Gailbraithe

Several of the players in my Pathfinder game wanted me to teach them how to paint, so I did an evening lesson. I used GW's Ghouls because they don't require a lot of different colors. I went over priming, basecoats, washes and highlighting in one evening and let them keep their ghouls. As we worked I tossed in little random tricks and techniques, like how to keep your hands from shaking. It went well.

I've used Rust Brown as a primer several times for Post-Apocalyptic models. It's amazing if you want models that look dirty and ragged. Here's an example, one of Pig Iron's Kolony Ferals with an alternate gasmask head (I added a hood made of green stuff):

Quick, someone loan me $50,000.00. I have a childhood wish to fulfill.

No one is actually reading this,

For me, it's not like I'm taking a stand on principle and refusing to buy Sedition Wars. If they fix the board problem and my friends express interest in playing it, I might actually pick it up - I'm running a sci-fi campaign right now (Star HERO!), and the minis will be useful no matter what, plus the D^ Generation guys very thorough review really made me want to play. It sounds like Space Hulk with way more replay value and a lot less Grimdark. But if I was standing in my FLGS with $100 burning a hole in my pocket, and the copy of Sedition Wars is sitting right next to the copy of Horus Heresy or Twilight Imperium, two other games I keep looking at, I'm less likely to buy the game with the negative association.

Awesome, be sure to let us know when that happens!

Um, I didn't say that. That statement you put in quotes is not what I said. I said it mildly pissed me off, and was kind of a turn-off. That feels like an accusation. You appear to be accusing me of treating these companies unfairly. Why do you feel the need to interrogate the motivations of people on the internet and accuse them of engaging in unfair behavior? Please explain to all of us why you feel that you should do that. You can start with your relationship with your mother. Did that make my point? Was that too obtuse? My requirement that I be allowed to buy everything? I didn't know I had one of those. As for the difference, the idea of artificial exclusivity has always annoyed me, I am less likely to buy miniatures from companies that have catalogs full of things I can't buy. C'MON annoys the hell out of me for this very reason, it often feels like most of their catalog is out of print or out of stock. I still buy stuff from them occasionally, but browsing catalogs of things you missed out on isn't really inspiring. But that kind of stuff has annoyed me for a long time. I'm used to that being annoying. Kickstarter is new, and along with the new kewlness, there are new annoyances. I remarked on one of them. I really don't have a lot more to say than the passing observation I already made.

Oh man, I wish those weren't homemade and we're available for sale. I've been slowly putting together Super Mario themed army over the last couple of years, specifically a villain themed army, and those guys would be way better Goombas then the miniatures I'm currently using (Hasslefree's Agarix). I also have to third the Syd & Marty Kroft comments. I can practically hear the Banana Splits theme song in my head looking at those guys.

I don't understand this. Someone else was able to pay them earlier, which was advantageous to the company, so they were rewarded with some free stuff. They paid more than you, if not in money, then in time. They helped get the game off the ground, so they got a bonus. You still get everything the game is supposed to have; you could get just as much enjoyment as you would if they hadn't offered a bonus to other people. Is it just the frustration of knowing that you can't get every conceivable piece? (And for that matter, do you even buy every possible expansion for every game you own?) Do you boycott dead authors because you can't get a book signed by them? Dude, you might want to calm down on the interrogation. Nobody has to defend themselves, or justify themselves. Nobody is arguing that the right and rational thing is too feel cheated by the inability to jump on board a Kickstarter. Some of us just feel that way; we're not saying it makes sense. Your line of questioning is demanding justification for emotions. That's not really cool. Demanding people justify how they feel, justify their gut reactions to things, is a good way to make others feel defensive and under attack. Since I'm the one who brought the issue up first, I'm just going to say: It feels like getting ripped off; it feels like guys with more money than me are getting sweetheart deals, which just feels unjust. I'm fully aware that it's just a feeling, and I have no desire at all to lay down on the psychiatrists couch on a public forum and explore the innermost workings of my mind to discover why I feel the way I feel just because you demand explanations. When you tack on ridiculous and absurd rhetorical questions, like the one you end your post with, it feels like a slap in the face. Like you're mocking people. Like were stupid little idiots who should be ashamed of our feelings. Now I know you didn't mean it like that, but that's how your comment comes off. And you might want to reign it in a bit, before you start a flame war.

Oh, I'm sure. Yeah, but a game that comes with half the components is half as cool. Like I listened to that Sedition Wars review on the D^ Generation, and I was like "This game sounds pretty cool." But as they kept talking about all the kewl things they got with the KS, the kewl things I'll never be able to get for the game, I was like "elf this game." The only possible advantage I can see to getting it later is that they might fix the problem with warping game boards everyone complains about in a later edition.

