Make sure it goes through seconds. All right and there we go. Hello everybody and welcome to another interview with the artist and I am so excited because today I am joined by Lynn Stahl of Metalhead Minis. Lynn how are you doing? I'm good. Thank you. How are you? Thank you so much for having me on and hello to everybody who is watching. I am absolutely thrilled to have you on. Lynn is a longtime friend and personal hero of mine. She is an incredible, incredible supporter of artists, of the hobby community, of the scene. If you are involved in this world and you don't know Lynn, you should. You should be going to Metalhead Minis. You should be following her on all the socials which will all be linked below. So please do look that all up. Yay! Lynn has, of course, recently taken on a rather big responsibility as well in the past couple years with the GenCon and the miniature hobby events there. I think people may have heard of GenCon. It's kind of a, you know, it's a middling-sized convention, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's only like 10 or 12 people that go now. Actually more like altogether a quarter of a million. It's not a big thing. A lot of people don't know. Like when they put 70,000, that's like the four-day passes. Right. And yeah, it's not counting everyone else. It's a huge thing. The whole city of Indianapolis does everything and turns everything upside down just to cater to that one week event because it brings in tens of millions of dollars into the city of Indianapolis. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I want to talk, Lynn, about you running the MHE in a little while because I love what you're doing, what you continue to do, how you're growing it. I want to talk about how you plan to grow in the future. But first, before we get to that, before we get to the present day and even the future, we've got to start in the past. So Lynn, you're a great artist. But where did you begin? That's where we always start. What got you into painting miniatures? What got me into painting miniatures? So it was a stormy day in 1997. And I know I'm starting it off like it was a stormy day in 1997. And a friend of mine, named Mark, we kind of grew up together. We also did date for a long time. But anyway, so when I met him, it was pretty funny how him and I ended up even together at the time that we were together.  Thank you so much. And listens to and plays metal music, right?  But he liked rap music, he liked some rock, and you know, stuff like that. But it was just funny how we ended up even coming together. But yeah, we still have quite a bit in common. But we always have a lot of fun together. Well, one day during the storm, he sits there and he notices throughout the time of us dating that I'm into fantasy stuff, and Lord of the Rings and games and art and stuff. And so he turns around to me one day and he says, Well, since we can't leave the house, he's like, I have something that you might be interested in. So he goes up, he goes up to his, to the attic and he comes down with these big boxes. Okay. And, and I'm sitting there and I'm kind of wondering what what's about to happen. Sure. I just want to say already, this is like the best introduction to painting story we've ever had in this series so far. I am engrossed in this narrative because he might have come back down with a knife. Who knows? You know, like anything could happen. I didn't know what to expect. He's like, I have something you might be interested in. And he didn't even lead off with, since you're into fantasy movies and you like dragons and elves, I have something you might be interested in. That never came up. That did not happen. He just sat there and we, and you know, the storm, the weather was bad. I couldn't go outside.  And then he sits there and he's like, I have something you might be interested in just goes up to the attic and I'm like, what's about to happen here? Okay. And then he comes down with these big boxes, you know, and I'm kind of wondering, okay, what's, what's about to happen here? What do we got? I'm wondering if it's maybe something music related, but I never saw anything that made him musically inclined beyond the talent of being able to play a CD player and a fake player before that. So I was just really, I was, I was on edge a little bit like, what's about to happen here? Open up the box and in this box, I was blown away. Okay.  He truly is. And he always has been.  And then a ton of D&D books. Okay. All right. And paints and metal, Mount Ralph, the minis and he opens up this box and I said, I'm thinking he acquired it like someone died or gave it away to him and was like, this is taking room in my garage. Take it away.  And he goes, these are mine. And I went, who are you? So he brought down the secret nerd box. That's what it was. He had squirreled away all the secret nerd stuff. And you remember how in the 80s and even in some of the 90s, that if you were into Dungeons and Dragons and stuff that people thought, I don't know that you, I don't know, sacrifice goats, I guess, or something or summoned, you know, used Ikea furniture words to summon demons or something. And, you know, so the job that he was in, he always, he did have this very good job for a time where he ran a nationwide company, a telecommunications company. And he took that job very seriously. And he did it very, very well. Eventually the company folded. But over those years, when he did it, he, you know, was very serious about his job. And he was very serious about how he looked professionally and outside. And basically, he was afraid that if people sat there at his job and found out that he was into these things, that he felt that they would look at him in a negative sort of light. And he actually told me that. And I was just like, how to help kids? Look how cool this stuff is, you know? And I was just so excited. But anyway, he says, so I said, okay, so what's with the paints and the metal things there? What's going on with that? So he goes on to tell me how he ran a D&D campaign when he was in high school. And that he was the DM for it. And that his teacher also part took, it kind of was like, stranger things. We had the science teacher join you. And, you know, so he talked about that. And he was like, and this is how you have your figures and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, okay, I remember the game, Dungeons and Dragons. I just didn't know that you had to paint your models. Okay. So he says, well, you want to learn to paint? And I said, sure, you know, so he sits with me and he goes through and he teaches me basically about base coating and washes and dry brushing and using inks and and then sealing it after. And then I sat there and I was so excited. And I painted all day for the rest of the day.  I wanted to do nothing else.  Like I was just like that into it. So I sat there and I said, okay, so is this stuff not around anymore? There's stores where we could pick this up. So he goes, Oh, yeah, yeah, he goes, you know, that's that store where you go, where you and Craig, a best friend that I grew up with. He's like, you know, where you and Craig used to go to get go to get comics. And I said, yeah, he's like, well, there's a store right by there that we can go to. And I said, all right. So we go and I bought the entire line of GW paints, which at the time, if you are you ready to be shocked in 1997, the whole line of GW paints, if you bought one of each was something like $125. Oh yeah, I remember. Absolutely. Yeah. Okay. It wasn't even that many then, right? Like that was it wasn't that many, not nearly as many as there are now. And I bought the entire line of GW paints. And I bought about six or $700 worth of Reaper and Ralph Partha models. Wow. And then later, yeah, and I bought a ton of brushes. And then I went to complete strategist in Manhattan later that week.  