This week’s update is a bit of a long one. The first part is about my processing of MMSI and where I’m going in the future. The second half will be about what I’ve been painting so hopefully there’s a bit of something for everyone in this one. Over the last week, I’ve had a lot to think about as you can probably imagine. Some good, some bad, but all in all, it was productive. One of the biggest questions I pondered was: Why do I do competition painting? I’m sure that to some of you it seems too demanding, not rewarding enough, and possibly even for sadists. So I thought discussing why I do what I do, what drives me in the hobby, and what keeps me interested, is worth discussing. I guess you could say it is a mission statement of sorts.
It is true that entering and coming up short in a competition is hard because you have to face some hard truths. Competitions help you see where you actually are versus where you think you are. Sure, sometimes judges get things wrong but I don’t think that was the case here. So instead, you have to face yourself, your insecurities (especially after a disappointing result), and think about what’s best for you in the hobby. In my case, painting competitions have always given me a lot of motivation to improve. Its not often the warm and fuzzy kind of motivation but it is very valuable or it has been for me. For example, my experience at Golden Demon years ago, lit a fire in me and caused me to pour my heart and soul into the Stormcast mini which I exhibited at MMSI. I didn’t realize how difficult it was and how big of a deal that gold was until more recently but I really cherish the gold medal now. It was and continues to be validation of my hard work as well, which is something special.
At the same time, I don’t compete to be the best painter in the world (that idea is fool’s gold, in my opinion), only the best version of myself as a painter. Our hobby is so deep and there is so much to learn and to try. That is why I’m rarely bored and painting isn’t a chore. That also drives me forward as a competitor because I can always learn new things and I can always try to improve further. It is a never-ending quest, if you want to think of it like that. I take it for granted now but I remember a number of years ago seeing painters where I couldn’t even imagine how they did certain things or how they could make a miniature look so realistic and now when I’m on my game, I feel like my best work is as good as anyone’s which is really gratifying. I don’t mean that at all in an egotistical way either. Its more that I can paint with confidence and belief in myself because I’m never completely outclassed by others.
So that drives me forward and is why I keep coming back to competition painting despite some challenging results. There is part of me that feels like an underdog in this hobby. I don’t have a huge circle of painter friends that give me constant feedback on my work. I do get a little feedback here and there but in general, its just me and my best effort. I feel indebted to anybody who has ever helped me whether it is giving advice, feedback, or teaching me something new in the hobby. I know I wouldn’t be here without meeting and interacting with genuinely kind and giving people. I also am a hobbyist and not a professional. I paint about 1.5-2 hours a day for six days a week. At Golden Demon, you’ll see plenty of people who paint full-time or only paint a couple of minis in a given year. That is something I can’t do and probably wouldn’t do, even if I could. With all that said, when I am successful at a painting competition, it is a great feeling, especially in the world we live in nowadays where it feels like the little guy doesn’t stand a chance and the have’s, have more and more, if you know what I mean.
With that said, what am I going to do moving forward? There are no competitions to enter in the near future so there are no goals like I need to get a piece or two done by X date. I think the main thing for me to focus on is to go back to being a student of the game and to try to learn as much as I can to improve. One of the best ways to do that is to try some new things out and so that is something else I will try to do.
One of the other things I’ve thought about are the different scales I’ve dabbled in the last few years. I’ve talked about some of these things in the past but I think it is good to collect my thoughts again here to explain my plan for the near future.
Busts
Pros – They look incredible when painted up. Busts are the most lifelike miniatures you can work on because the large scale gives you the space to make everything look realistic. There are tons of really cool busts out there on the market. It pains me sometimes that I don’t have the time to paint busts but that is life. You can’t paint everything!
Cons – Busts are very different than gaming scale miniatures which is what I’m most used to painting so there is a fairly steep learning curve. The opportunity to be more realistic means there are more things to master to achieve that effect. Lighting is hugely important with busts and there is some pressure to be creative with lighting to make the bust interesting. I’ve messed this up before and I find the pressure throws me off. Busts have the least “contemporary” learning resources. There aren’t a lot of Youtube videos or Patreons that focus on busts so I have found them to be the hardest to learn about.
