Actually the whole week in terms of hobbying has been challenging this time around which is part of the reason I’m posting an article a bit later than usual. Let’s take a closer look at what has been going on.
One of the big things I’ve been working on this week is this rug for the diorama. It doesn’t look too difficult to paint but the entire time I painted it, I felt like I kept thinking this rug still doesn’t look as good as I want it to and I don’t know why. I wanted it to look gaudy and flashy but also kind of dingy like something someone with poor taste would have in their home. That is not an easy look to achieve as it turns out! The rug also looked too flat until I enlisted the help of a painting friend who suggested stippling some blues on the rug to give it texture. That ended up being what it needed and I was finally satisfied with the rug after being annoyed with it for several days. I really can’t understate that rugs are harder to paint than you’d think!
The challenges with the rug didn’t end there though. The plastic is soft and way more pliable than I am used to and would like. So this meant straightening it by hitting it with some heat from a hairdryer a couple of times. I was still a bit nervous as I knew this was going to be glued onto a flat base and I need the thing to stay flat or this diorama is going nowhere fast. To be safe, I glued it liberally and put a heavy book on it for an hour or two. This is how it looks on the diorama base. All’s well that ends well in this case.
While I made steady progress on my MDF Fallout terrain (it is mostly painted now in fact), I ran into problems as I was getting ready to varnish it yesterday. My airbrush was not cooperating and I was tired last night and couldn’t be bothered with trying to fix it. I love and hate airbrushes. They can save you so much time but I feel like I spend as much time trying to keep the thing running as I do actually using it. That isn’t true but it feels that way and the frustration can really pile up if you don’t like troubleshooting it like me.
I ended up brushing on the varnish for the minis and I will probably do the same for the terrain this upcoming week. It will be tedious but I don’t feel like trying to fix the airbrush at the moment. Part of me could go without airbrushing at all honestly. This is the third one I’ve bought (along with some replacement parts) and I can never seem to keep them running for more than about six months. It is time consuming to varnish with a brush but it does work without any headaches so I wouldn’t be surprised if I do more of that in the future.
It was with this frustrated mindset that I finished the recently painted Fallout minis today. One of them that I was excited about showing off is still looking way too glossy so that is not good and is yet another frustrating thing I ran into this week. The rest of them came out pretty well though. Sturges (the mechanic) looks as sharp with the rust as I had hoped he would. I think in places I could have been more patient and applied the rust effect more strongly but I was not in the most patient moods so what I did will have to be okay.
I have no idea what I will work on this upcoming week. I will take a break from the diorama because I want to be motivated to paint my best and I’m not sure I’m in that headspace at the moment. I also need to find something that will give me some hobby joy for obvious reasons. I am off of work a couple of days this week and my birthday is Monday so I should have time to do something good. We’ll see what happens and hopefully next week will be happier and productive.
Kuribo's Painting 
Airbrush – tried it once, couldn’t do what I wanted to do and haven’t tried it again. Have watched videos of how to, etc, just can’t be motivated to do it. Have heard don’t go cheap on buying one but I think I would just be more aggravated that I spent the money on something I can’t afford get to work right.
The rug looks fantastic! Can we have a before picture to see what you worked with? Or a link to what you bought?
And an early Happy Birthday!
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The money dynamic is one I’ve struggled with for sure. I have bought three starter ones from Iwata (so not the really cheap ones but crazy expensive) and they all seem to get blocked eventually and I can’t keep them running once that happens and then the frustration mounts…
Thank you! I shouldn’t have written this while grumpy (which I did) because I should have mentioned that and thanked you because I got the idea for this diorama from something you shared on OR. The rug is from a Terrain Crate box from Mantic. I think it is called the Throne Room set, if I’m not mistaken. Hopefully that helps you see what I’ve been working with! There might be more from that set in this diorama as well 🙂
And thanks for the birthday wish! 🙂
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As always, brilliant work mate!
I have not tried airbrushing yet. I have concerns about the same frustrations you and Bret have mentioned but I think it takes an airbrush to do vehicles and bigger models well…. so no vehicles for me any time soon.
Wishing you a Happy Birthday a bit early!
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Airbrushing is great when it works. You can get paint or varnish applied very quickly. I actually have basically only used mine to speed up the varnishing process but it is a godsend for large models too. I started dabbling in airbrushing after GW’s purity seal spray frosted and ruined some minis I painted a couple of years ago. For all its frustrations, airbrushing has never caused frosting so I really appreciate that about it.
Thanks for the kind words and early birthday wish as well 😀
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First off: the rust effect on Sturges looks fantastic! You’ve painted these Fallout miniatures very characterfully.
The rug is also looking great, very intricate. It fits very well with the Lake-Town ‘royalty’ I would think. I’m looking forward to seeing how it looks when there are miniatures near / on it.
