First post for a while, and I’d like to say I have plenty to talk about because the last two months have been full of hobby stuff…
…I’d like to say that, but alas, it would not be true!
There has been a smattering here and there. The odd game played and even one or two miniatures painted but recently its been hard to find the time, what with one thing and another.
So, let’s take a look at what I have been up to…
Family Fun
University shopping… family fun? Well, actually, we did rather enjoy it.
For the last three weekends we’ve been travelling the country looking at Universities that Yasmin is thinking of applying for. There aren’t many that do the course she’s interested in, Egyptology, and so that narrowed down our choice.
In the order in which we visited them, there was Swansea, Liverpool, and Cardiff, with Lincoln coming up next Saturday. In between these, Yasmin spent a couple of days at Oxford’s open day courtesy of her college.
It’s going to be a hard decision for her to make, as they all have their pros and cons. Oxford has a lot to offer academically but the offset is the accommodation, which was dated and the number of en-suite rooms available was particularly low. The room she stayed in whist there had a shared bathroom, with the shower so dirty that she refused to shower until she came home. She also said the kitchen hadn’t been cleaned and there was all dried food in the sink – you would have thought they’d have cleaned them knowing that students looking to apply for the college would be staying in the rooms.
Liverpool, on the other hand, had some excellent accommodation. Nearly all of the blocks had been recently renovated and a new complex had also been built. All bar a few were en-suite and everything was clean and tidy. Liverpool had few negatives and I think it will come down to a decision between here and Oxford.
Cardiff was also pretty good. The accommodation wasn’t up to Liverpool’s standard but was good enough, and the University itself had a lot to offer. The issue here was that the course they offered was Ancient History and one that spanned a lot of nations across the Med and Far East, with little Egyptian content.
Swansea offered the right course and has a good reputation within that area, however, it was the least attractive proposition in terms of the actual campus and area. The accommodation wasn’t great either, being old and badly in need of some TLC. Of them all, Swansea looked like the poor relative and the fact that they kept trying to sell themselves by mentioning the beach said it all!
So, just Lincoln to go and again, they don’t offer a full Egyptology course but they do do Ancient Civilisations, which is one of the A-levels Yasmin is taking. She wants to talk to them and make sure that Egyptology is the way she wants to go, as Ancient Civilisations also appeals but only if she can bolt on a good degree of Egypt. We shall see.
All this travelling over the weekends has taken its toll and we’re all feeling out of sorts. It also left just the Sundays to get things done and Sue has a lot of work piling up and the garden is demanding attention..
The garden has exploded. All the vegetables we planted have shot up with the weather we’ve been having – one day sunny, next day rainy – and despite staggering the planting of things everything seems to be ready to pick all at once. We’re going to have beans coming out of our ears.
Games
Since the Expo and the bit of game playing I mentioned in my last post, all we’ve played is War of the Ring. We’re currently midway through our second game after an excellent first, learning, game.
Yasmin, intent as ever to play the forces of evil, settled into her role of Sauron and tried to conquer the lands of the free people whilst also keeping an eye out for the ringbearers. I, resigned to ever play the good guys, got to grips with the political track and enticing all the free nations into joining the war against evil. Meanwhile, I separated Strider and Gandalf from the fellowship and sent them on their own personal missions.
Strider, I used to lead armies in critical locations whilst Gandalf moved into Fangorn and, with a few lucky drawn cards (awakening the Ents), managed to thin Saroman’s forces in Orthanc.
With the free nations mostly cajoled into a war state, I built up their forces and attacked in the North. Yasmin hadn’t noticed that she held a couple of enticing cities and Strongholds up there, and had failed to muster up forces their, so I easily overcame them. A few turns later and I managed to take another stronghold giving me the victory points I needed… if I could just hold out to the end of the turn, that is.
Sauron, I mean Yasmin, suddenly became a force to be reckoned with, directing all her attention to some crafty card play and amassing an imposing force of Orcs. She stomped across the board and, in an ill fated decision, chose to pounce on the city I had taken. She was victorious and thought she’d saved the day, however, a city is only worth one victory point and I still had the four to win me the game!
The ill fated decision? She had the choice of attacking me in a stronghold or a city, both were poorly defended, as I’d stretched my forces thin to attempt the win. Attacking the city was never going to save her the game, though her chances of taking it compared to the stronghold were better. Attacking an area with stronghold, after the first combat round, the defender has the option to retreat into the stronghold itself and end the combat for the round, and so, if she hadn’t wiped me out in one combat round I’d have won anyway, but I would have given it a shot.
We enjoyed the game so much, even though it had taken something like four hours to play, we immediately set it up again. Yes, Yasmin remained the queen of evil and played the forces of Sauron again.
