Not Easy Being Green

I was re-reading Secrets of the Void's Black Legion Tutorial trying to decide if I should use it to paint Anvilgard, Deathwatch, Ebon Chalice or some combination of those, when the thought came to me "does this work for other colours?"

The Otherworld Miniatures Dryad I picked up when this whole nonsense started was perfect for this. I painted Dark Angels Green up from the bottom, and Warp Lightning down from the top, letting it mix a bit in the middle. While that dried, I took the picture above. I then gave it a good drybrush of Hellion Green and started picking out the detail.

This is how she turned out. The sandals, torcs, belt and eyes got a base of other colours to have them stand out from the rest of the model. Almost all of them then had a contrast colour applied over the top. The flesh got a coat of Plaguebearer Flesh, while the dress got a coat of Warp Lightning.

To finish up, I picked out a few points on the face as if it was a normal human face, just with a pale green, and added a highlight on the hair, as the brown coat over the green contrast and drybrush didn't have enough variation between the light and dark points.

A quick bit of basing, and she was done.

I added quite a few plants onto her base, because I thought it was a good idea. She's turned out pretty well, although I don't really have any idea what I'll use her for..

Reaper Bones: Black Review - Dreadmere Mercenaries, Part 2

I finished the Reaper Black Bones Dreadmere Mercenaries last month, based off the tutorial by El Soldado Tranquilo. I undercoated black as instructed, then drybrushed heavily with Grey Seer. I didn't manage to exactly copy the scheme at this stage as he did a darker drybrush all over, then a lighter one with a brighter colour over the top of the mini and the weapon.

I then washed the entire figure in Snakebite Leather, but chickened out of using a wet brush to thin out the areas I wanted to be lighter. The other blogger recommends trying watering the contrast down before and after painting, so that's something to try out in future paint jobs.

The next drybrush stage went down well and I was pretty happy with how it then started to look. I'd actually really like some figures just left at this kind of stage. I definitely want to try a more detailed pass with Rakarth more like a base coat before the Agrax in a future pass.

I then dropped in some Contrast paints to match three of the Cities of Sigmar paint colours. I felt these weren't desaturated enough. The tutorial didn't cover how to add other desaturated colours, so I want to play around with this more.

I took another couple of drybrushed highlights using bone and grey colours, along with Agrax washes, which brought everything together more and made the colours much less bold. I decided to leave these figures at this point, but I definitely want to play around with this methodology more in future.

Primaris Psyker from Gonzo History Gaming

A while back, my good friend James from Gonzo History Gaming offered to paint one of my Guard psykers in exchange for some minis and bits I sent him. It recently got back and I thought I'd proudly show him off.

There's some lovely little details like the cables to the force stave. It's also brilliantly timed, as I'm just getting back into 40K. (I can't really call it the new edition any more, can I?) I'm looking forward to getting to use him in a game!

Tale of Gamers - Forsaken - a little bit a night

With Christmas Party season drawing to a close as people start to go off on holiday, I'm starting to get the odd evening back. As such, I was pretty pleased to get in, sort some food, then settle down for forty-five minutes or so of painting and faffing with the Forsaken unit that caused me so much trouble back in August.

It's not a huge amount - tidying up some overpaint here, getting a wash on there - but they're slowly creeping towards getting done now, and that makes me pretty happy.

The latest challenge was finding a rather large and annoying gap I'd missed at the assembly stage, so some liquid green stuff was deployed to fill in the hole. I'm leaving it to cure overnight before painting over it, meaning I couldn't quite push a second Forsaken through to being finished this evening.

Tale of Gamers - Chaos Warriors Assembled

 

The Tale of Gamers challenge I'm doing with Gonzo History Gaming is still plugging along. The Chaos Warriors are assembled and undercoated now - so there's 30 miniatures assembled at various stages of painting now.

This is Adira the Dark Champion, from Bad Squiddo Games. You can get her here if you like her. And yes, I spotted the mould line on the cloak - I'll get it when I paint her!

Meanwhile, here are some Harlequin "Templars". These are the ones I found on a shelf in Foundry, but they've been out of production for a while...

I also dug out the "finished" Forsaken and started redoing the base to match the finished barbarians.

Tale of Gamers: October - Finished Miniatures!

So, I've finally finished something for my Tale of Gamers challenge with James from Gonzo History Gaming! I'm super excited!

The first batch of John Pickford Barbarians (available from Wargames Foundry, though I think you need to visit the shop or phone) are painted. So yes, there should be ten finished in a month and I managed five, but I'm happy to get something finished (first thing since August).

