Blacklist backlog week 4 (2024 week 7)

This week we finish up the theme as I finish up the last of the Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 and simultaneously challenge my ability to take something resembling reasonable photos. The majority of these are "get 'er done" kind of paint jobs and they have the added difficulty of being large or very large. This also challenges my idea of what a "large" figure as it is especially given my goals this year so here we go.

First up we have a shambling mound and demon lord and both are speed paints. They're mostly Pro Acryl Transparents with a bunch of work to pick out details. I thought the orangey mushrooms on the shambler were a lot more saturated when I was painting him and they look really washed out here. I spent more time than I expected picking out details on it. The demon lord could really have used another ten or so hours in addition to the ten or so I spent on him. His large size made him difficult to work with in addition to all the negative spaces on him. I'm not sold on the fleshy sword thought he sculpt really insisted on it. Ultimately I don't use many of either of these dudes so other than increasing my painted count, I don't know what I'm going to do with them. The shambler was done in a couple hours in total.

These next two are ogre and troll and I don't know what the sculptor was thinking on the ogre. Other than skipping more than a few leg days, the musculature on his left arm is a mess that I struggled to work with. I can overlook the dumb spikes on his mace but the ever-present mold lines over his hand wrappings really sucked. Base coats were mainly provided by the airbrush and finished with a few hours of brush work for highlights and details. The troll was a true speed paint with basecoats provided by ProAcryl Transparents and a light drybrush. Another hour or so for details and highights and he was done. Overall the two of these jokers were done in under eight hours and like the previous two, I have very little use for them (trolls are a playable race in my game worlds and have a very different aesthetic).

This beefy gal is listed as giant and she took freakin' forever. Being mostly flesh, I spent a super long time glazing up and down to make it look OK. Basecoats were done with the airbrush and followed by a fleshwash to unsuccessfully add darklining (I did that at the end with a detail brush). The cloth and other details were (obviously) rushed and I did not realize that her leather skirt was quite so shiny. That particular Vallejo Game Color Terracotta give me a lot of trouble and probably I'll burn it on terrain or give it away so I don't have to deal with it any longer. I sunk around twenty five hours over a week or so into this fig, or "bigature" which I stole from Uncle Atom and I think we landed in a good place. There are no giants in my place so yet again, my potential uses for this fig are pretty limited. She'll count as large fig #1 for the year.

Last up we have what is hopefully clearly a dragon. He's also a bigature and again I have to note that the sculptor was a little off the rails. I watch all these youtube videos where folks are painting these $150 James Workshop dragons with intricate, painter-friendly textures then I see this guy with random cuts in his wings, barely defined webbing textures, and stupidly deep and inconvenient scales. As I don't use many dragons and don't particularly like this sculpt, this guy is a speed paint. I started with a Forest Green Daler Rowney Ink which I was going to lay over the entire model as a green dragon and immediately changed my mind. I kept it as the base for the wing webbing and ended up with an Indigo Daler Rowney Ink for the rest of the body. After that, a lot of drybrushing and detail work done to the tune of about six hours all told. Not my best work for sure, and the fig will hold a better quality paint job but I just can't be bothered.

And we're done! There's one more guy kicking around somewhere that I cannot find. I'm sure he'll show up at some point at which point I'll stick him in the pipeline but until then, I'm calling it done. It took a year to work through them all and ultimately I think they've been pretty good sans the stress of them being delayed for so long without any real understanding that they'd ever ship. Either way, they're done now and that's cool.

2024 finished mini counter: 49/208, 2/4 busts or large figs

A thing a week 2024, week 2

This week we have a continuation of what we had last week, namely me trying to finish up stuff on my workbench while also making progress on some categories I'm trying to complete.

First up we have Arjan, Dragonborn Fighter and Heskan, Dragonborn Wizard from the Castle Ravenloft board game and Wrath of Ashardalon board game respectively. These are not fantastic sculpts and the molding on these two in particular is awful. Arjan's right leg has this massive hole in it that I didn't think I could fill effectively and both of them have ridiculously bad mold lines that I did very little with. I did some highlighting on their scale-tones (or whatever) and I extra regretted picking out the lightning patterns on Heskan's robes. These were my first figs painted with Army Painter Speed Paint 2.0. Arjan's...er...jerkin? is painted solely with them and so far, I really, really like them. 

Next up from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 we have female dragonkin warlock and male dragonkin warrior. Between the two, she is way nicer of a sculpt and sans my inability to deal with her mold lines sanely might have been this year's first high quality paint job. I super like the contrast between her cloak, her robe, and her scale-tones. He is...derpy, I mean, pretty obviously. I have no idea what the sculptor was thinking, especially since most of the rest of the blacklist sculpts have been comparatively good. His derpiness didn't prevent me from doing a lot of highlighting work though I'm not 100% sure I got the intended scale tones vs. armor bits correct.

