Raggy's Gaming Adventures

After a year in lockdown, many of us are suffering failing mental health, isolation and general ennui. Painting has provided many of us with something to focus on but it often spins into unhealthy cycles of competition. Instagram has provided a whole world of competition for likes, followers, engagements. It can become a dangerous cycle and this post really highlighted to me the importance of revising my objectives. So what do I want out of my hobby? Since I really started working to improve the calibre of my painting, I've been torn in this regard - part of my wants to become a better painter, another part of me has been focused on eroding the rather daunting pile of opportunity I've developed over more than 25 years in the hobby. Generally speaking I've been fairly successful in both areas in the last few years but more recently the quest to conquer that backlog has become rather 'all consuming'. I dedicate blogs to tallying what I've painted, what I'...

Well it's been quite the year for all of us. For myself we've been trying to get ourselves set up in our future home, trying to get a job and trying to stay healthy. But through all that, I have painted more minis than ever before, even painting up some other models for Charity and Friends. Going into the year I knew there would be a lot of change, variables and uncertainty having just moved to a new country and still having a lot of things to do before settling into our home. I had vaguely hoped to continue my recent tradition of painting at least 365 models/year with the stretch goal of 500/year. I blew all those targets out of the water as I took on some commissions and had no regular job to distract me.  Of course that's somewhat offset by the massive number of minis that I purchased! The result is that I haven't really made much headway in my backlog. The Necromunda boxed sets were a particularly big acquisition but mean I now have a good lot of terrain for playi...

This big ball of dirt has rocketed around the fire orb once more and it's time for another Thanksgiving post.  For those of you that are new to my blog, this is something I do every year and have done since I first moved to America. For those of you that aren't - skip this paragraph - you will have read the gist of it before. Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays, and one I only really discovered on coming to America. There is all the extravagance, the awful, awful history and fights with family but the thing that I really love is the sentiment that the name inspires. A day to give thanks. I am a natural pessimist, I tend to focus too much on the negatives and the problems. This day forces me into a habit of putting light on the good. Every year I try to improve on this, reduce the qualifiers in my thanks even further and take some time to reflect on all the good that has happened in the last year. This time last year, my wife and I were psyching ourselves up for a gra...

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...

Those of you that are regular readers of my blog will know that every Thanksgiving, I put out a post to remind myself of the things I have to be thankful for in the year that has passed. Although an Englishman, I have really developed a love of setting aside time to do this to reflect and reason on these things in my life. (I also realize that this is not necessarily how the holiday tends to be celebrated in the main, as a secular expression of gratitude to the Universe at large for what I have... it is also independent of The Mayflower, Plymouth and the varying atrocities that have been and continue to be visited on various indigenous peoples around the world). This year has, in many ways, been exceptionally good. Her Majesty's Government finally deigned to allow my wife into the country after a year and a half, and we are now gearing up to a move back to the US where it would seem we are both more welcome. For all that there has been discomfort in this country, I am glad tha...

Hey Folks! It's been a while, I promise I have a few posts in the works to throw on here in the coming weeks but in the meantime - I'd love for you to check out a friend's blog over at   www.jawcrakas.blog Now I don't often pimp blogs this way with a full on dedicated post but Ulric and I have been working on designing a Learning Unit for a Facebook Group we are in to help guide folks through getting their armies painted up. I think this is a really important skill, those of you that have been following my blog for a while will have seen my own slap-dash approach to this problem as I powered through large volumes of minis last year. Ulrich is way more organized (born product manager). He is also using the excellent Armies, Legions and Hordes book by Dave Taylor for his framework. - Raggy, signing out

It's that time of year again - the day I get a little introspective and put out a post on the things I have to be grateful for. Although I am in the UK again, I still value setting aside this day to take a moment to really appreciate the things I have in life. This year, this post coincides with my 250th post on this Blog so let's start there as a reason to be thankful. I first posted to this blog way back in early 2009 whilst I was still a student and just starting to get back into a hobby I'd abandoned in the face of raging hormones. That's almost 10 years ago now... and in that time I've averaged about 2 posts/month... Frankly, for me that's a pretty epic achievement. Of course there have been times when it's been less and others more, but by and large, the blog has grown well and now nets several thousand views every month from all you wonderful people who come visit, read and most importantly keep me honest! That's really the key thing with this...