75mm Miniatures
Pros – These miniatures also look fantastic when painted up. Not quite as life-like but they have more details which in turn make them look really impressive. They’re also big enough that you don’t have to be super close to them to appreciate the details which is a bonus as well. The jump to 75mm from gaming miniatures is not nearly as steep as the one to busts and so its pretty comfortable to switch between gaming scales and 75mm. Directional lighting is less of a focus which also makes them easier to paint. There are tons of cool sculpts out there, more than a person can ever hope to paint.
Cons – They are very time consuming to paint, which makes each one a major commitment. Because there are more details, the “shapes” on the miniature are often more advanced and harder to paint well with NMM. There are not a lot of basing products out there so I find 75mm a lot harder to get creative with in that regard. There are not a ton of learning resources out there for them either. There tend to be more painted examples but not a lot of Youtube content or Patreons you can follow. 75mm is generally the priciest of these three options as well.
Warhammer
Pros – The biggest variety in miniature subjects so its impossible not to find something you will like. Generally speaking, the miniatures are cheaper to buy than the other scales since they’re smaller. More basing products than you can shake a stick at which means it is easier to make dioramas and vignettes. The smaller scale means these miniatures take up less room in your display case which is nice. The “shapes” on miniatures tend to be simpler and easier to figure out how to paint well, especially with NMM. There are way more learning resources at this scale compared to anything else. It is the easiest space to learn new things about what you’re painting.
Cons – The minis are smaller and harder appreciate on display. You really need to get close to see all of the details. So much Warhammer gets painted that it is harder to come up with fresh ideas. It can feel like everything has been done before at times. Sometimes Warhammer miniatures have details that are maddeningly small which can be tricky to paint well.
When I consider all of these options, I think that I need to focus my energy to ensure that I’m producing the highest quality work. I also tend to think that I should go back to my “bread and butter” and paint Warhammer again for display projects. I’m definitely out of practice in this regard and I remember buying the Darkoath Chieftain pictured above (which I still have kicking around) and feeling like it was too small to work on, but after plenty of consideration, I think this is probably the best place for me right now. I need to learn and improve and there’s things I’ve been wanting to do like get better at dioramas/vignettes so I might as well commit to this scale for now. Part of me wonders if I kept painting Warhammer the whole time, what would have happened with my results at MMSI. Of course, I’m proud for branching out to larger scales and I learned a lot from it but I did really well painting Warhammer and I might have continued to do well if I had not changed gears. Nothing ventured, nothing gained, I guess you could say and truthfully, I’ll never know so I’m not going to spend a lot of time second-guessing.
Either way, my plan is to give Warhammer another go in the nearish future. I think I’m going to pick up a miniature that should be pretty forgiving to work on and just try to get back into the swing of things. I’m out of practice and so putting some time in and painting something that I will enjoy seems like the right next step to me. I have a couple of 75mm miniatures to paint one day but I think taking a break and focusing on small scale miniatures that are less time consuming seems wise. There is an idea that the more miniatures pass through your hands, the better you tend to get. I’m in a spot where some miniatures need to get painted and I will focus on learning instead of just the end results. I also would like to work on dioramas and vignettes more so that will be part of my plans too in some way shape or form, though I haven’t quite figured it out yet.
So that is my plan for display painting in the wake of MMSI and I thank you for reading about it. Now it is time to turn towards what I’ve been working on the last two weeks. First up, I worked on another Minuteman miniature for Fallout. I painted the first one of these up 2-3 years ago which is hard to believe. I didn’t love the miniature, particularly the face which came out a little ugly looking for a lady. Here’s a look at her.
The second one is kneeling so she’s pretty small and hard to photograph. I tried some different colors out on her clothing and paid greater attention to lights and shadows as well. When I saw the base, I thought some flagstone colors on the stonework would really spruce up the miniature and I was really happy with the final results.
She’s not perfect by any means, but I feel as though this miniature is quite a bit more appealing than the first one. I actually went back and did something I never do and repainted the first mini’s base to try and make them match a bit better. Now they are both improved and look striking on the tabletop. You can also see how the lighting looks better on the newer, kneeling one as well.
