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So, I got quite a few responses when I asked about what people listen to, now I want to know what you READ! I mean we can't always be painting minis, otherwise no one would be filling up the forums with questions and pictures....ETC I am assuming that most folks have read Tolkien, I mean can you be into fantasy minis and games without having read them???? But some others that some people might or might not have read and enjoyed or hated... Heroes Die, By Mathew Woodring Stover. I used to work for B&N, and as my staff recommendation I picked this book with the claim "If you don't like this book, I will buy it back from you out of my own pocket!" I sold a lot of books, NEVER bought one back... The jacket blurb says "Day of the Jackal meats Lord of the Rings!" Believe it! Three Hearts and Three Lions, By Poul Anderson Just finished it for the Nth time, great book Thieves World, Edited by Robert Aspirin This is a 12 book shared universe series. Chaosium Games made a multi game supplement based on the first 1 or 2 books. The cover art of the first books is AWESOME! The Eternal Champion Cycle, By Michael Moorcock This includes Erekose, Elric, Corum, Hawkmoon, etc Really something every fantasy buff should read.... MM also writes music with Blue Oyster Cult, and has /had a band called Hawkwind. A very nice British Gentleman! Name of the Wind, By Patrick Rothfuss The best new fantasy author to come along in a very long time! Read it, and the sequel, "A Wise Man's Fears" Jack of Shadows, By Roger Zelazny Most folks have read about Amber, This book is as good as the original Ambers... I will add more as I find time... Gotta paint now! 8) George

Some of y'all may remember going to school in the 80's in your brand new corduroy pants.

New books be Dave Taylor, one of which features Aaron Lovejoy, Matt Dipietro, and Elizabeth Beckley of Miniature Monthly and others. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1560579763/the-art-of-volumes-1-3?ref=user_menu If you would like to just get two of the three books, the best way to do so is to pledge for one of the books, then increase your pledge total to include the Add-on price for the second book below. We will be using BackerKit as our pledge manager and that's where you'll have the opportunity to make those specific choices. If you have any questions, feel free to ask in the comments or by messaging me here on Kickstarter. THE ART OF… For more than 30 years I have spent a great deal of time talking with hundreds of artists who paint miniatures – for fun, for a living, for relaxation – and I am always intrigued to learn more about their philosophies, approaches, and processes. Some of these artists have spent decades refining their technical skills, while others bring their “traditional” art training to the miniatures world. Some draw inspiration from the most unusual of places, while others find it in popular culture turned on its head. THE ART OF… series of books will highlight fantastic miniatures artists from around the world, bringing their thoughts and passions to stand alongside their magnificent and inspirational work. We’ll be featuring both individuals and groups in this series, as we explore innovative approaches, studied refinements, and even tangential influences. These books will be both a celebration of the artist and their art, as well as an opportunity for them to present their thoughts on particular topics and let the world know why they approach their art the way they do. These will not be “How To” books, but rather complements to their existing outlets work that the artists are already doing. This is just the beginning of THE ART OF… series. With so many wonderful miniatures artists, there is so much potential to explore. Volume 1 – THE ART OF... Miniature Monthly Miniature Monthly is a collective of three professional painters from the US – Aaron Lovejoy, Elizabeth Beckley, and Matt DiPietro – who have a Patreon (Miniature Monthly) producing painting tutorial videos. All three are (or have been) studio painters for a number of different companies and they each bring something different to the table. This book will be a high-quality, softback artbook of 128 pages. Aaron will cover: • Creating a team/collective – looking at The Painters’ Guild and Miniature Monthly • Striking a balance between Speed and High-end painting • Freehand – Adding depth and texture Elizabeth will cover: • Smooth Skin – featuring work on the Kingdom Death minis • Chibi Art – how painting chibis differs from “standard” miniatures Matt will cover: • Ancient methods with infinite possibilities. • The Art of miniatures, – Finding your voice and engaging with the audience. https://www.patreon.com/miniaturemonthly https://www.facebook.com/miniaturemonthly https://www.instagram.com/artoflovejoy/ https://www.instagram.com/miniature_mistress/ https://www.instagram.com/mattdipietroart/ Volume 2 – THE ART OF... Christof Keil Christof Keil (aka k03rnl) is an artist from Germany who has made a name for himself with his incredible kitbashes and conversions and his work to turn 2D artwork into 3D pieces. Christof’s day job as a blacksmith working on enormous metal sculptures has given him a precise eye for balance and motion. This book will be a high-quality, softback artbook of 96 pages. • Kitbashing – a focus on anatomy, balance, silhouette • The Black Phalanx – a kitbashed project • Sculpting – creating reliefs and busts • Painting Black – an exercise in mimicking the masters • Black Templars – recreating the John Blanche art of 3rd Edition https://www.instagram.com/k03rnl/ https://www.instagram.com/black.phallanx.sculpts/ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfsw4HOpTJ2MWvSbiBCT7-g Volume 3 – THE ART OF... Ana Polanšćak Ana is a professional miniatures painter from Croatia who is widely regarded for her world-building miniatures art. Her converted and sculpted miniatures blend seamlessly with her terrain work to create dark corners of worlds that beg to be explored – at your peril. This book will be a high-quality, softback artbook of 96 pages. • World Building – a focus on selecting a starting point and key developments. Working on your own worlds and collaborating with others • Gardens of Hecate – a world created by Ana • AoS28 – Hosting the LEGEN and the Sunhold campaigns • Sculpting – What it’s like to turn concepts into physical sculpts for the miniatures market, and the reliquary/artifact creations https://www.instagram.com/gardensofhecate/ http://gardensofhecate.blogspot.com https://gardensofhecate.com

