Sci-fi Showdown, week 7 (2022 week48)

As mentioned last week, this will be the last week of our impromptu sci-fi theme and we start off with Ghar Bomber and Ghar Assault from Beyond the Gates of Antares, a game I notably don't play. Pretty sure I bought these on sale as individual sprues on sale somewhere which is why I only have one of each. I'd intended on doing a bunch of airbrush work but only really did the basecoats with it. I also had the intention of doing some fun gem and metallic shading but then I got busy and ended up doing these more as a speed paint than I expected. After a very messy metallics round I hit them both with an oil wash with the associated wiping and removing of said oils. Every time I do this, I'm stunned at how much work an oil wash can do and how it can save an otherwise shoddy paint job.

These two guys are 0-hr starships, another game I don't play. Like the Ghar dudes above, I'm pretty sure I bought these on sale, too. They're also simply painted with the airbrush calling out a handful of details. They'd been sitting around my workshop for quite a while so it was good to get them done even if the best parts don't show in these pictures. I especially like their clear acrylic bases and would really like to buy/make a bunch of them.

Last up we have a couple cars. I don't 100% recall where I got them but I'm pretty sure it was a really long time ago, possibly in the mid-90s or early aughts. With a liberal application of internet sleuthery I have identified the green one as a Grenadier Street Gang Car and the red car as Grenadier Corporate Sports Car also almost certainly a reprint as Mirliton Corporate Speedster. Basecoats were provided by the airbrush as one might expect followed by some questionable detailing. I'm not sure the red car's metallic bubble top worked out super well, nor did the faint shading on the green car's windows. I hit the green car with a dark wash to grunge it up but I don't think it super sells. Neither does the yellow in the headlights. Some day I'll get more practice painting this kind of machinery as I dig into my Battletech figs but that'll have to wait.

2022 finished mini counter: 217/100

Sci-fi Showdown, week 6 (2022 week 47)

I thought this would be the last week for this impromptu theme but it looks like we've got another next week. Also, by this time the mini-campaign has already completed (yesterday in fact) and I sure hope it went well! Spoiler: it did.

First up we have Jake Rockatacky from Titan Forge. I didn't do a great job de-supporting him so there's all kinds of pockmarks on his back. I also note that this shot doesn't show some of the subtleties I worked into his flesh tones. Probably I need to do more work in my lighting set up. Someday I'll take better pictures but apparently not today. Him and Anna in the next shot are from a series "Island of Dr Maneater" or something. Probably that's why they have clawmarks or whatnot. I haven't bothered to read the lore.

Next up we have Camile Lipson and Anna Jones from Titan Forge. I drilled through poor Anna's foot when pinning her and I'm not 100% sure my repair job super sells though I suspect not many people would notice. Sci-fi characters give me an opportunity to paint weird hair color so Camile got purple. These figs have such great sculpts that painting their hair wasn't as much of a struggle as it usually is so I spent extra time on these. Their pants were particularly easy (Gryph-charger Grey) with simple highlights and I really like the results. Both of these were one day paints. 

Last up we have two gals. I call the gal on the left "Punk Rock Girl" who has the unfortunate name July_J and Jane Ferro on the right from, you guessed it, Titan Forge. Both figs were one day paints about three hours apiece and while I like both figs quite a lot, I note a pretty big difference in quality. Punk Rock Girl has an open pose and a well sculpted face. Jane Ferro due to her giant gun has a very closed pose and her face hidden in her shoulder. As you might expect, Jane was much harder to paint. I'm not 100% sold on the candy coat on her armor (played by Badger Ghost Tint Plasma Fluid--one of my favorites) but I didn't want to leave it as plain metallic. Punk Rock Girl's hair got extra love and I was particularly happy with the orange and blue contrast scheme. Had I spent another day on getting more of the details fine tuned, I might have counted her as a high quality job. I'm pretty sure the sculpt will support a better paint job so don't be surprised if she shows up again sometime in the future.

2020 finished mini counter: 211/100

Sci-fi Showdown, week 5 (2022 week 46)

This week we continue our theme with maybe one more to go. Or maybe not? I'm far too lazy to edit these after the fact. You'll just have to find out.

First up we have Reaper Bones Bonnie and my fig did not look that good when I got her out of the packaging. The sculpt is good but the mold I got was very, very not. I did what I could with the mold lines but parts of this fig are misshapen in weird ways. I took this as an opportunity to practice sculpting with paint and so I did. I put probably half the painting time of the roughly three hours I spent on her face and despite the lousy mold, I think it's a good result. Looking at the shot here, I did not realize her pants were so super shiny and likewise, that my shots didn't show all the makeup work I did.

Next up we have Ryan Ford from Titan Forge. This guy was a speed paint to the tune of about two hours. I'm not certain that the red metallics on his face are a) supposed to be metallics, and b) work OK. I figured I needed more red on the fig to balance out the red on the inner lining of his coat, hence those plates and his tie. I also did a very patchy job on a 5 o'clock shadow that I don't think works. This is a pretty good fig for a speed paint since he doesn't have a ton of details. Probably he'll show up again some day.

This is Tex also from Titan Forge and he's also definitely a speed paint. Done in about two hours and mostly with contrast paints, you can see how badly I phoned his pants and shirt in. I mean, I left his shirt with the zenithal. Oh, and I forgot to point out the fancy freehand bases I've been putting on the characters. These are 3d prints that I designed with a magnet holder on the bottom and rather than leave them boring or pile a bunch of flock like I normally would, I hit them with a gradient and a pseudo-interesting pattern. I think they work. 

And rounding out this week is a pile of eight, count them eight, pieces of terrain and yeah, I know that the allegedly marble dragon pillar is more of a fantasy prop but it's my prop and I'll call it what I like. These are from Dungeons and Lasers, I think the second kickstarter but I wouldn't put money on that.

2022 finished mini counter: 206/100

Sci-fi Showdown, week 4 (2022 week 45)

Last week we had the gals, this week we have the dudes from the same Titan City Citizens. These are way more of a speed paint than the gals and the results show it. I didn't even spend sufficient time pulling the support nubs off but meh. Not super sure how much screen time these folks will get but experience teaches me that I can't really predict such things anyway. 

2022 finished mini counter: 195/100