Good Wednesday to you dearest of readers as we are once again here to answer your quizzical questions and get to the bottom of your burning desires for answers. Last week, we dealt with whether people are sitting correctly (no), what to do when you’re alone at the function, and how to conquer FOMO. As we put Pride Month to bed, we’ve had some great questions, and I’m certainly looking forward to many more to come in the future.
Before we get to this week’s questions, a short reminder that if you would like YOURÂ question answered by ME, all you need to do is either leave a comment below the article, or if you’re in the Goonhammer Discord (why aren’t you?), you can use our anonymous question bot to do so as well!
They Ain’t Heavy, They’re Actually Small and Fragile
Hello, Miss Marcy!
I’m going to be moving soon, and I’m finally going to have time to really get in on working more on my hobby. But a part of the move I’m worried about is safely packing away my minis. Previously, I used one of those carrying cases that has the foam cut outs, but they ended up destroying two of my Separatist units in Star Wars Shatterpoint when I went to Adepticon and breaking the sword of one of my Frostgrave units. I don’t have the money for a nice magnetic carrying case like a Stronghold, and even the MDF ones are out of my price range at the moment. What’s the best way to transport minis safely?
From,
On The Road Again
Dear On the Road Again,
As a collector of figures, minis, board games, and lots of small, fragile things, I am very familiar with the pain of storing, traveling, and moving with small, frustrating plastic things that seem to want to break the moment you look away from them. We have an excellent article here (with a great video too) about traveling with minis, which I highly suggest you read and I think has some great suggestions for your question.
I think the article has some great suggestions, but I’ll specifically cite the DIY section here for you:
DIY Solutions
While there are a lot of different solutions you can pay for in the hobby, there are as many if not more potential solutions for a do-it-yourself-er. Some of the more common include making your own foam trays by buying sheets of foam and cutting out slots from them. DIY magnetic cases are also easy to make – simply glue magnetic or metal sheets into a plastic drawer, tray, or box. And tackleboxes and Toolboxes with small compartments also make for good choices – and a metal toolbox may not require any additional magnets (though it will also be much heavier).
You can also use cases intended for other things, like tool, camera, or gun cases. These will often include foam that can hold minis, but have a major downside in that they make you a bigger target for theft (though it is funny to imagine someone who thinks they’ve stolen a professional camera opening the case to find a fistful of Skaven).
And yes, in a pinch you can always bubblewrap your minis and toss them in a shoebox or put individual models in an egg carton.
I will give you a few suggestions that are akin to these, depending on your budget and pricing. Stores like Ikea or the Container Store sometimes have very surprisingly cheap boxes or plastic storage bins of various sizes, but something that you may want to consider are cheap mug/cup holder boxes, or smaller boxes such as things for shoes, and using some of the DIY notes to wrap and protect individual minis in them. As someone who has done a few cross-country moves and drives with fragile things, a really important note I can give is that wrapping and protecting an item, even in cheap newspaper, can do a lot to protect them, but also, don’t give things more space than they need. If all your Shatterpoint minis will fit safely wrapped in a small tub, use that over a large box. Focus on reducing possible movement and also how much space the box takes up and how much it can shift around. Good luck with the move!
Decisions, Decisions, or Not Making Them
Miss Marcy,
How I decide where to focus my hobby attention? I fear I’ve got too many things on the go (space marines, knights and now emperor’s children) and I’m starting to feel a little overwhelmed. I know the best thing for me to do would be to commit to one project and see it out to completion, but I don’t know which one!
Indecisive Inquisitor
Dear Indecisive,
This question is deceptive, because there are some factors we don’t always consider. One off the bat: are you depressed or suffer from any sort of executive dysfunction? Because that can go a long way to making your problem harder to solve on it’s own (although, maybe noticing that will help you in the long run), because there’s a possibility your indecision is a symptom of your brain being unkind to you and preventing you from doing things by making it seem impossible to choose. I certainly have begun to notice the difference when I am being paralyzed by my brain and when I am just spoiled for choice, and that has helped a lot.
Aside from perhaps giving you an existential crisis, doing some accounting can be a really good step here. Focus on immediacy: what do you need to do in order to enjoy your hobby to the fullest right now? You mention three armies, so which of these is your favorite/go to for game night? Which is a new project? I think trying to make some pros and cons this way can help you prioritize things; if you are primarily playing your Knights, you should focus on them, as you’ll be using them the most often and also wanting to show them off.
You could, alternatively, try to organize your hobby by size: which is the biggest project? The smallest? Prioritizing the smallest project first can help you then put more energy into the larger ones, because you will cross out that hobby checklist item faster and give you more freedom. You can also reward yourself: put a new unit or project on your list, and then set a goal for yourself in order to get that thing: Can’t have it until you’ve painted all your Knights, built fifty marines, etc., and that should help you keep your hobby priorities on things you want to do, while also rewarding you with the idea of something you can do next. Good luck, and remember, the bottom line is to prioritize the thing that brings you the most joy, and worry about the rest later. It’s a hobby, not a job!
Medium, Well Done
Dear Miss Marcy,
I have realized that due to ill considered purchases, I have a large supply of things like metallic medium (from Pro Acryl), wash/glaze medium, and so on. I am interested in blending my own colors and so forth, possibly while gently tiptoeing up to the near occasion of doing fancy advanced things like “edge highlighting,” “single point lighting,” “walking on my hind legs” and other such Golden Daemon-worthy techniques. Any guidance on how to think about using color blending on the fly? Failing that, which Citadel paint tastes best?
Oversupplied in Segmentum Obscurus
Dear Oversupplied,
For this question, I decided to confer with Keewa, who does some amazing things with paint and worked on our How to Paint Everything series. Take it away, Keewa!
Keewa: It’s tricky to advise people on how they should think but broadly I think if you want to improve your understanding of blending colours, and how they “should” be blended, it’s beneficial to study colour theory. In addition, view, study, and consume as much art as possible and try to understand the use of colour in them – why did the artist use that particular hue next to that one? What does the juxtaposition communicate to the viewer? Learn a bit of art history and use that knowledge to inform how you paint. Finally, use tons of reference, as much reference material as possible. You want to understand how a certain skin-tone looks in a cold light? Find a photo, someone, somewhere will definitely have taken a photo that you can fold into your knowledge and use in your piece. If you have a photo editing software, you can use the colour picker to extract the colours from your reference and compare them to the paints you have.
There’s lots of ways and techniques to improve your use of colour, these are just some of them.
Hope that’s helpful!
Marcy: Thanks Keewa! I think these are great suggestions, and so I want to just add on a few little ideas. If you’ve got quite a lot of paint sitting around and you want to experiment with it, you could probably benefit from a few “test” models and tools, such as bases (especially some of the textured bases that exist, or make some yourself). These can give you neutral places to test your thoughts and practice your painting without having to worry about “ruining” a model. Keewa is right, though: you need to think about painting as an artistic method of expression, not just for using it on models for a game. Once you start rolling in lessons from painting and understanding painting broader, you can apply it to your models, but you also need practical experience to help your skills there. So pick up some cheap models, bases, or anything that you can safely paint with acrylics, and get in some practice. Maybe we’ll see you at the next Golden Daemon! Or just send us cool pictures of your models, that is probably easier. Good luck!
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