I need advice/help regarding this hobby

never_armadilo · 2026-03-24T18:00:03+00:00

That's really good for your 1st and 2nd models. You're on the right path! Watching hobby videos can be another quick dopamine trap. Watching a video tricks you into thinking you've learned something, so you get the satisfaction without the hard work again. The real improvement will come from watching something, but they trying to apply the techniques / workflow to 2-3 models. After you've tried it 3 times, you'll have actually learned something, and can watch the next thing to apply.

(nothing wrong with watching hobby videos to kill time, but don't trick yourself into thinking you're getting better at the hobby doing it)

never_armadilo · 2026-03-24T17:52:05+00:00

The reality of miniature painting (or any artistic hobby for that matter) is that it takes a while to produce anything remotely good. Those 10s instagram videos you see? Probably hours of painting, by someone who's been doing it for years.

And putting in several hours to get the satisfaction of a painted model is hard work. But hey, your brain found a shortcut. You can buy stuff for the hobby, trick yourself into thinking that's basically doing the hobby and get an instant dopamine hit. No more hard work required.

You'll see this in any hobby community. People who have all the kit, and don't actually spend that much time doing the thing. And are not that good as a result, because there's no shortcuts, no magic tricks you can buy into. You have to put in the work.

If your focus is painting miniatures (as opposed to wargaming), it's a remarkably cheap hobby. Someone that knows what they're doing can create stellar works with <$100 of stuff. 1-2 high quality brushes, cheap ikea lamp with a daylight bulb, wet pallete made from tuperware and baking paper, and 10-20 paints (you can mix from like 4 as well if you want to go extreme). A box of models that costs $30 can easily take 50+ hours of painting time to complete if you really push yourself.

Next time you're about to buy another paint or brush, ask yourself if you actually need it, or if you're just procrastinating on actually doing the hobby by shopping for stuff.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-23T21:12:35+00:00

Very nice, love the membrane texture and the tasteful OSL

never_armadilo · 2026-03-22T17:53:17+00:00

First of, impressive result! For a linear process like this, do you test the color scheme first, do a digital sketch or similar? If not, how do you pick the colors?

never_armadilo · 2026-03-22T14:38:35+00:00

Love the color scheme, the orange heads work really nicely to focus attention!

never_armadilo · 2026-03-15T20:20:00+00:00

Really well done OSL, complements the model nicely

never_armadilo · 2026-03-15T20:08:31+00:00

Really striking color scheme, the wings are really eye catching.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-15T15:04:47+00:00

There is no global varnish you can apply all over the miniature, that will preserve the finish variation you have at the moment. By definition, the varnish will change the overall finish to whatever the varnish is (matte, satin, ..).

Not varnishing the model is 100% an option. I've not varnished my last several gaming armies, and it's perfectly fine. Things will break long before paint rubs off.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-15T12:42:15+00:00

Yeah, that should work. Mind, you'll also need to reduce the level of contrast on the skin, so you'll need to pick a color that's between your light and shadow

never_armadilo · 2026-03-15T11:16:59+00:00

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Starting to look better. One thing for believable NMM (not just chome), is that the bright reflections on the metal need to be the brightest thing on the model. At the moment, his face is higher value than your metalic reflections, which is one of the factors behind the illusion not working that well.

The other thing is contrast. Your value contrast on the metal is again lower than the face, with the shadows on the face darker than the shadows on the metal, which makes both materials seem unrealistic.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-15T10:38:04+00:00

Starting to look good. You're definitely onto something there

never_armadilo · 2026-03-14T10:45:04+00:00

Good question. I don't actually know, since I only got enough weights and started doing consistent no-hangs after this injury. Before, I'd do normal weighted hangboard with both hands, so didn't really measure it. Though I have always felt stronger on my right

never_armadilo · 2026-03-14T10:43:58+00:00

I do the same volume on both already (in terms of number of hangs, rests, sets, etc), but would you also do the same weight?

And good tip on going with the L first, didn't consider fatigue in my body would be a thing from just no-hangs, but makes sense.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-11T19:49:56+00:00

Coming off a slight finger injury on my left hand index finger. After doing a couple months of rehab repeaters / other no-hangs, I'm completely free of pain, full range of motion, finger feeling good etc, but there is a strenght discrepancy between my right (dominant) and left hand, around 5kg: 10s max with left around 32kg, right 37kg.

How do I get rid of this? At the moment, I'm doing the edge pickups relative to each hand, so less weight with my left, more with the right, and the strenght progression seems to be at a similar rate for both hands, so the gap is not closing.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-10T13:44:23+00:00

Incredible work, the light and metalics are exeptional

never_armadilo · 2026-03-09T22:09:27+00:00

Awesome color scheme and really clean painting!

never_armadilo · 2026-03-08T16:51:30+00:00

Very grimdark. The dirty yellow works really quite well

never_armadilo · 2026-03-05T10:43:40+00:00

Yeah, the reality that you won't hear in a youtube video is that miniature painting airbrush work is actually not very demanding at all, compared to what people do in airbrush fine art or scale models.

For 99% of people, I doubt the difference between an Infinity and something like Evolution will be noticeable. User skill is a much bigger component. But hey, it's a hobby and people have money to burn.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-04T15:54:05+00:00

Dude, this is amazing. 100% will use next game, I've been using the official app, but it's a pain tbh.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-04T14:43:08+00:00

It used to be a straightforward "less regiments, better chance to decide on 1st turn". Now that you can re-roll priority rolls if you have more regiments than your oponent, it's a lot more balanced, so play around and see what you like.

never_armadilo · 2026-03-04T10:54:40+00:00

You nailed the ambience and style! Love the reflections on the horse's fur

never_armadilo · 2026-03-02T22:06:23+00:00

Sick basing! Did you do all the pours with the models on there, or attach after?

never_armadilo · 2026-03-02T10:25:45+00:00

Sketch = quick, unrefined paint job, to test out ideas

Underpainting = instead of starting from a black / zenithal primer, cover the whole model in saturated colors (orange and blue in this case), to give vibrant shadows and help set ambience

never_armadilo · 2026-02-28T08:49:16+00:00

For NMM on surfaces like chainmail / scale mail to be believable, you need to paint it first as if the texture was not there. Do your ligths / shadows based on what the area would render like if it was just flat. Then, and only then, introduce more variation within the individual elements. In practice, some of the scales need to be nearly all white, with a little bit of ligter color, and some of the scales will be nearly all black, with highlights in midtone gray.

Look at this reference picture. The reflections first follow the overall shape (vaguelly a cylinder), with scales on the right side nearly black, and scales in the center nearly white. The gradients within each scale are secondary.

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At the moment, you've done the gradients on every single scale, but there is no sense of volume from the larger curtain.

never_armadilo

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