Let’s start with a quick update the Elf project. I made what feels like immense progress this week yet again and am pretty much at the point where I won’t have to paint many more “repeat” parts now which is great. While initially I didn’t think the gems looked as good as the other side, upon further review, I think I’m in better shape there then I thought. There are very minor variations in the two sides of the elk but overall, I think it looks pretty consistent and I’m happy with where everything is right now. Here’s a look at the latest progress and a look at the other side since its been a while since I finished that now.
This should mean that the next time you see the elk, you’ll only be seeing new parts which is exciting. I look forward to seeing this all come together. You might be asking, how does he have the time to make any progress painting with everything else going on? And truthfully, it has been hard. A lot of other things I do for fun have suffered but I’ve tried to be deliberate about making time to paint. It is the most stress-relieving thing I can do so I’ve tried to keep painting as part of my daily routine. Having said that, I don’t know if there will be any additional updates between now and the wedding which is two weeks away. I’ll be painting when I can but time to update the site and comment on other’s work has been harder and harder to find.
There are unfortunately a number of reasons for that. I’ll just list them out instead of dwelling on them. My fiancée’s parked car was sideswiped which caused her bumper to mostly pop off. Less than a week later, some local thieves stole her catalytic converter (along with several other people’s on my street). Yesterday, the officiant (who is related to my fiancée) decided to bow out of her duties due to COVID. Also yesterday, the sewage pump in my condo was malfunctioning and could have backed up into the condo if I ran much water downstairs which was also a bit stressful. Finally, with the current trends in the US, I believe the wedding will be masks required and I wouldn’t be surprised if more people decide not to attend at the last minute which is pretty unfortunate.
Fortunately, the sewage pump was fixed yesterday and for a reasonable price (though I plan on getting a new one soon since the one I have seems to be pretty old). My fiancée’s car is fixed and with an anti-theft cable installed now too. And even with all of these difficulties and stressors, I’ve tried my best to stay level-headed and not get too discouraged because losing your cool only makes it that much harder to recover from the setbacks. Truthfully, nothing has been easy and most of the wedding planning has not been enjoyable because there have been so many issues to sort out so it isn’t all that shocking at this point. With any luck, things will go a bit more smoothly from here on out and I will be back with more painting progress whenever time permits!
Kuribo's Painting 
I am glad things seem to be heading in the right direction now. The elk looks great.
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Thanks for the kind words, mate!
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On the plus side the elk is still looking great and, even if you don’t get much time painting, it’ll still be there for you to come back to. Car and house stuff are getting sorted as well. It’s unfortunate COVID hangs around threatening to disrupt everyone’s plans, but after the wedding you’ll be married and (to me anyway) that’s what it’s all about! 🙂
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Thanks, John and I’m not bothered if I do have to set the elk aside for a bit. I’m expecting that to happen as we get closer to the wedding in fact. I agree with you that getting this wedding over with is the priority at this point. It certainly isn’t what I anticipated with all of the COVID delays but the main thing is to get it finished!
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The whole process around getting married can be pretty stressful. I have done it a couple of times now. So I hear you. And Covid just makes everything so much more challenging. And we had someone knock off the mirror on our van on Friday without having the courtesy to stop and tell us. That kind selfish irresponsibility infuriates me. So again I can relate but you are right, losing my cool would not help. But having a good partner helps a lot and it sounds like you have that too!
The Elk is continuing to look amazing. Do not get too stressed if you do not have as much time as you like to work more on it for a couple of weeks. Rome was not built in a day, a rolling stone gathers no moss and one in the hand is worth two in the bush. For further wisdom, go buy a fortune cookie me boyo.
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It has been a rocky road between COVID and some family issues. I don’t think my fiancée or myself would describe the process as joyous but it will be great to get it finished and that’s what we’re focused on for now. I’m sorry to hear about your van. My fiancée’s car got hit and it was the same way. Whoever hit it, took no responsibility. We’re lucky the damage wasn’t worse on it though I would say.
Agreed on the Elk. I’m not bothered if I do have to take a little bit of time off on it. I’m actually ahead of schedule if anything and am happy with my progress so I’ll be ready to let it sit when that time comes.
