I've had a lot of "home time" during lockdown - due to several bouts of self-isolation and what turned out to be a pretty hefty hit after a (minor) procedure on my heart.
So, I picked up a hobby again that I used to do 30 years ago (I did actually pick it up slightly 6 years ago, but not seriously).
Miniature painting for board games:
I started with some Aliens for the new game that came out last year - "Another Glorious Day in the Corp!"
I've not got around to doing the marines yet - they're on hold while I plough through some more.
I've always been into board gaming, and about 6 years ago I dipped my toes into "Imperial Assault" - a Star Wars game. I painted the miniatures using the skills and techniques I developed 30 years ago. Turns out, they were rubbish skills and techniques. So, starting with the Aliens above, I've started learning new skills and techniques. To varying degrees of result.
I thought that the Star Wars miniatures for Imperial Assault were great, so I bought so more to practice on.
The troopers are really difficult. To make them look good, they need somebody with a much higher skill than I have.
Hopefully one recognisable character here...
Lunch for Pateesa (if you claim to be a Star Wars fan and don't know who Pateesa is, you need to re-evaluate your fan status
)
Anyway, I was gaining a bit of confidence. I do struggle with a slight tremor in my hands, I'm near-sighted (not good for this kind of work) and colour-blind. So I have a list of excuses for things to be not as good as they could be. I also don't understand colour theory (it doesn't make much sense when I can't see many shades of colours) and I don't have the patience at times for this.
Still, things were looking okay.
Then I moved onto a load of miniatures I ordered in Feb/March 2020. They're "Chibi" versions, and I think I got about 65 in all. I didn't realise that a larger miniature would be harder to paint, less forgiving and that there's a whole new load of techniques to learn to paint Chibis. I've just finished the 65 miniatures, and each one either taught me a better way of doing things, or where my limits really were.
You may recognise some of these:
So, that's been my last 9 months or so