Last up, also from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 we have demonkin assassin and demonkin sorcerer. I like these sculpts, too, and again we have a situation where we might have had high quality paint jobs had I dealt more sanely with their mold lines. Also of note, I don't have a lot of use for demonkin in my games so I have no idea if/when they'll ever get screen time. I didn't spend a lot of time highlighting the purples and though they look shoddy here, they look slightly less shoddy in person same as the skintones. The dark leather bits is mostly played by Speed Paint 2.0 with some minor edge highlighting. My one week retro on these is that they're really good.

2024 finished mini counter: 12/208

A thing a week 2023, week 52

If you were looking for the "end of the year batches to hit an arbitrary goal", then you're in the right place. These are mostly from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 which is now down to the last thirty or so characters and even though this week's offering won't get us over the finish line, there's a bonus posting next week that will seal the deal.

First up we have mummies which aren't a creature that I use like ever. They're a reasonable sculpt with some really difficult to deal with mold lines and I took the opportunity to do a super low rent paint scheme. Most of the work is the airbrush-provided zenithal which I followed with a couple washes to give them a nice aged tone. A very small drybrush brought out some of the details. I may have spent more effort throwing grit on the bases and painting them than on the figs. No idea what I'll ever do with these guys but they're painted.

Next up we have unholy knights. These might see some game time but again, I don't use a lot of undead in my campaigns. They are similarly low rent paint schemes mostly involving contrast paint and a drybrush for their cloaks, a simple metallic + wash for their armor and maybe three layers and a wash for their bones. I don't like spending a lot of time on figs that a) don't excite me, and/or b) aren't likely to see a lot of game time but they're fantastic for feeling like I'm making good progress on my pile of shamepotential.

These are probably the only interesting batch here. Another creature I don't use like ever are harpies but golems I use frequently including a bunch of flying golems like gargoyles. Well, painting these in a faux bronze seemed like a pretty reasonable thing to do. I went with a heavily patinaed + highly polished wear areas even though this makes zero sense within a dungeon. The patina was a turquoise zenithal provided by the airbush. The metallics were pretty obviously a drybrush, this time with a decades old pot of Reaper Brass which I only really keep around for this kind of operation. Overall I think these are serviceable.

These are pretty clearly zombies and I have almost no use for them. Thusly, I only barely painted them. The fleshtone is a two shade highlight, the pants are the same, the guts and mouths are a basetone and a wash, and the shirts aren't painted over the zenithal at all. After that: magic. Again I note that every time I use an oil wash, they elevate a paint job. I spent more time removing excess oil wash than I did applying the rest of the paints and they were done in maybe five hours total sans all the waiting you have to do between applying and removing an oil wash. Dunno that I'll ever use them but they're painted.

If there's an interesting paint job in this week's offering, and I'm not saying there is, it's this guy. This is a naga, this version of the creature IIRC, a dumb D&D monster that I have no real interest in using. I went with my gut on this one with a colored zenithal, a drybrush, wash, and final drybrush only stopping to barely pick out some of the dumb details on its dumb face and dumb spikes. This thing is trying so hard to look scary that it just looks dumb and I don't know that I'll ever put it on the table with a straight face.

Stay tuned next week when we finish off 2023 with a flurry of posts.

2023 finished mini counter: 359/104

A thing a week 2023, week 48

I hope everyone who celebrates such things in the same week as I do had a wonderful turkey day, or, as I prefer, Thanksviking. 

First up we have Shardra Iconic Shaman, Enora Iconic Arcanist, and Taroya all from Bones 4. Shardra isn't a fig that I probably would have bought individually but I liked it more and more as I painted though her face seems way out of proportion. I also didn't realize that so much flock was stuck to her...cauldron? My dark teal was similarly not as dark as I needed and poor Enora is a mess as a result. I also messed up her eye detail and was too lazy to repaint. I don't like Taroya's sculpt and really struggled with mold lines going over armor details. She ultimately turned out better than the amount of effort I put in mostly because of the low rent ink wash over the top. Of particular note on these three, I insufficiently covered up their broccoli bases with flock. 

This is an Avatar of Courage from Reaper and we've seen him before, way back in week 12 of this year. I was hurt again by a limited brown palette (and laziness; not like I couldn't have mixed one) as his leather bits blend into his fur color pretty readily. The teal was a color theory choice since his fur is on the reddish/orangish/brown side. I like the darker take between the two and I spent extra time on rendering the volumes of his musculature. This one will hold a special place in my memory for personal reasons.

