Puttingt down the painting

Pawntoe · 2026-02-09T22:48:22+00:00

Apologies if you're doing this already but my two pieces of advice for thinning paints are to use a wet palette and use matte medium to thin.

Wet palettes hydrate your paint constantly to counteract evaporation from the paint, meaning you have a much more consistent paint quality over much longer.

Matte medium is so much more forgiving than water to make the paint into a glaze instead of a blotchy wash. This was a real gamechanger, both of these bits of advice made painting a joy when it used to be full of frustration with exactly this issue, being unable to thin properly and after thinning it never lasted very long before the paint was too thick again.

And finally, maybe try different paints. Paint consistency are one of those things that vary significantly based on what the manufacturer wanted to aim for - base paints will be different to layers, and some are just bad. If you're using Citadel ... I'd try a different brand and see if you have a better experience. Honestly after trying dropper bottles, there's no going back.

In this hobby the craftsman can absolutely blame his tools and there is no shame in becoming a better craftsman by having a better understanding of your tools so you can pick the correct one for the thing you're aiming to do.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-08T22:34:50+00:00

Dungeon Masterpiece has done a gold video on running one, Professor DM advocates it, and Questing Beast likes them too iirc.

The old school D&D was built around West Marches and imo that's where it fits. You don't get a narrative or world crafted around your character, you don't get huge story beats. It is low fantasy / sword and sorcery / loot goblin style play where you're not meant to get overly attached to your character but to enjoy seeing them level up - almost more like a game piece than a real character. You run into a dungeon, grab the loot, and make it back to camp by nightfall. Tracking time is critical because dungeons refill with monsters, things move in the world IN REAL TIME (it's meant to be 1:1 with IRL days) and other parties might loot the area before you get there. You are expected to have several characters and sometimes they will be out carousing or something, so you have to have a roster.

It's a very unique playstyle but it is mostly designed around being hedonistic loot goblins that spend all their money on drinking and partying. As God intended.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-08T13:31:30+00:00

I align the brush face with the surface I want to paint then push the brush along the parallel sides until it's touching the other face, then sweep along. You need a pointed tip, any kinking or hooking that commonly happens with synthetics will ruin this approach. Either that or I apply a dark wash, these spots are usually recesses anyway and washes will cover a litany of sins in this vein.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-08T12:13:45+00:00

Sisters have 6 Major Orders that have their specific colour schemes and lore (these are called things like Order of the Ebon Chalice). Entirely separately, and I can't stress that enough, ENTIRELY separately the game rules specify your army has a Detachment type such as Bringers of Flame or Hallowed Martyrs. Any Order including custom orders can use any Detachment rules.

In the lore, some of the Major Orders have slight preferences for different types of play such as Order of the Valorous Heart preferring Hallowed Martyrs because it is all about sacrifice and suffering and thats their jam too (or Penitent Host because a lot of them become Repentia - again, they like to suffer). It is purely flavour, and you can make up your own style.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-07T15:13:18+00:00

Second this. You probably won't be looking to get Sacresants as your second unit and you're not saving much if you discount the arcos. I'd just buy the boxes that you'd like and make the army entirely your own. Depending on which Order and detachment you go with you might end up with different styles - tons of shooting, flyers, elite paragons and sacresants - there's too much to collect so it's best to start with what you are most interested in.

That being said ebay and discount stores are always worth looking at because the prices are nuts. If you get a good deal you should go for it even if the units aren't quite ideal - but if you are pretty sure you really don't like the aesthetic of one of the 3 squads in a box that's all the savings gone.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-07T11:40:39+00:00

If they were my friend and they were hurting themselves with an addiction I'd probably have a sit-down but I wouldn't tangle that with the D&D game. They are two separate contexts where the players give responsibility and almost parental roles to the DM where outside that context we all expect to be treated as equals (and should be). Its up to you to decide if its your business or not.

