Picking Your Army

Today we look at something that's near and dear to all of us - our army. I feel it's most important to pick something you're going to enjoy playing. The trick is, what draws you to tabletop wargaming?
(I'll try to leave this somewhat generic to apply to any system)

If you just want to win, Google yourself a bunch of tournament info and find out what lists the winners are playing, then copy them. Does this mean you'll always win? No, but it might give you a leg up if you can apply the same tactics against your local opponents. Do I suggest this method? Not in the least.

Now that that's out of the way, here's my suggestion - research the armies: read their backgrounds and look at pictures. Something in there must have sounded and/or looked cool to you - a part of fluff that piqued your interest. Read more on the army(ies) that stood out to you and look at more pictures. You're going to invest a lot of money and time into this game; you'd better like what you choose.

Once you've found an army that appeals to you, figure out if you can live with that decision. Don't get me wrong, I still think number 1 is pick what interests your brain, but all armies play very different. If you're not going to enjoy a certain army style, you might want to look at something else. All armies will generally have both pros and cons, and if you can enjoy playing with your cons, go for it.
Here are some of the pros and cons you may find while researching armies:

• Do you feel like standing back and shooting, not moving your troops around much? Dealing out lots of damage at long range, but folding at closer range?
• Would you prefer a smaller army of stronger and tougher troops, thereby giving your opponent less things to kill before you lose?
• Do you want to bring a knife to a gun fight? (or vice versa)
• Want to play the war of attrition and play the odds? Lots of numbers usually means you need them all to be effective and they'll die easily.
• Prefer to be slow and steady to defeat the hare?

Do you have skin tough enough to live with the army you've found? As with all things, there will be prejudices against certain armies - don't listen to any of them, because what other people think shouldn't matter. Realize there are stereotypes and accept them. Also realize that as you get involved with more competitive players, (not necessarily "good" players - competitive) egos tend to swell and people may be more vocal about their prejudices.
Everyone knows Space Marines, bro, are totally Games Workshop's golden children... bro, especially those blue Smurfs, bro. Not to be outdone, yes I play an army of dandy space elves prancing around the galaxy hiding from anything scary.

There's nothing that says you can't change your army at some point down the road. (Except perhaps a financially minded spouse) This is an expensive hobby, especially if you like having a side-bar of options and like changing your army list around. It won't be "Am I allowed to change my army?" It'll be "Can I afford to change my army?"
Before making the leap, consider whether your current army can be fielded in a different manner - perhaps you'd have more fun playing them differently. Nids and Orcs can do non-swarmy and Eldar don't have to rely on vehicles. Nids even have viable shooty army options. Try it first, and see if you enjoy your army more.
When you're deciding on a new army, you first need to figure out what aspect of your current army you want to change. If you're playing an all "shooty" army, don't pick another race that does the same. Microing 100 models as a nid player won't be much different as an orc player. If you're investing in the change, try something different. Maybe you just want a different "look" or have a vision of an army you'd like to paint.
If you want to play around with other armies, you can pick up a codex and play a bunch of games representing all those models you don't have, and see if it'll float your boat. If you're contemplating a swarm army and don't have enough models, then (assuming your friends are fine with it) go and buy a bunch of cheap army men. Don't get used to playing this way, because your friends will probably expect you to make up your mind and commit. (see: spend a lot of money on new models)
I don't recommend selling off your old army. You might not like the new army, or feel nostalgic and want to play the old one now and then. A spare army is also great for introducing new players to the game.


I play Eldar and I chose my army when I was just a kid. Looking back, I'm glad I made that decision. I've thought and been questioned from time to time as to "Why Space Elves?" and recently I came up with an answer that makes a lot of sense to me - they're completely science fiction. I love their look, their sleek form and alien technology. While a fan of the cyber punk and post-apocalyptic settings, 40k is neither to me. I see 40k as Science Fiction and the Eldar ARE Sci-Fi.

Image-wise, this is my big generalization of 40k: (emphasis on "my personal view")
To me, the Imperials are for the classic war nut and the Marines for the modern war nut. Chaos allows you to be the destroyer of worlds and Space Orks bring fantasy to 40k. Nids create a gritty Gigeresque alien, Necrons for the Terminator fans and Tau added the mecha flavour.

