Into the Unknown

I have to confess that I have a fear of the unknown. Trying new things gives me chills...

Everywhere I go in the blogosphere I am intimidated by these awesome painters, modelerers, and assemblers. I see guys who spend hours upon hours painting one figure to an unbelievable standard. I see guys who can take a pile of green stuff, or plasticard, or foam core, or any other thing that their "lovecraftian" minds can fathom and turn it into amazing miniatures / terrain. I see that magnets are taking over, with lots of people making their little toy armies modular.

Where do I stand?

Upon the precipice of fear. (Not even sure what that means either.....)

What I need is like a hobby book for dummies. I want to make things modular, but have a fear of jacking my models all up. I want to take my time on a model and make it "perfect" but the 100s sitting on my painting table laugh at that idea. I want to break open that fresh pack of green stuff and sculpt out my own conversions, but have never done anythign more elaborate than a rock or mushroom.

Why then do I read blogs about my hobby? That hobby or course being 40k and to a lesser extent Fantasy with a little D&D for flavor...

I read hoping for inspiration. I read hoping that something will stick. I read because I know that I have improved since I started gaming / painting back in 1997.

I remember a time when I scoffed at the idea of shading. When I painted, each section of the model got one color. My original skaven model (first ever painted) was one of the old style one piece rats. I painted the fur bestial brown... all of it. I painted the hands, nose, and feet a lighter shade (forget the name of the color - may have been bubonic.)I painted the clothes (all of them) enchanted blue. I painted his nose and eyes black. I painted his claws and teeth bleach bone. Finally I painted his sword chainmail and his base goblin green. I was done.

I have gotten a lot better. I now know what shading and highlighting are.

I guess I read hoping to continue to improve and maybe one day I can start posing cool tutorials as well and give back to the community as well.