2021 Crafting challenge wrap-up

This end-of-year post is starting to become a tradition which started because I couldn't find reference photos and explanations when I needed them.  We crested the 100 fig goal pretty early and then took the foot off the painting gas for a bit before barreling straight into a bunch of batch paints to hit and then exceed the magical 365 fig mark. Probably this kind of output isn't in the cards until retirement. Watch this space!

2021 kickoff
Week 1: 4x Reaper Bones Townsfolk, Oman Ruul, Zentis Zadar, Arakus Landarzad, in oils

Week 2: 6x Pike & Shotte Landsknecht missile troops

Week 3: 6x more Landsknecht missile troops + 4x Oldhammer metal figs

Week 4: 5x Ghosts and Shades of the Drowned Nymph + Ankoa, Human Barbarian

Week 5: 16x Test of Honor foot troops

Week 6: 6x Test of Honor mounted Samurai with mounts

Week 7: 3x giant snakes from Wrath of Ashardalon, Crested Felldrake from Chainmail, 4x Legion of Everbright Shredders from Hordes

Week 8: 3x Reaper Bones lizard people, 4x Reaper Bones Spikeshell Warriors

Week 9: Dire Croc, Wyvern, Nolzur's Death and Grey Slaad, 3x Runewars Fleshrippers, Chaos Toad Sorcerer (OSL #1)

Week 10: Snakeman Warrior, 7x Nagendra from Reaper Bones (OSL #2)

Week 11: Lowland Owlbear, Penguin Attack Pack, the missing cart pig

Week 12: 16x 3d printed spiders

Week 13: double sided dungeon tiles (building #1)

Week 14: corner organizer

Week 15: half timbered building (building #2)

Week 16: stone and wood cabin (building #3)

Week 17: 3x Hypnotic Spirits from Legend of Drizzt Boardgame, 2x Hellhounds from Pathfinder Deep Cuts, 3x Hell Hounds from Bones 4

Week 18: 5x Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago Crewmen

Week 19: 5x Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago Crewmen

Week 20: 5x more Ghost Archipelago Crewmen

Week 21: and, yep, 5x more Ghost Archipelago Crewmen (it's a 20 fig box; what did you expect?)

Week 22: Asnofre map

Week 23: 2x Earthdawn Wormskulls, Bones 4 Cooper, Bones 4 Friar, Bones 4 Harrowgate Shrine, 2x 3d printed dwarf female warriors

Week 24: Nolzur's Human Cleric, Nolzur's Aasimar Paladin, Ostarzha, Elf Cleric, Nolzur's Female Human Wizard (high quality #2), 3d printed cat rogue

Week 25: 10x magnetized 8" tiles (building #4)

Week 26: 2x reaper bags and jars, Legend of Drizzt Handmaiden of Llolth, Bones 4 Sealed Sarcophagus, Harrowgate Shrine

Week 27: Date Coconut palms (building #5)

Week 28: 10x Frostgrave Gnolls

Week 29: 3d printed Gnoll by Manuel Boria (high quality #3)

Week 30: 10x 3d printed gnolls, Blacktongue Gnoll Archer, Toghra Gnoll Leader

Week 31: Three Years of Painting (article)

Week 32: Legend of Drizzt Shadow Dragon, Pathfinder Half-Orc Female Barbarians, 3d printed Skivvara -Tabaxi Rogue, 2x Human Female Paladin 3d prints

Week 33: 2x 3d printed Joanna the Cleric, Reaper Brianna of the Blade, Bones 4 Zadim Iconic Slayer, Chainmail Paladin, 2x 3d printed Amazons, 2x Pathfinder Human Monk

Week 34: Nolzur's Female Elf Paladins, High Elf Guardians, Elf Spearmaiden, Elf Paladin, Elf Soldiers, Aviriel

Week 35: Nolzur's Female Elf Rangers, Lindir, Earthdawn Archers, Wood Elf Scout

Week 36: Elf Paladin, 2x Elf Warriors, Shardis, Arael, Fiara

Week 37: Nolzur's Female Elf Ranger, 2x Oldhammer Wood Elf Archers, Reaper Bones Aeris Female Ranger, Reaper Bones Alistrilee

Week 38: Bones 5 5x Elf Rangers, Lanaerel, Dark Elf w/bow

Week 39: 6x Bones 5 Boulderkin, Bones 5 stump elemental

Week 40: WizKids Human Fighter, Minsc, Aasimar Paladin (non-winged) x2, Female Half Elf Monk, Female Half Elf Rogue

Week 41: WizKids Female Half-Orc Barbarians, Female Half-Orc Fighters, Female Human Clerics x2, Wererat, Elf Female Rogue

Week 42: WizKids Human Male Cleric, Half Elf Rogues, Elf Druids, Grey Knights, Female Human Paladins, Half Elf Monk

