For me, my longest serious hobby relationship has been going on since I was 13 in 1995 and its beloved name is Tabletop Games. It all started when I saw a White Dwarf Magazine filled with beautifully painted miniatures by Games Workshop in a bookstore called Kinokuniya in Finland.
I was so into the hobby that I even purchased the official painting guide by Games Workshop at the time and like most people who wanted to paint up a literal army of miniatures, I started batch painting, which is basically the Ford method of car assembly but applied to painting. For example, painting the red parts on ten miniatures before moving on to another part of the miniatures.
Batch painting is usually no issue at first as learning new techniques and seeing your painting improve is exhilarating in itself but at some point, your skill will plateau and that feeling will become more and more of a rarity. Then batch painting will suddenly feel more like a curse of boredom whose results are compromised paint jobs and long hiatuses from the hobby.
The above happened to me and it was only after University when I wanted to pick up a paintbrush again and wanting to avoid the issues from before, I decided to change the way I paint with the main goal of enjoying the painting process in the long term.
What are these ways you may ask? Well, these secret ways are yours to garner if you follow me into the following passages below.
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1. Paint one Miniature at a time
This and the second point are probably the most important changes that have improved my painting experience. This is because the biggest killer of any task is procrastination and procrastination has no better comrade than a task that is daunting. And to any miniature painter this, of course, includes looking at a whole host of unpainted miniatures that needs to be painted.
The sight of all that unpainted plastic results in a fight or flight response and the rationale that if one is not able to finish the whole project, why bother to start at all. Thus by breaking the project into smaller projects or in my case single miniatures then suddenly one is not hindered by the mental barrier that is procrastination and can get to the important task of putting paint on plastic.
The painting of a single miniature also has other benefits such as being able to paint at one's own pace unhindered by the sight of other miniatures that are on the painting assembly line. This, of course, will result in not only a more enjoyable painting experience but a higher level of paint job which in my experience. The less stressful method also results in a higher level of experimentation of painting techniques/colours as your experiment only applies to one miniature rather than ten. This experimentation being key to improving and becoming a better painter.
2. Paint one colour daily
I apply this method on top of painting one miniature at a time but this method can also be applied to batch painting methods too if painting one miniature at a time is too slow for any individual.
This method is more for someone with sporadic amounts of free time rather a set schedule as it breaks downs the painting time in some cases to twenty minutes or less in some cases.
As you improve your painting skill, painting any colour on anything becomes a process of creating gradients of highlights and shades of that colour, the complexity of which is up to the painter to choose. The many steps per colour of course then results in a larger time investment and in the process might lead to quick excuses that can derail a regular painting schedule. Thus by painting one colour a day, that long task is now reduced to a manageable step that can even be achieved after a long day's work and not just during the weekend.
3. Paint consistently and take breaks
It is when one achieves the enjoyment of painting that this part becomes relevant as just like exercise, the goal is to keep it that way and not fall back into bad habits that will hurt you in the long run. This is especially true when you finish painting one miniature to a high satisfaction level and suddenly feel like you can do the same for a group of twenty because painting is fun again! And just like lifting weights, this will just result in pain and a return to the original procrastination issue.
That is not to say that you should not endeavour to increase the amount if you so wish but my advice is to do so gradually rather than by leaps and bounds. So if things don't turn out as expected, it is an easy return to the fun process.
In fact, for me I tend to take breaks between miniatures that makes me want to paint even more and thus even though I take breaks, I am consistently painting, keeping my skills honed and most importantly enjoying it.
In conclusion, I guess in a nutshell my advice is to just chill and remember that you are engaging in a hobby and to enjoy the process. Life is filled with enough things that feel like a chore so your hobby should not be one of them. So raise your brushes and let's hope each stroke is followed by a splash of pleasure.
E: [email protected]
Zhou Huibin is a smith of words who majored in Philosophy & History from the University of Western Australia and whose life has followed the flow of his hobbies. He seeks continual contentment in his ponders, reading, writing, painting and board games which fills almost all of his time.
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Do you like Anime, eye-catching Board Games, detailed pre-painted Chibi Miniatures and a easy ruleset that will see you and your friends up and playing in no time?
Well if you do, then Brajkishore blind has two offerings that will pique your interest to rush down and enter the world of Kromaster.
