"Draughting" Pencils Compared

The Eagle Pencil Company (originally founded in New York City in the 1850s) has produced a "Draughting" pencil since at least the 1930s.  But in the 1980s and 1990s, there were a lot of pencil company mergers, and the company wound up in the hands of Sanford, which continued to produce the beloved "Draughting" pencil.  Another round of mergers, and the company wound up in the hands of Newell Rubbermaid, which did not keep the "Draughting" alive.

Prismacolor is an operating subsidiary of Newell Rubbermaid, and they might be an ideal company to continue (or revive) manufacture of the "Draughting," but they probably don't see how the "Draughting" fits in or contrasts significantly with their many other graphite art pencils, including the similarly-beloved Ebony, Design, and Turquoise pencil lines.

My father recently lamented that the "Draughting" was his favorite drawing pencil, and that it is now extinct.  Technically, the problem is that the company that made them no longer exists.

This distinction is relevant because a different company has decided to manufacture their own "Draughting."  The General Pencil Company (in Jersey City, New Jersey) is almost as old as the Eagle Pencil Company, but General is still making pencils, now including a "Draughting" pencil.  But is it a suitable replacement for the original Eagle "Draughting?"  Is it worthy of the "Draughting" name?  Fortunately, I have an Eagle "Draughting" stub, probably from the 1970s or 1980s, and I purchased some new General's "Draughting" pencils, so I can (ahem) draw comparisons.

I placed these pencils on a 1/4" grid for scale.  I needed a granule of Turbinado (brown) sugar to keep the very round pencils from rolling off my desk.  

The pencils are similar in shape, with 5/16" (7.5mm) thick round wooden barrels and 1/8" thick leads.  I used precision calipers; the Eagle has a 0.295" barrel, whereas the General's barrel is 0.298".  The General's also clearly has a darker paint job, though my photo may not properly indicate how similarly warm the color of the General's lacquer is to the Eagle.  General claims the barrel is incense cedar, and the Eagle's barrel wood appears similar.

With each pencil I have drawn a picture of a draft (draught) horse enjoying a mug of draft (draught) beer over a game of English draughts (checkers), sitting next to a shiny icosahedron and a shiny ball.  With the shiny icosahedron, I held the pencils at an angle to generate varying flat shades of gray.  With the shiny ball, I used the pencils with a blending stump to smear the graphite into the tooth of the paper.  The paper is 65-lb. Canson Universal Recycled Sketch.

I used the Eagle pencil first.  As the drawing shows, the Eagle performs very well with sketching, doodling, writing, and both pale and dark shading.

I used the General's pencil next.  The General's is simlarly capable of sketching, doodling, writing, and mild and dark shading.

The Eagle felt a little smoother and softer.  The lead felt like it glided on the paper more smoothly than the General's did.  On the right side of the icosahedron, the shading somehow looks a little darker.  I assume that the Eagle has a higher graphite content than the General's.

In contrast, the General's felt a little firmer.  Not painfully hard, not really scratchy, but a little scrubby or charcoaly, so that it grabbed the paper just a little more.  Again, going back to the icosahedron, I had to press a little harder to achieve that darkness on the right side with the General's.  The pencil might be as much as a grade harder.

Although it may be a noticeably different pencil, I consider the General's "Draughting" a capable and worthy inheritor of the "Draughting" name.

Also bear in mind that even the same brand and model of a pencil can vary from year to year, so it could be that my General's "Draughting" more closely matches a different year of the Eagle (or Sanford) "Draughting" model.  This variance in quality has been noted when comparing the Eberhard-Faber Blackwing 602 and the Palomino Blackwing 602.  As a result, duplicating a historical pencil means hitting a moving target.

I plan to update this posting with my father's reflections on the General's "Draughting" pencil, as soon as he can review the pair I send him.

What I Learned at GenCon 2015

I just got back from GenCon 2015, and it was a learning experience; like many learning experiences, a painful learning experience.  I am fairly certain that this will be my last trip to GenCon.

If you are flying, get a hotel close to the convention center

I decided to fly to GenCon this year, after the painful experience of driving for 12 hours there and back.  Seriously, the drive last year was agonizing, and no amount of caffeine was able to keep me awake and alert for the entire trip.  Unfortunately, nonstop round trip airfare from my town to Indianapolis for 2 people cost about $1000; when I drove, it only cost me a couple tanks of gas.

Renting a cheap hotel outside of town AND a car is false economy.  Better to get a hotel within walking distance of the convention center, and skip the car.  If you run the numbers beforehand, you may discover that there are hotels in town for $200 per night, and hotels outside town for $100 per night.  At 5 days, you are faced with a choice of $1000 with no car, versus $500 plus the cost of a car.  Then you check the car rental rates, and you are quoted a cost of far less than $500, and you are confident that you will save money by renting the car.

Unfortunately, that $500 auto rental quote does not include the extra taxes and fees, which may easily bring your auto rental bill to more than $1000.

And then there is parking; parking in town will cost over $20 per day, for a total of about $100, and you are not guaranteed to find a parking space.

Indianapolis is trying to help by running shuttle buses, but these shuttle buses will probably not run straight from your hotel to the convention center for a 20-minute commute; they will likely take a complicated route chaining from hotel to hotel until they finally wind up at the convention center, for a 1-hour commute.  If you have an 8:00 AM event scheduled, the shuttle bus will not get you to the convention center in time, or if they do, you will be very early, and probably unable to find someone who can sell you breakfast.  Even worse, the shuttle bus to my hotel was cancelled, so it's a good thing I didn't expect it to be there for me.

