Heavy Metal Menagerie week 9 (2026 week 9)

This is an Inner Sphere Direct Fire Lance and they were a goddamn mess. They'd been kicking around my prep table for weeks being overtaken by the last three batches because their mold lines were soooooo bad. So far, these have been the worst of the boxes I've dealt with and as a result, they took way, way too long. For their colors, I wanted to match the Inner Sphere Command Lance from week 52 of last year. In addition to really liking that color scheme, I'd hoped that the high contrast would hide many of the prep shortcomings on these guys and I think it worked. Left to right we have: Orion, Marauder II, Atlas, Crusader. 

2026 finished mini counter: 53 

Heavy Metal Menagerie week 8 (2026 week 8)

Most of the giant batches are behind us now, so I'm grinding through the force packs one box a time. These would be a Clan Command Star and (clearly) did them in a similar color scheme as last week. These guys don't have the wash step, though I did spend more time on their base coat. They aren't quite as nice as last week but I'm not unhappy with where they landed. Not sure what happened with the back shot on these; my shooting has been fairly consistent of late and that is a lousy shot. 

I was excited to get these guys done since they fit some holes in the enemy forces I've been blowing up. Left to right: Mist Lynx (Koshi), Shadow Cat, Dire Wolf (Daishi), Summoner (Thor), and Stormcrow (Ryoken). 

2026 finished mini counter: 49
 

Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 7 (2026 week 7)

If my math is correct and I can manage to keep to the schedule I've been keeping, this is right around the midpoint of this mega theme. I'd expected to take a break at some point in my Battletech backlog, but I'm playing a lot of Alpha Strike (Aces, in particular), and at this point I'm so close to the end of the backlog. Provided that I don't buy any additional boxes to fill some empty spots in my roster, we should be closing this theme out in week 14.

First up we have a pair of elemental stars from the Clan Invasion box set. These guys are big burly space marine kinds of dudes in clantech power armor. I hate these guys. Their size and smoke plumes mean that mold lines were really sketchy to deal with so mostly I did a lousy job. Their smoke trails were fun which is another example of a low effort high drama effect--my favorite! They read OK on the table but don't hold up under scrutiny.  

These guys would be the rest of the box set which I got with the kickstarter. Left to right: Adder (Puma), Nova (Black Hawk), Executioner (Gladiator), Timber Wolf (Mad Cat), Mongrel (Grendel). I went with

Jade Falcon colors (kind of) to go with week 3's offering. My airbrush basecoat was iffy on these guys so I took an extra step to hit them with a dark green wash (a mix of Pro Acryl Transparent Green which is very blue mixed with some Transparent Yellow to shift the hue into more of a pure green). Everything else was more or less the same and I think they look a lot better than the last batch. Not sure I'm going to take the time to hit future batches with a wash (I'd prefer to get it right with the airbrush) but I like the deeper saturation on these. 

2026 finished mini counter: 44

Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 6 (2026 week 6)

If you guessed we'd get more mechs this week, you guessed correctly! Probably the title was a dead giveaway, tho. This week we've got mechs from the Mercenaries Box Set which I kickstarted whenever that kickstarter was going (2023? time is a flat circle right now). I liked the dark blue base and wanted to do an analogous color scheme and I don't think it worked out. The lighter blue could have been higher value and that might have helped but...no. The orange cockpits can't carry my bad color choices but hey, that's how we learn, right?

A bunch of these are new to me fitting cleanly between the points that I stopped playing a lot of Battletech in the mid 90s and, well, today more or less. These four from left to right are: Caesar, Devastator, Ostsol, and Quickdraw. 

These four are left to right: Flea, Starslayer, Chameleon, and Firefly. Of these, I only know the Flea and mostly because I've blown up so many of them in MW5:Mercs. The Firefly is a fun example of "an airplane with legs" style of mechs which I thought were a lot more rare in the Battletech universe than they seem to be. Those dirty clanners even have some! 

2026 finished mini counter: 37 

Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 5 (2026 week 5)

Our next installment of mechs is from the main box: A Game of Armored Combat and I'm not sure that's the same SKU as the one currently available from Catalyst. The one I have came with one of the kickstarters and comes with some of my favorite mechs. It also came with a bunch of vehicles but we've already seen them at the end of last year. 

These chonky dudes are (left to right): Thunderbolt, Awesome, Battlemaster, Catapult. Aside from the Awesome which I think is overrated, the other three are some of the mechs I've used the most across all Battletech universe games. In fact, I've got a Thunderbolt and Battlemaster in my Scouring Sands company. I sure hope they survived!

