CryinMo's Tabletop Alchemy

This episode’s conversation is one of my favorites so far, it’s definitely full of surprises for me and has some pretty in-depth conversation about role playing games from a gentleman I had no idea was so into rpgs! Our guest today is none other than the creator of the YouTube series Hobby Cheating, the worldwide award-winning miniature painter and hobby guru Vince Venturella. To kill all of your expectations right up front, I specifically invited Vince onto the show to NOT talk about his miniature painting. His entire YouTube channel is dedicated to miniature painting and Warhammer wargaming. I asked him to come on the show to discuss his love of Dungeons & Dragons and I’m telling you, I had no idea what I was getting into. It’s an awesome conversation, we talk about movies and books, oysters, running D&D marathons, how being fired from his first job had a significant impact on his life, we discuss genre-mixing, rpg horror campaigns while playing adolescent characters, writing and publishing his own games, mind-blowing collaborative character creation rules, pump up the volume, being a positive force in the hobby at large, loving the act of teaching and just loving the communal artistic hobby we all share. And all kinds of other stuff!

Vince Venturella on YouTubeVince’s InstagramVince’s Facebook

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening & Sundries00:06:28 – Interview01:21:50 – Hobby Progress01:27:00 – Section Charlie

In Section Charlie where I highlight someone or something interesting I want to share, I shoutout another podcast – the Havoc Cast! It’s an excellent, laid back, entertaining and informative podcast featuring hobbyists from the wargaming and rpg gaming worlds and I love Dan’s “20 Odd Questions” format.

https://thelonelyhavocs.comhttps://www.facebook.com/lonelyhavocs/https://www.instagram.com/thelonelyhavocs/

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Notes

Wuthering HeightsBrent WeeksRyan Dancey article on taking over TSR officesVentureland GamesPump Up The Volume

Show Transcript (excluding interview content)

BEWARE THE DEVIL: Interview with Vince Venturella

All right, welcome to episode 28 of Tabletop Alchemy, my podcast about D&D, Warhammer, miniatures, skirmish games and all the cool stuff that has to do with the miniature-based or role playing-based tabletop hobbies! How is everyone doing today?! I hope this episode is finding you in good spirits, feeling strong, feeling inspired, feeling creative, feeling positive about the future. 

Let’s talk about change for a minute, and fear. That’s right, we’re jumping right in. So my little pre-ramble – to borrow a technical term from Dan Adam over on the Paint All The Minis Paint Ramble – is inspired by my current situation, which isn’t at all remarkable, but still, it brings up certain notions. Fear, as the philosophers tell us, is just the experience of experiencing the unknown. Change, as in change in our lives, our daily routine,

Today we chat with Wyatt Turk, otherwise known as Jack Of Clubs Painting on Twitch, Facebook and YouTube. He provides quick tutorials on his YouTube channel and lessons for hire via Patreon. He’s badass with an airbrush – and in fact he drops one of the best quotes ever describing his relationship with his airbrush, but I’ll let you get to that naturally in the interview – but his overall painting quality is stupendous while still being accessible, meaning he paints up entire armies at an amazing tabletop standard but then can show you exactly how he achieves his signature look. He’s also a strategist and hardcore tournament Warhammer40k player, we talk about sour beers, journeyman painters versus initiates and masters, we discuss how fast you can learn how to get better at miniature painting online, having something to show for your time, we talk about Warhammer40k 8th edition, gaming schedules, Ultramarine fandom, using spreadsheets to help with turning around fully painted armies in record time, competitive gaming, how important it is to know what you want to get out of the hobby, keeping up with the speed of the meta, tetrad color wheels, airbrush gunslinging and his secret love of Blood Bowl!