She realised that, in the first game, she hadn’t been aggressive enough. You see, one of the enticing game mechanisms of War of the Ring, is that when one of the free nations units is defeated they get removed form the game, never to be seen again, whilst those of the dark forces get placed back in the reserve, thematically representing the never ending forces that Sauron could command.
If Yasmin had constantly been on the attack I would have been forced to lock myself up in siege’s, as my forces dwindled. Eventually, she would have eroded me down and taken enough cities and strongholds to gain the ten victory points she needed to win.
To combat this, I have the ringbearers. I can try to advance these, sneakily past the forces of evil, and throw the Ring into the crack of doom – not an easy task. Concentrating on this can cause redirect the opponents attention from trying to conquer my regions to looking for the ring. This basically takes dice away from mustering, moving, and attacking with armies, to looking for and thwarting the ringbearers, an exciting and tense part of the game.
So far this game, and we’ve had it set up now for three weeks, Yasmin has amassed a huge army and pushed me into a defensive position. However, the ringbearers are approaching Gorgoroth so it’s going to be a nail biting climax!
Painting
I have to cast my mind back to May for what I last painted, which were several characters from Mansions of Madness.
Lily Chen, Norman Withers, Silas Marsh, Minh Thi Phan, and Agatha Crane were all painted in quite quick succession. Of course, I put my new Xpress paints to good use, which is what I’ll be focusing on here…
Silas Marsh was the first to be painted, and I used Dwarf Skin straight over the Zenithal prime.
To be fair, the images don’t do him justice, as it shows the skin looking grey. In the flesh (pardon the pun) his skin looks a much better colour, especially at a distance of a foot or so. His trousers and spear are painted using Xpress too, though some extra highlighting has been done.
Next up was Agatha Crane.
This time with the flesh I basecoated with Dwarven flesh first and the applied the Xpress over the top. This added a little variation but needed further highlighting. Her coat was painted using Xpress Templar White, straight over the Zenithal prime again, and then highlighted with Dead White. I quite like the ‘worn’ look it gave. Her skirt and top were Xpress too, Lotus Black and Velvet Red respectively.
Minh Thi Phan (or Minty Pants, as I call her!) was next in line.
Her hair (Lotus Black), Jumper (Mystic Blue), and skirt (Space Grey) were all painted with Xpress over Zenithal. All worked quite well and I didn’t feel the need to further highlight. I think it was helped by the fact that the zenithal prime wasn’t as strong here as on Silas, and so the colours were more consistent. I did try and paint her eyes in through her glasses, but the frames were very thick and now she looks like she’s wearing dark sunglasses!
Two more to go and up next is Norman Withers.
I’m really pleased with Norman, though just his waistcoat and suit were Xpress; Copper Brown and Wasteland Brown. It took a few coats of the Wasteland Brown to get it to the colour I wanted, as it was a little too light initially.
Last, but by no means least, was Lily Chen.
No Xpress here, though I did originally paint her dress with Plasma Red, it just didn’t look how I wanted it so I recoated with Scale75’s Deep Red and highlighted up from there.
I wanted her skin really pale and I’m happy with how it came out in the end by adding Ivory into Dwarven Skin over a Tan basecoat.
So, Now I’ve used Xpress a little more how am I finding it?
Well, it’s quite different to Contrast, especially in its application. I’ve found that it doesn’t need applying so liberally as contrast. With some colours, if you do, then it’s almost as opaque as a conventional paint and doesn’t give much in the way of highlighting or shading. It takes some getting used to, but when you do, I thought it was more predictable than Contrast.
I haven’t been so happy with it over Zenithal priming and I think it works best over a solid basecoat, especially white, though I haven’t explored this avenue much yet. I want to try Xpress over different base colours, as that’s how I often use use Contrast. I’ve done a little glazing/tinting with Xpress and so far it’s been a positive experience, but again, more experimentation required.
I do like the control I have with it in terms of putting the paint where I want it. With contrast, I found it would often run over into areas I didn’t want it to, whereas Xpress stayed where I wanted it.
No Books read and nothing of any note watched on TV, so nothing more to report really. By the time I got to this point, though, we had visited Lincoln University and liked what we saw. It’s a baby in terms of Universities only coming about in 1996.
It’s a nice campus and the accommodation, whilst being one of the cheapest we’ve seen, was one of the better ones. It will come down to the course, as Egyptology isn’t an option here and they only touch upon Egypt in their Classic History degree, which is what Yasmin was interested in hearing about whilst we were there.
