Vegascat

Hello everyone, I'd like to introduce myself to you all and tell you a bit about me.

    I've been into miniatures since probably 15 years old or there abouts, mainly for using during roleplaying games or wargaming.  Back then it was almost entirely Grenadier, Citadel, or Ral Partha minis.  I've been painting off and on since I was 16 years old.  I got into the painting aspect of the hobby because I got tired of my models being bare metal, but I didn't really get heavily into it until I picked up my first issue of White Dwarf and Mike McVey's painting just blew me away!  I've been painting off and on every since.  I was in the military for 20 years, which caused the off and on in my painting.  I've been retired from the military for a few years now and I think my painting is the best its ever been and I'm constantly striving to get better. 

    I like to participate in painting competitions, but I've only ever gotten a few second places several years ago, but that's about it.  I did win an online contest for tutorial over at Slave to Painting for my basing article, which I'll repost here at some point.  However, I still like to enter them, it pushes me to get better and I like to see what others enter.

    I know everyone likes their own particular brand of brushes and paints.  My main everyday brushes are Windsor and Newton Series 7 regular size brushes, not the Series 7 miniature brushes.  Meg Maples turned these on to me and I like them for the same reason she likes them, they hold a fine point and a lot of paint, so you don't have to redip your brush in the paint as often.  I use Games Workshop's dry brushes as I think they're really good for drybrushing.  I also use regular square artist brushes (I don't remember what they're called) for painting on primer and for painting large areas.  My favorite brand of paints so far are P3, Reaper, and some of the Vallejo paints.

    I'm currently painting my best friend's elven army for a game called Warmachine.  I've been painting small things for my own collection as pallet cleansers inbetween elven units and models.  The most recent one being a Reaper miniature called Patch.  

    I generally paint in the 28/32mm scale range as its what I'm used to.  I actually just started my first 54mm model, which is interesting to work on so far.  I think the larger scale is more forgiving of mistakes as you have more space to go work with to go back and fix them.

    I have an airbrush, but I'm still a total noob when it comes to airbrushing.  My airbrush is  a Paasche Talon (the name in the US anyways), that I mainly use for basecoating large areas. 

    I'm happy to be here  as I feel like a noob with a brush a lot.  I'm constantly trying to improve.  The main areas I'm currently trying to improve are skin tones, eyes, and learning how to push my highlights and shadows to create more contrast in my painting.  It probably doesn't help that I'm almost always second guessing myself about something.

    My online presence, is mainly over at the WAMP Forum, various Facebook groups, occassionally on Plarzoid.com, and now on here.

    I hope that with over 20 years of being in the painting miniatures hobby, I can bring my experience to the blog.  So, I've been around through all sorts of games, models, and paint lines.  I'm also based here in the US, which might offer a different prospective or at least give you guys an idea of the things coming out here in the US.

To see my work and contribution 

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