Jack Of Clubs Painting on TWITCHJack Of Clubs Painting on FACEBOOKJack Of Clubs Painting on YouTube

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening & Sundries00:05:11 – Interview01:37:19 – Closing

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Notes

The Long War podcastHell’s Reach on YouTubeRichard Boylan on YouTubeWarhammer40k 8th editionDead Sky Black SunDan AbnettTetrad color wheel tattoo bottleMike Haspil Spiky BitsKenny Boucher Next Level Painting

Show Transcript (excluding interview content)

HOBBY RENAISSANCE: Interview with JackOfClubsPainting

Welcome back to another episode of Tabletop Alchemy, one of many podcasts about our awesome hobbies which include Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, miniatures, skirmish games, storytelling, art and movies and books and whatever else strikes our fancy. That’s right, this podcast is Fancy!

I don’t know what that means. But welcome back anyway! This is episode 27 and you can find it on most podcast apps, you can catch the YouTube version on YouTube, you can find show notes and links to every episode and my Instagram and my Facebook and my email address, all the good stuff is at my hub so to speak which is simply

Today we chat with Ryan Smith a.k.a. DungeonMapster. On Instagram and Patreon he’s @ dungeonmapster and I’m sure you can infer from his screen name what type of content you might find on his websites. But in addition to illustrating maps for D&D and Pathfinder and other fantasy-based role-playing games, we talk about audio books, world of warcraft, pathfinder versus dnd5e, meeting friends online, playing rpgs online, we discuss tips for running faster combat, the importance of discovering what you like to do creatively, how to deal with players unwittingly murdering your campaign storyline, voice acting during role playing and even making young adults choose what they want to do fo life at the age of 18!

DungeonMapster on PatreonDungeonMapster on Instagram

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening & Sundries00:05:00 – Interview

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Notes

Matt Collville on YouTubePathfinder RPGCarrion CrownTwo-minute TabletopDark Matter by Blake CrouchDaemon by Daniel SuarezPatrick RothfussMike Schley

Show Transcript (excluding interview content)

All right, all right, all right! Welcome back to another episode of Tabletop Alchemy! In fact, welcome to a sort of milestone even! This is episode 26! Now that probably doesn’t mean much to you, but it means a little something to me. This marks exactly 26 weeks of continuous episodic release since the debut episode – it’s actually the 27th episode of we wanna count episode 0 but that was only like 10 minutes long, so I don’t count that. So, for me, consistently producing a podcast for half of a year, that’s a little milestone for me. And it’s thanks to all you guys anyway, so high fives all ‘round!

All right, I’m CryinMo and this is in fact a podcast about tabletop gaming with an emphasis on miniatures, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Frostgrave, storytelling, fantasy and sci-fi, basically all the cool stuff surrounding our shared hobby interests. Usually my guests and I discuss games we play, hobby techniques, life philosophies and motivational tips and tricks. My goal is to provide you with something fun and cool to listen to while you work on your own hobby stuff. Or, you know, like some of us, sit around thinking about working on our hobby stuff.

You can find every episode and it’s show notes at cryinmo.com as well as my email and social media links. If you’d like to support the show, leaving comments or a rating on whatever app you use and just sharing the podcast are two of the most helpful things you can do and are always much appreciated. And of course I doff my cap to my monthly patrons over at patreon.com. You can also stream a video version of each episode on YouTube as well, at youtube.com slash cryinmo if that platform is more to your liking. 

So today, boys and girls,

Today we’re traveling to Berlin! And we’re gonna talk with the King of the Vampires – my words, not his – Bartek Stachurski from Borgnine’s Painting blog. He was great fun to talk with and I’m telling you, Halloween is one of the very best times … to wait until midnight … then head over to his Instagram and web site and revel in all the gory glory of his incredibly cool – and massive! – undead army of vampires and zombies and Shadespire warbands and Blood Bowl teams! Also, the other very best times to head over to the blog is … all the times that aren’t Halloween. Bartek is a master of grimdark and conversions and he also conducts world building and storytelling for his army units and characters. We chat about his tutorials on painting and converting models and perseverance and gamer wives and zombie weddings and motivation and just the pure love of the hobby.

