#cryx

I attended Lock&Load EU26 at Sheffield Magna Center! Warmachine Iron Qauntlet EU tournament was there, sadly I did not win enough games to be in the finals, but I had a blast! 2/6 wins total games.

Also there was narrative event where you defended train across 5 gaming tables which seemed super fun 😂 There was preview of new upcoming stuff which was AMAZING to see live first time ever. SFG workers were at the venue aswell and played games, sold stuff and you could go and ask stuff straight&gay directly!

I also tried XR (VR) gaming which seemed very interesting!

Also you could go to lore seminar, painting either with SFG official painter or dropin paint sessions, sculpting seminar aaaa

So much to do and there was so many people around EU and some from Canada as well! Met old friends and made new ones!

Session One of DnD: Iron Kingdoms Edition COMPLETE! And with no (player) deaths! Admittedly, this first session was intentionally set up to gauge how much more (or less) I needed to adjust combat. Considering we’re playing with....5 ranged DPS and a support caster, I knew it was going to be interesting. Player damage output is about what I expected, gotta tweak enemy health a little (or total numbers), while keeping hostile damage output in mind since the players are all kinda squishy. They do have a warjack (reward for mission complete), which will help soak damage and engage melee targets, but there’s only one of it and a lot of them, so I may give them another ‘tank’ to help as a buffer.

The most important thing I learned is the first step in “going fast” with painting minis: have your color choices and basing style decided before you get started. In this case, I knew I wanted any glowy bits to be pink/magenta/purple (hottest/brightest to coldest/darkest), that my metals would be one of two formulas, and the armor and fabric would be black, highlighted with a blue-gray and a greige. For the bases, I knew I wanted to use tufts I have on hand and not to distract too much from the minis themselves. So, I found some “rubble” (broken up sheets of plaster), “ballast” and “stones” (broken up walnut shells), and decided on a neutral gray color so that the tufts would stand out. I happened to get the leaves later and just had to use them because they suit the theme so well.

The second important thing I learned is the value of a test mini. I took one of the minis I’d field a bunch of that also had a lot of the surfaces I need covered (bone, metal, glowy stuff...), painted it up, based it, and used it as the example that I would model the rest of my painting after. If I had any spots where I wasn’t sure what to do, I checked the test model for similar materials, and went from there. The test mini also let me figure out order of operations. I found that, since it was the innermost and messiest part of the paint scheme, that pink/magenta/purple was the first thing I should do so that I could clean it up as I worked on the rest of the model

The third thing I found was that I needed a way to differentiate between identical minis. For the ‘jacks (the steam-powered robots), I do this with pips on the backs of the bases. For the solos, such as the above pistol wraiths, I do it with colors on sashes or other small but visible parts. Both of these are things I can either do as part of painting the mini or very quickly after the mini is complete.

Fourth was one of my favorite things to learn: The value of using tools from outside my minis kit. First, I found a great way to blend colors on a mini was to use a makeup brush while the paint is still wet to soften the line between them. For my minis kit, I now have a bunch of cheap as fuck eyeshadow brushes for that and dry-brushing. The other useful tool I have is a dotting tool, like you’d use for nail polish, that I use for putting the pips on my bases. It went from “try to be accurate with a brush to get perfect circular dots” to “just use the dotting tool and do it in seconds”.

Fifth was one I didn’t expect: the value of my own time. I found that I have, historically, attempted to paint all of my mini to my showcase standard. That is not going to get you an army with any expedience. However, I found that if I picked a spot on a model as my “focus” (usually a head/face or other interesting part), painted that and the things around it well, then quickly completed the rest, I was still happy with the results. The guys below, I focused (and took my time on) on the head, hood, and shoulders. The rest was done fairly quickly.

About that base that doesn’t have the same basing material: I had made the mistake of gluing him to the base before painting him and couldn’t get him off the base without breaking either the mini or the base. So, I painted the base to match the rest, added a couple tufts of grass, and called it a day.

I also learned that, unfortunately, there’s not much that I can do to “force” inspiration from a sculpt I don’t find inspiring. Agathia, the warcaster/leader, was a model I didn’t find much inspiration in, so I found myself just looking to get her done. She still looks alright and matches the rest of my army, but me pose and overall style of the mini just....wasn’t interesting to me.

The last thing I learned was a reminder I have needed for a long time: Mini painting is a hobby, and something I should do for enjoyment rather than perfection, unless I’m planning to enter a competition. Is this army a collection of the prettiest models I’ve ever painted? No. But it is a collection of good-looking minis I’m still proud of.