Raggy's Gaming Adventures

Regular followers will know that I am generally focused on cranking out models fast to a high tabletop quality. I embrace shortcuts like metallic sharpies, airbrushing, drybrushing and of course Contrast paints. These methods have given me a certain style that is somewhat identifiable and has become habitual enough that attempting other styles can be a challenge. A buddy on instagram @hobbygoblinjoe recently sent a request out for a method of painting desaturated looking miniatures and I thought - my time has come!!!
What is Desaturated?Before we dive into the weeds, let's bore you with a bit of art theory. I am not gonna go crazy here but just summarize so we are hopefully on the same page as we work through this. Colours have 3 basic elements that artists tend to talk about to describe what they see. First we have hue - this is 'red' 'yellow' 'blue' but also 'bluey-brown' etc. Second there is Light (or value) - a measure of how white or black the …

Painting a gaming table is always an intimidating prospect. We're used to painting little 28mm people, although the game boards are at the same scale, they're a different magnitude of project!
I'd already taken on a couple of game board painting commissions this year (one for the old Citadel Realm of Battle boards and another for the Sector Imperialis boards). It was time to do a project for myself.
I've been planning a Necromunda campaign with some buddies for a few months. A project to keep everyone occupied during Covid and to look forward to once things ease up, so what better project to work on than Zone Mortalis!? And if I'm going to all the effort of a Zone Mortalis set, I might as well up my game to make a full size gaming table (See Uncle Atom's wisdom in this regard here) or as my old manager would put it - go big or go home - I think he was being rhetorical but I never tested it by actually going home.
After years of being a GW addict, I've learnt t…

I recently picked up a copy of Figopedia by Jeremie Bonamant Teboul. It had been recommended to me a couple of years ago by Caleb Wisenback of CK Studios but I'd held off getting it as the shipping can be a little expensive. A recent group order however made it a lot more affordable and so I splashed out.

I quickly worked my way through the first half of the book - the section on Light (my rapid progress was helped in no small part by the large quantity of images that really help you digest what Jeremie is expressing in his prose.

One of the aspects discussed is having a clear impression of the source of light and how this reflects on the surface of the model. Now there are a lot of elements at play here (material, viewing angle, light proximity & brightness) and although it's something I have considered in my painting for a long while, it is often secondary to getting the colours right and the texturing detailed not to mention smoothing the blends. To this end I decided …

This is a public letter I have posted here and elsewhere in response to marketing campaign and product put out by AK Interactive:

Dear AK Interactive,
"We're sorry you were offended" is not an apology.
Profiting off of genocide is not acceptable.
Pulling an apology less than a day after posting it smacks of insincerity.
A book teaching people how to reproduce genocide in miniature is tasteless at best. Using such a book to push your products is vile.
Using videos of genocide to market it without warning particularly given age of many hobbyists is beyond stupid.
Pull the book, apologise and fire those responsible for the marketing and approval of this campaign.
Dev - RaggyPaints

PS: The outrage in English doesn't seem to make any impact so I've asked a friend to translate into Spanish for you.

Estimado AK Interactive,
"Lamentamos que se sienta ofendido" no equivale a una disculpa.
Aprovecharse de un genocidio con el fin de obtener ganancias, no es aceptable.
Tampoco …

As a last minute addition to the NOVA Open Charity Raffle - I volunteered to paint up an Aeronautica Imperialis starter box. If you'd like to by a raffle ticket they can be found here: https://www.novaopenfoundation.org/product-page/aeronautica-imperialis-gw (That's right - this whole box could be yours for $8.00!!! and you get to help out a great cause, what could be better?).




Assembling these models is not simple. For models in a boardgame, they are exquisitely detailed but not well suited for a typical casual boardgamer to assemble with many small parts and a very high density set of sprues. But once they're together, I'm sure you'll agree that it's well worth the effort!




Bases:
Ok let's get cracking on this project! From the beginning, I knew I was going to paint the bases. Some people have left them, or just sprayed them a single colour, but with the gorgeous detailing and clear radar aesthetic, I knew I would have to get a green radar effect onto these.…

Exactly one year ago today, I posted my most successful blog post today; an initial review of Contrast Paints at the time of writing, it has something like ten times as many views as my next most popular post. Being an opportunistic attention seeker. I figured I would play off of that and build out another post on this 'wonder drug' for our hobby.
Rereading the original post, I am kinda surprised just how down on them I am. I had only done limited testing in a less than ideal environment but I was very much wrong in my conclusions. So why have I u-turned so hard on my initial thoughts?
CONTRAST IS EVERYTHING!
Any competition painter will, at some point, have been told that their piece needs more 'contrast'. This is a statement about the need to push colours to extremes of light and dark, warm and cool and complimentary colours. The reasoning for this comes down to what appeals to the human eye, which looks for differences between elements to draw the eye. This is a core …

This is a difficult time for many. Some folks are busy and working harder than ever, helping to ensure the rest of us can stay safe and at home. Some of us are out of work and a few are able to work from home. Everyone is adjusting to a different life and many of us feel like we have nothing but time... and yet it can still be difficult to get yourself motivated to knock out that painting backlog.
Here are a few tips to hopefully help you get you some painted minis!*
Make sitting down to paint as easy as possible. This is huge. The lower the 'hurdle' to over come in getting started - the more likely you are to do it. This is probably the biggest hurdle I faced when I started getting back into painting. Some ideas:If at all possible have a small area with newspaper brushes and water and your current project. During this time, you're spending a lot more time at home - it might be worth just having a piece of your dining table dedicated to painting when you're not going t…