And I went there and then I bought another hundreds of dollars worth of grenadier, a D&D Ralph Partha and other Ralph Partha minis like dude, I turned around and I busted out a stash. Like I was not playing. I was not playing. Okay. And I painted like every day to relax. And it was so great for me when it was introduced to me, because I was going through a very stressful time. I mean, I worked in the music industry, and I opened up a guitar shop, like soon after, but I was prepping to at the time. And, you know, now I was born, it was like just, or it was little, there was just all kinds of stuff that was, you know, going on and everything. And so it was, it was crazy. And so painting minis was relaxing for me. Right. It was, there's, there's always, the way I think of it is like, no, your life at so many points time, especially with stuff like that. I don't, by the way, I don't know why I didn't actually start in the background. You may want to refresh it. You'll see it. But a lot of times there just ends up being like noise in our life. Yeah. That's the way I think about it. There's just so much, it's a cacophony. But when you sit down at the desk and you start painting, it's like the world gets quiet. Right. Oh, for sure. Oh, for sure. I mean, I absolutely loved it. And I got very into it. And then I, I did it for years, you know, just for funsies. And whenever I could, shared it with the kiddos, you know, stuff like that. And then I did take a hiatus for a time. I took a hiatus, I would say for about, I want to say around four years, because my grandpa had cancer. And, and I just, there was so much going on and everything. And so I just, I had to stop painting for a bit, just, there was just so much happening. And in that time, somewhere along the line was when the big, big change in painting happened. Right. Yep. When we started taking on some traditional art techniques and the Europeans, some European style of painting, which I mean, I swear it's like God took all the best painters and just, you know, put them overseas, you know, and stuff like that. It's like not even fair. It's like these people come from another planet, you know. And, but they're amazing. I love them all. And basically, you know, everything changed with painting. So when I went back to it, let me tell you how I got back to it and how many's got started, because I'm sure you want to know how it led up to that too. So fast forward, you know, with grandpa being gone and everything else. And I worked for Verizon for a time. And I was a lead technician for Verizon. And I was working there, you know, 80 hours a week and finishing my astrophysics degree. And so I sat there and was doing all that. And then when the economy crash happened in 08, mind you soon before that, I also closed my guitar shop. Because when grandpa was sick, there was no way I was going to be able to focus on everything. And man, I could have done it at a better time because a few months later, the economy crash happened, right? So when the economy crash happened, I also got laid off from Verizon. How nice. Yeah. So I sat there and I was like, oh, my God, what am I going to do?  I know this for sure. Yeah, knows that I have to keep busy. Otherwise, it makes me crazy. And so I sat there and I had no idea what I was going to do. And before that, not too long before that, I did start painting again, but a little here and there when I could. And so I sat there and I was like, I'm just going to paint. Because I swear to you, painting has saved my life more than once. Like I'm not even making that up. Okay. Besides playing World of Warcraft, painting minis has saved my life many times. So I'm even kidding. So I sat there and I was like, I'm going to paint. And I'm going to get myself through this and I'm going to keep doing my schooling and whatever. And so I paint. And then I was painting at the GW store in Grapevine. And then through AJ, who now runs the Fort Worth store and has been for a few years now, he turned around to me one day and I was painting a Reaper Mini. And so I didn't know that in the GW store, you couldn't like, I was just sitting in free painting during the day. It wasn't like a thing.  And I said, Oh, I apologize. I didn't know that. So then AJ told me, well, you know, that's a Reaper Mini. And he goes, and I don't know if you know this, but Reaper, the factory is only 20 minutes away from here. Right. Right. And I was like, bro, what, like, and I just moved to Texas at the time. Okay. So I still didn't know much. You had no idea. This is just pure happenstance. Yeah. I like, I had no idea where anything was. I was lucky. I knew how to get to Great Fine Mall and get home. Like, that's it. Okay. So like, I swear, thank God for GPS's, I would end up in Guam. Like, I'm going to the store, I'll be right back. End up in Guam. I swear to Christ, like, forget it. So, so I sat there and I was like, are you kidding me? And then he's like, yeah, you can get a tour and you could see the, the manufacturer, the production and everything. And you know, blah, blah, blah. And I was like, dude, no joke. And I called right away and I set up a tour. Right. So I go to Reaper and I take the tour, I meet and make friends with people, then they sit there and say, Hey, next month is going to be ReaperCon. You should come. It was when ReaperCon used to be in May and used to be located in the Reaper factory. Right. So they were like, you know, Shannon says to me, yeah, ReaperCon's next month you should come. And we also have paint club every Saturday. And I said, yeah, great. I'll come. I'll come. So I did. And while I was there, I was always there painting stuff and then help play test games like Warlord. And then I got hired on in July that year and was working at Reaper part-time helping them in the production for a while and stuff. And yeah. And all that time, I was always there painting. And so next thing you know, people that I was, people that I was play testing with a couple of my friends, first it was Ernie. He says, Hey, how much would you charge me to paint this? And he puts a dwarf on a board. And I didn't really know what to charge.  So I was trying to think how long it would take me this and that. And I said something like, Oh, this amount of money. He says, Okay. All right. So I paint it. And then Greg, Greg Greer comes to me and he sits there and he says, How much would you charge me to paint these and put some minis down? X amount of dollars. Okay. I'm like, I could turn this into something little side gig, right? I like designer makeup and I like designer sunglasses and other designer stuff. So I sat there and I thought, if anything, I love getting my hair done. I love getting my nails done. And I sat there and I thought, huh, I can make a little money on the side paint some minis for people. And instead of using money from the budget or savings, I could just sit there and use the money to get my nails done or whatever, right? Start off doing that. So now I'm painting for people, right? It grows, it grows, it grows.  