DrEvilmonki

Pretty much agree with all that (except being here from the beginning). I have had a couple of PM's out of the blue from Nathan at times when they REALLY meant a lot and I think his influence in the making and running of this site really shows. @wren - I like your styl but some of the figures aren't models I find interesting. But some of your work really stand out for me (like your skeleton with back to front canon) @Hinton - Your improvement over the year has been excellent.

Yeah, all are bloody nice. The fairy is my favourite, but as much to do with the sculpt as it being a superior paint job to the other two.

Good luck with your fund raising. I wish you well well with your sons progress. On a bright note I was deaf for the first two years of my life and hadn't spoken a word. After having gromits put into both ears I said 7 words in my first week of hearing and in my mothers words "haven't shut up since!"

Very cool. Not a fan of the skin colour though.

Use them a lot now and have found no problems with them. I'm with green stuff, I like the colour range but I have also used them for base coats as I like darker colours.

I'm sorry I am all for making stuff so lazy bastards can buy it but that is ridiculous.

Actually a really interesting point. Could be done at shop level first. They are putting self print book booths into book shops now so you can order from an entire library and it prints it there and then.

Paint job isn't doing them any favours I think.

Ah I thought the same as you Jim. And man that is an old coin as well.

Squeeze of lemon for me please.

I HATE seahorses! Well as pets anyway. Yes they look a bit different from your normal sea critter but jeeezzz they just attach themselves onto something and then DO NOTHONG. You basically need to check them to see if they are alive. With sea horses just make sure they are captive bred rather than wild caught. It is very rare to get a wild caught sea horse that will feed properly. I would also go for the tropical variety unless you want to fork out for a chiller unit.

Unfortunately it was likely to have been a couple of days and while I know 11 weeks was an unusual length of type to cycle and the next would have been quicker by that point I just couldn't be arsed.

Honestly though saltwater doesn't have to be that anal. The issue with marine fish is that they are highly susceptible to ammonia and nitrite so you absolutely must control the filter. but I have seen successful mini set ups in 60 litre tanks with no fancy equipment at all. You just can't have much more than a couple of fish and have to choose your corals so you only get ones that don't need high intensity lighting.

Ironically enough until recently most silk plants looked naff UNTIL they were in water so in general they weren't as popular as plastic and so are harder to find. SHops who would put them into setups so people could see what they looked like wet would usually sell loads of them.

The problem with live plants for most people is they want the Amano look but have no idea how stupidly expensive it is to achieve. Sure you can get a nice looking aquarium with basic stuff as long as you have a descent light and fertilize regularly but to get an absolute shit load of plants to grow densely together in a small area you need a shit load of lights, a crap load of ferilizer a dollop of CO2 and preferably some heater cables under you gravel. My last tank had 8 light tubes over it - all specialized plant tubes, had a constant supply of CO2 being injected by my computer controlled probey-injecty system and I fertilized daily. My next tank is going to be 22 litres if one light (a good one I have to say) and if the plants want some more CO2 they can bloody well evolve legs and get it themselves!

Takashi Amano was my inspiration into fish keeping and when I do have tanks they are more about the plants than the fish. My last tank was a 4' amazonian tank with CO2 injection and everything. Never really have issues with things going wrong (mainly because I am a miserable bastard when it comes to feeding) but pruning my plants some of which were growing an inch a day at optimal conditions just got to much. I did try to convert to salt water but after 11 weeks to cycle the system my then 2 year old son turned the filter off and I would have had to cycle it again - no f-ing way! @Ritual. If anyone wants artificial plants you really MUST have silk plants. The modern ones are really hard to tell from real plants plus they have the added bonus of being soft so fish will actually interact with them. Plus if you keep your tank dosed up with algae cure ALL the time they will look pristine all the time. Some Amano tanks (not sure if they are all his or if some are inspired by)

Fortunately I wasn't dealing with the public as such. I was a sales rep and sold stuff to pet shops. It is just amazing how many people who run pet shops who actually know nothing about what they sell.

I am joining the family firm. My parents own a recruitment company and have been deciding whether to sell it to fund their retirement or grow it to fund their retirement. Going with the growth model I am going to train up and hire 3-5 people to manage while they swan about Australia living off my labour!

Finished my job today! Been with the company 7 and a half years and in the pet industry for 11 and a half all up. I found the company I worked for really frustrating simply because they never lived up to their potential with management that refused to acknowledge problems and who were to timid to take risks. Oh not my worry anymore. I am going to set up a fish tank at home (just a small one) now that I am not going to spend all my days fixing other peoples problems! 4 days off and new job on Monday.

Heroes (second series) started in New Zealand last week and episode 2 was tonight. I think it is ok and will be watching to see how things pan out. Hiro is pretty good to watch but I do also enjoy Peters story arc as well. I rather imagine the other heroes would end up with performance issues if they hang out with Peter to much "oh so ALL you can do is fly, man you should see all the cool shit I can do!"

I guess I better get my lighting set up..... um well setup I guess. Any pointers I can get from yourself could only be a good thing.

Not to worry I got it sorted. Photobucket changed the order of file types on me so I was picking the wrong tag. Pictures should be there now.

ok so obviously got pretty side tracked by life this year and this guy sat on my shelf untouched. SO this will be the start of my 2008 campaign. I am going to alternate between this guy and my children in need project. Since I started up again I tweaked the face a bit brighter to hopefully draw it into focus a bit more. I have done the pants trying to get a worn leather feel. Just got to finish his backpack. Sorry picture quality ain't the best (no light set up at the moment.

Doing this guy as part of the Children in Need project over at tim's site. http://worldofminis.proboards101.com/index.cgi?board=childreninneed Started him an AGE ago but haven't seriously painted in months due to a bit of funk in real life. Starting a new job in a weeks time and suddenly have a bit more enthusiasm. Painted the red on his body, right arm and knees. I have done a final highlight and painted his right arm (skin areas) and feet - will take more pics soon. Ok really strange - I have loaded the pics and the text line appears in my "edit post" section but no pictures are loading for me on the main screen. Is it the same for everyone else or can you see the pictures?

Well I have started painting again. I have a couple of little projects to finish then I will paint up something and see if it is up to scratch.