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/crosslances/the-scenic-library-3d-printable "Crosslances is an artistic reality consolidated for many years, we have dedicated ourselves very often to model making and playing miniatures in 28/32mm scale. This time, however, we want to launch a completely different project, an absolute novelty, our original idea. In fact, we want to make available to you these fantastic sculptures of ours, which can be printed directly at home, painted and placed inside your bookshelves to obtain stunning effects!"

This miniature had some DRAMA associated with it. I painted her for quite a while, and then she went into a kind of miniature limbo in which I just couldn't stand any color on the sculpt. Finally I ended up dunking her in the Simple Green and leaving her there for a week. The paint came off, but strangely the bones sculpt was dyed a strange orange color and its texture changed. It got really, really soft... almost floppy. ...but eventually I got the fig to take a brown basecoat, and the rest of the painting process went off without much of a hitch, except the OSL. The figure was so weirdly soft that drybrushing made it wobble. So her OSL is a lot lighter than I would have hoped. Anyway, here she is :-)

Howdy I like, big, books and I will not lie... Read 'em and weep, Kev!

Sophie at the Well of Lost Memories was my RC 2019 entry. I posed her on a sculpted base, reading through a stack of old diaries and journals written by those who have gone before us. She earned a bronze award.

This is Stonehaven's Half-Orc Librarian, a pleasantly sinister and unassuming character. The quote in the title of the thread is from Neil Gaiman. Comments et alia welcome, natch. WIP thread here.

Does anyone else find that there are well-known works of fiction that they just CANNOT read? I pride myself on reading quite a lot of books and having at least a passing familiarity with most of the major works of English literature. I've even managed to stumble through some of James Joyce and Thomas Pynchon. However there are a couple of books that I find I just cannot get through: "Gormenghast" by Mervyn Peake and "Moby Dick" by Melville. I've started each book at least four times, but on each occasion I get about a hundred pages in and just grind to a halt; can't face reading another sentence and put the book down. It's not that I think they are badly written, or even that the subject matter is uninteresting. I just seem to hit a wall with these particular titles. And I know it's not the author as I've read both "Mr Pye" and "Billy Budd" with no problems. Do any of you have "good" books that defeat you, despite repeated attempts to read them?

This is not the normal gaming related stuff shown here, but I thought some of you might be interested (and moreover I really like the books) so here is a different sort of kickstarter for you to look at or ignore https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1434349549/magical-romantic-comedies-with-a-body-count-in-har?ref=user_menu basically the books are written and available as ebooks (and at least initially on publication as paperbacks), but to make them available as hardcovers isn't in the authors budget at present hence the KS amongst the pledges you can pick up a full set of the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) as ebooks (10 books) [I recommend these] or as signed paperbacks (50 sets only) or as signed hardbacks (25 sets & 25 numbered sets only) or even, if you're already a fan with deep pockets the original hand written copy of "Whatever for Hire".