If you do decide to drive, I should warn you that the streets in Indianapolis are unpleasantly confusing, and named after states in the USA in no discernable order.  My father hypothesized that Indianapolis streets were named in the order that states joined the Union, but this does not seem to match the reality, nor would it be helpful even if it were true.

Driving in Indianapolis provides no appreciable benefit; Indianapolis has few attractions outside walking distance, and the Con will become your world for the duration.

Take an extra day or two

I flew in on Wednesday and flew out on Monday.  The extra time to pack, catch up on lost sleep, unpack, and decompress was very therapeutic.

Pack a sweater if you or your companion tend to get chilly

July and August are hardly what we would consider sweater weather, but you will spend many hours inside the air-conditioned Indiana Convention Center.  Personally, I sweltered for much of the Convention, but my wife complained that sometimes she could not feel her fingers.  I wish I had packed a sweater for her.

On the other hand, if you have the money, GenCon will happily sell you a stylish official GenCon sweatshirt for about $50.  Get it early, so you won't suffer the chill a moment longer than you need to.

Similarly, my wife regretted not bringing her dice cup, but it was a simple matter to buy her a lovely one from Q Workshop in the Exhibition Hall, and I have no regrets.

Health is your most valuable asset

I managed to avoid the Con Crud again!

My flight to Indianapolis was short, but several people coughing up phlegm made it seem longer.  I took a dose of Airborne-like supplements before my flights, and on every day of the Con, in addition to my usual vitamins.  I got a good night's rest each night.  I also packed Pepto-Bismol, Imodium, Naproxen (my favorite headache remedy), and Benadryl just in case.

There was one morning when my GI tract registered its dissatisfaction with the gooey food truck quesadilla I ate the day before, but I only needed one trip to the commode to resolve the concern.  I am very fortunate that it was just a short-term inconvenience; it easily could have ruined my trip.

I yelled myself hoarse to be heard above the din in Hall D/Hall E.  Lozenges helped a little.

Wash your hands frequently, eat balanced meals, snack healthy (I bought trail mix), get lots of sleep, and remember to stay hydrated with bottles of water.

Make a good first impression

You will meet people you don't know, and may never meet again.  On the other hand, you might meet them several times, and they might be running the next game you play.  Remember to do these things:

• Get that haircut you've been putting off.
• Men, pack a razor and use it.
• Brush your teeth.
• Deodorant/antiperspirant.
• Smile to everyone you meet!

These are kind of just reminders for myself.  Really, everyone I met at GenCon was wonderful.  I can only hope I was as friendly, charming, and clean as all the other people were.

Make extra certain you don't leave your tickets behind

Due to a miscommunication, my wife and I accidentally left her tickets behind in the hotel room on Saturday.  We were able to get through the day on generic tickets, but we were kicking ourselves because of this SNAFU.

Of course, if we had a hotel in town, this would be less of a concern.  But our hotel was a substantial commute away.

Play games you have never played before

One advantage of attending GenCon is that you can play games without buying them, often while getting coached by experts, or even coached by the person who designed the game.

I played through two sessions of Dominion.  A friend of mine already has a copy of Dominion, so I could probably just call him up and play it at home if I wanted to.  Dominion is a deck-building game.  I have never won a game of Dominion.  I don't really enjoy it.  If I never play Dominion again, I will consider myself fortunate.

Similarly, my wife wanted to play Settlers of Catan at GenCon; I enjoy the game, but this is a game we have in our own house.

On the other hand, I played numerous games which were refreshingly new to me, some of which are not yet sold in stores.  Even though I have no great desire to play many of these games again, I greatly enjoyed the opportunity to try them out.

Prepare to be flexible

Order some generic tickets, and leave openings in your schedule, just in case you discover something you really want to do.  My wife and I had a swell time playing D&D 5E.  She really wanted to play again, so we squeezed in another early morning D&D game with generic tickets.  We even got the same DM, a person who we really like.  Generic tickets cost me $2 each; I got 10 of them, expecting most would go to waste, but instead we wound up using all of them.

Notepad and Pencil

If you have hundreds of dollars to spend on a smart phone, this won't apply to you, but I don't have a smart phone.  My notepad and pencil came in handy to note my parking spot in the multilevel parking garage.  It was also good for writing down events/games/books/movies/etc. which people raved about.  I pre-filled it with flight info, car reservation numbers, hotel reservation data, etc., so I could find them easily when I needed these things.

Get your DCI number ahead of time

The wife and I played a D&D 5E game just so we could enjoy the game.  But Wizards of the Coast demands MORE; you MUST submit your DCI NUMBER!  At GenCon 2014, Wizards of the Coast gave out free cards with DCI numbers on them.  This year, they did NOT; now you need to register on the Wizards of the Coast website.

Unfortunately, this website is only occasionally operational, and for me it refuses to function at all.  For example, when I submit my email address, it informs me that my email address is already registered, therefore they cannot create a new account for me; however, when I ask the website to email my user data to me, it informs me that my email address is NOT registered, therefore they can't email any data to me.  That's some catch, that Catch-22!

Fortunately, I saved my old card from GenCon 2014, with a preset DCI number!  I only wished I had brought this to GenCon 2015, and that I did not waste any time on the nonfunctional Wizards website when I was at the Con.

Logically, you would assume that Wizards of the Coast would want people to play their games, but this bureaucratic requirement for DCI numbers, combined with an inability to distribute DCI numbers, can only drive people away.