This is the type of improvement I love to see in my hobbying and why I keep coming back for more. These are not competition pieces, of course, but every little bit of improvement helps and prepares me for competition painting at the same time or that’s the way I like to look at it.
Next up, I painted Baron Harkonnen! Okay, not exactly but not too far off from the truth either.
The new Monsterpocalypse miniature is that corpulent one on the right and its about as close I get to painting something grotesque like Nurgle. I don’t know what in the Cthulhu happened to him but he came out nicely, especially considering it is a tiny miniature. I’m impressed that across the three miniatures, the colors look pretty consistent which is great for the Monsterpocalypse diorama, I reckon. I have plans to tackle something else for Monsterpocalypse fairly soon so you can expect to see more in the near future!
And finally, I’m working on something new the last few days that is going to take a while yet to finish but I’ll go ahead and give you a teaser since I think it is looking quite nice.
You can probably guess what game this is for already but I’ll discuss the mini more next week when it is hopefully finished. I’m having a good time working on it thus far and I think it might be the best one of its kind when I get it done. We shall see!
There is plenty more going on but this update is long enough as it is so I’ll stop here and say that I hope to discuss something I’ve been reading in the near future. It is quite a barbaric affair so you can ponder what that could be in the meantime!
Dude I always love your painting and whereas I have only ever entered one painting competition with a couple of Pulp miniatures. I get why you do it, to push yourself and improve. Getting a Gold in Golden Demon is an awesome achievement. As for things getting harder, you will continue to improve but maybe it’s bias in the judges. By that I mean we all have things we like. Aka I love Fantasy stuff and have no interest in 40k therefore anything 40k is going to draw my attention less than a wood elf. This is in no way a criticism of judges. I remember seeing something that either won Gold or even the sword and actually couldn’t see how they won compared to the one below.
*Time for a coffee break as my train if thought has been totally derailed due to a conversation happening regarding grammar schools*
Loving the minutemen miniatures….
*Back on track*
I get your thinking on the different scales. I have tried a couple of busts and have about 10 sitting there to do. Never tried to paint anything larger than 54mm.
Now 32 is your preferred sizecand I get it.
Can’t argue with that. But if you want to try something different and challenging why not drop scales even smaller like 10 or 15mm.
You probably already do anyway…. Sorry for the cryptic and rambling comment I got definitely sidetracked.
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First of all, I really appreciate the kind words and your continued support. It means a lot to have people who genuinely like what you do. You certainly don’t get that from social media either.
There is definitely truth in what you’re saying about judging bias. It happens but ultimately, there is nothing I can do about it so I try not to sweat it. I’ve seen a few people have a freak out on social media when they don’t agree with judging at their expense and its rough to watch as you can probably imagine.
In terms of scale, I can certainly try some smaller scale stuff in the near term too. Monsterpocalypse is funny because the big monsters are borderline 75mm (I think they might be 60mm but I might be wrong) but the buildings and vehicles are around 6mm and 10mm. So I will be trying small scale stuff sooner than later. We’ll see how I get on with that. GW’s small scale stuff always has interesting Golden Demon entries too so who knows, maybe I’ll give it a try one day to see how I get on with those too!
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It was good to read about your thought process after the last post. I think diving into a different scale is a good move, will make for a nice change and that keeps things interesting which is always important. Keen to see what you come up with!
Enjoyed the fallout minis, and cool to see the before after of the basing, I really like that second take on the base, so nice job there!
Finally the baron is looking about as good as someone in that state can!
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Thank you for reading it, Nic! I have a suspicion that it might be easier to avoid mistakes on smaller scale minis but I’ll have to experiment with it to find out for sure. Either way, I miss more elaborate basing and 75mm is not offering me that level of creativity so its time for a change.
Glad you liked the Minutewomen as well! I can’t believe how much better the basing makes the whole thing look and I’m glad I invested the time in repainting the old one. I agree on the Baron as well. He’s having a rough day but was fun and quick to paint at least!