So, next up is a quick diversion - I've got a villager for the Oldhammer Forum chaos villager project due! I feel like I might have a bit of a speed paint coming on...

Tale of Gamers: First finished Marauders

The challenge with James of Gonzo History Gaming continues apace! I've actually been away this last weekend at a 40K LARP, running around and shooting at people with NERF guns, but trying to find the time each evening to get a little progress has borne fruit.

Here are the first two Marauders finished and table ready. I've also just realised I've not paid attention and not done the basing scheme the same as the first Forsaken I finished a while back. I think I prefer this scheme though, so I will probably just update the Forsaken's base.

Tale of Gamers: End of September report

Fires up the computer

Checks previous blog posts for already used exuses...

Right, lets have a look at how we did this month, shall we?

Ah. Not quite finished. Again. I don't like how the weapons have turned out, so I'm going to have to take those back. There's just a wash for the armour, the bone and details to go, so we're nearly there!

Meanwhile, the assembly hasn't gone anywhere. This was a busy month, with a trip away for my wife's birthday and a big LARP meaning I didn't get much done at all.

I'm going to experiment with trying to free up half an hour each evening, as well as the weekends, and see how effective that is.

I thought I'd be more demoralised at this point, but I'm actually pretty positive I can turn this around!

Tale of Gamers: End of August Report

Some of you may recall I'm engaged in a bit of a painting challenge with James from Gonzo History Gaming. You can see how well he did in August here.

Target for end of August: 10 painted Forsaken.

Achieved at end of August: 1 painted Forsaken.

Only one number out!

It turns out, these Forsaken, while beautiful miniatures, are super, super fiddly and awkward to paint - making it more time consuming than I expected. I've finished off one, and will keep plugging through the other nine as time goes on. But September is a busy month, so I'm not going to try and catch up and do September's commitment at the same time!

The good news is that the Marauder unit is assembled on schedule and ready for paint. These are much simpler sculpts so should be quite achievable in the time available.

Meanwhile, the Chaos Spawn have very pretty bases finished, but I should probably finish assembling the actual models...

So, looking at the list, what am I aiming to have painted by the end of the month?

Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount
10 Chaos Marauders
10 Chaos Warriors
10 Forsaken
2 Chaos Spawn
Hellcannon

I also hope to have the Chaos Warriors assembled and ready to paint for October's part of the challenge.

Tale of Gamers: A beginning

So, I am engaged in a battle of nerdery and productivity with James over at Gonzo History Gaming. I ahd a bit of a think, and I've sketched out my army as:

Lord of Slaanesh on Daemonic Mount
10 Chaos Marauders
10 Chaos Warriors
10 Forsaken
2 Chaos Spawn
Hellcannon

First up on the block are the Forsaken, as they're already half assembled. You'll notice I'm sticking to square bases with this army for compatability with older systems. In order to stay on target, I need to get them all painted by the end of August. I'm continuing to assemble the second five while I paint up one as a test to check I'm happy with my planned colour scheme.

By halfway through the month, I should have half painted and the others assembled, and be forging ahead with prepping the Chaos Marauders and Chaos Spawn for painting.

This is an ambitious pace, but it is not impossible. Wish me luck!

Malifaux Changeling Proxy finished, and an Age of Sigmar scheme...

So, first up, I've managed to get the last Malifaux Changeling proxy finished. Apart from that bit of grey at the front which of course I only noticed as I was uploading the blasted thing. It'll be gone by the time he hits the table, I promise. The miniature is, as with the other two proxies, from Heresy. You should buy his stuff. It's pretty darned good.

I did have a bit of a disaster at the weekend with this model, though. Here's a WiP, just as I'm trying to blend the highlights. The hot weather was murdering my blending!

This is the wonder-juice that fixed it. It's amazingly good, though can be frustrating if you're trying to speed paint! I used a bit too much with another model I was painting that weekend (not finished, so no pics yet), and it took forever to dry!

I also finished assembling this lovely swamp witch. She's available from Krakon Games, should you be of a mind. She's going to go alongside a Troll Outpost sculpt I picked up a Kickstarter a while ago.

Next up on the painting table is this lovely tree person from the Circle of Chaos Kickstarter. I mostly grabbed him as a quick speed paint with a grab bag of assorted paints I've not used before to see what they're like. He's not quite finished yet, so once he's done, I'll get a post up about him.