Week 43: WizKids Moon Elf Sorcerer, 2x Pathfinder Female Oracles, Female Human Wizard, Aasimar Paladin (wing version), 2x Nolzur's Female Aasimar Wizards, Nolzur's Weretiger, Female Aasimar Paladin and Fighter

Week 44: ASOAIF Lannister Halberdiers

Week 45: ASOIAF Lannister Guardsmen

Week 46: ASOIAF The Mountain's Men

Week 47: ASOIAF Builder Crossbowmen

Week 48: ASOIAF Sworn Brothers

Week 49: Warlords Celtic Warriors Command Sprue kitbash

Week 50: 10x Hail Caesar Viking Hirdmen

Week 51: 10x Frostgrave Soldiers

Week 52: 2x Orc Guards, Ral Partha vintage Orc, Half-Ogre Fighter, Ranger Teen, Dire Croc, Sony Jona, Elena - Fighters Guild Beauty

A thing a week 2021, week 52

Those who have been paying attention know that I've been twelve weeks (nineteen if you count the boulderkin filler) into several heavy themes covering a ridiculous number of minis. So for this week, the last entry for 2021, we're takin' it a little easy. What have we got? The stuff that's prepped on my desk plus a couple other choice bits and the remainder of the goals I hadn't finished yet. 

These are a pair of Orc Guards from Vae Victis Miniatures, a set of sculptors that I really like. These have the bonus of being self-supported which, for those of you who haven't worked with a resin printer, means you get the fig you're looking at without you or someone else having to spend a lot of time making them printable. So, that's nice. I love these figures, enough to pay cash money for them, and I'd been looking forward to painting them for a couple months. Given I've been in speed painting mode for a really long time, it was great to take a little bit of time to slow down and get some of the details right. These two were done in around four hours total while putting paint on a bunch of other figs on my table and I'm not unhappy with the results.

This guy is an Ork from my vintage collection, more specifically a Ral Partha 12-011 Orcs and now that I'm looking at the reference photo, it seems I've glued the wrong shield to him. Not 100% sure where his actual shield went or where this shield came from. I spent a bunch of time on his Ork-y skintones and probably not enough time on just about everything else. The metallics in particular and his cloak are awfully flat and I'm not 100% sold on the color scheme. All that said, I like this fig and I'm not unhappy with this paint job.

This guy is a Reaper Half-Ogre Fighter and mine is not metal as he came with Bones 4. I spent extra time with his Ork-y green fleshtones and probably not enough time on shading his bulky armor. History repeats itself, I guess. I did hit it with a coat of Midnight Ghost Tint and popped out the edges with Vallejo Metal Color Dark Aluminum so it's not as lousy as my usual work, just not as well as I'd hoped he'd turn out. Some day, I'm really going to push metallics to prove to myself that it's time worth spending.

This gal is Ranger Teen by Vae Victis Miniatures 3d print and I really like this fig. In addition to being full of character and bought at a steep discount, she's also self-supported which in my opinion is a superpower for a 3d model. She's been sitting on my painting table for almost a year, having been printed right around Christmas last year and at some point the top of her bow snapped off. Against all odds, I found most of it looking for something I dropped earlier this fall and lo and behold that part had also broken. Despite having only most of a bow and having a few issues that I never cleaned up, I think this is a very good result and I'm comfortable counting her as a high quality paint job and done in around eight hours. I could have certainly pushed more but I'm on a mission. The nice thing is that as a 3d print, I can print out an identical one with a whole bow and try again at a later date. We live in the future and it is good.

Bones 4 has featured heavily in these un-hallowed pixels and probably will for a while. At least, until I get the vast majority of these painted, anyway. Way back in week 9, I painted a dire croc which has subsequently seen a lot of screen time and I couldn't shake the feeling that I had two. Well, I found the other one over the summer and he ended up prepped on my desk for several months. I might not have painted him yet except that I'd mixed up a large batch of dark green wash that otherwise didn't have a home. The rest of it was dry brushing highlights and picking out details for the next hour. 

Those who have been paying attention might note that as of this writing I'm still two short for OSL. Here's the first of those two. This is Sony Jona - Sorceress Heroine from Artisan Guild which I printed last year and now almost exactly a year later, is complete. She got some paint over the summer but since then I redid most of it, shifting the colors around significantly and playing up the OSL. I realize I didn't get a good shot of the dark side of her so you can't see it being sold, but I think she came out well enough in around ten hours to count her as a high quality paint job. She's painted as a PC from a previous campaign so I'm giving her away thus the lettering on the base.