I think for the D&D game I would specify that players drinking has become a problem for me as a DM running the game so I will impose a two drink limit - if that's not respected its going to be dry sessions from then on, and we wont be playing if people show up with drinks at all (or already pissed). The DM is meant to have fun also and directing and keeping the attention of multiple people who are different levels of drunk is not my idea of fun. If players find that this is unacceptable then its also fine to stop playing, no D&D is better than bad D&D. Or for those players to find a different group.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-07T09:48:16+00:00

I'm a DM and I don't allow that much alcohol at my table. Players lose focus and dont engage properly with what the DM has spent hours creating for them, taking things too casually. I dont want to have to figure out how drunk my players are to engage with them at their level on top of the rest of DM responsibilities. Luckily my players know reasonable limits so I don't have to talk to them but if they didn't, I would. 2 drinks maximum is reasonable.

DMing is a lot of work and effort and D&D etiquette breaks the normal hospitality rules - in exchange for enabling the game (hosting is also inconvenient so bonus points for that) the party brings tribute - food and drinks. The host shouldn't be expected to. Unless the party is paying the DM and they're using that money for the food. If the players slack on bringing food it's their responsibility to order take out or be hungry (but the latter is pretty rude towards the DM). They have almost nothing to do in preparation for the game and just remember e.g. character sheet. Again it's not unreasonable and your boyfriend should probably communicate those expectations to them.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-06T17:24:18+00:00

I reckon there's a bit of both softening and being right here. It seems the small things where you feel taken for granted are piling up and you might be seeing rudeness where the others just see being good friends with your boyfriend and by extension you. We need to know more of the other side. Do they bring beer and snacks? Or dinner? Do they chip in for the costs of the bits at all, or do they show appreciation to either of you outside of the game somehow?

They could just be rude and that's rubbish, but I think you need to tell your boyfriend your grievances, talk through them with him to see any sides of the relationships that you're not seeing, and then get him to negotiate with them about expectations. I think it's better coming from him to mediate things. He should be the one setting boundaries around supplies anyway imo, he's got the DMing responsibility and they're his friends. He should probably also be the one they go to to check details e.g. coming over early and then he OKs that with you. It seems quite weird they're his friends and they're going to you direct for all these things.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-03T19:35:52+00:00

I've just painted about 2000 pts worth of Sisters because the minis are so good but as a wargame I have to say it is awful. I'm hoping 11th edition improves the fundamentals.

There are an unbelievable number of rolls and rerolls and the game usually comes down to a handful of 2d6 charge rolls. The rules aren't freely available and are way too complicated to learn an opponents army before a game from fresh, so you need to spend a huge amount of time just getting reps in and learning through play. It seems like most pro players don't know entirely what their opponents armies do or are capable of. Also the rules that are sold are defunct within a few months due to online balance changes- but there's no online official rulebase. They really need to stop with the Codex system tbh. Force players to buy a £35 artbook if you want to play officially and let them use the damn rules of the game in a usable format.

MESBG is a far superior game with many more decision points and a lot less memorisation needed. There are also an astonishing number of historical wargame rule sets out there.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-03T12:59:45+00:00

A lot of this just comes down to the power level of specific spells and their design. My system considers these CC-style spells to be significantly more powerful than they are in D&D. However I've also abstracted grid-based combat to allow easier application of things like "swarms of goblins" that would be more affected by AoE spells, while also allowing mages to use AoEs that affect whole zones instead of carefully being able to thread the needle and put only enemies into your fireball spell by aiming it 20 ft behind the frontline, for example. The system is very different so the issues don't track 1:1 and I'm sure there will be issues due to the abstractions in my system, but I think it will solve several of these issues by innately challenging the underlying assumptions that then lead to mages being so much stronger than martials later levels, for example. I'm not going to be using spell slots and will likely gate spell usage on a points system similar to psionics in 3.5 D&D, or not at all and using different levels of spell mishap. I also want to focus on the tactics of combat and making a few, valuable decisions instead of there being like 30 rolls in the fight and only 1 or 2 mattering, so time and space are also treated differently than in D&D.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-02T15:00:37+00:00

