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Hi everyone :)
In my first post in this series I looked at some tools from the world of make up which can be helpful in mini painting (you can find that here). Today I'm going to be highlighting some tools which are used in nail art, but which can also be good for us mini painters. First up are water transfers. These are essentially the same as you get with some Games Workshop products, only without the miniature painting price mark-up! You can find sheets for less than £1 on ebay, or big collections on amazon for a few pounds. I used water transfers originally intended for nail art on the shields of these minis:
Two notes of caution when buying these: not all nail designs really work for miniatures, and some can be a bit too big. Neither of these are major issues, but it is worth having a close look at what you're getting.
There is actually quite a lot of overlap between the things people like on their nails and designs which could easily be heraldic or martial in nature, but you also find sheets with words like 'love' on. I'm not saying there could never be a use for such a transfer, but I feel like it would be fairly niche!
Another area of overlap between the worlds of miniatures and nail art is in the use of UV-cured resin. It's a relatively new area for mini painters, but is well established amongst beauticians.
An ultraviolet nail lamp (pictured above) is a great option for setting UV resin on miniatures, including the resin from 3D printers. Having one of these set up to put a newly printed miniature under can be really useful, not to mention if you're using resin to create water effects.
Finally, a quick nod to nail polish remover. There are two main types of nail polish remover, with or without acetone. The type containing acetone can do a great job of stripping metal minis, but will just chew through plastic minis. There are some people around who advocate non-acetone nail polish remover for short periods on plastic minis, but you have to be very careful and get the timings right. If you want to use this on plastic minis I would do a few test runs on minis you're less attached to first!
I hope you've found this useful and interesting :) As ever, feel free to leave any questions or comments below!
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Hi everyone :)
Over the last 98 days I’ve painted a miniature every day. For some people that may not be a particularly impressive feat, but for me that’s represented a big increase in my painting productivity. I’m proud of the painting I’ve done during that period of just over three months. With that said, I’m going to be stopping my Mini A Day project this week. I've learned a lot, and have gained a lot, during the project, but I've decided to focus in other areas. In this post I'm going to look at my reasons for stopping and what I'm taking away from this. Why am I stopping? Why Now?
I've decided to stop with Mini A Day because I wanted to do so on positive terms. I'm going to reach 100, which is a big milestone, and a good time to move on to other things. This way I'm stopping on my own terms and not 'failing' in the future.
I've recently decided to be creating some new types of content. First and foremost, I'm going to be making 'Goblin Squire Investigates' videos. These are going to be an opportunity for people to ask questions and for me to go away and find out the answers. I think that these videos are going to involve quite a bit of work and I don't want to have to rush them. I also made the decision early on that I wasn't going to paint any commission miniatures as a Mini A Day. In order to give the best possible results to customers I wasn't willing to put an artificial time limit on those paints. The amount of painting I'm doing alongside the Mini A Day has increased, and so the need for Mini A Day to keep me on track has diminished. All of this, along with my other creative projects (primarily writing and editing), has meant that the painting of my daily minis has often been rushed and hasn't left me much space or time to try new things or learn new techniques. This decision is going to allow me to grow and learn in different ways, and I'm really looking forward to that. What have I learned?
Well, first and foremost, that I can do it! Even with a number of other demands on my time I can complete a miniature every day for over three months. My speed painting has improved greatly during that time and that's a useful skill to have.
I'm quite often guilty of looking and looking at my unpainted miniatures and waiting for the perfect inspiration to strike, rather than picking something up and painting it. That wasn't really an option while doing this, as I had to make decisions quickly in order to achieve what I wanted to. That's a double-edged sword, of course, because painting mechanically and without inspiration can be frustrating and challenging. I think that this is something I will continue to work on - not being intimidated at starting a miniature because I haven't been struck by a bolt of inspiration, while now not having to force myself to paint anyway. I've learned something too about posting miniatures you're not very happy with. In the past I have shied away from posting public pictures of minis I've not been happy with, but that hasn't been an option while doing Mini A Day. There's something simultaneously therapeutic and terrifying about posting pictures you hate, but some of the minis I haven't liked have actually received good feedback. It's definitely true that we can be our own harshest critics, and that we shouldn't always listen to the naysaying voice in our heads. Finally, I learned that if you massively increase your output of miniatures your storage/display spaces fill up very quickly! What's next?