These less chonky dudes are (left to right): Locust, Wolverine, Shadow Hawk, and Commando. I'm using the Locust and Command, too! I painted these guys a while ago now in a flurry of painting exuberance. I have the luxury and resources to play fully painted so when I realized that I wanted four of these guys in my force, well, I knew what I had to do. The oil wash dirtied down the light yellow some on these guys which wasn't intended. It was also (obivously) not fixed.

2026 finished mini counter: 29 

Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 4 (2026 week 4)

This week we have, you guessed it, more mechs. This is a Clan Fire Star including (left to right): Fire Moth (Dasher),  Nova Cat, Warhawk (Maskari), Cougar, Kit Fox (Uller). I had fun with the bright green but I knew that oil washes are more kind to dark colors so I hit these guys with a Reaper Forest Green that seemed fit for the task. These are almost in Clan Wolf livery but again for the record, I can't be bothered to use someone else's color scheme. 

The dark grey on the forest green doesn't read well here and probably could have been lighter. Also probably these guys could use a highlight color of some sort, but the edges look real good.  

2026 finished mini counter: 21
 

Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 3 (2026 week 3)

These guys are Clan Cavalry Star including (left to right): Locust IIC, Griffin IIC, Black Python, Shadow Hawk IIC, and Jenner IIC. Scouring Sands campaign is against the Jade Falcon but I really wanted to do the desert camo so for these guys I picked a bright green for their main color. They aren't specifically in any Jade Falcon livery that I'm aware of because TBH, I can't be bothered to follow someone else's color scheme. 

These guys follow the same basic scheme as most of my mechs featuring heavy use of the airbrush and generally being done in a few hours per batch. The oil wash went on a little heavy which dirtied up the light orange. I could have fixed this but I couldn't be bothred. The Black Python in the middle is new to me and I really like its design. If only it weren't a dirty, dirty clanner. 

2026 finished mini counter: 16

Heavy Metal Menagerie, week 2 (2026 week 2)

For this batch, the Inner Sphere Fire Lance (left to right: Trebuchet, Zeus, Stalker, Longbow), I wanted to experiment with pushing contrast paints through the airbrush. I had it on very good authority that this would result in a tint or a filter but that it wouldn't do the normal contrast paint thing, specifically gather in the recesses to darken and whatnot. I figured if I oversprayed a bit, I'd put down enough contrast paint to a) work like contrast paints usually do, and b) be a lot faster/smoother than doing so with a brush. The culprit: Blood Angels Red, a tone that I don't particularly care for (I like Flesh Tearer's Red a lot better). 

I was kind of right. Overspraying does work, provided you move fast enough to cover the target before things dry. That's a challenge since it dries way faster coming out of an airbrush which isn't really that surprising. The result I got was very patchy and I spent not enough effort cleaning these guys up, though the drybrush and oil wash at the end of the process hide it pretty well. Ultimately, these guys got to a more orange-y destination that I'm not unhappy with.

2026 finished mini counter: 11
 

Heavy Metal Menagarie, week 1 (2026 week 1)

We kick off the new year with a new theme, and if you were paying attention last month, it should be no surprise that it's mechs. These guys are from Battletech Aces Scouring Sands, a few of the support vehicles of which we saw a couple weeks ago. For those not familiar, Aces is a solo or co-op campaign engine for Alpha Strike and I am super stoked to give it a shot. By the time this is posted, I've probably played at least a couple missions, even. 

These hefty guys are (left to right) Thunderbolt IIC, Bane, and Marauder IIC. I wanted to do a camo pattern because I'd never done one. They were basecoated with Pro Acryl Yellow Ochre through the airbrush and the darker splotches played by Pro Acryl Dark Golden Brown were freehanded on. Edges were pulled out by a not-light-enough drybrush and the whole batch was hit with a light oilwash. The oil wash darkened these guys down way more than I was expecting. I could have gone back and fixed that when I put the oil wash on, but, meh, these are dirty clanners and I'm fine if their mechs look dirty too.

These other dudes (left to right) are Howler, Summoner (Thor), Rifleman IIC, and Locust IIC. The Bane and Howler are new to me but the Scouring Sands campaign is happening after all the Battletech I'm familiar with. Notably, I stopped playing around the time I went off to college way back in the last milennium. 

2026 finished mini counter: 7

2026 crafting challenge

This will be the seventh full year for this series of challenges which has been almost unbelievably productive. Keeping with last years' structure, I'm less interested in big counts, not that I don't like big counts, than getting through older categories in my pile of shamepotential. We're overdue for a Reaper Bones 7 which will push the goalposts further out but otherwise I've been fairly disciplined about not buying/printing a stupid number of figs for the last few years. With a little luck and a lot of work, we'll be under 500 left. 

