Project Focus and Sustainable Gaming

Completing a squad of Rogue Trader-era Space Marines energized me to keep hacking away at my long list of projects.

Opponents for the beakie-marines seem the most obvious next endeavor, right?... nah! Instead I've flitted between at least three, totally unrelated painting, crafting, or game-writing ideas. Which brings me to the topic of this post: Project focus and sustainable gaming.

Sustainable gaming is not my term but one apparently coined by Dan Adam on his Paint All the Minis (PATM) Podcast. I discovered PATM during the holiday slowdown and it's quickly become my new favorite podcast as I find myself pivoting away from RPGs and back towards tabletop wargaming. I particularly enjoy the "why I love (XYZ Game)" episodes but the discussions on sustainable gaming also top the list.

So what is sustainable gaming? I hope I don't corrupt Dan's definition by paraphrasing but essentially I understand it as: "play more games". As in focus more on getting games to the table, avoiding the pitfalls of buying more systems than one can possibly play, or endlessly preparing miniatures and terrain but never rolling the dice in anger.

Of course, we all like to try new things, so buying new rules (or home brewing our own) forms a key part of the hobby. And some folks (myself included) take more joy from creating/finishing the models than from actual game play. And that's OK too. Practicing sustainable gaming doesn't imply some monastic devotion to one game project, just a general push to try to to avoid the ruts that actually inhibit gaming.

My personal rut is endless experimentation. I'm always (buying and) tinkering with new materials and new techniques but before I can actually employ them I move on to the next idea.

All this said, I've laid down some guidelines for myself to help me focus my projects and I'm listing them and my goals here for accountability.

The short term goal is to play a single tabletop game this Spring. Between work, grad school, and domestic life this seemingly simple goal is challenging but achievable. By the year's end I would like to have played multiple wargames in different genres.

Following the guidelines below should help me get there:

1) No more buying. No new systems, no new miniatures. Play only games that I already have miniatures for.

2) No new homebrews. Playtesting a homebrew system is acceptable, as long as it uses miniatures I have on hand. Also, the homebrew needs to be fairly complete with the rules actually written somewhere (laptop, notebook) and more than just a faint idea.

3) No more miniature fabrication. This may be the hardest one for me to follow. I have too many commercially produced and DIY miniatures that need paint however so until I reach my short-term goal, no more sculpts.

4) Guideline 1 above means no new scales. Furthermore, I'll focus on scales used by multiple game systems, so I can make terrain usable across many games.

5) Active projects must fit on my drafting table. (I'm currently violating this guideline...) I can work on the project elsewhere (like by a window for ventilation/lighting, setting terrain on a side table to dry, etc.) but when I clean up, the projects must fit on the drafting table. If there's no longer space on the table, no new projects until something is finished to make room.

6) Speaking of clean up, I'm working really hard on trying to keep all my tools and work area tidy, setting up for a quick hobby session, and then putting everything back in its place. Unless paint is drying or plaster is curing, projects need to go back to the drafting table and tools in their cubby. This is probably the hardest guideline to honor.

7) The most obvious one: choose a game and work toward that. Not just a general system but a specific scenario in the game. Decide on the board layout, the opposing forces, and any other accessories needed. Like I said, obvious but not something I normally follow.

With these guidelines in place, a spaceship game would be the obvious choice. I have tons of completed ships, the minimal terrain required, and a fully-written homebrew ruleset needing playtesting.

Spaceship gaming is weird however in that none of the models or terrain transfers to other scales or games. In order to expand my range of potential games with painted miniatures and terrain, I'm purposefully avoiding spaceships for my next few games.

I've narrowed my next game down to Scott Pyle's great looking Super Mission Force (2nd Edition). I've already statted up the eight characters, grouped them into two teams, and started painting. Doctor Who miniatures at 28mm act as proxies for my super teams, which means I also get painted figures for later games set in the Whoniverse. Terrain-making is in progress.

MS Excel based game emulator

 Super Mission Force just barely beat out my other choice for my next game: micro-armor battles using my homemade future tanks. It ticks most boxes as I already have the miniatures and detailed notes for my homebrew system (working title Tracks, Turrets, and Tokamaks). I do not however have the terrain, so the tanks will have to wait. Happily, I can still playtest the rules using MS Excel as an emulator.

OK, back to making 28mm trees. I might just be playing a game in a few weeks.