I lost my dad last November (some folks might recall me having a major blowout and screaming fit that got me banned for a month right around then; now you know why). It was incredibly sudden -- he had liver cancer, and had been lying to everyone about what was happening. We all thought he was going to the doctor because of back pain issues, and then one day out of the blue he just announces "I have liver cancer, the doctors give me a month." Two weeks later he was gone. It just destroyed me, I was so unprepared for it. Now its been a few months, and it still hurts -- I just teared up writing that last paragraph, so the emotions are still raw. It was really rough right around Christmas when I realized I wasn't going to be getting any presents, or our yearly Christmas phone call, from him ever again. But it hurts less. Every day it hurts less. That's all I wanted to say: I know where you're at, and I know what it feels like to be going through this, and I just want to remind you that eventually it hurts less. I can't promise it ever stops hurting, but eventually it does hurt less. When it feels like its too much, just focus on that and keep going forward. It's all you can do.

Hah, I wasn't at all concerned about Kickstarter losing money. It's the game producers themselves that I'm wondering about. That's another thing I'm wondering about. I discovered Kickstarter with the Reaper offering, and then also went in on the Red Box Games KS and Otherworld's Indiegogo campaign. I'm still paying down my credit cards on that (Christmas following right after didn't help one bit), and I've missed out on several kickstarters since then. And I find myself a little bit pissed off at these companies. I mean, not to be a whiny woof or anything, but why should I pay full retail for Sedition Wars when I know it won't come with nearly as many miniatures as it would have if I'd been able to buy it when that KS was running? I mean, what the hell? So only rich guys with bottemless wallets get the really good deals, and all the rest of us who are on a budget and can't rack up thousands of dollars in purchases in a few months get stuck paying more for less of a game? It's really kind of a turn off. I'm planning on launching my own game in the next year, hoping for GenCon 2014 release, and I have no intention of using Kickstarter. I have the finacing I need to launch lined up already, so I don't need to kickstart, and it just doesn't seem like a good business strategy.

Today I listened to the latest podcast of The D6 Generation, which contains two interesting discussion about Kickstarter. The first half of the podcast is an interview with Rick Priestly in which they discuss the Gates of Antarres kickstarter (and was obviously taped before they knew the Kickstarter would be cancelled). That's followed by a very in-depth review of Sedition Wars, and then the second part (in the third hour) is one of the hosts offering some thoughts on Kickstarter which I found very interesting. One of the things that came up in the Rick Priestly interview was the way Kickstarter appears to be revolutionizing gaming, which lead Rick to express some incredulity at what some of the Kickstarters are offering to people who participate. Priestly, whgo has decades of experience in this industry, asked a rather sensible question: How are these games making any money? That is something I find myself wondering. In the later segment, the host related an conversation he overheard in the bathroom of GenCon. Two different game producers talking about how their games were selling. The first had brought 100 copies of his game to GenCon and sold out in the first few hours. The second had brought 50 copies of his kickstarted game and had sold none of them. He didn't understand -- his kickstarter had been successful, so why weren't people buying his game? And the other guy told him they already had bought his game. When it was Kickstarted. Which gets right to the crux of the problem. You look at these various kickstarters, and the only way to explain the deals they're able to offer is this: They're selling you the game at cost. You aren't paying full retail for the game, you're paying what it costs them to make the game. This presents a dangerous situation: If you saturate the market with a game you're selling at cost, you have a poor business plan. You can't keep a company going without profits, and the difference between the cost price and the retail price is your profits. Kickstarter appears to be encouraging producers to leave money on the table. The host made a point which I find obvious: Eventually this is going to kill a business. I'm even tempted to start a betting pool for who screws themselves out of business using Kickstarter first. My money is on Kingdom Death. I will not be surprised in the least if Monster ends up being vaporware, and never comes out. Not because I think the dude who did is untrustworthy or anything -- I just doubt the ability of any one man working entirely alone to manage a million dollars in sales without things spinning out of control. It's one thing for Reaper, a well-established, major industry player run by bean-counters, to do a multi-million dollar kickstarter. I trust Reaper's math is sound. But even Reaper has run into some issues they couldn't predict -- though luckily for Reaper, I don't think many folks are going to get too bent out of shape by the trouble Kit has had implementing our Bones Badges. Eventually one of these smaller companies, run by artists and gamers, is going to do the math wrong and end up deep in debt. Think of it like this: If that Kingdom Death guy did his math wrong and each unit of the game ends up costing more than he calculated, then his own success will be his undoing. It's one thing to have to give out 100 copies of a game that you took a $4 loss on. It's another thing entirely to release 10,000 units that you're taking a $4 loss on. Spending months in development and production to end up $400 in the hole is potentially disastrous for a company, but to spend those same months and ending up $40,000 in the hole is a life-destroying event from which you may not recover. Facing a situation like that, I would understand if he took the million he raised and just disappeared with it! So I wanted to ask you guys what you thought. This new trend seems unsustainable, and I'm curious what form the pin that pops the bubble will be. Will game manufacturers retreat from the Kickstarter model as they realize that gamers demand such steep discounts and so many freebies that kickstarting is like cutting your own throat? Will gamers burn out on Kickstarter when projects start failing to deliver or the deals become more realistic? What do you think will happen?