Valid things:

• A finished piece or WIP representing a reasonable amount of progress
• Gaming terrain, prop, scatter built and/or printed but not just printed
• One or more painted minis
• A sketch in digital or traditional media
  
• An article or other piece of writing of, I dunno, 1000 words or so
• A Lego build of non-trivial complexity
• Other?  Dunno, categories are hard.

Goals:

• Twelve figures of significant quality featuring OSL/NMM/something else notable 
• Complete 2023 prints/purchases (<10)   
• Pick any two of these, bonus points for all three which is certainly possible:
• Complete Battletech collection (~100)   
• Complete Bones 5 kickstarter minis (~100)
• Complete Bones 6 kickstarter minis (~100)

 

2025 in review

2025 was one of the years of all time. Far more astute observers of culture have said and written way more than I could ever sanely do so I'ma leave it to the experts. Here's my little slice of reality parceled and presented in an almost-bite-sized-piece for your amusement. 

Hobbying 

Most of you are here for the glamor shots so let's lead with that. It feels like there was a lot going on thislast year and as a result I didn't paint nearly as many minis as I have been the last few years. Due to Battletech figs being on the whole easier to paint than the normal fantasy characters, I cranked out quite a lot in the last month which elevated the total to land at 5/week which I think is pretty respectable. 

 

I hit 2,000 minis painted lifetime sometime over the summer which seems significant and though I completed 13 high quality (for me) works for the display case, I'm not sure that quality is going up all that much though they're also not going any faster. 

 

What other stuff was going on that ate up so much time? 

 

I'm Building a Game!

It was probably inevitable that I'd get back to game development in my retirement and I guess that this was the time. At the end of 2024 I started messing around with Godot and at this point I don't even remember why. Turns out, it's not only very full featured, it's convenient in all the ways I wish Unity was. 

I've always said that you want to start small and keep it small if you want to finish with your sanity at least partially in tact so naturally I picked the second biggest thing that I'd always wanted to make. Roughly a thousand hours later and it feels like it should go up on Steam for fun and almost no profit, probably nextthis year. If you're bored and want to take a look, send me a ping.

 

Gaming 

Most of my gaming happened in the last quarter of thislast year but what it lacked in quantity, it more than made up in quality. 

 

Star Traders: Frontiers (2018): ***

If you like super deep space-opera-like captain sims, this game is for you. If you like straightforward and approachable games wrapped up in a bow, you might take a pass. Star Traders: Frontiers is extremely complex and does very little to explain how the game works (insert ominous foreshadowing here). The intent (as I gather it) is that you'll play it multiple times on multiple difficulties with multiple different builds and whatnot. I completed my first game on super duper easy mode in about 80 hours. Do with this information what you must. On the whole, it's a little clunky and near the end I found the endless "jump all over the galaxy to deliver someone's coffee" style quests super tedious. I really wanted to like this one (hence the 80 hours) but I don't see ever going back to it. 

 

Mechwarrior 5 Mercenaries: Shadow of Kerensky (2025): *****

There's been a lot of MW5:Mercs over the years and since MW5:Clans was released last  year, I was surprised to see a new expansion for the older game late in the year. My love of most things BattleTech is pretty well documented at this point so I had to buy it and had to start a new playthrough and had to begin at the earliest year possible so it'd be the longest possible. Notably, most of the new content is at the end of the timeline but it's not like I didn't know that. Smashing clanners is as satisfying as I'd expected and getting to go through all the Duncan Fisher missions again was an added bonus. Notably, every new expansion raises the power level a bunch so that first encounter was missing some of its edge, probably. 

 

Endless Sky (2015): ***

As a liker of space sims, Endless Sky seems to have everything I like: space-y combat, alien diplomacy, trading simulations, deep ship customization. Unfortunately, it really only delivers on one of those. The combat is iffy given that there are no ship stacking rules and the RNG can be particularly punishing even beyond the emphasis being on commanding a multiple ship fleet. The text is extremely over-wrought in places and there is just plain too much of it. The whole thing is tied up with an economic model that only a banker could love. The worst part, IMO, is that the customization system is so...fiddly. You've got multiple overlapping budgets to manage none of which is either super well documented or obvious to new players, and a fairly narrow list of places that you can get the components that actually matter that are inconveniently scattered all across the galaxy if you can even buy stuff there at all. Add to that the emphasis on multiple ship fleets and you're multiplying your frustration across a bunch of ships each with different weird sometimes hidden statistics. Not a fan of that. Also, the interface is only barely usable which makes everything just a bit more janky. I spent way too long on this game which I found to be mostly frustrating but it was free, still gets regular updates, and had a non-zero amount of legit good moments. 