In the spirit of the new year, I am trying to pick up old healthy habits that went by the wayside in 2017. One of those is running. Another is reading. My goal is not a specific number of books (in 2017 I only read 5), but to simply read more and enjoy it. To that end, I'll be keeping a list here. Note: I'm cheating a bit by including books I started in 2017. Asterisk indicates started prior to 2017; Two asterisks indicates it is a re-read. Completed (in order): Breakthrough: Why We Can't Leave Saving the Planet To Environmentalists* The Golden Compass* Resolving Ecosystem Complexity The Investor's Manifesto** Why Smart People Make Big Money Mistakes and How To Correct Them Nod It happened in the Florida Keys Meditations by Marcus Aurelius* Annihilation The Subtle Knife How to Read Water A Wrinkle in Time The Wrong Stars Two's Company, Three is Complexity Lobsters The Dispatcher Old Man's War The Ghost Brigades The Last Colony Assassin's Apprentice The Human Division In Progress: Ecological Forecasting Untangling Ecological Complexity The Amber Spyglass Saga of the Icelanders Geographical Ecology Naked Statistics I'll be updating as I progress!

Some of you know I help run a convention call MarCon here in Columbus, Ohio Marcon is held Mother's Day weekend in Columbus Ohio in the same hotel that Origins uses. This year we have a few guests, some you might recognize. Still working on media guests, but this is the group we have so far. Marcon.org for more info.. Author Guest of Honor: F. Paul Wilson Young Adult Author Guest of Honor: Cinda Williams Chima Music Guest of Honor: Dandelion Wine Legendary Artist Guest of Honor: Larry Elmore Artist Guest of Honor: David Lee Pancake Cosplay Guest of Honor: Alexa Heart Cosplay Guest of Honor: Mogchelle Cosplay Guest of Honor: Charles Xavier Conley (Ebony Warrior Cosplay) Fan Guest of Honor: Todd Cameron Hamilton Miniatures Guest of Honor: Shoshie Bauer Featured Author: Walter Jon Williams Featured Author: Eric Flint Featured Author: Walter Hunt Featured Artist: Andy Hopp Featured Cosplay Guest: Nerd Girl Cosplay Featured Cosplay Guest: Brit Bliss

Gaming books are just like any other book - they have word count targets as well as page count targets and the people who write them tend to go over their allotment. This requires an editor to trim the fat. Unfortunately one of the first things to go under the knife in a core book is the game master advice portion of the book. As anyone that's read more than a few tabletop RPG books has noticed, there is always some system specific advice, but the general advice seems to be the same basic ideas, maybe presented slightly differently, but repeated over and over across the industry. Fortunately over the last couple of decades more and more books geared specifically for game masters have been published. For those GMs that want to up their game, whether it be plot, combat, handling NPCs, worldbuilding, or problem players there's advice out there for that. Not all of them give good advice and not all are worth picking up. This thread aims to be a resource, not just creating a list of books but also giving a bit of a review. The books listed here will not include core books unless someone finds one with unique advice. At this point my idea is to keep the list more general and avoid books that are majority system specific. You won't find the DMG listed here, but you might find a DMG II. After all, that's where the advice that got cut out of the first one ends up. Title: Cityscape Authors: Ari Marmell & C.A. Suleiman System: 3.5E d20 (w/ a lot of more generally applicable sections) Publisher: WOTC (2006) ISBN: 978-0-7869-3939-8 In Print: No Title: GM Essentials Book 1: NPC Essentials Authors: Johnn Four System: Nominally 3.5E d20, but only one chapter is really tied to that system (a mini-adventure) Publisher: RPGObjects (2003) ISBN: 978-0-7869-3939-8 In Print: No (?) Might be available electronically from Role Playing Tips (Johnn's Blog) Title: Hamlet's Hit Points Author: Robin D. Laws System: None Publisher: Gameplaywright (2010) ISBN: 978-0-9818840-2-8 In Print: Yes Title: Heroes of Battle Author: David Noonan, Will McDermott, Stephen Schubert System: 3E (but applicable to other systems) Publisher: WOTC (2005) ISBN: 0-7869-3686-X In Print: No Title: Kobold Guide to Worldbuilding Author: Wolfgang Bauer, Michael Stackpole, Keith Baker, Monte Cook, and others System: None (fantasy-oriented) Publisher: Kobold Press (2012) ISBN: 978-1936781119 In Print: Yes Title: A Mighty Fortress Author: System: 2E d20 (but it is also a historical reference) Publisher: TSR (1992) ISBN: 1-56076-372-8 In Print: No, but .pdf Title: Play Dirty Author: John Wick System: None Publisher: John Wick (2015) ISBN: 978-0990547853 In Print: Yes Title: Play Dirty 2 Author: John Wick System: None Publisher: John Wick (2015) ISBN: 978-0990547860 In Print: Yes Title: Robin's Laws of Good Game Mastering Author: Robin D. Laws System: None Publisher: Steve Jackson Games (2002) ISBN: 1-55634-629-8 In Print: Not last I checked, but you can track down a .pdf

