A thing a week 2025, week 17

Three more giant or giant-adjacent figs toward our 2025 goal this week which is going to be the end of our mini-giant-and-giant-adjacent non-theme. So let's get to it.

First up we have an Ettin from bones 4. He's not as big as the other giants we've seen but without a frame of reference it'd be hard to pick that out. This guy's got a lot of character from his "hey, look over there head" to his improvised anvil-hammer. Also, because he's not quite as large, he wasn't quite as tedious to paint which is a nice bonus for me. There was definitely a bunch more that I could have done with this guy not limited to picking out the leather straps better, doing something with the bulby things on his bracelet, putting any color on the shield, etc. etc. but when I got here at the end of the batch, I was super done. Occasionally I take a look at these shots and think that I should come back some day and punch them up when I don't feel the weight of several hundred unpainted minis and this guy is one of them.

These two are Frost Giant Heroine and Frost Giant Ranger and more or less why I was so done when I got to the Ettin. I like that these two have so much character. I dislike that they have quite so many tiny details. The edge highlighting I did on these has really paid off by making them look cleaner than they actually are and just like last week, the stitching is really doing some heavy lifting here. The ranger is in a harder plastic, possibly the predecessor of bones black which made it really hard to un-warp the spear and made the antlers on the stag kind of brittle despite having glued it twice. More work was probably warranted across both, especially since I like them, but again there aren't many giants in my world much less sentient ones. Will they ever see screen time? Unlikely but hard to say for sure. At any rate, they're painted and I'm happy for that.

2025 finished mini counter: 66, 2025 specific figs remaining: 78

A thing a week 2025, week 16

Some good news this week and some bad news this week. The good news: three more against the goal and three abnormally expensive ones to boot. The bad news: I found an accounting error that put my goal count two short. This happens from time to time.

First up we have Hill Giant Lowland Warrior and Hill Giant Lowland Chief both from bones 4. The chief has been kicking around my painting desk since the middle of last year before I got serious about hitting a fig a day. I find big figs intimidating because I generally like getting most of the details right. Big figs have big blends and glazing is a really expensive operation on big blends. I also find that metallics don't look quite right at a large scale not that either of these guys has a lot. The warrior was part of this year's prep trying to get primer on my remaining goal-specified bones 4 figs. I failed, but hey, the last two still-unprimed figs are difficult in my defense. I can't claim these two are speed paints in any way and I do notice that the warrior's back is suspiciously shiny due to the contrast paint undercoat but I do know that both of these guys are painted.

This chonky dude is a Hill Giant Hunter from bones 4 and he came with a Dire Lion which we saw way back in Week 33 of 2023. Of these three, I like this guy the best and probably spent the most time on him. Across all these guys I put extra time into the color grades in their fleshtones which really helps separate each volume even on these bigatures. The stitching in the sculpt was super easy to paint and really helps sell the scale of the dude which I really like. I probably should have brought the blue on his details to a higher value and I almost certainly could have done more with the leather straps. Overall I think this is a good effort but mostly, since there aren't really giants in my game, I'm just glad he's done.

2025 finished mini counter: 63, 2025 specific figs remaining: 80-3+2 = 81

A thing a week 2025, week 15

Four more right up the gut this week which should be the plan for the next several weeks. It feels nice to make consistent progress in the chosen goal even though I'm not putting up big numbers this year.

First up we have Shael Han Celestial Tricksters from Wrath of Kings flanking our pal Kogo, Male Kitsune from Reaper Bones. I have dupes of all of these guys so you should expect to see them again and in fact, we've already seen Kogo way back in week 27 of 2020 which seems like an age ago. I have no idea what's going on with the dude on the left's back though I do like his desaturated color scheme which really shows off his orangey fur. I think this Kogo also looks sharp in the black, green and red though I wish I'd picked out his armor texture a little better. Also of note, his eyes aren't quite as crazy in person. Both of the tricksters had some really lousy mold issues that I mostly covered up but the guy on the right really suffered from them over details. Like Damaris from last week, he's also got a thing for buckles which I find very sus.

And rounding out this week is a great sculpt let down by a lousy mold that I nonetheless put a bunch of time into. If she looks familiar, it's because we saw her recently in week 52 of last year. Kassandra of the Blade is a good sculpt let down by soft bones white plastic. I don't recall if I have a metal version of her but if I don't, I should. I spent a lot of time on this version because, well, I wanted to, despite mold line issues. I had a plan this time (primary color scheme) and did a lot of extra work cleaning up details that I might have otherwise ignored. I think this one came out well and I'm happy to put her with the other high quality figs I've done so far this year as #8. Between the two, I think this one's cloak isn't as nice but her face is much better. I also like that her scarf is so much better delineated though I really have to do the magenta/aqua/orange combo again. 

2025 finished mini counter: 60, high quality 8/12, 2025 specific figs remaining: 80

A thing a week 2025, week 14

Mostly on target this week with a fun bonus, so no time to lose!

First up we have Nazeera Bloodraven and Damaris Duskwarden from Reaper. Nazeera is in the typical soft bones white plastic while Damaris is in a weird pseudo-bones black light colored but stiff plastic that we saw in some of the Bones 4 figs. Neither of these molds is particularly good and Damaris had way too many mold lines going over way too many buckles. I'm not 100% sure about her "angry vampire hunting pilgrim" energy and I didn't start painting her with any kind of plan otherwise her vest would be a better non-leather color. I'm not sure I sold any of her leather bits but I was kind of in a hurry to finish. Also, why so many stinkin' buckles? On the other hand, I think Nazeera is a vampire which I thought about not at all when I set up this shot. I did some shading on her armor with Ghost Tints but I don't think it came out all that well. I was feelin' the red eyes, tho.

Next up we have Vonsalay Half Orc Wizard, Amalya Tabaxi Monk, and Callie Female Rogue. The outter gals are in bones white soft plastic while Amalya is a print from DnD is a Woman who we've seen before way back in week 10 of last year. It's probably also obvious that I forgot to take a back shot of these gals but I am far too lazy to go back and re-shoot (I did get two versions of their fronts, tho). Both Callie and Vonsalay have very soft molds with very lousy mold lines so I did what I could and ultimately landed somewhere workable. I desatured Vonsalay's dress on purpose so we wouldn't get any Christmas Ork action so I'm happy about that. I also didn't plan her paint job so the cloak is a questionable color choice. For Amalya I finally got my dark point but her normal fur-tone was darker than I probably wanted. I started with a different scheme in mind so the theme throughout this week's entries is "I should have planned better." So I got that goin' fro me. 

2025 finished mini counter: 56, 2025 specific figs remaining: 84