A thing a week 2024, week 21

This week we have something special. This is Annoyed Rocky from Reaper and I got him and four of his dopplegangers with Bones 4. I clearly painted him in blue and pulled off the nub that holds the little dragonfly which will show up somewhere, eventually. His pals will be in a variety of colors in the future but let's not get ahead of ourselves.

I started with a very patchy blue ink basecoat with the airbrush which looked very bad. I followed that with a couple passes of a weird homemade wash and finally a speed paint coat. From there I picked out every single scale not fewer than three times with additional work on details like his horns, claws, eyes, etc. If that sounds tedious, it kind of was, but is was also kind of liberating since I didn't have to think very hard about it. It doesn't show in these photos, but there's an overall volumetric shading across all the scales but it's probably too subtle. Somewhat fittingly, the light blue on his scales is played by an ancient pot of Reaper Pro Paint Dragon Blue that I bought in the early aughts. His paint job clocked in at somewhere around ten hours all told and he'll count as a high quality paint job but I'm in no way committing to picking out individual scales on the other four.

2024 finished mini counter: 124/208, high quality 7/12

A thing a week 2024, week 20

This week we have four war mages from the Kingdom of Talarius campaign from Lion's Tower. I don't remember when this campaign ran and I'm far too lazy to look it up but suffice to say it was a while ago. Lilly from week 18 is from the same campaign. Much like Lilly, I liked these figs more before I started painting them.

These dudes are throwing skull fireball things and clearly they're a speed paint. They're clearly Gandalf-like figures complete with their beards and pointy hats...but they're also super-jacked because I guess they also cast fist? This is a weird stylistic choice IMO. I also didn't like that there was so many hard-to-reach negative spaces on them. I certainly could have put more time into these, particularly their fireball-skulls which look pretty awful, but ultimately I don't like these figs enough to do more. They're mostly basic highlights over speed paints with some details pulled out. They're the best color: painted.

These gals are throwing water--no skulls this time. I like these a lot better than the dudes and similarly a lot less once I started painting them. They've got the same hard-to-reach negative spaces that the dudes did with the added bonus of the underside of their water effects that are sculpted in, not that I would have painted them in subassemblies or anything. You can also tell how much time I didn't spend making their spell effects match even though they were painted at roughly the same time. You also can't tell how much time I did spend on their faces because their eyes didn't come out well. That's jus' how it be sometimes. Ultimately I've got two more water benders for the collection though I don't know if they'll ever see screen time.

2024 finished mini counter: 123/208

A thing a week 2024, week 19

Not sure if I mentioned this before, but I'm ever-so-slowly grinding down the last of the Bones 4 pledge I made way back in the fall of 2017. This is in preparation of receiving my Bones 6 fulfillment in the next few months. One step forward, one step back and is it just me or does 2017 seem like forever ago? Anyway.

First up we have a Tidal Lurker. It's bigger than it probably looks in these shots and if I'm honest, it's not a fig that I like a whole lot. It's very fiddly and had a mess of mold lines that were a real pain and has a lot of negative space which was difficult to deal with. It's sat prepped on my painting desk for probably a year and a half until last weekend. This is an almost coconut crab style of painting that did the rounds for Tyranid painters a few years ago. It's a pretty dramatic effect at arm's length and not particularly difficult to pull off but my first go-around here crumbles under close scrutiny, probably because I wasn't very careful and didn't work very hard. It was done in a few hours and I'm not super sure if it'll ever see in-game action.

Next up we have a Thrasher Snail. This is also a larger-than-it-seems fig and one that I actually like except for the mold lines and its lousy paint job. I didn't have a plan here and it probably shows. The composition isn't good and I was maybe a little daring with the color scheme beyond that. Overall it looks bad. I didn't have a good idea for the main color for the shell but in retrospect the off-white does not look good and neither does its dumb eyes which look entirely un-snail-like. It also sat on my painting table for multiple years (see: didn't have a plan) so I'm happy it's done. 

 

 

Last up we have a Cyclops. Maybe it's because I've been playing Dragon's Dogma II, easily the best game I've played in a really long time, but I got the inclination to paint it. I could have gone the elephant-style skin for him had I been thinking about it, but I clearly didn't. Despite being a speed paint, I wound up spending quite a lot of time on its fleshtones which I think shows. Everything else was basically phoned in. This is another monster that I don't find a lot of use for so it's not clear if it'll ever see game time. 

2024 finished mini counter: 119/208

A thing a week 2024, week 18

No theme again this week and there might not be a theme for a while. 

We start with Lilly, Arch White Mage from Lion's Tower who I got with the Kingdom of Talarius kickstarter. There are a handful of figs that I like out of this set and I thought this one one of them right up until I took a hard look at it. her proportions are off which bothers me more than I care to admit and I don't particularly like her high heels. I also don't think her face is particularly expressive but after a few hours, she's painted and that counts. 

Next up we have two of the three mounted Wraith Dread Knights from Reaper Bones 5 and I cannot find a direct link on their site. I also cannot find the third guy who I'm sure is kicking around somewhere with the missing Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 monk among other missing figs. These are a speed paint done very slowly. The starting washes were applied a couple times as I was experimenting with mixes. The highlights were intended as a single step but I did them three or four times. I also slapped a wash over the whole thing a couple times to build up the layers of grime to fit what I was going for. Most of the time that's a problem, but these guys are darkly-looking-death-knight-guys so I wanted that dirty looking finish. I did punch up the edges of the metallics very sloppily so I got that goin' for me. Unclear if these guys will ever get screen time but for now, they're done.

Last up we have a fun one shot not very well. This is Lydia the Lionness from RN Estudio, a sculptor that I like a lot despite their penchant for armor with high heels. I printed her, I think, at 28mm which was a mistake and as a result, the universe rewarded me by only printing one of the two I asked for. She's been prepped on my painting table for over a year and would occasionally pick up random paints as I was nearing the end of a session as is typical. Well, this week, the time had come. I put probably six hours or so with about half of that on her face, also as is typical. One of her eyes looks really good. Her other eye looks a little derpy and yes, I could have fixed that, but I didn't. Done > perfect, not that perfection is at all in question here. I think she came out well and I'm happy to count her as one of my high quality paints this year. The only friction between me and painting this fig again, beyond firing up my 3d printer, is the fact that the model is not pre-supported so I'd have to re-support it again before printing. 

2024 finished mini counter: 116/208, 6/12 high quality