Project Log

Well as it seems some blogs of note (of which this is not one of them) seem to have a review of their year I thought I would do the same. Ok here goes;

Well this year I have posted (prior to this one) seventeen blog entries. Mostly about figures I have painted, a couple of Batreps and my ongoing affair with ebay. I think I have painted up about 30 models which is pretty shite really, my only defense is I can't be bothered a lot of the time. Coupled with a somewhat unhealthy obsession with Facebook my spare time is unequally shared. The choice between hauling my arse up a ladder into my oftentimes icy cold loft or scamper joyfully to a warm room with a pc is generally an easy decision. In fact, its amazing I ever bother going up there to be honest. Call it dedication!

I started about four pieces of scenery, a Comms Tower, a Drinking Hole and two hills. None have been finished but I have some time at Christmas so hopefully I can get a good bit of work done. Incidentally I have a project that has been ongoing (some might say for the last 17 or 18 years) in my head, and that is Athel Loren the home of the Wood Elves.I have grand images in my head , of tower like trees, huge rooty ramparts and bridge of vines. A bit ambitious I know but aim high, thats what I sometimes say.


Something I have put on my resolutions list is painting. Both the quality and the quantity I want to increase. If I can improve my photography skills as well I will be well on the way to putting pictures up that I'm proud of. My collection of mutants will also have to be finished early in 2012.Looking back I also promised to finish the following ;

5 Attillan Roughriders
5 Marine Scouts
a 10 man Space Marine squad
5 Necromundan Pit Slaves  Done!
Fabius Bile.
Of these only the Pit Slaves got finished so I'm already behind last years quota so it doesn't look good for my ability to formulate then stick to a rigid painting plan. Oh well.

Of course the main ambition for next year is to play more games. I want to introduce Boy to Warhammer as my large Skaven and Wood Elf armies haven't had a ruck since the previous summer! This is quite puzzling as Warhammer is the game (other than Necromunda possibly) that I have played the most and have the most figures painted.

And Warhammer Quest, I really love that game and would like to run a few dungeons for Boy and his buddies. I used to roleplay a lot and WQ was one of those don't-have-to-think Hack n' Slash dungeon crawls. Considering I have hundreds of painted skaven to run whole soap operas of series's of campaigns of games, it should be relatively easy to acheive.

So really if I am to make an attempt to progress in my hobby I have to set myself realistic goals. Well goals anyway. They are play more, paint more and build more so my 2012 targets are;
Play at least three games with Batreps (should be easy)
Paint up and finish at least 31 figures (doable)
Complete the four scenery items I started (definately acheivable).
So there is my plan for 2012, lets hope my inherant laziness can be defeated BY THE POWER OF  GREYSKULL!!!

How crap am I?

Well there is a well (?) known figure painting site called Cool Mini Or Not (or CMON to be really cool) where you rate the painting abilities of fellow figure painting nerds. A long time ago I decided it would be a great ego boost for me to put some of my best stuff up on there to make me feel great and let others see how good I am. Unfortunately after clicking through half a dozen pictures of other peoples efforts I came to the conclusion that my stuff was pretty crap!

Five years on from my initial input I have decided to put a few more up on display, partly because I am an eternal optimist but more so because of the 3 main forums I frequent that allow me to put up a gallery, after a combined total of over 30,000 views, no one has rated a single figure.

Undetered I have decided to post like buggery on there to bring up my average rating. The way I will do this -obviously- is by improving my standard of painting, and photography. Well I have 9 pictures up and by adding them all together and dividing them by 9, I get an average rating of 4.95 per figure. This in itself seems an easy task to improve my average. I mean one decent paint job and I should get into an average rating of 6! Well that is my target to achieve a better than shit average rating for all my CMON piccys.

So in an attempt to understand why the people of CMON don't like my painting I will analyse each of my poorly scoring pictures.

Warpfire Thrower team 4.0

First up is my beloved Warpfire Thrower team. The paintjob is (I think) sound, based with static grass and dirt coloured sand. Ok so gloss varnish was used, that was before I learnt that that was soooo unfashionable! The background is equally uninspiring so I have to agree this should have a low score, but 4.0? That's not fair!

Barbarian #1 4.7

Next is one of my Ginger Barbarian. By this time I had discovered the curved-piece-of-paper-that-hides-the-shadows-at-the-back trick. Nice leather loincloth, static grass reasonable, if somewhat bland skin tones. Me likee. Unfortunately most CMONers don't. Score 4.7

Heartbreaker Ratman Warlord 4.7

This one slightly baffles me. When I finished this Ratman Warlord from Heartbreaker (not a heartbreaker of a model, in case you thought it had in fact; broken my heart) I was made up. The unusual colour of armour was acheived by many different ink washes applied one after another a lovely pallid flesh tone and to top it of a border around the picture. Admittedly it was glossy again with that god awful background, but hey! Nobodies perfect. 4.7 for fuck's sake!

Warzone Demon 4.8

Scoring slightly higher was my Warzone demon. Matt finish, minimal shadows and an attempt at a sculpted base. It only got 4.8 so back to the painting table I guess.

Barbarian #2 4.8

I really liked the way this one came out, the figure is from Black Tree Designs and a real pleasure to paint. He has a nice eyebrow ring which isn't quite pictured and a big bloody sword. Still for all his beauty he still only got a 4.8. Sheeesh!

Barbarian #3 5.0

Woop woop! This is the first figure has has a better that shit rating of, wait for it-5.0. It is also the only one that got a comment (nice leopard skin markings). Perhaps the wood on the axe and shield could have been highlighted more, or his nipples darkened to get that extra 0.2 of a score to make it loved, I just don't know.

Barbarian #4 5.1

of all the Black Tree Barbarians this is by far my favourite, he is quite litterally dripping with axes! Big meaty hands and a bald head, who couldn't love him? I suppose giving him pink nail varnish and a bland skin tone helped to lower his score. Sorry old buddy. 5.1.

Imperial Psyker 5.5

My imperial Psyker scored 5.5 with a gloss finish and shit background, but then he did get a frame so it's swings and roundabouts really. Does it matter that it is ever so slightly blurry?  5.5? Really?

Genestealer Hybrid 6.0

My highest scoring model! Also the most recently painted and photographed. A big lumpy base probably helped too! 6.0, yeah baby! Who knows what he would've gotten with a frame? The sky could've been the limit!

I'm not really sure what conclusions to conclude from this rather patchy data, what I probably should do though is to paint a bit better and stop whining about overly critical peers. Frames will defo help though! Best if I don't paint them as Gingers either.