A telling of the bet to paint Dwarves and probably why I like Taskmaster.
Tuesday June 10th 6:00 pm
I was with one of my best friends hitting our usual haunts. Our usual Arkham Horror campaign night had to cancel. We still wanted to get together. At some point we got into the topic of miniatures. “I bet I can finish my blood bowl team before you” she says.
“I’ll take that bet” I respond knowing that both of our teams are built and primed.
“Ok, what’s the bet”
After a quick discussion regarding the reluctance to take away from others during a bet. We concluded, the winner would choose a book the loser would have to read. She then mentioned that she would have me read something by the author Chuck Tingle or some sort of math book. We both raced to home and started. I had the motivation to start a project that has been on my shelf for weeks. I could deal with smut, but I draw the line at math.
Wednesday June 11th 3 am
The month of May had been, that I concluded from looking through my notes, an unproductive sad month. A lot of lounging and staying in my bed staring up at the ceiling. Not finding the energy to do things that I want to do or enjoy. Maybe it was the over-whelming nature of all the hobbies I threw myself in, or just the state of the world. This was the first time I was able to get up at 3 am as I used to and get going on the projects. Depression be damn, the competitive nature in me kicked off. I was not going to lose.
I’m sitting at my desk working on the Chaos Dwarves. Picked up mainly due to their box art scheme, and the way the models looked. I typically go towards the box art scheme for whichever team or army it’s for. For this I used Pro Acryl’s Shadow Flesh for a base on the dwarves, Orc Hide from Two Thin Coats for the Hobgoblins. Army Painter’s Basilisk Red based the red parts, then Army Painter’s Oak Brown to prepare for the gold trim. The black hair and black cloth was done with AK Interactive German Grey. I’m sure I forgot some color or some part. This is more a blog than painting tutorial.
I’m going at these with as much speed as I can. With a bet like this, I didn’t want to go insane with the base coats. The team had to be painted, that’s all that was agreed. Play ready. We both had enough trust in each other to see the other’s team and decide when to call the bet.
Wednesday June 11th 5:31 pm
We were supposed to get together to paint at our local board game shop. I get a call from my friend. The store is full. There’s a card night going on that used all the tables.
“Oh nooooo, well do you still want to get together” I say as I quickly and quietly unpack my paints and rehydrate my palette. As I thought she decline. I was disappointed, mainly that I couldn’t show that I got further than expected. On the other hand, I was at home already, I didn’t have to leave. No time spent driving, meant more time painting. She had to still drive home at 5 pm traffic.
“I know we said play ready, what if I just speed-painted this” I said on the phone trying to weasel my way to winning, “it would still be play ready, and have the 3 colors”
“I know you, you have some pride in your work”
Shit. She’s right, I did. I didn’t expect her to agree. I just had to give a shot.
As I’m go through the rest of the night painting, my mind wanders. I start to think about competition in general. Along with limitations. There is something about it that gets to me. It’s probably one of the reasons I enjoy the show Taskmaster.
If unaware, Taskmaster is a United Kingdom competition show where a bunch of comedians compete against each other during a season doing small task. The overall winner gets a trophy of the judge, the titled Taskmaster played by comedian Greg Davis. It’s more bragging rights than anything.
Even with no real prize, no giant amount of money for charity, or something of that nature, There are some comedians that put their all into the show. Clearly wanting to win. Those are my favorite. A self-reflection into the type of person I am when the competition gets going.
There is something in the format of the show that makes it so damn interesting in me. These tasks that the comedians do are somewhat simple. Occasionally there is a twist that makes it more difficult. Make the best snowman, is quite easy unless you are in the middle of the year in the UK at a time where there is no snow. There are tasks that are more physical challenges, others that are more creative one subjective ones. Those really stick out to me as these comedians are mostly limited by what’s at the house and their imagination1. Most of the tasks also have some sort of time limit. That constant pressure of having a short amount of time to complete. How do you make a coconut look like a businessman in 10 minutes? What about bring a video game to life in an hour? The time limit they have, and the limitations speak to me. It makes the tasks interesting. I find limitations a breath of creativity in a weird way.
