Sci-fi Showdown, week 2 (2024 week 26)

This week we continue our sci-fi theme as one might expect. 

First up we have The Smuggler from Women & Sci-Fi kickstarter and Bonnie Gun from Cyberforge. Bonnie has been here before way back in week 43 of 2022. I was pretty sure that Bonnie's sculpt could hold a higher quality paint job than my previous attempt and I'm happy to say that I was right. I went with mostly the same color scheme picking out more of the details and doing more work compositionally with the orange pop colors. I also wasn't in a hurry which helps. The Smuggler in contrast, was kind of done in a hurry. This isn't because I was under any particular deadline, but mostly because her details were far too small to pick out effectively so I basically didn't bother. One of the things I like about sci-fi figs, is that they can plausibly have not-normal colored hair but TBH, I don't think the blue works. Ultimately I don't think this is a great paint job but I'm not in a hurry to print another to try again.

Next up we have Suzanne Vega from Cyberforge and TurningGear Scifi fighter from TwinGoddess. Suzanne comes with a little drone copter guy since she's a rigger but I clearly didn't print it. I like this sculpt well enough but really disliked a) how shallow most of the details were making it hard to pick them out, and b) how much negative space there is, her coat in particular. I like how the highlights on her coat and the texture on her jeans turned out. TurningGear was also a fairly difficult paint job but for different reasons. The end of her hair pancaked badly and I was nowhere near careful enough de-supporting her as there are scars all over her back and other places. I think I salvaged it well enough but it was really tedious. The Ghost Tint Plasma Fluid on her armor and sword doesn't really sell. Still working it out.

Last up we have Cuddy Grey from Cyberforge. I liked this sculpt a lot more than I expected and only after I started painting realized that she's a medic. This particular fig was printed last summer and got periodic washes and what not over that time, the most interesting of which was a sepia wash over her duster which left a texture/tone that I really like. Most of her gear is highlighted over a contrast paint basecoat but I picked out a mess of the details. You might also notice the wash and edge highlight on the gun which came out better than expected. Overall, she was a pretty fuss-free paintjob and while I could have done a lot more with the highlights, I'm happy counting her as a high quality work.

2024 finished mini counter: 140/208, 13/12 high quality

Sci-fi Showdown, week 1 (2024 week 25)

 

This week we kick off a new theme which is always fun. I've had a pile of sci-fi characters prepped on my painting table for quite a while and I figured it was time to burn through them as a continuing "I have too many figs on my painting table" effort.

First up we have Liza Thorn from Cyberforge and Pam Pam Flores from Papsikels. Both are 3d prints and printed late last summer. They're both high drama low effort paint jobs which is great. The texturing on both sculpts is excellent which means that the mostly-contrast paint basecoats. Liza's skintones were somewhat hand-mixed. I spent maybe three hours between the two of them which is right about where I want my normal paint jobs to be. Don't be surprised if either or both of these gals show up at some point in the future.

Next up we have Asanis, Mercury Flyer from Reaper and Cree Chief Judah Starwalker from Cyber Forge. I like both of these figs and spent significantly more time on Asanis than on Judah. For Judah I didn't think nearly enough about composition and ended up not really knowing what to do with the pockets and other bits I picked out. I had the nice mahogany on the palette from other work and figured, meh, what the heck? With the black parts of his belt already blocked in and not enough willpower to repaint it, I settled on the same mahogany for his straps. I probably should have done more highlighting but I didn't. Asanis got the blue-gray basecoat several months ago when I had it on my palette leftover from some other work. This happens pretty frequently, especially when I'm wrestling with a fig I'm tired of working on. Not sure if this is good or not.

Last up is an interesting one and not particularly a gaming fig. I've worked with several great folks from Ukraine so I've been following the war more closely than many folks in the US. So when Titan Forge offered this fig and donated proceeds to humanitarian aid, I didn't think twice. This is the Ghost of Kyiv, the mythical ace of the Ukrainian Air Force. This fig was printed on my old printer and sat around like a lot of my figs for quite a while until I started working on this theme. He's another high drama low effort paint job with most of the time wrestling with the blue and yellow on the flag. I could have used better paints and saved my self some time but I didn't.

