Speed Painting- TSE Style

This past weekend I attended Cape Comic Con in my home town of Cape Girardeau, MO. As this was a work weekend for the lion's share of Team Snake Eyes (and also the celebration of our own Chosen1's arrival upon the Earth), there wasn't much point in organizing one of our fabulous 40K events. For that you'll have to wait til October (7-9) and Brewfest.

Can you find the miniature painter?

Instead I was offered the opportunity to set up a table and demo my miniature painting skills. I basically got to sit in the hall, ogle girls in skintight and revealing superhero and anime costumes, visit with passers-by, and paint. But wait! Don't hate me yet!

While there I acquired a couple of new commissions. One of the Team's friends came by on Friday and asked me what I would charge him to build and paint a Stormraven for his Blood Angels. I gave it a bit of thought, asked him what level of detail he'd want, and shot him a price. He stood quietly for a moment looking at the ceiling. Then looked down at me. Then back up, thinking. After a fairly uncomfortable couple of minutes like this, he said he felt I was undercutting myself. I mumbled something about probably and the economy sucks, yadda yadda. Then he countered by doubling the price I'd shot him and stating, "I want to see what you can do."

DEAL!

I have the 'Raven in hand and my lovely and talented sprue monkey (i.e. Wife) has already begun prepping the model. A bit premature, maybe, since the customer doesn't really need the model before our big Apocalypse game at Brewfest in October, but spirits were high after a great start to the weekend and the con, so we went with it.

On Saturday a couple more moments of pure awesome (tempered by a bit of sad panda) revealed themselves. Our FLGS, Championship Games, had a booth set up. One of the owners walked over to my table with a cardboard box of sturdy build and median capacity. Inside was the store's entire stock of unopened P3 paint (around 50 pots of paint with few duplicates and several bottles of inks and washes in all). I was told the box was mine for fifty bucks.

Ever seen a fat man leap? I'm sure it's not pretty, but....

This was also how I found out the store was closing. After three years, I'm truly sad to see it go. But I'm also friends with the owners and I know this is the right decision for them and their families. Rumor has it that someone else intends to open a new store so the future isn't completely bleak. Thanks Shane and Trace for facilitating our habits. And for keeping Febreeze handy.

Also on Saturday I was approached by one of our Pathfinder Society-playing friends. She handed me a gnomish druid mini (by Reaper), and asked me to paint her (the mini. Painting Wendy might be fun, but...). It was bare metal on a plain square plastic base, but the mini had been cleaned so prep-time was minimal. I shot her a very reasonable price (friend discount and a bonus discount because I know her husband HATES gnomes) and took custody. Upon arriving at home that night (Saturday) I flocked the base and primed the mini.

Sunday morning I woke up (a tad late), packed up the few things I hadn't left at the Con, and arrived and got set up by 11:15. At 3:15 I handed over Ginger.





The customer squealed, her husband shook my hand profusely (I'm sure the extra hard grip was simple exuberance), and everyone oohed and ahhhed. The payment was by that point simply a formality. I haven't had this much fun painting a mini in a while. I pushed myself to get it done before they had to leave at 6 pm (they aren't local), and I think I did okay. Maybe there's hope for me as a speed painter after all.

OH! P.S. If anyone is on Facebook and is interested, I have set up a fan page for my painting studio. Feel free to "Like" Tiny Heroes Miniature Painting, and if you want to add me (Larry Snodgrass), that would be cool too.