Based and finished!

I've finally finished the mini entirely and have done its base and varnished it. One disadvantage of brush-on varnish is that it scrapes away the paint if you are not careful. I think some of that happened here but oh well, it is done for now. I hope to return to using spray on varnish soon. Here are the pics:

First chibi complete!

And with a self-imposed deadline looming, I woke up early before anyone in the house did and finished up this little fella. All that remains is to do the basing and varnishing.

Side A halberd complete!

And I have finished painting one side of the halberd. Other than the painting not being of the ultimate smooth kind, I am quite pleased with my efforts. Time to paint the other side of the halberd.

Trying my hand at NMM

Not too much to report since the going has been slow. I am still thinking about how to paint the trim of the skirt and the belt, but a large part of one side of the halberd is done:

A New Hope...

So the test casts for the latest chibi miniature I sculpted has come back and been sent out to some friends to help with painting them and giving me some feedback.

I've kept a copy for myself and am halfway thru painting it. Here is what it looks like so far:

Getting back to caring about painting

Over the past years, in the effort to 'finish' armies, I speed-painted my way thru my minis. That really was a killjoy and I actually like painting. Well, I have decided that I am in the hobby to enjoy it, not feel guilty about what I have not painted. So I have decided that I will be enjoying the process by NOT painting huge armies. I no longer have that kind of time anyway. So I will enjoy the painting process instead. And I will paint what I like and how I like it.

So on with the show. The next model is Eomer on horseback. It is a WIP and test color scheme for the moment.

Some Painting

So real life got in the way, as it often does and it has been a while since I had an entry in this blog. This will, of course, be quite a frequent occurence, and more so at this point since I am now in the midst of preparations for re-location. The unfortunate thing is that I have packed away my sculpting tools and materials and will not have the chance to sculpt until I am well and truly settled into my new place. The good thing is that I have left for myself a very few models and paints to pack in last so that I can paint a model or two in the meantime. I have not had time to take my time to enjoy painting over the years as I pushed to 'finish' my armies. I have resolved to change this and downsize my collection of miniatures drastically. I will be getting away from army-sized games and going towards  games with a low model count. I want to play with fully painted models and terrain and I don't want to wait till I retire to do it.

Yes, I really enjoy this hobby. The inner geek in me is strong.

I enjoy painting a lot but cannot claim to be a prolific painter. In fact, I am anything but. In life, one has to choose to invest his or her time into some things and hobby-wise, I chose sculpting over painting. It's just a personal thing; I get more kick out of sculpting than painting.

I am  a Tolkien fan. I read the books before they made the movies. I loved the movies despite the inconsistencies. I love miniatures, painting them and playing with them. All this have swirled together in the fullness of time and coalesced into the Games Workshop line of LoTR minis, which have now been re-named The Hobbit since we are smack in the middle of The Hobbit Trilogy.

My first model for show and tell is (of course) Gandalf the White: