Back in the saddle

Just a quick post today, I'm back painting again and should have some pictures of some stuff in the next couple of days.

The big news for today is that Issue 10 of The Ancible is out!

Download here

Contents of this issue:

• A Call to Arms
• Watching Paint Dry (my article)
• Mansions of Madness
• Campaign Cartographer
• Darkage
• Khador Smelter Terrain Guide
• Firestorm Armada
• Starmada

For this issue I painted a House Hawkwood fleet for Call to Arms: Noble Armada from Mongoose Publishing.  That's my fleet on the front cover of the magazine.  In the article the WIP shots are mine, but the pictures of the finished fleet are done by Kenny, the owner of the magazine - it just goes to show how good stuff can look when photographed by a practiced photographer (i.e. not me...).  I've learned a few tricks from Kenny about photographing miniatures, so hopefully we should see some continued improvement in the shots I take (I'm not promising anything though...).

Of course it's not just about my article - there's loads of fantastic stuff in this issue (as there was in issue 9 which I should have mentioned last time), the Firestorm Armada battle report has some beautifully painted  ships in it, the Khador Smelter terrain piece is spectacular with a capital OMG (and it's made to look so simple too), and there's a ton of reviews of stuff we might not have had chance to see before.  Oh and the final word is about how the D6 has done a "grey squirrel" on all the other dice types (my first miniatures game, Advanced Heroquest, used D12s, where have they gone?).  All great stuff, and it's a free download, so it's criminal not to get your hands on it!

In other news (and something new for me), I've started painting some new Privateer Press releases for Game Craft, the new FLGS in Swindon.  Like painting for the Ancible, this is painting to a deadline, so it's a bit of added pressure to get things done, but that pressure is good for focusing the mind on the job in hand.  I'm not totally sure how this will work out, as there's only so much spare time in the week (which is shrinking every week thanks to the pressures of work), but it's nice to have something new, and the little ego boost that comes from people wanting you to paint their miniatures, especially as it's a business that intends to display them.

First up is Kommander Harkevich, The Iron Wolf, a lovely miniature that painted up really nicely.  I'll have pictures of him up tomorrow.

As always, comments welcome.  If you have any feedback for the magazine, join the forum on the website and let the team know what you think - and like here, constructive criticism is always welcome.