Wednesday, 16 January 2013

An Illuminating Experience!

I had one of those 'how on earth did I manage before' moments last week.  After a winter of realising that I cannot mix decent basing shades of colour under the glowing eco-bulbs, I finally did what most of you seem to have already done.  I bought a daylight lamp.


I have been meaning to do something about the lighting for a while. I did buy a daylight bulb to go into the main light, but I found that because it was on a dimmer switch, the bulb box said it was unsuitable....so back to the drawing board.  I held off for a little while longer and tried to make do...until the frustration of opening the curtains in the morning again revealed that the paint shade I thought was pretty good in the evening eco-bulb glow, actually looked terrible and was way off when viewed in the cold light of day.

I had some reasons for procrastinating.  Way back in 1991 I became short-sighted very suddenly and quite dramatically over about 6 months.  I was painting ACW figures in my barrack room, perched over an MFO box with a standard 60watt fluorescent bulb not far from my face as I painted.  When I discovered that I could no longer spot officers pips (on the real thing - not on the figures!), I realised my eyesight was not what it should be.  The only thing I could put it down to was using that fluorescent bulb in the lamp.  Glasses have been worn every since (unless i'm wearing contact lenses of course...or sleeping etc!).  I still don't know what the actual cause of my sudden short-sightedness was, but it was probably natural.

Another reason for not getting a daylight lamp was my fear that I might become too obsessed with detail.  If I can see the figure so much more clearly I would surely become tempted to paint more and more detail until a regiment would take a year to paint.

Well, despite these fears I read some reviews and and with an idea of what I needed, I made a purchase...and my goodness...I should have done it years ago!


This is going to sound like advertising blurb, and really, I have no vested interest in this but as soon as I set it up and turned the light on I was amazed at how clearly I could see.  It really is as good as people say they are.  I can't believe that I coped for so many years without one. How did I ever see in the evenings to paint any kind of detail?


I immediately set about black lining in and touching up a cavalry regiment. All of my original fears were unfounded.  My eyes felt more relaxed using this light, and I although I could see the figures clearly, I found that I wasn't spending time obsessing over detail.  What I did find was that was spending less time painting because I could actually see what I was doing properly and not making mistakes! :-)


A final shot above for scale with figures.  No doubt for those of you who already own a daylight lamp, everything about how good it is will be so obvious.  I am just amazed at how good it is and how useful it is going to be. This is probably the best £40 I have ever spent.

Anyway, I felt I had to share that...just in case anyone had any doubts about getting one.  Normal blog postings will resume... :-)

13 comments:

  1. They are damn useful especially if the eyesight is a little bit dodgy!

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    1. So I'm finding out Fran, a useful piece of kit :-)

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  2. Looks the biz, where did you buy it from?

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    1. Hi Ray, I got it via Amazon. This is the one;

      http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B001IPP2D6/ref=pe_217191_31005151_3p_dp_1

      I see that it's £5 cheaper than when I bought mine!

      Cheers,

      Jason

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  3. I already had one as I start my seeds indoors (flower seeds) and it does take me a week or two to paint a figure. Maybe I should switch to a plain bulb!

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    1. Hi Anne, so the light has a multitude of uses! I can see myself darning socks and threading needles with this from now on. Pity it won't fit in my pocket!

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  4. Nice mate. Great little product indeed, and probably will help with lighting up miniatures for photos as well! Win/Win/Win!

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    1. Yes, tried it with photos tonight and it worked very well...other than that I found I had put a deep scratch on the front of the lens of my camera when I was taking pics of pikemen at the weekend! :-S

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  5. Well, just went and bought a lamp myself today after reading this. Don't think it's as good as yours, but hopefully it'll do the trick. Thanks for providing the impetus!

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    1. Glad to be of help. I hope yours proves to be equally as illuminating :-)

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  6. This is very familiar. I got a new lamp with natural daylight for Xmas. It's a huge upgrade over the stupid halogen workshop lamp I'd been using for the last 2 years! What was I thinking?

    Happy painting with your new lamp!

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    1. Hi Monty, thanks, I can definitely say i'm happy with it already. I better try to raise my standard of painting before I post again to prove it!

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    2. lol! That is the pressure of blogging, isn't it? Everyone looking over your shoulder, so to speak!

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