Age of Sigmar Tale of Gamers

So there I was, chatting away on the social medias about the new General's Handbook and all the models I hadn't painted when up popped James Holloway of Gonzo History: Gaming Edition. He suggested perhaps a joint blog thing, wherein we would get some Age of Sigmar stuff painted up. After a bit of maths and checking of my busy schedule, I accepted the challenge!

We're not against other people joining in, though, so this is a call for other shmucks / bloggers to join in. We're looking to try and get 1,000 points of Age of Sigmar stuff painted between August and December - with 5 months, thats about 200 points a month.

We're both using models we mostly already have (apart from maybe fixing an under strength unit or so), but if you want to be buying new stuff, feel free and go ahead. I'm also hoping in January that at least James and I will be able to get a game in against each other with our newly painted complete playable force.

So - if you're interested, drop James or I a note, and we can have a chat about people getting involved. If it's just the two of us, though, I'm sure we'll manage, like some kind of super nerdy buddy cop movie. Except with wargamers.

Plodding along

 I took advantage of the Bank Holiday weekend over here to get a bit of painting and modelling done. I finished prepping and assembling a couple of goblins and got them undercoated, but didn't take a photo of that.

I completely swear by Vallejo Coarse Pumice and Sandy Paste for my basing, but I've noticed James Wappel really likes the Oxid Paste. So, I picked up a small jar of it to give it a go.

I used it around the edge of the base of the radical Inquisitor that Whiskey Priest sent me. Before it dried, it was hard to see what the texture was going to be.

I then painted it up with some Rhinox Hide, then a wash, and finally a light drybrushing of some other mid tone brown I had lying around. XV-88, maybe?

Once the wash was dry, I dropped in the last few details, and ticked the box on having at least finished something this weekend. An easy win, to be sure, but I'll take an easy win over nothing. ;)

Myth, my Tiefling, had his trousers re-coloured and the yellow slashes dropped in on his sleeves. I also added another layer to the yellow fastenings on his coat, as the first coat hadn't really properly covered things.

I also start blocking in colours on my last Malifaux Changeling proxy. (SUBLIMINAL MESSAGE: BUY STUFF FROM HERESY MINIATURES.) When this chap is done, I'll have a full 50 Soulstone list fully painted, and I'll move on to assembling and painting the rest of the models my current crew can use to start give me some flexibility in list building.

Finally, one of the Arco-Flagellants I was given for Christmas has been fully assembled. I fitted the trailing arm first, and pinned it, but the leading arm was then fine to forgo a pin. Happy to get him done, just a couple more to go!

Getting back on the horse, and a surprise guest

So, threatening myself with a complete lack of potential content, I finally knuckled down this weekend and broke the painting block, finishing off the second Heresy familiar I'm using as a Changeling in Malifaux. Sure, there's things I'd touch up, but he's a gaming piece, he's finished, and I have more to do!

There is pretty constant assembly going on at the moment - but scraping mould lines and pinning to bases and assembling multi-part plastic kits isn't hugely good blog reading. Hopefully now the pace will pick up and I'll retain some consistency.

I am glad I can't see the future. I got home today to this gorgeous chap waiting for me on the mat. He's an Inquisitor kitbash by Whiskey Priest from The Leadpile. I won a competition a while ago, and, as a fellow sufferer of hobby block, there was a bit of a delay before I got him. Solidarity!

This wretched fellow just needs a little basing love, and then he'll be ready for the table. I'm not sure when I'll be able to get a game, but if I can get him done soon, I'm tempted to try and sort out a game of some sort down at the Overlords in May some time and get some nice photos for a battle report on the blog. I've had a few commissions come back that haven't fired a shot in anger yet, so they'll need their bad luck draining off from their paint.

Still, positivity abounds, and you all have two nicely painted miniatures to see on my blog. Onwards!

Redemptionist Leader from The Lost and the Very Damned

Photo (and painting) by Stuart Bannister

I'm a terrible person! Stuart from The Lost and the Very Damned painted one of my figures for me because I won a competition, and I haven't blogged about it.

I gave Stuart carte blanche to paint the chap, and he's ended up rather pink! I feel the need to come up with some sort of background for him - are his robes due to his odd cult, a cultural relic of his planet, or just that they were white once and there was an accident with the laundry?

A blog post was made when this glorious scion of the Emperor was painted, and please do go and check out (and follow) the Lost and the Very Damned. It's an excellent blog!

Follow this man!

Herein follows a short commercial break for the blog "The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted".

