Wizkids-a-rama, week 4 (week 43)

This week will round out the rest of my Nolzur's and Pathfinder normal sized figs. I've got some dragons that'll show up here at some point but for now, I can rest easier that I never have to paint another normal sized figure from these lines unless I'm a dumb and buy more. I really hope I have good reason to when I inevitably do. Also note that I'm still fiddling with my photography settings and they're still not good.

We saw Minsc in the first week of this theme. This would be his blister-mate, Moon Elf Sorcerer who I assume is someone else from Baldur's Gate. In fact, I bought them for this fig since she was holding a fireball and I really wanted to do more OSL. Clearly, I didn't do any OSL on this fig but I did spend a lot of time picking out details on her outfit even if I punted and painted her cloak black. I think this works and I like the color scheme.

These two are Pathfinder Human Female Oracles and like our Moon Elf friend, I bought them to practice OSL and then failed to follow through with that. What do you want? It's a speed painting theme! The gal with the scythe is awful. I mean, steel breastplate, bare legs, scythe and open toed sandals is all kind of fantasy hot mess. I have no idea what they were thinking. The other gal I like despite all her bejangles and other gear and I spent way too long on her. I think these work OK too.

The gal is the other half of Female Human Wizard featured in week 24 next to a repeat of Aasimar Paladin featured in the same week. She's got a definite unlimited power thing going on which I failed to do any OSL with. I don't think her Harry Potter scarf things hit. He's got super cheap & easy black wings and armor in a suitably edgelord way played by Pro Acryl Transparent Black and nothing else. These are cheap and easy paint jobs that look good for the effort expended. I.e., not much.

These two don't look OK and I had a heck of a time painting them. They're Nolzur's Female Aasimar Wizards and they look way nicer in the renders than these figs turned out in actuality. There's way too much negative space on these and the spell effect on the ground made her legs almost impossible to paint. Seriously, folks, don't make figs like these, at least not if we can't paint them in subassemblies. Those spell effects are "hey, look at me green" on purpose to draw attention to the less well done parts of those paint jobs which is generally "the rest of it." You can tell which one's wings I spent actual time on.

This guy is a Nolzur's Weretiger and he arrived with the wererat a couple weeks ago. I like that he doesn't have a million details but I really think there was a better paint scheme in there. Probably his cloak should have been grey to pop out his orangey fur and probably his armor wanted to be a less orangey brown. The freehanded stripes don't particularly work but he's fine at arm's length. I learned on this fig that tiger patterning is harder in paint than in illustration.

We saw the non-winged versions of Nolzur's Female Aasimar Paladin and Fighter in week 1 of this theme and as I recall, I rather liked those figs. I rather liked these, too, and despite being a speed paint, I put more effort into them even if it doesn't really show. The paladin gave me a great opportunity to paint a nice face so that's where the bulk of the time went despite the fact that it didn't shoot well. I especially like how her wings turned out and I think I learned that I like painting wings. I think these came out well and they'll round out the last of the theme.

So there we go, 41 figs in four weeks (three calendar weeks in actuality) for a grand total of 48 painting hours. That's right around 70 minutes a fig which is right around where I wanted to land. In truth, the same time spent on generally better/easier-to-paint figs would have probably yielded a better result, but this is what I had so this is what I did. I'm not unhappy with this effort, but in retrospect, I shouldn't have bought most of these figs.

2021 finished mini counter: 269/100

Wizkids-a-rama, week 3 (week 42)

Week three of this theme and it's going...ok. On the whole, these aren't good figs and they are not easy to paint. I'm helped by the addition of a Redgrass wet palette. I own numerous wet palettes, many of which I made so you might be wondering why I not just bought one, but bought one of the spendiest of them available. My wet palettes all suffer from serious mold problems and nothing I've done has curbed this. The Redgrass claims to be mold-resistant so I'm putting it to the test. More on that later!

First up we have one half of Nolzur's Human Male Cleric, the other half of which is currently playing one of my player characters and featured way back in week 24. This fig is the epitome of Nolzur-ness. It has far too many details none of which make any damned sense. Across those too many details are a set of mold lines that resist mitigation. Beyond that, there's also hard to reach negative space and since these figs are primed in white, you can't just not paint it without looking really terrible. This guy was a mess and the only good thing I can say is that I don't have to paint him anymore. Oh, and I replaced the dumb thing on the end of his mace with a bead which looks much better even if it's on crooked.

These two are Pathfinder Female Half Elf Rangers. one of them looks like a preppy necromancer with a crossbow and the other looks like she belongs on Hoth. They contrast strangely in their completely different level of detail. One was extremely hard to paint, the other not so much. I think they work, but only just but I'm not entirely unhappy with this paint job. The photography, on the other hand, leaves much to be desired.

Next up we have Nolzur's Elf Male Druids and I don't like these figs. The renders look nice, but then again, they always look nice and I have no idea what that spell effect is on his hand, nor did I paint it particularly well. In this case I was helped by the detail on them and picking out the patterns in ochre helped hide some of the other sins. They're kind of big compared to the other figs in the line. Not sure what's up with that but it'd be really nice if it was consistent across the line.

