2025 crafting challenge wrap-up

No magical 365 fig total this year but 260 (5/week) is a pretty good consolation prize. I was busy with other stuff which you can read about somewhere or other around here. I did manage to hit all my goals but missed on the two stretch goals which shouldn't really be a surprise. I've also elided the per-fig links on this page because they're a real pain in the butt though most weeks' post should contain them.

Week1: Ronin Arts Workshop Spitfire Jen (high quality #1), Reaper Trista Female Warrior, Galaad Battle Mage x2 (high quality #2 and #3)

Week 2: Titan Forge Dwarf Male Cleric and 3x Gnome Male Cleric variants

Week 3: Dragon Trappers Lodge Moon Enclave bow x2 and tomahawk x2 variants 

Week 4:  Dragon Trappers Lodge Moon Enclave spear variants, Reaper Dijoro Female Kitsune, Bite the Bullet Robyn Foxfolk Ranger and Fox Folk Rogue (high quality #4)

Week 5:  Twin Goddess Denthir Orc Cleric x2, Titan Forge Orc Rogue x2

Week 6:  Reaper Highland Heroine, Cast n Play Sakari Anyu and Akna Amak, Vae Victis Ranger Teen (high quality #5)

Week 7:  RN Estudio Avangeline - Female Paladin, RM Printable Daerel the Blademaster, Twin Goddess Sypheena x2, 

Week 8:  Printed Obsession Black Witch Tabaxi, Miniatures Blueprint Zerynthia Noble Mage, HackNSlashMinis Siln Tanadu Moon Elf Cleric, Titan Forge Kathrina Bright On Foot

Week 9:  Gifted Space Marine, Vae Victis Cat Captain, Twin Goddess Valera Angel of Rock (high quality #6), Drunken Dwarf Ragna Blade of the North (high quality #7)

Week 10:  Reaper Bones 4 Anhurian Cavalry, Overlord Cavalry, and Pygmy Mammoth

Week 11:  Reaper Bones 4 Chaos Toad Brawler and Zombie Shark

Week 12:  Reaper Hagar Dwarf Fighter and Durok Dwarf Ranger, and Bones 4 Erick Paladin Initiate and Alandin Elf Paladin

Week 13:  Reaper Elven Blacksmith, Sarah the Seeress, Finari Female Paladin and Isabeau Laroch Paladin, Bones 4 Innkeeper Sophie

Week 14:  Reaper Nazeera Bloodraven, Damaris Duskwarden, Vonsalay Half Orc Wizard and Callie Female Rogue, DnD is a Woman Amalya Tabaxi Rogue

Week 15:  Wrath of Kings Shael Han Celestial Tricksters x2, Reaper Kogo Male Kitsune and Kassandra of the Blade (high quality #8)

Week 16:  Reaper Bones 4 Hill Giant Lowland Warrior, Hill Giant Lowland Chief and Hill Giant Hunter

Week 17:  Reaper Bones 4 Ettin, Frost Giant Heroine and Frost Giant Raider\

Week 18:  Reaper Young Fire Drake, Reaper Bones 4 Ziba female Efreeti, Ashana Female Genie and Thunderfoot Behemoth

Week 19:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 20:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 21:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 22:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x5

Week 23:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 24:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x5

Week 25:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 26:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x4

Week 27:  Perry Miniatures War of the Roses Infantry (1455-1487) x5

Week 28:  Reaper Angel of Shadows, Tabletop Terrain Desyra Littlebow (high quality #9), Vae Victis Tabaxi Bandit and Landsknecht Girl (high quality #10)

Week 29:  Reaper Bones 4 Blacktooth Terror + Seven Years of Painting article

Week 30:  Reaper Bones 4 Gauth

Week 31:  CobraMode Duck-Billed Platypotamus and Goon Master Weasel Witch Hunter Flamberge1 + hatless variant

Week 32:  Wrath of Kings House Goritsi - Specialist Box #1 (both figs)

Week 33:  Wrath of Kings Gotha Knights x4

Week 34: Wrath of Kings Gotha Knights x4 

Week 35:  Runewars Leonx Riders x4

Week 36:  Reaper Balzador Cleric and Alaine Female Paladin (high quality #11)