 

Wildermyth (2021): *****

I purchased Wildermyth a while ago at the recommendation of a pal and I had opportunity to take a look at the end of 2025. It as a lot of aspects I really like and not terribly many that I don't. It has the trifecta I look for in indie games: distinctive style, interesting gameplay, good humor. The characters are cardboard cutouts and hop around the map in exactly the same way you would if you were using standees on a tabletop which I can't imagine isn't the intent. The dialog is all character-focused and the writing is good enough that I kind of felt bad when whupping some of the bads. It has a lot of replayability as one might guess from a game that's mostly procedural with the expected gajillion chievos if you're into such things. On the whole, it is well constructed and has a lot of charm. I really liked Wildermyth and if you've ever wondered what a non-grimdark and slightly more tactical version of Darkest Dungeon might be like, give it a shot.

 

Lego 

I hit the typical two shows again this year (BricksCascade in the spring and BrickCon in late summer) which spawned the usual flurry of activity and participated in the annual SHIPtember as per usual. We built a giant collab at BrickCon which showed well at least partially due to my insistence on lighting every ship. As a bonus, due to some very fiddly, fragile builds, we got a staff-selected award for the display. That was dope. I haven't super well documented those because, well, mostly I'm lazy but here's a collage of the shots I did take. You can find more deets at flickr.

 

Hardware Hackery

It hasn't come up super often in these uh-hallowed pixels, but I've been building computers since the mid 90s and have amassed a vast collection of mostly well-loved hardware. As a side-effect of doing a much needed deep clean on my house, thislast year, I re-organized some rooms and ended up with enough space to start tinkering again. Lots of said tinkering done and I've re-cataloged most of my collection and will hopefully be liquidating a lot of it in 2026 which pains me more than I'd like to admit. If you have a need or a want of mid-90s to more recent consumer computing hardware, drop me a line.

 

Furthermore, it's worth noting that the NAS I've had more or less since I moved to WA has been running non-stop plus or minus the (frequent) power outages we (don't) enjoy here. The drives were second hand when I got them and it's been a decade. That makes me nervous. I also ended up doing a bunch of speed tests and re-familiarizing myself with modern hard drives, SSDs, and NAS software. Fast forward a couple months and I've built a new NAS off of SSDs keeping the old NAS for backups, and have updated at least part of my network to (mostly) 2.5Gbps.  Good times.

2025 crafting challenge wrap-up

No magical 365 fig total this year but 260 (5/week) is a pretty good consolation prize. I was busy with other stuff which you can read about somewhere or other around here. I did manage to hit all my goals but missed on the two stretch goals which shouldn't really be a surprise. I've also elided the per-fig links on this page because they're a real pain in the butt though most weeks' post should contain them.

Week1: Ronin Arts Workshop Spitfire Jen (high quality #1), Reaper Trista Female Warrior, Galaad Battle Mage x2 (high quality #2 and #3)

Week 2: Titan Forge Dwarf Male Cleric and 3x Gnome Male Cleric variants

Week 3: Dragon Trappers Lodge Moon Enclave bow x2 and tomahawk x2 variants 

Week 4:  Dragon Trappers Lodge Moon Enclave spear variants, Reaper Dijoro Female Kitsune, Bite the Bullet Robyn Foxfolk Ranger and Fox Folk Rogue (high quality #4)

Week 5:  Twin Goddess Denthir Orc Cleric x2, Titan Forge Orc Rogue x2

Week 6:  Reaper Highland Heroine, Cast n Play Sakari Anyu and Akna Amak, Vae Victis Ranger Teen (high quality #5)

Week 7:  RN Estudio Avangeline - Female Paladin, RM Printable Daerel the Blademaster, Twin Goddess Sypheena x2, 

Week 8:  Printed Obsession Black Witch Tabaxi, Miniatures Blueprint Zerynthia Noble Mage, HackNSlashMinis Siln Tanadu Moon Elf Cleric, Titan Forge Kathrina Bright On Foot

Week 9:  Gifted Space Marine, Vae Victis Cat Captain, Twin Goddess Valera Angel of Rock (high quality #6), Drunken Dwarf Ragna Blade of the North (high quality #7)

Week 10:  Reaper Bones 4 Anhurian Cavalry, Overlord Cavalry, and Pygmy Mammoth

Week 11:  Reaper Bones 4 Chaos Toad Brawler and Zombie Shark

Week 12:  Reaper Hagar Dwarf Fighter and Durok Dwarf Ranger, and Bones 4 Erick Paladin Initiate and Alandin Elf Paladin

Week 13:  Reaper Elven Blacksmith, Sarah the Seeress, Finari Female Paladin and Isabeau Laroch Paladin, Bones 4 Innkeeper Sophie

