A thing a week 2025, week 5

This week we continue the non-theme of "stuff on my painting table that don't move my goal needle at all." That said, I can barely remember a time when I had so clean a desk. So I got that goin' for me. 

First up we have Denthir the Orc Cleric from Twin Goddess Miniatures. I like the sculpt (minus the fantasy polearm) but didn't spend nearly enough time with these two. While not always a dead giveaway that I've phoned a paint job in, it's usually true that if you see a white or greytone "clearly this came out of a zenithal" scheme anywhere on a model, it's because I was in a hurry. So it is thus. I've been busy hacking away at something putting most of my other efforts on hold or on life support so when it came time to finishing these two off, I was in a hurry. I also kind of boxed myself in with the color scheme which I thought through not nearly well enough. So don't be surprised if the mace guy shows up here at some point in the future wearing better paints.

Here we have Orc Rogue B from Titan Forge mirrored, obviously. This is a really good sculpt and I had a lot of fun painting them. They took roughly as long as our pals Denethir above but the sculpt did most of the work if I'm honest. They have that excellent mix of appropriately-raised and spaced detail that meant I could spend most of the time on the stuff that matters: their faces and highlights. The majority of the basecoat is contrast paint and I thought I'd done a better job of knocking out the shine but these close-ups have a way of revealing all of my painting sins. These could definitely sport a higher level effort so we should only be so lucky as to their future return to these un-hallowed pixels.

2025 finished mini counter: 21

A thing a week 2023, week 22

This week, as threatened, we're back to minis and back to Ork-land because Orks are great. And yes, it's properly spelled with a k, even though none of the sculptors here spelled it correctly. I guess we just can't have nice things.

First up we have Gon'Tarr Orc Shaman who I got from Bones 5. If I'm honest, I don't super like this sculpt and I especially don't like that he skips leg day. I note that his muscleature wasn't super well painted mostly because he's small and also because I'm lazy. His cloak was mostly contrast paint and drybrushing and while I'm lamenting my laziness, I've definitely painted better bones/horns than I did on his staff. 

Next up we have Gara, the Half Orc from Bite the Bullet. Anyone even remotely aware of my work with even a couple brain cells to rub together should realize that I like painting gals way more than dudes so it should surprise no one that I put a bunch of extra time into this fig. The print was pretty lousy and as per usual I didn't do enough prep in removing the support scars. As a result I didn't push to higher levels of quality this go-around but at a total cost of around five hours, I think I got to a good place. I did make an effort to line things, though, which isn't a thing that I do super often. So there's that.

Last up we have Guldra - Orc Warlock from Twin Goddess Miniatures. I like this sculpt a lot though I do wish she was better clothed and I really wish her staff was less spindly. It's also notable that she really doesn't want to stand on her own without the funky sculpted base which I am not a fan of since I like making bases. Taking a look at the final shot on the right here, I'm reminded that the end of it snapped off one more time than I glued it back on. I also didn't realize that the purple base wash I stuck on was quite so shiny. The crystal bits are mostly phoned in but read OK on the tabletop. I'm not sold on these color choices, TBH, though they're about as faithful a triadic as I ever paint. Probably I'll print and paint her again, though likely at 25% larger.

2023 finished mini counter: 112/104