Next up we have human wizard and elf monk from blf1 and Talon, Human Ranger from the Temple of Elemental Evil board game. These were done at the end of my trip and I was about done painting in such poor conditions. I rather like the fat mage sculpt and should have done more to tone down the green of his cloak so he wouldn't look so Christmas-y. I didn't sell the yellow well enough on the monk despite it being in an otherwise dark color scheme. Talon's eyes were super hard to paint since her bow is in the dang way. You can also tell that I did not nearly enough with the softness of the sculpt or to sufficiently differentiate her green jerkin from her green cloak. Like I said, I was about done painting there. 

These are a pair of mirrored Knight 05 3d prints from Galaad, one of my favorite sculptors. I super like these figs despite having fantasy halberds and boob plate. They were mostly painted with the airbrush giving really nice two step shading on their armor. The rest of the details were done with brushwork. Despite using Army Painter Anti-Shine, the contrast basecoats are still fairly glossy. That sucks. Looking at these shots, about the only other two things I'd do to punch them up are better highlights on their plumes, cloaks, and hair. Do not be surprised if you see a bunch more of these in different colors in the future. 

Last up we have Hunter Oathenshard from Tiger Skull, Muriel, Druid of the Plains from Gloomy Kid Minis, and Lizardfolk Ranger from Master Forge. We've seen the good hunter in a very minor conversion way back in Week 36 of 2022. I spent a little more time with her this time around since I wasn't in a hurry but the last fig has already seen quite a lot of screen time as everybody's favorite Great Bear Shaman. Muriel has been sitting partially painted for like two years. Since then I've learned a lot about color composition and probably wouldn't have chosen to do brown on brown with brownish hair. The end result is better than I might have expected despite the fact that the damnable bird broke off like four times. Srsly, folks, don't make things that spindly. The lizardfolk ranger has a lot going for it and while the sculpt does a lot of the work, there's a lot to not like, too. Big chunks of the fig are in negative space under the cloak or his other flowy bits which took all the time I spared slapchopping his scales. The red highlights are pretty awful but otherwise I like the result.

2023 finished mini counter: 294/104

A thing a week 2023, week 47

This week we're getting completely out of order because my life is apparently not complicated enough. Many of these were painted far away from home while I was helping care for a sick family member so the quality and color palette are both limited.

First up we have Merowyn Lightstar from Reaper Bones 4, Woman Pirate by Vae Victis, Dame Teuta by Crippled God Foundry and Lucius the Templar also from Crippled God Foundry. These are speed paints which should be obvious since Lucius' shield has exactly zero heraldry on it despite the fact that the sculptor clearly gave me a large space to do so. Other than the pirate gal, they're mostly armor so most of the heavy lifting is done by Vallejo Metal Colors and a handful of hastily applied washes. I'm reminded (again) that the red contrast paint I'm using as a basecoat needs to be thinned down. I'm also reminded that I need to paint more dark fleshtones so don't be surprised if you see the right three again here some day.

Next up we have Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 dwarf barbarian, dwarf bard, and dwarf ranger. These were the first ones I painted away from home and that setup was nowhere near ideal. On top of bad and inconsistent lighting, I was in a really arid place and my paints frequently dried on my wet palette. Also, I didn't have my nice brushes or nice paints because I had no idea what would make it through airport security (note: I shouldn't have worried). As I've said for many of the blf1 figs, their sculpts are generally OK but their molds are lousy. I also didn't know my dark blue basecoat (Vallejo Air Color Steel Blue if you care) would dry quite so glossy. Note the lousy metallics. 

Next up we have two more blf1 dwarf druid and gnome cleric joined by Blink Berenwicket from Bones 4. All three of these probably needed more work than they actually got, particularly poor Blink who was not well served by ProAcryl metallics and the lousy raw umber ink wash I stuck over the top. I did some minimal non-wash-assisted blacklining that pseudo-sells but I was really hurting for another purple tone for the cleric. There were certainly better paint jobs on the table for all three but that clearly didn't happen and it looks like I glued Blink's arm on wrong so I got that goin' for me.

Last up, also from blf1 we have halfing bard, dwarf fighter, and dwarf wizard who I thought for sure was a monk (he's not; that guy'll arrive later). These are pretty good sculpts that I prepped not nearly well enough. The mold lines on the blf1 figs are pretty awful and the hard plastic makes it even less convenient to deal with. The wizard would have benefitted from some darker brown leather parts if not a completely different color scheme entirely especially given how dark my dark purple wasn't. Ultimately they were never going to be great paint jobs done far away from home. 

