Pro Painted, The Sequel

A couple of months ago, I ranted about painters who describe their work as "Pro Painted" or "Master Painted" when in fact (in my opinion) they are not.

Since then, I have been paying more attention to the various individuals and organizations who sell their painted product, mostly on eBay. For the most part, there are quite a few sellers who produce some really nice minis, and most of those are accurately labeled (tabletop/pro painted/display quality, etc). And then there are a small number of artists who truly can describe their work as professional or master quality. More about that in a minute.

Finally, there are a fair number of sellers who don't live up to their own self-described hype. I see a LOT of paint jobs in and around the solid tabletop level that are touted as pro or master works. Come on, really? One prolific South American outfit has a large selection of minis for sale on a regular basis, but when I see mistakes like clearly visible brush marks, it makes me cringe. And don't get me started on weapons that don't have the ends of the barrels drilled out so they actually look like a lethal projectile weapon, and not a storm bolter that does not appear to have a functioning method for spitting out lead death upon their foes.

I mean, come on, you can't take a minute or two to carefully drill out the end of a firearm? Or file off the rather obvious mold lines? Tell me again why I should pay a premium for your models?

Having said that, I can't blame these guys for doing what they do. They churn out a LOT of painted models and plenty of people pay good money for them. The one seller I single out above has almost 9,000 transactions and a rating of over 99%, so they must be doing something right!

And then there are auctions like this one. Here is a painter who can truly and honestly claim to be a Pro Painter. If my work can keep improving and one day even be a fraction as good as Alexi-Z, I would be thrilled. Take a look at her CMON gallery because there are some totally sick pieces to look at.

Oh, and the icing on the cake? The proceeds are earmarked for charity, so it's not always about just gettin' paid. Another example of a member of the minis/painting community stepping up and being a good egg.

Well, enough of that. I need to take some pics so I can complete my upcoming post where I discuss the great 25mm vs 28mm debate.

I'm a pinball wizard...

Well OK, not really. But I still think pinball games are a good way to kill some time and quarters. We were vacationing in Seaside, OR last month and my boys wanted to play some games in the Funland Arcade so of course I said yes.

They played a racing game, a motorcycle sim (the tilting bike was a bit too much for them I think), and a couple others. And then they saw the row of shiny, happy pinball machines! My eldest son (8) glued himself to The Lord of the Rings, and my younger son (6) took a liking to Pirates of the Caribbean. I was pleased that they thought it was fun - you know, a game with a moving ball, buttons that you must press at just the right time to hit the aforementioned ball - because it is such a departure from Nintendo DS, console games, and computer games.

Seeing their faces conjured up memories of my own time spent playing various pinball and arcade games as a kid. Granted, I was never a pinball expert, but when the mood struck me, I was always up for a game.

I'm pretty sure I would have earned better grades in college (UW - go Huskies!) had I spent less time gaming in the Space Port arcade on The Ave. But that would have meant less time spent playing Donkey King, Afterburner, Star Wars, Zaxxon, and Crossbow. But come on, did anyone really expect me to actually study when I had an hour or so to kill during the day? Good times, indeed.

So I hope my kids continue the family tradition of playing games, if only to keep them young at heart.