Personally, I think she should follow her passion and go the Egyptology route, which would mean Oxford or Liverpool (I don’t think Swansea had enough to offer). At the end of the day, though, it needs to be her decision.
With all the Uni visits now out of the way I’m hoping I make some progress on the hobby front. I’ll get my painting time back, Friday and Saturday evenings, and hopefully a little time to play a game with Yasmin. My aim then is to put out at least one post a month and spend a weekend on it, maybe go back to doing a monthly Geek with a little more depth. I don’t know yet, I’d like to get some first thoughts written up about the few new games I’ve played since the EXPO, but with no time in the week anymore things are tight.
Well, that’s it from me. Till the next next time… keep gaming!
The Solo Meeple 
Great to see a post from you Justin, those university visits can certainly take their toll, and I hope Yasmin gets the course she wants, have this all to come again in the next few years ! LOL
Sounds like you’ve been enjoying the game, and quickly learning from it as well.
Nice painting and interesting to read your thoughts on the express paints, I don’t think I’ll ever use this type of paint as it was meant for, but do find them handy tools for other jobs ! LOL
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thanks Dave, I’m just popping posts out when I can.
Yeah, all the travelling certainly took it out of the designated driver… that’ll be me!
Like Contrast paints, I doubt if I’ll rarely use them as intended but they certainly come in handy – I like them as glazes and tints, personally.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Great painting, interesting game, and oh yes, the university visits. I remember them well – what swung it for my daughter was the accommodation and (rather randomly, perhaps) the people (other students and teaching staff) she met during the visits. Egyptology – fantastic! Imagine getting all the inside knowledge on that.
LikeLiked by 3 people
I know what you mean and I’d definitely say that the people we met influenced us some, as did the accommodation, which can be a deciding factor.
Egyptology – Don’t get Yasmin started, she can go on for hours about the subject – it’s a good job I’m interested in it too… at least to a degree😉
LikeLike
I really enjoyed this newsletter.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you😁
LikeLike
Great job getting through those visits, me ol’ mucker! I don’t know anything about the education system in your neck of the woods but it seems like a good idea to consider all of the different aspects of the colleges and ensure you find a strong program before committing.
I’m glad War of the Ring has been fun and its neat seeing more Mansions of Madness minis from you. Silas and Norman came out really well and you captured their personalities perfectly. For Lily, I think the highlights on the pants (or lady trousers? I’m not sure what the accurate term is in her Majesty’s tongue!) might be a bit too bright/stark but that might be my own personal taste. Either way, I’m glad things are going well and that you’re able to get some hobbying done too!
LikeLiked by 4 people
Cheers Jeff.
Yasmin has studied every option minutely and we’re sure she’ll make the right decision… in the end!
I know where you’re coming from regarding lily’s trousers (Pants! I can’t see her underwear!😉). I’m torn myself. I’ve done highlights like this before on black clothes that I want to appear shiny, like leather or silk, and it looks good and works when viewed from a distance. It’s when viewed closer up, like in the images, where I have my doubts – they do look false and, as you say, stark.
I’m okay at painting black normally, but trying to convey that ‘shine’ is where I have problems. Oh master, do give me some direction!🤔
LikeLiked by 1 person
It sounds like she might be a chip off the old block then! I don’t know if that phrase (cliché really) is used in the UK but I bet you can work out what it means 🙂
The look you’re going for is a great idea and not as easy to pull off as we might like. It takes a bit of patience in other words! I think the only real way to get that look is to glaze a few layers. I would recommend repainting the highlighted parts black. Then take a really thinned down light gray, like Administratum Gray and glaze over the folds you want highlighted. After that, I would glaze an even lighter gray or cold white like Ulthuan Gray from Citadel and but try to cover a little less of the gray part you just did. It may take a few glazes of both colors but especially Ulthan Gray to get it looking right since you want to use really thin paints. That helps create that “soft” look that we commonly see on clothes. I hope that helps and if you have any questions or run into any trouble, just let me know!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry for the delayed reply, Jeff, first time I’ve powered up wordpress in a while.
Lol! ‘Chip off the old block’ originated over here back in 1621!😉
Thanks for the advice, mate.
I do a similar thing, but using Vallejo colours, when normally painting black clothing, but I find it difficult to achieve a look that conveys shiny material, like satin or patent leather – maybe I’m not pushing the contrast far enough as I’m glazing up.
Going straight for a light grey or white works when viewed at a distance and I don’t mind that so much on minis like these Mansion’s ones, but when I do more detailed figures like MCP then I struggle with this kind of look. I’m okay, I think, at painting a normal, not so reflective black.
Practice, practice, practice; unfortunately I’m not getting much painting in at the mo.
