The Craft of Gaming- Miniatures

One thing I find extremely satisfying about being in an ongoing campaign is the stuff to do between games.  Chris brought this back out in me, with the mere suggestion of miniatures.  He said "I'd like you to get a representation of your character, because we're going to start using minis."  That's all it took, I was off and running, with miniatures.  Back when Tom played Warhammer 40k, I helped him paint some of his armies. It was crude, at the time, we were using cheap paint and cheaper brushes, just to get them tabletop ready, but I remember deeply enjoying the process.  I'd forgotten all about that brief time, till recently.  Painting miniatures is a way to keep me thinking about my character, the game, the setting, and just game-oriented stuff, in those long spans of time between our monthly game.  I feel like I need it now more than ever, since our C:TL game has been put on seemingly indefinite hold.  If I could draw, I would be frantically drawing all manner of characters and scenarios.  Instead, I'm painting minis.  I really love it.  I think it was a gateway into this new feverish obsession with D&D.  That's for another post, though.  

The painting is appealing to me, on many levels.  I've been trying to wean myself off of playing cRPGs, and MMOs, because they're ultimately time consuming, and not very thinky.  They're lazy, and honestly, as a long time indepth role-player, they're not satisfying even on a "just for fun" level. I call MMOs the methadone to my real gaming addiction.  Painting fills those hours with creation, instead of clicking.  One mini takes 3-6 hours to paint, and it's great for my attention span.  I've also been weaning myself off of vapid internet sites.  I used to spend hours just flitting from tab to tab, without any direction, never reading anything more than a page long, and murdering my already weak little attention span.  With painting, it's such a thorough and intense attention to detail. It requires a zenlike calm, and steadiness of nerves and hands. I have to ground myself and really focus to do it right.  It's been extremely beneficial for me.

I painted for about four hours today.  I tried the other day, and I really didn't feel any mojo. I finished my armored soldier, the other day, then stared at my three WIPs, but that's as far as I got.  I had three minis in various stages of unfinishedness waiting for a bath in break cleaner.  They all had bad paint jobs, ill thought out color schemes, and one had good colors, but poorly mixed paint that went on in blotches.  I cleaned them all yesterday, so I was feeling inspired, today.  I also got my new sable brushes and wet palette in the mail today, so I was dying to try them out.

I grabbed the wizard and re-primed him, then instead of doing a basic blue or purple wizard, I went for a dramatic black and white with NMM gold trim. I couldn't be happier.  He's got a warm white cloak, black robes, and bright gold trim.  His beard and hair are reddish gold, like Irv's and I'm really looking forward to  picking him up tomorrow for finishing touches and basing.  Still trying to think of a color for the fur trim on the white cloak.  I might paint it red, and put some other tiny red accents, to tie it all together.  I should look at a color wheel.

The only two drawbacks to this mini fever are eye strain, and pocket strain.  It has the potential to be a cheap hobby.  Paint costs $3 a bottle, and a bottle can last for years. Minis cost between $4 and $6 and they're at least an afternoon of entertainment, often two days worth.  The startup cost has been a lot, though, with getting brushes, primers, sealers, basing materials, storage, etc.  It doesn't have to be, I'm just thorough.  I know I can do it just as easy with two brushes and a paper plate for a palette, I'd rather get an array of brushes and a good wet palette, which costs some money.  That's just how I embrace things, I guess.