Borgnine’s Painting on InstagramBorgnine’s Painting Blog

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening & Sundries00:03:00 – Frostgrave game #2 report00:11:33 – Interview01:10:10 – Hobby Progress01:13:46 – Section Charlie

In Section Charlie, where I share something or someone cool I’ve come across on the internet, I highlight some of my favorite horror movies that maybe aren’t super well-known. Some of them are, for sure, but maybe some will have slipped under your radar.

It Follows https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HkZYbOH0ujw

Let The Right One In https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICp4g9p_rgo

Frailty https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mW6TlPMHXgk

The Visit https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Fv3gU-ed7Y

The Orphanage https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUZQgqxIZ6s

Chronicle https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UD0DshFbmxA

The Gift https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=19zskSsKgXE

Split https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=84TouqfIsiI

Severance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQ4e1558QY0

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Notes

What We Do In The Shadows TrailerBartek’s Kiril’s Retinue (Sepulcheral Guard)Bartek’s The Faceless (Stormcast conversion)Perilous DarkFrostgrave

This episode we dial up Croatia to talk with Ana Polanscak from the Gardens of Hecate blog. Ana is a true artist, something of a Renaissance woman maybe – she sculpts and converts miniatures, she paints miniatures and creates stand-alone works of art, she writes stories and her main endeavor currently is using skirmish games to create a fully immersive storytelling experience. My words, not hers.

Ana’s work is pure grimdark in a strangely classical art way – I don’t know anything about art genres and time frames and periods or classifications, so I’m just being my normal inept self when it comes to describing her work and don’t worry, I’m uniformly inept DURING the interview as well. So I’m consistent if nothing else, dammit! Oh, and that’s the key thing I find so exciting about Ana’s work – it’s her consistency of vision, her sense of aesthetic is so thorough and all-encompassing, when you see any part of her blog or her work, you just feel like you’re peering through a small window at a much larger, fully formed world. I suffer from a lack of true personal vision – I see all kinds of styles and aesthetics and processes and methods and finishes and I can’t ever settle into one thing in order to focus on creating something super specific, and, as you can probably see from the guests I have on the show, I’m always subconsciously impressed with – and perhaps even a touch jealous of, let’s be honest – folks that have true singularity of vision.

Ana’s a true author of grimdark, and her work is super inspiring to me not only in storytelling but in what you can do as a storyteller. She presents the idea, however consciously or unconsciously, that one can tell stories in unorthodox ways and all I can say is, if you’re a fan tabletop games combined with storytelling, this interview is for you, even if you don’t like grimdark itself as a genre.

http://gardensofhecate.blogspot.comhttps://www.instagram.com/a_polanscak/https://www.facebook.com/GardensOfHecate/

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening & Sundries00:05:05 – Tabletop Minions live stream reaction00:15:07 – Interview01:23:00 – Hobby Progress01:25:21 – Section Charlie

In Section Charlie, where I share something or someone cool I’ve come across on the internet, I highlight the author and artist Clive Barker, just offering a few recommended selections from his short stories and novels for Halloween reading!

The Last IllusionDreadThe Thief of AlwaysThe Great and Secret ShowWeaveworldhttps://www.clivebarker.info/news.html

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Notes

Rammstein Gothic Americana music Dungeon Synth Synthwave aos28 Mierce Miniatures rust tutorial Questor of Sigmar monstrous births act i

This episode I talk to a dude named Tim and who’s instagram handle is @bonus_action. Tim is an artist and designer and he produces for Instagram and his Patreon materials for use in Dungeons & Dragons, specifically custom magic items, traps and flavor tables. We have a fun conversation about both running and playing D&D, about being new to the whole thing, we talk about being creative and we actually laugh quite a bit during this one. He’s super cool, produces interesting content and has some great insights from his perspective about playing D&D.