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Lovely work on that minuteman (minutewoman? Minutemam?). That actually prompts a question; you’ve done a super job on her, she’s clearly a cut above the average gaming miniature in terms of the paint job. However, I’m assuming that the time invested in her was less (per square mm of miniature) than on Lokaris or the Stormcast, or any other competition miniature. With that in mind how did you feel about stopping when you did, rather than continuing to push the model to reach your full potential?
I ask because I’m very aware that if I want to paint all my projects, without taking several decades, I’m going to need to lower my standards to get quicker results, and yet when I do I’m rarely satisfied with the end product. When you’re capable of really high-end painting how do you stop at “good enough”?
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Minutemam does have a nice ring to it! 🙂 And thanks for the kind words as well. That is a very good question and this is going to be a somewhat rambling answer, I’m afraid. I spend probably 10-15 hours painting the average Fallout mini (assuming it isn’t a larger one, those take longer of course) so definitely much less than a display piece. Usually the gaming pieces are less complicated so I’m not necessarily rushing, they’re just less time consuming.
With that in mind, I admit that part of me wanted to repaint the first Minutewoman’s clothes because I don’t know why I painted her without more accurate zenithal lighting. Maybe that is just where my skill was at the time. I didn’t repaint more of her because there’s too much of a chance of messing up other parts and it being a headache overall.
My way of thinking to your question is to invest the time in models that benefit the most from it and are worthy of the extra time. For me, I spend the least amount of time painting Hellboy miniatures because they can have nasty and hard to remove mold lines. The sculpt quality is the lowest of things I paint which is not a huge surprise since it is a board game. Fallout are higher quality and have more details so they take a bit longer. I tend to put more effort in them because I know they’ll feature in games and I want them to look good in battle reports. Display pieces are by far the slowest as I’m trying not to make any mistakes and paint to the absolute best of my ability as you can imagine.
When I’m painting gaming pieces, I do recognize that I’m generally just taking my best stab at everything and living with the results. I do repaint or fix things sometimes if they bother me but for the most part, I live with the results because I know I need to keep things moving. My backlog is trying to catch up to yours so I don’t have forever to work on each miniature now. My patience is not infinite either and the less nice a mini is, the less I want to fiddle with it.
I hope that makes some kind of sense. Knowing some of the games you play and what miniatures you favor, I’d suggest investing the most time and effort into your leaders or centerpiece models as those are often pretty nice sculpts by GW. Bigger armies really benefit from having a couple of “focal points” on the battlefield. The rest of the Orks, Skaven, and assorted foot soldiers don’t need quite as much attention, I reckon 🙂 I hope this essay is helpful as you’re thinking about this and happy to discuss further if I can be of assistance!
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Thanks, that’s really solid advice. It’s a lesson I seem to need to remind myself of fairly regularly but it bears repeating; when it comes to armies the perfect really is the enemy of the good. Feel free to remind me in a few months when I’ve forgotten again!
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Really interesting to read your thoughts on this one, not least because I have never considered the larger scales or busts. I’m very much in the camp of “painting gaming pieces” above all else, and as long as they look good enough at 2-3ft “gaming distance”, I’m happy! That said, I do think it’s important to push yourself to be the best you can be, as we’ve discussed plenty of times in the past. Looking forward to seeing some more Warhammer though – I suppose I’m more familiar with that than with Fallout or anything, so it’ll be fun to see what you’re working on next!!
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Thanks for giving it a read, mate! The larger scales are definitely for people who are interested in painting something that is full of detail and challenges their skills. Its not that GW minis don’t provide that, but you can do more with those larger scales and get even more realism in the miniature, if you’re good enough at it. Hopefully that makes sense!
With that said, painting gaming stuff is great too. There’s way more people that do that than the larger scales too, truthfully. Everybody should paint in whatever way they think is fun but I’m glad that you enjoy trying to learn new things and improve along the way too. I think that is part of what keeps it interesting and motivating.
Ironically, I don’t know anything about actually playing Warhammer so hopefully you like the miniatures I pick! Just so you know, I am still contemplating the Sylvaneth idea I spoke about a little while ago. I’ve run into a couple of hurdles with the idea but I hope to find a way to paint something Sylvaneth in the nearish future as I know you were excited about that possibility!
