How did you get into painting?

[Raynor]

My first stab at painting came in 2001 while I was playing Mage Knight. I had a lot of fun but I was terrible at it. The figurines I painted occasionally turned out marginally better than their out of the box counterparts but I was using Apple Barrel and thick brutish brushes that were not able to impart more than the idea of detail and the figurines themselves weren't exactly inspired sculpts.

It was a fun time but after that experience I actually completely avoided painting for the next 12-13 years. My results were simply so subpar I lost faith in myself and generally preferred the unpainted versions of my board game pieces.

So this spring I attended a game demo of Malifaux at my Local Game Store. The game was fun enough but to play required me to assemble and paint an army. What a drag... I thought. I won't be getting into this game, pha! as if! HA!

annnnd then they did a drawing and I won like $120 of free Malifaux stuff... FREE STUFF! What's a guy to do? At that point I was practically obligated to at least try to glue the pieces together and cobble together a rough paint job. After all, I knew the game was fun and after being loaded down with free dudes, any objections to putting in the time to assemble them seemed pretty petty.

And thank goodness am I glad I did. I decided that if I was going to do it, I would do it right. I read a couple of primers on how to go about painting minis, and even read impatiently, they provided some great pointers. I bought nice paints and nice paint brushes. Then I set myself down and assembled... and painted... and zenned out while listening to Audiobooks or phone calls. And my stuff turned out not half bad! I found that to my complete and utter surprise, that there is a good reason why people enjoy doing this. It's rewarding and peaceful and once you're done and go back to play the game... it's SUPER freaking AWESOME!

so yeah... then I heard that Flying frog was going to be doing the same thing for their Shadows of Brimstone game. Now I have an excuse to go paint-crazy. I'm just grateful I got introduced to the whole assemble and paint thing before I got my hands on the important stuff.

Anyway, that's my story. How did everyone else get into this stuff? Any resources that you recommend? Any fun stories to relate about your painting history? + If you haven't painted before and are looking forward to Shadows of Brimstone, don't sweat it. Kick back your feet, put on some Graphic Audio or Mozart, and enjoy your evening knowing your next game night is going to be that much cooler than it ever was before. Painted minis turn the experience up to 11.