Monday, October 22, 2012
New GW Store
I headed over the mountains on Saturday for the grand opening of the new Games Workshop store in Sacramento. This is the third GW store I've visited (the others were in Toronto and in Thousand Oaks, California), and I've found that they're all basically the same -- lots of tantalizing products (tantalizing until you see the price tags, at least. Sixty bucks for the starter paint set?!) and friendly but pushy staff. Still, it was fun to hang out and watch all the games in progress. If I hadn't been there with two rambunctious little boys, I would have stayed longer and asked more questions. I'll make it a point to do a solo visit to the Thousand Oaks store the next time I'm in town. And perhaps if they open a store in the Reno area (not bloody likely, but one never knows) I'll become a frequent patron -- for the free painting lessons if nothing else. Oh yeah, I'd have to buy that sixty dollar paint set first...
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
*laughs*
ReplyDeleteYeah, rule #1 for GW is to not listen to red shirts. Painting tips are the only real exception - they'll tell you to buy pretty much anything for your army.
You don't need a painting set, necessarily. It still might cost $60 to get started, though. You pretty much need:
1. A can of spray primer.
2. Ten or so paint colors, more depending on how complicated you want to get.
3. One good fine point brush.
4. (Optional) Washes are a really easy way to get depth of color without a whole lot of work.
5. (Optional) Basing materials.
Many of these are cheaper at a generic hobby store (we have Hobby Lobby).
What are "washes"?
DeleteIt looks like they call them "shades" now. Washes are kinda like ink. Like ink, they are extremely fluid, and the fluid (and the pigment along with it) settle in the recesses of the model.
ReplyDeleteApplied after paint, it gives depth to the color. So areas that are "deep" in the model are darker - and look like they are in the shade - while more prominent areas stay lighter.
The alternative is to paint a dark coat (say, dark green), then go back and paint the more superficial areas a lighter green, then the "highlights" in a light green. That can produce amazing results, but as you can imagine it's extremely time consuming. The green highlights on my Alpha Legion have a bit of that going on if you want to see an example.
Using a wash is much quicker and usually still looks really good. Let me know when you want to paint - I can put up some before-and-after pics of basic techniques.
Thanks! I'll probably do a bit of practicing over the winter (I have a few random minis that I'd be willing to sacrifice for the cause!) and then tackle the Dark Vengeance armies in the spring once the weather isn't quite so damp and windy.
Delete