Dai posts regularly, with a good number of painted models which puts my lackadaisical progress to shame. There's a good bit of Oldhammer on there, which is one of the things which draws me to it.

Of course, my promoting his blog wouldn't be anything to do with some competition or other. I'm not the sort of person to make a blog post solely for a second entry into a prize draw! This must be purely chance, or something.

{shifty look around}

Anyway, go look at the nice man's blog. Follow him, and maybe even comment on his prize draw post...

And the winner is...

The winner of the competition to win one of my old kit bashes is:

Chico Danks!

Be sure to check out his blog at Oldhammer on a Budget.

See, Chico - I said I'd look into a post about how awesome you were...

Piratical Progress: Goblins, Fabulous Prizes, and May Targets

The Goblin Aid Pirate Goblin is finally done. He was sculpted by Stuart Powley of Slap Miniatures (some minis on the site not safe for work). I'd been putting off the stripes on the trousers for ages, but I finally got on and did it. The first pass at the stripes left them too similar to the jacket colour, so I washed the jacket with b lue and the stripes with sepia to bring them away from each other, before highlighting up the stripes by hand as best I could to make them match the folds of cloth in the trousers.

Winning

A comment I made on the leadpile has meant I win a prize! His blog is definitely worth checking out - there's all sorts of different awesome bits of hobby there.

May's Targets

Oh dear. One miniature done. Which is at least a project. I had tried to rush another job through yesterday, but it was too late in the month and I was getting tired and risking stuffing things up, so I called it a night.

Still, it's not like I've bought much, right? Execution Force, the event only Forge World models, the Space Marine Command Tanks, some Mars Attacks scenery and a pile of miniatures from the Dark Sphere sale.

Oh well.

It seems like the problem I've been facing is doing jobs I feel I should be doing rather than ones I want to do at that moment in time. If I want to regain momentum and start loving the forlorn half finished projects, I need to blitz through some quick wins of enjoyable simple stuff that's new and interesting. New and interesting from the existing backlog, that is - not some new purchases!

Sometimes, you just have one of those days. Or weeks.

Last week's progress post was full of enthusiasm and bright plans, with intentions of putting something together for the Dark Sphere "Dakka on Bakka" tournament. That something was a Firestorm Redoubt. I am now going to share with you some wisdom that I have gained in the past week.

This is what the Redoubt looked like as of earlier this evening. I had about half assembled it on Sunday night, when I realised something was wrong and asked Sim for advice. She pointed out that I'd totally stuffed the assembly and I should rip it apart now to have any hope of salvaging it. Pulling apart most of a day's work is pretty sad, I can tell you.

My darling wife is now in the midst of putting right my disastrous mistakes, and my first fortification should be ready to take the field by the tournament, though I suspect it will not be fully painted. It's a while since I've taken the field without a fully painted army, but it will help motivate me to get the blasted thing finished.

Also, hair bands are apparently awesome at holding glued bits together. The main lesson, though, is that the kit is incredibly precise about what bit needs to be where. Don't go "eh, that'll do" on one bit lining up - it will royally stuff you up three steps down the line!

How I cheer myself up

The most common way I get myself out of a bit of a mood is to go read other people's blogs. You can see which ones I commonly follow and read down the right of the screen. Other people's hobby is kind of handy.

It can sometimes also help to consider retail therapy. Of course, if you are feeling down about how little painting you've gotten done out of your backlog, or how little money you have this will not help. There are two teensy little things which are trying to lure my money out of my wallet right now.

First, there's "Operation: Icestorm", a limited edition starter set for Infinity. Regular readers of my blog will recall I had my own little "Infinity Week" some time ago. This has just gone up for pre-order around the world.

The other temptation is the Kickstarter for Infamy: Welcome to the Big Smoke, which is another one of these British Indie chaps. It is a little pricey, but the miniatures do look gorgeous.

Finally, if all else fails, take a nice break. In this case, I met up with some of my family in Colchester and went around Colchester Castle. It's now a museum, and had a ton of interesting and thought provoking stuff. It was good to get away from the modelling a bit, although for me this happened before my Firestorm Redoubt related disasters.

Other Honourable Mentions

I also find writing army lists, reading books (gaming related or otherwise) and writing blog posts as good breaks from the painting and modelling side of the hobby. Are there any other common ways people have of cheering themselves up after a hobby related disaster or similar? Have I missed anything big? Or do you have an odd way of cheering up you don't think anyone else does?