I mean, I'm sorry, a commission in Q. Okay. And I posted it up on eBay to sell. And that was at the time when selling eBay propane at figures was actually a good thing to do. Right. But before the world where like everything anywhere that anyone sells that has paint that got in the same zip code as it says propane and all that, right? When it was actually like, yeah. Yeah. When it was actually a thing, right? So basically, I, so I sold a mini, it was a Ralph Partha model of like, I forgot what the name of the model was, but it was like the Athena goddess one or something, the one where she has like one boob out or whatever in a row. And this dude buys it off me. And he said he loved it. And then he said to me, Hey, I was wondering something. Do you sell unpainted models? And then I was like, no, I haven't really thought about that. I mean, I guess if there's a model that I don't want, I guess I could sell it. And mind you, I have experience with eBay selling before because in my guitar shop, we didn't just sell things in the brick and mortar location. We also sold stuff on eBay. Sure. You already you were used to the online marketplace, right? Yeah. So I was like, I mean, I guess if there's a mini, I don't want, I could put it up and sell it. But I was like, but no, not really. Why do you ask? So he's like, you know, I was wondering if you can help me with something. And I'm thinking to myself, this could go to a very weird place. This is the internet and with a person I don't friggin know. Right. Him and I become friends, really hell of a nice guy, Will Helm, and he turned around and he said, here's what I need help with. I need help selling a bunch of Ralph Partha and Grenadier minis. I have a ton, ton of them in my basement. And my wife told me that if I don't clear these out, that I'm going to be out in the street. Sure. Really? He says, yeah. Okay. So what, where do I come in? What's happening here? And he goes, I need help selling them.  You know, what do you think? And then I added in my ideas of how it can work and how it would be fair. And then we wrote up a whole contract and went from there. Next thing you know, I have a consignment store. Nice. Yeah. Where people sit there and they come to me, Hey, I can't use this anymore. Sell it for me. And now it, because when he always sold his stuff, he told one of his friends, that person told something, something else. Then people asked me on eBay, where are you getting all this crap? Are you like on hoarders or something? No, ma'am. Not a high French fry. I sell these things. People bring it to me. This is what we do. And then we have a consignment store. Nice. Yeah. And then just basically everything that's part of the business model with metalhead minis, I, I kid you not, all got dropped on my lap. Fell into it. It fell into, it fell into it. And then next to the business, which is grow, grow, grow, grow, grow. And then it became a full-time gig while I was finishing my degree. So then it came to the point, I was like, well, I graduated with this degree, this other degree, which is awesome because I have more than one, but I sat there and was like, so I finished this degree, which is awesome. Well, at least I have backup plans. I will be very useful in the job market. But with the metalhead minis, I was like, it became a full-time gig. And I was like, well, it ain't broke. Don't fix it, right? So, and that's how the company started, July of 2009. Nice. It's been 10 years now. Yeah, absolutely. You just passed your 10 years, still going strong, bigger than ever. Yeah, thank you. Awesome. So where, what I want to know is, where did, so where did you decide to get involved with MHA? Oh, one of the things that happened the same year that metalhead minis was started was I was hanging out with another painter and she was sitting there telling me about, we were talking about conventions because I said, yeah, I had such a great time at ReaperCon. I want to go to more of them. And I did some research and found out about other events that were going on, made plans to go to those. And then she sat there and she was like, well, when you did your research, did you see about GenCon? And I was like, no, I don't think so, you know, whatever. And then, and then she was like, oh, yeah, she goes, you should talk to Tanya and sit there with one of my friends. She was like, you know, you should talk to Tanya and see if they need any volunteers, because then you could volunteer and do the paint and take and stuff like that. I was like, wow, really? It was like, you think I'd be good enough for that? She's like, yeah. So I was like, all right, bet. So I said, what's an email contact email? And then I contacted them, I contacted Tanya specifically. And it was when Sue was was running it.  And I said, Oh, that's no problem. I could totally do that. And yeah, I was like, I'll do whatever for however long you need me, you know, you need something I'm there. So I got into doing that. And I had such a great time that I was like, okay, unless I die, I'm never missing this convention. Right. Like much the same place I'm in exactly. Like it has to be it has to be catastrophic injury, life threatening, something. Yes, I better have been hit by a bus and then struck by lightning. Dude, I didn't even with my my surgery that's coming up, they turned around and they wanted to do it right away. I was like, no, can we wait until after all this? Like I moved. I've been carrying a mask the size of a volleyball between three tomb is because I was not missing Gen Con. Don't worry, I'm not experiencing any pain discomfort, but no pain. So I'm okay. But also I've had these for 20 years. I'm afraid I missed them. I just found out about them. I'm like, we just found out about each other. I could have named them probably still name them now. But yeah, I just I moved it over. I was like, no, got to do it in November. I have to do Gen Con. And I have to do reefer Con and Warfare weekend. And and I'm doing Fallon now too, which I'm super excited about. I've always wanted to go to Fallon. And yeah, so I was just like, I have to do these conventions first, hold it to November. I was like, I've had them all this time. What's a few more months and the doctor was like, all right, fair enough. As long as you're not in pain. Okay, you know, we call that dedication. That folks, that's that is dedication right there. That's the level of dedication you need to have in the miniature painting world. So the last the last couple years, you've actually been not only just, you know, you're running all the hobby events that are happening where we're teaching, you also have been running the the actual like MHE painting competition there, stuff like that. And I was here with the first full year of that. Yeah. Yes. And I have to say, you've done such a great job, not that and that's not in any way besmirching anybody else who ran the past. Not at all. I've always enjoyed it. Oh, no, yeah, definitely. It's definitely come a long way. And it will come an even longer way, believe me, because we always knew what it was supposed to be. But the thing was, was that even the people who ran it prior did an excellent job. But the amount of work that it would take to put it to where it needs to be was always a lot for them to take on. Right. And then life always gotten the way for them. You know what I mean? So I can understand why certain things just didn't happen yet or fell by the wayside or you know, whatever.  Then they sat there and when Shannon couldn't do it anymore, because Shannon and I did it together. And then with Shannon, she turns around and she couldn't she can't do it anymore, you know, to help stuff going on. And she said to me, it has to be you. And then the Gencom people the same way that like it's got you, you're going to have to do this because nobody else will be able to put at or have the know how it would work or whatever to put in to get it to where it needs to be. This is where it's supposed to be. This is what we expect is what we need, blah, blah, blah. And I was just like, All right, we'll get it done.  And it allowed me to see where there were disconnects and more fully where things could be made better. So that has allowed me like so I already knew offhand what things needed to be done did some of that. And then having full access allowed me even more so to see things even deeper. So now you're going to see even more and even better changes coming. So it's going to be it's going to be really good. I'm really excited about it. So that's awesome. It's it's such a smooth running contest. It's such a nice contest in the way you you've structured not just the way that the that people are getting feedback on their miniatures. So for people who don't know, like one of the great things about the contest at GenCon is when you're done, I don't know where mine are right here. There you go. Look, I literally still have these right beside me. You get your slips with your feedback for every piece you entered the judges scores notes from the judges as to what they thought why you got the scores you got. It's incredible for feedback. You had an absolutely stellar set of judges there this year. Oh, thank you. Yeah, I was very glad for them. Yeah, it was amazing.  