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I’ve always assumed you can do more with the larger scale minis, because they have the scale to get a level of detail that would usually just be suggested on a gaming piece, but I think that’s the kind of thing that might inspire some, and terrify others!!
Sylvaneth have been some of my favourites for years now, and I’ve tried at least twice to build an army for them. I am very much looking forward to seeing your posts with the tree folk, anyway! 😃
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You assumed right! It is easy to make finer details like scratches convincing on bigger miniatures too, if that makes sense.
If you don’t mind me asking, what has kept you from building the army? I generally prefer miniatures that have some metal surfaces when I display paint so the Sylvaneth will certainly be something different than the usual for me 🙂
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Well I’m mainly a painter of gaming pieces, of course, and I couldn’t find an outlet to play with them, so it just made me lose interest as a result. If I had the space to show this kind of stuff off, then I’m sure I’d have kept them because it’s definitely the kind of army that can look phenomenal when assembled.
And remember, it’s fantasy tree people. Who’s to say they don’t have metallic leaves..?
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That makes sense! It sounds like a display case could be a good purchase for you in the future. I need to get one myself one of these days… Having said that, removing the motivation to paint to play a game is a pretty big barrier so that is totally fair too.
You’re thinking outside the box now, mate! The sculpts inspire me to think of nature and what could be incorporated into those designs, if that makes sense.
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You’re always gonna get warm and fuzzy from me brother. You’re an absolute star painter and hobbyist and even more than that you’re a good decent human. Stay cool and keep moving forward. Love your bloody work so much and have shown friends and family your work. They’re always super impressed and my daughters even asked me why I can’t paint like that? I returned the question well why couldn’t you have been born as sons? Haha. Jokes.
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That’s very kind of you to say, mate. Being a good person is more meaningful to me than picking up the brushes. Your daughters might have been a little rough on you with the questions but you can tell them if they raise enough money they can fly me out to Oz and I’ll do my best to teach you some new painting tricks haha
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Haha I’d bloody love that
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Me too!
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Didn’t you once say – do what makes you happy? Sounds like you might be following your own advice 🙂
While I admire what you can do with flesh, gold and other components of figures, I still go back to what you did with Alfrid’s coat to make that fabric so realistic. That attention to detail is what sets you apart from other painters in my opinion.
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I always try to! I think the 75mm projects are taking up a lot of time and keeping me from getting other stuff done and so it is time to change things up for variety’s sake, if nothing else.
I’m glad you remember the project with Alfrid. He did come out really well and that paint job holds up even today. A lot of the stuff I painted back then doesn’t necessarily fare so well, truthfully!
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Excellent post, I really enjoyed reading your thought process. One thing that I didn’t see in the pros and cons was what you actually like doing. I certainly find it easier to motivate myself when it’s something I’m excited about.
Whether your work is gold, silver or whatever category in competitions, it always blows me away when I see you sharing it here.
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There is no way I can add anything to the well-written comments above! I’d say just do what you enjoy! Nice work on the Minutemam! 🙂
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Indeed. Lots of wisdom in the comments, I’d say! Thank you for the kind words, as always, John! 🙂
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I always love seeing your Fallout stuff! I know it’s not big and showy, but your approach to the minis always pays off visually for me. I struggled so much with the mold lines on these mins and you make them just look fantastic!
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Thank you for the kind words! There is more to come as far as Fallout goes in the coming weeks so hopefully you will like that too. The mold lines can be a bit tricky and subtle to discern on Fallout minis. The only saving grace is that the resin is easy to file down compared to some plastics.
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Fantastic work on your latest Minuteman, well above the average gaming miniature standard. As for what you plan, if it makes you happy go for it, as you can always change your plan as and when you want to, nothing should ever stop you from doing what you enjoy mate.
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That is very true. My plans can certainly change but as of late, I’ve felt like it is time to mix things up and try to focus on one scale a bit more. I’m a bit out of practice with Warhammer, but I can hopefully get back into the swing of things pretty easily. Thanks for the kind words on the Minuteman as well. Its always nice to get one of them done as they aren’t among my favorite Fallout sculpts.
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