A thing a week 2023, week 44

This week we're all about cultists, two batches totaling eight to be precise. These are not good paint jobs but they are done and will likely get some screen time at some point. Cultists show up a lot in my games, less because I like them and more because my players seem to always seek them out for some reason. Make of that whatever you will.

First up we have five cultists from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 and I don't like these sculpts. BLF1 has been pretty hit and miss. These guys are apparently escaped from being shackled up and have very questionable tailors. Their evil grins were a mess, too. Their teeth seem a little too regular to be normal. Either way, they're painted mostly with contrast paints with minimal highlights and details. Painted is good and they are that in not quite three hours for the lot of them. 

These three are Cultists from the Wrath of Ashardalon boardgame and I like their sculpts a lot better. I spent about the same not quite three hours on them, mostly dealing with their overabundance of cloth and stupid skull mantles. Seriously, who does that? I did not realize their cloaks were quite so shiny until reviewing these shots. I keep not learning that. Quite a lot of the contrast paints and Daler Rowney inks which I love so much are like that. Probably I should be doing more to flat those down some. The best part? Right! They're painted.

2023 finished mini counter: 243/104

A thing a week 2023, week 43

Continuing our non-theme this week we have a mishmash of reasonably easy painted figs. 

These three rocky-looking dudes are Earth Elementals from Titan Forge and they are awfully cool. Their paintjob is not particularly complex starting with a magenta-from-above-and-paynes-grey-from-below pseudo-zenithal followed by a couple rounds of drybrushing and washing. Picking out the minor details was one of the last steps. The bases were some old ones I made a couple years ago. Every once in a while I crank out a set of bases to use whenever there's a need and these guys definitely fit the bill. Overall they work well enough but don't be surprised if they show up again at a point in the unforseeable future.

These two gold dorfs are Gold Dwarf Cleric from the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame and Bruenor Battlehammer from the Legend of Drizzt boardgame. Neither sculpt is particularly good but IMO they did not do Bruenor any justice, his axe and shield in particular. I'm pretty sure I did the metallics with my airbrush and painted the rest of the details on with a brush but I honestly don't remember. I really wanted them to have a little more going on in the non-metallics but I'm also frequently disappointed. They were done in a couple hours mostly waiting for things to dry. They didn't shoot terribly here but they're a lot less impressive in person. Luckily, they're the best color: painted.

These two brutes are the other two Orc Smashers from the Wrath of Ashardalon boardgame. The first one landed way back in Week 21 of 2020. Fun times. I had the three of them on the table next to each other recently and boy has the contrast improved in the intervening two or so years. I picked out mostly the same details and worked in mostly the same colors accidentally. I don't know what that means; I just thought it was interesting. They were a speed paint which probably shows and done in a couple hours total. 

2023 finished mini counter: 235/104

A thing a week 2023, week 42

This week we finally break from the ongoing saga of speed paints and non-bangers. We get not just one but three characters this week who should see major screen time since they're characters in my current in-person game.

First up we have the hardest of the figs in the batch and literally the third fig off my brand new Saturn 2 MSLA, Princess Knight from Galaad. Despite the fact that my FEP failed about 30 prints in, it printed in excellent detail and very reliably up until that point, including a bunch of stuff that had failed on my old printer. The only real flaw on this print is that her front heel broke off with the support since it was right about the same size as the support. Should I have been more careful? Yes. This particular Princess is a player character so we expect great things even if she fits in not at all with the bruisers that usually populate my table. I had limited time to paint this fig but it didn't stop me from spending around seven torturous hours on her. I suck at blending which I'm sure I've saidtyped here before and this fig is full of that kind of work. I should have done more with her gems and shading/highlighting her crown (among other things) and I'm not certain the yellow heels super work even if it's compositionally reasonable. Despite all that, she'll count as my last high quality piece required for the year. 

