An idea, a blogger buddy and a very well painted Miniature.

WARNING: THIS POST WILL BE LACED WITH QUOTES FROM THE ’87 ACTION/SCI-FI MOVIE “PREDATOR”

“There’s something out there waiting for us, and it ain’t no man. We’re all gonna die.”

Well, in actual fact, he is a man and a very cool one at that and his name is Dave AKA (TIM) The Imperfect Modeller, AKA IRO’s Hobby Dad haha.

Some months ago, may have even been when we were both in lockdown on other sides of the planet due to COVID, I emailed Dave asking if he wanted to do something/anything together for our beloved hobby? He was up for it but neither of us knew what to do. After a bit of brain storming, which between us sounds like a tiny pebble rattling around in a tin can, we came up with the idea of choosing a miniature that each of us might like and then paint it our own way and then mail it over to each other. Dave will be doing his own post that will be released today 6/01/21 in England time. Neither of us knew what each other had chosen so it was quite an exciting wait by the mailbox.

It didn’t take long for me to decide what sort of miniature I wanted to paint for Dave but it took me a bit of time to find just the right one. I ordered the 1/35 scale mini for but it took bloody aaaaaaaaages to arrive for me to paint.

“What’s the matter? The CIA got you pushing too many pencils? “

Dave, being much quicker off the mark (maybe because all he does is sit around moaning about She Who Must Be Obeyed haha) painted up something he guessed I’d like and it arrived some time back in October or November (I think) 2020. Needless to say he knew me well enough to pick a great miniature for me and ladies and gentlemen the paint job on this little chap is absolutely amazing!

“This stuff will make you a god damned sexual Tyrannosaurus, just like me.”

Dave chose a mini from Hasslefree (Which he guessed correctly that I already owned but haven’t painted) and it’s DUTCH (Played by Arnold Schwarzenegger) .

“If it bleeds, we can kill it.”

I love the bolder camo on the pants and the understated camo on the singlet.

TIM’s base work is always on point and tells just enough little story each time.

The muscle definition and highlighting on the UZI are some of my favourite parts to the mini

As always, TIM’s painted eyes always, ALWAYS impress me.

He even nailed the bushy eyebrows of DUTCH/ARNIE

TIM loves a plinth

So as you can, no doubt, imagine I am truly thrilled to bits with, not only, the choice of the Mini by TIM but also that amazing paint job. TIM really is a fantastic painter and one to be admired. I certainly aspire to being as good as him one day but at the same time highly doubt I’ll ever get close to his skill level.

This little activity was a lot of fun. Obviously I wont say too much about the miniature I chose for Dave but I will say I pushed my own painting skills as hard as I could because I hoped to impress, even just mildly, the great painter himself that is The Imperfect Modeller.

If you’re not too sure who TIM is, or this is your first visit to my blog, go and check all his work out here and be prepared to have your mind blown.

https://theimperfectmodeller.co.uk/

We’d like to encourage you all to do the same thing. It’s a bit of fun, isn’t too expensive and kind of cool to own minis from or by other hobby enthusiasts.

“Stick around.”

I’m hoping to be doing another post in the next few days with a WIP of my Fembruary project for 2021. Fembruary is the challenge that Alex from Leadballoony puts out each year to encourage all of us to paint something of the female variety. My submission this year will be the biggest and most challenging diorama I’ve ever done, let alone for the Fembruary challenge.

Until then I will leave you with these very wise words…

“Get to the chopper!”

Cheers

IRO