The world of Krosmaster is a fantasy world filled with magic, powerful but CUTE AS PIKACHU IN A HELLO KITTY ONESIE characters, creatures and demons fighting to assert that they are the very best, like no one ever was. And in today's article, not just in the art of combat but sports too!
First of these offerings is the 2-4 player Krosmaster Arena 2.0, which is the updated and new version of Krosmaster Arena released in 2012 and although the game has been updated, all the characters in the earlier edition are compatible with the 2.0 version and vice versa.
That being said if you have not played Krosmaster, the 2.0 version has an excellent tutorial system that will teach you the game step by step and on top of which help you to learn to play each character in 7 easy tutorials. Even then, the game is actually very simple. In summary, each of your characters have a certain amount of action points you can spend to move, attack and do other misc actions such as claiming rewards, etc.
The action point system gives the game a depth of strategy and tactics yet there is also tension from the combat and some magical abilities that uses the wonderful custom dice provided in the game which shows hits, defence, lock and dodge symbols.
Lastly, no game will be the same, especially if you have more characters which you can get from the second game we will be talking about below or the older Krosmaster sets and expansions. This is because you can draft or point buy your team of characters to mix and match abilities that will help you to gain victory in a myriad of dice rolling, action planning fun, all in your own style!
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Next up is the 2 player Boufbowl, which is the rugby/soccer like sport in the world of Krosmaster. Unlike Krosmater this game is a race to score 2 goals before the other player.
Like Krosmaster Arena 2.0, all the characters in Boufbowl have cards that makes them compatible with Krosmaster and vice versa. The game is also simple to play and easy to learn with a quick play beginner mode which after you can upgrade your play experience to with the "Expert Mode".
Play wise, Boufbowl plays even more simply than Krosmaster 2.0. You have 3 actions per team, which can be used to move, pass, tackle and other abilities, that can be enhanced by spending action cards that match the action your activated character is doing. And yes, tackles are done via dice rolls, so again tension abounds like in a real sports match!
Once you are comfortable with the game, you can then proceed to the expert mode that introduces coaches and the crowd watching the game!
The coaches provides each team with a character that can help the team to play better. This is done by discarding cards to the coach board but unlike the above can be any card from your hand.
The other addition are the crowds which are cards you can buy that again supplement or improve your abilities but might be cheaper if you choose a player of a certain type such as runners.
So that is a summary of the Krosmaster world games coming to our shores. If you have any interest in the above games or any other item from our catalogue, do feel free to contact us at brajkishoreblind.com!
E: [email protected]
Zhou Huibin is a smith of words who majored in Philosophy & History from the University of Western Australia and whose life has followed the flow of his hobbies. He seeks continual contentment in his ponders, reading, writing, painting and board games which fills almost all of his time.
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At the GAMA Trade Show, Cool Mini or Not (CMON) and Dark Sword Miniatures have teamed up to produce A Song of Ice & Fire: A Tabletop Miniatures Game which will be coming to Kickstarter in quarter 3 of 2017 and in retail stores possibly in early 2018.
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Now an important note about the game is that it is based on the books and not the series of A Game of Thrones and that the initial Kickstarter release is for the starter set of House Stark Vs. House Lannister. That being said after the Kickstarter the game will not be lacking for content as there will be new releases for the game every month after the Kickstarter. These though will be sold at Game stores as CMON correctly understands that a miniatures game lives and dies with continual play in stores.
The game is basically one of individual miniatures forming units that are put into unit trays that move and fight together, many units forming an army. Units are bolstered by heroes in units who provide their bonuses to that unit.
All the miniatures are going to come unpainted and be made of a quality plastic and thus long spears and swords will not be bent like miniatures from many other games in the boardgaming world.
If you want more details or want to see the slides to the Presentation. Do click on this link to see Rodney Smith from the Watch It Played Youtube channel talk about it and click on this link for a video from Board Game Geek who interviewed CMON themselves about the game.
In conclusion, if you are worried this will be a money sink...you are right. Thus my tip is for those like me with limited funds to indulge with focused purchases. For me it will be with my favourite character Tywin Lannister, which I intend to paint and use in other games as a proxy. May your wallets survive the Winter...that is coming.