Well, in the short term I still have a couple of days more of Mini A Day to paint. That will take me through to Tuesday, and I'm considering not doing any painting at all on Wednesday! I'll be back painting on Thursday though :)
I'm going to be putting together a video of all the miniatures I've painted over the 100 days, which I'll upload to my YouTube channel. I'm going to be working on some more videos in the coming weeks, so if you're interested in that head over to my channel and subscribe. I still have regular polls on my patreon so that my patrons can decide what I paint and write painting guides for. I'll also be sharing all my paints and planned paints over on my patreon. If you've enjoyed my Mini A Day content and would like to see more, perhaps you would consider joining my patreon (tiers start at $2 a month). Goblin Squire I've blanked out the rules to prevent copy-catting :) Hi everyone :) Today I'm reviewing a new game I received last week via Kickstarter - "Rabbit Rummage". It was created by Mushroom Gaming, and is designed to be a fun, quick, family-friendly game. I paid for this game and am not receiving anything in return for this review :) First ImpressionsWhen I opened the package (see picture above) the first thing which struck me was the high quality of the components. The cardboard pieces are durable but light, but the thing I was most impressed with was the play mat. Having been folded up in the packaging I was worried that it would be very creased and make gameplay difficult, but my worries were completely unfounded. Straight out of the box it lay flat - this may seem unimportant, but realistically any game will spend more time packed away than being played, and being ready when called upon is a very important consideration for a game. Also included in the package was a convenient and attractive bag for all the components, which is, again, a positive for me in terms of storage. GameplayAs I mentioned, Rabbit Rummage is designed to be playable as a family with children, while remaining fun for adults. The rules are certainly very simple! Here is the entirety of the rules document (again, I've blocked out the text as this is made by a small company and I don't want someone using this post to copy the game!). The back of the sheet has points values for the different foods, and that really is all you need to get going. Fundamentally, what you're doing is rolling the dice to determine how far you can move and choosing which foods to eat, which in turn determine your points. The scoring is slightly reminiscent of Sushi Go in that you can try to build sets, but will get no points if you only make part of a set. So, Is it good?Rabbit Rummage is a great little game to go to when you only have a few minutes, or want a break between brain-intensive games. It's very quick to set up and just as easy to play, and hits the brief for a light and fun game.
The only reservation I have, is that if you want to play in a very friendly and non-confrontational style it doesn't work quite so well. That would be a great way of playing for children who are learning games, but it meant that our first game lacked drama and competition as we all quietly went about our business. What it needs to shine is a more friendly-but-competitive approach where you try and stop others from getting what they need, as well as going for what you want. I backed this on Kickstarter with 'The Farmer' expansion, and that goes a long way to addressing the issue above. In this version, with the addition of just one more meeple and a direction arrow, there is more competition automatically as the farmer also removes food. This means that not everyone can complete their sets and an element of competition becomes necessary. You can currently pre-order Rabbit Rummage for £10 here, and that is a great price for any board game! I think that the base game works really well for family play or for more cut-throat adult play, but I would recommend getting the farmer expansion as well if you tend to play a little more co-operatively.
Hi everyone :)
I'm excited to announce some new content coming you way very soon - Goblin Squire Investigates! This is going to be an ongoing series of videos, in which I answer any and all questions from the miniature painting community. Nothing is too big or too small for me to investigate, and anyone can ask the questions. Do you have a question which has been nagging at you for a while? Is there something you've seen talked about which you're nervous to ask? Maybe you've seen acronyms you don't understand, or want to know more about the chemical composition of your miniatures. This is a judgement free zone, and you can ask the most simple or taxing questions. You can DM me on Twitter or email me through this website, or you can just tag me in to a tweet with the hashtag #GoblinSquireInvestigates. Before I have a list of questions submitted is the perfect time to ask something as you'll be near the front of the queue :) The idea with this feature is not that I will immediately know the answer to the questions, then it wouldn't be an investigation! I've been a mini painter for a while now, and am a researcher by trade, so I'm looking forward to being able to tackle some tough questions. Let me know anything you'd like me to investigate!
