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I’ve had Liquitex gloss varnish seem to cause tackiness with Bones minis. Golden gloss varnish does not seem to have this problem. I use Lascaux matte varnish because it’s the best brush on matte varnish (applied with an airbrush) that I’ve found. Apply the matte varnish in thin layers or it can go satiny. Ron

I’ve had Bones varnished with Liquitex gloss varnish followed by Lascaux matte varnish sticky. A couple of applications of Golden gloss varnish (followed by the Lascaux matte) helps. I prime Bones with Stynylrez primer if I prime. Ron

I've got my two Beginner classes again: Step by Step Beginner Miniature Painting (Thursday, 10 AM) Type: Painting Level: Beginner Format: Hands-on Synopsis: So, you’ve found the perfect mini for your PC, and you want to paint it. What are the basic steps of miniature painting so that you can turn out a good tabletop quality mini? In this step by step beginner miniature painting class- students will paint the same miniature at the same time using basic beginner techniques including drybrushing and using washes. A Beginning Painter's Toolkit (Friday, 10 AM) Type: Painting Level: Beginner Format: Hands-on Synopsis: So you found a mini that you want to paint? What do you need besides a brush and paint? What would be helpful? We'll talk about tools for beginning painters including files, primer, brushes, palettes, paint, and varnish. Hands on portions of the class include brush on priming, putting on a base coat, and then making washes with matte medium.

Prices for events vary wildly (free to $75+ for classes). I took 3 1 1/2 hr classes at $39, $25, and $25 each. The standard Swag bag was crazy large this year with highlights including: Song of Fire & Ice base game, Level 7 Invasion, a Guild Ball starter box, a GW Nightvault faction box (and dice and sleeves), and a special Victoria Miniatures mini. My 4 night stay at the Embassy Suites about 1/2 mile away was $685. Ron

If you like tacos, you should make a trip out to Torchy’s Tacos, a mile or so away. Torchy’s is a regional chain out of Austin well known for inventive tacos and killer queso. I took my Maryland friends there last year and they liked it so much that we went back the next day. Ron

Pretty sure that it was standard retail. Ron

Given the shipping costs, that the US Distributor normally comes to ReaperCon (and is a great guy), and the lack of neutral 3rd party reviews, I’m happy to wait until ReaperCon or Adepticon 2020 to buy some. It’s not like I need new paints. The only unique shades that I see are the skin tones. Ron

The prices seem to be in line with professional grade artist acrylics at DickBlick (not including shipping). Other than packaging, it's not clear to me why these are better than those other acrylics. Ron

Just in case it's useful, this Medieval Fantasy City Generator generates random medieval-ish city maps of various sizes. You can export the resulting map to PNG or SVG. Like so:

Also, event tickets probably won't go on sale until around June. Ron

My impression of the Robotech debacle is that Palladium (aka Kevin) decided that since the Kickstarter project blew up so much, the game was going to be a huge hit so they overproduced the initial wave intending to fund production of the second wave with sales proceeds. When the game flopped, they didn't have the money to produce the second wave. I only had one Kickstarter project completely fail to deliver to me. In this case, I think that the creator failed to do the math. He delivered wooden pens to half of the backers and then disappeared when he reached a break even point. Ron

I can see the Mountain needing some improvements for undercuts. That said, I doubt that it's worth getting new versions of ones that you already have. @Talae: whether any of them are going to be worth getting really depends on what you need to base. For example, if you don' t use Sanctuary much, then Dungeon probably won't be all that useful. Deep Space would be good if you play 40k, Kill Team, Infinity, or the Mantic sci-fi games but useless if you don't. Ron

Of the ones that I have, almost all appear to be the same except for side lettering: Imperial Forest Deep Space is a renamed Industrial Victoriana Battlezones Sanctuary Dungeon Urban appears to have a slightly different right side with smoother areas It's possible that the ridges/relief is higher on the upgraded pads and that isn't showing up in the pictures. Ron

I’ve had no clean up issues with Sculpey or green stuff if I let the green stuff cure for 10-15 min before using the pads and apply a very thin coating of Vaseline like petroleum jelly on the green stuff. I have some Green Stuff World rollers and a fair number of the Happy Seppuku pads. Betweeen them, the rollers seem good for patterns that repeat (like bricks or flag stone). It’s hardest to get good results with the Happy Seppuku pads. Ron

I backed 1, 2, and 2.5. I've been very happy with my stamps. I've used sculpey before and had good results. Ron