Greetings and Salutations boys and girls, Unicorns and children of all ages –
Hold on.
What?
Didn’t our official Strictly Average Program Criticizer Da Warboss Stalin recently say he hated seeing the same introduction on all our material?
No, what he said was:
“Hate is a strong word. Maybe I hate all the white text you spam on your battle reports…or maybe how you open every blog article with the same stupid intro…or how the articles tend to ramble with little point. But as a person, you’re probably passable.”
Oh. Well that’s okay then. Carry on.
Hello boys and girls, Unicorns and children of all ages – and Da Warboss, too – Brent here, and today we’re doing something a bit different.
In this series I’ve interviewed and BSMoove, Dethtron, Kirby, and Big Jim, bloggers all. Each of them has an established blog and a unique point of view.
Today I’m interviewing a dude who doesn’t have a blog and hasn’t really established a long body of work on 3++ is the New Black, the blog he’s a guest-contributor on…
…but if it’s about making a mark, then man has this dude made a mark!
He’s dotted the eye of every dude who thought he could kit-bash, spanked the rear of every chick who thought she knew a thing or three about a paintbrush, an grabbed the horn of all you Unicorns out there and just shook the shit out of it!
The children he just encouraged, ‘cause he’s a decent dude.
His name is Rupert and he is the new cool.
Interview with Rupert
Brent: Greetings, Rupert! Thanks for showing up today. I was a bit worried you’d run and I’d have to chase you down or something.
Rupert: No, not at all, it is a real honour to be asked to do something like this!
(He’s British so we’ll let him misspell words like honor…)
Brent: Let’s get to it! Most important things first: in one of the pictures you were wearing glasses much like mine. Am I that much a trendsetter?
Rupert: Well, as hunky as you look in yours, these are the only style that suit me.
Brent: I am hunky, it’s true; passable too. Anyway, how long have you been writing for Kirby over at 3++ is the New Black?
Rupert: Well, I’ve only done 3 articles so far so just the past month. It all started off from talking on the Chatbox on 3++ and speaking to BroLo who suggested I ask Kirby if he’d be interested in me writing articles concerning collecting an army in 1 month. He agreed and it’s all gone from there!
Brent: Ah, the Pink Army! I’m a fan. How long have you been painting?
Rupert: Well, I painted my first model (a human Blitzer from Blood Bowl) I believe in 1994, as you would expect it was pretty terrible! I had no real idea about how to paint back then but I’ve endeavored to learn since that point and persevere. No one was born with an innate ability to paint miniatures well, it’s all about practice, reflection and improving standards!
Brent: You have a unique style – and you’re obviously a fast painter! Can you take a moment to describe your technique and how you developed it?
Rupert: I’ve attempted to paint in all manner of styles. Classic GW style, Wargames Foundry style, Rackham style, I’ve also had numerous discussions with other painters and taken part in a lot of experimentation. I then took the parts I liked from all these different styles and then condensed it further into a speed painting style. As much as it would be nice to sit and spend days or months painting a single model my attention span isn’t good enough for that!
My “style” now revolves around three simple steps. Base-coating the model, shading the whole model, then highlighting the model. The unique aspect I guess is the highlighting which is achieved purely through painting lines. No blending at all occurs as this takes far too long and to be honest I’m not particularly good at it.
Brent: Let’s talk about your Last of the Mohicans-themed Space Wolves. What made you take on such a project? I mean, painting it in one month – were you sure you could do it?
Rupert: It may sound quite big headed but I knew I could do it, simply because I had to, even if it came down to no sleep for a few days. I attend multiple tournaments per year and I typically paint three armies a year usually in a period of one month.
I wanted to paint a Space Wolf army as I like doing something unique and I hadn’t seen anyone take an army quite like the one I took in my local area (Chumbalaya is someone I know who has a similar list but he is in the US).
The Last of the Mohicans aspect came from just being a massive fan of that movie, anyone who hasn’t seen it really ought to go and buy it now!
Brent: You made the decision to replace all the heads with helmets; obviously this was to save time. How much extra time is involved in a project like this when you consider models requiring oddball elements? For example, would it have involved 50% more painting time?
Rupert: Hmm, it’s hard to say. I would estimate the painting time for a helmeted marine the way I paint to be about 3 or 4 minutes per head. To paint skin it would have taken at least 10 minutes a head so extrapolating that to 50 miniatures would mean at least 5 hours more painting and it was time I didn’t have (plus it is a bit stupid to not have a helmet on isn’t it?)
I also in the end didn’t paint squad markings on (I was going to do freehand animal footprints). Essentially at present I haven’t found a method to speed up faces or freehand and so those aspects still take some time.
I did do freehand on the objective markers. They took about 20 minutes each which I was surprised by as I’d assumed it would take maybe an hour each so maybe I’m getting quicker?
Brent: What other considerations do you have to make when painting an army?
Rupert: I could talk all day about this. I procrastinate far more over what army to paint/how to paint it then it actually takes to paint one! First and foremost is how it’s going to perform as an army in a tournament setting. Then comes how many figures it will entail painting, for example green tide is a no-no! Then comes whether I actually want to paint the models. You also have to consider the financial aspect too!
Brent: Do you commonly paint armies so quickly or was this a challenge?
Rupert: I typically spend a month painting an army tops. The SW one took 5 days, I’ve done a Black Templar army in 11 days before too, that did have 5 land raiders though, I painted a Nurgle Daemon Bomb army in 1 night before! Essentially it is a challenge but I really should try to stop it because I never have a chance to playtest and that surely must be affecting my performance in the tournaments.
Brent: Since you don’t actually have your own blog quite yet I’ll spare you the lightning round and bonus question, but I do want to ask some general questions. For example, do you consider yourself a painter, a player, or both?
Rupert: First and foremost I’m a player, I once took an army that was essentially sprayed black to the GT but realistically it’s much nicer to have a fully painted army to play with and ideally one that looks pretty nifty! I don’t particularly enjoy painting but that may be due to the pressure of having to paint quickly to meet a deadline, it’s been a long time since I’ve painted for fun so I don’t really know!
Brent: What advice do you have to give to all those budding painters out there? Are there design or painting elements you commonly see which are wrong or could be improved?
Rupert: I think the main thing people get wrong is simple neatness. A model basecoated neatly is pretty impressive on it’s own! Then a simple shade and a few highlights and you’re done! Over-complicating a process typically leads to error!
Brent: Last question! What have I failed to ask that you want to answer?
Rupert: Well, I was going to say that I have a couple of armies that I am yet to photograph, I have a 1500 point Pathfinder army and a 1500 point Imperial Guard army in my figure cabinet! I’d also like to say that if anyone has anything they’d like me to cover in depth please email me and I’ll do my best!
(Brent: Pssst! Okay, I lied. I have one more question. Does Kirby really beat his authors? I’ve heard he starves them if they fail to perform!)
(Rupert: I can’t say that I’ve witnessed this yet, perhaps I am still enjoying the honeymoon period?)
(Brent: Oh crap – he’s coming!)
That’s all the time we have for today, so drop a comment and let Rupert know what you think about his work.