Week 14:  Reaper Nazeera Bloodraven, Damaris Duskwarden, Vonsalay Half Orc Wizard and Callie Female Rogue, DnD is a Woman Amalya Tabaxi Rogue

Week 15:  Wrath of Kings Shael Han Celestial Tricksters x2, Reaper Kogo Male Kitsune and Kassandra of the Blade (high quality #8)

Week 16:  Reaper Bones 4 Hill Giant Lowland Warrior, Hill Giant Lowland Chief and Hill Giant Hunter

Week 17:  Reaper Bones 4 Ettin, Frost Giant Heroine and Frost Giant Raider\

Week 18:  Reaper Young Fire Drake, Reaper Bones 4 Ziba female Efreeti, Ashana Female Genie and Thunderfoot Behemoth

Week 19:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 20:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 21:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 22:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x5

Week 23:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 24:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x5

Week 25:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 26:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 27:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x5

Week 28:  Reaper Angel of Shadows, Tabletop Terrain Desyra Littlebow (high quality #9), Vae Victis Tabaxi Bandit and Landsknecht Girl (high quality #10)

Week 29:  Reaper Bones 4 Blacktooth Terror + Seven Years of Painting article

Week 30:  Reaper Bones 4 Gauth

Week 31:  CobraMode Duck-Billed Platypotamus and Goon Master Weasel Witch Hunter Flamberge1 + hatless variant

Week 32:  Wrath of Kings House Goritsi - Specialist Box #1 (both figs)

Week 33:  Wrath of Kings Gotha Knights x4

Week 34: Wrath of Kings Gotha Knights x4 

Week 35:  Runewars Leonx Riders x4

Week 36:  Reaper Balzador Cleric and Alaine Female Paladin (high quality #11)

Week 37:  Runewars Oathsworn Cavalry

Week 38:  Velrock Female Sector Enforcer 2 x4 

Week 39:  Nolzur's Young White Dragon and Young Red Dragon

Week 40:  Reaper Mal Catfolk Warrior, Chosen of Sekhmet and Daughter of Sekhmet, Warmachine:Protectorate Nicia Tear of Vengeance

Week 41:  Reaper DHL Classics: Fighting Women x3, Inari Windsong

Week 42:  Reaper Bones 6: Mudmen and Bones 5 Clay Golem

Week 43: Reaper Bones 6: Ant Infestation x5 + Ant Queen

Week 44: Reaper Bones 6: Wolf Pack + Warg

Week 45: Reaper Bones 6: Blackmane Gnolls x6

Week 46:  Reaper Kosumi Frostfang Huntress and Rageclaw Slayer (high quality #12 and #13)

Week 47: Reaper Bones 6 zombies x8

Week 48: Reaper Bones 6 zombies x8 

Week 49: Reaper Bones 6 Waspnettle Lizardmen x6, Lizardman Warrior

Week 50: Battletech Visgoth x2, Shilone x2, Pegasus x2, Maxim x2, Condor x2

Week 51: Battletech SRM/LRM Carriers x4, Galleon x2, Vedette x2, Manticore x2, Shrek x2, Demolisher x2, H-7 Warrior x2, Ontos x2, Behemoth x2, Skulker x2, Savannah Master x2, Fulcrum x2

Week 52: Battletech Inner Sphere Battle Lance, Inner Sphere Command Lance, Inner Sphere Recon Lance, Inner Sphere Striker Lance, Inner Sphere Urban Lance, Adder A (Puma), Mongrel (Grendel), Timberwolf (Mad Cat), Dire Wolf (Daishi), Mad Dog (Vulture), and Nova (Black Hawk), (hated) Urbanmech

 

 

 

 

 

 

A thing a week 2025, week 52

We end the year with more Battletech, this time mechs. These guys go surprisingly quickly, especially now that I'm dialing in on a better scheme. These are roughly in the order they were painted 

This first four in wolf grey is the Inner Sphere Battle Lance including four of my favorite anime-not-quite-pseudo-licensed mechs. They're painted in an almost Macross-like scheme which didn't really work since they're not quite detailed in that way. I'm finding the details on these molds a little soft and the mold lines are godawful so I haven't had quite the normal edge highlighting fidelity that I usually enjoy. I also tried to force an oil wash to work here and I don't think it quite landed. Probably the Payne's Grey details are too dark in addition to the black details and I really should have known better. Left to right we have Warhammer, Rifleman, Phoenix Hawk and Wasp.

