I never thought I'd get into painting miniatures... but I did!

I never expected that I would enjoy painting miniatures, but it's been a good relaxation activity- I've really gotten into it!
This guy came in lots of very small pieces that took several sessions to glue together until he finally looked like this:

The roses were my own addition. All of these models come with only a single or limited variations. That doesn't sit well with me, so I often add to them- can't be boring! 
After that I used a spray to prime the model with a brown undercoat.

After that you start the bases. There are always multiple layers to make the colours and marking complex. The brown is the base for most of the bark armour. The orange and the green here are also bases.

The owl is about half the size of my little fingernail, if you're looking for scale. Overall he's no more than 15cm high.
It was startling bright and I was pretty worried at first, until I remembered how many layers I was going to add. Hardly any of this orange will remain.

The next layers dulled that down though. You do thin coats, so that the layer blends with the base and you get a mix of both colours. When I first started I didn't do thin coats... so my models changed colour a lot!

There's still another layer to go, otherwise that contrast between the green and orange is a bit much!

The angles are hard to work around sometimes, with the way they're built. I did snap a couple of small bits off by accident.... easy to disguise on a twiggy tree. 

This shows the second layer on the leaves, a lighter green: really happy with how they came out.

I wanted to make the staff really interesting so I added the bug on. I got a very fine detail brush to put the veins on the leaves.

I was really happy with how the leaves turned out in his beard. Again, very careful painting with a very tiny brush.

Not to mention (after a lot of swearing) how happy I was with the lime green in the runes on his armour. I pretty much through any of the default colour scheme out once I got past the two colours of bark.

The basing/decorating is one of my favourite parts though. You can't just leave them on a plain base! 

I have a stack of tiny little plants and grass that I use to build the woodland around him.

He goes in a matched set with these, so I used many of the same plants. The ones below were Summer, but I always saw him as partly between Summer and Autumn.

The rock below him is made from cork. I could have just glued him straight onto the base, but (again) I wanted it to be more interesting! 

There are always skulls in Warhammer...

And now some views of the finished model. Painting competition on Saturday!

It was fascinating to work out the colour combinations.

And I'm very proud of him!

Keep calm and fortify Terran Creativity

We have a creative household, the two of us, somewhere between the PS4 games, computers, bow and arrows, Dungeons and Dragons books, board games, fantasy books, etc.

I bead, print and sew (see my standard floor configuration below).

He paints. And his paints are called things like this:

Yep. Warhammer.

(I don’t know why, but ‘Moot Green’ entertains me greatly.) 

Something you learn as a couple is that you don’t have to share everything or do everything together. However you do need to be understanding about separate interests and the work that goes into them.

Also about your dining table and lounge room being taken over every second weekend for most of a day… Thank goodness for the hobby/sewing room upstairs! Though these little guys have started appearing around the house:

I sat down to paint with my husband one day, after his gift of some unwanted Marines. I didn't get very far. They might have a bottom coat on if they're lucky... 

Meanwhile this is what my husband has painted:

Morale of the story: you don't have to share everything.

But then my husband discovered the tree people:

And I was tempted! I decided to give it a go. 

You have to clip off all the individual bits from plastic mold sheets: head, hair, body, arms, branches. Then you glue them together bit-by-bit. These are the base, grey plastic:

 Now the same ones with an undercoat. 

I went with a green base for the next undercoat.

They are an army of unhappy trees... so they all look angry. Very angry.

 I put three together and painted them in a day!

 What do you think?

 This thorny one is my favourite so far. I have customised all three with extra parts already. More to paint, but more creative.

It was fun, and there are thirteen more in a box to paint. But I am not about to do a whole army! Warhammer is an expensive hobby.

My husband been relatively guilt-free about his habit for about six months now. Because when he encouraged me to go and buy myself some nice fabric at an art fair, saying that I should buy four pieces instead of the two I was going to allow myself, he didn’t realise that they were at least as costly as his most expensive units per piece… guilt assuaged, apparently.

I could argue that my piece of fabric is a) an art work, and b) is practical as it will be worn. But I don’t want to. Our relationship advice is always the same: absolute honesty, separate blankets in bed, and separate bank accounts so that you have your own money to freely spend. 

We both know what the other would sacrifice if it came down to it, and it would be Warhammer and fabric.