There was a concern in the RPG industry that young people today only play online video games, and are therefore not playing tabletop roleplaying games.  As a result, the current (older) generation of gamers would therefore be the last generation to play tabletop RPGs, and the RPG hobby would therefore die out.  Wizards of the Coast is now making itself part of the problem.

Get your shoulder bag and coupon book early

I went through my coupon book ahead of time and I got all kinds of cool swag in the exhibition hall, such as a free GenCon 2015 d6 from Crystal Caste, a free dungeon geomorph d6 from Inkwell Ideas, a free toy whistle from R&R Games, and a free button from Paizo.  Fortunately, I didn't need to enter the Paizo booth, because the Paizo booth always had such an insanely long line that I didn't even bother to try to get in.

Coffee

If you keep a busy schedule, you will lose sleep over the course of the Con.  If you're sleepy, you will nod off while someone is reading lots of game rules to you.

Drink some coffee if you must, but buffer it with food.  I didn't buffer my caffeine one morning, and I was a jittery mess; I couldn't even tally up my score at the end of a game.

I highly recommend the swell beverages purveyed by Bee Coffee Roasters, near Georgia Street across the street from the Con.  As in 2014, this year they had the "Coffee To Die For" 'game' cards; you buy an expensive beverage there, they mark up your card, and after 4 marks, they give you a custom-made Bee Coffee 6-sided die (hence, "To Die For").  The coffee is good, but I really kept going there so I could get that d6, so I guess it was a Die to Coffee for.

Thursday and Friday are the quiet days

It's hard to believe when you're in the middle of GenCon, but Thursday and Friday are the quiet days of the Con.  GenCon spans 4 days of the weekend: Thursday, Friday, Saturday, and Sunday; Thursday and Friday are workdays for most people, and Sunday ends around 4:00 PM.  As a result, many Con guests decide to only attend on Saturday, and Saturday is therefore extra busy.

If there's a booth you want to visit, or an event you want to squeeze into, make sure you do it on Thursday or Friday.

Take the Exhibition Hall in many small doses

Last year, I tried to push through the Exhibition Hall in one long push, and I was rapidly jaded by the many vendors who wanted my money.

As a result of my stupor, when I saw my webcomics hero Scott Kurtz idly lounging in a booth, my central nervous system was not able to process the possibility that I could actually meet the man.  I have been kicking myself ever since.

This year, I visited the Exhibition Hall several times in short forays, and it was much more enjoyable.  In fact...

I got to meet Scott Kurtz

I was fortunate enough to spot Mr. Kurtz drawing in a booth, and this time, my brain was fully functional!

I greeted Mr. Kurtz, and thanked him for his decades of awesome comics.  This must have made Mr. Kurtz feel old, because he insisted that he had only been making comics for one decade.  I mentioned that I had been enjoying his work since Tales by Tavernlight (a comic strip set in the fantasy world of Ultima Online, featuring a bard and Skull the Troll), and Mr. Kurtz either relented or reconsidered.

Seriously, Scott Kurtz was very gracious; he sat through my story about seeing him and NOT talking with him last year.  So I feel doubly lucky to both see Mr. Kurtz a second time, but more importantly to correct my error from last year with a second chance; we so rarely get second chances in life.

I hope I didn't geek out too hard over Mr. Kurtz, but if it gives him material for a comic, then it was worthwhile for both of us.

Dice

I love dice.  Every visit to GenCon is an excuse to acquire more dice.  In the photo, you can see the dice I picked up at GenCon this year, placed on 1/4-inch graph paper for scale.

At left, in black with green markings, are the Q Workshop Call of Chthulhu 7th Edition dice.  The pentagram or elder sign is a protective symbol, and appears on the highest numbered face (except the d4).  I also got a set for my wife with violet markings in a different style; and it's about time Q Workshop started working with violet.  I asked the Q Workshop staff about violet, and they explained that (strangely) violet and some other colors are very unpopular in some European countries; presumably because those colors carry negative connotations or are otherwise considered unlucky.  Note that these are "Call of Chthulhu 7th Edition dice"; I compared them, and previous editions have differently-styled markings, and are (in my opinion) harder to read.

At the top, in orange with gold markings, is a "GenCon 15" d6 from Crystal Caste, which was free with a coupon.

Below that, in black and gold with silver markings, is the Bee Coffee "To Die For" d6 (probably made by Chessex).

To the right of that is a large white die with black markings: an Inkwell Ideas dungeon geomorph d6, free with a coupon.  It's a neat way to generate a random dungeon, but you would also need large playmats corresponding to each side of the d6, because you can't place miniatures in the tiny rooms on the faces of the die.

At the bottom right, in pearly green with gold markings, are a set of 7 Crystal Caste dice.  Of course I also got a pearly violet set for my wife.

In this photo, you can see the dice I purchased for my wife at GenCon this year, placed on 1/4-inch graph paper for scale.

At left, in black with violet markings, are the Q Workshop Call of Chthulhu 7th Edition dice.  The elder sign  is present.  The markings indicate an "Orient Express" theme.  

At the top, in orange with gold markings, is the "GenCon 15" d6 from Crystal Caste, which was free with a coupon.  

Below that, in black and gold with silver markings, is the Bee Coffee "To Die For" d6 (probably made by Chessex).

