6.02.2010

Life: A Little Something Simple

Not too much today.  I've got the last two pictures of Mighty Mighty Carlos' Mech Guard to show you, in this case his Inquisitor and Mystic.  Note: I also wandered down memory lane, so if you're not interested in that ignore the italics.


I'm a bit spoiled for painters to learn from in my area.  The Master Manipulator (every store needs one) simply can't take half measures: he's too OCD for that.  If there's a fault or a blemish, it's going to get fixed.  He has to force himself to leave off troops choices and move on... and I suspect he does this by convincing himself he'll come back to it later.  He's a great technician, a true student, and he'll finish one mini in the time it takes others to do a squad.  He'd rather have his model.

Little Barrera is a prodigy.  He's a year or so younger than me.  I met him and his older brother when I first moved to Texas at age 16; this was back in 92, so it was the glorious Rogue Trader era, when no deodorant bar went unmolested but was rather quickly converted to a skimmer of some type.  Anyway, LB was 14 and I remember a few of the older guys resented his presence, like he was an annoyance his older brother was stuck with - I guess it didn't occur to them the two were really close, since Big Barrera (and now you know where I came up with the nickname) was at least 6 or 7 years older.  I know LB carried some resentment since he was always quick to anger.


Funny thing is, so was I.  I was always way to quick to run my mouth back then, because I found everything funny.  Take a) a small person with a big mouth and b) a jock with an over-sized ego and it's a pretty sure bet you'll find the small person cleaning blood off his shoes with that crappy school toilet paper.  Ironically, when I moved to Texas I didn't get into near as many fights in school.


Texas is civilized.  You don't fight in school: you fight off the side of the road next to a truck of some sort.  Still and all, I finally grew up a bit before my senior year, and you don't get the shit kicked out of you on a semi-regular basis without learning how to fight (or rather, take a punch and not fall over, which is usually enough).  Still, my classmates in Texas did something much worse than hit me.


They ignored me.  The area I moved to wasn't used to military brats coming and going.  It's an insular sort of place and everyone knew everyone from kindergarten.  That did something no amount of fights ever did.


Shut me up.


It was miserable, finishing out high school in Texas.  Big Barrera was literally my first friend in Texas, and this is a dude who was engaged, living on his own, and attending college.  He wasn't some social pariah with no friends, dipping into another generation to find someone to impress.  He had zero incentive to treat a 16-year old punk well, but he did and I've always been very appreciative.  I suspect, now that I'm older and hopefully wiser, that BB was being nice to the only guy who didn't treat his little brother like a nuisance.  Why would I?  We were of an age and neither of us very mature.  Anyway, not soon after I met Herr Fernseher, who is something of a kindred spirit, except he's a truly decent person and I'm really not, and Texas became an alright place.


Shit, that was a stroll down memory lane.  To bring it back to gaming, our interest in 40K was the common ice-breaker.  I can still remember picking through Big Barrera's collection, amazed at the quality of his stuff.  It was just fucking cool, that's all.  He was an artist in his own right, but his little brother was simply amazing.  He quickly outdid everyone.  I'll have to post some of his work; he was really ahead of his time.  You have to remember, this was 92-93, and many of the techniques we take for granted weren't really worked out then.  You'd be amazed at what passed for 'good.'

That brings me back to the Mighty Mighty Carlos.  He's also an artist - and no, I don't think everyone who graduates with a degree in Art is an artist.  I'm picky I am, but I knows 'em when I sees 'em, and Carlos is one.  He doesn't over-invest time he doesn't have, so uses technique and color theory to bring out the best in a simple scheme.  I say simple but it never really is, is it?

For example with the two miniatures above, he doesn't use metal but rather blends up the grays into whites and blues, contrasting that with the deep red.  It's a scheme that pops.

Let's take a quick look at another example.  This is a closeup of one of the squads, and it's not a great pic at that.  In real life, the tans are more vibrant... this said, it's enough to illustrate what he told me.

He said the tan and the black are both neutral colors that the eye can easily rest on.  Each model has dots of red and white - which I know you can't see, so you'll have to take my word for it - that draw the eye around.  Again, simple but well-executed, and in addition well-based.  The effect is great.  When he's done, I'll get better quality shots to show you. 

Blah!  Wall of text, end!

3 comments:

Chumbalaya said...

I read it.

Herr Fernseher said...

The only real difference between you and me is that you are easier to fool! ;)

I guess this is the appropriate place to mention that my first games of 40k were when Brent dragged me over to the Barreras'. While I have derived hours and hours of enjoyment from the hobby since that time, anyone who gets tired of me pulling out minis that look like they were painted in '92 (some WERE and, sadly, some were painted by me recently), well, you can blame Brent.

Hopefully he and some of the other local good painters will start to influence my painting as much as they've influenced my gameplay.

Master Manipulator (every store needs one) said...