Hi everyone :)
Today I'm introducing a concept which I'd love for you to get involved with! As you may have guessed from the title of the post, the idea is called Goblinspiration, and I'll keep everything together on Twitter using the hashtag #Goblinspiration. So what's this all about? I'm glad you asked :p Every month I, with the help of my patrons, will come up with a single word prompt to inspire people to paint. The fun really comes with the interpretation of the word - nothing is off limits and you're encouraged to run with it in any direction you like. Through the month we all paint something, anything, which is related to the word, then at the end of the month we show what we've come up with and see all the different ways people have interpreted the same brief! At the end of the month I'll make a video showcasing all the pieces. This isn't a competition, it's purely to get people thinking in a slightly different way about their miniatures. If you've never painted a miniature before then don't worry! I'd be super excited to get new painters trying this out, and no-one will judge you on what you create :) So, we're going to start this off with the word for August - Fire. I won't normally give more than the single word, but in this instance I thought I'd mention a few possibilities to get the creative juices flowing. You might, of course, want to paint a fiery demon, but you could go for someone warming themselves at a fire, a cannon or a kitchen. There really is no limit, and I'd encourage you to take it in whatever direction you'd like! If you have any questions at all about this then I'd love to hear from you! You don't need to commit to taking part, but it would be great to hear if you're thinking of being involved. Also, please share as widely as possible because I want everyone to feel a part of this. Goblin Squire :) Hi everyone :) Today I'm going to talk a little about something you might have seen popping up if you're on twitter. It's #TharivolAndFriends - an initiative created by @Tharivol (hence the name!) to help us see how people can interpret the same miniature in different ways. As I mentioned, this was the brainchild of Tharivol, and he put a lot of work and coordination into it. My small contribution to its creation was a conversation we had while the idea was still in its infancy, after I'd painted the Reaper Miniatures Zombie Dragon. This was a miniature that Tharivol had also painted recently, and we had an interesting chat about the different ways a single miniature could be interpreted. If I may be so bold, we had both painted the miniature well, but the finished products were completely different. When I first started painting minis I almost had the feel of miniatures being like paint-by-numbers, but this just goes to show how much of painting a great mini is in the design and concept. Good painting skills are important too of course! The concept behind #TharivolAndFriends was that a group of miniature painters would get the same mini, and throughout July they would paint the miniature however they were inspired to. At the end of July/beginning of August we would then be able to see all the different choices people had made. The first step was to choose a miniature, and this was done by Twitter poll. Reaper Miniatures was chosen as the manufacturer because they would be within the budget of most painters, and a number of their minis were pitted against each other. The overall winner was this Xiloxoch Naga. Photo copyright Reaper Miniatures. Now, I'm not going to show you lots of the nagas people painted for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I think that the honour of showcasing the miniatures should go to the person who came up with the idea, and secondly I don't want to pick and choose because I think it would be unfair to people who took part. I will show you my version, because I think that's fair enough, but I strongly encourage you to head over to twitter and search for #TharivolAndFriends. There are lots of beautiful miniatures under the hashtag, and I know that Tharivol is planning to bring them together in some way in the near future. I've really loved the spirit of inspiration rather than competition that has been generated over the last couple of months, and I'm excited that I've heard a rumour that this will be repeated in the future...
I've also been inspired by this in another way, and am in the process of developing something which can work alongside this. Keep an eye out for my Tuesday blog post where I'll announce it properly, but I'm hoping that it will be a way of encouraging mini painters of all experience levels and further building the community.
Hi everyone :)
I thought that today I would talk a little about some of the more unusual tools I use when I am building and painting miniatures. While debate rages about what the best brand of paint is, and who make the best paintbrushes, everyone agrees that both are vital to the mini painting process. I use a few things in my painting which are a little unusual, and I thought I would share those tips with you. This is going to be the start of a series, because I don't want to try and cram so much into a single post that it becomes unmanageable. Some of the things I use I bought because there are cheaper alternatives out there than the specialist miniature stuff, and some I found because there simply weren't tools for miniatures which did what I wanted. Today we're starting in the world of make up.
There is actually quite a bit of crossover between the worlds of make up and miniature painting, and I have to thank my wife who is an amazing artist in many media (including make up) for pointing this out to me. You do have to be a little careful, though, because the make up world is prone to high big-brand pricing in the same way miniature painting is.
