So back when I was getting my Masters in Geography we had a Professor in the Department who was an expert in Remote Sensing and Cultural Geography named Dr. Hsu. He was infamous for his oft repeated phrase of "You don't have to know how to do it, just [go and] do it, okay?" To be quite honest we liked to mock this phrase, partly because Nike had recently launched their "Just Do It" campaign.
But he had a good point, and it was this. If you wait until you know everything about something before you start you're never going to finish because you'll never get off the starting line. He was encouraging us to "Do" Geography. I never had a class with Dr. Hsu, and yet, when I passed my comprehensive exams and graduated it was Dr. Hsu who took me out to dinner. A real class act.
So what does this have to do with Military History or Miniature Wargaming? Well, I've had a group of 4 Peter Pig Horses and Riders from their AK47 Line for a dogs year. Very useful for South African Trackers or Rhodesian Grey's Scouts. But I never started it because I'd never painted horses before and I wanted it to look perfect. Despite the fact that I've painted a fair amount of 15mm, I still get intimidated and have trouble starting some projects. Then one day I just launched into it and finished in almost no time.
Is it perfect? No. Am I happy with it. Yes.
I hear people all the time saying they can't paint. I really don't think I'm all that talented. I painted some minis back in my High School days in the darkness of my basement and they were fairly awful. Then 20+ years later I started again. I read a few articles on the internet on inking and drybrushing and then jumped back in. As someone once told me, it's really just a handful of techniques applied in the right order and it's about being careful. I'm lucky enough to have steady hands, and an Optivisor helps with any bad vision. But I think it's really about two things, starting, and an attention to detail.
So when I hear people say they can't paint, I often think that they haven't really started. Just Do It. Okay?
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