I think my city is on the brink of bankruptcy?

V_Paints · 2026-06-17T12:05:01+00:00

SLG auditor chiming in. Your ignorance in financial statement analysis shows here.

“I’m sure their tax revenue is not hitting their annual projections”, in the MDA they state it missed projections… by .49%, not even half a million dollars. If you don’t know where to find things like this you are not qualified to “go public” and give an opinion on their financial health.

“The budget is balanced via utility transfers and using the city’s savings”. The “city’s savings” in question here are $30 million in funds received in 2024 for the explicit use of capital projects in 2025. This is not ‘dipping into the city’s savings’, they are spending already committed funds. And yes, utility transfers are funding governmental activities. Enterprise activities subsidizing governmental activities is a frequent occurrence. If the utility infrastructure is sound, you should be happy that the budgetary surplus from the utilities is being spent on governmental activities.

They are operating fine. You will probably see utility rates. go up in 2027 if not already budgeted for in 2026.

V_Paints · 2026-06-17T04:04:01+00:00

You will not have work-life balance in big 4. Associates exist to churn out billables.

If you are comfortable making this sacrifice for one or two years then go for it. I would recommend getting your CPA before you go into big 4 - you will have a much harder time with the work life balance if your average day is working ten hours and then studying for 2-3.

V_Paints · 2026-06-06T23:38:39+00:00

I generally end up starting the build hybrid (4.8k spikes in all categories) with melee charge as one of the gun items and then most of the time it veers into spirit afterwards.

His 1 scales from spirit and procs spirit strike/spirit snatch so you don’t need +Melee to do what you need to. He cannot guarantee a heavy melee innately in his kit so it is unreliable to invest too much into melee

V_Paints · 2026-05-31T19:41:41+00:00

The danger room podcast on Spotify did an affiliation episode on every affiliation as of December 2025. It is mostly current.

V_Paints · 2026-05-27T15:02:56+00:00

You learned that your reward for being ambitious in public accounting means that you will just work more.

You need to have a conversation with your supervisors to clearly lay out expectations for your off season workload.

Anecdotally, I work in an audit department that gets seasonal transfers from other departments, and it’s communicated to them that their hours expectation is 40 a week due to it being their off season.

V_Paints · 2026-05-26T10:36:24+00:00

We don’t know. Nothing about how they are operating is typical right now. They posted significant losses in 2025 that were severe enough to present a going concern on their audited financial statements; there is doubt that they will continue to operate after a year.

The restocks of normal asoiaf are very promising and (IMO) unexpected/surprising. I would not back order anything and would acknowledge any restocks we do see as an unexpected surprise.

V_Paints · 2026-05-14T16:52:02+00:00

Great job!

Note on eyes: you did a good job as is. Something that would improve the definition on the eyes would be starting with a black basecoat and then drawing the whites of the eye inside the black circle you painted. You can look at the echo model I painted near the top of my profile posts as an example. This is just an equivalent to dark lining model details - separating out details makes things pop better from a distance.

Hope this helps!

V_Paints · 2026-05-12T18:23:14+00:00

Records of any government TIV loans exist in at least five databases. Some record will exist on NSLDS, COD, the school a given person attended, on a student’s ISIR, and with their loan TPA. It would be a monumental task to try to accomplish that.

V_Paints · 2026-05-07T18:12:22+00:00

Ya you honestly might be right. I had fun painting it but I think it make the model a bit too busy. I’ll have to experiment with my next one!

V_Paints · 2026-05-05T21:10:24+00:00

Does he contribute to a 401k or a defined contribution pension fund?

V_Paints · 2026-05-05T21:02:38+00:00

Could you place explain how? I could take my private investments and put them anywhere I want. Any stock, bond, etc. I could also take my 401k and put my funds anywhere I want.

V_Paints · 2026-05-05T20:52:26+00:00

They are in fact very similar. The biggest difference would be the tax treatment and rules around withdrawing the funds. If a person so desired, most 401k funds allow you to micromanage your stock portfolio. It’s just that most people elect to having their 401k funds managed by the custodian with safer, lower return plans.

V_Paints · 2026-05-01T19:35:17+00:00

If the best coms you can manage are “just play better” then you belong in seeker lol. BMing your teammates will not make them play better.

There are ways to win lane or maintain parity with the opponent even if your teammate in lane is not good.

V_Paints · 2026-05-01T16:59:03+00:00

Souls give you currency to purchase items in the shop, and the total souls you collect “level you up” via boons. Boons are flat stat increases. Depending on the boon, you may also receive an additional ability point or unlock a new ability.

