Miniature Painting Killing My Eyes!

[bento]

I started taking up miniature painting recently to kill time between RPGing, and have found an interesting side-effect.

After 40 years of nearly perfect vision, I'm now seeing blurry! I wear visor-goggles and using an OTT Light my in-laws gave me several years ago to help see the mini up close, and when I'm away from painting I've noticed that I can't focus on anything unless its at least 12 inches away from my eyes.

Of all the things I've done in my life and an been told I'd go blind, I never thought it would be doing this!

At least my figures (so far) look great!

Anyone else have this happen?

 

[Dragongirl]

Sounds like someone is going to need glasses soon . . .

What miniatures are the best?

 

[bento]

I've only been painting Reaper's so far. Funny thing is I found out their factory is only about 20 minutes away from my house! They have a store front as well and went there on Saturday.

I have a nasty habit of sometimes going overboard with a hobby, so I'm trying to pace myself. Of course I do have this week off from work and I thought about starting a skeleton army!

My son (6 yr old) wants me to paint a set of WH40K Nekros after visiting a local Game Workshop store. Man - and I thought RPGs was an expensive hobby!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Bento, you must live somewhere near me- I'm in Coppell! Howdy, neigbor!

I haven't been to Reaper's factory, though- I know its around here, but I keep putting off tracking it down.

I think you'd also like the Rackham Confrontation and Cadwallon minis- even though I don't play the games, I found the sculpts to be quite nice. I've been buying as many of those as Reapers, lately.

 

[trancejeremy]

Maybe you should take up painting garden gnomes instead?

 

[Aeson]

I had Lasik eye surgery awhile back. They told me that most people will need reading glasses after 40 even those that had the surgery. You might need some glasses to see far away. Your eyes get worse as you get older.

 

[bento]

Bento, you must live somewhere near me- I'm in Coppell! Howdy, neigbor!

I'm in that strange stretch of Fort Worth near Alliance Airport and the Speedway! I game in your backyard - at the DeVry University campus on Regent near Freeport.

I haven't been to Reaper's factory, though- I know its around here, but I keep putting off tracking it down.

Took me two times to find it. It's on Teasley about 100 yards east of Copper Canyon. They're in a group of tan warehouses in the back. I only found it because they put up a sign near the road.

The big plus for me is they let you bring in your minis and brushes on Saturday and you can use their paints. At $3 a bottle of paint, I think I'll be making the trip more frequently to use those "once-in-a-lifetime" colors!

I think you'd also like the Rackham Confrontation and Cadwallon minis- even though I don't play the games, I found the sculpts to be quite nice. I've been buying as many of those as Reapers, lately.

I really like the Rackham ads in Dragon and checked out their figures. Way too complex for me right now - I'm just trying to get down techniques like dry brushing and washing. So far I've done one warrior, four giant rats and nine kobolds, all fairly basic (although small). I wasn't thinking about detail when I bought the next set of figs this weekend and several of them I'll have to set aside until I get more practice!

That Ogre Mage's backpack blows my mind in all the items it has on it!

 

[bento]

Maybe you should take up painting garden gnomes instead?

Gnomes have a way of getting swiped around here - those darn travel ads!

Hey there's an idea - customize a garden gnome to look more like the D&D version. Careful kids - that gnome's rapier is mighty sharp!

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Thanks for the tips on finding the Reaper store! I'm going to have to track them down to see if I can replace a cleric mini I used in a painted chess set...someone walked off with mine.

I think the big barrier to buying Rackham stuff is the price, but if you check out Lone Star, they're selling a lot of it on clearance right now.

The next big barrier is assembly. Unlike Reaper, many of the Rackham minis require assembly.

But really, their level of detail isn't any greater than the Reaper stuff- what you're percieving as complexity are things like the tattoos of the Celtois or the fancy designs on Griffon clothing, or the technomagery of the Alchemists...which really are no more complex than the details you'd find in Reaper brigandine armor.

Besides...noboby but nobody does better Undead or giant-sized humanoid wolves better than Rackham!

BTW...you DO have a freestanding magnifying glass with clips don't you?

 

[Umbran]

...when I'm away from painting I've noticed that I can't focus on anything unless its at least 12 inches away from my eyes.

Do you mean now you are completely incapable on focusing on such objects, or that the problem persists for a while after painting, but then goes away?

The latter is basically an issue of muscle strain - just like your other muscles, if held in one odd position too long, the muscles that control your focus can become stiff and inflexible. I occasionally have a similar issue when I read for prolonged period of time when holding a book too close, so that for a while distant objects are difficult to focus on. The difference here is the lenses...

I'm not sure what an "OTT lamp" is, but if those goggles are magnifying - don't use them. Fixed distance between eye and lens can cause strain. Use a magnifying lamp instead. With practice, you can find an arrangement of your head, the lens, and the figure such that the figure is magnified, but you don't change your focus when you look up from the lamp to the rest of the room. This eliminates eye strain.