Week 37:  Runewars Oathsworn Cavalry

Week 38:  Velrock Female Sector Enforcer 2 x4 

Week 39:  Nolzur's Young White Dragon and Young Red Dragon

Week 40:  Reaper Mal Catfolk Warrior, Chosen of Sekhmet and Daughter of Sekhmet, Warmachine:Protectorate Nicia Tear of Vengeance

Week 41:  Reaper DHL Classics: Fighting Women x3, Inari Windsong

Week 42:  Reaper Bones 6: Mudmen and Bones 5 Clay Golem

Week 43: Reaper Bones 6: Ant Infestation x5 + Ant Queen

Week 44: Reaper Bones 6: Wolf Pack + Warg

Week 45: Reaper Bones 6: Blackmane Gnolls x6

Week 46:  Reaper Kosumi Frostfang Huntress and Rageclaw Slayer (high quality #12 and #13)

Week 47: Reaper Bones 6 zombies x8

Week 48: Reaper Bones 6 zombies x8 

Week 49: Reaper Bones 6 Waspnettle Lizardmen x6, Lizardman Warrior

Week 50: Battletech Visgoth x2, Shilone x2, Pegasus x2, Maxim x2, Condor x2

Week 51: Battletech SRM/LRM Carriers x4, Galleon x2, Vedette x2, Manticore x2, Shrek x2, Demolisher x2, H-7 Warrior x2, Ontos x2, Behemoth x2, Skulker x2, Savannah Master x2, Fulcrum x2

Week 52: Battletech Inner Sphere Battle Lance, Inner Sphere Command Lance, Inner Sphere Recon Lance, Inner Sphere Striker Lance, Inner Sphere Urban Lance, Adder A (Puma), Mongrel (Grendel), Timberwolf (Mad Cat), Dire Wolf (Daishi), Mad Dog (Vulture), and Nova (Black Hawk), (hated) Urbanmech

 

 

 

 

 

 

A thing a week 2025, week 52

We end the year with more Battletech, this time mechs. These guys go surprisingly quickly, especially now that I'm dialing in on a better scheme. These are roughly in the order they were painted 

This first four in wolf grey is the Inner Sphere Battle Lance including four of my favorite anime-not-quite-pseudo-licensed mechs. They're painted in an almost Macross-like scheme which didn't really work since they're not quite detailed in that way. I'm finding the details on these molds a little soft and the mold lines are godawful so I haven't had quite the normal edge highlighting fidelity that I usually enjoy. I also tried to force an oil wash to work here and I don't think it quite landed. Probably the Payne's Grey details are too dark in addition to the black details and I really should have known better. Left to right we have Warhammer, Rifleman, Phoenix Hawk and Wasp.

These next guys are the Inner Sphere Command Lance and instead of basecoating with the airbrush I hit them with a slight zenithal (base grey primer with sketchy white primer on top--I screwed up my mixing and it really performed badly) and a coat of Akhelian Green Contrast Paint as a test. I like this color quite a lot and I've used it quite a lot but it performed not very well in this application. The big flat areas probably warranted a thinning down and I ended up doing a lot of cleanup after the fact. Also of note, my color choice was compositionally good but the specific paints I used were really transparent and the four-ish coats of each made the detailing really tedious. These guys took the oil wash a lot better and I was a lot more diligent in cleaning up pooling on the big light grey panels. I think they look pretty good. Left to right we have Marauder, Valkyrie, Stinger and Archer.

These blue and orangey guys are the Inner Sphere Recon Lance and probably they're the best of the bunch. They're zenithaled better than the last and I hit them with a basecoat of a mix of Pro Acryl Blue Transparent and Pro Acryl Black Transparent. These were drybrushed twice after that before adding the detailing which I suppose wasn't strictly necessary but I did it anyway. Orange and other details came next. After that I spent a lot of time getting the edge highlights on the orangey bits which looks good, but was very tedious. I've got a better solution for this now, but that's all part of the journey. The last step was a light oil wash which worked well on these guys' darker color scheme. Left to right we have Firestarter, new-to-me Spector, Javelin and Ostscout. I'm pretty happy with these guys.