2023 finished mini counter: 282/104

A thing a week 2023, week 44

This week we're all about cultists, two batches totaling eight to be precise. These are not good paint jobs but they are done and will likely get some screen time at some point. Cultists show up a lot in my games, less because I like them and more because my players seem to always seek them out for some reason. Make of that whatever you will.

First up we have five cultists from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 and I don't like these sculpts. BLF1 has been pretty hit and miss. These guys are apparently escaped from being shackled up and have very questionable tailors. Their evil grins were a mess, too. Their teeth seem a little too regular to be normal. Either way, they're painted mostly with contrast paints with minimal highlights and details. Painted is good and they are that in not quite three hours for the lot of them. 

These three are Cultists from the Wrath of Ashardalon boardgame and I like their sculpts a lot better. I spent about the same not quite three hours on them, mostly dealing with their overabundance of cloth and stupid skull mantles. Seriously, who does that? I did not realize their cloaks were quite so shiny until reviewing these shots. I keep not learning that. Quite a lot of the contrast paints and Daler Rowney inks which I love so much are like that. Probably I should be doing more to flat those down some. The best part? Right! They're painted.

2023 finished mini counter: 243/104

A thing a week 2023, week 39

More non-bangers this week. I might not-so-secretly be pushing to 365+ this year though a) this is in danger, and b) I doubt I'll match 2022's performance (378 if you're counting). 

First up we have an air elemental and water elemental from the Castle Ravenloft board game. You might wonder, why are these different sizes? For that, I have no useful answer. You might also wonder why they're painted in the same scheme. That, I can answer! I messed up and didn't realize my mistake until they were painted. I can't be bothered to strip the air elemental so it'll stay the color it is. Wash + a couple layers of drybrush. No drama here.

These devil-y dudes are actually Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 ghouls. I don't use undead in general but I do use demons and quite a lot in my current in-person game. So they got all red-ified. The details aren't super good and I didn't spend a lot of time with their muscleatures but they were done in a couple hours all told which is what I was going for. Also note the return of Geek Gaming Scenics basing materials. 

2023 finished mini counter: 215/104

A thing a week 2023, week 37

No theme this week, just a handful of figs and not very good paint jobs to boot. These are dire boars from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 and like a lot of the figs I've painted from this set so far, these are speed paints. I found these figs difficult because the sculpts didn't super differentiate between tusks and fur. These are a pretty basic contrast paint + minor drybrush + details. 

2023 finished mini counter: 202/102

A thing a week 2023, week 32

Moar painting moar bads, this week also from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 and we kick off with orcs which I painted like hobgoblins. Why? I have no need for another group of Orks (with a K) and these aren't fantastic sculpts. Also based simply with Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready flocking and painted very simply, I didn't do enough to clean up mold lines. One of the really lousy "features" of this line is that their mold lines are pretty godawful going over some very difficult parts of the sculpt. 

Next up are bugbears from the same line with the same issues. I did some minor drybrushing on their fur to make it more believable as such but I don't think it particularly worked. I hate their fantasy polearms (really? bugbears have these?) and their dumb nubbly single pauldrons. I tried to downplay the parts I disliked by using a nice, dark, saturated red. These guys don't particularly work for me but they're painted and I guess that's fine.

2023 finished mini counter: 167/102

A thing a week 2023, week 31

In retrospect, I should have named this rapidly-becoming-mega-theme but here are moar bads. Will we get moar bads next week? Tune in to find out!

First up we have Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 Goblins. I don't particularly like these sculpts and didn't spend a lot of time on them. Note that they're all the same color scheme to save time. Done in maybe a couple hours, they're the best color: painted.

Rounding out this week we have Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 Kobolds. Much like the goblins, these are also not particularly well painted. I also note that these guys have slings which are a pretty high-training kind of weapon. True that they're minimum technology both in weapon and ammunition, but one wonders how kobolds would have gotten this training. These are also not great sculpts but I'm happy they're painted.

2023 finished mini counter: 157/102

A thing a week 2023, week 30

This week we continue our non-theme of "moar bads" with Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 gnolls. I have an unabashed and well-documented love of gnolls and if I recall correctly, these were one of the selling points for this kickstarter. While these are OK, they're not great and I really wish their spears weren't so bendy and weren't so horizontal such that they can't stand in a line. They'll take their place with my horde of gnolls as Ashpelt gnolls and should be perfectly serviceable.

Also! I'm experimenting with Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready products. I think this one is Base Ready Mountain Pass. I've had these for a while and hadn't used them until now mostly because I'm lazy and I have to say that I kind of like them. They're awfully convenient and look better than I normally base and don't really require painting though admittedly they'd be better with some. Downside: some of the ingredients on some of them are slightly magnetic which wreaks havoc with the magnets in all of my bases. 