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As long as you and your partner are at the wedding everyone else is just icing on the cake. Don’t get me wrong having friends and family around to help celebrate your day is great, but it’s just the two of you from then on, your there to support each other through good times and bad, so make the most of every day.
The elk is looking great Jeff, and at least you got the duplicate bit out of the way, so onto something new, but it will be there after the wedding, if you don’t get time between now and then.
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Those are words of wisdom, Dave! You sound a bit like me arguing for a small wedding to be honest 🙂 I am excited to keep going on the elk as it feels like we’re over the top of the hill now and can coast to the finish line at the bottom of the hill but I know that I’ve still got plenty to do on this guy and there’s no way he’ll be done before the wedding so I’ll be prepared to take a break on it soon whenever that is needed. Thanks for the support and I will hopefully be able to keep up with your Star Wars project in the meantime 🙂
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The Elk continues to look amazing.
Good luck with real-life; it sounds like you’ve had (and are having) a pretty tricky time now.
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Thanks, mate! The entire wedding process has been a bit tricky for sure but I appreciate your support and hopefully, I’ll come out the other side with more hobbying time too 🙂
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Do what you need to for stress relief and enjoy what you can. It’s hard to enjoy hobbies when real life (especially covid) keeps interfering. We just got a wedding reception invite (wedding was earlier in covid and family only) where they respectively requested vaccinated guests only.
Don’t worry about anything but you and your fiancee for the duration, will be glad to see an update when you have time.
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Will do! That is cool that the people who are having the wedding felt empowered to say that. It is hard to speak up (or at least I think so) when you might make some guests mad about a policy. There are a couple of people who are unvaccinated who are attending this wedding and it makes my fiancée a bit uneasy as well. She wanted it to be a no kids wedding and it turns out that that will make things safer from what I’ve been seeing in the news lately. Regardless of all that, some positive steps have occurred since my post and I think we’re in much better shape to have this wedding now thankfully. Thanks for the kind words and support as always!
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The Elk is looking terrific mate and like you I have always found painting to be a stress reliever so you are wise to keep it going at such a time. Weddings can be tough enough without the added crap you have had so well done on keeping your cool. Fingers crossed all goes well for you here on in. On the positive front the wedding will soon be over and you can then really crack on with some painting on your wedding night! 😉
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Glad to hear it isn’t just me, mate! 🙂 This wedding has been challenging in many respects so I completely agree with everything you said. Thank you for the kind words as well. I can hardly wait to get the wedding over so the painting marathon can begin! 😉
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The model is looking great, the 2 sides are very consistent as well!
I hope life get a bit less stressful soon!
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Thank you, mate. Really glad to hear you think so too 🙂 With any luck things will slow down a bit and I can focus on the important things like painting again 😀
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The Elk is coming along beautifully mate.
You’ve done a great job keeping it together, I think I’d have exploded at this point. Keep focused on the wedding, it will be great. It’s all about the two of you and everything else is an added bonus – enjoy it and forget about everything else for a while… except for the Elk of course, because I can’t wait to see more 😉
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Haha, me neither mate! I’m just now getting to the fun part where everything you get done helps you see a bit more about how this mini will look in the end. I think the wedding planning has finally turned the corner so hopefully with these last few days things will be less stressful, even if they will still be a bit busy, I imagine!
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That’s great news… all the best for the big day😎
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Hope everything takes a turn for the better! Sympathies on the wedding stuff, we just decided to postpone ours until 2022 – but we’ve been officially married for a few years now so it’s just the party. Hope you have a great and special day despite all the worries!
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Thanks, Mikko! I really appreciate your kind words. Your approach is a smart one. We should have gotten married a while ago as we started planning around two years ago and COVID really pushed it back which has frustrated my fiancée quite a bit. Regardless of all that, it will be a big relief to get this done. I hope you’re able to have a great celebration for your marriage whenever you are ready to have it! 🙂
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Hope your luck turns for the better soon. Enjoy your wedding day no matter what — wishing you a great day.
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Thank you! I really appreciate it 😀
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The way you’ve highlighted the armour and gems is just amazing, with such beautifully subtle colour changes. The greens and brown/orange go so well together and the fur looks amazing too. Can’t wait to see the final model!
Sorry to hear you’ve had so much crap on your plate over the past weeks, here’s hoping your wedding goes off without a hitch!
