Bringing back dirty...

Currently I am knee deep in the painting part of my entry for the Open competition at next week's Games Day. I spent far too long on conversion work and building the base so am currently painting at warp speed. It hasn't helped that there have been a number of false starts on various painting tasks.

I'd originally planned a somewhat Eavy Metal style paintjob with bright colours, contrasts and lot's of sharp edge highlighting but time constraints and my lack of recent painting practice has set me on a different path.

Regular readers will know I'd been playing with one hour paintjobs and a lot of washes in the months before my move to Nottingham. A much dirtier style and it's been kind of fun. So there had been a part of me wanting to play with a more radical painting approach on a competition entry. I'm not going to go into the details of this today as I'll probably be wanting to talk about my Open entry after next week when I see if my new approach has caused me to crash and burn...

However... it does bring me to my point. What's so wrong with dirty miniatures. Now, I'm not talking about sloppy or poor painting but why does it always have to be so clean and meticulous. I'm not just talking Eavy Metal style here, there seems to be a feeling in the larger minis world that painting has to be perfect blends to stand up to microscope scrutiny. There are other ways. When I started painting back in the eighties, gritty atmosphere on minis was pretty much the norm. Now, painting quality has improved so much since then but did we have to leave the style behind?

I had my first chance to take a good look at some of John Blanche's minis a few months back and I found them profoundly awesome. Given that John was one of the major forces behind the modern minis hobby it's perhaps ironic that his style has ended up as something of a counterculture. In viewing his miniatures close up you really can see the thought process and the layers of detail. It's not something that is best served by photographs of his work.

So, I've been on something of a mission over the last week or so to reinvent what I'm doing in terms of painting. Been fun so far. My entry is in many pieces so I'm rather looking forward to the time when I can get them put together and see how the various elements work together. I'm pretty sure it will be something of a departure from my normal style regardless of how well it comes out.

But it's something to think about. Do we always have to be so neat and tidy?

Hopefully I'll soon be able to talk a little more about what I've been getting up to on this miniature. There will be a blog post very soon to introduce you to a new technique I have been using on this figure. I'm calling it scrubbing and it's working pretty well for me...

On to the Demons...

So, it's that time of year. Golden Demon approaches so I must prepare to take yet another stab at winning that elusive Slayer Sword...

... oh wait, hang on. Nope, can't do that anymore as staff can't enter. Fair enough.

This leaves me with the Open competition and it's reputation for being fiendishly difficult bringing in many of the ludicrously talented Eavy Metal painters and Citadel Design Team. Time is fairly short and I'm considerably busier than I was. Tempting to just say 'don't bother' this year. But, I like a challenge so I'm going to try and get something done.

And so we get to the point of this post. How does one approach a painting contest? Obviously there's fun to be had but contests are a lot of work and personally I enter to win (though always prepared to lose without a major strop. I'm usually fairly calm when I get brutalised by better painters).

I always like the targeted approach to such things. I break things down and try to come at it from the right angle. This year I have the Open to contend with and this has it's own challenges. If I assume that I want a shot at winning I immediately can't just enter an unconverted single figure on a slotted base. Last year, Kornel Kozak won third place doing exactly that but I'm not that good at painting. And there are multiple regular entrants who are ridiculously better at painting than me. So, how do you proceed? Well, you look at the fact that it's not all about painting.

I can sculpt a bit so I will bring that particular part of my arsenal to my assault. I would make the immediate plan for there to be something that is an obvious demonstration of my sculpting (rather than lots of subtle details).

And the second prong of the assault is to be appropriate to the imagery of the system you are painting for. I would try to make the judges think 'that's so Warhammer' or 'that's so 40K'. For me, the master of this is multiple Slayer Sword winner Jakob Nielson who produces entries that just ooze with the atmosphere of GW's worlds.

I think doing both of these along with the best I can manage painting wise hopefully offsets the fact that there are better painters. As said, I can live with not winning (and it's a bad idea to enter anything if you can't handle losing) but don't want to put all that time in without at least having a shot.

So, what am I going to do? Sorry, not telling. As is traditional for me, I don't publically show my entries until the day. You want a clue? Okay... Squelch, squelch, crack, squeek, MOOOOO!

