Monday, April 9, 2018

Painting Miniatures with the Reaper Learn-to-Paint Kit!

Way back in the day I was an art major in college. I wisely changed my major when I realized I had to work twice as hard to be half as good as my classmates (example of one of my classmates today, and yes he was just as good in college).

Anyways, I've always enjoyed art and painting but have never done it since college. Over the last year a good friend of mine started doing some miniature painting and painted a few of my game minis and I was blown away how cool they looked! So recently (last month) I decided to buy a Reaper Learn-to-Paint kit and give it a stab.

Here goes nothing!

I really forgot how much fun it is to paint again! I work in the tech field and get tired of staring at a screen all day so it's actually really nice to just put some headphones on and stare at a little plastic figurine for a few hours. It's oddly relaxing and satisfying to see it come to life through color.

The Reaper LtP kit is a great way to jump into this hobby. Once you start doing some research it can become quite intimidating seeing all the info about paints, manufacturers, how-to's, etc. After a bit of research on /r/minipainting and some other places on the 'net I decided to pick up the Reaper LtP kit as it came highly recommended. And I'm really glad that I did!

The kit comes with 11 paints, 2 brushes, 3 minis, and instructions. It is geared towards new folks to the hobby and it is not intimidating at all!  The Reaper paints that came with the kit are as follows:

  • Blade Steel
  • Candlelight Yellow
  • Desert Sand
  • Dragon Blue
  • Dragon White
  • Harvest Brown
  • Leather Brown
  • Mountain Stone
  • Naga Green
  • Polished Silver
  • Pure Black
The minis that came in my kit were slightly different than what was in the instructions or on the cover. I got the Skeleton Archer, Orc Warrior, and instead of the Knight, I received Kord the Destroyer. Working with Kord was a little bit of a challenge since the instructions referred to the Knight. So with some ample google-fu I was able to find some inspiration from other completed Kord minis out there. I was fairly happy with the result (below). 

Kord the Destroyer!

All 3 ready to fight!

My boys (7 and 9) love the minis and keep asking if they can keep them. :D Right now I've told them we're saving them for our Hero Kids battles and others coming down the pipe.

I am a total noob in this world so I can't compare the Reaper Paints to P3, Army, Vallejo, or Citadel. Overall though I'm very happy with the the paint and how the Reaper system introduces complexities to painting as you go through the tutorials.

I just ordered the next kit - Layer Up! - and it should arrive sometime this week. I can't wait to jump right into it and start improving my skills.

In the meantime here's what's on the next painting agenda...

Runebound 3rd Edition! (Bonus photo bomb of my 7 yo!)
I just primed my Runebound 3rd Edition minis and will probably start working on them this month! Stay tuned for updates there!

(p.s. The Reaper kits linked here are Amazon affiliate links so if you buy off these that's awesome. If not that's cool too!)

Wednesday, May 11, 2016

Welcome to Chumpmonkey.com - A Gaming adventure with my 2 boys and I.

Gaming is fun. Whether it's board gaming, video gaming, sports gaming. It is just an enjoyable past time. Growing up I played a myriad of games with my family. Mainly the old staples of Monopoly, Life, Connect 4, etc.

Later on (I was 12) we got an old IBM PC 8086 (dual floppies!) with CGA graphics! My first game was Pole Position.  Man, was it fun.

Check out those graphics!
(image courtesy of MobyGames)
And that started my journey to a hobby that I still enjoy today and now that my boys are getting older it's a hobby that we're introducing to them as well. Today I enjoy playing video games as my hobby. Some days I play a little too much. Some days I play none at all. And yes, I do balance (or try) it out with other hobbies and works as well. As with anything, moderation and discipline is necessary.

Our family also plays a lot of board games and when summer break rolls around we'll be playing a ton more with the boys. So amidst games of Sorry! Sliders you'll see games of Castle Panic and Carcassone.

I've been wanting to do some journaling and talk about gaming and kids. Might even do some reviews. I'll be doing this from a perspective of a dad and a Christian. There are a lot of good games out there (both board and video) and there are a lot of bad games out there. I will do my best to talk about these games and how we approach them in our household with our boys.

So please stick around and let me know what you want to hear/see. I'll do my best to address things things that are hot topics in discussions for you and your kids.