Sunday Painting

 Spent a little time painting today, and brought out some old minis to see if there has been much of an improvement. In some cases, yes, others no. I tend to rush too much sometimes and then the paint goes in places it should not get to. I've bought a couple of the learn to paint series from Reaper, and if I actually pay attention and follow the directions, I do well enough. I just have to learn to not be impatient. 

I also noticed that yes, minis are getting bigger. There are several blog posts out there indicating that, but if I take out my old 80's D&D minis, it looks like I now have a bunch of halfling warriors and things. And the centaurs will not really scale well with the new ones I am getting. The one in the middle is from an 80's set, the one on the left a Reaper Dwarf and the one on the right a mini from Heroic Townsfolk from Ryan Borgeson (and I followed the next as well as he produces some interesting characters you are not likely to find in other places. And Kickstarter). So the warrior in the middle is either a child playing dress up or a halfling now :)  

Fortunately I don't really care too much about the scale. And until we get back to a table, probably next year, these only see my desk top. 

I do see I have a lot of minis that, once painted, I do need to figure out how to store and get access to later. I did, as recommended by a good friend and excellent painter, get a bunch of tubs. So for those are for the scenery: I have a bin for the connectors, one for SF walls and SF floors and one for the large set pieces I seem to be accumulating (and must stop until I see if I actually use the things!). I also use fish lure boxes for the minis, and while I've got one for my Traveller ships and most of the 15mm minis from way, way back, the fantasy stuff is a mixed bag. Going to have to get a label maker, and start sorting them by groups so I can find things. 

Sort of reminds me of what I keep telling myself but apparently do not pay attention to: too much of a good thing often means you actually use it less. My wife & I spoiled our child (who fortunately knows he was spoiled) with so many toys that he never wanted to play with them. Growing up, while my siblings and I had a fair number of toys, it was not the sheer quantity my son had. We played with what we had with a lot more imagination. Not to be too self analysing here, but I often fear I am doing the same thing now. Surrounding myself with too many of these means I may not want to use my own imagination and just let a mini be what I need it to be: I need to have the exact right mini. And that leads to a slippery slope. And as for painting, I just don't know where to start as there is a sheer overload of plastic and metal already here, not to mention that in the next 8 months there will be a veritable mountain between the next Heroic Townsfolk set, the 200+ characters in the Fantasy Set 1, and the few hundred in my massive overbuy of Reaper minis in their last Kickstarter (and I was not the worst as I did not get one of everything but I do go back & check out the pledge manager, thinking maybe one more thing. Then I slap myself and shut down the browser).