My first tip here is relatively well known, but I think it's worth repeating anyway. Make up brushes can make very good drybrushes. One of my go-to drybrushes is actually an eyeshadow brush, and they're fundamentally designed with similar properties in mind. The bristles of the brush are densely packed, they have a defined edge and they snap back well. The brush I have cost around £3 (it was actually part of a multi-pack, but is very similar to this brush) and I actually prefer it to my GW drybrush. A wide variety of these brushes exist, and if you're looking for even denser bristles, check out this one.
A £3 eyeshadow brush/drybrush
My second tip from the world of make up is one I haven't seen anyone else suggesting, although I'm sure there's someone out there who is! It's to use a silicone liner brush to create accurate circles. This one is a little more expensive (the one I use was £11.99), but I've found it really useful for all sorts of things from polka dots to eyeballs.
Dots on bandana painted using silicone liner brush
The key with this tool is that it doesn't have bristles like a traditional brush. Instead, it has a single silicone tip which can't splay or divide while you're using it. The tip is a little flexible, so it may take a little practice to get perfect circles, but the nature of the tip makes it significantly easier than using a traditional brush.
As I mentioned, this can be a fantastic tool for painting eyeballs. A quick dab of colour using this tool and you have a great looking eye for your miniature. I hope that you've found this post interesting and informative, I'm planning to post another in this series for each of the next two weeks, so do check back to see what I'm up to! Goblin Squire :)
Hi everyone :)
Following up from my initial unboxing review of Pirates of the Dread Sea last week, I've now had a chance to paint some and wanted to give you a post-paint review! As I mentioned last week, I was sent this miniatures free by Dead Earth Games who produce them, but this is an honest, unbiased review. You can check out the results of my painting in the video above. I painted one mini each day for a week (you can follow my #MiniADay over on my twitter). I'm still learning the videography side of things, so may post an updated video at some point soon, but you can see the miniatures well here. The Painting Experience
I mentioned in my previous review that I was impressed with the moulding on these, and that held true while I was painting. There were a few mould lines which proved all but impossible to remove without performing surgery on the miniature, but this is often the case with metal miniatures. You can see from the video that these were few and far between.
The level of detail of the sculpts was also impressive. In this blog post I discuss some of the inherent strengths and weaknesses of metal miniatures, and these minis combined that satisfying feel of metal with a good clean sculpt. Metal can sometimes be a little difficult to work with in terms of the adherence of paint, but I didn't have any real problems here. An extra base layer was required compared to working with plastic, but once the paint was layered up the finishes were good and even. The Miniatures
I really like the level of detail on these miniatures - as I mentioned in my unboxing, a middle ground of enough detail to get to grips with, but enough to do a little something different is perfect for me. These have nice, detailed faces, but also left me room for a little freehand. In the incredibly detailed miniatures (think GW) there's little space to add stripes, polka dots and other things I was able to with these miniatures.
Another thing which stood out to me about these sculpts was an eye for detail. I love that one of the Skrier (the Squid-like pirates) is carrying what appears to be a Narwhal tusk. I liked, also, that there was a diversity sculpted in to these minis which you don't see from many companies. Any miniature can, of course, be painted with any skin tone, but elements like hair style suggest that these were not simply Caucasian sculpts you could paint differently if you were feeling daring. Much as that should be the norm, I think that Dead Earth Games she be praised for that in a market which tends not to. Finally, I want to talk a little about the size of the miniatures. I mentioned in my unboxing that these are 35mm miniatures, and that the standard scale is 28mm or 32mm. As I mentioned then, I think that these could easily fit alongside miniature from companies producing in that scale, but I wanted to offer a size comparison to help you make that decision yourself. This is a picture of the miniatures standing alongside the miniature from Reaper Miniatures commonly called 'Sir Forscale'. Where can I find these miniatures?
If you're interested in picking any of these miniatures up for your own collection, head over to deadearth.co.uk. The human and undead crews are currently available on the website, costing £25 per crew, which gets you 5 miniatures. From my experience with these minis I would say that is a very fair deal.
