A thing a week 2023, week 51

Lots of figs this week plus a fairly uninteresting bonus at the end.

First up we have three duergar guards from the Wrath of Ashardalon board game. These three  are (obviously) non-bangers. The sculpts/molds aren't super good and my paint job isn't super good. I did go as far as painting their cloaks in different colors so we can tell them apart but that's mostly because I had the right color paints on my palette. Probably they could have used some simple freehand on their shields and maybe someday I'll do so but for now, they're the best color: painted.

This is Gravestorm, Dracolich from the Castle Ravenloft board game and another not great sculpt/mold/paint job combo. I did do an oil wash which helps tremendously but let's not oversell it. I don't use a lot of undead in my campaigns but I have a use for this guy so he got some paint to the tune of a couple hours. Also: painted.

These two dudes are Athrogate Dwarven Battlerager, Wulfgar from the Legend of Drizzt boardgame and are both quite obviously speed paints. For Athrogate, my goal was letting the somewhat questionable sculpt do most of the work so picking out the details were important. I otherwise would not have picked out the trim on his stupid studded leather. Note: studded leather isn't even a real thing (lookin' at you D&D) and yes, I could have done a better job picking out the metallic studs. For Wulfgar, my goal was selling the difference between his hair, his fur getup, and his leather pants. The fur was a set of alternating washes and drybrushings which is my go-to for that. The leather detail was mostly texturing with a brush which didn't really work out. His hair is mostly just tone and color and as per usual, I didn't do enough work on it so I got that goin' for me.

Following our six non-bangers we have an actual "put in some effort' paint job. This is the Female Gnome Druid from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1. The sculpt here is good and the molding like a lot of these, is poor. I did what I could with the mold lines which helps but she's got a dimple at the very end of her nose which sucks and there's a serious mold line going over the deep folds in her left arm. Looking at the glamor shot in more detail, probably the highlights on her coat could have gone higher and more of the details on her gajillion bajangles and whatnot needed work but I'm happy with the differentiation across all the browns both in tone and texture. Ultimately, I think it's a good piece and will count as high quality #11 this year. 

And we have another high quality paint job, specifically Hakon, Iconic Skald from Bones 4 and I mistook him for Harsk until writing this post. The sculpt has a Thorin Oakenshield (from the movies) vibe going on so I painted him thusly. Unlike normal when I over-highlight dark hair, this guy's meant to have some salt going on but I really could have pulled the yellows and reds up a couple steps. In these shots, the leathers are muddy but they look a lot better in person. Probably some weathering/texturing would have done some good. A good outcome, IMO, and will count as high quality #12 this year. 

Here we have blf1 Female Elf Cleric and bones 4 Isobael the Bard & Rufus and Arnise Elf Deathseeker. I'd like to claim these are speed paints but they aren't. Our good cleric is the closest at about four hours mostly picking out details on all the folds in her outfit despite the limited palette. Isobael for whatever reason had serious issues with paint sticking which is weird. As a result, she sat partially painted on my painting table for way too long...until now! Well, recently (painted like four weeks ago). Note that Rufus is part of the pair and the two of them count as one in my bones 4 records so they count as one here. Arnise was painted mostly the same as Wulfgar above with similar results plus or minus a bunch of work on fleshtones. 

Next up we have a mirrored pair of Half-Orc Ranger - Khtutal from DnD is aWoman. I knew I was flying close to the sun painting one in red with the funky sock hats but I thought that desaturating the skin tones and the weird plant things they're wearing would make up for that. I was clearly, terribly wrong. Their pants are low rent, basically Gryph Charger Grey contrast which is rapidly becoming one of my favorites for exactly this purpose and their bows are similarly mostly contrast paint. Unlike a lot of figs I paint, I like these less now that I've painted them but technically they're done. 

These three are from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1, specifically Half Orc Paladin, Female Half Orc Rogue, and Male Half Orc Ranger. These aren't great sculpts. I hate their armor and wish their faces were maybe a little less monster-y and the pally gets special mention because of his dumb fantasy flail. Seriously folks, pick up a lump of metal that size and try swinging it around. That's not sane. I was mostly successful on the pally's shoulderpads in flatting down the contrast base coat and completely unsuccessful on his tabbard. Similar poor effects are clear on the other two cloaks, though their yellow/ochre bits turned out OK. Probably the ranger could have used more texturing on his leather.  

And last but not least, as the year started drawing to a close I was feeling pretty smug about finishing this year's challenge until I got to the "complex structure or other construction" item at the bottom. Well, crap. These made more sense when I a) was building structures more often, and b) used more buildings during play. So rather than building another shelf decoration I settled on these chest high or knee high barriers. These are chunks of foam hit with a texture roller (exception: the exactly one I did drawing rocks with pen by hand) and then painted questionably. They'll actually get used, probably fairly regularly if other scatter bits are any indication and even though they're not super complex, I'm counting them anyway.

2023 finished mini counter: 338/104, 12/10 high quality.