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Thanks, Matt! I hope you’re still feeling patient because I figure it could be a month or two more of painting until I’m completely done with this project and that is not taking account for any “delays” caused by the wedding. Speaking of, thanks for the kind words and I’m keeping my fingers crossed that everything falls into place now that we’re in the home stretch!
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Mate, that elk gets more beautiful every time I see it, I’ve probably said it before but this is my favourite model in the Lumineth range and you’re producing an absolute work of art here. Can’t wait to see what you do with the elf.
Sorry to hear about your woes, organising weddings is a big stress isn’t it? At the end of the day the only people you need to have there are you, your fiancée and whoever you’ve got to officiate. All the other friends and family and accoutrements are nice to have but ultimately it’s all about the two of you. If it all gets too stressful my advice is to grab your fiancée, jump in the car and run away to Vegas. Get it done by an Elvis impersonator or something. (I’m only partly joking – some people I know did exactly that. Their families were making all kinds of drama over the wedding, the costs and headaches were mounting up and they were on holiday in America and just thought “You know what, stuff the lot of them, this is about us!”. Put a few uppity relatives noses out of joint but ultimately the two of them seem to be having a perfectly happy life now and that’s all that matters).
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Thanks, mate! I’ve made more progress since this weekend but it feels really close now to being able to work on the elf. I can’t help but feel this will really start to come together then!
This wedding has been really stressful and nothing has come easy. In some ways, I wish that we had eloped and then just done a smaller scale celebration afterwards but hindsight is always 20/20. I can totally understand why your friends would feel that way. Family expectations and meddling in decisions have made this process much harder than I think it could have been but thankfully we’ve got less than two weeks to go now so hopefully the worst is behind us now. Fingers crossed anyway! 🙂
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While every wedding is somewhat stressful, yours seems to have an extra helping of it. Sorry to hear it. When I got married my wife and I threatened to call the whole thing off and just have a pizza party at our apartment. 😀
I wouldn’t be expecting any updates till after the wedding/ honeymoon nor should you be commenting on people’s blogs. (Excepting mine of course😝). Focus on the real people in your life and not us internet fakes as nice as we are.
Don’t do any painting on the honeymoon. Not unless it’s Leo painting Kate Titanic style.
Good luck and best wishes. 😀
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A pizza party does sound preferable to a wedding to me. It has to be easier to put together! 🙂 I can’t promise I won’t be commenting on other people’s blogs as it is all but habit now and I have enough time to do so (I think). Having said that, the honeymoon hasn’t even been planned yet so there will be painting soon after the wedding for sure 😀 Will I be painting on my actual honeymoon? Definitely not! But there is so much to do that the honeymoon is going to be delayed for a bit for what that’s worth.
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Wishing you the best and a stress-free wedding. And the elk looks great!
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Thanks as always, Mark!
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Sorry to hear about all of the travails; congratulations on your upcoming nuptuals.
As for the WIP elk, it is looking pretty fantastic so far.
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Thanks for the kind words, Ann! Things have been better since then thankfully which has been much appreciated. Only a few more days to go now!
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Ouch – I know it’s a late reply but what a whole lot of trials and tribulations. 😡
I’m not a big wedding guy – I’ve been to enough big show weddings that it put me off having one involving other people entirely. Enough pushy relatives trying to make the couple the most important thing in the world for months around the date that everyone else needs to align themselves with – and then seeing actual couple feeling like the least important people on the actual day “neither of us really know who most of these people are” is a paraphrased (but real) quote from one friend who had a big wedding several years ago….
I’m hoping that yours went well, as I slowly catch up with reading all of your posts! 😀
On the model – to repeat myself once more – it’s looking great here, though painting one side then the other isn’t something I’ve ever heard of before. Good to see how well it’s been working out across these posts though!
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I agree, mate. You should stick to inviting people who are important to you and the rest can’t make it, unfortunately. The wedding went better than the leadup, thankfully and it is relief to have the whole thing behind us as well.
Apparently painting one side and the other isn’t typically how other painters do it. I just find it a bit less tedious so that is how I went about it 🙂
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Good to hear on the Wedding, and I guess I can see that on the model, though it makes my head hurt in terms of the dangers of the two sides not turning out consistent with each other. 🙂
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