At the top right and far right, you can see the Q Workshop dice cup with lid, both made of black leather with an embossed silver dragon (the dragon is curled up into a crescent shape), stitched with leather laces.  The lid closes tightly enough to serve as a carrying container for the dice.  It holds plenty of dice, but it is lighter and more compact than the other dice cups we have.

At the bottom right, in pearly violet with gold markings, are a set of 7 Crystal Caste dice.  

Little games can be lots of fun

It has been observed that the familiar poker-style deck of cards can be cheaply and easily found all over (gas stations, convenience stores, remote gift shops, etc.), fits in your pocket, and can be used to play hundreds of different popular games.

Similarly, just because a game is simple and inexpensive does not mean it is inferior or less enjoyable.  Also, you can take a chance on 3 $15 games for less money than 1 big $50 game.

Conclusion

Insofar as I can determine, I did not make any of the mistakes I made last year.  I made entirely new mistakes!  But such is the nature of progress.

I spent too much money on this trip, and it really brought me down.  If I ever decide to go again, I might try driving again (with a different route, and that extra day to catch up on sleep), or look for lower (possibly less convenient) airfares.

I wasted too much time playing games which I can play at home.  If I ever go again, I will plan for more unique and interesting events.

I didn't get into a vendor's booth to get something I really wanted to get, which was ONLY available at GenCon.  In retrospect, I should have waited in the really long line.

There was that SNAFU with the tickets on Saturday.

I should have brought a sweater for my wife.

I should have gotten that haircut I had been putting off.

Painting Miniatures 5: Washing and Dipping

a. Advantages and Disadvantages

In general, a wash is a layer of transparent color painted over a base color scheme.  The wash tends to accumulate in deep areas, creases, and pits; and so the transparent color accumulates and therefore looks darker in these dark areas.  This effect simulates shadows, or body hair, or dirt, and can effectively highlight protruding areas.

You can simulate the effect of a wash using pre-colored varnish from the hardware store; this is referred to as "The Minwax Dip Method" because of Minwax's very convenient line of "Polyshades" colored varnishes available.  Expert miniature painters consider this to be cheating, and you will not win awards with the Minwax treatment; but if you're just trying to make something look nice on the table for game night, then who cares?  Minwax polyurethane varnish provides the added benefit that it is an extremely durable finish, and will protect your paint job (and miniature) better than spray lacquer alone.

b. Washes

In theory, you can create a wash by taking some dark paint, then adding a paint additive known as a 'flow reducer' to it (try this on the palette, not in a bottle), which should cause the paint particles to drop out of their suspension, and therefore settle in creases on the model.

In practice, I have never gotten this to work well with paint.  I used a dark dark red to create a wash for a monster, but the wash didn't settle too well, and it just looked like the monster was covered with rivulets of dark gore.  It's an interesting look (creepy as heck!), and I just decided to go with it rather than repaint the whole thing, but it isn't really what I was hoping for.  Adding a bad wash at the end could mean that you need to repaint the whole model all over again.

You can also buy ready-made washes, but they're hard to find.  I don't have experience with these.

Many experts do something similar 'by hand' and without flow reducer; they dilute some dark paint tremendously with water (again, on the palette) and only paint a very light amount (almost dry-brush it) into the creased areas which they want to darken.  Then they let that dry, and repeat the process several times.  Each individual application is nearly invisible, but the color slowly accumulates.  This can be very effective, but it is also very time-consuming, painting those areas over and over and over again.

c. Dipping

Once your players defeat the giant spider, they are not going to be so thrilled fighting an identical giant spider; you will want refreshing new monsters for the next session, and that means more miniatures.  I admire the talented artists who create stunningly realistic color and shade effects on the tiny models we have; but I also run the game, and I have lots of jobs to do in order to prepare for game day.  I use the Minwax dip method a lot, and it helps me finish lots and lots of miniatures in my very limited spare time.  I realize it's a cheap shortcut, but it's a sacrifice in quality and craftsmanship I'm willing to make at this point in my life.

I mentioned before that the popular choice for this is the Minwax Polyshades line.  Polyshades is especially convenient because it is available in small half-pint cans (no need to buy the big quart can).  I will eventually want the surface of the miniature to have a completely flat non-shiny surface, so I use Satin finish varnish rather than Gloss; with the thin layer I paint on, it usually winds up shiny anyway.  The color recommended most often for this is "Antique Walnut," which adds a brown color that works very well with skin tones.  But for robots, subterranean monsters, and numerous undead creatures, I use the dark gray color provided by "Tudor;" be forewarned that Tudor can drain a lot of vividness from your paint scheme.  Do not use "Black," because it's like dipping your miniature in tar; no light nor color will escape.

I put my miniatures on little wooden disc bases; the disc is sized to the character's "personal space" for combat purposes, and I think the wood material looks a little classier than a black plastic base.  I used to get these laser-cut discs from Gale Force Nine, but Gale Foce Nine stopped selling them, and now I have to get them from craft suppliers.  Fortunately, 1-inch, 2-inch, 3-inch, and 1/2-inch laser-cut plywood discs are not too difficult to find from craft suppliers.  I bring this up now because it makes sense to attach the wooden disc before you varnish the miniature; the varnish enhances the appearance of the wood, as you might expect (the varnish is intended for wooden surfaces, after all).  I gently but firmly pop the miniature off the pedestal.  I attach the miniature to the wooden disc base using cyanoacrylate glue (I discussed cyanoacrylate glue in "Assembling" above).  Then I glue the miniature's new wooden disc base back onto the pedestal with the Duco cement (also discussed in "Assembling").

