End of 2018, up next 2019

The year 2018 is coming to an end!  I completed just 15 miniatures this year; however, I look back at 2018 as a transitional year on how I spend my time in the miniature hobby. In the past years, I attempt to make this blog into an all encompassing record of my time spent with the hobby. That was too lofty of a goal, and I lost sight of my original intentions for the blog: to get me painting more miniatures! I hope what I started in 2018 will result in me being more productive and that I will paint models on a more regular basis. So what happened in 2018 for me? I started using Pinterest to gather references and inspiration for my own projects. I am painting with the Hobby Holder. Finally I have joined Facebook miniature painting communities to give me that small push to try to complete painting models.

Pinterest

Pinterest is a great way to gather and organize images for reference and inspiration for ones' projects. For example, when I wanted to paint the wolf/bear fur cloak on a figure, I searched for images related to it as reference. Another benefit I found is that most of my painting are for games and models that have been out for a while. Thus, there are many examples of paint schemes posted on the web that I can use for inspiration. I have been organizing the Pinterest boards by game or miniature company line and planned to post my own models into these same boards to show the finished projects.

Hobby Holder

The Hobby Holder - a grip to hold onto while painting miniatures - was funded through Kickstarter and fulfilled earlier this year. I have become a big fan of this product and the Hobby Holder system has become a central way for me to organize my paintings. I have purchased multiple copies of the Hobby Holder to be used for batch painting similar models, made my own custom grip mods to go with the threaded base and stability bar, and also made several cap stands (and counting!) to have an entire painting project all nicely organized at the workstation. Next year, a larger stability bar will be released through a second Kickstarter project. The larger stability bar is a product I was hoping to get for a long time, which would allow the use of a stability bar with larger models.

Facebook Group

Halfway through 2018, I decided to join and be more active in Facebook Group communities. It is a nice way to keep tabs on painting progress and to know that I am not the only one that struggles to paint models. It is also inspiring to see people that paint a great amount of miniatures, too! I made a small goal for 2018 which was to paint every remaining month in 2018. I was able to complete that goal and will be increasing my goals for 2019: 1) same as 2018, complete a model each month ; 2)  complete a box set of models for gaming with family ; 3) complete the painting of a set of models for gaming with the local community

The Blog

The blog originally was an attempt to record every single detail of what I have done in the hobby. There are better ways to do that, than on the web. I will use this blog to write about topics that may be of interest to others beside me and post completed projects.