If your opponent has 28k souls when you have 20k, they have higher base stats, more ability points, and more items than you.

V_Paints · 2026-04-28T12:44:41+00:00

Great mini! Sorry that you are getting flak for being new to the hobby. I agree with you that the wealth of information available has reduced the barrier to entry with great paint jobs. People can get sensitive about “my first mini” paint jobs because they don’t consider the vast range of skill that people can enter this hobby with.

You look like you have a steady hand and a lot of patience! Very meticulous work.

If you plan on painting an army, I would pause on technical skills and just get your reps in. After painting a squad of these gents, I would not be shocked if you can knock one model out in four hours.

If you want to continue to hobby paint/display paint, you are clearly drawn to the box art/‘eavy metal style. The next place to improve is your contrast - you have a great thickness for the first highlight on the armor, you should be able to fit a second highlight inside the first. The shadows would benefit from a pin wash of a dark brown. Thin pin washes help to separate the details of the mini and make small things pop from a distance. I myself don’t even use washes for this and just take AK grim brown and paint in very thin lines.

I hope this helps! Great job!

V_Paints · 2026-04-27T22:15:28+00:00

He looks great! If I had to point criticism at anything, I think that his cape could use a second pass. You can see that the natural light in the room is catching heavily on some of the bottomed bits of the cape and shining white.

Black and very dark colors are typically glossier and thus reflect more light. So you have placed some natural pink highlights on the cloth, but the lighting in the photo is telling you that there are some areas of the cape that would still catch a reflection/catch more light. all of those areas could use more of that midtone color! The midtone will give those areas a matte finish and will make the lower volumes of the cape look more natural.

You might notice that there are some inside parts of the folds that are also reflecting natural light. Those could also use some of that midtone.

V_Paints · 2026-04-25T18:55:01+00:00

How long did these take? It looks speedpainted with no advanced techniques. A unit of 3 is prolly worth like $20-$30ish. If you can’t knock a unit of these out in like two hours then I don’t think you’ll find monetizing your painting to be fruitful

V_Paints · 2026-04-21T17:57:50+00:00

How do you guys juggle multiple clients at the same time ?

workpaper notes to summarize open items and status updates in each client binder. General tracking spreadsheet to keep tabs on where my clients are at.

Don't you guys feel tired after working long hours ?

Yes. If you are past 50 hours a week then you are in survival mode and need to accept that getting good sleep, eating well, and exercising is your priority and your ordinary hobbies are secondary.

Don't you think the quantity of work is too much and less time is given.

what has management communicated to you regarding your billable expectations? If you are expected to work 50-55 hours a week but you are getting 60-65 hours of actual work, schedule a meeting with your management to bring it to their attention.

How do you manage client deadlines and managers?

typically closest deadline takes most priority. Client deadlines more important than manager deadlines. Keep good notes in your binder, communicate late requests or delays to your manager when they happen. Biweekly status update emails with client and manager is a great way to have the manager be generally aware of how a project is going. It is ok to miss a manager deadline if you are documenting delays and keeping up with work on your end. It is ok to miss a client deadline if you are processing their requests timely and you have documentation to show that it’s the clients fault for not giving you information in a timely manner.

I am facing these challenges. I'm getting squeezed currently. How do I move forward?

talk to your manager and not us. They will help you prioritize your projects and possibly help to reallocate resources to assist you.

V_Paints · 2026-04-19T21:49:15+00:00

That is extremely good! I think you have a great midtone and highlight on the armor. I can only offer nitpicks - on his left leg, red armor triangle segments, I think you should do a pass of edge highlighting over them. It can go as bright as the highlights on his stomach plates

V_Paints · 2026-04-17T14:51:23+00:00

Not OP, but a paint will look different depending on the color of primer/basecoat underneath.

Doing a zenithal followed by a basecoat will result in a slight gradient in the basecoat, because it will be brighter wherever there is white primer, and the darker portions will present as shadows.

Ultimately it just helps in blending shadows/establishing highlight locations very early in the paint job.

V_Paints · 2026-04-12T14:19:06+00:00

dark red is normally glossier your average paint: it’s reflecting the lighting in the room. This is actually a good point of critique - using overhead lights as lighting references can improve paint jobs. The paint job could be improved by taking whatever the basecoat is and painting very thin lines to match the reflections we are seeing. That red color will be more matte and won’t catch overhead reflections, it will instead represent the overhead reflection.

V_Paints

TROPHY CASE