Making Room for Paint, and Our First Free Draw

When we started Legion Comps, we said we wanted the site to become somewhere people could enjoy the hobby as well as enter competitions.

Which sounded straightforward enough until somebody had to build the extra bits.

That somebody is me.

This week, I’ve been working on a new painting tutorial section for Lewis. We’ve also concluded and drawn our first free competition, which means we have another first behind us and another reason to thank everyone getting involved.

1. Giving Lewis somewhere to put his painting knowledge

Lewis and I bring different things to Legion Comps.

I build the systems, worry about what happens when somebody presses the wrong button, and spend longer than is reasonable trying to make things look straightforward.

Lewis can explain what he’s doing with a paintbrush.

Both useful skills. Only one produces something you would willingly put in a display cabinet.

The new tutorial section is being built to give his painting knowledge a proper home on the site. Somewhere we can organise guides so that, when you want to find one again, you don’t have to remember which social platform you saw it on or how many weeks ago it appeared.

There’s a practical reason for that. If you’re halfway through painting something, you want to find the relevant bit, check what you need and get back to it.

Preferably before the paint dries.

2. The page is the easy bit. Mostly.

From the outside, adding a tutorial section sounds like a fairly small job.

Make a page. Put some pictures on it. Add the words. Allow Lewis near it.

The last part requires careful consideration.

What takes more thought is how the whole thing should work for someone following along. A painting guide needs a clear order. The photographs need to show what’s happening. It should be easy to work out which stage you’re looking at and where to go next.

Those are the things I’m thinking about while building it.

I’d like it to be useful on a phone beside somebody’s painting desk, with brushes, paint pots and an increasingly cold cup of tea taking up the rest of the available space.

That feels like a more realistic setting than a perfectly tidy desk.

If your painting desk is perfectly tidy, I have questions.

3. A bit more hobby on the website

This is a part of Legion Comps I’m particularly pleased to be working on.

A lot of the early work had to be about getting the foundations right. Competition pages, entries, draws and all the less visible things needed to keep the site running.

There is considerable satisfaction in getting those things working. There is also a limit to how many people want to hear me talk about them.

Lewis has probably found that limit.

The painting section gives us something different to build on. It’s a chance to share his experience and gradually make the War Table and the wider site more useful to people spending their evenings assembling, painting and collecting miniatures.

It’s still being built, so this is a look at what I’m working on rather than an announcement that every guide is ready.

I’ll get the section into shape. Lewis then has the small matter of supplying the painting knowledge.

I feel this is a fair division of labour.

4. Our first free competition has been drawn

Alongside the work on the site, our first free competition has now concluded and been drawn.

Thank you to everyone who entered, and congratulations to our winner.

It’s another milestone for us. We’ve had quite a few of those since launching, but seeing something go from an idea to a completed draw still feels good.

There’s work involved in getting a competition ready, putting it in front of people and seeing it through. Once the draw is done, you get a moment to appreciate that people actually took part in something you built.

Then you remember the other things you were supposed to be doing.

Still, the moment is nice.

If the free competition was your first visit to Legion Comps, welcome. Hopefully you’ve had a look around and started to get a feel for the people behind it.

There are two of us. One is building a painting section. The other is about to be asked how the tutorials are coming along.

5. What would you like Lewis to cover?

Before we get too far into the painting content, we’d like to hear what you would find useful.

Is there a technique you’ve watched somebody demonstrate and still can’t quite get right? A finish you struggle with? Something you think everyone else already knows, so you’ve never asked?

Let us know.

Armour, weathering, metallics, basing, or simply getting a unit finished without deciding halfway through that you hate the colour scheme. There’s plenty we could cover, and your suggestions will help us work out where to start.

I cannot promise Lewis will have a short answer.

I can build somewhere for the long one.

Another week, another bit built

Our first free competition is complete, and the painting tutorial section is taking shape.

There’s still plenty to do, but it’s satisfying to spend some time on a part of the site we’ve wanted to add from the beginning.

Thank you to everyone who entered, shared the competition or has been following along as we build Legion Comps.

Rob remains at the computer.

This week, at least, there’s a painting-related reason.