Yeah. Yeah. Do you ran a painting, which is super fun. It was just great all the way top to bottom. And for all the participants, it was so smooth. You had everything running clockwork. I mean, thank you. Yeah, that's my meticulousness, my OCD and my, you know, like, no, get it done. You know, I don't want to hear it.  Because again, I did see where there were certain disconnects. And there were certain things that I found going through everything and evaluating that needed to be changed. And so I will I will be sure to get that done and stuff. So I'm not I'm not worried about it. It's going to be it's going to be a lot better. One of the things was like with the feedback and stuff like that. I'm going to make sure that's done better. Like I sat there and I did a video beforehand saying in the video, if you want feedback, let me know or let us know rather sorry, you know, judges and what have you at the award ceremony, I let people know afterwards. When I did the video, I let people know and I said, Hey, you know, if you didn't get a chance to talk to the judges, you know, you can send one of the judges or me or whatever photos of the entry and we can go over it, you know, stuff like that. So and I posted it in all the groups, but I guess like not everybody looks at all the posts and stuff. But yeah.  Yep. Yeah. And it was fun. I love doing stuff like that. I mean, I don't know about other people, but I can't speak for everybody else. But I know that my judges and myself, we totally enjoyed doing it. I didn't really get to judge anything because I was busy putting in the scores. The only time that I was involved in the judging process was like for tie breaking. Sure. Like when we had the pick fest and show, the judges were super torn, which was to pick. So it was between you and someone else. And there was another piece. And then for the best, what was the other one? Best open. I had to help tie break for that one too. Nice. Nice. Well, personal vendor or personal bias, you made, you made a great choice. I honestly didn't even know it was yours at first.   Because one thing I did change too was the fact that they had the papers with the name and the title. And while I do love that the title was there and stuff like that in the previous things, I didn't like that the person's name was there. Because some people like to be anonymous. And then also too, I wanted to make sure that there wasn't any sort of judging bias. Right. Like as little chance of that as humanly possible. That's why I had it where there was the stickers with the numbers and the letters instead of people's names. Makes it easy.   Like, that's not what it's about. It's an art piece. If you think it's cool, take a picture of it and share it on your social media. It's good for them. It's good for you. You get a piece of artwork that you enjoy, but you're going to turn around and just put the kibosh on it just because Joe Schmo from Kokomo that you don't like painted it, like, well, so I just don't like stuff like that. I like to try to prevent that stuff. And so that's why I did it the way I did it. So but one big change that's planning to happen that's in the works is computerizing the whole process. Nice. That will, because there's a lot of paper involved. And I don't like it. I don't like it. I think it's messy. So, but I understand that's how it always was done. I understand why it was a functional process at the time. But the thing is, is that as many entries as there can be and should be and what there's, you know, what's going to be changed because I mean, there's going to be more categories added starting next year too. So there's going to be a lot more entries. So having all that paper, not good. Right.  I'm going to break up the painters category because I feel like there's too much stuff mishmashed in there. You know, right. So there were so many busts, busts have just been exploding. And there were so many in the case. I was thrilled to see how many people have done so many awesome busts this year. For sure. For sure. I agree. So there will be a bust category starting next year. There will also be, I am re-implementing single figure. I plan to do monsters, you know, monsters separate from, you know, separate from like large, you know, like have monsters and then large, but I'm not completely sure about that yet.  But one cool addition that there's going to be, you know, new category wise, Gundam will now officially be made a category. Nice. Yeah. I think it should be. I feel bad that even though we pushed that there was going to be a sponsored Gundam award, there wasn't as many Gundams in there as I would have liked. However, the people, the person who did enter, I'm glad he did because there were people that passed by, looked at the case and were like, oh my God, there's a Gundam in there. And I was like, yeah, there's a Gundam award. Oh my God, you can enter Gundams in now? Yes, you can. Nice. So now I'm going to make it officially a thing. That's awesome. That's wonderful. I love seeing those Gundam models. And also there will be a historical and scale model category. Oh, nice. Yeah. Yeah. So I think which I think is good because you'd be surprised how different it is with historical models compared to the sci-fi and fantasy models we've always known. I like how the communities being that being the historical military models and the fantasy sci-fi models are starting to come together through clubs, paint nights and stuff because there's so much that we can all learn or that everybody can learn from each other. Yeah, I'm involved in both communities and I couldn't be more grateful and glad that I am because the stuff that you learn from the military and historical model guys is insane. Right, absolutely. The scale modelers, just like the level of understanding they have of things like weathering and rust and environmental effects and all this type of stuff is so deep and amazing. And they understand it at like how each material is going to be affected and what things to use to achieve so many varied effects. It's fantastic. It really is. I mean, they even account for things like what time of day was it, the ambiance or if there was atmospheric phenomena that was happening and it's so how does that affect the colors and all that stuff. But that kind of stuff, I mean, if you want to achieve that kind of realism, it counts. It's important. So I just think it's just amazing the things that we can all learn from each other and they learn stuff from fantasy sci-fi painters too. They're like, wow, you can do that with those calls. That's really interesting and whatever. And so they learn a different approach on how to do stuff. And so I just think that implementing the historical and scale model category would just be a great way to broaden people's horizons, especially if Gen Con is one of the few events that they get to go to. Like I mean, if you don't get to go to IPMS shows and AMP shows and whatever in addition to Gen Con and Reaper Con and stuff, then you don't really get to see that whole other world that there is out there. And I think that's important. I also think that it will expand the scope of what kind of classes will be taught in the classroom. Yep, because think about it. People sit there and they learn how to paint Star Wars models and other stuff, which is great and fine because those are great games. But imagine if you sat