Dipping is where that working pedestal really comes in handy, because you do not want to touch the wet varnish, even if you're wearing painting gloves.  The pedestal also eliminates the concern of where to put your miniature while the varnish dries: on the pedestal, the varnish will not stick the miniature to another surface, nor will the varnish pool and leave a "wafer" of dry varnish attached to your base; the pedestal keeps the miniature suspended, so the miniature dries virtually in mid-air.

Although they call it "dipping," most people who do the "Minwax dip" do not actually submerge their miniature in varnish.  Instead, they brush the varnish on.  Me, I usually submerge the miniature and brush the excess varnish off.  Again, it's all about the time savings.

Minwax polyurethane varnish is oil-based, and very difficult to clean out of brushes, even if you use the toxic and volatile solvents required.  I use another shortcut with the brushes when dipping: I don't even try to clean it out of the brush.  For the dip stage, I use extremely cheap kids' watercolor-style synthetic-bristle plasic-handle paintbrushes, and when I'm done putting the Minwax on a batch of miniatures, I throw the cheap brush away rather than trying to clean it.  Yes, it's wasteful, but comparing the time required to clean out the brush, considering the toxic and flammable solvents, and the limited benefits of cleaning out the brush (that brush is never going to be as good as when you pulled it out of the box), I don't feel so bad tossing out a twenty-five-cent plastic brush; if I use that brush to varnish 12 miniatures in a batch, the cost of that brush amortizes down to about two cents per miniature.

Painting Miniatures 4: Painting

This is the fun part: literally playing with color.  But wait; first we need to get our stuff ready.

a. Equipment

Back when I was painting polystyrene model airplanes, I would use Testors oil-based enamels.  Today most people paint miniatures with water-based acrylic paints.  Your painting equipment (brushes, palette, water jar, etc.) will reflect the nature of your paints.

Obviously you will need brushes.  You should be able to find these at your friendly local gaming store (FLGS), or you may be able to find these at an art supply store.  You will want some range of brushes.  Your largest brush will probably be a zero (0) size brush, and you will want some smaller brushes, until you can paint the tiny dot of color that is the colored part of a miniature warrior's eye (I use a 20/0 size brush).

You will need a small water container to rinse off your brushes.  An old (clean) squat salsa jar should work fine.

I use an old "coaster" CD for a paint palette.  When I'm done, I can rinse it and use steel wool or a scrub pad to scrape off any dried paint.

You will want an absorbent rag to soak up excess paint and pull dirty water out of your brushes.  I use a ragged t-shirt.

Back in Assembling, I told you about using a polyethylene drop cloth to catch drops of glue.  You want to use that when painting, to catch drops of paint.

Good lighting is extremely helpful.  I recommend a nice bright full-spectrum or daylight-type desk lamp; I got a cheap swing-arm desk lamp with a daylight-type compact fluorescent bulb, and it works pretty well for me.

Having a thick pin (like a T-pin or a hat pin) is helpful if your paint gets clogged in a squeeze-bottle nozzle; you can poke the clog open with the pin.  DO NOT try to squeeze the paint harder and harder through the clogged nozzle, or it will squirt all over and the paint may be water-based, but WATER WILL NOT GET IT ALL OUT.

Finally, wear clothes that you don't mind accidentally squirting paint on.  Yes, I know you'll be careful, but don't tempt fate.

b. Paints

Miniatures paints are quite different from other acrylic or latex paints.  Miniatures paints are typically very highly pigmented opaque paints with a very thin (non-viscous) body, unlike the comparatively viscous latex paints you use to paint your walls, or the creamy acrylic paints you use to paint your canvas.

Miniatures paints will either come in little squeeze bottles to squeeze paint out of, or little jars to dip brushes into.  I mix colors a lot on the palette, so I prefer the squeeze bottles, which keep me from contaminating my paint containers with whatever's on my brush.

I generally prefer Acrylicos Vallejo paints, either the Model Color or Game Color lines; they come in the squeeze bottles in a wide range of colors, including both bright hues and subdued shades.  Many other professional miniature painters also use Acrylicos Vallejo paints.

I have also started experimenting with Reaper's Master Series Paints, because they gave me some for free.  They seem okay so far.

c. Colors

Miniatures paints aren't cheap, so you probably can't afford to get the entire 200-color line of paints made by any particular paint manufacturer.  You have to pick and choose.

If you're just going to get your feet wet (so to speak; don't paint your feet) with a small number of miniatures, you can probably just get the colors you will need for those miniatures; so if you have an olive-green troll, a gray frost wolf, and a bright orange fire elemental, you can get just those colors (plus eye colors, accessory colors (does the troll have a brown wooden club?) and other shade-variations to make the monster look more realistic (maybe the frost wolf has a black nose and a white underbelly)) and you're done.

If you're planning to embark on a journey of painting miniatures, consider going the Crayola-box route and get a basic assortment:
The primary and secondary colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and violet.
Black, white, and a medium brown.

It is also really helpful to have certain colors for fantasy miniatures:
At least one skin tone (appropriate to the kind of people are you painting miniatures of).
At least one "dirt".
A steely metal paint for weapons and armor.
If you paint more than one skeleton, some kind of bone color.
Some kind of wood-tone tan.

