Hello one and all and welcome to this special New Years Eve-Eve-Eve post on The Art of Caesura! Regulars 'round these parts know that I save all the schmultzy New Yearsy stuff for the blog's birthday in a few weeks' time, so today we get to revel in hobby past, present and future.  Airbrush Last year at this time I had just got an air compressor for my crappy "Wish" airbrush. I threatened, at that point, to get a 'proper' airbrush later in the year, and two weeks ago I did!  I will devote a whole post to talking about this bad boy ( Harder and Steenbeck's new Ultra 2024 ) once I've had a bit more experience with it but so far I'm in love! I have always said that I don't adore the look of overly airbrushed minis (when they're too smooth and lacking any texture) so don't worry, that's not in my future. I am happy to use it to quickly apply smooth and interesting basecoat blends, as well as some special effects (Object Source Lig...

Ho ho ho! Welcome back to The Art of Caesura! It's that time of year again! Time to don our Santa hats and see who comes out of the woodwork (like a spirit of Christmas past) to wish us a Merry Christmas.  To keep you merry and bright, you can also check out my Christmas Quiz that I prepared last year.  "O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches" I hope you're not on the naughty list! What's black and white and red all over? This guy! Red hat, white beard, twinkle in his eye - must be Santa! "There must have been some magic in that old silk hat they found..." "...Ere the world from chaos rose..." Well! That was bumper Christmas post this year! Do check out last year's  Christmas Quiz if you're looking for a fun family activity, and I'll see you next week to ring in the New Year! Watching: Leave the World Behind (2023) - Netflix Reading: Priests of Mars - Graham McNeill Next Week: 2024!

‘Tis like the howling of Irish wolves against the moon. – William Shakespeare, As You Like It , Act 5, Scene 2.   Welcome back to another Friday on The Art of Caesura! My goodness, we're getting close to the end of the year, but we still have a couple of juicy posts before we bid farewell to 2023.  While today's post (the Friday before Christmas) would typically be my Christmas post, I'm actually going to schedule that post to come out on Christmas Day so that you'll have a little bit of The Art of Caesura in your life while comatose on turkey and merging with the couch.  Today is the second parter to last week's post. We're looking at the first minis that I have painted from Descent: Legends of the Dark : Wolves! I went through my whole painting process in last week's post . I explained how I am trying to use the airbrush more and I even used oils for the first time!  With their large, exaggerated details, these wolves not only painted up quickly, but were ...

Always be yourself, unless you can be a wolf, then be a wolf. - Unknown Good day fellow Caesurians! Last week we started diving into Descent: Legends of the Dark, a beautiful game from a couple of years ago from Fantasy Flight Games. You can check out that post for my overview of the game and some thoughts about the minis and app.  Today, we're looking at the first of the denizens of Terrinoth that you fight in this game: Wolves! I spoke last week about how incredible the quality of the miniatures that come with this game are. They are equal in quality to the HIPs plastic used by GW and their posing is dynamic and characterful. While aesthetic preferences will vary, these are undoubtedly the highest quality board game miniatures that I have come across.  While my preferences typically tend towards the grittier (Oathsworn, Reichbusters, etc) these Descent minis are really appealing to me. They look straight out of Disney's Hercules (a film I loved as a kid) - they can go the d...

Across the gripping quests of an unfolding campaign,  you and your fellow heroes will venture across the realm,  battling terrifying monsters, unlocking new skills,  and exploring a wondrous fantasy world.  - Fantasy Flight Games Hello one and all! Welcome to The Art of Caesura! Today marks something of an excursion. I painted a miniature (or three) from a game that I've never done before and haven't really mentioned on the blog before either. Now, this in itself is nothing too out of the ordinary (as long-time followers of my Kickstarter exploits will know). But what is different about the subject of today post is that it's an aesthetic that I shouldn't love, but I do.  Now, the game is Descent: Legends of the Dark - Act 1. A couple of months ago I saw Act 2 (The Betrayer's War) in a Friendly Local Gaming Store and remembered how excited I was about Act 1 when I got it a couple years ago - I had opened it, looked at all the minis, read all the rules, and then.....

Knowing I lov'd my books,  he furnish'd me From mine own library  with volumes that I prize above my dukedom. The Tempest - William Shakespeare Welcome readers to the 5th annual Autumn Reading List on The Art of Caesura! I really enjoy these reading list posts. I think it's because I like to talk about books (probably a carry over from (or inital impetus for) my undergrad in Literature). Also, likely becuase in my career, any reading I do is very technical so it's nice to abstract oneself from that. In preparation for this post, I was looking back at previous years' lists. Last year in particular I read a bunch of really stand-out books that made the list very difficult to compile. This year was a little easier for me to decide.  Fiction: The Midnight Library - Matt Haig (2020) I read the first two books on this list at a specific time of my life for a very specific reason. I read these books at a time (early this year) when I was making a big career decision. The...

With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come! - The Merchant of Venice , Shakespeare Welcome back friends to The Art of Caesura! Tomorrow is a special day (well, for me anyway)...it's my BIRTHDAY!! Last week, my inlaws kindly came down to look after our kids, and my wife wisked me away for the weekend (at time of writing, it hasn't happened yet, so I don't yet know where we're going...uh...went...confusing and exciting!).  Tomorrow, my actual birthday happens to fall on the third KillCon - we're moving on up from Combat Patrol to 750 points. So that will be a good bit of craic! Thanks as always for reading - it's always nice to have you here! See you next week on The Art of Caesura! Gaming: Darktide Reading: Lessons in Chemistry - Bonnie Garmus Next Week:   Autumn reading list 2023...

 Load up your Boltgun and unleash  the awesome Space Marine arsenal  to blast your way through an explosion of sprites,  pixels and blood in a perfect blend of Warhammer 40,000,  frenetic gameplay and the stylish visuals of 90’s retro shooters. - Steam Hello all, I don't really talk about many video games on The Art of Caesura, outside of mentioning what I'm gaming at the moment at the bottom of most posts. I don't want to draw the focus too far away from painting and playing with miniatures and I also feel a bit of extra pressure writing such posts because video games enjoy much broader and more thorough online coverage than miniature painting does so it is more difficult to add something new or find my own voice. All that being said, I have gone into a bit of depth about some video games - but I have tended to keep them miniature-related. Over the span of 3 weeks, a few years ago, I did some posts on Storm Ground , Necromunda: Underhive Wars , and Necromunda: ...

Initiates aim jets of fire from their pyreblasters  or swing crackling power fists into their foes,  while hard-eyed Neophytes fight furiously  to prove their martial worth. - Games Workshop Welcome one and all to The Art of Caesura! Last week we saw the last of my Primaris Crusader Squad - the Initiates. Now with the squad completely complete, we can see them altogether! It feels great to have this iconic Black Templars squad finished. I've already used them in two games and they performed very well!  I love heterogeneous squads like this! Visually, they're much more interesting than a regular Intercessor squad. Not only do they have fully body tabards and other Black Templars trappings, but just having the mix of lightly armoured, unhelmeted Neophytes, the bulkier Initiates and then the properly pimpin' Sword Brother leading the squad gives a nice visual diversity to this collection.  The other nice element of models from a painting perspective, is that acros...