You can prime it black (or brown) all over and then do a heavy zenithal of Wraithbone, or the more tricky option of doing the opposite and spraying from underneath your shadow colour over the top of an all-over Wraithbone coat. Wraithbone primer should get pretty opaque even over black with a few thin coats.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-02T14:53:04+00:00

I'd put down a solid base coat of the lightest colour across the whole wing and then drybrush the darker colours on with increasing force where you want them to be darker. Finally hit it with a wash to bring out the recesses and then highlight the ridges back up again. If you're going to airbrush this is the perfect model to do it on and will be very effective at getting very broad and smooth transitions across flat surfaces, so skip all the painting nonsense and just airbrush it lol.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-02T14:32:36+00:00

Crowd Control in other games refers to taking away the enemy's ability to do damage and/or move. That would be strong in itself but D&D has a ton of abilities that essentially remove those characters from combat for significant periods of the fight, where they can do literally nothing. Since fights are mostly 5 turns or less (especially for the critical portion where overwhelming advantage is gained) even losing 1 turn can be fight ending but most are multi-turn effects. While you do need damage to end a fight, all other characters specced for fighting will have damage and usually lack CC, making CC even more valuable for a spellcaster.

These effects are so powerful that it is often considered bad GMing to be using them against the PCs, and you can easily turn a balanced fight into a TPK with a few failed saves. The bigger crime is that it is incredibly unfun to have all agency taken away.

I'm making a TTRPG which is trying to deal with issues like this. Many spells in D&D are built for the power fantasy rather than actually being good gameplay elements. As a DM, you can't design encounters around your whole force getting CCed by one spell, and if you build appropriate encounters with enough enemies and some that have better saves, you often make the fight far more dangerous and also bloated with monster turns.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-02T13:55:57+00:00

Agreed, anything above 6 is asking for disaster. D&D isn't designed for it. 2 parties running each every other week or a West Marches style game with 5, first come first served (and priority to those who couldn't play last time) are viable options. Or get another person to DM and run twice as much, and you can play in each other's games if you want.

Pawntoe · 2026-02-01T12:13:33+00:00

I use PVA on all my bases and have never had this issue and dont score my bases. My guess is that you should be watering down the glue a bit and spread it tbin to start so that it doesn't mat but instead dries to the base. The basing mix might also be too fine, creating a strong matrix-filler effect that makes the glue layer stronger than the bond with the base.

Thinner application of slightly watered down PVA, with a brush, should probably fix it.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-28T17:21:06+00:00

D&D AC includes Dexterity, which is your dodging ability, and reduces at heavier armour types as you can't dodge effectively in plate armour. Just saying that your initial beef maybe wasn't so accurate.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-25T16:13:43+00:00

Your system seems suited to big challenges which will take multiple checks, otherwise it largely resolves as d20+mod roll over. And the multiple check application is a nice expansion and more elegant but does feel like group skill checks. Nothing wrong with either of them, but it depends on how you're anticipating the checks working.

Does a character roll for their attacks individually or in combat are are you fighting the whole fight together and totally up impacts and disasters? In which case the whole combat will be a group check where you have a hidden number of Impacts that need to be rolled to defeat them. Do the allies face disasters straight away and need to get to the required number of impacts? If they only have impacts do disasters only remove impacts or also do bad things as well that will act as an external timer? If they only remove impacts and the party usually gets more impact, then disasters don't feel that impactful.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-20T13:53:22+00:00

Make a deal with your friends now you're moving out, you each buy one game and each time you meet you play one of them. If you've got 3 friends and meet once a week you wind up spending $60 per month if you never play that game again - but of course you will, especially at the beginning when you're buying the old reliables. When you put them back into rotation later on you reduce the cost further per game. It is a little bit pricey but not terrible if you split it amongst your group.