LikeLiked by 1 person
No worries! We have a lot of sayings that you’ve probably heard (many are baseball inspired for some reason) but with some I’m not sure where the origin comes from. Chip off the old block would be a good example of that.
Creating the shiny effect on miniatures is tough because you need to have a bright spot but then you need to have a more moderate highlight on the edges of highlight which gives it that shiny look. That’s where glazing comes in because there’s no other way to recreate that.
With any luck, you’ll be able to get some painting time in soon!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Oh man, university shopping! Thanks for bringing back memories from 1990/1991 LOL! I wanted to do my BA in American Studies and visited Abeystwyth, Leeds, Cardiff and a small college in West London, which is where I ended up going. But I feel your pain, especially in these days of expensive accommodation and no student grants. For what it’s worth, I lived and worked in Cardiff for eight years and it’s a good place with tons to do and see.
Excellent work on the figures, the reds on Lily are gorgeous and Silas’ skin tones look superb even if the photo shows them as a bit grey.
LikeLiked by 4 people
That must have been an exciting time, especially as there was no internet back then?
Yes, student loans. I think Yasmin is going to be paying them off for some time to come!
I too, lived just outside Cardiff, 1998-2001, and loved the place. Not just the City itself, but the surrounding area. Lots to see and do. Unfortunately for Yas, the course just isn’t flexible enough to get what she wants, so it’s probably going to be Oxford and Liverpool as her choices.
Thank you for the comments on the minis, much appreciated, Matt.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Wait, what? I was living and working in Cardiff at the same time you were there! I lived in a flat in Lower Cathedral Road and worked at the Western Mail & Echo! It’s a small world!
Applying for unis pre-internet was fun and games 🙂 Lots of form filling, postal deadlines and travelling to see what the places were actually like. Getting accommodation was also a pain; I had to go and stay with my aunt in London before my second year to find a flat for me and a couple of friends. Nothing wrong with staying with my aunt, but she lives on the opposite side of London to my university so I had to travel the entire length of the Piccadilly line twice a day LOL!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Sorry for the delayed reply, Matt, first chance I’ve had!
Yes, small world. I was based at St Athan, just outside Llantwit Major. Used to love a night out in Cardiff – at least once a week – and the shopping there was good going too.
Not sure I would have enjoyed living in London myself, I’m more for the country life. Did you enjoy it, and what did you study?
LikeLiked by 1 person
I studied American Studies and History, and got a 2:1. I did enjoy it and ended up doing a postgrad in journalism in 1995 to get into newspapers.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Let’s get the important stuff out of the way first! Could you please take your photos of the LOTR game from the other side of the board so that those of us with OCD don’t have to keep turning our laptops upside down? It had to be said!
Sounds like you have been busy though, with uni visits, gaming, gardening and painting some very nice minis indeed. 🙂 Does Yasmin have a plan for what she wants to do with her degree after she’s graduated (I know that’s far off but it’ll happen) or is she just going to see how it all goes? I occasionally have to visit the Newport area for work and have a few colleagues there that play boardgames after work that I join in with (and usually lose)!
LikeLiked by 3 people
Oops! Sorry about that John, I can’t say it bothers me but now I know I will try harder in the future (To get it wrong, or get it right?😉).
Yasmin would like to work in a museum, curator or researcher ideally, we shall see…
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds good! I think I’d like to work in a museum (almost as much as I’d like to retire)! Hope all goes well! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Those are some nice looking minis! “Minty pants”, so funny! I really like how her skirt turned out though, great color. I haven’t tried Xpress paints yet, so it’s interesting to hear how they work. 😀
LikeLiked by 3 people
Thanks mate – I do like to make up names for characters, especially those whose name doesn’t naturally roll off the tongue.
As I keep playing with Xpress I’ll post my thoughts on them, for good or bad.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Hi there – this blog came up when I was searching for a recent Egyptology post. I’m a Liverpool Egyptology graduate myself and wanted to say – awesome choice and good luck to Yasmin! It’s a rewarding degree to study and gives you lots of interesting skills. If she has any questions, let me know!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you very much for your comments, which I’ve passed on to Yasmin.
She’s very into Egyptology and has made her mind up that it’s what she wants to study.
Liverpool will be her second choice behind Oxford and we’ll be travelling up there again this holiday period to take another look around the area – in other words do lots of shopping!
The accommodation on offer there was probably the best we saw when looking at Unis – Oxford was a little disappointing – and that almost swung it for Liverpool, but she really liked Oxford more as a whole.
Thanks for your offer to answer any questions – We’ll certainly bear you in mind should we come across some we are unsure of.
LikeLike