These next guys are the Inner Sphere Command Lance and instead of basecoating with the airbrush I hit them with a slight zenithal (base grey primer with sketchy white primer on top--I screwed up my mixing and it really performed badly) and a coat of Akhelian Green Contrast Paint as a test. I like this color quite a lot and I've used it quite a lot but it performed not very well in this application. The big flat areas probably warranted a thinning down and I ended up doing a lot of cleanup after the fact. Also of note, my color choice was compositionally good but the specific paints I used were really transparent and the four-ish coats of each made the detailing really tedious. These guys took the oil wash a lot better and I was a lot more diligent in cleaning up pooling on the big light grey panels. I think they look pretty good. Left to right we have Marauder, Valkyrie, Stinger and Archer.

These blue and orangey guys are the Inner Sphere Recon Lance and probably they're the best of the bunch. They're zenithaled better than the last and I hit them with a basecoat of a mix of Pro Acryl Blue Transparent and Pro Acryl Black Transparent. These were drybrushed twice after that before adding the detailing which I suppose wasn't strictly necessary but I did it anyway. Orange and other details came next. After that I spent a lot of time getting the edge highlights on the orangey bits which looks good, but was very tedious. I've got a better solution for this now, but that's all part of the journey. The last step was a light oil wash which worked well on these guys' darker color scheme. Left to right we have Firestarter, new-to-me Spector, Javelin and Ostscout. I'm pretty happy with these guys.

Continuing my "I spent too long on edge highlighting despite the fact that I like the result" we have the Inner Sphere Striker Lance and I was super stoked for the Blacktron color scheme. I was pretty sure I'd have a rough time with the oil wash on the yellow in addition to the edge highlighting on the same yellow and I was right on both counts. These guys had some shallow armor plates which make them non-ideal for any kind of edge highlighting and there was no way to make the off white edges distinct enough because there just plain wasn't much color value going up. These got mostly where I wanted them and I think they look pretty good but all of the edge highlighting continued to be tedious. The cockpits came out especially well here because I spent quite a lot of time on them. Left to right we have Wolfhound, Jenner, Panther, and Blackjack.

For these red guys, otherwise known as the Inner Sphere Urban Lance, I got them half right. These were zenithaled with the airbrush and I hit them with Contrast Paint Blood Angels Red, a color that I don't super like. I spent a lot of time cleaning up the resulting blotchiness. These guys are big and my pot (maybe all pots of this color?) was really thick. This makes it really hard to properly extend the wet edge and is one of my big gripes about Contrast Paints in general. The grey bits were done next and the whole thing was drybrushed with an ancient pot of Reaper flesh tone that I bought at the turn of the milennium. This took the tedium out of the edge highlighting and meant that I could vary the weight which is nice. They look good on the table but if you look closely, you'll see all the corners I cut. Left to right we have Victor, Enforcer (late model, I think), Hunchback and Raven.

For these dudes I finally got it all put together. These are the non-dupe clan mechs I got out of salvage boxes in the kickstarter. I could have painted them in proper clan colors but TBH, I can't be bothered. These guys were simply primed with the airbrush and then basecoated with the airbrush (Pro Acryl Dark Neutral Grey, if you care). Details were picked out, they were drybrushed, and finished with the typical oil wash. They were done more or less in a day (sans drying time and whatnot) but they are both high drama and low effort and came together in a few hours all told. They are left to right: Adder A (Puma), Mongrel (Grendel), Timberwolf (Mad Cat), Dire Wolf (Daishi), Mad Dog (Vulture), and Nova (Black Hawk)

Last but not least, a polarizing mech if ever there was one. This little trash can looking dude is the Urbanmech and I have a love/hate thing with them, particularly that I love to hate them despite it being an OK mech. It was painted as a batch with the Striker Lance which is probably obvious and I have the same critique for this guy as for those. The blending on the cockpit doesn't show super well in these shots which is sad because I thought it came out pretty good. A lot of these battletech figs have recessed cockpits which is a nice detail but it can be challenging to paint. This particular guy came out way better than it had any right to and we're going to end the year on him because that seems appropriate.

2025 finished mini count: 260 

A thing a week 2025, week 51

Continuing our low-effort and hopefully high-drama Battletech figs, we have a mess of tanks and other vehicles. I wanted to paint these really fast and they more or less were really fast. Like our aerospace fighters from last week, they were primed and base-coated with my cheapest of airbrushes only to be drybrushed and oil washed after that. Also of note, I usually have a pileup at the end of the year because I tend to work a week or two ahead so I have something to post if I'm busy or out of town or something. This year I've got a similar pileup but only because I'm geeked about painting Battletech figs and they're going really fast. 

