Tag Archive for Painting

So, uhhhh, Happy 2016 I guess?

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So pretty, likely has no reason to be on this site..

 

Wow, it’s been a long time since we posted a blog article, and for no good damn reason I assure you aside from laziness.  Hoping to address that and make amends by producing more content on a semi-regular schedule, but no promises since that has happened before.

 

So saying “Happy New Year” to everyone is our first order of business.  We at HH wish you all much health, happiness, wealth, success and hysteria in the New Year.  2015 was a good year for me personally, with the health of my family being great and no small amount of financial success as well.  Holiday debt is a thing for sure, but Ladyblade has assured me a new budget is coming for 2016 in order to get us on track and making strides in paying off our household debt and saving for a bright future for our beloved little Dragonspawn.  Home improvements, savings, a vacation in the UK to coincide with Star Wars Celebration 2016 and more family travel are all good reasons to plan for a future and take steps to stick to said plan in order to reap the rewards.  However I doubt you are here to read about my plans to save money in 2016, I assume you are here for the Hysteria of my Hobbies and interests, which I am only too happy to provide.

Further Hysterics →

Donate or Paint 2015

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banner_ToThePoint

 

So I was tasked by a good friend to participate in the Chain Attack “Donate or Paint” 2015 challenge to help benefit a friend I’ve never met in need of assistance.  The full details can be found: HERE on the Chain Attack web site.

I’m not going to write too much about it since a short video with proof will do the same, but I will post more (and better!) pictures of the completed task on the blog later this week.

 

 

And yes I look like Hell, but I will shave and get some sleep and be much better soon, I promise.  The lingering effects of TempleCon hangover, Con Crud and being late at night have taken their toll on me, what can I say?

To those I have challenged, you have three days.  To those that wish to participate, paint something, donate whatever you can, help a person in need out and help pass along the good karma.

Till next time,

May all your Blades be Sharp.

– NB

Kriels for a Con

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So it’s a New Year and we’ve been busy behind the scenes for some time, mostly working on armies, ideas, thoughts, and scrounging around for some content to keep things going here.  While I have the time, I hope to bring some more news and info to the blog.  Spring and Summer aren’t that far off, and that means I get busier and have less time when the sun comes out and people feel the need for some beautiful backyard leisure.  Regardless of all that, let’s discuss what we have been working on here at the Hystericave!!

For me, I picked up a new army that I have always admired from afar but avoided because my friends already played the faction or were working on it and enjoying it.  I won’t lie, I am one of those people who would like to be playing and painting something different from the majority of the crew at the FLGS, and wanting to be the paragon or pure player of the faction that I am championing.  That means sometimes you need to play the underdog, or play the less competitive stuff.  In this case it was just a shortage of players in the faction and the time was right for a new army and new challenge for the Road to TempleCon 2015.

 

Further Hysterics →

Lowering Your Standards

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MPA

Once upon a time I worked for a miniature company you may have heard of called Games Workshop. Games Workshop would hold two annual tournaments. One was for staff and the other for the public. Both tournaments required all models be completely painted in order to be played. I would typically spend several months ahead of time planning and meticulously painting each model to the best of my ability in order to win the “Best Painted Army” award, which I was fortunate to achieve a couple of times.

Fast forward to today. I no longer seem to have the patience to paint models to showcase or competition level. Now, I find it quite frustrating if a single model takes me longer than two painting sessions to complete or a unit to take more than four painting sessions to complete. I can still achieve pretty decent results but the quality suffers a bit. If you’re not painting for competition and just want to get your models on the table then you may consider lowering your standards. This article may help you out as it’s all about painting to tabletop quality.

 

This lovely female painter is lowering her standards a bit.

This lovely female painter is lowering her standards a bit.

Further Hysterics →

Architect of the Divine

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Stolen shamelessly, but somewhat appropriate...

Stolen shamelessly, but somewhat appropriate…

 

Okay it’s been too long and I never got off my butt and finished showing the stuff I picked up from Templecon, but we’re going to struggle and work through that as soon as i can get this stuff done.  And I’m working on it, so apologies to all for the lengthy absence again.

I recently had the privilege of receiving the Lost Hemisphere Blog’s review copy of Father Lucant, the Divinity Architect to assemble and paint, and let me tell you what a joy it was.

 

JOYBURST!!

Further Hysterics →

Post TempleCon Blues

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Having just returned from TempleCon 2014 and made reparations at home for my time away, I find myself a bit morose and melancholy at my desk as i write this, thinking of all the people I already miss and all the fun I just had.  If no one minds I think I’ll go back through some of the highlights here and talk about why TempleCon means the world to me.

Fearing the approaching snowmaggeddon, we hastily decided last Tuesday to depart early and drive all night to beat the majority of the snow and mess that would come with a Winter Snowstorm the day we were meant to drive 8 hours to Rhode Island.  We LITERALLY would have been driving through the worst part of the storm for the majority of the day, and that is not something I really wanted to do.  So rushed packing and hasty departures had Ragnarok and myself in the car and on the road by 8 PM, hoping beyond hope to not hit snow till early Wednesday.  We made good time and crossed the border fast after an awesome chat about being unique and different with the border guard and quickly got underway crossing the desolate space that is the I-90 in New York State.  Making but one pit stop for gas and a bio-break, we had what i consider to be a pretty good run all the way to Warwick, Rhode Island and the Crowne Plaza hotel.  We had heard from the second car that they were getting some snow, and I expected to get hit when we started to head south towards Providence/Warwick, but fortunately our car made it all the way to the hotel with no snow.  We checked into our room at around 4:45 AM Wednesday and went back out to get the bags from my car, only to be greeted by 2cm of snow already down in the time it took us to check in.

 

This was clear 5 minutes ago...

This was clear 5 minutes ago…

Further Hysterics →

…Exploding On The Highway Like a Slug From a .45

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MPA

Speed Painting 101

A common question I receive from friends is “How do you paint so fast?”.

It’s not uncommon for me to hammer out a full 50+ point army in roughly a month’s time.  How do I do this?  It’s likely a combination of experience and technique.  I’ll just run down some quick pointers and then there’s a 52 min video of me painting a Bull Snapper model from start to finish.

 

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Wear a smock or something if you’re going to speed paint like this guy!

Further Hysterics →

2013 Year In Review

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I call 2013 the Life and Death of a blog.  Because really, I tried to get it up and running and recruit lots of people to blog, write and talk about what they are doing with their hobbies, but that hasn’t really worked out like I thought it would.  Turns out blogging is like work, and we all try really hard to avoid work at all costs.

 

However we here at HH are not to be deterred.  I am gonna look at the design of the blog, look at getting some more articles up and running, and see about motivating (with a whip) some of the guys whose content I know was well-written and well received by the small audience we have out there.  That being said, let’s talk about what I did accomplish in 2013:

Hey, I know a guy who lives in that city…

Further Hysterics →

Blending In

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MPA

Wet Blending Master Class

There tends to be a natural progression when it comes to miniature painting that almost everyone follows.  You first learn how to base coat a model, keeping it clean and all your colours inside the lines like a kindergarten kid learns how to stay inside the lines in their colouring book.  Then you progress to drybrushing which provides a nice quick and easy way to add some depth to your painting.  The next progression tends to be layering, where you lay down your shadows first then progressively build up layers of lighter tones in increasingly  smaller areas until you have a gradation from shade to base colour to highlight.  The next level in the painting technique progression is what this article covers: Blending.

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Blending in. Yeah… Not so much.

Further Hysterics →