Sorry to hear about your frustrations and airbrush troubles. I have the same attitude as Brett and grumpygnome here, I think it is probably a great tool after you’ve invested a lot of time, money and effort in it, but I’d rather spend that time painting by hand than by using that time to fix stuff that doesn’t work (because it probably wouldn’t work well for me, I am not a very ‘handy’ person). I had a similar thing with a hot wire cutter. The wire snapped every 20 minutes or so and it frustrated me so much that I just cut polystyrene by hand/knife now. It’s not nearly as pretty and gives a lot more mess, but at least it’s something that I can do without much interruption and too much frustration.
Finally, if you want I could send you over a print screen of the first scenario from the Quest of the Ringbearer book, about stealing from Farmer Maggot’s Crop. I believe you should have everything ready to play that one out if you wanted and feel like using your hobby time to play out a scenario.
Whatever you choose to do, happy early birthday!
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Thanks for the kind words on the painting, Gero! It is always nice to hear that others think similarly about the quality of painting and I think I’m most proud of Sturges as well. He might be the best Fallout mini I’ve painted, though Codsworth might have something to say about that 🙂
Those are all excellent points about the airbrush. I’m like you in that I’m not terribly handy and I find fixing things more frustrating than not. I can see positives to giving up on airbrushing for now (I can get rid of mine and clear some storage space being a big one) so I will certainly be giving it some more thought in the future.
Please do send over that screen. What would be the easiest way for you to do that? I can share my email address with you or if FB is easier, I’m happy to do that as well. Thanks for being willing to share! 🙂
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Send you a message via FB 😉
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Never used an airbrush and have no plans to do so. I just use a rattle can matt varnish from Humbrol on my figures and it works a treat. Nice work on the rug but you are right to take time out and pick up when you are in the zone. Dioramas are a marathon not a sprint. Great work on the figures. Have a great birthday! 🙂
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I appreciate the advice on the diorama and I will definitely be taking it. I have learned the hard way that getting too committed to one project (especially a big one) is not a great idea. Thanks for the early birthday wishes as well 😀
In terms of the rattle can, have you ever had frosting with it? I’m not sure how our humidity compares to ol’ Blighty but I got frosting with a different brand’s rattle can. And that actually led me to try airbrushing which has solved the frosting issue thankfully. I’d love to be able to spray varnish and not have to use a brush if I could so that is why I’m curious 🙂
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I can’t speak for the differences in our weather but I’ve been using it for years without any problem.
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Perhaps that was a daft question or at least way of phrasing it. It sounds like something worth investigating! Thanks for the recommendation 🙂
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The Fallout guys look great, and the rug has turned out very nicely as well. As far as airbrushes… meh. One day I might try working with mine again, but the setup and cleanup time are just completely offputting, along with not really having the space to properly have it set up, especially with vantilation and such…
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Cheers mate! I am finding the same in terms of setup and clean up time. I just want to get what I need done and not have to worry about troubleshooting a blockage in the airbrush. My apartment is small and the ventilation is not great and I find that unless I’m spraying paint (which I’ve almost never done with my airbrush), it isn’t too bad. Having said that, owning an airbrush just to varnish isn’t getting the full mileage out of it either….
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Figures – great! Rug – great, pity you’ve got to put people on top of it! 😉 And I’ve never been an airbrush sort of person, although I’ve seen some great results with them. Enjoy your birthday and time off! 🙂
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Thanks John! Gluing stuff on top of that rug is going to be a real pain so I don’t look forward to that either 😀 Thanks for the birthday wishes and I will certainly try to enjoy having some time off from the grind as well 🙂
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Lol, seems most folks are anti airbrush. My wife has gone through 3 (at $150 a pop) for cookie decorating and each has suddenly ‘stopped working correctly’ for some reason or another. Turned me off them for miniatures. Never have tried.
The rug looks fantastic. The first pic I saw I actually thought it was an ad for a rug imbedded in the post!
Fall out miniatures look great and I’m excited to see the terrain.
Happy Birthday! 😀
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Wow! $150 a piece. The ones I’ve been using are $50 (thankfully). I am surprised how many people avoid them too. I love what an airbrush can do but the maintenance and setup do counteract that somewhat at the same time. I am certainly rethinking whether I would replace the airbrush I have if it truly doesn’t work anymore. We shall see!
Thanks for the kind words on the rug 🙂 That is really great to hear that it looks realistic. I worked on it so much that I lost perspective on it and wasn’t sure if it was good or not by the time I finished. I’m excited about the Fallout terrain as well and thanks for the happy birthday wish as well 😀
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Happy (belated) birthday! 🙂
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Thank you!
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