@bonus_action on InstagramBonus_action Patreon

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening & Sundries00:06:36 – Interview00:57:12 – Hobby Progress00:59:03 – Section Charlie

In Section Charlie, where I share something or someone cool I’ve come across on the internet, I highlight a previous Section Charlie alumni! A while back I mentioned a blog called Borgnine’s Miniature Painting and the dark artist behind that blog of nightmare Warhammer armies and warbands, Bartek Stachurski (apologies for my mispronunciation), has finally jumped full-on into the Gram! So check all of his grimdark stuff out @borgnines_painting (link below), and as an added bonus, expect an interview with him sometime before the end of October! Cause this is the Halloween month and there’s no better time to feature Bartek’s horrific conversions of vampire lords and zombie armies and custom rusted fallen stormcast, oh it’s a smorgasbord of epic grimdark proportions! https://www.instagram.com/borgnines_painting

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Transcript (excluding interview content)

Be Really Up Front About Your Weird Hobby: Interview with Bonus_Action

Hear ye, hear ye, hear ye, this is episode 23 of CryinMo’s Tabletop Alchemy. I’m CryinMo and this is a podcast about tabletop rpgs, skirmish games, miniature wargaming, miniature painting, terrain crafting, Dungeons and Dragons, Warhammer, Frostgrave, fantasy and sci-fi art, and interviews with people who create and play in this tabletop gaming arena. Welcome to the show.

How are you guys doing this week? I am treading water, doing the zen thing, trying to regulate my breathing, trying to force that panic down – I know you know what I’m talking about. We’re surfing Life, people! We’re surviving! We’re going toe-to-toe with existential angst and creative blocks and we’re overcoming those demons of sloth and temptations of Lazy-Boys, we’re mental warriors sparring with those rat bastard creative geniuses who keep making stuff that looks sooooo good! You know of whom I speak, those who launch their attacks via email with big beautiful graphics showing all the new products, the new sculpts, the new rule books, the new terrain, the new vehicles and models and dice and the dice’s esoteric, magnetically enhanced, gorgeously carved wooden vaults and the kickstarters and paint-makers and game table crafters – you and I, we lock blades with them every single day and I hope you are faring as best as you can against that incredibly cool onslaught of … to be frank … incredibly cool and awesomely artistic merchandise.

The pile of Opportunity grows, my friends, it grows. Well, put up your swords, rest a while, let’s chill out together and get some hobby work done! That’s the hopeful purpose of this podcast at any rate, to keep you company while you work your hobby stuff, or, as I often like to say,

This episode I have a conversation with your friendly neighborhood party nerd! That’s right, Twitch streamer, miniature painter, Dutch daddy insomniac Reiner72! Steve is a fantastic miniature painter, you can check his stuff out on Instagram of course, but to get the biggest bang for your buck, you can catch him a few times a week live on Twitch where he’s gone out of his way to cultivate a decent respectful community that is always happy to have new members. We chat about that streaming life and mental health and anxiety, we discuss airbrushing and airbrush maintenance, brush holder stencil painting, burnout, community building, role playing games and even mixology! I told you, he’s the resident party nerd!

Reiner72 on TwitchReiner72paints on InstagramReiner72paints on Twitter

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening & Sundries00:04:13 – News00:11:43 – Interview01:18:57 – Hobby Progress01:26:35 – Section Charlie

In Section Charlie, where I share something or someone cool I’ve come across on the internet, I highlight the incredible Instagram account HVMWorkbench. This account features incredible miniature photography, you gotta check it out, there’s a lot of Star Wars on there and Lord of the Rings content. I don’t know if this is a studio with multiple artists and craftsmen working on things or if it’s an individual, but the work is awesome. The painting is fantastic but the photography is really special. From photographic backgrounds to practically-lit miniature sets to really immersive terrain, I just love the art. And it’s not just miniature painting but visual storytelling as well. https://www.instagram.com/hvmworkbench/

SHOW NOTES

Judgement miniature gameJojos Bizarre AdventureWorld of Darkness RPG gamesHunter: The ReckoningEberron (D&D setting)Manhattan (drink recipe)Sacerac (drink recipe)Forgeworld Blood Bowl

Paint All The Minis Paint Ramble podcast

My children’s book on Amazon – Cardboard Papa

From Dan Adams, what a guy!!

Many thanks to Dan Adams from Paint All The Minis Paint Ramble!