The last miniature project of mine was a combat patrol for the Genestealers Cult in Warhammer 40k. I have a wide assortment of paints, some would say too many. Though that month, I had picked up the AK Interactive 3Gen Starter Set. I wanted to paint them only using the colors that came in the set for basing and layering. Or If I wanted to buy another paint, I got to make that color first. Thank God, they mixed easily. That’s how I found the German Grey. Slowly becoming my favorite black for tires, rubber, and dark hair.
I’m also learning pixel art for my Friday night campaign. For it, I’m drawing all my player’s characters. The ones that were human I had an easier time with. The ones that were more monstrous, well that’s a different story. I limited myself to a color palette that I got from a YouTube video, Brandon James Greer and his video “How do you start Pixel Art?”…Here’s what I did!
By the end I had made four characters. Was I happy with them? for my first foray into pixel art, eh…yeah?. Though through this, I could see the places where I wanted to do more. More colors or more shadows. I understood how to get a decent base. With the limit color pallete, I was not overwhelmed with the infinite amount of colors in the computer’s library. I had to try to make the characters pop as best they could. I learn the program Aesprite d focus on the tools I had at hand. I joke with my friends that eventually I’ll make them SNES sprites instead of early NES ones.
My mind eventually gets back to the dwarves at hand. I had finished base coating, and most wash to catch the shadows. Now it was time to layer.
Thursday June 12th 5:30 pm
“So how much time you think you have left on your dwarves?” My friends asks me as we sit across each other at Chili’s.
“I think about 7 hours” I say looking at my hand. I’ve done a long painting session before, nothing like this. I remember to stretch and take mild breaks. It still hurts.
My friend tells me to take it easy. I know she’s not playing mind games with me. My mind has already gamified this whole thing. I’m not stopping now. She can usually work through the night, sending updates at 3 am. I had work and stuff to do during the day. Thankfully I had the next day free. My Friday night campaign had to cancel their session.
We head home and jump on discord. The next 6 hours was a blur. We were chatting with friends while we paint. I kept layering on paints to the red armor to make it pop. Using small highlights. I used gold speed paint to help with the gold trim, as is my standard that I am happy with. I look at the models and ask myself how far do I go? Do I drybrush? I am actually happy without it.
At some point it’s just me on the call. I’ve finished the minis. Now just to base them. I wasn’t sure how I was going to. Some of the mini’s have slots that the paint and flock would fall through. I had an idea. It was 12 am. In the middle of the desert. I was going to make my snowman. I took the AK interactive concrete base paint and thought if I shoved enough in the slot it would harden. Then on top I could give a coat of brown to give a muddy texture, then base with grass. I tried for 15 minutes. At that point, I learn sometimes it helps to have snow.
I sent my minis in our discord chat. The minis were painted just not base. Though if my friend wanted to say it wasn’t done. I would understand. I wait…a few minutes pass with no answers. I wait… Did she?…I think she fell asleep.
Friday June 13th 6:48 am
“FUCK I PASSED OUT”
The first message I received that morning. I slowly grog awake.
“I think you absolutely won the bet…I await your choice of book”
I lie in bed and smile. I won. I don’t have to deal with math. I sent her my book, Midnight Riot by Ben Aaronovitch. A wonderful fantasy book that deals with modern day London with investigators and fae like magic. Now that this done, I hope I can do it again. It was a fun challenge. It helped me eat through a project that probably would’ve taken a month. More importantly, it helped me get out of a slump that I had. I can’t thank my friend enough.
I have my next team Necromantic blood bowl team. I haven’t decided how I want to paint them. Maybe ask for friends for idea, maybe do a black and white scheme focusing on only two colors and the variety in between, maybe I’ll paint them in the scheme of sonic the hedgehog and friends. I just smile at it, excited for the new challenge ahead
- I say most as this is a TV show with a production team that tries it’s hardest to make the comedians vision succeed, I doubt they just had foam tetrominos lying around the house. ↩︎
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