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Here's the homework assignment: (doesn't matter what system you play)
How and Why did you pick your Army? Did you ever Try or Change to another army later, Why?

Picking Paint Brushes

Tired of using the basic Citadel GW brushes? They're not bad, and your LGS will usually stock them - but, they only come in standard sizes, the bristles can get flimsy over time or begin to spread apart bulbously and they're a little pricey.

Here's what you want to look for in a new brush, but as with many things there aren't any right or wrong answers. The brush you buy should depend on the situation. Fine brushes are great for detail, but a larger brush is best for terrain and basing. Art stores will provide the best selection, but avoid buying long handled brushes. Don't spend $20 on a brush intended to be used for spreading glue, go to a dollar store instead. Certain techniques are going to destroy brushes (dry-brushing, spreading glue, etc) so never throw out old brushes; they'll serve a purpose eventually.


The basics brushes you'll want are these:

• Fine detail brush (5/0)
• Medium detail brush (000 and/or 0 or 1)
• Cheap dollar store pack

Reasons to get the Right Brush

Some brushes will explode, puff out or weaken.


Sometimes 1 or 2 hairs might get away from the brush. This can be fine if they only run away when you're not using the brush. If they still pop out while you're painting, you can carefully snip and continue using the brush.



Brush Hair

Personally, I prefer synthetic brushes. Not only are they a lot cheaper than real hair, but I've spent a lot of money on some expensive real hair brushes only to constantly come back to synthetic for quality reasons.

When it comes down to it, I find they just hold their shape for much longer than other brushes. I don't know why - maybe it's humidity or the paint, but I use all my brushes the same, and synthetic just lasts longer. (Other people might have personal issues using brushes made from martens, squirrels, hogs, camels, ox, ponies and goats.) Synthetic brushes come in various colours of bristle, though the ones I use are white.

I mostly use H.J. brushes, with White Taklon (a synthetic) bristles, size 970 Round
I've started using a Princeton Spotter 20/0 for super fine detail though.

There are other types of brushes out there and high quality real hair brushes are supposed to be better than even the synthetic. (But at less than $3 for a synthetic brush, I can probably replace it as I need to)

Tip Size and Shape

There is a general measurement for the size of a brush. It starts at 00000 or 5/0 then 0000 and so on to 0, 1, 2, 3, and up. The higher the number, the larger the tip, the more 0's, the smaller. Unfortunately this is used more as a guideline and sizes may be slightly different from one manufacturer to another.

When you're buying a brush, inspect every tip. You don't want to buy one that's already lost it's shape. Also, check the size written on the brush - don't trust they've been put back in the right place as other people are browsing.

The sizes I usually work with are:
00000 or 5/0, 000, 1 and 3.

You can also get brushes with varying shapes of tips. Some square or rectangle, others that taper so that a square also has a sharper corner for mixing between coating and detail to get into recesses.




Painting and Detail Work

I prefer to use a 000 to apply first coats of paint and washes to larger areas, depending on how tight the detail is. A 1, 3 or a square tipped works better on larger creatures and vehicles. Use your fine brush to avoid colouring out of the lines, but not to fill in the larger areas.

When it's time to start applying detailed shadows and highlights, or you're working on areas that get really tiny, I switch to my 5/0. Even if you're working on large things, a detail brush is good at this point to avoid a streaking effect, and will let you blend your shades/highlights better.

Dry Brushing
(looking specifically at brushes - techniques will be in a later post)

Depending on the area you're dry brushing, you can use different sizes and shapes of brush. These techniques are very abusive to a bristles, so don't use a good one.

You can usually use the same size of brush to dry brush as you would have to base/wash. (Back to those 000, 1 or 3 sizes) If you're not working on a fine area, a wider square brush is nice because you'll not only cover a larger area, but can overlap your brushing to prevent visible streaks.

Since the bristles on a dry brush tend to explode, finer areas can get tricky as you don't want to paint outside the lines. You may prefer to manually paint highlights, be more controlled and/or use a 5/0 brush.

When doing controlled soft highlighting of areas rather than quick abusive brushing, finer thin or wide/square brushes become preferred - again, you don't want to colour out of the lines.