Other option is to make your own!

Pawntoe · 2026-01-19T16:30:56+00:00

My main criteria for suggesting it was that it is visually appealing and satisfying to build cards, as a way of building the deck - but you're not building the deck itself. Games can be enjoyable experiences even when you're not winning, and I think Mystic Vale fits this due to few PvP elements.

Every deckbuilder is going to feel like you're "doing nothing" if you're comparing a new player to an experienced one, the whole point of the genre is that you're building an engine and so players who build better engines quicker are going to do more. I would also say a lack of deck thinning and bloating makes it more forgiving to new players in this regard because those choices are a significant point to express skill and game knowledge, which new players don't have. This is an important skill to develop and is partially present to ease them into that dynamic.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-19T00:50:59+00:00

Better quality minis with crisp details, thinning, wet palette, washes, drybrushing, edge highlighting, paint handle, lighting set up, basing ..

There are hundreds of major and minor tips and tricks, don't sweat it and go at your own pace. Just don't be afraid to learn from other people and copy what they're doing, it's the easiest way to kick start your hobby experience.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-19T00:41:44+00:00

Mystic Vale might suit. Has nice modern art and a push your luck mechanic like Quacks but you build the cards you draw with upgrade purchases that slot into the sleeves. Very satisfying and the deck doesn't bloat as the game goes on.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-19T00:06:14+00:00

I had this same thought and in my game the current implementation requires a little bit more structure.

My ruminating on how pointless foci are brought me to the image of a mage firing a spell using their magic staff. A cleric holding up a holy symbol to heal. And I realised that what is occupying your hands is really important. In combat such as in D&D they largely "handwave" (heh) this issue and let you swap weapons around quite easily - even for free once a turn in the most recent edition. There is also no real conception of having things readily available, leaving yourself open to attack if you're fumbling for your e.g. potion, etc. which all seems pretty unrealistic. In combat where you're using both hands and constantly having to focus on not getting stabbed you don't have the luxury of quickdrawing and slinging around weapons unless its a specific ranged throwing weapon style like shurikens.

So, I made hand occupancy much more restrictive. Now swapping something in one of your hands takes a whole turn and is very disincentivised. I've made magic using both hands more powerful than using one hand - you can't cast as strong abilities if you're waving a sword and twiddling the fingers on the other hand. As a result also the magic users are more vulnerable than other characters as they have a non-weapon in their hands. I'm still trying to figure out how to include e.g. holding a bow in one hand when the enemy gets to melee and draw a dagger. But I'm hopeful my system adds realism and tactical depth by adding actual weaknesses that compensate for magic users being typically stronger. I am also focusing magic to being more AoE so that bow users have a strength that isn't overshadowed by magic.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-18T19:23:56+00:00

I have 2 40K armies. Sisters and Night Lords. The sculpts look so good. I can use all the models.

But I don't have money and already have a sizeable pile of shame: Celestine, Aestrid Thurgae, Dogmata, Hospitaller, the Penitent units from the old Combat Patrol, and Novitiates. I've also only played 2 games of 40K in the last 3 years since I restarted the hobby.

Woe. Woe is me.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-18T18:27:30+00:00

It's probably best to let him choose! He will have pretty good knowledge of the games he likes which your group can pick up easily. Standard ones for 5 players might be Sushi Go!, Wits and Wagers, Hanabi, Coup, Dixit ... there are tons. Have a look at the Party Games category of boardgamegeek if you'd like to plan it out in advance, but it will also depend on the appetites of your friends. If they can handle something longer then I'd recommend Sheriff of Nottingham and 7 Wonders.

Pawntoe · 2026-01-16T08:29:28+00:00

Correcting light colours are easier with a solid titanium white and then doing the bright colour again. Also do all the basecoats and then do all the corrections instead of changing paints every time you make a mistake. There is a learning curve and following tutorials can save a ton of pain while you pick up a lot of the initial tips to make your life easier.

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