Liebster Award: Its like a chain letter, but a bit nicer

If you haven't encountered the "Liebster Award" yet, it's basically a chain letter on blogs where you nominate some blogs you like to get people to go read them. I was pleasantly surprised recently to be nominated twice in quick succession - by Jordan Lee over at Pencils and Plastics, and by the Questing Artificer at, erm, the Questing Artificer.

The downside of this is that I now have two sets of questions to answer, not one. And I know, its a chain letter, and its a meme, but it's actually quite a nice one - and one that doesn't send me running to Snopes because Someone Is Wrong On The Internet.

Interestingly, I found an old post on Mr Lee's blog where he won a Liebster, there were no "truth about me" things, no questions to answer, just linking five other blogs with a small number of followers. I have no idea where all this extra gubbins has come from. The Liebster meme appears to be alive and mutating.

I therefore heartily recommend to all my nominees - the core of this is nominating other blogs. Answer questions as you will, provide truths as you will. Change numbers, change sections - it matters not. From my point of view, this is about bringing other people's blogs to the attention of my few readers so they hopefully find something interesting and fun, and asking those blogs I mention to pay it forward in turn.

11 Truths about me

1. I have a degree in War Studies.
2. I have entered Golden Demon once, pushed by my wife so I would actually finish painting something.
3. I came up with the "Responsible One" online persona to separate my wargaming online presence from my LARP online presence. Also, I'm the responsible one compared to my wife...
4. I went to a boarding school which has a uniform which hasn't changed in centuries.
5. Once, I was sent a preview copy of a book because it was thought I was influential and might persuade my friends to buy it. I was never sent another one, so I suspect I was not as influential as they first thought.
6. Most of the time, I think I'm a peripheral part of a lot of social groups rather than being a real member of any of them.
7. I have a massive webcomics habit.
8. I cannot play Munchkin against my wife without risking my marriage
9. I once flew to the US for a weekend for a LARP.
10. The Ammobunker INQ28 forum is currently a massive source of motivation and inspiration for me (if also an excuse for procrastination looking at all the pretty things)
11. The first single I ever bought was Natalie Imbruglia's Torn, and I am not ashamed of that.

Jordan's questions

Q1: What is your favourite food?

When I was a kid, it was always the family recipe for Kedgeree, which basically skips on the curry sauce. I haven't eaten that in years, which is a bit of a shame. I had a more traditional recipe at a restaurant a couple of years ago, but that's the closest I got.

I'm really fond of a nice piece of beef or lamb cooked at about medium (I used to like it well done, so don't wince those of you who like it bloody). But really, if we're going for comfort food, right now my preference is for a fishfinger bake, covered in a tomato based pasta sauce and topped with grated cheese, served with a bit of pasta. It's pure taste of childhood comfort food, that my wife is incredibly allergic to, so it's a guilty treat for when she's away.

Q2: What was the first model you painted?

You know what? I really can't remember. As a kid, I had Heroquest, and inexpertly applied paint to a bunch of them (without undercoats). I then had some Empire for a bit (I remember the first plastic mono-pose Halberdiers, which got painted up in the Altdorf scheme) - and then some Skaven. I mostly played with unpainted minis, with a few small exceptions painted.

The change came when my now wife moved in - I was getting back into painting as it was a shared hobby. I entered into Throne of Skulls and needed to get a 1,500 point Imperial Guard list painted. There was an unfortunate miscommunication about how much of the army was painted, and it was all done in six weeks - with Sim getting twice as much of it done than I did. However, the models I now use as conscripts and the tanks and Valkyrie were me - and the Manticore was, I think, the first of those.

Q3: How did you get into your miniatures hobby?

Well, growing up, my parents owned the Narnia books - and I absolutely loved them. This led me into The Hobbit, Lord of the Rings and a general love for Fantasy. I also ended up getting into the Fighting Fantasy game books at some point. My interest in war games was actually started up by Gerald Durrell's account of an old war-gaming soldier in Fillets of Plaice (who, I now realise, was probably playing using a variation of H G Wells "Little Wars" rules).

We sometimes went on trips to Leamington Spa, and there used to be a massive toy store just outside the Royal Priors Shopping Centre. It was huge and varied, and one of the many things they stocked was a selection of roleplaying and wargaming books. It's gone now - looks like there's a Superdry store there instead.

I found my local Games Workshop store, got Heroquest (I had to choose between that and Space Crusade), and a short while later, went away to boarding school. There, I found some kids on the upper years who played - they had a tendency of playing games of Fantasy Battle where every model was a level 25 Hero, and other craziness. I never actually properly played with them, but instead found some kids on my own year to play with when 4th Edition came out. I got a little more into 40K as the years went on, but Fantasy was my first serious wargame.