The skrier (squid-like pirates) and orc crews will be available very soon as part of a kickstarter which launches on July 28th 2020. If you head over to https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/chappellm/pirates-of-the-dread-sea-orc-goblin-and-skrier-pirates you can sign up for a notification when the project launches. I'm not sure what the prices are going to be just yet, but I imagine you'll be able to find a bargain or two. I hope that this review has been helpful. If you have any questions or comments feel free to ask them below. Goblin Squire :)
Hi everyone :)
I've had a few questions recently about preparing miniatures for painting, and I thought that over some of my coming blog posts I would look at some of the different elements which are required in the preparation process. With that in mind I decided to break out this video I made a couple of years ago. In the video I look at the different tools I use to remove mould lines, as well as how techniques differ with the different materials miniatures are made from. If you like this video, or my content more generally, I'd suggest subscribing to my YouTube channel because I'm planning to release more videos moving forward.
For ease, if you're interested in any of the tools shown in my video you can follow these amazon links. I can't guarantee anything with them, but they've worked well for me :)
Image Copyright Dead Earth Games. Hi everyone :) I'm excited today to be talking about another small, UK-based miniature company, and some new miniatures. The company is Dead Earth Games, and the miniatures are from a game they make called 'Pirates of the Dread Sea'. Before I go any further, though, I want to say that I was sent these minis free so that I could have a look at them, paint them up and talk about them. There are no limitations on what I can and can't say, though, so these are my honest thoughts. All the unpainted photos in this post were taken immediately after taking the minis out of the box, so I haven't done any clean up on them. No flashing has been removed, and no mould lines have been filed. You'll see as we go through the photos that minimal work is required on the miniatures before they're ready to be painted. I was very impressed with the quality of the casts. The human crew consists of 5 pirates, and costs £25 - here. Another crew I got to have a look at is the Undead crew, which is also 5 pirate for £25 - here. I mentioned in a recent blog post about miniatures having a 'happy medium' level of detail, and that's how I feel about these minis. To put that in other terms, if a miniature has too little detail you have to work incredibly hard to make it look interesting and dynamic; too much detail and you don't have the space to put your own mark on the miniatures - everything is an edge! These minis are in that middle spot where the detail is clear and strong but not overwhelming. This is Keysys, Elf Pirate, available for £4.50 - here. Another area I was impressed, was in gluing these together. Metal miniatures can be a nightmare to build, with hands covered in super glue and long minutes spent holding fiddly pieces together. Most of these minis actually came in one piece, but where glue was required the fit was accurate and snug, significantly reducing build time. Excitingly, I wasn't only given the opportunity to look at miniatures which are currently available. I also got the chance to look at some of the miniatures which will be included in an upcoming kickstarter! These Skrier pirates are some I'm really looking forward to painting and seeing in the kickstarter. It's a little hard to make out the detail in the out-of-the-box photo, so I've included an assembled and primed photo. Also joining in the upcoming kickstarter are the Orc crew, and as an old-school Orc wargamer myself I think that they're a welcome addition to any fantasy game! ConclusionAs I mentioned at the start, all of these miniatures are part of the game 'Pirates of the Dread Sea'. I can't give any comment as to the game itself because I haven't played it, but I'll summarise my thoughts on the miniatures (if you're interested in the game, it's a pirate-themed, skirmish, campaign game and you can pick up the rulebook for £25 here). I was impressed by the sculpts and the moulding of these miniatures, they were very easy to build, and were ready to paint very quickly. When I'm painting my mind tends towards the TTRPGs I play, and I think that these would make really good miniatures for pirates in your D&D, pathfinder or other game. One thing to note is that these are 35mm scale, so they are slightly larger than the majority of miniatures out there (the standard is around 28/32mm). That means that these feel slightly larger than your average mini, but only to the extent that they feel like tall humans, elves etc. and not as though they are completely different. This doesn't matter, of course, if you are playing with other Pirates of the Dead Sea but is something to note if using other miniatures. Despite the very slight scale difference, the quality of the minis means that I wouldn't have any concerns about using them in other games. Having got this far with only unpainted minis, here's a little preview of my first paint of these: If you're interested in adding some pirates to your collection check out the range here. If you want to see what is in store with the kickstarter and other projects, check out @DeadEarthGames on Twitter. Don't forget, as well, to keep an eye on my twitter this week as I paint up these minis :)
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