lead mountain | genuine grumpy old tin

These are the ten books I would recommend for a bookshelf. Bear in mind that this is my choice and that it isn’t to everybody’s taste. I would welcome any suggestions as there is always something new to learn regarding our magnificent obsession.

So here they are in no particular order.

Editing is an arse on WordPress. I want my text aligned left and the bugger centers it!

FAQ 2 by Mig Jemenez.
It was a toss up between this or the excellent Tank Art by Michael Rinaldi. This won by a gnats as it covers so many techniques. Military modelling is leading miniature figure painting and these techniques can feed into miniatures.
As an aside, I am really surprised there is no brass etch after market for GW/Forgeworld vehicles. I suppose I could just look out for 1:48th scale accessories.
You are going to see these techniques more and more often so it doesn’t hurt to be ahead of the curve. Don’t be surprised if GW bring out some form of chipping medium in the near future.
In the also rans is Forgeworld’s Model Masterclass Volume Two

Art of War published by Battlefront.
This is a bit of a cheat as it is two magazines. Sadly Battlefront haven’t followed up on these. This has proved to be inspirational showing it is possible to paint 15mm figures to the standard of 28s rather than the blobs of paint that I see so often.

These are great for seeing the uniforms of the armies I am painting “in the flesh”.

British Napoleonic Uniforms by C.E. Franklin.
A bit dry but a useful reference. The only things missing were Aide des Camp (?) and artillery which is covered in another volume.

Foundry Miniatures Painting and Modelling Guide by Kevin Dallimore.
The three colour paint style popularised by Kevin and supported by Foundry’s paint system is a bit cartoony, but when you apply the “Three foot rule” (ie you look at the figures on the tabletop, not in your hand) it works very well. I want to perfect this technique. My figures look quite good close up, OK not competition standard, but tend to be indistinct at a distance. I have a friend whose armies (he has quite a few) really Pop on the tabletop but are a little disappointing close up. My aim is for Pop and Wow.
This book is full of examples and step by step guides. Starting with One Colour models, tournament basic standard, then Two Colour and finally Three Colour painting. Helpfully the guides use the same model so you can compare and contrast.
If I had to pick one book from this list of ten, it would be this one. The techniques can be applied can be applied to any manufacturers paint system. Or a mix’n’match as I do.

Warhammer Fantasy Battle Rules Third Edition and Warhammer Armies. A bit of a cheat again again having a two in one. There is a joy in these rules. A game can be fun. I do miss the humour of the Fluff from the eighties. This is what got me into gaming when I was reading my friends White Dwarfs. I think I’ll stick to these rules rather than spend another fifty odd quid on yet another humourless set of rules and army book. Rumoured for later this year.
There is a growing community of gamers going back to Third Edition rules with a friendly forum to exchange ideas.
Oldhammer
http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk
Saying that I’ll probably get some of the new Orc figures when they come out. It would be nice to see some new Orcs, Goblins, Wolfriders and Chariots.

http://forum.oldhammer.org.uk

Cool Mini Or Not Annual. Sometimes the photography is a bit iffy. But it is so inspirational to see figures from manufacturers you’ve never heard of painted to really high standards. I’ve bought figures on the basis of what I’ve seen. Reaper I name and shame you!
I haven’t yet dared to enter any figures on the site, but nothing ventured etc. I’ll post when I have.

This one is a toss up depending on your tastes. Sadly Rackham are no more, so unless you have won the lottery their figures are out of reach of us mere (skint) mortals. So this is just meditation material. Gaze with amazement at the figures you’ll never be able to paint.
The GW catalogue is also another dreamers book. I would love to have pictures of the individual sprues next to the models. Sadly GW no longer do parts, just imagine the kit bashing opportunities?

Or how I learnt how to embrace my “Special”ness.

When I was younger I was much more arrogant and assumed I knew everything and could remember it all. Which was sort of true as I only had a few paints.

With age comes (lack of) wisdom. I now have a fair few pots of paint and a need for consistency. Did I use a Games workshop paint? Or a Vallejo or a Foundry?

My answer, notebooks. Six of them! Seven if you count my daily notebook which I use for everything.

The Show Book.

This was used for Salute and SELWG. I would get the list of traders from the show website and visit every traders website. If they were selling anything of interest I would note down the price, catalogue number and stall location. Once I had drawn up my shopping list I would print out a map of the show and highlight the traders I wished to visit. This was so useful, especially at Salute as it was so huge. Before this I would lose track of who was selling what and this book allowed me to keep a tight rein on my budget.

The Recipe Book.

This is the most useful of the lot and if you want to take any advice from me, take this! This is where I write down how I have painted a particular unit or achieved a certain effect. I suppose consistency isn’t so important for fantasy armies, but for historicals it’s vital.

The Ideas Book.

Where I record interesting articles on painting, ferinstance… gold or a nicely painted example of a figure I’ve got in the lead mountain. As I have a growing library of books and magazines I want to keep track of where everything is. So an article on painting gold, So I go to the “G” section in my Ideas Book write “G1” with a description and what book/magazine it in and page number. Then I stick a Post-it in the appropriate page of the book/magazine.

The Book of Everything.

In this book I write down all sorts of extra information. Server configuration for my website. File names of web pages and layout details. Suppliers addresses. How to set up my camera for photographing models. Information that doesn’t have a home anywhere else.

The next two books haven’t been started yet. I don’t have any clear idea of how big my lead mountain is. There are boxes all over the place. It would be a good idea, not only for insurance, but also to stop replicating any purchases.

The first of these two is The Painting List. Once I’ve got all my bit shipped over and got a permanent place to live my first job will be to unpack everything, itemise them and assign each unit a number.

As I finish painting a unit this information will be transferred to the second book, The Catalogue. Each figure will have a unique number and details of cost of figure, manufacturer, photo reference number and price.

This is where I am having some difficulty.

How much do you value your work at?

I’ve looked at professional painters websites and I reckon I’m around the ten pound mark per historical figure. The waters were tested on Fleabay where two figures were sold for around nine pounds each on auction.

Once you start doing the math my lead mountain starts getting scarily expensive. My Napoleonic army when finished starts hitting the two and a half thousand pound mark.

I’ve no idea on fantasy prices, so I am thinking of a base price of five pounds per figure. Again scary numbers, my Night Goblin Regiments alone would pull in eighteen hundred pounds.

Anyone got any thoughts on this?

I would appreciate feedback from someone who has insured their collection.