Marcus' random musings, hobby edition

I now realize why certain manufacturers you just don't see on gaming store shelves, and it is maddening.

I unfortunately cannot be less vague, even though I want to.

 

And why is that, pray?

 

Because of continual, multifaceted fuck ups and small errors.

Honestly if they had some proper fucking SOPs (as it seems its mostly fly-by-night) they might actually get some work done and not scare of retailers.

 

I could probably help with that, not that most of them would want to hire me.

Padre

 

You're telling me.

 

The empire of dust skeletons are a dichotomy in kit design.

Simultaneously useful, for flat-join arms that can be used to convert various historicals.

And the untamed bollocks of mantic paying to mould two sprues, where the difference is 1-2 heads

They could have made an entire command section and other extra bits, but instead they duplicated the sprue other than heads.

 

And having the extra, unnecessary horse armor take up a third of the real estate on the cavalry rider sprue

 

Initial thoughts on the oathmark skeletons:

Holy shit these are small. Other than the gigantic puddle base they remind me of 2nd Ed Warhammer plastics.

Initial thoughts on the oathmark revenants:

With the right head, weapon and shield combinations these bodies can make an excellent generic fantasy Army or Cimmerians

 

I like the look of both Oathmark's Skeletons and Revenants for their Bronze Age and Celtic aesthetics. The Skeletons make great Cauldron-Born from The Black Cauldron, and I agree that the Revenants could easily be used to make living human Northern European Bronze Age warriors as well as undead. So many possibilities for those...

 

So I've become annoyed recently with a situation revolving around primer. Specifically that when doing models wearing armor with my tan primer (in order to better paint cloths and light areas starting with contrast paint) I need to base coat the armor plates with a darker color.

I had initially been using Vallejo heavy opaque charcoal as my catch-all for this. However, in order to use it at the speed in which I paint I would have to heavily dilute it. That would unfortunately also cause a flow pattern that I do not like working with.

I'm wondering if going to the store and buying some cheap black craft acrylic and mixing it with acrylic medium and keeping it in an oversized dropper bottle would just make this whole process easier?

As always, these musings are to the void but if you feel like responding I am happy to have conversation.

 

I've used cheap black acrylic paint to basecoat my models black when the weather hasn't been good enough to get out and spray them, and it worked fine for me.

 

Buying lots on eBay/elsewhere for cheap has become an art form. Deals are no longer easily found.

Also, continued issues with manufacturers that I am getting extremely close to naming and shaming.

I need more time in the day to get projects done.

 

I find it pretty easy to buy affordable second-hand stuff from brick-and-mortar stores that sell it, and would definitely recommend these over the pirates' den that is EBay, but then I am lucky enough to have one that isn't hugely far from where I live, and of course not everybody does.

 

Random musing of the day:

You guys, this small knit community we have on the forum, post more commentary and interaction to painting blogs than any other gaming website.

Most of the time on other forums I feel like I'm talking to the wall, as my bloga tend to be me posting updates and no one commenting or the occasional " those are cool."

 

I think it is a fantastic forum.

I also consider it to be really important to the painting side of the hobby to keep giving others encouragement. Lord knows that I need this myself when I’m doing a project.