Painting - Staying current and upping your skill

Questions came in a few times about what to do in order to get better at painting. What techniques, what videos do I watch, what brushes and paints? Certainly there are a great deal of articles, videos and other material out there offering all the advice you'd want regarding those topics. So how is this article different? This one talks about the most critical component, practice and a rudiment to practice daily,

Sure, you hear it often, and you try a few things here and there. But what are the new guy fundamentals? What can I do? Our hobby has pretty expensive practice material in metal and plastic so where do we go to step up to practice? Plain old paper.

Motivation and staying motivated

Sometimes in our lives many things may get in the way of our hobby, kids, work, family, anything really and you know what, that's a good thing. We should be people first, gamers second.

Of course sometimes life gets so hectic that we realize six months has passed and we haven't gamed, hobbies or otherwise had a solid time to play hard as well.

One thing to keep on target with playing is to schedule a yearly motivation list. Pick a forum, post the month's achievement and stick to it. January you'll do a war hammer 40k character, something that just looks great whether or not you're going to play it. February you'll do a hordes character, and so on. Just one little thing a month. Don't forget to post your results at the end of every month, it'll motivate you and your fellow board mates.

Since I like to occasionally practice what I preach I'll post at least one of my motivations and results per month, and share the process as I go.

For January it was completing my shiny new necron croissant, the infamous doom scythe. Lots of nice pics on that.

February will bring a hordes model, one I plan on entering into The Battle Standard painting contest out of CT in April. Here's where I stand with that model, just got some white primer in, which will soon coat all the pretty pieces.

So keep out there, do one coolminiornot.com entry a week, one more 2013 motivational thread or simply take a picture, upload in to your computer and save it on your desktop. Any way you slice it you'll be happy to look back at your achievements and be happy that you took out a little you time for the hobby.

Kickstarters to review

Kickstarter is without a doubt changing the world, and very much so the gaming world. If you're not familiar with Kickstarter it's a way for you, the lowly standard civilian to help chip in to get a small company or even an individual the funds they need to produce a product. Amazon checks them and blesses them, of course taking a little chunk of the pie. So what do you get? Well if you look at the different levels you can get everything from a hearty "Thank you" letter up to a whole lot of product.

So what have I dropped Kickstarter cash into recently, and/or am considering putting into?

Wild West Exodus is the first and I'm already in. It's a sci-fi western mini game that has great looking models, a good tie in comic book and a promising start with some guys getting into a new step in their hobby careers.

Go take a look: http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/wildwestexodus/wild-west-exodus-sci-fi-western-miniatures-game

As with any kickstarter getting in early insures getting some really good deals and a way to get started for less than normal, all you need is some patience!

The next one I'm looking at getting into once the funds become available is Jawaballs' "The Jawaballs Way: How to Paint Wargaming Miniatures"

Jawaballs is not only a fantastic guy, he's also a very talented painter who's tips are well worth listening to. He's been awarded quite a number of times and even his table top level of painting is exceptional.

Go take a look:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/793275926/the-jawaballs-way-how-to-paint-wargaming-miniature

What other Kickstarters are on your radar?

Now writing for WMD as well

I'm pleased to announce that I'll be writing for the collective blog group known in short as WMD and in long hand known as war machine miniatures and dice. They can be found at http://wargamingminiaturesanddice.blogspot.com

I ran into all of the crew and was near immediately given a club shirt to show my support of and get the advertising out there of the group.

The gentlemen and ladies of WMD showed me a great time in the recent TempleCon held in Warwick, Rhode Island. Many games were held, a good deal of painting and hobby was to be had with the group. As time goes on I will be cross posting and occasionally linking you to the site from here when a relevant post should be shared on my journey through the hobby.

Looking forward to sharing a bit more with even more people and giving WMD some 40k perspective!

See you online,
Twyg

Templecon - mini wargaming experience 2013

Running around at my first con and it's honestly one of the better times I've had in a while. People are friendly, ready to help you learn a new game or an old standby. Either way I've been up till three every morning and waking at seven to get food, then more gaming.

Definitely get a room at your conference venue though as being able to slip to your room for a nap is a must.

I've put a number of board games in and met a great deal of gaming industry folks especially in the after hours. There's always a game going on twenty four seven in any space.

I will definitely be placing a local convention into the budget moving forward. People are always willing to help and play any game you'd like at any time. This is also the perfect place to try a new game and get tips on playing from a much broader range of people.

Here's some pictures to get scale of the amount of gaming and people.

A 35 point Warmachine admin setup

Side halls full of games

The grand ballroom with 40k in the background

More retail

My wraith in a painting contest with some seriously good competition

My borrowed Circle on the table

Even more retail

He may be feral, but he's still my moopie moo