I know I have been a little quiet on the Blog of late. Travel and Internet access have had a lot to do with this however I have not been idle at the paint station! I will be putting up a post with my massive Descent Monster painting haul in the next few days. In the meantime I wanted to show of a new branch of my painting tuition - Live Streaming!!! The First stream was last night on YouTube and you can see the video here: This first stream looks at darker skin tones using one of the Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire Reaver models as a test piece. I even branch out into some scarring both sculpted and freehand! This was an experimental first pass and there will be more to come. I will be live streaming tomorrow night on Twitch: https://www.twitch.tv/ragados_ - please join in! I am looking to see what the two platforms are like in terms of functionality and quality and will choose which to run on going forwards! - Raggy, signing out

Over the last couple of years, I have gotten much more serious about painting. This blog really charts my progress and some of the revelations I've had along the way. much of my focus has been around technique and tools (helloooo Airbrush!). Having some moments of introspection of the last couple of weeks however I realized how much stronger my grasp of theory has become. This is, I think, something that comes naturally as you become more critical in how miniatures look - particularly when you obsess over it as much as I do. The realization for me was largely driven by questioning why I was loving some pics on Instagram and not others. Why does this Imperial Fist Primaris pop and not that one? Why does that cool custom Ork battlewagon look a bit flat? These are really good questions to ask yourself, they can help identify where some black lining may be helpful, or an edge highlight... but they can also lead to learnings on composition and colour theory. SDub aka Miniac has...

In the main, I am far to English to go around tooting my own horn, but I feel this occasion warrants some yelling from the rooftops. I am now Community Coordinator for CK Studios ! Regular readers of the blog will have seen the various posts I have made in the past following classes I have taken with CK Studios. It's not an exaggeration to say that Kat and Caleb are the single biggest reason for my painting improvement over the last 2 years and it's a huge thrill to get to work with them. Not just that but several other incredible teams are also joining the Studio. Sam Lenz ( Blog ,  Facebook ,  Instagram ) - I first heard of Sam through Uncle Atom's Tabletop minions and have seen the many amazing works he's done. Sam's also an advocate of cheap brushes for 90% of painting, something I am also a firm believer in. Vince Venturella ( YouTube ,  Twitter ) - Vince's YouTube channel has been a must subscribe for me for a long time. Vince has a fantastic ...

Scale75  have just put out a post on their facebook page  calling an end to piracy in the miniature hobby. 3D printing is here to stay. The last few years have seen quality improve, equipment and running costs fall as the technology evolves. Unfortunately it has also lead to an increase in piracy in our hobby. I normally steer clear of the political side of the industry on this blog but piracy is something that I feel kinda strongly about. My first job out of college was working in DVD distribution of foreign language films in the UK. In the span of a year, piracy virtually killed off the whole industry. Film and movies have been able to build out streaming infrastructure but it has still hit their profitability massively - particularly for the smaller, independent studios. So what does this mean for the hobby market? Well in all honesty it is tough to say. I haven't seen any studies on the level of pirated parts in the hobby, so this is all going to be pure specula...

Almost half way into the year now and I wanted to talk about my personal project for this year. Namely averaging one fully painted miniature/day over the year. That's 365 painted pieces in 2018. I am adding a few further restrictions for myself: It must go from primed to varnished in 2018 (finishing models from before or unfinished models don't count). The model must be the size of a 25mm human or bigger to count (ie no smaller than a Mansions of Madness investigator) Bigger models still only count as 1! So... how am I doing? Well... Carry over: (16 + 11 small) Space Hulk: 6 Terminators Mansions of Madness: 2xShoggoths, 2xCthonians, 1xDark Young, 1xDunwich Horror Blood Bowl: Wood Elf & Chaos Apothecaries, Ball marker Generic: 10 Barrels Lady Morrigan Wander: Tank Despite the focus on getting new figures completely painted, I have not neglected the figures I had already started last year. Completed: (146 + 34 small) Space Hulk:  20xSpace Hulk door...