The familiar rule of thumb is that if you use more than 3 colors per miniature, you're overdoing it.  That may be appropriate for certain monsters (like lions, tigers, and bears), but let's imagine a typical armed warrior miniature for a moment:
The warrior will have some skin exposed; even if this warrior is dressed for winter, it will likely have an exposed face.  That means at least one color for skin tone.
The warrior is armed; maybe with a bow, maybe with a sword, maybe wood, maybe metal.  Whatever it is, that's another color.
The warrior is clothed; maybe cloth, maybe suede, maybe animal hide.  Whatever it is, that's at least 1 more color, for a total of 3 colors.
But what of the warrior's hair?  That's one more color.  What about the warrior's accessories, like a belt, boots, a pack, etc.?  That's at least one more color.  What about eyes?  That could be another color.  And then there's the ground the warrior is standing on.

d. Mixing colors

With this theoretical paint color wheel, combining two colors from the edge creates a muted color somewhere between the points inside the circle, not a vibrant color on the edge.  

Mixing colors can be a challenge, because some colors are just more potent on the palette than others:
White is usually pretty reliable; but black can often swallow up any other color you mix with it.
Red, orange, and green are also usually very potent; mix something with red, and you just get a variation of red; and so on with orange and green.  Some of this may be psychological, but some of this may be due to the nature of the chemical pigments involved, and the nature of transparent and opaque color.
If you have a bright primary red paint, but you want a subtle red color, you can mix the two colors adjacent to red on the color wheel (orange and violet) for a more muted and perhaps fashionable red.  And so on with the other colors; of course blue and yellow make green, but maybe blue paint and yellow paint mix to create a different green than your straight-out-of-the-paint-bottle green.  Consider the (theoretical) paint color wheel; at the center is gray, and if you mix colors from the edges, you don't follow the edge of the circle, you generally draw a straight line through some of the grayish interior.

e. Technique

With the warrior, his exposed skin was the deepest area; with the swarm of beetles at the bottom left, it was the dirt underneath the beetles.  With the lions, I went for an all-over fur color.

The general rule for painting is to paint the deepest (most difficult to isolate) areas first, then to put down subsequent layers until you get to the extremities.

Closeup of the warrior and lioness

Following this general rule, and using our warrior example above (in Colors), the deepest area will be the skin, so we start with the skin tone.  Then we see that our warrior has a long coat over some trousers, with trousers tucked into boots; working from deepest layers outward, let's paint trousers, then boots and accessories, then the long coat.  The warrior's long hair drapes over the clothes, so now we paint the hair.  Finally, we paint the warrior's weapon.  And now I notice that I didn't color the warrior's eyes; but I have a really thin brush for painting tiny dots for eyes.

For animals and naturalistic monsters, I usually lay down a base color, and layer general shades, and finally work on details like eyes, teeth, claws, etc.

f. Skin Tones

I've never seen a dragon, so I can't tell what looks like an abnormal color on a dragon.  I've seen lots of orange cats, and I know that the orange color on a cat is very unlike the orange color on a tangerine, but I wouldn't be too disturbed to see a tangerine-orange paint job on a cat miniature.  However, human skin tones are another matter.

Skin tones may be your biggest challenge, because we look at skin all the time, and it is a survival advantage to know what abnormal skin looks like: if someone looks pale, flushed, inflamed, jaundiced, bruised, nauseated, ashen, unshaved, dirty, scarred, etc., we notice it.  Trying to add diversity by adjusting a basic "peach" skin tone to look just a little Mediterranean (or Asian, or anything else) can be tricky, but very rewarding.  Practice, practice, practice!  Consider different paints to mix in.  Study reference images and compare your results to the effect you wanted to achieve.

g. Dry-Brushing

"Dry-brush" is a popular technique where you remove almost all the paint from the brush, and brush what's left onto a specific area.  Try to imagine removing dust using a damp sponge: you want just enough moisture to pick up the dust, without having so much moisture to leave a puddle.  It creates a translucent effect kind of like shading with pastel or charcoal.  This technique is most used with highlights (very effective with hair), burn marks, and other small shaded areas.

h. Washes

If you do choose to use a wash, this will change the appearance of the underlying colors.  Generally, a dark wash will make underlying colors appear darker.  Also, For example, a orange-brown wash will "fight" with an underlying purple or blue, causing it to look more reddish or even grayish.  A dark gray wash can almost drain the color out of your paint job.  Accordingly, if you plan to use an all-over wash, prepare by making your underlying colors brighter and more vibrant than you intend them to look when they are finished.

Anton's Rich and Spicy Tofu Pumpkin Pie

Thanksgiving is soon upon us, and Pumpkin Pie is my favorite Thanksgiving tradition.  It's my favorite pie.  It's easy to make (even easier with pre-made store-bought crusts), and it's a simple task to make it vegan.  Experienced vegetarians are familiar with the silken tofu pumpkin pie, but I found the base recipe too light; I added almond butter to give the custard a richer taste and sensation, and the pie was a hit.  I like spices, so this recipe is heavy on the spices; if it's too spicy for you, you can probably cut the spices in half and have a reasonably flavorful pumpkin pie.

Ingredients:

1 9-inch pie shell
1 16 oz. can of pumpkin
1 10 oz. package of silken tofu
1/2 c. almond butter
1 1/4 c. unrefined (vegan-friendly) sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
3 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. nutmeg
1 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. cloves
1/2 tsp. allspice

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425°F.
Set aside the pie shell.
Whip all the other ingredients together until the tofu is broken into a creamy consistency.
Pour into the pie shell.
Bake at 425°F for 15 minutes.
Then, bake at 350°F for 40 minutes.
Serve cool.