Holy crap, you nailed it! I took one of the photos back into The GIMP and used the automatic white balance filter and that improved things a bit, but then I turned down the Magenta and suddenly the verdigris popped right out and the different browns became much more apparent. Much improved. Now I can blame everything bad about it on the sealer I used (I really should photograph them before I seal them, as the sealer really does degrade the paint job).

I think the issue is with the photography, not the painting. I don't seem to have much luck with photographing my minis. I mean, you can't even see the verdigris on the brass, and in hand they're almost green. But it isn't showing up at all.

Yeah, that was what first drew my attention to the line. I guess it is technically a sci-fi game, in that the high weirdness is justified with rubber science, rather than "a wizard did it," but I think anyone into fantasy would find it pretty enjoyable. It's all about exploring ancient ruins undersea, collecting magic crystals, and fighting Mythos creatures and lizardmen. I'd call it more SteamFantasy than SciFi.

What do you mean?

These are some of the miniatures from Antimatter Games' Deep Wars, a skirmish game set underwater. First up are some members of the human faction, the Fortune Hunters. Their theme is big, bulky dive suits. I went with a dark brown and brass color scheme, and applied a heavy verdigris glaze to the brass bits - but the camera didn't really pick it up! Marie du Chatelet, Scientist Heavy Support Trooper Armored Dive Soldier Recon Trooper Breaching Mech Construct Next up is the Dark Mariners, a very creep and Cthulhian faction notable for their excessive amounts of tentacles. They use a lot of glowy crystal technology, so I tried some Object Source Lighting on a few of them, to varying degrees of success, but again, the camera didn't do such a hot job of picking it up. Cephalid Scientist Annihilator Biomech Vanguard Marine Scavengers

My plans to clean and organize my work space this weekend did not come to fruition, so its seems unlikely I'll get any painting done next week. But fingers crossed.

Gailbraithe is a bastardization of Gilbreath, which is the Scottish clan I descend from. It's a name I used for a lot of D&D characters when I was younger.

That is my assumption. If they can do it to supermodels, why not do it to miniatures? Think about that the next time you see a photo of some mind-blowing freehand or some insane blend on something the size of the head of a pin.

Are you talking of the older "back in the day" style, or the newer "basecoat, wash, edge highlight" version they have been producing lately? There are several variations in between as well. The new style is a quick and dirty version they have adopted because they have hired more people to Photoshop their paint jobs. In person, almost anyone can pull it off with minimal effort. I believe it was the last White Dwarf that they explained almost step by step how they achieve their results pre-photoshop. I'm talking the back in the day, mid-80-s to early 90s style. Back during the original run of White Dwarf, when they would run the 'Eavy Metal articles in the back of the magazine. The old basecoat, wash, glaze, highlight and blackline method. And I'm not surprised they photoshop their models. I've been suspecting that for some time. I think a lot of people on Cool Mini or Not do that too.

I really can't stand NMM. I've never appreciated the look, it almost always looks over-painted and cartoony to me. It also seems to be only good for display models. The effect is quickly ruined when you put them down on the table and aren't looking at them from exactly the right angle. That's the thing that bugs me about a lot of the more advanced techniques like NMM and OSL, they really only look great in photographs. I wouldn't consider a model finished if you just lay down a base coat of a metallic -- it should be shaded and highlighted like anything else -- but I prefer shading and highlighting with metallics. For example, for warm gold jewelry, I like a base coat of 50/50 Antique Gold and Muddy Soil, highlighted with Antique Gold and then again with New Gold, and then go back and maybe use some Brown Liner to sharpen any detail work. But then again, I still think the 'Eavy Metal Style produces the best looking minis, and don't like most of the newer techniques.

On the painting side of the hobby, my goal is to complete at least 25% of the kickstarter models I ordered. All 450 of them. So 112.5 models. Wheeee!

Ron's dead on, the problem is that Elmer's will turn yellow pretty quick. Within a month or two. Which is going to make a mini coated in Elmer's look really dingy and sad.