there and saw a historical model and there was just something about how they did the water effects and what have you, you could teach a class just on that. And people will get to see all the amazing ways that things are done. Like the Gundam classes that we started this year, they did really good. They did really good. So we're going to expand on that. As a matter of fact, Nestor is working on for our Metalhead Minis classes with the Gundam. He is working on writing the next level class, actually. Oh, that's awesome. So they, because those Gundam classes do really good. And Seth Amsdon, who is on Instagram known as at Hobby Sensei, he's great at doing Gundam stuff, too. That dude does insane stuff. Yeah, he's a great artist. Yeah. And with the historical stuff, like I said, you would just be surprised at what kind of things you can learn. And for example, one of the things that they commonly do in that world is painting figures with oils. Right. Right. How do you think I got into that? Yep. You know, and so I'm working on writing a cladette and about doing oil paints. And I figured we'll start off by doing them on bus because it's a bigger canvas, and it makes it easier to learn it on that. So yeah, stuff like that. So like I said, it just expands the scope and brings on the interest of other things that you can learn for the hobby. I just think it's important for the community. And I think it's, and the other thing is, too, to consider about the historical and scale modelers. A lot of them are older. Sure. And hate to be the bearer of bad news. But in spite of the fact that we collect more minis than we can possibly paint, we don't live forever. Well, yet I'm still hopeful science. Yeah, that's true. That's true. So but we won't live forever, but they won't live forever. And so how else could we help to create the next coming generations of those of scale modelers and painters if we don't expose people to it? Right. Right. You know, like they expand, they show their children, they show their grandchildren, that's well and good. But that's just one part. Absolutely. I want to like I think the crossover is so much so much. Oh, yeah. Yep. All right. So let's let's speaking of what you've been working on. Let's take a look at some of your pieces. Mm hmm. All right. So I'll bring them up on the screen. Yeah. Okay. Okay. My chat is not frigging doing its job. I just want to make sure you know that. So people are asking questions or saying stuff. I apologize, but it hasn't been running in a bag. It's all good. All right, let's start with the first bus stop. We've got HP Lovecraft there. Okay, which which one which HP Lovecraft is it? Is it the the unnameable, the pink one? No, this is in the suit, the gentleman. Oh, HP Lovecraft himself. Okay, sorry. Okay, what he was painted in oils primarily. Yeah. So walk through what what I this is a cool bust and you did and you said you did mostly with oils, like walk us through it. What made you want to do this? What made you want to experiment with the oils? What'd you like about it?  But I don't I don't hear it. I don't know. What do you do you hear anything? I hear a little bit. See if maybe your cameras. The desktop one, but didn't that make it the worst? Okay, real. All right. Okay, what about now? Hey, there we go. All gone. You're good. Assuming you can hear me. But that's so weird because when we switched it before, it was an echo before and that's why I switched the camera. Okay, and he ran in for letting us know he's always he's always a great. He's always great with with tech stuff. So, but yeah, so HP Lovecraft what made me decide to do it with oils? Well, first of all, when it comes to doing the black heart models, because there's such a big canvas in their phone, phone and stuff. And they I absolutely love doing the black heart models and oils. And I also figured with the HP Lovecraft because of the way the face is sculpted and such that I felt the oils would do it more justice and the blends would come out better. Right. So that's why I chose that process. The only things that are done in acrylic are the eyes and the and the eyebrows. Nice. Right. Yeah. He came out really well. Like I just I like the I like the hair. I like the skin what oils is a really fun thing on skin because it gives it a very real like I don't know how else to say like organic feel to it. Right. Like it does feel more like skin. And dude, you have no idea. Well, you might have an idea because how talented you are at it, but it's painting but like it's painting with oils is so fun. It is. It's a totally different world. Right. Because it's a hand changer. And it makes I mean there's another piece that I just finished in oils and there it might be an article a magazine article coming out about it where I wrote a tutorial on how to paint the bus with oils. And that was which was convenient since I was in the process already of writing the class. But this is the deep one. Hold on. I'll minimize so we can actually see you. Okay. Go ahead. Hold it up. There you go. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Oh, he came out awesome. Thank you. And the cool thing about doing oils is that it's once you get into the groove of how to do it. It's quick, too. Right. Right. Yeah, it's really nice because yeah, and all seriousness all together once I initially got the prep done laying down the oils to blend from from from lay down color to blend was maybe two hours. Yeah, that's fast. Yep. HP Lovecraft. Same thing. That one was done in a few hours, too. I think I think as people who've only paint with acrylics, you just don't understand how much like how much of our inability to get smooth blends or that, you know, all these different things are related to the fact that our paints are meant to dry in seconds, right? Whereas oils dry in days and you just keep working on them. You can push the colors around. You can experiment and everything just you can just push it all together, right? I mean, just watch any old Bob Ross video and you understand that like he was never worried about blending. That wasn't a thing in a Bob Ross tutorial, right? Like he just it just happened because he would just slowly push those colors together. Oh, for sure. I think one of the things that makes it quicker once you get in the groove of it is the fact that the oil paints stay wet for like in depending on the brand you use literally like days. Right. And so you have the time to manipulate the paint and go through and blend it. Do you get it to where you want it? Whereas with acrylic, you have to keep cleaning it up and going back in and going up and going back in and this and that because you only have you're racing against the clock and depending especially on the climate that you live in the temperature, the elevation and everything that all affects how fast or slow your paints dry. Yep. Either way, you only have a few minutes when you're working with acrylic, a couple of minutes more when you work with heavy body acrylic and even then you don't have that long. Right. But with oils, I could sit there, lay down the collar and you know, let's say I map out the colors, I could go make dinner, come back and then put the blends together and the paint will be wet. Right. Still totally workable. Yep, exactly. The only thing that's a pain is that you have to wait a few days or a week or 10 days depending on the brand you're using or whatever for it to dry. Now there are ways to make it dry quicker but I don't mess with none of that. Not for any bad reason, just because I'm afraid to. I just want the oils to do its thing when it comes to drying and I just don't mess with it, you know. Yep. Yep. I hope more people play around with it and what it's interesting is that there are more people moving with like products for the more hobby miniature painting oriented space with oils, you know, like what's the name? Obtolung or Obolung or whatever? I don't know. Obtolung. Oh, I have like almost all the colors, the oil color. I love them. I love them. I love them. They're wonderful. I love them. Yeah, exactly. Like they're much more, you know, hobby focused in their market and stuff like that. Yes, there's the oil brushers, the little like, you know, pre, they almost look like a tuba lipstick almost, right, where you can pull it out. It just comes straight on a little like applicator. They're really cool. Yeah. I mean, it's just, it's really, I love them. I have Obtolung for my oils. I have Windsor Newton. I have, yeah, and then I have whole sets of heavy body acrylics too. And I really love the new scale 75 artist line of paints too, for like, you know, acrylic wise, great.  