So....... what'd I miss? :p

[Amazon warrior]

Hello (again)! It's been far too long. My bad. I don't think I've been on here (or painted anything) for about 4 years, but I see there's still a few familiar faces about! I got rather caught up with life, moving, travelling, and being ill, but yesterday I finally got a chance to rootle through my boxes (and boxes and boxes...) of unpainted minis that have been languishing unloved. Turns out I have some neat stuff! XD Hopefully, with my new craft room getting set up (just need a desk/table now), I might get some paint on something at last. Would love a quick update on any exciting stuff that's happened in the minis world while I've been away.

(Ermmm, expect some posts from me in the mini ident thread - I had a shockingly bad habit of unpacking things, part-assembling them and then completely forgetting what they are and whether they had any other bitz.... :|)

 

[DaN]

Don't ask me - I'm in exactly the same boat as you

 

[Dragonsreach]

Oh My God! Look Who's Back!
Where you been Good Girl?
And more important, seen you been ill, You ok now?


BTW this old man is still hanging around, being a flirt.

 

[Amazon warrior]

*hugs DaN and DR*

Hey guys, great to "see" you again! Hope you're both well, I see you're still causing trouble DR!

I quit my job at the start of 2012 to work as a freelance editor, moved back from Germany to Wales, and went travelling through Europe/Russia/SE Asia for 10 months (which was brilliant fun, so glad I did it). Shortly after I got back I kind of collapsed in a heap, so I went to the doc to have blood tests, which showed a haemoglobin level of 5.5 (normal is about 3 times that). Turned out I have pernicious anaemia and I'd written off my early symptoms as being because of the travel - oooops! If I hadn't decided to randomly fly home for my sister's 30th, I honestly don't know if I'd still be here. Fortunately, although it's something I'm stuck with forever, it is pretty easy to manage with injections every two months. But it took me all of last year to come back to something approaching normal again, which was maddening. :/ I'm honestly curious to see just how bad my mini-painting skills are now, since the PA at its worst was bad enough to start causing neurological symptoms. Again, I'm tons better now, but it bothered me a lot at the time - too many of my interests require fine dexterity! Plus I figure after all this time I'd be pretty rusty anyway! So I have my eye on some chunky Reaper and 'Partha sculpts to practice on. (And it's not like I don't have enough stuff primed and ready to go...)

 

[KruleBear]

Welcome back. Obviously a lotof new people (like me ) have joined up since you have bern gone. The forumn has been kind of slow the past year, but has picked up quite a bit in the last couple months.

I suspect the biggest impacts to the hobby have to do with mini/gaming Kickstarters. More new people to the hobby, but also pulling people to niche forums representing their supported Kickstarter.

Anyways, nice to meet you and it is good to see the female representation increasing on the site again.

 

[wargamer43210]

Welcome back! Just returned a week or so ago after a couple of bad years myself. Hope your brush control hasn't suffered from neglect as bad as mine has! :cute:

 

[Bailey03]

Welcome back and nice to meet you!

What's new? Well, lots of new companies, new lines of paints, and new questionable decisions from GW. When you get a chance take a look through the manufacturers in the CMON shop. I imagine you'll see some new names and some cool new figures. A lot of people have been talking about the Scale75 paint range lately. It's good stuff, but I think their metallic paints are especially excellent! I just got them and they are so much fun to work with. And GW continues to increase their prices while releasing dumber looking sculpts (though occasionally they'll make a neat one). You also missed their short lived experiment with a range called finecast (aka failcast or finecrap). Oh! And we continue to hear rumors that CMON will be resurrecting Rackham's Confrontation line of figures... but it doesn't look like that will be happening anytime soon.

You might enjoy browsing through the various WIP threads. It's a good way to see some of the new people active on the forum and what sorts of things we're up to!

I'll second Krulebear's comment about Kickstarters. I think they've really helped a lot of up and coming companies get out some very cool figures. That being said, lots of them hit delays so don't expect to get those minis anytime soon. My advice is either 'definitely check them out' or 'stay away at all costs!', I'm not sure which. No, seriously, I think they're doing some very good things for the hobby by bringing in new people and helping launch lots of figure ranges that otherwise may never of happened. But kickstarter backing can also become a bad habit as we get sucked into the excitement around a new project only to lose interest and forget about it as we wait 6 months or longer for delivery.

 

[Ritual]

Oh, there's a new place for posting miniature art online without a lot of the voting drama that constantly goes on here. It's also invite-only at the moment, so the place isn't drowned in submissions. Quality over quantity!

http://www.puttyandpaint.com

 

[Amazon warrior]

Thanks, all! :beerwave: Welp, after making a (re)entry to the wonderful world of mini painting, I've spent the last three weeks knee-deep in work, new-born babies (my sister's) and household emergencies! So I haven't had a chance to apply paint to anything - YET! Things have settled down a bit now, though, so I have high hopes of something to show soon. (Even if it's just submitting pix of things I painted back in the day and apparently finished, but didn't post for unknown reasons.)

Re GW: Yeah, even on hiatus I heard about the "joys" of Finecast! Thankfully(?), GW were never a big feature of my interest in minis (I blame Rackham and role-playing games for that), so I can look on from the sidelines with an amused expression! I much prefer niche skirmish games with superbly sculpted minis created by companies with lots of heart and talent but limited business sense that promptly go down the tubes shortly after people have got really excited about their product... :eyeroll:

Re new stuff: I'm afraid to go looking for more figures to paint, I have so many already! (Not that that stopped me from scooping up a Titan Dragon from ebay recently, I have wanted one since they were released... :doh! I'm intrigued by the possibility of more R goodness in the future, though I already have silly quantities of Wolfen, Cynwall and Daikinee (plus assorted other Rackham odds 'n' sods) to be getting on with.

Re Kickstarters: Well, if it helps keep the hobby alive! I tend to be cautious with kickstarters, myself, though I have thrown a bit of cash towards two mini-related kickstarters. One is undergoing those well-known delays that KSs are prone to, the other was the Heresy one, so I have multiple digits crossed that Andy'll sort himself out and start throwing out dragons (one of which I'm in the queue for) and resin Netherlords with satisfying briskness.

Re puttyandpaint: Meep. I think I'd just embarrass myself if I tried to post there at the moment! From what I remember, there was always huffing about scores here, but I was never so amazing/awful that it bothered me that much. Middle o' the road, that's me.