Why I went into miniature painting

Why did you go into miniature painting?
I loved roleplaying ever since I was introduced to it (was intimidated for my first game but that went away fast), and miniatures (especially painted ones) bring a spark to the game I feel makes the imagination grow even more.

Numenera, land of craziness born from your imagination’s offspring.

But miniatures are so expensive! How did you take the plunge?
I would say, wait for a sale. Seriously. This hobby is expensive, and I finally catapulted myself into it (that’s how it felt like) when there was a Paradigm Infinitum warehouse sale and tonnes of miniatures and paints (and more) were going for 30% off.

I finally got my hands on some miniatures I really wanted (Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay: Flagellants) and bought a hobby starter set and some ruins as well.

Wait, Paradi- what?
If you live in Singapore and you love to boardgame/roleplay/tabletop wargame, Paradigm Infinitum (PI for short) is The place to go. It’s a great place to check stuff out, and the awesome helpful staff are always ready to help. The other reason you need to know this, especially if you are going into miniature painting, is that they are basically one of the few shops that sells miniature hobby craft paint such as Citadel, Vallejo, Army Colour and related stuff (i.e. primers, textures, epoxy).

That said, my husband went to Funan The Digilife Mall (I still call it Funan The IT Mall) recently and saw a new games store called Battle Bunker (on 19 Nov 2013) that sold tonnes of warhammer stuff, INCLUDING Citadel paints!

So? Can’t I use acrylic paints from art/craft stores? Aren’t they cheaper?
Sure you can! Acrylic craft paints such as Folk Art and Apple Barrel ($3 for 59 ml) ARE cheaper. Citadel/Vallejo game colour bottles also contain less paint ($6 SGD for 12-17 ml). But I started with a Citadel starter kit and I’ve used Folk Art for bigger projects, and I find paints developed for miniatures really are finer, and better for painting miniatures!

But I’ve never painted, and it’s so expensive! What if it doesn’t turn out the way I want?
I wasn’t sure either, but as I went more into learning how to paint, I discovered that painting is REALLY therapeutic. Get a good light source, good chair (so you avoid hunching), paints brushes, palette and miniatures and you are ready to go! The best part? It’s your mini! You decide the colour scheme and if you don’t like how it turns out, you can strip it of its paint job and try again!

What colour code were we using for the dungeon party again?

Ok..but, but!
Enough buts! Something that also really helped me get into it was the enthusiasm, encouragement and support from my friends and family. LC taught me to paint (I tried briefly and it was horrible, then he taught me about layers), my husband gave me a whole bunch of miniatures from Descent to paint without any pressure (I could paint whatever I wanted – yay!), and of course, saving enough money to buy miniatures I really wanted? That’s da bomb!

What’s there left to say, except GO AND TRY IT OUT (:

Kickstarter: playsets – remote social storytelling app

For those of you who love storytelling (the term I use to differentiate tabletop roleplaying from rpg video games in conversation), do check this out Kickstarter project playsets.

Fret not about the typical dungeon crawl where you see only the bird’s eye view of things – in this system, you view everything at the same angle, and yet 3D space is taken into account! Your character can thus climb trees, hide behind buildings, etc!

Its beautiful, clean design caught my eye immediately – and the fact that it’s an app too is too exciting! Fear not, it’s available on iOS, Android AND web!! When we move further away from our friends, we might rely on this a lot.

They are in the midst of developing and will begin BETA TESTING THIS WEEK!! I’m a tester and I’ll shout out what I love about it! Bookmark their tumblr and like their facebook page – this will eventually become a free app – yes! FREE! – though kickstarter backers will have exclusive tokens and access to other benefits (joy!). For all tweeps out there, they are @playsetsapp.

Black Friday purchases

BLACKFRIDAYSALE!!!

Did you get anything on Black Friday weekend?

I bought some tees on Threadless, and ES, AC and I combined our wishlists and made a purchase on miniature market. I must say though, that all the things I wanted were not on extra discount (there was already a 25% discount for a long time). Only the netrunner datapack that AC wanted was, at 7 USD (very cheap!).

A bunch of boardgames got a massive discount and some minis from Kings of War, but terrain/modelling supplies weren’t any cheaper than usual. A little disappointing!

Anyhoo. I bought a bunch of Gamemastery products to enhance my storytelling, as props! These decks of cards include cards illustrated with weapons, treasure, potions, etc and my favourite: cards with faces of NPCs (non-playable characters). These include people, enemies and monsters!

I also purchased (on good faith) a bunch of fun plot twist cards. These cards often have 1 specific twist, such as “the nearest ally within 20 feet turns on you” (gasp! That’s pretty specific!), and 4 vague-r twists.

Sounds like good impromptu fun to have with freestyle roleplaying! CAN’T WAIT!! I’ll be sure to let you guys know how it goes!