This is Elena - Fighters Guild Beauty also from Artisan Guild and another great example of a figure that I shouldn't like. Her armor is dumb, her torch is ahead of her, and she reads more as a model than as a fighter of any kind. In my head canon (not head cannon which belongs on the Awesome though I suppose technically that's a laser) she's on her way to a rave...with a sword...on some really dark path...or something. Despite all of that, I do like this fig and since she had a torch, it was time to do another OSL. For this and the last fig, I did most of a paint job then shot the umbral side with a well-thinned Paynes Grey ink to sell it. All told we're at something like twelve hours and I'm particularly happy with some of the shadow blends though these shots aren't showing some of the details in her eyes and such. I put extra effort into shading the metallic bits and now that I'm looking at the photos, her hair is awfully flat. She's definitely in the top figs I've painted this year so we're ending it on a high note.

That'll wrap up 2021's painting extravaganza. Tune in next year for the next chapter!

2021 finished mini counter:  370/100, 7/5 high quality, 5/5 OSL

A thing a week 2021 (week 51)

And rounding out the last batch of the year we have my remaining 10x Frostgrave Soldiers. I'm fond of the Northstar line of Frostgrave minis and this box is the remainder from the first batch I painted way back at the end of 2018 when I'd first started. I was far enough ahead this year to spend a little more time on these than I might have otherwise done. So, they might be slightly higher quality than my normal batch paints. The photos still suck, tho, so that should be familiar. Some day I'll figure out how my camera works but clearly not this year.

Like most of the other figs I paint, we start with a prime, shadowumbral (yeah, I'm callin' this one), and zenithal. I did some basecoating with the airbrush but less than you might expect and if I'm really honest, it helped more psychologically than artistically. Figs with only basic prep are more daunting than ones with colors on them even if the airbrush work is rough and kind of messy. I don't know why this is but it's proven true time and time again and part of how I get through big batches. Starting a big batch I will often slap an ugly wash on all of the figs to get rid of the "blank white page" aspect of staring at a field of unpainted minis.

I honestly don't know how army painters do it. I'm pretty happy with this being the last batch of the year if I'm honest. While I do like burning through figs, I don't like making such harsh cuts to quality over and over again. It gets worse with figs I like or figs that can take a higher quality paint job which is certainly not all figs. There's also a crushing weight of "holy crap, that's a lot of work" which can be daunting to break down. These guys, though, I'm pretty happy with. Happy, but never satisfied.

2021 finished mini counter: 362/100

A thing a week 2021 (week 50)

We're into the home stretch for 2021 and as mentioned last week, this week we have 10x Viking Hirdmen out of a giant box of 44 of them. These are good figs with some pretty nice sculpts and because they're supposed to be in a unit of 34 of their closest friends, they aren't overly detailed. That means that they're easier to paint so I like to theorize that this implies better quality paint jobs, though, I'm not certain this actually plays out. What I do know is that at this point, I don't expect to be buying any more big box armies.

Like the Celts from last week, they were kind of fiddly to assemble. Also like last week, I didn't think nearly enough about their poses which turned out well but were really hard to paint. I got weapons in front of faces and shields in front of eyes which is generally how you'd do that but made, say, eyeballs a real pain. I especially like the green dood in the first picture with a javelins in his shield hand and a spear in his main hand. He's also shouting. That's the kind of quality you don't get everywhere! I'm sure he'll be killed to death onscreen in my game some day.

I'd intended to glue swords on all the spear doods but I think I only got one on. I also intended to do some freehand on their shields but promptly decided not to which is why they have such plain shields. They did come with decals but, honestly, I can't be bothered to put decals on figs. Also, my basecoat was lumpy. In a batch, I'm not super disappointed but someday I really need to start practicing freehand. Not like a 2022 challenge is right around the corner or anything. Anyway, these ten are done and I think they came out OK.

2021 finished mini counter: 352/100

A thing a week 2021 (week 49)

This is a one week batch of 10 Celtic Warriors Command Sprue that I bought a long time ago. I might have painted them earlier but I am a dummy and didn't look closely enough at the sprue as they didn't come with heads. I stole some heads from my giant box of 44 Viking Hirdmen which we'll see some of next week. These are fiddly figs with really inconvenient poses and some of them had some premiumly ridiculous mold lines. My assembly didn't help any of this ad made their eyes really hard to paint. As an added difficulty, some of the sculpting on their musculature, particularly around their shoulders, was not as correct or distinct as I would have liked. 

I started them in the typical way: prime, shadowed from below, zenithaled from above. Given the amount of skin these doods are showing, I did a simple basecoat with the airbrush with a few other random colors as was convenient within the larger batch. After that it was layers and shades, and highlights and metallics and whatnots. I think they work even if they aren't particularly spectacular and because I'm a dummy I forgot to log how much time they took. I want to say around the 20 hour mark but that's just a guess. They're done, and that's good, and one fewer loose sprue kicking around the workshop.

2021 finished mini counter: 342/100