I've been working a lot at home lately. And I mean A LOT. Self-employment is no joke, and I do way more work than I ever did working for someone else. Right now at this stage in the game self-employment has been fruitful - not in the ways of large fiscal advances, but rather in the sheer amounts of productiveness. There's a lot of work to do when you are involved in e-commerce. I'm not talking about a few interesting items, no. We (the wife and I) are working very diligently on developing our online sales revenue and putting 6-8 hour workdays in front of the computer. In the past few months I have learned through blogs, self-teaching, and other experienced folks in the sales areas more useful information than a University course could ever teach me (except Chinese - learning Mandarin is at the very root of all the work I've been doing lately and without it I don't know where I'd be in life). The best thing about self-employment, though is all the time I have on my hands. I pour massive chunks of time into business development but there's no longer any commute to work. I use those times to paint (and I get 3-4 hours of painting in daily these days, YES!!) as well as take my dog out for walks. Chores are also easier to do since there's no time I need to rush out the door nor do I have to worry about being late. Deadlines are ever present but they're not so problematic as I can get things done quickly and efficiently when I am my own boss and work alone (no offence to previous co-workers in old jobs intended, I'm just faster and better at what I do when I am interested in it).
So many people have told me that self-employment is hard because they get easily distracted at home... but I don't have that problem. I start at 12 and end at 6 to 8 PM everyday. Exercise on breaks. It's going well.
That being all said, another project of mine has been developing my own miniature business and name in the wargaming realms - and yeah, you guessed it. The name is Steepled Hat Studios. Since the start of the year I have been working with factories based out of ShenZhen China to help me develop some very specific miniature terrain that I wish to make use of in my future wargames. I have found great receptionists and partners overseas that have helped me immensely begin developing my first terrain pieces and the first shipment is going to come in soon. I've got a website for sales in development and a webstore will follow shortly after I release it. I'm aiming for the Gold here, and am trying to build it up as much as I can. I even had a kickstarter planned out - but I ended up funding the first project myself. I will have to make use of kickstarter in the future, however!
My eBay sales continue to go on decently, and I have a number of homemade projects that will also surface once they're online. Mostly tree and rock terrain, but they sell the best in my experience. I am hoping to use up all my supplies at home then switch completely over to factory produced items so I can put my time into personal painting projects. And I have many, many projects on my mind!
Anyways, that's a slice of my life right now. Here's what I have been painting recently and some shots of stuff I am doing.
Hastati! These Hastati are all Agema Miniature items. They're great models but I have some struggles painting these fellows, as linen folds and the mixture of armour on the linen makes for a lot of washing and layering that normally would be straightforward, say if they were chainmail or plate armor. In addition to that, Agema miniatures are "skinny" compared to other companies models, like the Warlord Gauls (seen in the front of scenic photo above) or any Victrix item out there, and the shield / weapon arm sleeves on these guys have SO MANY folds in their clothing that is so easy to screw up and takes a while to fix / correct while painting. Victrix Velites painted much faster and required less time, with only 8 of them. These guys took twice, maybe thrice as long!
I do not like to leave paint jobs unfinished. So once these guys are done, I need to finish the other half of my Gallic Mercenary Unit. But even before that, I really need to sit down and just finish my Cousin's dungeons and dragons minis. I got so busy with the last months at my last job that I just didn't get much painting in, and he's been waiting for months now. It has taken far too long and I feel bad even though my cousin told me to take my time. I will not accept commissions again because I am not a timely painter!
So... here is my list of plans that I have these days for painting. The order is going to change, but I want to finish all the minis in one project before the next.
1.a) Finish Agema Hastati
1.b) Finish a minor personal scenery project
2) Finish Cousins D and D minis
3) Finish 1st Merc Gallic Unit
4) Start and finish two units of Victrix Hastati
5) Start and Finish two units of Agema Principes
6) Start and Finish two units of Victrix Principes
7) Start and Finish one unit of Agema Triarii
8) Start and Finish one unit of Victrix Triarii
9) Start and Finish the two or three Roman Commanders / Generals
10) Finish the Gallic Mercenary Warband - (Another Gallic Unit, a commander, one small light cavalry unit, one medium standard cavalry unit)
11) Start and Finish another two Victrix Hastati,
12) Start and Finish another two Victrix Principes w/ spears
13) Start and Finish another Unit of Victrix Triarii
14) Do up some Rebuplican Roman Cavalry if I feel like it
15) On to the next Project!!!!!! (I am thinking either Hail Caesar Jewish Revolt or Armies of Islam for a Lions Rampant Warband)
Yeah, i've got way more planned than that, but that's the main stuff I want to keep hacking away at!
As long as I keep getting 3-4 hours in on painting you'll slowly see what I am mustering!
Anyways, thanks for reading!
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