Go me. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. I just threw up my review of those this last weekend after I'd like recorded and re-recorded it and then reviewed it in the review. I was like, well, there's no price yet for them though in the US. And then of course, like four days later, boom, the price came out. Yeah, I was going to say, okay, yeah, I didn't know if you saw that email or not. Yes, yes, it did come out. It is out for retail now. Yay. So yeah, you know what, speaking of that, you have not been sharing videos on the metalhead minis hobby group and you should be doing that. I will start doing that. I apologize. I will correct my bad behavior. I promise. And I will link that group down below as well. Please, yeah, feel free because we share tutorials from like everywhere and those who are painters that are in the group are more than welcome to share their tutorials and their blogs and whatever they've been working on as well because that's what it's about. Absolutely. Yep. All right. So next up is the, you've got, we've got a Necron here. I wish, and I purposely say Necron because it drives everybody insane. I know it's supposed to be pronounced Necron. I don't care. I'm calling them Necrons. But we have your, I think this is like one of the lords and one of the walkers. I will openly admit I don't know which guy this is. Is this the spidery looking one? Yeah, yeah, your spider walker guy. Yes. That's the stalker. Crap tech stalker. I will believe you. It sounds right to me.  No, I'm just kidding.  Yes. So that's that yes, that you are correct. That is that that's the stalker. Yeah. So where did this guy come from? He is one. He is part of a commission job that I'm doing of a Necron army. That's over 2,000 points. So this is just one of a much larger project, I assume. Yes. Yes. I love the greens really popping there. You captured like the that that Necron sort of goss energy really nice, really, really smooth, bright greens. What do you use for like your ultra bright greens? Actually, to be completely honest with you, all I used was and I have it over here somewhere because I did work on a tutorial video for it too, which will be up on the channel soon. I just got to edit it. One moment, please. I used P3 and Necrotite green. Well, there you go. It's even kind of got it in the name. There it is. Yes, it's very bright. It has a great yeah, like we'll go back to the mini here. It has such a nice bright, strong green to it. It really pops, especially out of the nice dark. You use a nice like really deep black green for the rest of him. That's what it just shows off really well, really pops out there. Oh, yeah. No, thank you so much. Well, one of the other things that I do to make it pop is I also add to it after the Necrotite green dries is that I also added a game game ink in green to go around the edges and it helps the green pop more. Ah, okay. Sure. Sure. And then guess what for a bonus and there's going to be a tutorial on this too. I'm ready. It glows in the dark. Really? Yes, it does. My friend, I added glow pigments to it too. Nice. Nice. Green pots that you see when Joe when and when Joe puts the lights off, there's parts of his Necron army that will glow green like the Necron warriors. There's like 50 of them, all their eyes glow in the dark. That is awesome. That's amazing. I love it. All right. Thank you. So next up we have the Blood Bowl team. So tell me about that. This is the new undead Blood Bowl team, right? Oh, the champions of undead, of death. I love them. I love anything horror and Halloween related and stuff. So that's why I love them. My husband, Matt, got me those and they were a lot of fun to paint and I purposely did those with primarily contrast paints. When the the weekend that the contrast paints released, I did a twitch broadcast of trying to do the for as long as I could, but I got toyed. I'm old. I'm sorry. I was all excited thinking I was 20 years old and that I could be up all night painting and I couldn't do it. It was terrible. But I did three different things, prime different so that people can see what the contrast paints look like over certain primers. I find I love it over Xenothal priming. Just saying. Yeah. Yeah. So those champions of undeath were primed in the Gracier contrast primer, which I love the contrast primers because pretty much no matter what temperature you're in and stuff, the primer comes on nice and smooth.  So those were done in the Gracier primer and then they were painted primarily in contrast paints. The only parts that I could think of off the top of my head that were not contrast was obviously anything in silver metallic that was done. Sure. And what else the edge paint for the edge for the black. Oh, yeah, I think I figured you probably went in and like, did you now did you edge in that blue directly or did you just like edge in an ivory and then use like one of the brighter contrast paints over the edge to the color? Oh, no, no, no, I did it directly. It was the what was the color called Baharoth blue. Yeah, sure. That one. Gotcha. No, they look great. It's it's a wonderful scheme. They really stand out again. Like I love the colors that you used here. These guys look awesome. Oh, yeah. No, I just, oh, I'm sorry. I'm missing. I'm missing some comments. I apologize. Scale 75 art set of paints. I've seen it at Freak Wars. That suitcase looks pornographic. Oh, the big giant suitcase you can buy of like everything, right? Yeah. Yeah, but how is it pornographic? I thought it just had the the artist symbol thing. I think just because of the sheer size cost and amount of stuff you get, they get used more colloquially, I think is the statement. Oh, so it's like the cost is obscene. Okay, I sat there and I was like, did I miss something? Are there boobs on there that I didn't see? We gotta flip the suitcase over Lynn. That's on the other side. That's I would have noticed that and I would have showed you. I would have been like, yo, check this out. This is a booby suitcase with paint. If you don't find this, you're wrong. You should paint him black. Oh, I think this is about Lovecraft. He had an issue with black people. To be honest with you, I didn't know that and I'm part black. So there you go. Have you tried fluorescent paints from Green Stuff World? Um, no, I not not from Green Stuff World yet, but I do have the set from Scale 75. I feel you can only have so many sets of fluorescence. I feel like I'm starting to go crazy here with all the pain I got. But thank you for your questions. I appreciate it. Oh, so when I did the going back to the Blood Bowl team, one thing that was really cool about me doing it is that that allowed me to experiment with different ways of doing undead skin with the contrast paints. Right. I noticed there was like some people with the more yellow skin, some more green skin. You really like played around with, yeah, the different different color tones there. Yeah. And I made sure to journal those, uh, those colors, you know, the mixes that I did and I posted them up, uh, I believe they're on my, um, Instagram. Nice. Nice. If you want to check them out. Yeah. Awesome. All right. Uh, let's see. So we got one more and this is maybe my favorite. I was so happy you sent me this one to look at, because this is one of my favorite, uh, busts you've ever done. And a lot like actually the guy you just showed, because I love you play with unusual skin tones like this, especially in green palettes really well. And you know, we saw that when you just held up the, the, uh, the, like the creature from the deep or basically whatever, right? That you just kind of show it on camera. Deep one or whatever. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, exactly. Um, but this that, so the Frankenstein bust, this is another great example because you've got so many wonderful tones here in him between like the green and yellow is obviously being your primary colors, but I want the audience to like really look at the wonderful like purples and reds and just all these deep colors you've worked in. And then at the same time, I love that you made his eyes that like ultra bright blue. And so this is, this is like such a good touch. I could like, I really, really love this bustling. You did such a good job with it because, and it's always the little things that catch me. You took his eyes and I want the viewers to really like look at how, how you set the eyes with like the pupil still basically above the eyelid, like only the very teeny, tiny bottom of the pupil is visible and it gives him a completely different emotion. It's exactly how Frankenstein's eyes should be. Like almost rolled back in his head, whereas Lids are like kind of half closed over what he can see. It's so perfect because you could have painted them like down, right? You could have set the eye, the iris within the, the available space almost completely and it would have had a totally different feeling. Right? Yeah. But you, you just, you caught it, it just, it, I love the way that that gives his, it matches like that semi-curled lip he has. So I'm sorry to just go on and on about how much I love this thing, but I really do love this piece. Go ahead. It's just so great.  So it's great. So talk about this one a little bit. Tell me what you liked about doing this one, that sort of thing. Well, my eyes, the eyes, when I painted the eyes, someone once asked me when I first did the, just the eyes, I started off with the eyes when I painted this model and someone asked me, you know, how did you sit there and come to doing it like that? Like, what was your inspiration? I said, Oh, that's what my kids look like when I ask them to friggin do something. Oh, yeah. I was like, Oh, perfect. Yeah, we go. Most teenagers early in the morning share a lot of similarities with Frankenstein. So yeah, one cool thing that I like about when I did this bus is that when I did the skin primarily, I used the opportunity. I used it as an opportunity to play with the golden open acrylics. Have you heard of those? Oh, yeah, sure. Absolutely. Yes. Yeah. So I have a set of the golden open acrylic.  And so I and a yellow. And so I sat there and in that set and I got it on sale for like 12 bucks. I was like bet. Okay. So I sat there and I thought I want to play with these colors and kind of see what they can do. And so that's that was when I did that skin, that's primarily what I used where the golden open acrylics. Primarily, I did make the golden I did experiment with the open acrylics, where I mixed in some regular acrylics to like, I think I mixed some like when I did the yellow and the skin for the highlights, I think I mixed the golden open acrylics yellow, if I remember right, with some Reaper Master Series kind of yellow just to kind of open up the color a bit. Sure. Yeah. And mixed in inks with it and stuff to kind of see what it would do. And I found that the golden open acrylics were pretty fun. They were they're pretty cool paints. I'm really happy I grabbed them. Nice. Nice. Well, he came out absolutely fantastic. Yeah, I I just I dig the heck out of this guy. Really, really wonderful. All right. Well, very cool. Okay, so let's let's now do a little little questions. Are you ready, Lynn, for the lightning round questions of the interview with the artist? Do it. All right, here we go. Okay, who is your favorite? You have to pick one. That's why this is a challenge. Who is your favorite current miniature painter beside yourself? I don't even think I'm that good to be completely honest, especially compared to so the people that are out there. Oh my God. So yeah, this this question is definitely a challenge because to be completely honest with you, there's a lot of painters that I absolutely love and adore. Absolutely. Like, and that's a trick. We could sit here and literally you and I could spend the next 10 minutes just naming painters names of people we admire and look at their work and go, my God, it's stunning. How did they do that? It's wonderful. I am just blown away by the artist community right now in the world. But that's why it's a challenge. You got to pick one. One who maybe inspires you, whoever your favorite is. There's a lot of them that truly do. So many of them that do. And each one of them are special for, you know, some kind of reason, you know what I mean? Like they're just amazing. God, if I had to pick like God. I told you it was a tough one. I know. Okay. No, no, not even that one. I don't remember how to say that guy's name anyway. But no, one I could think of is Carol. Carol is amazing. He paints stuff that's so amazing and so realistic that sometimes you look at the photo and you think it's a live person. Right. Yep.  Yeah. Like he just took a picture of a live person. Like he just put somebody in costume. Yeah. It's insane. It's not even fair. That is a I completely respect that choice. Absolutely fair. All right. Very torn. I'm going to tell you that right now. I was very torn. I felt like all the painters were staring at me. I know. I know. All right. What's your favorite color paint if you had to pick just one color? What is your favorite singular color? Secret weapon and tire black. All right. Nice. Why so? Because it's an excellent shadow color. You can use it for so many different things. It's like this. It's similar to, if you're not familiar with the brand, it's similar to P3's cold black. Okay. Sure. It's similar to Vallejo's deep sea blue, but deep sea blue has more blue in it. Yep. But like the tire black is like this really great black, blue, gray, teal kind of color. Yes. It's hard to explain, but it's so great. And it could be used for so many things. I absolutely love using it to paint black. I love using it to shade silver metallic and other similar metals. I love using it to shade gray, shade, use it on terrain. Yep. It's just such an amazing color. I support that completely.  It's right next to me because I keep it handy and showed it up to everybody there on the screen. So I've got it there. And yes, I agree. It's like even for just doing like rubber joints and stuff in between armor plates, I'll usually, I'll use this to shade that to be the deepest color there. You're right. It's a much more interesting, it's like, it's darker than dark sea blue, but in the best way, right? It's like a black with actual interesting vibrancy and color. And I tell you, as the gods honest truth, those of you who have never heard of the secret weapon paints, let me tell you about the person who created them, Justin. Justin, if you've never seen his paint jobs, he's another one. That's an absolutely insane painter. And one of the things that he specializes in is weathering. Right. And so he created this line of paints that seriously matches. I mean, I'm talking to a T, you couldn't match it better if you wanted to. Right. And he's matched in a paint, every kind of weathering situation that there is.  And then he's made the colors, all the colors for rust, all the colors for wood, all the colors for, what do you call it, engine heat, you know, yeah, sure. Yep. The metal heat, the burn. And then his metallics are beautiful. Like if you don't have those paints, the washes, the pigments, even I love all the, all the different pigment line that the secret weapon has. Yes. Them and the abtolung ones, I have a bunch of those and the scale 75 ones. I like that the companies that I have the pigments from all have something good and special about them. But yeah, Justin is a very talented artist who just know him for making washes and paints and whatever. No, that man was able to create those colors of paint because of his talent. He has videos on YouTube also where he does like two minute tutorials. If I remember right or did, he's been taking a hiatus from it right now, trying to get stuff developed with the company. But from what I understand, but he's done two minute tutorials on weathering and they're great. They really are. He packs a lot of information in two minutes. He's the anti me for our viewers out there where I'll take two hours to explain a single concept. He goes to two minutes and explains the whole thing. So it's nice. It's great. Oh yeah. It's really, really awesome. I love it. All right. By the way, viewers, if you have some questions and you want to put them up there, go ahead and throw them in the chat as well. And we'll get to them if there are any out there. If you have anything you want to ask. All right. Do you have a favorite? I think I'm going to structure this purposely in a way where you can answer it any way you want. Do you have a favorite type of minis to paint? I've been absolutely loving painting busts. And I love painting Warhammer 40K figures. Gotcha. That's what I think off the top of my head are like my favorite things to paint. What have you enjoyed most? Because busts have become so popular in the recent years. What have you enjoyed the most about busts? I don't know. I think it's probably because of the sculpts. The sculpts are so great. The ideas that people come up with for busts are insane. And I love painting faces I think is why. Right. I absolutely love painting faces, whether it's human or creature. So to be honest with you, I think that's probably what it is, is that I love painting faces and a bust gives you a larger canvas to do so. Does that sound totally make sense? Yeah. Because you just, I'm with you. I love painting faces as well. And you get so so much more like room to capture nuance, right? To like to do things like bring out the emotion in the eyes like what we talked about there with the the the Frankenstein bust, right? Like on a 28 millimeter version of that fig, you wouldn't be able to do that same detail. You know, you just wouldn't have the room to really capture it, right? So yeah, absolutely. All right. All right. Next question. Oh, go ahead. Oh, no, I'm sorry. I'm trying to read what it says here. I'm sorry. Slippy Tiger asked, what's a good what's a good easy way to paint plastic plants? Oh, do you mean the aqua? I think they mean the aquarium ones. Right. Like so for stuff for basing or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Because those are a great scale size for terrain and such. I would say the easiest way to paint them spray testers dole coat on them to get kind of a matte finish for the paint to grab on to. Yep. Prime with primer such as stein or as because I'm telling you stein or as is made differently from a lot of primers. And it really holds on to a lot of different surfaces and then paint, paint away, right? Another another question here is who in 40k? Oh, who in 40k do I like painting? I guess. Well, I don't know. Like, I mean, I've been painting my adeptus titanicus. That's been fun. Nice. Yeah. For I'm trying to see if I can do armies on parade. I'm really hoping to get into doing that. So I've been having fun painting those. And I have a huge death guard army.  But nobody like really specific like pinpointing one character kind of deal that I can think of any way off the top of my head. Anything horror related. I love doing love doing those. Joe earthover says Lynn likes faces for the boop. The boop is when I do the white glint on the eye right there. And when I teach it, how to people how to do it.  And so the Twitch channel people thought that was funny. My question is, do you also hate metal pieces? Metal pieces as in like metal miniatures? No, I still I still love metal miniatures because I still think a lot of them are look really awesome. I still get old Ralph Parth of minis and stuff like that, you know, never forget where you came from, right? Sure. So no, I still like metal minis. I feel resins really come a long way. I remember when resin really first started, you know, poking into the industry there, if you will. And I remembered being kind of nervous about what that was going to mean, because I was so used to my metal. But I find that, you know, GW doing plastic, thank God they moved away from fine cast. I think we all celebrate that choice. Yes. Yes. Yes. But I still love resin, too. I still I still love my metal. I don't have a problem with metal models except for like assembling some like infinity models. Sure. I don't think anybody likes putting those together. No, definitely not. No, no, no, no, no. I love infinity. I love you Corvus Belly. I swear to you I do because they're beautiful models. But yes, those they're beautiful models. But my goodness, some of those metal pieces, it's like, what are you doing to me here? I'm trying to glue two things together that the join point is like a 16th of an inch circle.  This just isn't right. And you're welcome, Slippy Tiger. I appreciate it. Thank you for asking. All right. I suspect I already know the answer to this, but I'm going to ask it anyways. So what do you do you listen to anything while you're painting? Or what do you listen to while you're painting? One of two things. I either have Netflix, Hulu, or Amazon Prime playing something. I always have to have something going right while I work. And that's no matter what job I'm doing.  Nice. Nice. Very good. Awesome. Well, that's all the questions I had, Lynn. So I want to tell you what, if somebody rolls one in, that's fine. We'll grab it there. But otherwise, what I'll say is, Lynn, this has been an absolute joy. It has been so much fun to have you on. Thank you. Thank you so much for having me. I sincerely appreciate it. I'm really glad that you chose me to do this.  I'm like, me? It's way better than I do. Because not only are you a great painter, you're such an advocate in the community of celebrating art, of celebrating this hobby. I want everybody to see not only to recognize, not only what it means to be a great artist, which you are, but also to be a great advocate for artists. And that's a really important aspect. Because we should all be celebrating each other every day. And you live that. It's wonderful. And you've done so much for the community, for me personally, through what you've done at GenCon and just in the socials and sharing. So it's absolutely a pleasure to sit down here and talk to you, Lynn. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah, I feel it's important.  Right. And I know that we are all in this hobby. For the, I mean, yeah, I like paying my bills, sure. But we also, in essence, are all in this hobby for the same reason, which is because it's fun and it brings us solace. Exactly. Yeah.  There's a lot of people in there that try to not make it so and try to be negative Nantes and stuff. And it's like, don't bring that here. We come here to be happy, you know. That's right. That's right. This is our happy place, darn it. That's right. Don't bring that negativity around here. Right.  Thank you so much for watching for your great questions. As always, it's very much appreciated. And we'll see you next time. Bye-bye. Thank you guys so much. Thank you all. You're the best.