Tim Lyson Hates Me (or the Painting Blog)

Hello, this is the first installment a new Painting blog for the League of Extraordinary Gamers. This article series will feature techniques, and musings about the dreaded aspect (for most) of war gaming or roleplaying games, painting your models.

Here is a little history about myself.  My foray into the tabletop gaming began with Dungeons and Dragons when I was 8.  Fast forward history a bit when I bought myself a subscription to Dragon Magazine when I was 17. This magazine showed that there were hundreds of other games in this world such as other roleplaying games, war games, card games, and dice games.  Also, the magazine showed me models for D&D by Ral Partha. So, one cold blustery evening around my birthday with new money in my hand (this is usually the time that I start new hobbies), I went into a hobby shop called One Stop Hobbies and bought me a box of miniatures (Dark Sun People of the Land), some paints (Polly S),a file and white primer. These models turned out OK, but I was proud of them.  They sit in a display case in my bedroom.  I have bought various sets of Ral Partha miniatures for my D&D game after that initial set.

Fast forward again to my introduction to war gaming. It was at a small game convention in Northern Jersey. My D&D game had wrapped up and a Red Shirted Outrider asked us to play a game that was not out yet called Man o’ War. And let the games begin literally. That game led to Warhammer, Epic Space Marine, 40K and so forth.  Today, I have three and half fully painted armies for Warhammer, Two for 40K, Squats and Knights for Epic, High Elves for Warmaster, Eldar fleet for BFG,  Amazons for Blood Bowl , Orlocks for Necromunda,  a Dwarf and Chaos fleet for Man o War and, oh the Horror, Cygnar for Warmachine.(woo that is a lot of models).

Learning to paint well was an arduous journey. When I first started out (yes sonny back in my day, LOL), sources for learning how were limited to a pamphlet in the Ral Partha box sets, but being detail oriented helps.  Motivation for painting well was the Painting competitions at local conventions which funded my Imperial Guard army from those winnings. Attending games days and reading White Dwarf, I got better which culminated to winning a third place Golden Daemon in 1996 with my Squat Cyclops. I have not won any other Golden Daemon since it has become vogue to spend a year, or have an art degree for just painting a single model (maybe a little bitter ).  I have won best of show at Caps Con in which the winner was judged by Boris Vallejo.

That is enough about me.  This article will be about my techniques for getting your army painted and how I have painted mine. As I have stated, I am very detail oriented that even my standard troop model needs to be an equal paint job to a leader (my curse and that’s why I am an engineer). Here is an array of models that I have Painted over years (you can see more on Flickr under the moniker Odin Fellhammer:   Flickr Link:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/odinfellhammer/

-Odin Fellhammer

Article #2
Hah, you get a bonus Article this Week. I am currently painting the Exalted Chariot of Slaanesh. Here is my tip, “don’t be afraid to Mix Paints”. They may give you another perspective. With the chariot, I mixed Liche Purple and IronBreaker and it formed a pretty cool metallic Purple/Pink.  This will be blended up to pure Ironbreaker and then given a wash of Leviathan Purple. Feel free to give me questions or comments as always: Happy Gaming!
Work in Progress @:
 http://www.flickr.com/photos/odinfellhammer/

-Odin Fellhammer