Painting Miniatures 3: Priming

Primer provides an interface between your miniature and your paint.  The primer should adhere to your miniature, be thin enough to reveal the model's detail, and allow the water-based paint to cover the surface without "beading" into droplets and rolling off the miniature like water off a car windshield.

Supposedly Reaper's vinyl miniatures can be painted without primer, if you use Reaper's special paint line.  I counter that "can be painted" is not the same as "can be painted easily and well."  Please don't skip the primer, even if you only use Reaper's vinyl miniatures and their special line of paints.

a. What color primer

Primer color is a matter of strong debate among miniature painters.  Lots of colors are available from lots of spray paint manufacturers, but the most popular are white, black, and clear.

I originally used black primer.  I reasoned that I would be painting the surface of the model, and if the tight corners were still black, then they would resemble shadows.  However, I discovered that my paint did not lend itself to just brushing the surface; quite the opposite, the paint wanted to pool into the tight corners via capillary action.  The liquid paint tended to pull away from high pointy areas due to gravity and surface tension, and went thin there; the dark primer showed through, making my miniature heroes look like they just rolled around a greasy auto garage floor (or maybe a blacksmith's shop, in a fantasy setting).  The only way to combat this was to apply multiple coats of the same color to the same area, and that's inefficient and frustrating.

An actual apple, demonstrating real-world lighting effects on natural objects.

I then switched to white primer.  Suddenly, the paint allowing the pale primer to show through at pointy areas near the top of the model mimicked the effects of specular highlighting (tops of things generally appear paler because they are usually lit from above).  The paint pooling in dark areas suddenly made a lot more visual sense.  The white primer also made it easier to see fine details on the slightly translucent vinyl models.  I've been using white primer ever since.

Clear primer is appropriate where you want the color or translucency of the model to show through.  Clear primer is a special case, and I plan to cover this in a future article.

b. Brands

I recommend "Skull White" spray primer from Games Workshop; their website might list it as "White Spray," and the "Skull White" name must be just to make it sound spooky and cool, because it certainly is not the off-white dark ivory color of actual bones.  Compared to hardware store spray paint, "Skull White" is very expensive, but (unlike off-the-shelf flat white) it is specially formulated to accept water-based paint.

c. Applying

Apply spray primer in a well-ventilated area.  I'm not kidding about this; there are very toxic solvents and other poisonous chemicals in quality spray primer.  At the same time, don't do it outside, where wind will blow your spray all over.  Your garage is a good place, but don't let the spray cloud come anywhere near your car; the particles of spray will slowly accumulate on the surface of your car, like dust you can't wash off.

You can help limit the spray cloud and reduce wind hazards by setting up an old cardboard box as an inexpensive "spray chamber."

Make sure you get the undersides and interiors of the model and all angles you want to paint.  The working pedestal I described previously can help with this, by allowing you to tilt the miniature by its pedestal.

Metal and vinyl miniatures after priming

The white vinyl miniatures present a challenge when applying white primer, because the white vinyl and white primer are so similar in color that it's hard to know whether you've covered all the angles.

Decent lighting can help you inspect your priming job.  You can probably find 100W clamp lights with reflectors for about $20 each at your local hardware store, including the cost of bulbs.  I recommend slightly bluish "daylight" bulbs for the sharpest color distinction.

Give your primer plenty of time to dry off before you paint it, or the solvents in the primer may interfere with your paint.

Note that detail is still visible in the models

As we move into winter, I have noticed that below-freezing temperatures can have an effect on the the quality of your sprays; if you must spray in your cold, cold garage, consider keeping your miniatures and sprays in the house, arranging your miniatures inside before spraying (I move my minis around on a rusty cookie sheet I pulled out of recycling), carrying the minis and paints to your garage, spraying in the garage quickly, then bringing everything back in the house.  Keep in mind that your wet minis are still giving off harmful vapors, so bring them to a part of the house far from living quarters, like the basement.

Painting Miniatures 2: Assembling

Because of the casting process, your mini may come in pieces: a dragon may need wings attached, a warrior may need a shield arm attached.  These pieces should be glued together before priming.

Before you play with glue on your nice dinner table (or any table you aren't prepared to toss in the trash), set up something to protect your work surface: I recommend a cheap polyethylene drop cloth, which you can cut to a perfect table-covering size, use several layers, fold it up when you're done, and re-use it almost indefinitely.  Be careful when you use tools, because the drop cloth won't protect your table from sharp objects.

a. Adhesives

There are 2 adhesives I recommend for assembling miniatures: "Hot Stuff" cyanoacrylate glue, and "Green Stuff" epoxy putty.  Both of these materials have very different purposes and are challenging to work with, and I'll go over them separately.

If the miniature parts fit together tightly, use Hot Stuff.  "Hot Stuff" is so named because it can handle high temperatures.  It's a clear cyanoacrylate glue with additives to make it viscous, almost like honey.  Cyanoacrylate is the active ingredient in "Krazy Glue."  It bonds quickly (in about a minute) and it is quite strong, but it can get all over your fingers and STAY all over your fingers for about a week (yes, I've tried nail polish remover).  It claims to fill gaps, but it's not that good at it.  It sticks to metal miniatures eventually, but it takes its sweet time doing it (that's a LONG minute you're holding those tiny parts together), and your parts will likely fall off a couple times before the glue actually sets.  You buy Hot Stuff in tiny 2-ounce bottles, but don't worry; you won't use it all up before it turns solid in the bottle.  Also, the glue tends to turn solid in the nozzle and clog.  Needle nose pliers may help to crush obstructions in the nozzle.  You may be tempted to use actual Krazy Glue or Zap-A-Gap, but Hot Stuff's higher viscosity makes it much easier to work with.  I should also warn you that Hot Stuff (and any cyanoacrylate glue) will give off suspicious and probably toxic fumes as it's curing, so I should recommend you do this in a well-ventilated area, but to be honest I don't do this and right now I'm considering setting up some kind of fan.  Another relevant feature of these cyanoacrylate glues is that they are very penetrating, so wood and cardboard tends to soak it up like concrete soaks up engine oil: leaving a ugly dark stain; you may need to apply glue to the absorbent surface, then wait for that glue to cure before adding more to bond to your miniature.

