My Weekend of Hoarding & Stripping

I have a small treasure trove of miniatures I've collected over the past several years. This Friday night I did some cleaning and decided to organize my hoard. Here's the "before" picture:

I also organized my rack of colorful paints (my neutrals are kept in a shoebox):

I also stripped my miniatures that had been poorly primed and left to collect dust. I went out and purchased gloves since I'd be scrubbing the heck out of them with Citristrip:

And here they are! Much better. 

After that, I did some more work on Maralise-- she's 95% finished. I just need to go in and give her face some more shadows, finish up her staff, and figure out what kind of a base I'm going to give her. I know, I know, I should have thought of that before I painted her. Lesson learned! 

Other than that, it was such a nice & relaxing weekend. I watched some World Cup soccer while I painted and rested before the upcoming work marathon-- my next day off will be June 28th. However, I'll hold myself accountable for continuing to blog every Monday & Thursday during the mayhem. Let the challenge begin!

Tiny Imports

Guess what just arrived from Poland!

I have no experience with basing. None. Zilch. Nada. I don't know why it doesn't appeal to me (honestly, I think it just intimidates me), but I'm told the best way to get started is to, well, get started! That being said, I finally gave in and bought some Micro Art Studio bases that I've been coveting for months. I really appreciate the fine detail in these! I can't wait to start using these for my gaming miniatures. 

While I intend on creating my own display bases in the future, I think this is a great place to begin. I'll start by pinning miniatures to the pre-cast bases that I'll paint, and in time, graduate to crafting my own bases. This weekend I bought some Milliput, Loctite glue, and a mini pin vise:

That reminds me, I need to go collect some twigs & bark from outside. Soon I'll source some faux-grass tufts for texture. I think that'll be a great start-- when I'm ready, I'll have a great stock of things to choose from! I've made big improvements in my painting, now I need to dive into basing. Ripping off the bandaid... 

Happy Birthday to Me!

Every year, I buy myself a little something for my birthday as well. This year, I acquired a few things from my wish list after attending ReaperCon 2014: a cutting mat, micro shears, parchment paper & primer. 

So far, I've been using my Masterson's Sta-Wet Palette and recently I was told that parchment paper works much better than the paper it comes with-- mostly because it doesn't shed fibers that muck up your paint. Also, it holds the moisture better so your glazes aren't absorbed too quickly into the sponge below, leaving you with thicker paint than you originally mixed. 

The primer, Tamiya Fine Surface Primer, was recommended by several professional painters at the Con. I found it on Amazon and bought it in the Light Gray color. Many people swear by this primer, and while I used to prime with GW's Chaos Black and dusted with their White Primer, I found the light gray to be a good compromise. So far, it's been wonderful with quick, even coverage that doesn't muddle any details of the original sculpt. In fact, it's been so light & clean that I've been finding more mold lines that I've missed! To fix it, I'll sand it down and cover it with some brush-on primer.

While I make a habit of cleaning off any extra pewter flash and filing mold lines down before priming, I always seem to miss at least one when using this primer. I'll have to pay even closer attention to make sure I spot those areas beforehand-- I'll be using these mini files even more now it seems!