FAQ and Bio

Hello, my name is John Bonnot, and I paint little pieces of metal to look like people for money.

I've been painting miniatures seriously since April of 2004. I had painted a few Battletech mechs back in High School and some Chaos Space Marines back when I was a Private Second Class in the Army (more on that in a bit) but I only really started in earnest in '04. Anne "Vaitalla" Foerster was a friend of mine needing some help cranking out a lot of miniatures in a short amount of time for Reaper's first ever ReaperCon. Being lured in by the promise of free shiny pieces of metal and paint I of course agreed and got stuck where I am today. I think in three weeks time her, I, and Dee Lauritzen (a former Reaper employee and a great painter too) had close to six or seven hundred gaming ready miniatures for Reaper to use.

Yeah, that's a lot.

Ever since then I've had the painful tutelage of Anne in shaping me to be a fairly decent painter of miniatures. Along the way Liliana Troy, Derek Schubert, Lazlo Jacuk... Laslo... Laszlo Jakusovszky, Amy Brehm, Marike Reimer, Jennifer Haley, Robert Cruse, and several other fantastic painters have beaten immeasurable knowledge into my thick dome. It was mainly Anne's guidance and a lot of work on my part that got me where I am today though. People always give me "I hate you" looks (or just go ahead and say it :) ) when I say I've only been painting a few short years but I owe it all to being in a lucky place at a lucky time.

I'm currently freelancing about making webpages for various miniature painters (and possibly other businesses Real Soon now) while looking for a decent job in the IT or Web Programming field. I also freelance in the miniatures painting world in my off time; I'm on the Reaper Miniatures Painting Team, I Ebay from time to time, and I've been known to tackle the odd commission as well. You can see some of my work on Reaper's website along with accreditation on numerous Warlord™ data cards.

Before Reaper I had gone to school for a few years (Biomedical Engineering, lotta fun on paper but the classes are boring) and served in the Army for five years. I was a 74G/74C/74B/25B to those of you that means anything to; to everyone else, I worked on computers and communications systems. In only a few years time I went from a Private Second Class to a Noncommissioned Officer (Sergeant, E5) and was deployed several times to support both training and real-world missions.

It was on my last deployment that I managed to perform the Jumping Jack of Doom, ripping apart or tearing crucial ligaments that form the socket of the shoulder joint. Yes, I tore apart my shoulder with a single Jumping Jack. A year later the Army decided I wasn't just being a wuss, found that I had torn it, and managed to cobble it back together somewhat before sending me out on a full honorable discharge. The "Days as a Civilian" counter under the login information is the time I've spent after my full, honorable discharge.

The Army did call me back to active duty after mountains of paperwork were sent to them detailing my injuries in full. After a month of processing, poking, and prodding they finally realized I was exactly as messed up physically as I told them I was (well, as all my VA doctors told them I was, in any case). Then sent me back on my merry way, and I'm still growing my hair back. Interesting enough, in late '07 I went to see a real doctor and physical therapist (as opposed to VA ones); the physical therapist determined it was a muscular problem in my neck causing all sorts of deferred pain throughout my neck, back, and shoulder. After four sessions of massaging, prodding, and working out specific muscle groups I improved to about 80% of where I used to be. I still have bad days, can overexert my shoulder and neck easily if I'm not careful, and dread cold, rainy days (yay arthritis!) but it's a world of difference from how I was before then.

I know what you're thinking though. If I was working on millions of dollars of communications gear in the military and decorated well for the service I rendered, why am I painting little pieces of metal? Well, to sum it up nicely, after doing IT work in intense environments for so long I contracted the world's worst case of IT burnout. After a long hiatus most of the operating systems and hardware I worked on quietly changed into the latest versions which I have no experience with. Actually, that's technically malarky; it never changes all that much. However, nobody wants someone who'll be up to speed in a week or two (or so they say). I puttered around some systems for the Big Boys in Redmond a bit, so I'm up to snuff on most current stuff, but I'm still looking into alternative career paths at the moment ;).

Hm, lessee, what other questions do I get... I use Reaper Masters Series Paints exclusively in everything I do for the sole reason they're the best paints out there. I've tried Vallejo and the GW stuff and Reaper's paint is all around better (and no, I don't get kickbacks :P ). For brushes it's Winsor-Newton Series 7 and DaVinci Maestros all the way, usually in 00 to 1's. Ceramic palettes make everything easier too.

Just to cover all the bases, I'm a youthful thirty-one years old. People all the time are shocked to find out how old I am, mainly because I try my best to never act it. I believe enjoying life to the fullest is the only way to go through it, and I think my physical appearance reflects that. Well, I do eat pretty darned healthily, and I run somewhat irregularly, so that helps a bit too.

This entire website was coded by yours truly out of the dessicated remains of my previous website (Computergigalo.com, a humor blog started when I was overseas in Africa). It uses PHP, MySQL, CSS, and Javascript to create a dynamic database-driven site that requires zero maintenance. All I have to do is upload a picture or a story and the site formats, catalogs, and spits out the finished product accordingly. I've just about got it trimmed down to the point I can offer services to other artists and painters to develop unique content-driven websites as well; you'll know more when I get to that point.

If you have any other questions feel free as always to contact me via the link to the left.