If the miniature parts don't fit together so well, use Green Stuff epoxy putty.  Epoxy typically consists of a resin and an oxidizer; you mix these compounds together to start a chemical reaction which slowly thickens to form a very solid body.  Accordingly, "Green Stuff" comes in 2 separate blue and yellow putties (usually in side-by-side ribbons), which you squish together to make one green putty.  I say you squish it together, but this squishing process takes several minutes of effort, and you must keep your hands wet constantly when handling this extremely sticky putty.  It is very much like sculpting with chewing gum from Planet Krypton, and when it sets, it is extremely hard and strong.  It has a longer shelf life than Hot Stuff, and it takes longer to set (about an hour), but it has a substantial body to it.  Most miniature scupltors create their works out of Green Stuff, and these initial sculpts are referred to as "Greens" accordingly.  You don't want to use Green Stuff for tight adhesive jobs, because it is the body of the Green Stuff putty that holds the parts together; if the gap is hairline tight, there is very little putty to hold the parts together.  You can find cheap epoxy putty at hardware stores with a colored resin and a whitish paste oxidizer; this may give you good practice for working with Green Stuff, but the hardware store epoxy putty is intended for big jobs and typically has a somewhat granular consistency which does not lend itself to miniature work.  There are other epoxy putties popular with miniatures sculptors, such as "Brown Stuff," but I have not tried it and I therefore cannot advise you regarding its use.

b. Pinning

Sometimes an adhesive is not enough; if the parts are particularly heavy or expected to get rougher treatment, you should consider "pinning" them.  Pinning is an unpleasant chore, but it really works.  It involves slowly and painstakingly drilling a hole through both parts and sliding a metal rod (typically brass or copper) through them, and then using glue to hold everything tight.  The drill is typically a bit with a holder, which you turn manually with your fingertips.  With metal minis, this is painstaking.  With vinyl minis, it's worse: the rubbery vinyl "grabs" the drill bit, so you need to pull the bit out, drill it back in, over and over again.

c. Reshaping

Your miniature may also be bent out of shape.  If your miniature is metal, you can bend it back into shape with your fingers; and if the miniature has a long sword or narrow ankles, you will likely need to bend it back into shape lots and lots of times.  That's just the nature of tin miniatures.  If you want these bendy parts to be less bendy, consider pinning them or (with a spear or a rapier) replacing them entirely with sturdier metal pins (see above).

If your miniature is vinyl and bent out of shape, you have a trickier problem: you must heat the miniature, and hold the miniature in the desired shape until it cools.  Sometimes heating the miniature will cause it to bend into its original shape all on its own; using boiling water when cleaning may help with this.  Many people dip their vinyl miniature into boiling water in order to heat them, then pull the miniature out and bend it into shape.  I tried using a candle to just heat small areas, but I couldn't avoid the burnt-marshmallow effect; the miniature would get soft, then toast and catch fire.  My favorite method is to use a Wagner Heat Tool; this is basically a hair dryer that can get hot enough to melt the paint off your walls.  First (before it gets hot!) I attach the concentrator nozzle, I set the heat tool to about 450 F (which is one of the low settings) , then I only heat up the part I want to adjust, and I pull the heat away when the vinyl gets soft, hold the part into place, and blow on it until it cools.  You can also use a heat-and-adjust technique to slightly realign your miniatures to be easier to paint, or to arrange limbs so that each member of a squad of identical miniatures looks slightly different and thus more naturalistic.

d. Pedestal

Miniatures on working pedestals; a little extra effort saves a lot of frustration

Before you prime your miniature, I really recommend some kind of working pedestal.  This is something which will allow you to move, rotate, pick up, and otherwise "handle" your miniature without actually touching it or its (wet) painted surfaces.  The pedestal should change the center of gravity such that you can tip the miniature at an angle so that you can prime underside and other hard-to-reach areas.

I used to use a loop of packing tape to stick the bottom of my mini to an old CD, but paint and primer tends to pool near the bottom where the mini sits on the tape, and the wide CD makes it difficult to access underside areas.

Close-up of miniatures on pedestals

Many people use poster tack to hold their mini to a pedestal, but I stopped when I discovered my poster tack got loosened by the solvents in the primers and varnishes I use.

Some painters use Krazy Glue to stick their miniature to the head of a nail, and carefully snap the miniature off the nail when they're done.

I have modified this technique; I now use Duco Cement and a drywall screw driven into an old block of scrap wood for stability.  Duco Cement is a toluene-based clear glue (available at most hardware stores) which only barely holds onto my vinyl miniatures, so it is easy to pop the miniature off the top of the screw.  In fact, it's almost too easy to pop off the miniature; I sometimes need to re-glue my vinyl mini to its working pedestal.