Continuing my "I spent too long on edge highlighting despite the fact that I like the result" we have the Inner Sphere Striker Lance and I was super stoked for the Blacktron color scheme. I was pretty sure I'd have a rough time with the oil wash on the yellow in addition to the edge highlighting on the same yellow and I was right on both counts. These guys had some shallow armor plates which make them non-ideal for any kind of edge highlighting and there was no way to make the off white edges distinct enough because there just plain wasn't much color value going up. These got mostly where I wanted them and I think they look pretty good but all of the edge highlighting continued to be tedious. The cockpits came out especially well here because I spent quite a lot of time on them. Left to right we have Wolfhound, Jenner, Panther, and Blackjack.

For these red guys, otherwise known as the Inner Sphere Urban Lance, I got them half right. These were zenithaled with the airbrush and I hit them with Contrast Paint Blood Angels Red, a color that I don't super like. I spent a lot of time cleaning up the resulting blotchiness. These guys are big and my pot (maybe all pots of this color?) was really thick. This makes it really hard to properly extend the wet edge and is one of my big gripes about Contrast Paints in general. The grey bits were done next and the whole thing was drybrushed with an ancient pot of Reaper flesh tone that I bought at the turn of the milennium. This took the tedium out of the edge highlighting and meant that I could vary the weight which is nice. They look good on the table but if you look closely, you'll see all the corners I cut. Left to right we have Victor, Enforcer (late model, I think), Hunchback and Raven.

For these dudes I finally got it all put together. These are the non-dupe clan mechs I got out of salvage boxes in the kickstarter. I could have painted them in proper clan colors but TBH, I can't be bothered. These guys were simply primed with the airbrush and then basecoated with the airbrush (Pro Acryl Dark Neutral Grey, if you care). Details were picked out, they were drybrushed, and finished with the typical oil wash. They were done more or less in a day (sans drying time and whatnot) but they are both high drama and low effort and came together in a few hours all told. They are left to right: Adder A (Puma), Mongrel (Grendel), Timberwolf (Mad Cat), Dire Wolf (Daishi), Mad Dog (Vulture), and Nova (Black Hawk)

Last but not least, a polarizing mech if ever there was one. This little trash can looking dude is the Urbanmech and I have a love/hate thing with them, particularly that I love to hate them despite it being an OK mech. It was painted as a batch with the Striker Lance which is probably obvious and I have the same critique for this guy as for those. The blending on the cockpit doesn't show super well in these shots which is sad because I thought it came out pretty good. A lot of these battletech figs have recessed cockpits which is a nice detail but it can be challenging to paint. This particular guy came out way better than it had any right to and we're going to end the year on him because that seems appropriate.

2025 finished mini count: 260 

A thing a week 2025, week 51

Continuing our low-effort and hopefully high-drama Battletech figs, we have a mess of tanks and other vehicles. I wanted to paint these really fast and they more or less were really fast. Like our aerospace fighters from last week, they were primed and base-coated with my cheapest of airbrushes only to be drybrushed and oil washed after that. Also of note, I usually have a pileup at the end of the year because I tend to work a week or two ahead so I have something to post if I'm busy or out of town or something. This year I've got a similar pileup but only because I'm geeked about painting Battletech figs and they're going really fast. 

First up we have missile carriers in a military green with a very light drybrush to edge highlight and one or two coats of a light oil wash. These guys are high damage, low survivability so I painted them in the least eye catching colors I could find. The base coat was a Pro Acryl through the airbrush and probably if I used these more often rather than a Speed Paint or Contrast Paint I'd have fewer blotchiness and gloss issues. Note that these came with extra turrets so you could have four of either should you so desire. The standies they're on are a work in progress.

Next up we have a mess of tanks. I'm always a little shaky on the non-scary ones so from left to right I think we've got: Galleon, Vedette, Manticore, Shrek, and Demolisher. The triple-PPC Shrek tank should not be confused with the early 90s ogre of the same name. The guys on the right are legit scary and I've lost many-a-battlemech to the inimitable double-AC/20 Demolisher. The semi-glossy greenish tanks are basecoated with multiple coats of Daler Rowney inks that I keep trying to use in this way but keep disappointing me. The arctic-themed tanks were base coated with Vallejo Game Air Wolf Grey which is one of my favorite cool off-whites. For these guys I wanted to push the light oil washes I've been using to see if they'd play nice with light base coats which kind of worked. I got the panel lines for nearly free but where it pooled unhelpfully on the big flat areas, it really looks bad. Still tuning this step. This shot also unexpectedly dark but I couldn't be bothered to re-balance it. 

