off another figure. I’ll be carving off some of the resin display plinth and remove a skull detail below the headstone with my rotary tool in order to build it back up with Golden gel medium coarse pumice. Once done with that the ever handy human skeleton detail kit and some of the skulls from Secret Weapon will give it more “oomph” for a real graveyard feel. Once done with the painting I’ve collected enough downed leaved that I can use my Greenstuff world punch to create whatever eery vibe hasn’t been touched yet.

Yeah, this month is busy and I still have a Giftmas present to work on and plan on shipping time to arrive for the big day. I need to start getting paid more for this.

So, as I posted to the WAYPN thread I got my hands on some old figures from a gaming friend of mine. He’s been into D&D for decades but not so much into the painting. Since I’ve done so much work for him on commission he decided to turn over some of his collection to me.

I’m happy to bring life and color to these lumps of lead (yes, that old material) and pewter. Seeing a history of change in the skill level makes a great comparison to what we get to play with today.

I hope that everyone not old enough to know what the past looked like can appreciate the development of our hobby with glance over the forthcoming work.

Embracing minimalism deeper is a frightening thing for me right now. I’m cutting out more things from my life that I thought I have grown attached to. It is not by desire but by necessity as I am once again on the move from where I call home. I am forced to call into question what I really desire/appreciate regularly outside of merely saying I have an object as a posession. Things come and go in life and this ever shifting tide of ebb and flow is not new. It still not comfortable either.

Material possessions are a mark of worldly success and show how important someone must be. I question myself and am questioned by others as to where my own place in the world is by the things I have. Perhaps it is better to gain a new perspective with stoicism and zen philosophy as I look at the changing world around me. I will keep my minis as they are useful to be painted on and then gifted if they aren’t kept for display. They give me comfort in practice of an art. They also provide me a connection to this great community I have come to hold dear.

The only other collections of size are my movies and books. My movies do nothing as I do not watch them like I used to. That is a sad thought but it cannot be helped. I love my books but do not pore over them like I used to either. I might sell them but the pain of looking back at the last time I did that still haunts me.  Aside from those things there are others that amused me but no longer do so. I might be best served in finding them new homes. Considering the world around me it might be a very good time to relieve myself of some things before any craziness ensues in the future.

In all this do we gamers and mini painters need all the stuff that we get? I think that the miniature agnostic systems like Frostgrave might well be looked at for the future and the small skirmish games to keep our hobby alive.  Army games are great for the sheer size and visual mass, case in point the Armageddon weekend event, and make for a delight look upon but then you need to lug all the crap out to play and home again. The trouble with dealing with all the material stuff we collect is how much real estate it takes up.

I guess taking better care that the amount of stuff I keep is what needs to be done.

So I received my order from Brother Vinni today after moving and I’m pleased to have the Lying Bunny figure from the Girls range he has on offer. After supporting his Kickstarter for a couple of the original line of bunny girls for a campy campaign with 007-Spy vs. Spy elements I’ve looked in occasionally to see what’s new. With this I was immediately taken with the display idea of placing the lady on a bearskin rug with a serving platter laden with a bottle and a pair of snifters. My order was fulfilled but the upheld left hand was missing from the figure so I’ve reached out to the manufacturer to try and get a replacement.

For the meantime I’ve managed to track down a relatively translucent set of bottles from the Wizard’s Room set Wizkids put out in their Deep Cuts line. I’ll be sure to mask off the area I want to remain clear as I spray it slightly with an amber hue to give it a good look of fine spirits. This I’ll go over later with a gloss coat for a shiny bottle amd add a matt label with regular brushed on paint. The problem of the snifters and the platter remain but I believe its going to be easily taken care of considering the work put out by so many artists on places like Shapeways. If I can find a creator who thinks it would be worth their while to sculpt I will definitely make the purchases.

In making use of the downtime I’ve also set about to sculpting the display base of stone floor, wood paneling and bearskin rug. The biggest hurdle seems to be finishing the top of the head but doesn’t seem too different from the wolf cloak that I did for Deenah a while back. Now its just a matter of finishing off the bear, getting the parts for the base and painting it all. I love painting but not as much as building sometimes.

Getting work done for the 2019 pledge and I am glad for it. I wasn’t originally keen on the purple bases when I bought the consignment from my FLGS but it works in the final piece. The Tamiya tape for curves really came in handy for covering the edges of the base during priming and all other spray applications. This came out better than I thought it might as I was pretty much ambivalent. There was little work, other than resculpting some hair/the jaw on the Poltergeist, so it was all just getting around to painting.

I’ll be putting this group up for sale/trade as I don’t play Neverborn and I’ll be happy to have more space for other pieces.