Hobby philosophy: old and new paint jobs

Here’s a little old/new paint job comparison. It’s not night and day, but I can see the benefit of experience! From left to right, the Infiltrators are July 2023, May 2020, July 2023; Chaplains are July 2020, July 2023. The biggest changes are attempting proper edge highlighting, pin washes rather than all-over washes on armor, […]

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New baseline Blood Angels color guide

I committed to learning to pin wash when I started painting BattleTech minis again, and since my first outing I’ve added it to my toolkit. That also means it’s time for an updated Blood Angels color guide, since pin washing is a big part of my Space Marine painting process now. The pin wash on

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The paint-play-paint motivation cycle (and a Chaplain color guide)

“I’ll get to play with these” has been a powerful motivator since I got rolling in 2020, and I’ve always speculated that “I played and I like/didn’t like X, I need to paint some Y for my next game” would be similarly powerful. Kill Team has produced that cycle for me, except instead of X

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Kill Team game four: Blood Angels vs. Veteran Guardsmen

Most of my wargaming has been done with folks I already knew, or if it was with folks I didn’t know it was in the context of a convention (where that’s kind of the norm). Until today, I’d somehow never actually met up to play a game with a stranger before. My local shop, Mox

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Kill Team battle report: Blood Angels vs. Tyranids

Reagan and I got together on July 7th for our second match, Tyranids (him) vs. Blood Angels (me) playing the Secure Archaeotech mission. I’m not sure I have the stamina to post a battle report for every game I play, but as long as I do and it’s fun I’m going to keep doing it.

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Mini 40k battle report: first game of 10th Edition

I’ve gone from painting and not playing to, at least for now, doing a fun amount of both. It’s great! On July 2nd, Shay and I kicked the tires on 10th Edition with an old-school combat patrol game: half-size map, 500 points a side (rather than the new bespoke Combat Patrol mode in 10th). Here’s

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Miniature painting maxims that have helped me for the past three years

I like maxims and I like self-reflection. This post combines the two: a little look at some of the maxims that have served me well over the past three years of painting, and some reflection on them — especially in light of actually getting to play. Any progress is progress Since I got properly into

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Second Kill Team match: Seize Ground, Orks vs. Marines

Hot on the heels of my first match — the first-ever Kill Team game for Lark and me — on June 23rd my friend Reagan came over for a game. He didn’t have a strong preference for a team, so suggested he play the Marines. We built our teams from my available options, and I

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Our first Kill Team game: Deathskulls Orks vs. Blood Angels

One June 21st, Lark and I played our first game of Kill Team, and it was a blast. This was also the first time I’ve ever played a minis game where I’d painted everything on the table. I got out all the valid options I had for two teams, Greenskins (two Boyz fire teams) and

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My first game of 40k since 1993: Blood Angels vs. Dark Angels

Despite a near-lifelong simmering love for the 40k universe, until this past weekend I’d only played 40k once or twice. That was back in 1993, when I pitted a box of Squats against my then-girlfriend’s Tyranids for a game or two. For a variety of reasons — some good, some irrational, let’s file them all

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