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Transcript (excluding interview content)

All right, welcome to Episode 22 of CryinMo’s Tabletop Alchemy! How are you guys doing this week?  I hope the best you can be, ‘cause, you know, that’s about the only thing you can strive for – strive for the ATTEMPT to do your best. Do your best in the attempt to do your best. I’ll be honest, 99% of the time I am definitely a do-as-I-say-not...

This week I have a conversation with a guy who is a bona fide adventurer (he might dispute that) and a bona fide artist. He goes by the Instagram handle TheRealBrokenFingers and yeah, that name ain’t facetious. His work on Instagram is Warhammer 40k oriented and he creates massive dioramas, you gotta see ‘em to believe ‘em. He goes out of his way to evoke the gothic grimdark atmosphere of Space Marines in their eternally war-torn environment and on top of his excellent paint work and terrain model-making, his photography is fantastic as well. We talk about sailing the high seas, broken appendages, cinematic photography, world-building with models, chiaroscuro, coffee table books and of course fabricating, painting and displaying amazing dioramas!

Check out TheRealBrokenFingers on Instagram

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening (News & Sundries)00:11:45 – Interview01:11:07 – Hobby Progress01:12:38 – Section Charlie

In Section Charlie, where I share something or someone cool I’ve come across on the internet,

I highlight a non-hobby related short film! I was very impressed with this short film, it’s only 4 minutes long (5 minute running time but that’s with a minute of credits), I’m sure it’s gonna win all kinds of awards, it really is an extremely well-made piece of cinema. And it’s well-made on a story level because from the first frame to the last, it will keep you hooked, at least I it did for me and everyone I’ve linked it to so far. So give it a shot, it’s called Nursery Rhymes and make sure you watch at least the first 30 to 60 seconds and I think you’ll be hooked to the end.

SHOW NOTES

The Independent Characters Episode 190Luetin Lore on YouTubeOculus Imperia on YouTubeAaron Dembski-Bowden

View this post on Instagram “I AM THE HUNTER. I AM ORION.” #truescale #alphalegion #champion #legionesastartes #blanchitsu #paintingwarhammer #warhammer #warhammer40k #warhammer30k #grimdark #thehalostars #warhammerterrain #scalemodel #modelmaking #warhammerdiorama #diorama #kitbash #paintingminiatures #weathering #spacemarines #hydradominatus A post shared by @ therealbrokenfingers on Mar 4, 2019 at 10:00pm PST

View this post on Instagram

This week I just ramble about four fantasy authors and my favorite of their books. I chat about Frances Hardinge, Nancy Springer, Jeff Smith and Joe Abercrombie and what I like about my favorite books of theirs and not only just how good they are for reading but also how they might be inspirational for running Dungeons and Dragons campaigns or rpg world-building or homebrew tabletop scenarios.

Time Stamps00:00:00 – Opening (News & Sundries)00:03:30 – Frances Hardinge 00:10:34 – Nancy Springer00:13:50 – Jeff Smith00:18:05 – Joe Abercrombie00:28:53 – Hobby Progress00:32:39 – Section Charlie

In Section Charlie, where I share something or someone cool I’ve come across on the internet, I highlight the Instagram account DungeonMapster! He does full maps of various scenes, his artwork is beautiful in a sort of storybook or comic book style, and he does both gridded and un-gridded maps, all kinds of terrain, full villages and cities and dungeons and he even releases Build Your Own kits, where you get a bunch of assets or map tokens, like individual structures, towers, ground debris, etc. with which you can create and decorate your own maps.DungeonMapster on InstagramDungeonMapster on Patreon

SHOW NOTES

Frances HardingeNancy SpringerJeff Smith Joe Abercrombie

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Transcript (excluding interview content)

Welcome to CryinMo’s Tabletop Alchemy! I’m CryinMo, a.k.a. Ignatius Fischer, and I’m pretty hyped to say this is episode twenty of this podcast about my midlife return to all the hobbies I enjoyed a long long time ago. I’m back into Dungeons and Dragons, I’m back into Warhammer, I’m back into miniature painting and terrain crafting, I’m newly into skirmish games and being an interviewer and all in all I’m just happy to be here enjoying the art and creativity of our niche fantasy sci-fi tabletop gaming community. I want to thank all of you out there who are giving the show a chance and I hope you’re all getting goals met and playing new games and enjoying old games and doing your best to survive while being creative.

