A thing a week 2022, week 17

Continuing the not-theme of the last few weeks, we start out with a 3d printed Tabaxi Bandit from Vae Victis Miniatures. I like this sculpt and I had grand plans to paint it as one of my favorite kitty NPCs (I kid--all my kitty NPCs are my favorite) with a dagger in his left hand to match the art and an empty right hand. That all fell apart when I printed him and the print failed! His left arm was pretty hopelessly pancaked so I painted a different, much less dynamic fig which you can see way back in week 24 of last year. He's sat on my workbench in a sad state until recently when I was doing some prep work and bodged a completely different arm on him. On top of looking dumb, that knife is decidedly not menacing and his left hand is gloved! You'd think he'd get better mileage out of just clawing things. Homemade washes are doing the majority of the work on this fig and ultimately, he's painted and that's what matters.

This is Seelah, Iconic Paladin from Reaper Bones not to be confused with the Seelah-lookalikes from Week 42 of last year. This is a good sculpt let down terribly by the Bones bendy white plastic. I did not spend enough time dealing with mold lines and I drilled a hole in her cloak which I mostly patched. Given that most of her gear is metal, I did the smart thing this time: I zenithaled and umbraled in metallics with the airbrush. That meant that the rest of her was a lot easier. Done in around three hours, I think this is a good result despite the fact that I really should have re-based her. 

Rathan Kranzhel is another Reaper Bones figure and now that I've painted it, I kind of don't like the fig. Also being of Bones plastic, his sword is extremely bent and the mold lines were a real pain in the butt. I hate that his shield is up in front of his face which, while a more proper way to use a shield, made his face really hard to paint. I also didn't realize just how shiny his tabard? skirt? was until I was reviewing the pictures. Pro-tip: when buying Golden Hi-Flow Acrylics, check to see how glossy they are. This isn't my best work (clearly) and I don't think that anything is particularly good about this paint job beyond the fact that he's painted (in about four hours). 

Last up we have Elf Ranger Duelist, Aletheia from Bones 4. She's been prepped up on my workbench for quite a long time and if I'm honest, this isn't the kind of fig I like. The sculpt is really complex with a lot of bejangles and other doodads all over her getup. Like I saidtyped at some point, things that sit on my workbench long enough get whatever paints I can use productively as I wrap up. I had the thought at one point of working on her as one of the high quality figs but quickly talked myself out of it--too detailed. Ultimately I got paint on her when I could and eventually (recently) decided to carry her over the finish line. Her face in particular got a lot of time and while I couldn't really tell you how much time I spent on this fig, I'd guesstimate it's around the five or six hour mark. 

2022 finished mini counter: 76/100

A thing a week 2022, week 16

This week we have other random "things I have on my workbench" offering. First up, this snakey gal is a Female Nagendra Warrior from Reaper Bones 5 and unlike the link there, mine is in Bones plastic. Astute readers of these unhallowed pixels will doubtlessly remember Week 10 of last year where seven (!) similar figs were featured in the Lounge of Lizards theme. I painted her in the same colors and did not enough work shading her armor despite my plans on doing a heck of a lot more. I got a lot of mileage out of my homemade green wash and she was done in maybe three hours.

This guy is a Reaper Bones Wererat Berserker bought quite a long time ago. There are a lot of weasel-y characters in my game and there aren't a lot of weasel-y choices in the miniature world. This guy had both a bad mold and a questionable sculpt. I did hat I could with him but ultimately I don't think it worked out super well. He was a couple hours of work and, well, he's painted. They can't all be winners, kids. 

This is a Reaper Anubis Guard and not only is this a metal fig, it also got a lot of camera time in a campaign run a long time ago. It's not a great fig and I didn't do enough work dealing with mold lines. ...And then, there's the yellow metallics. They're mostly from an ancient pot of Reaper paint washed with a Golden Yellow Badger Minitaire Ghost Tint and it looks like crap. The turquoise metallics are Vallejo Metal Colors (Dark Aluminum IIRC) washed with Plasma Fluid. The color scheme works well, but the paint job is pretty questionable. Overall, he was done in a few hours and I think it works at arm's length. 

Last up we have a pair of 3d printed Drow Paladins by Velrock Art whose work I really like. I think these are a free object found who knows where. At the very least, I can't find a link on his MyMiniFactory listing. If I'm really honest, this isn't some of his best work. They're OK but the negative space in the fig is hard to work around and their armor is pretty basic without particularly good forms. I didn't spend enough time on their cloaks (obviously) but they were done in a bout four hours all told which works for me. 

2022 finished mini counter: 72/100

A thing a week 2022, week 15

This week we have our first biggie and three other ones because why not? This is quite obviously a Chimera, in this case, a Reaper Bones offering. It's a creature I use fairly regularly and I needed one for a boss encounter so this was the right time. I had grand plans going into the project, particularly around color scheme and as usual that all fell apart as soon as I started painting. If my color theory is good (and it's not) this scheme should work better than it actually did. I think my shadows aren't low enough to make it go but ultimately, for my around eight hour investment, I'm pretty happy with the result. This is my first of two biggies needed for this year's hobby goals. 

These three are dragon hatchlings that I bought years ago. They're not good molds and they were kind of a pain to prep so when I got into the painting, I decided to go fast. They were painted pretty simply mostly with washes and drybrush and they look OK on the table. Overall we're at something like two hours over a couple days between other work. The nice thing about having an over-crowded workbench is that whenever I have a color on the palette that could be used somewhere else, I have many excuses to put paint on other figures.

2022 finished mini counter: 67/100, 1/2 large

A thing a week 2022, week 14

After a really big project I usually wind down on easier projects. This has been true in my Lego builds, too, interestingly. So following Aislinn last week, I have a bunch of truly lazyeasy painting on offer this week.

These three are treants of some sort from Bones 5 kickstarter. I zenithaled/umbraled in color rather than Payne's Grey and warm white. This worked out OK but lacking a proper light brown, they super desaturated mixing in the airbrush cup. After that it was mostly washes and drybrushing. I added some Army Painter Green Tone Quickshade to add some visual interest. I certainly could have gone further but I didn't. Also, if you haven't used these quickshades, they're IMO the best paints that Army Painter makes. 

Here are a bunch of random golems also from the Bones 5 kickstarter, and yeah, I'm fully aware that the thing on the left is actually a suit of armor. Non-animated. Somewhere last year I noted that I should have painted something metallic with the airbrush rather than shading it down with Badger Ghost Tints so I did so on this one. It's a good result for the like five minutes I spent on it. Similarly, the stone golem is mostly airbrushed with stone colors (going for Egyptian granite) and the drybrushed and washed. Because he's so big, I spent a little time shading some stuff down so the details popped out more. I think it's a good result for maybe 20 minutes of work. The last guy I lavished with 30 minutes. He was cast in a transparent plastic so I colored in each pane with Ghost Tints (both sides) and then caught the edges with Vallejo Metallic Dark Aluminium which is rapidly becoming my go-to for these kinds of things. Also a good result in not very much time which has made for some fairly satisfying painting.

2022 finished mini counter: 63/100