2024 finished mini counter: 135/208

A thing a week 2024, week 24

Two items this week on opposite ends of the quality spectrum. First up we have a treasure pile from Bones 5. It was one of the first figs I prepped from Bones 5 which arrived like three years ago. It's been kicking around my painting table since then. It's not a super complex object but I didn't do as much work with it as I might have. It's mostly phoned in as is evidenced by the poor handling of the chest, gemstones, and non-gold items. The gold is played by Vallejo Metal Color Gold followed by a wash of Badger Ghost Tint Golden Yellow which I'm not entirely happy with.

This is Artisan Guild's exquisitely named Orc Barbarian -D Lady Modular. I have a mess of Ork dudes and almost no Ork gals so I purchased this sculpt to fill that gap though, notably, I did also purchase one of her male counterparts one of whom was featured way back in week 10. I noted then that the fig would hold a higher quality paint job and, well, this would be that. I spent a lot of time on this fig, something like 12 hours, and I think it shows. I could have refined the highlights on her musculature and hair more and done more with the wood on her shield but ultimately I think this is a good result and I'm happy to counter has one of this year's high quality works. 

2024 finished mini counter: 130/204, high quality 12/12

A thing a week 2024, week 23

This week we have the last of the cycle of Rocky figs from Bones 4. They've all been painted in more or less the same way and curious readers can read it over in the previous two entries should you be so inclined. 

First up we have Scheming Rocky in purple, a color I like a lot but really struggle with. I should have come up higher in value on all of his scales and particularly on his face which reads a lot better in person though I did get the lowest lows in the right range. It's entirely probable that my paint table's lighting set up is too bright since I have this issue pretty often. This is made worse by the barely-sufficient lighting on my gaming table, not that these guys are particularly gaming pieces. I went magenta for his webbing but like I said last week, I should have pushed more in the yellow direction into reds. 

Last up we have Sneaky Rocky in teal. He's probably the best of the bunch despite missing some of the highlights on his left flank. His contrast is the best both in volumetric value and color temperature and he probably has the best eyes of the bunch. I put extra effort into getting his gaze focused in front of him despite the fact that the light reflection dots don't line up correctly. Eyes on these guys have been challenging even though they're really big since they bulge out so far. Usually I'm dealing with a barely curved recess if there's even an eye sculpted. 

For sure there's more work I could have done across all five but I learned a lot and I'm content to add them to my display box. Maybe someday in the unforseeable future I'll do more on them but for now I'm calling them done.

2024 finished mini counter: 128/208, 11/12 high quality

A thing a week 2024, week 22

Continuing on last week's post, we have another pair of Rocky figs from Bones 4. They mostly follow the same scheme as the previous blue Rocky: one or more lousy ink basecoats applied badly with the airbrush followed by one or two more basecoats with contrast paints, speed paints, or homemade washes, followed by picking out every scale individually and finishing details like horns, eyes, and whatnot. And yes, I said last week that I wouldn't commit to picking out every individual scale on every fig but spoiler: I did.

First up we have Treasure Rocky in green and yes, greedy green was the only appropriate color choice. I didn't wan the chest and treasure pile to be the focus so I made sure they were muted down. The gold basecoat was a speed paint metallic IIRC followed by a seraphim sepia wash to darken it down and to knock out some of the shine. If it looks a little dark, that's why and exactly what I intended. There's still some shine in the darkest parts of his body which looks pretty wrong in the photos but sells a little better in person. I should have yellow-shifted his wings and ear webbing which is pretty consistent in all of these guys. The gems and whatnot are phoned in but I'm not unhappy with the result.

Next up we have Flying Rocky in red and I like to think that he was rudely awakened by an alarm or something and has taken flight in shock. This kind of thing happens when you spend hours picking out tiny details on a fig. Of the five, this guy is probably the weakest. There's a bunch of mold lines I didn't manage well and the shininess on him is a little distracting in person. I also failed to sufficiently pop out the scales under his eyes and all of that is on top of the difficulties I and many folks have in highlighting red. The problem is that when you push up into the lighter values it turns pink which reads incorrectly and I am not good at yellowing down into orange and salmon tones despite how much I paint in that color. Part of it is that I really don't want to lose the vibrancy of my favorite pyrrole red and it really shows on this guy since the composition is dominated by it. Yellowing down his webbing would have helped the contrast but I'm still happy to call both of these guys high quality works on the year.

2024 finished mini counter: 126/208, 9/12 high quality