This podcast is intended for all ages – usually – and I’m hoping it provides you with something to listen to while you’re hobbying or thinking about hobbying. You can find episodes on most of the big podcast apps and you can watch the YouTube version on … you guessed it, YouTube, where I usually include video of whatever I’ve been working on at the paint desk. You can find all episodes and their show notes as well as links to all of my social media accounts at cryinmo.com and if you’re so inclined you can support me and the show by either becoming a patron at Patreon.com or simply by leaving a rating or dropping a comment on whatever app you happen to enjoy the show on. As always I give a shoutout to my patrons, their support definitely helps keep the show – and me – going. Much appreciated, you guys, thank you.

All right, today … there’s no interview. Bum bum bummmmm. I know, just try to hide your disappointment, so I can ignore it. All right, this episode I’m just gonna ramble, your favorite!! I know, I know, trust me, you’ve been waiting for me to get to rambling about nonsense ever since I started doing interviews.

This week I interview the wonderful Shoshie of ShoshiesMinis; she is a miniature painter with a mission and a classical art background. She’s also a highly respected commission painter. She’s super fun to talk with and she’s also great fun to hang out with on Twitch where she chats with viewers and works on whatever personal miniatures she happens to have in her queue at the time. Today we discuss all kinds of things: from Kingdom Death to painting for yourself instead of judges to miniatures as fine art to her tools of the trade, and even pond fishing! That’s right! Catch and release … catch and release, that’s like a motif for this podcast … huh.

Bookmarks00:00:00 – Opening (News & Sundries)00:08:13 – Interview 00:54:38 – Hobby Progress01:00:00 – Section Charlie

In Section Charlie, where I share something or someone cool I’ve come across on the internet, I highlight the Instagram account MSTerrainLab. This terrain modeler is a commission table and terrain builder specializing currently in Mordheim style boards. There’s not a ton of photos on the feed yet but I expect it’s gonna grow, ‘cause this creator is awesome. The boards are large scale and have such an immense amount of detail, a lot of it is architectural. Another aspect I really appreciate about this Instagramer is how they post multiple pics per post and a lot of the pics are work-in-progress detail pics, so you can see the process almost from design to completion. Check out MSTerrainLab on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/msterrainlab/

SHOW NOTES

ShoshiesMinis on InstagramShoshie’s Magnificent Minis on FacebookShoshie on Twitch.tv

Kingdom DeathProAcryl paintScale 75 paintP3 paintThe Artist’s Way (book)

Watch the YouTube version of the podcast which contains time-lapse footage of working at the paint desk!

Show Transcript (excluding interview content)

Welcome back to Tabletop Alchemy, a podcast ostensibly about things I’m experiencing on my full-on return to the hobbies and interests I had a quarter of a century ago. I’m your host CryinMo and today we chat with the artist Shoshie also known as ShoshiesMinis on Instagram and Twitch and Shoshie’s Magnificent Mini Painting on Facebook.

But before we meet Shoshie let me get my ramble on. So my tagline for this podcast is currently: CryinMo’s Tabletop Alchemy, a podcast about a midlife return to Dungeons & Dragons, Warhammer, miniatures, terrain crafting and tabletop skirmish games. And while this is all still very true, obviously this has turned way more into an interview-based show where we chat with artists and other folks who do stuff in and around our hobbies. Which I am loving and I hope you are too. And I had no idea when I started that this is a direction I would go in at all! But it makes me think I need to come up with a better description of the show. So, basically, this is just me griping about how I now have homework. Yeah. But fair warning – I still might do some solo episodes where I just blather and tangentialize about hobby stuff! Lol That’s always a possibility. 

All right, how are you guys doing this week?