Rogue Trader-era Space Marines Painted

I completed my squad of Rogue Trader era Space Marines and I'm pleased with the results. I was shooting for table-top standard and I think I hit the mark. Since I play solo, I only have one person to please.

Although I paint my scratch-built spaceships and sculptures, I haven't painted a proper commercial miniature in about 30 years. I've been watching a lot of online tutorials that gave me great ideas but I learned more by just sitting down and painting.

The first new thing I tried was zenithal priming.  

Binder clips and rows of staples...my go to

Not content with one new technique, I decided to tint my primer.  Decanting my white and red primers from their respective spray cans was the first step. I then used just a few drops of acrylic ink to generate a primer coat that matched my base color on the top portion, and the complementary color on the bottom. 

Mr. Powerglove looks different

The intended color for my homebrew Chapter, the Atomic Scars, is a strong yellow with more than a hint of orange. I started off "School Bus Yellow" but then settled on "Selective Yellow" after stumbling across it on Wikipedia.

I made tons of mistakes on these little guys but like I said, I'm quite happy after being away from the painting game for so long. As long as I stick with it, I can only get better from here.

So, in no particular order, here are some lessons learned that will maybe save someone else from making the same mistakes.

1) If the minis come disassembled, assemble loosely (after meticulous prep) with some oil clay or blue tack in order to see what areas are masked by other parts. Then come up with a plan to assemble those parts that don't mask anything, and leave the rest unassembled and paint separately. I could not do that with this batch as they were part of a used, pre-assembled lot bought on eBay. Painting the little chest tubes would've been trivial if these guys were fresh off the sprue; since they were assembled the chest tubes turned out to be one of the most time consuming parts.

2) Related to the first lesson: I learned I do not like to paint a based figure. I would much rather texture and paint the base separately and add the completed figure at the end, just before varnishing. If stuck with pre-based figures, like I was here, I will make sure I texture the bases first before priming.

3) Airbrushes are cool. I was paranoid about keeping my coats thin so as not to obscure the detail on the minis, a mistake I made on my first Rogue Trader minis in the late 80s-early 90s. Using an airbrush let me put down ultra-thin layers. Be prepared to do a lot of cleaning. If you want to batch paint multiple shades without being interrupted by cleaning, I recommend a second needle assembly and paint reservoir.

4) However... if using an airbrush, realize that the layers are ultra-thin and could require many passes. Look at the marine with the Powerglove. That marine was my test mini that I used to define the Chapter's color. When lined up with the rest of the guys, he's obviously a much more uniform shade, and looks more orange. That's because I painted him first and then batch painted everyone else. I was scared of using too much paint and therefore only sprayed two coats on the other Space Marines. The zenithal prime shows through a bit much and they look weird. Watch Scott the Miniac's video on base-coating where he shows the data that a zenithal prime still affects perception of the mini's colors, even if it's covered in opaque paints.

5) Why was I scared to spray too many layers? Vallejo paints combined with a siphon-fed airbrush, that's why. These paints are expensive!! This was my next lesson learned though. Good paint matters. I've been painting with department store acrylic craft paint for years because I'm cheap. I wanted to do these sculpts justice however so I spent the money on a Vallejo Game Color set. Worth every penny; they go on so smooth and a little bit goes a long way.

6) Good brushes also mattered but not as much as the paint. Craft store brushes worked almost as well as some expensive sable brushes I bought, as long as I diligently cleaned them immediately after each session.

7) Recess shading via inks is not as time-consuming as I thought, and at this scale gave me better results than a dip or sloppy wash method. I didn't want to ruin any good brushes with heavy inks however, so I made my own fine-line brush by trimming an old trashed brush with fingernail clippers. (See picture at bottom.  I can't be bothered to deal with this horrible Blogger interface).

8) Not too much ink! Do multiple passes instead of loading up your brush. I got impatient and loaded up my brush with ink. The bristles have a lot of snap to them and I ended up flicking dark ink all over my nice airbrushed armor panels.

9) Inkjet decal paper for DIY water slide decals works well, even at 8+ years old. Don't expect that diorama quality painted-on illusion however; you can see from my pictures that the decal edges are quite apparent on a few figures. Fine for tabletop standard. Maybe the lesson learned there is to invest in proper decal setting solution (I used Pledge acrylic floor finish to stick them down).

I've got the painting bug now and a little free time this weekend.  I hope to get a handful of minis primed and maybe even base-coated.

Left: Windsor & Newton Size 0; Middle: homemade liner

DIY fine liner

DELUXE Carrying Case