First up we have missile carriers in a military green with a very light drybrush to edge highlight and one or two coats of a light oil wash. These guys are high damage, low survivability so I painted them in the least eye catching colors I could find. The base coat was a Pro Acryl through the airbrush and probably if I used these more often rather than a Speed Paint or Contrast Paint I'd have fewer blotchiness and gloss issues. Note that these came with extra turrets so you could have four of either should you so desire. The standies they're on are a work in progress.

Next up we have a mess of tanks. I'm always a little shaky on the non-scary ones so from left to right I think we've got: Galleon, Vedette, Manticore, Shrek, and Demolisher. The triple-PPC Shrek tank should not be confused with the early 90s ogre of the same name. The guys on the right are legit scary and I've lost many-a-battlemech to the inimitable double-AC/20 Demolisher. The semi-glossy greenish tanks are basecoated with multiple coats of Daler Rowney inks that I keep trying to use in this way but keep disappointing me. The arctic-themed tanks were base coated with Vallejo Game Air Wolf Grey which is one of my favorite cool off-whites. For these guys I wanted to push the light oil washes I've been using to see if they'd play nice with light base coats which kind of worked. I got the panel lines for nearly free but where it pooled unhelpfully on the big flat areas, it really looks bad. Still tuning this step. This shot also unexpectedly dark but I couldn't be bothered to re-balance it. 

How about some VTOLs? These are the H-7 Warrior last seen being blown up in MW5:Mercs. These probably could have been a little fancier but the details were a little soft and I really made a mess of the mold lines. These guys helpfully come with two sets of stands, the tall ones shown here and some very short ones that make them look like they're landed. That's a really nice touch and I love it when game companies do such things. These guys are from the Recon and Hunter Lances and probably I should have shot them with their box mates.

These guys are the rest of the Recon and Hunter Lances. From left to right we have the Ontos Heavy Tank, the Behemoth Heavy Tank, and the Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank. These aren't tanks I'm super familiar with, though the Behemoth shows up occasionally in the HBS Battletech game. The Ontos carries a stupid number of medium lasers which is endearing for a tank. These guys had some pretty rough mold lines only some of which I handled acceptably. Probably the dark grey ones could have used a heavier dry brushing at the end. One weird thing I noticed about these is that they generally have either too many, or too big cockpit or windows. Usually windows are less armored than, I dunno, the armor, so you'd think they'd make them smaller.

Last up we have some rando hovertanks. The little guys on the left are the Savanna Master from one of the gajillion salvage boxes I got from the kickstarters and the guys on the right are Fulcrum from the Aces: Scouring Sands box. I ordered the Hunter and Recon Lances in addition to the Aces box (and some other stuff without minis) and I really wanted all of the vehicles to be done. So here they are! The Fulcrum have a fun red cockpit that sadly aren't visible here with the high angle shot. 

2025 finished mini counter: 241

A thing a week 2025, week 50

And now for something completely different. My love of all things Battletech is very well documented at this point so several years ago when Catalyst Game Labs did their Mercenaries Kickstarter, I was all in. When they subsequently did their Clan Invasion Kickstarter...I was also all in. 

All four of these guys were add-ons to the two kickstarters and I painted them mostly with the airbrush. I haven't painted many mechanical figs, vintage Mekton figs notwithstanding, so part of this week's effort was trying to sort out better ways to paint them. Also of note, I have a lot of mechs to paint and probably this is going to be a journey. After the airbrush and some details, I did a heavy black oil wash like I've used many times. On a couple of these you can probably tell where I tried (badly) to edge highlight some of the panels. Unfortunately, these sculpts are a little soft and I didn't have the patience to do so consistently. 

The guys on top are Shilone Aerospace fighters, the guys on the bottom are filthy Clan Visigoth OmniFighters. They're bigger than I thought they'd be which means that my normal microspace Lego stand-ins probably aren't going to be retired anytime soon. Ultimately I rushed these and it shows. The dark is probably too dark and that was not helped by the heavy oil wash. We'll see next week some improvements which probably would have helped here. I do like these guys but I ended up with a worse result because I'd sold myself on doing them really fast. That's how you learn, I guess. 

What are these guys? I'm a little shaky on hovertanks but I think the guys on the left are left to right: Pegasus, Maxim, and Condor. I've mostly only blown these up; I've never needed to field any. They're a little shinier in this shot than they read in person. I expected the light oil wash to flat them down a little more than it did but I'm not unhappy with where the landed.

2025 finished mini counter: 207

 

A thing a week 2025, week 49

This week we have the Waspnettle Lizardmen from Bones 6 and a plain 'ol white Bones plastic lizardman warrior because he fit the theme. The warrior is the guy on the far left with the bendy spear. In fact we've seen this guy and two of his pals way back in Week 8 of 2021 because a) the warrior was a freebie that came with a different purchase and b) the other two dudes are good sculpts that Reaper decided to add to the set. In fact, I think the bow guy is also a reprint but not one that I remember buying or painting.