I have found it easier of late to allow myself to do lower quality. It's all in the rationalization of unit types. It's something I learned playing fantasy. I would paint the characters and the champions but the units would never see paint. See in addition to OCD I am also ADD. It takes a lot to keep my interest for long enough to paint a full army. So in fantasy I told my self the champion does not get paint till the unit is finished. As should be obvious, I have a lot of unpainted characters.

Now Confrontation changed all that. Since there are no units, I can paint away. Almost all the models are great quality and fairly dynamic. That gives me great things to hold my interest. Same rule though. The character(leader) does not get paint until the rest of the minis are done, or at least the rest for the point value we are playing. I guess I don't have to tell you how many unpainted characters I have. Heh!

(A new favorite!) Anon: I haven’t even bothered playing a game of 6th yet, cause I have read the rules, and actually understand how they interact with units. I know my armies no longer function how they should, and so I need to change them.

Strictly Average: 'cause 6-inches is all you get.

Stalking Jawaballs since 2009.

Jawaballs: "My butt just tightened up."

Brent, preferred 2-to-1 over Not Brent in a recent, scientific poll.

Brent: emptied the Kool Aid and DRINKING YOUR MILKSHAKE with an extra-long straw.

Unicorns don't exist.

Home of the Stormbuster, the Dyson Pattern Storm Raven.

I'm a comment whore and this whore is getting no play.

Not Brent hurts Brent's feelings.

I think, therefore I blog.

"You should stop writing for everyone else and worry about your crappy blog." - Anon.

Not Brent has been spotted lurking around with a green marker.

He's not like a bad guy from a cartoon, all devious but never quite evil, Not Brent is bad beans, man, bad beans.

Dethtron: "Again I feel obliged to remind you that trying to sound smart only works if you are."

MVB: "I am not one to join the unwashed masses of self-titled 40k experts out there distributing advice from their blogs about exactly how your list should be built..."

Shiner Bock on tap: that's how I choose hotels.

Strictly Average: The Home of Hugs and Gropings.

Don't feed the trolls!

MoD: "Welcome to Brent's head."

Competitive is Consistent.

Dethtron: "...you could use that extra time to figure out a way to get your panties unbunched and perform a sandectomy on your vagina."

Dethtron: “When calling someone an idiot, it's generally best to avoid making grammatical mistakes.”

Warboss Stalin: "You know, if it actually WAS funny, maybe I wouldn't mind."

Mike Brandt: "It's not a successful bachelor party if you don't misplace someone".

"The Master Manipulator (every store needs one): "...now, enough stroking."

Kirby: "I don't know about gropings. Seriously, Brent, keep it in the pants, please."

Loquacious: "No matter how hard I tried, I couldn't get Hugs & Gropings or Stalks Jawaballs into Brent's little tribute."

Captain Kellen: "I rate this article a Brent on the Faith Hill to Nancy Pelosi scale!"

Drathmere: "Come for the balls, stay for the Brent? Kind of disturbing, man."

Go no further, lest thee see something thine eyes would fain look past!

Isabelle: "So, thank you for supporting your local and not so local unicorns. A noble gesture like that can show some scared kids out there that they don't have to hide from everyone and it's ok to be who they really are."

There is nothing more interesting than We The People... in all our beautiful, ugly glory!

On Internet Advice: You see, I have an almost religious belief that's it's a huge, colossal waste of time.

...I think I'll call it the Gun Shy Pattern Stormbuster, because after the Internet destroyed my first humble effort, I find I'm a bit worried about the reaction to this one.

Lauby: "Is it left over from that time you thought that you could just complete step one 12 times to meet the mandates of that court order?"

Not Brent: "I guess we'll have to read on and find out. Signed, Not Brent. Especially today."

Cynthia Davis: "I think the scrolling text is from Glen Beck's new book."

Grimaldi: "Spamming certain units creates interesting possibilities but also fatal weaknesses."

Purgatus: "Math can inform decisions. It cannot make decisions."

Thoughts? Comments? Hugs and gropings?

You'd be that much quicker to figure out what I mean when I refer to a Unicorn if I covered it in a rainbow flag.

SinSynn: (To Brent) "Curse you and your insidious influence on the internets..."

Dave G (N++): "You know you're an internet celebrity when your following is more akin to tabloids."

I prefer the term Internet Personality (or IP) myself, seeing as how I coined it.

Lauby: "Your attempt to humanize him as failed. I feel nothing but scorn for his beard - it's like a warcrime or something."

BBF: "I've always thought you are a good player but I finally figured out that you are a great player. It's hard to see sometimes because your personality is engaging, sincere and quite charming - to me that is kind of a rare combination."

'Clearly cheating?' I didn't misspeak: you jumped to conclusions. If you'd like to apologize I'll be happy to send you an autographed picture of my ass.

Ass.

I thought I was doing alright before I realized I was losing.

Age and treachery beats youth and vigor every time.

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