Well folks... it's happened. After well over a year of being pretty pumped and motivated - feeling like I'm getting a ton of painting done and really stepping up my talent. After all that, I feel like I've hit a wall. *BAM* I know why, a few things combined that really shouldn't have so much influence on me: Real life issues, doing badly in a contest I'd previously done well in, leaving an online community that had felt like a place to share my progress with others that shared my passion. Whining about this sad state of being is not really the point of this post however. I want to explore things to get you re-invested in the hobby. As with pretty much everything else I talk about, Uncle Atom has gotten there first (and done it better). You can see a couple of the more relevant videos here and here . So what can you do to fend off the brick wall? Paint with others - if you are lucky enough to have other hobbyists nearby, meet up regularly! Get togeth...

Warning - a bit of swearing in this one. Well I have been pretty quiet this month, as I often seem to be when I travel. I have not been idle and I have a few half formed posts waiting on projects to be finished but this post is not going to be about miniatures or painting of the hobby. Every year, at this time, I like to write a post about the things I have to be thankful for. (You can see my original post in this vein on another blog of mine back in 2014 here ). In successive years I have written these posts somewhat haphazardly and in various places but it is a practice I have come to value as Thanksgiving grows in my heart to be my favorite holiday. Looking back on that original post, it is interesting to see the things that have changed and the things that have stayed the same. I debated doing a review of the points in that original post but looking back, it just doesn't seem as relevant. Instead I am going to go through the things I have to be thankful for right now. ...

I am a big fan of Tabletop Minions . Uncle Atom has a lot of videos with really interesting topics and some great advice. Recently I watched a newer video about goals , which reminded me of the videos he posted about finding your motivation that really helped me get back into the painting hobby. For those that haven't been following my recent blog posts may not know but I recently moved back from the US to the UK. Moving 6,000 miles around the world - especially when most of your belongings are on a boat for several months can make painting even more of a challenge. I'm hoping to buy a home of my own but in the meantime I am crammed into my parent's attic with a handful of paints and whatever minis escaped the packing boxes. All of this has put a real strain on my commitment to my hobby. Having just returned from a trip to California to get more of my affairs in order, I am finally ready to return to my Space Hulk set... but opening it up, I am once again struggling...

Carrying on with our experimentation... Today we looked into a couple of ingredient factors of the patty. Day 2 - Burger meat Recipe (per burger): 60g 12% fat Beef 30g 20% fat Pork 1/2 Egg 1g Pepper 1g Salt 40g finely chopped Onion 20g finely chopped Onion + 20g finely chopped Chestnut Mushrooms 20g finely chopped Onion + 20g finely chopped Chestnut Mushrooms + 0.5g each of cumin powder, chilli powder, coriander powder + 1/2 clove garlic Preparation: Egg whisked Beef & other ingredients mixed into Egg Thoroughly mixed all ingredients together to form an even mixture Mixture split into patties of 120g each (roughly 1/4lb), 1cm thick Results: The mince mix came out better this time with the thinner patties helping a lot. It was good to see that they help together - something I was very worried about initially. The breadcrumbs were excluded but I don't think we need the egg either. The onions really added a lot of moisture to the burgers and the...

I'm afraid it may be a while before I can get some painting updates on the site... in the meantime I present my quest to define the perfect Burger. Living now in the UK, I am already feeling the loss of my traditional American staples and figured that a good bonding experience with my father would be a series of controlled experiments in making the perfect hamburger.  I need to write up my notes on this process somewhere, and this seemed to be as good a place as any for that. Day 1 - Burger thickness and thumb printing Recipe: 500g 20% fat Beef 187g Fine Breadcrumbs 1 Egg 1g Pepper 1g Salt Preparation: Egg whisked Beef, Breadcrumbs and Pepper mixed into Egg Thoroughly mixed all ingredients together to form an even mixture Mixture split into 4 patties of 157g each (roughly 1/3lb): 3cm thick patty 3cm thick patty with thumbprint 2cm thick patty 2cm thick patty with thumbprint Salt outside of patties Results: This is a pretty terrible burger mix...

I have made allusions to this before but I have launched a new YouTube channel called Raggy Plays . The show will run in seasons of 12 episodes, teaching people how to play board games. Please check them out and share them with everyone you know! - Raggy, signing out

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, I hope you have a great day surrounded by loved ones. - Raggy, signing out

I recently splashed some cash on some new storage for my rapidly increasing Blood Bowl collection. I picked up a couple of Feldherr cases and started rearranging my figures! This is only about half the collection: I also got introduced to a cool new survey system to assess your gaming interests. My results are pretty much expected: Let me know what your results are! - Raggy, signing out