Doug's Workshop

1)The most obvious thing that is that if you're painting light, you have to make other areas dark, The light needs something to contrast against, and the only thing light contrasts against is dark. 2)This also means that the lighted area needs to be lighter than the nearby areas. As an example, the leather bag is the same leather, just with yellow paint on it. The correct way to do this would be to lighten the leather being hit by the source light, darken the areas where source light doesn't hit, then if you want to add a tint based on the color of the light, add the tint gently, which leads to . . . . 3)Finally, the intensity of the light lessens the farther away from the source it is. On your miniature, the same intensity yellow exists everywhere. Yellow light from a lamp/candle doesn't actually illuminate very far in real life, so I would make my farthest yellow just tinting, while the lamp itself would be the brightest point at a pale yellow. Object source lighting is also a more advanced technique, so if you're just starting out then kudos for attempting it, but don't worry if it doesn't work yet.

Very nice. It also reminds me that I need to get an order to Jim.

I will suggest you watch some of James Wappel's videos over on the Ewe Tube. He paints quickly and at a very high level. My advice is twofold: 1) Practice. Then practice some more. There's a certain memory that goes along with art stuff. Some of it is muscle memory, some is "I just know the consistency of paint I need" or the like. 2) Cheat. There's no need to blend every highlight and shade. There's also no need to hit every detail. I've found skipping eyes is particularly useful for army-level figures. Buckles look fine if you just hint at a little metallic color instead of trying to paint the entire thing. 3) Line. Dark-line the seams (between armor and cloth, between skin and cloth, between leather boots and pants, etc.) and it makes the miniature pop a bit more. Minimal work, maximum impact.

For most skirmish games, one might get away with a selection of paper miniatures to get started and decide it's something he'd like to continue with. That cuts down the cost considerably. Paint a couple leader figs and get playing!

Sine Nomine Publishing, Red Tide Campaign Sourcebook and Sandbox Toolkit. For $8, the toolkit is well worth the money. There's some campaign-specific terms, but everything is very compatible. The supplement itself is written for Labyrinth Lord rules, but any half-decent GM can substitute "1d6 cultists" for something else. A quick example of a "borderland site": d10 = 10 = Trading Post Add 1 "tags" d4 + d10 = 4, 8 = Uncertain Title, then 2, 6 = Faded Glory Each tag has a selection of Enemies, Friends, Complications, Things, and Places So, enemy = greedy treasure hunter, ambitious noble Friends = curious antiquarian, young farmer starting a homestead Complications= a sudden rush of outsiders pour in to claim treasures (gold rush), Things = Ancient Treasure seems to work, Places = huts made from strange ancient building material, tumbled boundry stones So a trading post in the middle of the wilderness. The "lord" of the place is an aging man who built the place outside of the nobles' power . . . but the lord is running out of money, the nobles back in more civilized areas want a piece of the action, and to top if off word has filtered out that an ancient ruin holds vast amounts of treasure, bringing an influx of new adventurers and grifters . . . er, settlers. One of these is Mattias, a young man recently arrived with his bride who is trying to build a homestead at the edge of the the site, near some tumbled boundry stones that may or may not prove important for later land claims. (The tags serve as inspiration, and you don't have to use them if you've got enough ideas already.) There are adventure hooks that take some time to flesh out, but there's enough there for an hour's worth of interaction before the PCs wander off to find that treasure . . . which can be created with the Ruins toolkit.

I’m not a doctor, and my analogies are not the best, but . . . . I also won't be surprised to learn that different blood types are more prone to the clotting effect than others. I know there's some evidence that some types are more likely to have better outcomes than others, so I fully expect that genetics play a role at some level. Which isn't surprising, as there's a rare gene mutation that prevents HIV infection. This gene may have played a part in certain people surviving the Plague back in Europe's Middle Ages. It's weird being fascinated by the data and information coming out of this. I hope I'm not alone.

White Star? Yeah, my Swords & Wizardry stockings are showing . . . . But it was either that or pointing out that Stars Without Number has a merchant expansion, a cypber punky expansion, a military campaign expansion, a naval campaign expansion . . . . Okay, I also admit to being a Kevin Crawford fan.

The mixture sounds like what the standard of care is (or at least, was) where I live. Don't know if it's been changed (haven't talked with the medical professional for a couple months). Eastern Virginia Medical School also has this mix described in their Critical Care protocol. For anyone interested, reading that document should provide answers to the "whys" for each piece of the mix. Get well. I'm sure you'll be back to hobbying soon.

