v22TTC

Get that thing off my paintjob!:angryfire

Cheers Malebolgia - I was having problems with an entry for a competition (coz the mini I need hasn't been generally released yet) and couldn't find a British Bobby mini for my back-up idea: you might have saved me there Dude - my hero!

Sweet stuff, cheers.

Like the scientist and rat swarms are always handy.

Limited Edition and crap - waste of time....

Can see these guys becoming one of my favourite lines - love the poses on these, but the funny hand things might need a little modification for me.

Congratulations winners, and cheers to WAMP, Wyrd and Rob. I'll be over there in a minute to see who did what, and whether my entry's rating finally made it into minus numbers....

I love that kind of thing - cheers for sharing them!

Every year you improve - really looking forward to seeing what you produce this year!

So are the Victorias twins now, rather than a single person separated by time? EDIT: Typed while FF submitted his post....

Hehe, well that kind of stuff is actually what I do best (with a dip-pen, all scratchy and nasty, Gerald Scarfe style) - was always being told off in art college for my stuff being too dark and Fantasy/SF/Horror: they wanted my work to be 'industry-friendly' [Puke!]. Main reason I left.... I totally know what you mean about having loads of creative projects on the go at the same time (big reason why I never finish things) but I'm trying to focus a bit more these days - the offer is long-term open: pm me if you want to take this project to the next stage (I'm pretty good at most of this stuff, which I seem to pay for by being terrible with anything digital)....

And in addition to the practical advice, bear in mind that the mind is a tremendously powerful thing and mind and body are very much interlinked - worrying too much about your health deteriorating can easily become self-fulfulling....

I'd look for rulesets you've read that you thought were particularly well written and use them as rough templates in terms of layout (write down what you liked about them). I'd break down what you've got into bits - like headings - and lable them on a separate bit of paper to keep you focused and provide structure. Since words are always ambiguous, examples and diagrams are your friend (the Infinity rules are a good example of this - they'd make practically no sense at all if it weren't for the game-play examples and diagrams). Examples and explanations of why a rule is what it is are best graphically separated from the main rule (different font/typeface, colour etc) so that when people are checking the specific wording of a rule in the middle of a game they can go to the specific paragraph easily to keep the tempo of the game up. If you've been taught how to write essays, building on this won't steer you too far wrong - especially if you keep in mind the mindset of who'll be reading it (a gamer) and tailor it to that mindset. As a gamer yourself, just keep trying to empathise with the reader, reading this for the first time, as you write (and especially as you edit). Expect to have to edit this comprehensively at least five times before you even start to be happy with it and that you'll have to constantly revise it as feedback comes in from others - it's a lot of work and you probably won't get a quick result. My offer to help still applies, especially if you don't mind waiting a month or two (this country's bureaucracy might have got bored of stomping on me by then and I've got a couple of deadlines - and really need to learn how to use my camera - coming soon). [i'm pretty nifty at the ol' 2D art/illustration too (as in paper and paints etc, not CG stuff!) if you want any of that - depends how seriously and far you want to take this.] Best of luck!

The 'need for batteries' might just be a digital stopwatch/timer, the sliding doors and whatnot manually operated. From my experience, most of GW's target audience can't even figure out that if there's a piece of flash stopping two pieces going together, they need to clip it off - can't see them managing wiring. Hope it's designed to only accept GW-exclusive batteries (with natty Imperial Eagles on them) going for £10 a pair (and you'll need eight). EDIT: Done right, this could be extremely intro-table friendly - when I was there, the big, crappy plastic Two Towers intro terrain piece got more attention from random folks than just about anything else in there (apart from the minis in the cabinet that I'd painted, of course...). Maybe them bozos are capable of learning - given 6-7 years in which to figure something obvious out....

I love the frigate - when I commented about how fast she looks Zandris said she was just the thing to chase down them pesky space pirates. Sold!

We'll see - having worked for them, that really isn't how I would describe they do things! Really hope they do this though - I'll certainly be slinking into the shop when no one's looking to get one if they do ... might even pay for it....

Isn't Woody is it? Dude's bigger than Dublin!

Wouldn't that withering look that women do so well coupled with "Clockwork Fairies." do the job? Or "If you need to ask, you'll never understand...."? I'm super happy here because I was peeved at the Gothic Lolita Steampunk Fairy being Con-only (and the other steampunk fairy's crap) but these are way better so now I love ol' Werner all over again! EDIT: Can see me getting loads of these - bet they'll be really handy as additions to dioramas, pretty much whatever genre you're going for ... so strange ... so versatile!

Cool! To me! Ta!

Couple of my Anima RPG characters go in that direction - swap Cordelia's gun for a rapier and main gauche. Lots of dancing, flirting and intrigue and ball gowns that don't interfere with their super-fast acrobatic fighting.... Couple of my Cadwallon characters too, now that I think of it....

I don't know how these things work but will those minis (some of which are ace!) be available to buy in the store at some point, for those who can't get to Salute? Really, really hope so....

Yeah, me too!

Mixed bag as always and as to be expected - nothing begs me to buy it but overall one of the better months. Love that little statue in the Sophie pic ... about the only thing I would really want in fact, but no....

I don't want to sound like a vulgar barbarian [always a risk when talking with French people;)] but I think you can get the texture of the Cheshire sculpt to work for you - thin washes, carefully applied, tidied as you go and built up over time will get into the recesses of those feathers. Then reblend or rejuice the raised parts of the feathers to restore that harmony and subtlety. For the weapon, metal tends not to have lots of nice, blended areas - it has some (varies but not usually more than about a third of the total surface area) and the rest is discrete blocks/lines etc of colour. There's pressure on painters to have everything all smooth and blended but I think reality's a better guide and most NMM (except SENMM) benefits from some boldness and refusal to blend. Depends how realistic you want it to look but I'd try painting with a few colours, applied without any blending at first: black; dark grey; mid-grey; light grey; almost white (almost to minimise chalkiness). Best to be consistent in whether the greys are warm or cold. When you've got a light/dark distribution that looks good to you (maybe compared to a real world reference beside you), then blend the few areas that would look blended in reality. Selective glazes/juices then pull everything together just enough, then paint the hotspots in white and glaze them as you see fit (not all metals have straight black at one end and straight white at the other so juices provide just enough tint to those extremes to look more realistic). For different metals, insert different colours, but the above is a general principle that works (for me anyway...). Ummm, I love the French, in case I haven't mentioned that recently....

Rants are a thing of beauty! Yeah, you can plainly see that the sculpt's deficient in many ways but I didn't know who did it or what the person's relationship with you might be so kept my mouth shut. I've seen enough of your work to know that you can paint skin.