2023 finished mini counter: 147/102

A thing a week 2023, week 27

Week 3 of our "I need moar bads" not-mini-theme features these rainbow colored 5x Giant Worms from Black List Fantasy Series 1. I think they're supposed to be purple worms but who needs five purple worms? I figure I'll use them for some kind of color-coded trap or something. They're basically zenithaled, washed, then drybrushed with claws and teeth picked out. Not exactly rocket surgery here.

2023 finished mini counter: 138/104

A thing a week 2023, week 26

Continuing our non-banger "monsters I need for my game" we have imps and gargoyles from Blacklist Fantasy 1 kickstarter and no, I don't know which is which and yes, I am too lazy to look them up.. These are painted identically to the gargoyles from last week and probably that's all that needs to be said.

2023 finished mini counter: 133/104

A thing a week 2023, week 19

Finishing up our mini-theme of non-bangers from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1. These are werewolves (hopefully obviously). I spent a little more time on them as they're slightly more interesting sculpts but don't get your hopes up, these still aren't well painted and as per usual, they're even more poorly photographed. Some day, some day.

2023 finished mini counter: 107/104

A thing a week 2023, week 18

Week three of non-bangers from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 is here and I want to clarify that it's the paint jobs that are questionable more than the figures. Like last week's rats, this week's wolves are painted simply and have non-differentiated bases because I'm lazy. One more week of these probably before we get on to slightly more interesting topics.

2023 finished mini counter: 102/104

A thing a week 2023, week 17

We continue our mini-theme of non-bangers from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 with these five giant rats. These guys don't have any freehand and I'm probably going to have a rough time telling them apart on the table because I was too lazy to paint their bases in different colors. I'll have to find a way to survive, somehow.

2023 finished mini counter: 97/104

A thing a week 2023, week 16

Back to minis this week. These are five giant spiders from Blacklist Fantasy Miniatures Series 1. They are painted very simply with very questionable freehand on their backs so I can tell them apart on the table. They also mark a several week hiatus from painting that isn't entirely obvious since I usually work a few weeks in advance for exactly this purpose. They can't all be bangers, folks, but they're the best color: painted.

2023 finished mini counter: 92/104

A thing a week 2023, week 6

Last week I mentioned that I was practicing my magma effects so this week we're continuing that thought. These are troglodytes from Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 but since I don't need any more trogs and I do need more magma beasts...well, it's an obvious solution. I thought these guys would hold this paint job better than they actually do and I expected to do a bunch of the work as drybrush which I did but ultimately I don't think they sell super well. The darks aren't dark enough and many of them are missing the orange tones which looks wrong. That said, I am too lazy to repaint them so they're fine. Also, note that their bases are color-coded so we can tell them apart at the table and that the shooting is just as bad as ever. 

2023 finished mini counter: 48/104

A thing a week 2023, week 5

This week we have similarly medium drama, low effort paint jobs but with slightly more effort. These first three are (hopefully obviously) air, water, and fire elementals. They're cast in fairly rigid translucent plastic which I did almost no work on. The paint is mostly washes and drybrushing and being unhappy about all of the mold lines that I missed. Not much to see here, really. 

Painted at a different time is the magma elemental from the same line. Technically he's supposed to be an earth elemental to go with the others above but I thought he'd look better as a magma elemental and I wanted the practice. This looked a lot like skipping the zenithal, painting the lower recesses yellow then going orange->super dark red->black in increasingly thin drybrush layers until I got something close to what I wanted. After that I glazed with various late colors until I arrived here. In retrospect, I probably should have airbrushed in yellow to save a step and then done more with a better drybrush. I think it sells, at least slightly, so that works. 

2023 finished mini counter: 43/104

A thing a week 2023, week 4

This week we have what might be considered a filler. Nay, I say, these are still figures, they still needed paint, and I still painted them. It's not about the effort as much as being to tally things to the done column. 

Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 has been plagued with issues for a while now and I don't particularly want to think about it anymore so suffice to say, I've received my pledge (finally) and am starting to paint these figs. These are medium drama, low effort paint jobs and basically how I handle transparent figures where I want to utilize that transparency. 

First up we have mist snakes and oozes and they're individual sides of the equation. The snakes are just drybrushed and the oozes are just washed. The blue spirits and banshees are both and this time around I did them in reverse order first drybrushing then washing. Previously I've done these in the reverse order and given these results, I should go back to doing them that way.

2023 finished mini counter: 39/104