The only purges I've done were related to sorting through a bunch of old paint I picked up at the end of a paint-n-take. After a couple years, knowing I wasn't using those paints, I went through and transferred some to bottles I was using, pitched the dried out ones (retrieving the Reaper skulls in the bottom if possible), etc. Rarely do I discard old brushes because old ones can always be used to mix paint or for terrain pieces where detail isn't important. Just last night I used a brush I wouldn't otherwise use to stipple a building's wall because (1) it was handy and (2) it was large enough and splayed enough to give a really random pattern. Now the question of "should I purge" has a different answer. I definitely need to sit down and organize. A couple projects have finally reached a stopping point so I can replace all the paints into their respective places, rinse and wash brushes, reorganize the tools. But purging probably won't happen, because even though I have a triangular piece of styrene cut off from a larger piece to make a base for that building I mentioned, eventually I can break that little piece up and make rubble with it.

I lived in Irving (between FW and Dallas) for a year about . . . 18 years ago, so take my information for what it's worth. Yes, it's hot and humid in the summer. Winter was weird for me. A whiff of snow sends the metroplex into shutdown. The year I was there an ice storm hit the area. I drove to work to find that I was the only person on the entire site. Now, driving after an ice storm is not unusual for me, as I grew up in Michigan and lived in Colorado, so I can handle snow and ice. Not so much for everyone else. Hail is as thing in the spring as the storms move across the area. Tornado warnings exist. Dallas is metropolitan - it's the Big City. Fort Worth is (in my opinion) more laid back and "country." I moved there from Denver. It felt like I got a pay raise. Granted, there weren't any mountains, but the overall cost of living was lower. Oh, avoid heading into Dallas from FW when the Dallas Cowboys are playing - traffic gets stopped and backed-up near the stadium. Fun Texas things: Cross Plains (west, near Midland) has the Robert E Howard house. I took a long lazy Saturday and drove out there. It will rain mud in Lubbock. It's so dry and dusty that occasionally rain will collect the dust on its way down and presto! Raining mud. Houston reminds me of New Orleans. It might be the humidity, or it might be the drunken vacation I was on. It was fun in both cities. . . . The cartoon "King of the Hill" - there's some truth about Texas in that series. Texans take their football seriously. I never heard high school games broadcast on the radio until I lived in Texas.

I have both GW and Reaper washes. I also have some Vallejo washes. And I've also made my own. My own are by far more versatile. I have made a Nuln Oil and Agrax Earthshade equivalent that are far more concentrated than GW's, so I can dilute it to what I want. I can add more medium to make it behave more like paint, or airbrush medium to make it more wash-y. I find Reapers a little thicker than GW's. However, use what you can find. There's only one semi-local store to me that carries Reaper paints, and that stock was pretty sparse the last time I went. Most stores have GW. I have enough experimental urge within me to buy a bunch of inks and mediums and make my own,

Are you in a comfortable environment? Then the temp/humidity are fine. I've painted in 65F and 100F. I've painted in the low humidity of Colorado and the supersaturated atmosphere of Dallas. It doesn't matter. I've primed models when it was winter outside, and I've primed models when it was raining outside. As long as the sky-water doesn't get on the model, it didn't matter.

1982. It was a good year. My dad bought me my first plastic model, a 1/72 scale A-10 Warthog. I discovered Star Blazers on television. And a school-mate introduced me to Dungeons & Dragons (magenta box). Miniatures came later, at Christmas of 1988. I had finally found a group outside of school-friends to play with, and as I could drive I was able to actually go to other people's houses in order to play. One of the players painted minis, and I was . . . less than impressed by his creations. Certainly, I could do better. So, I asked for the Ral Partha Learn to Paint kit for Christmas. Got it. Went down the rabbit hole of painting. I'm still painting 32 years later. I'm still playing D&D (although I use Swords & Wizardry now), so 38 years of gaming.

I've had this happen to many of my brushes. Invariably, it's the cheaper ones. The W/N and DaVinci haven't done this. But the cheaper ones absolutely. I don't own any Rosemary brushes, so can't vouch for the quality of them. But every company has quality control issues once in a while. I blame leaving the brush sitting in water. If the lacquer gets cracked at all, if there's anyplace water can get through, it will, and then the wood will start to absorb it, swelling. This cracks the lacquer and makes the problem worse. Having said that, it doesn't impact my painting. The bristles are fine. If the ferrule gets a little loose, I can fix that with a small bit of glue.