Hobby Dungeon

I'm so used to working on miniatures in groups of 5, 10, 20, that even when I do kitbashing, it's usually for a whole squad. For this project, I kept it minimal. I did one miniature, a bit of basing, and came up with some very loose narrative themes. Two things came together for this project. The first was going to see Dune in theatres and being blown away by the visual style and design of the film, and the other was wanting to create a non-combat miniature. All of my previous hobby experience was confined to war and wargames, and that is such a narrow slice of existence. I wanted to expand my hobby horizon and explore narrative instead of combat. This character is some sort of miner/prospector/treasure-hunter from a gritty desert planet. He mixes advanced technology like his respirator and reactor-lantern with a low tech shovel and patched overcoat. He is searching the rubble of some facility or other, where loose wiring, tarps, and metallic grating are being overtaken by the ...

  I am a huge Conan the Barbarian fan. Books, movies, comics, all of it. Conan reaches back to an era of sword and sorcery which we don't see much in fantasy anymore, to mysticism and mystery and a little bit of horror. Low, dark, minimal fantasy. I've spent the last few weeks making terrain and painting Napoleonic soldiers for The Silver Bayonet, and I wanted a bit of a break. I picked up this "Conan" model from Reaper miniatures. I think it was just labelled as a generic barbarian, but we all know who this really is... I started off by priming him with some tan/brown craft paint that I have laying around. A few coats of this, just to make sure of coverage. I also have a bottle of Gulliman Flesh contrast paint that was given to me by a friend, and which I had never used before. I thought it would make a nice dark flesh tone on top of this brownish primer. I was a bit aggressive and the shadows were a bit deep, but I just rolled with it. I blocked in all my base colou...

What follows here is a quick guide to the way that I paint. It is not definitive, does not cover many techniques, and is not overly flashy. When I refer to this style, I often call it 'table-ready', because it allows me to quickly paint a large group of models that look good on the tabletop. On closer inspection, you may see that lines aren't straight, highlights aren't smooth gradients, and spots may be missed. I think this is all totally fine when it comes to miniatures. Unless I am painting pieces for competition or display, table-ready is my default paint mode. One quick note before starting. I use a wet palette, which can be made by placing a square of paper towel in a flat tupperware container, adding water, and placing a sheet of baking parchment on top. Water is pulled up through the parchment and keeps paints moist. It also allows for dilution and smooth blending of colours. Nearly all paints that come out of a paint pot should be diluted to some degree. It ma...