Behind the Scenes #13 (Patreon)

So much stuff has happened since last we spoke, let's get it on:

I am GRINDING on this table non-stop. It is such a slog! I had to make another trip to home depot (this would be like my 16th one) to pick up some more materials because I'm a doofus.

Some more plywood (cut my original sheet to the wrong dimensions), some flexible thin wood composite that I'll use a for a play mat, some apron material, and a sheet of insulation to cut the plywood on top of.

Thank god for my newly acquired mini van. Sto-and-go ftw! 

Here's the current status of the table:

Bottom portion all glued up!

1/2 of the top portion glued up and drying!

2nd 1/2 of the top portion dry fitted and waiting for it's turn to get clamped and glued!

Here's how the final thing will work:

The top part will hinge on the side and open up to create a full 4'x6' playing space. When that isn't needed, it'll collapse into a 4'x3' table!

I am really thankful that everyone has been so patient with me finishing the video for this. To be honest, I doubt I'm going to finish the video by this Friday. When I can't work on the table, I'm writing the script for it. Here it is in it's unfinished state:  https://docs.google.com/document/d/1WjdzuVObKzDbJiFpz1-ujeKgJRtA2eNg4lkrjgvSSdQ/edit?usp=sharing

Next, I did my first ever painting class this weekend in Ontario Canada!

I taught two classes, a beginner one and an advanced one. The beginner one went very smoothly. I could tell people were having fun and learning, which is the ultimate goal. The advanced one went less great. Each class was 4hrs long. To get a good result on a miniature 28mm scale, I usually take between 15 and 20 hrs to paint it. So trying to demonstrate some techniques that take longer to accomplish was virtually impossible. We went over wet blending and how to highlight and shade miniatures "manually". After that, we moved onto faces, and the miniature I choice was not great for painting faces. If I ever do a class again, I think I'll make these changes: 

1. I'll paint the whole figure before hand and make a video series available to the students to watch after the class. This fully painted figure will be used for reference during the class.

2. I'll put paint in little plastic paint pots ahead of time, and number them based on the step so everyone has the paint they need right away. 

People can get right into the action and get painting. This is kind of at odds with my philosophy of training people to be self sufficient miniature painters, but when you take someone's class, you're learning their process, so doing a paint by numbers process seems more OK in that situation. 

The 3rd and final thing was we created a painting point system for the discord! Here's how the point system works: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1JOAxsJqoB5yGmHY3oGkbcLHV6-FL2mxxIC-NDbhyX5A/edit?usp=sharing 

The intention is to motivate people to paint with some fun incentives. This system is exclusive to discord the platform (which you all have access to), just like these BTS posts are exclusive to patreon the platform. If you'd like to participate, you need to join the discord server. 

That's all for now!

Love,

Scott