Magically Distracted She sat on her favorite stool, having gotten mostly undressed and relaxed, gently swirling the goblet of red wine in her hand as she read through the grimore in her lap... closing her eyes she gently concentrated on the spell that was before her... suddenly the books piled around her lifted up in the air as if they had minds of their own and were caught in a small windstorm. She giggled to herself and took another long drink of the wine from her goblet and continued to study... --------------------- This was a really fun project that I started up in April of this year. My goal was to get her done in time for the 'eavier metal online contest (Facebook) and see if I could place or perhaps get a random draw. I ended up uploading her about 10 minutes late, so I have no idea at the time of doing this post if she will be considered in the contest or if she will be disqualified. Either way, I had fun, I had tons of amazing feedback during the WIP and a lot of people cheering me on to get it finished. I present to you "Magically Distracted" a NSFW Kingdom Death figure in the 54mm scale, she is a limited edition resin release. Please feel free to give your comments and critiques. I'm going to check and see if I am allowed to bring a nude figure to ReaperCon this year for entry into their painters contest or not. If not, she'll stay home as I do have plenty of other things to enter as well. A few firsts on this one, I did some elaborate tattoos, magical floating books, writing in books in freehand, a completely nude figure, texturing pattern, Venus dimples, and last but not least sheer stockings (which were a lot of fun and a lot of work!). First - pics that are SFW and then I'll post some NSFW links (special thanks to @Thrym for hooking me up with his site for hosting as Facebook links expire) and for helping me out with the really cool title placard). NSFW Links One Two Three Four Five ETA: Better pics after a bit of clean-up to the OSL and added red ink to the drink.

Starting this one up as it now has my attention due to a contest on bookfarce by the 'eavier metal facebook group. This is Distracted by Kingdom Death, she's a 54mm 1st run collector's edition resin miniature that I couldn't pass up a while back when she was released for a very limited time. This figure is completely nude so she is definitely NSFW and I'll make sure to link any pics that would violate forum rules. Let's start off with the pic I can show! The NSFW pics that show the body parts - Front Side Side As I go along, I would like very honest and forthright comments and critiques to push me as she will be a contest entry and I may bring her to ReaperCon as well!

I Like my weird fiction. This promises to be a good, though dude heavy in the announced authors, anthology in that vein. Inspired by TV shows like Twilight Zone, Night Gallery, & Outer Limits. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/test-patterns-a-weird-fiction-anthology-fantasy-horror#/ 3 options: digital, paperback, limited hardcover.

I painted up the bookshelf (77318) and table and benches (77319) to go in my cottage. (WIP here: http://forum.reapermini.com/index.php?/topic/68003-cottage-wip/ ) The table and benches were super simple and I just used the same colors to do the wood as I used to do the floor and roof timbers on the cottage. The bookshelf is a bit wonky but hey, maybe the wood was warped. I wanted colorful books that looked well cared for. I love reading and have shelves full of books myself! I included a few of my favorites in this bookshelf. A few were hard to photograph as I did the covers on a few of the books that presented covers, I included a close up picture of one of the spines that I detailed.

This is the last of my painted figures from recent weeks. I wanted to do him up in dark colors, without using a lot of black. I don't have a specific character in mind, and this way he can fit a variety of roles if he ever sees use on a game table. Now to rest up and clean the table for the big weekend!

77318: Bookshelves x 3 77248: Crates x 2 (minus small crates) 77249: Barrels x 2 (minus small barrels)

So, I recently plowed my way through the first 5 books in the graphic novel series "The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya" the other day, then my wife found 5 manga books (one from the creator of Azumanga Daioh, which I can't recall the name to, and 1-4 of Ultra Maniac) at the local discount store. I went through those last night. Additionally, I've been re-reading the Redwall series (by Brian Jacques). So, what are you guys reading at the moment? -Dave

Hello all! Here's a quick question and something I'm currently curious about as I have yet to start my next project. What are some books you can recommend on color theory, acrylics, and art in general? I'd like to learn more about what makes things (especially minis) look good. Also, what books specifically on miniatures have helped you develop your skill and technique? Finally, what magazines pertaining to miniatures and/or art have you found helpful? I know these are general questions, but I'm just curious what things everyone is reading!