When working on terrain, a large square or fan brush is excellent to quickly highlight a bigger area - and again, overlapping prevents visible streaks.

Glue / Chemicals / etc

You want to use cheap brushes anytime you're working with something that will ruin a brush. Take a trip to a dollar store and buy two packs of cheap brushes - the large, wider ones and some thinner ones. I find it best to keep your "good" brushes and "other" brushes separate so you don't cause any unnecessary wear to your good ones.

Usually, you'll be spreading glue for flock and other basing techniques. Other times, you might be spreading paint thinner or a paint / chemical that doesn't clean in water so well, might leave junk behind in the bristles or even eat at the glue that holds the bristles in place.



Specialty

This is somewhat out of scope, but keep in mind that you're not limited to painting with brushes. Foam and sponges can create some nice speckle effects if you get most of the paint off them. (like when dry brushing) Picks and sculpting tools are better when spreading paint in water effects or when painting things you want to be streaked. (blood, ooze, etc) Sometimes you'll even want to smudge something with your fingers.

Weekly Update

I'm going to try posting these updates at the start of each work week - hence Tuesday here in Canada due to a long weekend, for no particular reason. It had an awesome start Friday as we took in a classy concert performed by MEGADETH AND SLAYER! ahem. Less awesome was the Saturday trip on the QEW with the hour+ detour to avoid the parking lot and the hour+ wait at the US border.

Been getting a bunch done still on my Harlequin Wraithlord this past week and I'm nearing it's completion. I've also written up some great tutorials that are just waiting for me to toss in the pics and another for some build time. My intention is to end up with plenty more practical tutorials than musings, but with my Games Day prep, I don't have much build time for other things. I think I'm done tidying up my Space Hulk Terminator, but the Chaos Base does have a bunch of stuff I want to work on.

I gotta say, I'm loving the P3 paint I picked up last weekend. The colours aren't as vibrant as GW paints, but it really does just cover up like foundation while remaining a thinner paint. Going to have to source somewhere in town to get them.

Art of Noise

I don't know about you, but when I paint, I need a distraction. Perhaps it's for the other parts of my brain that won't shut up, or maybe just painting needs a little more excitement. Now, that doesn't mean I want an evil monkey constantly pointing at me while I work or a marching band stomping by my desk every five minutes, but something in the background that other parts of my mind can pay attention to.

In the past, I had limited desk space for painting. Well, not so much limited - just less than I do now. Also, consider there was a time when not only did LCD monitors not exist, but neither did YouTube, and you wouldn't consider watching other media on a computer. During this time, my stereo was my friend. It played stuff from the radio, CDs and mix tapes. If you've got a computer anywhere in your room, toss a bunch of your music on random and hit "Play".
Speakers are key for me, because I find headphones/wires distracting when I'm trying to paint. However, I know that other people prefer headphones, as they can help make the world disappear. If you have but a laptop, go out and buy a cheap $5 set of speakers and an 1/8 inch audio extension cable / headphone extension cable. Set the speakers up on your painting desk, just because it'll sound nicer. If you go the headphone route, an extension cable is still a good option, so the cable's not pulling at you.

These days, I usually prefer to watch TV shows and Movies while I paint. I've got a computer beneath my desk and an LCD monitor on my desk (previously, next to) that I can look to now and then. I prefer things that I've already seen, and don't rely on visuals too much. If you find yourself paying too much attention to the video, find something else to watch or resort back to music. Think of it like listening to an audio book you know the story to. It's background noise.
Needless to say, anime is a tricky option here, because you're not going to be able to paint and read subtitles... and dubs suck.

Speaking about audio books, that's another option. Libraries have lots and tend to offer a wide selection. Alternatively, you can always find a program that reads text and there are plenty of free out of copyright books at Project Gutenberg and Project Gutenberg Canada.

Painting with friends is also a great way to pass the time. Either get together at someone's place, or see if your LGS does painting nights. Not only can you "geek it" with friends, chatting about your favorite hobby and be social, but it can be a great way to see what others are doing, help each other, trade ideas, and get inspired! You could even share paints and other supplies this way.

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Today's homework is this:
What about you - do you enjoy distractions while you paint, or require utter silence? How do you achieve either?