Q4: What is your favourite book?

Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, though I have a deep love of all Neil Gaiman's work.

Q5: If you could choose any fantasy/sci-fi race to be, what would it be?

Not one based in a Games Workshop universe, certainly! I think I would be the sort to carefully research as many different settings as possible to find the most pleasant, least dangerous, long lived life I possibly could that allowed me to get involved in academic and artistic pursuits, and pick that.

Q6: Do you have any other interesting hobbies besides collecting miniatures?

I'm a LARPer. I mostly play "pub LARP" type games set in the modern day, like Vampire: The Requiem and so on. During my war-gaming hiatus I took Vampire: The Masquerade pretty seriously, played almost every weekend, and travelled abroad to play in linked games as often as I could afford.

I used to do a little sword LARP, but I'm no longer practically able to do so as a secondary contact latex allergy which my dearly beloved suffers from would basically mean I'd have to do a complete decontamination job in someone else's house before coming home, every time. I sometimes miss it and wish I could go to some of the amazing things people are doing with the medium these days, but in practical terms, I don't think it's ever going to happen again, and that makes me quite sad.

Q7: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be?

My health. Its pretty good, but there's enough little niggles and mild lack of healthiness I wish I could wave a wand and be rid of rather than go through the hassle of actually fixing it properly with all that pesky hard work and exercise.

Q8: If you could pick ONE model to paint/convert/have, what would it be?

I think I'd have to say asking Spiky Rat Pack to do a 40K version of me would have to be my dream miniature.

Q9: What's your most prized possession?

I believe I'm contractually obliged to say my wedding ring at this point, but it is more a symbol of the thing I care about (which is, in turn, not a possession). That aside? Whatever I got most recently is the usual answer. I am definitely incredibly materialistic and like acquiring Things. It gives me a happy buzz when I get new things. But there isn't an absolute, specific thing which I prize above all others.

Q10: If you were to travel to the Chaos Wastes/The Warp, what one item would you bring with you?

I would want some sort of blessed protection from the creatures of Chaos, but I don't own one of those, so at that point, I'm really stuck. There's really not much that would help my survival time, which would be measured in seconds.

Q11: Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?

No. But I'd probably do so with a sufficiently cute demoness if asked nicely.

Questing Artificer

Q1: Favourite colour?

Purple. An opinion shared with my darling wife.

Q2: Favourite glue?

Zap-A-Gap

Q3: d6 or d10?

d10

Q4: Fantasy or sci-fi?

Sci Fi. It's taken over. It used to be Fantasy, but at some point, I know not when, it switched.

Q5: Karl Kopinski or John Blanche?

John Blanche

Q6: Favourite sport?

Currently, I think it has to be ski cross and boardercross. The Olympics and Paralympics this year hooked me as a fan!

Q7: Buried alive or strangled to death?

You're weird. I'm not answering that.

Q8: Beer or cider?

Cider.

Q9: Favourite musical genre?

I'm an absolute sucker for this folk-y, poppy stuff that's been coming out recently.

Q10: Favourite model?

You may recognise this chap - I use him as a forum avatar all over the place. The model is a resin Privateer Godwin by Hasslefree. He was the wedding cake topper at my wedding along with a figure representing my wife, so it will be a hard fight for anything to knock him off that lofty pedestal for many years to come.

Q11: Favourite paintbrush?

My paintbrush. I use a Creative Models 1 Kolinsky Sable Triangular Brush, with a 3 for larger work. Unless I'm painting a tank, I don't need anything else.

Nominate 11 blogs

1. Fort Wynn
2. Gonzo History: Gaming Edition
3. Col Scipio's Palladian Guard
4. Battle Group 82
5. The Song of Middenheim
6. Do You Have A Flag?
7. Tales from the Maelstrom
8. Devos IV
9. Admiral Drax
10. Mordian 7th
11. Levitas

11 Questions for my nominees

1. Why did you start blogging?
2. If you could change one thing about the wargaming hobby, what would it be?
3. What is best in life?
4. Do you want to live forever?
5. Fame or fortune?
6. What miniature are you most proud of having painted?
7. How do you deal with burn out?
8. Why is a raven like a writing desk?
9. Star Wars or Star Trek?
10. If you could only buy from one miniature company from now on, which one would it be?
11. What is your favourite take away?