Gearing up

Without going into too much detail, I’ve been “out of the game” for more than fifteen years (if you don’t count a very brief dalliance with 10mm miniatures a few years ago). It’s basically the same story as countless other hobbyists’; puberty hit, and suddenly my little toy soldiers seemed less important than other things – especially things of the feminine persuasion. The result is that most of my old painting gear has been lost for several years, which meant that I had to go shopping.

My brother (who is an avid painter) gave me some brushes and I still had some old paints from my 10mm days (mostly greys and browns). Incidentally, this proved to be a good test of the longevity of the different brands. The Formula P3 paints are still as good as new, whereas the Citadel are almost dried up. I’ll try to salvage them by adding a bit of water (don’t know if it’ll work), but I’m still missing a lot of colors, so I’ll have to stock up anyway.

I also bought a painting station off E-bay, which arrived yesterday. I've never used one before, but I hope it’ll make it easier for me to set up and get painting when I have an hour to spare without permanently claiming an entire table for myself (and thereby antagonizing the wife).

My house!

Which brings me to the next question: What am I going to paint first? I was, maybe, an “ok” painter fifteen years ago, but after all this time, whatever I paint first will probably end up looking as if a toddler assaulted a box of crayons, so I probably shouldn’t pick anything too difficult.

In the end I settled on a couple of Heroquest extras I had lying around. They are nice and simple, and having a fully painted Heroquest game is one of my long-term goals in any case.

The (un)lucky winners of the who-gets-to-look-like-an-explosion-in-a-paint-factory contest

Croaker