Summer 2016

The past month was, as I predicted, an extremely busy time for me. Despite that, and my inability to update this blog for a while, mini painting has never been far from my thoughts.

I took a holiday in Italy this year and, as I was based in Sorrento, the ruins of Pompeii and Herculaneum were within easy reach. I’ve been to both sites before but had a strong desire to return and explore them in greater detail. One of the things that always stands out to me when visiting Roman sites is the predominance of brick built structures. This is in strong contrast to the Hollywood vision of gleaming white marble everywhere!

While exploring Herculaneum it stuck me that these Roman buildings were an excellent source of inspiration for miniature basing. Many of the walls showed evidence of repairs and alterations. The resulting patchwork was a mixture of different types and styles of brickwork and stone blocks. Using these walls as a source of inspiration would add a lot of visual interest, and a touch of narrative, to any brickwork on a scenic base.

Once back from my holiday I had just over a week to finish preparations for my Weekend Workshop in Cambridge. I’d decided to push the group a little harder this time. On the Saturday I introduced the group to my style of painting flesh. This involved the, what was to many, a new painting technique with a fair bit of supporting theory. I’d set the group a challenging task, but everyone got stuck in with admirable dedication to the task.

Sunday was devoted to consolidating and building upon what had been learned the day before. The rust, slime and drip elements of the course come towards the end as you need a painted mini to work on; but it’s also a fun way to round off the weekend’s painting. Throughout the day everyone continued to make steady progress and many of the plaguebearers reached a fairly advanced stage of completion. Considering the limited time this was no mean feat in itself.

Still more gratifying was the way that everyone worked through the challenges of embracing something new. The final crop of plaguebearers all clearly showed the progress that had been made.

Grandfather Nurgle would be impressed – I certainly was!

In the days following the workshop I’ve been getting myself sorted out ready to resume a regular painting schedule. I’m itching to get back to painting my Megaboss and seeing him finished.