How about some VTOLs? These are the H-7 Warrior last seen being blown up in MW5:Mercs. These probably could have been a little fancier but the details were a little soft and I really made a mess of the mold lines. These guys helpfully come with two sets of stands, the tall ones shown here and some very short ones that make them look like they're landed. That's a really nice touch and I love it when game companies do such things. These guys are from the Recon and Hunter Lances and probably I should have shot them with their box mates.

These guys are the rest of the Recon and Hunter Lances. From left to right we have the Ontos Heavy Tank, the Behemoth Heavy Tank, and the Skulker Wheeled Scout Tank. These aren't tanks I'm super familiar with, though the Behemoth shows up occasionally in the HBS Battletech game. The Ontos carries a stupid number of medium lasers which is endearing for a tank. These guys had some pretty rough mold lines only some of which I handled acceptably. Probably the dark grey ones could have used a heavier dry brushing at the end. One weird thing I noticed about these is that they generally have either too many, or too big cockpit or windows. Usually windows are less armored than, I dunno, the armor, so you'd think they'd make them smaller.

Last up we have some rando hovertanks. The little guys on the left are the Savanna Master from one of the gajillion salvage boxes I got from the kickstarters and the guys on the right are Fulcrum from the Aces: Scouring Sands box. I ordered the Hunter and Recon Lances in addition to the Aces box (and some other stuff without minis) and I really wanted all of the vehicles to be done. So here they are! The Fulcrum have a fun red cockpit that sadly aren't visible here with the high angle shot. 

2025 finished mini counter: 241

A thing a week 2025, week 50

And now for something completely different. My love of all things Battletech is very well documented at this point so several years ago when Catalyst Game Labs did their Mercenaries Kickstarter, I was all in. When they subsequently did their Clan Invasion Kickstarter...I was also all in. 

All four of these guys were add-ons to the two kickstarters and I painted them mostly with the airbrush. I haven't painted many mechanical figs, vintage Mekton figs notwithstanding, so part of this week's effort was trying to sort out better ways to paint them. Also of note, I have a lot of mechs to paint and probably this is going to be a journey. After the airbrush and some details, I did a heavy black oil wash like I've used many times. On a couple of these you can probably tell where I tried (badly) to edge highlight some of the panels. Unfortunately, these sculpts are a little soft and I didn't have the patience to do so consistently. 

The guys on top are Shilone Aerospace fighters, the guys on the bottom are filthy Clan Visigoth OmniFighters. They're bigger than I thought they'd be which means that my normal microspace Lego stand-ins probably aren't going to be retired anytime soon. Ultimately I rushed these and it shows. The dark is probably too dark and that was not helped by the heavy oil wash. We'll see next week some improvements which probably would have helped here. I do like these guys but I ended up with a worse result because I'd sold myself on doing them really fast. That's how you learn, I guess. 

What are these guys? I'm a little shaky on hovertanks but I think the guys on the left are left to right: Pegasus, Maxim, and Condor. I've mostly only blown these up; I've never needed to field any. They're a little shinier in this shot than they read in person. I expected the light oil wash to flat them down a little more than it did but I'm not unhappy with where the landed.

2025 finished mini counter: 207

 

A thing a week 2025, week 49

This week we have the Waspnettle Lizardmen from Bones 6 and a plain 'ol white Bones plastic lizardman warrior because he fit the theme. The warrior is the guy on the far left with the bendy spear. In fact we've seen this guy and two of his pals way back in Week 8 of 2021 because a) the warrior was a freebie that came with a different purchase and b) the other two dudes are good sculpts that Reaper decided to add to the set. In fact, I think the bow guy is also a reprint but not one that I remember buying or painting.

I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted out of these guys from the get go and did some extra work with the airbrush to kick them off and because they had such good texture I hit them with a light drybrush and a wash. The orange armor and orange-y leather bits were built up over many layers.

These three guys I think are new sculpts and I'm pretty sure they're either 3d printed or molded from 3d prints since they have support bits that are pretty indicative of resin prints. I tried to capture the drama of their shields and as is typical, they look better in person than they do in these shots. My only real gripe with these three is that the big guy is maybe too big. His head looks very small in proportion and his armor details look a little soft compared to the other guys. Those are minor gripes, though, and the cyan/orange contrast sells well at the table. These guys were fun and I think they came out well.

2025 finished mini counter: 197