Next up we have Essith who I built on Hero Forge and printed. For those who don't know, Hero Forge has a large library of parts and will send you an unsupported STL for a fee. Granted, once you have the STL you can print them out N times but $8 is way more than I spend on single character STLs like ever. That said, I like their canine heads and got to pick a sword an shield that fit the character's key art. I also have rudimentary understanding of skeletal animation and got her into a pose that a) I didn't hate, and b) was intentionally easy to paint. Essith is painted in the color scheme of the player's dog, particularly a Level 2 Dog of Distraction who hangs with us when we play. The fig did most of the work and she was done in a few hours. This fig may show up in the future to make good on my investment.

Last up we have reliable NPC Hinako who is also a Hero Forge build and print. Kitty tank Hinako has been with us in two campaigns now which probably that means she's going to die horribly. I mostly phoned in the freehand on her tail (tiger calico) and shield which is probably pretty obvious and I'm continuing to struggle getting smooth applications of Badger Ghost Tints over metallics. We played online in her previous campaign so there wasn't a need for a fig and for those probably zero people wondering, the symbol on her shield is "Kal" which means "worthy" in Firstborn. Lots of history here. Given my propensity for kitty NPCs, do not be shocked if this fig shows up again.

2023 finished mini counter: 228/104, high quality: 10/10

A thing a week 2023, week 41

This week we get "stuff on fire" as a mini-theme. These are mostly technique but my normal approach broke down on some of these. 

First up we have these Fire Bats from the Temple of Elemental Evil board game. I had no idea these were a thing and may have snapped them off their stands which is why they're sitting wonky. The magnet strip on the bottom isn't helping, either. Of the figs in this week's offering, these were by far the easiest because the normal drybrushing worked pretty well. I don't know when exactly I'll use these (if ever) but I'm sure I'll think of something. 

Next up we have a pair of Reaper Bones Dire Crabs. They came with my Bones 4 pledge along with the Dire Boars and Dire Crocs which have been here somewhere. And yes, I'm too lazy to look those up. I didn't paint these as a batch but not for any particularly good reason which is why they look so different. Ultimately this is better for me at my table otherwise we have to stick a colored ring on them or something. These were a pain because I'd dumbly glued them to their bases rather than pinning them and they have a lot of negative space. This is also why their bases are so blah. I've used magma crabs in my game before and will probably use them again but they don't come up all that often.

Last up we have a vintage metal Ral Partha Gorgon that I bought sometime last millennium and I don't remember why. He's gotten some screen time circa 2016 or 2017 as a boss that my players cleverly peaced out of until they could enlist the help of some Dwarven sharpshooters. The very fine texturing on this guy isn't super deep and my drybrushing efforts were largely thwarted so he sat on my painting desk in various states of not-doneness until this summer. Not sure when he might next get screen time but he'll be ready when the time comes provided his horns don't fall off again.

2023 finished mini counter: 225/104

A thing a week 2023, week 40

More speed paints this week. Maybe that should have been the theme name. 

First up we have Blazing Skeletons and if you guessed these are from the Castle Ravenloft board game, you would be correct.  These are a half step up from some of my other speed paints since their sculpts are slightly more complex. I struggled some with getting my bone color paints to cover so there are like three layers on there. Probably this means I should use(buy) different paints. Why blue rather than red? Dunno, I felt like that would be more fun and I vaguely recall having a token in Roll20 that had blue blazing skeletons. Felt like a change, but not to worry, there are red fiery guys in the near future!

This guy is a Reaper Bones Grave King and came in a set with my Bones 5 and I can't find a link on their website. Still a speed paint but not nearly as quick as the others. I wasn't bothered to make the blending on his cloak smooth because, hey, skeleton dudes aren't doing a lot of laundry. I did have some fun with the weathering on him and probably should have spent more time with it. I also missed an opportunity for proper color composition to make his crest orange but I didn't because I wasn't thinking. Overall, I'm not unhappy with this result. The other four guys will arrive at some point. Stay tuned!

2023 finished mini counter: 219/104