Author Archives: tony

Turns out

Posted on by

that the paints are in pretty good condition.  A few jars of solid colour that need throwing away, a few jars of sludge that will need a lot of stiring and re-hydrating, lots of jars of perfectly ok paint and a couple that just need a good shake.

I thought I’d play with the camera and see how it works on macro shots, since I’ve not tried any since we got the DMC-FZ8.  The only ones I have of miniatures are taking with the old digital, this one should be a lot better but it’s going to take a long time to get lighting, positioning and zoom right.

Anyway, in summary, I’m going to try painting tonight.

Update: camera looks pretty good, need to work on lighting and get something better to stand the figures on, but here are a few shots.

Painting

Posted on by

I have an increasing urge to break out the miniatures, paints and associated paraphernalia and see what’s worth keeping and what needs to be chucked / replaced, and then maybe trying some painting and seeing how much skill I’ve lost in the last 8 years since EQ took over my life.

I’ve ‘restarted’ painting a few times over the years, each time it’s expensive (replacing a lot of paint and brushes) and each time it takes longer to get back to a point I’m happy with my skill.

I certainly have more time for it these days I think, now that my MMORPG habits are seriously curtailed.  I’m not even sure what the market for miniatures is like, I guess Warhammer / Games Workshop has pretty much cornered the miniatures market in the UK.  I see that 4th Edition D&D has some plastic pre-painted miniatures for use with the game.

Clerks

Posted on by

Clerks arrived and we started our Kevin Smitheron by watching it this evening.  It plays a little more like an extended sketch show than a movie, with varying parts of the day as individual sketches linked through some overall theme.

It’s certainly entertaining, and amusing, but it wasn’t belly laughing funny.  There are clear moments where the actor’s either forget their lines, or stumble over their lines or just plainly adlib which give the movie a real ‘college project’ feel, but then considering the cost and the background it’s not surprising.  There are real moments of pure quality cinema as well, with two-character sparring dialog that reminds me of Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction in a lot of ways (both 1994).

In general, I enjoyed it.  I’m not sure it’s going to be a cult classic in this house, and we enjoyed Clerks II more (and that despite having never seen the first one), but maybe if we watch it a few more times we’ll get more into the swing and enjoy what’s going on around the image.

In November, I’m writing a 50,000 word novel

Posted on by

I’m telling you this, because the advice from NaNoWriMo is, and I quote,

3) Tell everyone you know that you’re writing a novel in November. This will pay big dividends in Week Two, when the only thing keeping you from quitting is the fear of looking pathetic in front of all the people who’ve had to hear about your novel for the past month. Seriously. Email them now about your awesome new book. The looming specter of personal humiliation is a very reliable muse.

See you in December, and we’ll see if I look pathetic or elated.

Ireland in ’94

Posted on by

Two quick photo’s from the Ireland trip in ’94, first a bunch of us on the Ferry and then a gravestone (because at the time, I took a lot of photo’s of gravestones).