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted out of these guys from the get go and did some extra work with the airbrush to kick them off and because they had such good texture I hit them with a light drybrush and a wash. The orange armor and orange-y leather bits were built up over many layers.

These three guys I think are new sculpts and I'm pretty sure they're either 3d printed or molded from 3d prints since they have support bits that are pretty indicative of resin prints. I tried to capture the drama of their shields and as is typical, they look better in person than they do in these shots. My only real gripe with these three is that the big guy is maybe too big. His head looks very small in proportion and his armor details look a little soft compared to the other guys. Those are minor gripes, though, and the cyan/orange contrast sells well at the table. These guys were fun and I think they came out well.

2025 finished mini counter: 197

A thing a week 2025, week 48

Finishing out this awful mini-batch of bones 6 zombies, we have more bones 6 zombies. While slapchop has gotten some, I dunno, appropriate shade for being cheap and easy with not super good results, it is awfully useful for exactly this kind of application: large numbers of figs that would probably only be seen in aggregate that I otherwise don't have a use for. I don't want to use it super often across my collection but there are worse ways to speedpaint IMO. Also, FWIW, you can start with a slapchop and work in details that up the quality if you're so inclined. 

All sixteen of these were done in a giant batch weighing in at around four or five hours all told. I'm glad these dudes are done and won't be taking up space in my to-do pile any longer. Probably that's the best thing I can saywrite about them. 

2025 finished mini counter: 190

A thing a week 2025, week 47

With the major goals of this year's crafting safely in the rearview, I'm now working through my pile of shamepotential to hit an arbitrarily large number for the year. To be fair, the original number is pretty arbitrary, too. This week and next week we're getting a set of figs that I don't like and might not ever use but arrived in force with bones 6. Just so all my cards on on the table: I don't like body horror, I don't like undead, and I really, really don't like zombies. 

These figs are not well painted and I didn't spend any more time on them than I thought I had to. They're basically a slapchop with a couple washes and aside from the cobblestone bases, I don't even think they look good. Then again, as I've already stated, I don't like zombies. 

They're intended to be dark and dirty and that effect should be known pretty well by anyone who's thrown a heavy wash down as a finishing move. 

2025 finished mini counter 182 

A thing a week 2025, week 46

Fun stuff this week and two exceptional metal sculpts from Reaper. Both of them are way bigger than I thought they were and thus aren't super likely to get any screen time. Luckily, they're both high quality works (spoilers) and will look fantastic in my display case.  

First up we have Kosumi, Frostfang Huntress and it looks like she's missing from Reaper's site which is going to make it hard for me to find another copy. She's painted like a red wolf and despite the enormous time spent painting fur strokes, they're mostly invisible in these shots. Also missing in these shots is most of the subtle tone and temperature variations between her hair and her dark fur. And as a sad trifecta, the texturing I put on the leather is also missing in these shots which makes me sad. There was a really bad mold issue on her left muzzle which I cleaned up mostly OK but leaves her with a weird expression. I'm not unhappy with this effort (about six hours all told) but there's more that I should have done, particularly in highlighting her volumes better. Probably making each of my sad trifecta stand out more would be good, too. 

This is a Rageclaw Slayer from Reaper and I did find the link for him. I had no struggles with mold lines on this guy thankfully. Instead, my sanity strained under the immensity of the non metallic red that I picked early on. It went through many iterations and color swaps until I landed on this maroon to magenta transition and for better or worse, my brush strokes are really apparent. The last time I did a serious NMM was way back in Week 37 of 2020 and it took something like 50 hours for the two gals. This one guy was around 20 hours by himself so it's not like I'm going particularly faster. The golds are much improved in the intervening half decade (also: the shooting) while the main armor is harder to judge since they're in different color schemes. Probably my darks need to be darker and there's a level of refinement that would be an improvement but ultimately I'm pretty happy with this result. 

These two will close out this year's goals both in figs and in high quality works. So I got that goin' for me.

2025 finished mini counter: 174, 2025 goal figs remaining: 0, high quality figs remaining: 0

 

A thing a week 2025, week 45

Another small-ish batch this week, and it's gnolls! My love of gnolls is pretty well documented at this point so when bones 6 rolled around and there was a gnoll add-on, I had to get them. This isn't a high quality piece of work by any means but I think they turned out pretty well. I took my time with them which isn't a thing I do super often but I think it shows. They were done all told in maybe ten hours or so and I'm pretty happy with them.

2025 finished mini counter: 172