So I lamped him...

A lot of my latter freelance and independent sculpting days were spent working on finer details than my normal blank canvas style. I commented often about practically living under my optivisor and I was developing a hump for all the leaning forward...

Now I'm working under new lamps and it's been something of a revelation. My previous setup was two angle poises with 32watt daylight bulbs in each. Seemed pretty good. Now I'm using a non-flicker strip light with three tubes in it. More light and it's setup for minimal glare. It's been an utter revelation. Even working fine detail I rarely have to resort to the optivisor. It should say something that I'm feeling more comfortable now sculpting 9-5 than I was before sculpting intermittently.

So, whether sculpting or painting, be good to yourself and get proper lighting. It can get pretty expensive but it's money well spent if it makes your work more comfortable and better with it.

Coming up for air...

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... GASP!!!

And, despite all rumours that may circulate to the contrary, I'm not dead yet. I have, however, moved 300 miles with only the possessions that would fit in the back of my brother-in-law's car. But I'm now in the wilds of Nottinghamhamshireham or whatever it's supposed to be called and am... in a twist that nobody saw coming, actually working for a living. Going to a place of work and everything. And not wandering off into town for a coffee three times a day when I'm supposed to be making a toy soldier or whatever.

So, what now?

Actually it's something of a difficult question. I find myself in a rather awkward position in many ways. At this point it's rather harder for me to continue exactly as I have as this blog was very much set up via my position as a source internal to the industry but with my ability to be totally impartial as someone with no industry ties. This is not the case anymore as I now have some lovely people employing me (it's a rather less evil place than some might suggest).

In my position as a company man now I'm currently trying to figure out precisely what kind of thing Spyglass Asylum will contain from now on. I want to remain relevant and interesting without just being a mouthpiece for whatever mini I just painted (for obvious reasons I can't post what I'm sculpting now).

So, please be patient while I work this stuff out. Maybe some kind of hobby thing will mutate out of all this. Have been told many times I should do some sculptural jewellery. Maybe I'll do something off the wall like that and share it. Or something else equally as mad. Watch this space... err... please!

Getting Spyglass stuff...

As mentioned, I have now closed down Spyglass but the rights to the figures, old and new, have been picked up by other parties. The same is true for Eolith.

What I can tell you right now...

Heresy Miniatures have picked up the rights to nearly all the 28mm (and thereabouts) figures that I have produced. That's at www.heresyminiatures.com

The zO range of figures have been picked up by Elodie Mae at www.elodiemae.com

The 54mm Eolith figures have also found a new home and I'm sure that the new owner will announce them in due course.

So, no panic. If you missed out on stuff (quite easy as I never did a big public closing sale) then it should all turn up again elsewhere before long.

Spyglass Miniatures is closed...

As another aside from my normal rambling about general minis industry shenanigans, I thought this was a good place to make the announcement that I have now closed Spyglass Miniatures (and Eolith was, of course, already closed).

It's not all doom and gloom though (certainly not for me as I'm moving on to other things) as I can tell you that various interested parties have taken on the rights to my figures and pretty much everything has found a new home over the last week or so (did I tell anyone that it's been a mad week). The parties in question will, I'm sure, make their announcements as and when they feel ready to do so. Right at the moment I'm in the process of pulling everything together and getting the relevant bits to their new owners...

Well, it's been a blast. I wont miss doing mail orders I will have to admit. Having just the one Post Office in Truro was no laughing matter. The fact that it was basically impossible to do a mailing run on a Monday (pension day) should say it all. That said I've enjoyed being able to sculpt all manner of weird and wonderful things over the years.

And I really have to paint 54mm Dracula sometime...

Eolith 54mm range for sale... SOLD!

Two posts in one day? Yeah. For more abstract ideas scroll down to the next entry (about sculpting styles).

UPDATE: Range has been sold.

Looking to sell the Eolith Miniatures fantasy 54mm range ahead of my move in a couple of weeks. Check out the Eolith site for details...

Eolith Miniatures Site

I hope you'll consider this one of the exceptions that proves the rule about me being blatantly commercial on my blog.