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Clearman
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The 10,000 hour rule as originally presented has been debunked for a while now. And from the same guys that made the original study (Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea, but did not create it).

 

Practice is still important, but so does better knowledge of what you're doing (taking classes), feedback (asking for criticism), sharing knowledge, etc. Just participating here on the Reaper boards contributed to make me a better painter.

 

A better description would be that after 10,000 hours of practice, whatever skill you do will seem natural. Just like a toddler learning to walk, and the same child at age 5-6 who is running around without a second thought.

 

Knowing that award winning minis have had dozens, if not over a hundred of hours of work on them, I'm always curious to know what Derek Schubert would accomplish in 2 hours. It will probably be good, but maybe not "Impossible to Match" good.

Edited by Cranky Dog
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All of those thing contribute to the 10,000 hours. The rule itself was examined in specific, highly competitive situations. The point stands. You need meaningful practice, where you recognize what you can do better. Just hanging out on this forum, while fun, will not make you a better painter.

 

And the Aces speed paint competition at Gen Con is a great example of what a master can do in an hour. Sure, I can paint a better miniature, but I can't do it I an hour.

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Derek is actually a pretty speedy painter. Whereas I paint at glacial speed and loads of people could surpass what I could accomplish in two hours! ;->

We should have a slow-off! Who can paint the slowest at their actual speed (no cheating, no sandbagging)!

 

Most of my sloppy painting recently is just because I want to paint some minis and work back up to the level where it makes sense to blend out the better ones.

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Derek is actually a pretty speedy painter. Whereas I paint at glacial speed and loads of people could surpass what I could accomplish in two hours! ;->

We should have a slow-off! Who can paint the slowest at their actual speed (no cheating, no sandbagging)!

 

Most of my sloppy painting recently is just because I want to paint some minis and work back up to the level where it makes sense to blend out the better ones.

 

I want to join in the slow-off!

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Derek is actually a pretty speedy painter. Whereas I paint at glacial speed and loads of people could surpass what I could accomplish in two hours! ;->

We should have a slow-off! Who can paint the slowest at their actual speed (no cheating, no sandbagging)!

 

Most of my sloppy painting recently is just because I want to paint some minis and work back up to the level where it makes sense to blend out the better ones.

 

A slow off sounds much more painful for spectators than watching speed painting!

A competition where we actively watch paint dry?

 

I don't see anything wrong with that idea.

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Derek is actually a pretty speedy painter. Whereas I paint at glacial speed and loads of people could surpass what I could accomplish in two hours! ;->

We should have a slow-off! Who can paint the slowest at their actual speed (no cheating, no sandbagging)!

 

Most of my sloppy painting recently is just because I want to paint some minis and work back up to the level where it makes sense to blend out the better ones.

 

A slow off sounds much more painful for spectators than watching speed painting!

A competition where we actively watch paint dry?

 

I don't see anything wrong with that idea.

 

 

Actually, watching paint dry can be very ...

 

Never mind.

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First, I want add my voice to the chorus telling you to not paint miniatures that you don't like.  I quit this hobby twice because I couldn't stand GW's basic Orcs and Goblins.  It didn't help that I was trying to paint them in batches of 50.

 

In short, painting minis you don't enjoy isn't any kind of hobby.

 

 

However,  if you'd like to stretch your mini budget a bit and have an interest in history, you can probably find some very nice historical minis at extremely low prices.  

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for the real budget conscious, go find a tabletop wargamer with unpainted armies.  most of the people I game with will give you figures to paint and don't really care about quality as long as you stay in the lines.  The operative words being paint and free. 

 

Bones are another excellent choice for good inexpensive minis, especially if you want to do a practice piece before you tackle the metal version of a Reaper mini.  If you get in on one of their KS or can get someone to part with an old box $0.50 a mini is hard to beat.

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I recently traded for the Shadows of Brimstone base game sets, and, if you're looking for crappy miniatures to practice with, I can't recommend them any higher. Of course, I didn't make the trade for the miniatures. I got 'em for the BGG hype. Anyway, the plastic is sandable and doesn't have the filing burrs soft boardgame plastic and Bones have, so are easier to work with. I've practiced a fair amount of both pre-assembling with these miniatures, including hacking apart the plastic, and making my own pinned cork bases. 

 

Mantic's Undead Army Starter Set is cheap, at $60 for 90 miniatures. I've picked them up on eBay Flash Sales for further discounts.

 

Don't forget bases. Make your own, and you'll not only go cheap, you'll have bases for the miniatures you want to do a good job on.

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 On a related note...

 

 If you want things to practice painting on, keep an eye out for NON-miniature things like board game pieces, toys and those cool resin statues that you find in shops at the mall... Check out places like thrift shops, Goodwill stores, discount stores, yard sales, etc... Not all of them have great details or are the right size to use as miniatures, but they make for great practice pieces. Toy companies like Schliech and Safari LTD make really high quality plastic toys that quite often are actually at a good size to use for monsters in 28mm tabletop games, and you can sometimes find them cheaply (although there's actually a secondary market for them that drives the prices up on eBay and such).

The resin figures are pretty good, since you can often find a really nice (and very large) dragon for around half the price of something put out by an actual miniatures company.

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The 10,000 hour rule as originally presented has been debunked for a while now. And from the same guys that made the original study (Malcolm Gladwell popularized the idea, but did not create it).

 

Practice is still important, but so does better knowledge of what you're doing (taking classes), feedback (asking for criticism), sharing knowledge, etc. Just participating here on the Reaper boards contributed to make me a better painter.

 

I've been trying to draw on my own this year because I couldn't afford classes. I was led to a free trial for some art videos. Within the first 15 minutes of the first video, the instructor had already pointed out several mistakes that beginners make. I had drawn every single one of those errors and I never noticed, because I simply didn't know. That 15 minutes was invaluable and taught me more than 15 hours on my own.

 

 On a related note...

 

 If you want things to practice painting on, keep an eye out for NON-miniature things like board game pieces, toys and those cool resin statues that you find in shops at the mall... Check out places like thrift shops, Goodwill stores, discount stores, yard sales, etc... Not all of them have great details or are the right size to use as miniatures, but they make for great practice pieces. Toy companies like Schliech and Safari LTD make really high quality plastic toys that quite often are actually at a good size to use for monsters in 28mm tabletop games, and you can sometimes find them cheaply (although there's actually a secondary market for them that drives the prices up on eBay and such).

The resin figures are pretty good, since you can often find a really nice (and very large) dragon for around half the price of something put out by an actual miniatures company.

 

Yes! Haha! Every time we go to Michael's and pass the toy aisle, I bug my other half about finding people to play with so I can paint their "giant" monsters. ::):

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