These are Pathfinder Female Knights/Grey Maidens and they may win the trophy for "most straps." I'd hoped that all the armor would make it easy to hide mistakes with metallic paints but that turned out to not be the case. The sword gal had all kinds of badness on her cloak. It looks like it came out of the mold bad and they chose to send it down the line instead of pulling it for quality. I probably could have done more with that if I'd realized it was this bad (note: white primed figs make these kinds of issues really hard to see). I kind of like these figs and put extra time into them but kind of lost it after trying to put buckles on all the damned straps. They landed OK.

Next up we have Pathfinder Female Human Paladins who I mistook for Seelah and painted in her color scheme. Maybe that's what they intended. I can only guess, but I do have an official Seelah in one of the Bones kickstarters so I have to imagine there are licensing issues afoot. These might be good sculpts, I like the poses in particular, but they're let down by some properly messed up molding. Or priming. The priming is generally heavy on these which might be the problem. At any rate, the details ended up really soft in exactly the places they didn't want to be. I think the fleshtones turned out well but these have lousy negative space and I spent not nearly enough time blending their cloaks. If only I had the oils out. Next time, Seelah, next time. 

Last up we have the other half of Nolzur's Female Half Elf Monk which sounds an awful lot like I cut the fig in half but indeed, these come in packs of two. I bought this pack because of this gal's fireball and despite wanting to do a lot more pronounced OSL, I only did some. Normally when you do these you paint the dark half of the figure in, er, darkness, but I forgot to do that. So instead, I subdued the lighting effect from her fireball--yeah, that's it. I totally didn't half ass this at all. It's still OSL so it still counts! I also didn't realize how glossy the paint ended up until I shot it.

2021 finished mini counter: 259/100, OSL 3/5

Wizkids-a-rama, week 2 (week 41)

For this theme I'm trying to settle into a rhythm focusing on brush painting and slapping around paint as quick-like as I can but I can't say I've been successful thusfar. These are (supposedly) pre-primed so I don't have to worry about that. I spend some time shaving off mold lines and getting them on a magnetized base but we dispense with the zenithal and anti-zenithal this time around. Instead we're going with a shaded basecoat mainly comprised of Pro Acryl Transparents and following up with whatever paints will finish the job. Like last week, these aren't good paint jobs but they are fast and I'm trying to keep up two per day (around 1.5 hours per fig or so) to burn through them as quickly as I dare. Also note that I'm experimenting with my photography rig and I haven't quite dialed it in yet so these shots are lousy as usual.

First up we have Nolzur's Female Half-Orc Barbarians and Nolzur's Female Half-Orc Fighters. Despite being from Nolzur's, I think these aren't terrible. The barbarians in particular, I think are fairly good sculpts. Notably, these are from a later wave and I'd like to think they're learning. Some day in the unforseeable future, I might lift my embargo of Nolzur's figs. I could have put more effort into the barbarians' fur and I don't think that the bronze-whatever on their armor particularly works. I was experimenting with different recipes and I don't think any of them particularly landed. These turned out OK, and I wouldn't be embarrassed to put them on my table.

These are a pair of packs of Nolzur's Female Human Cleric because I am a dummy and have a miniature buying problem. I'm doing much better this year, tho. I do not like these figs. Their armor is kind of dumb. I don't like their crowns or bendy weapons or dumb spell effects, and because of all of this, I generally didn't spend much time on them. It's also interesting seeing them side by side just how much the same figs can vary in this line. Every mini poses some interesting unique problems, even if it's another crack at painting the same figure. For that, I'm glad, but these don't look good and I'm not particularly sad about it.

Last up we have the wererat as seen in Nolzur's Wererat and Weretiger (the tiger part of the duo will be seen later) and the other half of Nolzur's Elf Female Rogue, and the blister mate of last week's rogue. The wererat's pose is janky but he doesn't have too terribly many details and the details he does have are pretty soft. The only rough part are his eyes which are pretty danged indistinct. This gal's gluing gaps and other difficulties are way worse than last week's. Despite that I put in more time into this fig than it could really support. For my efforts, these two look bad, but they're painted and that counts for something, right? 

2021 finished mini counter: 249/100

Wizkids-a-rama, week 1 (week 40)

Welcome to the next theme hot on the heels of the highly successful Elffest 2021. During that fourfive week period we averaged one fig a day which is pretty danged good in my book and some of those paint jobs weren't terrible! For this next theme we have something a little different. Rather than being a grouping of figs by culture or thereabouts (Elves, Samurai, Lizardfolk, etc.) we have a grouping of figs by manufacturer, in this case, Wizkids. My increasing displeasure of the Nolzur's D&D line and Pathfinder equivalent has been well established and I just want to get them the heck out of my pile of potential. So for the next four weeks we're burning through them as quickly as I dare hoping to keep up the same kind of speed. So here we go.

First up we have Pathfinder Deep Cuts: Human Fighter. Had I realized these figs were so large, I probably wouldn't have bought them, though I do mostly like the sculpts. The molds, however, are typically lousy. There's a trend with larger figs to pack them with doodads and bejangles and strap and whatnot which carries through to 3d models, too. These were a torturous paint and I think my lack of persistence shows but they typify the best and worst of these lines. I did paint in a 5 o'clock shadow on these guys which, with the fancy metallic weapons takes focus away from the badness.

This is Minsc. I didn't even play that game and I know who Minsc is. He came with a gal who will undoubtedly grace these unhallowed pixels in a future week but for now we just have Minsc. He's from a middle-late wave and I think there's a pretty marked improvement. He has a reasonable amount of detail--enough to look good but not enough to be a pain. He was a reasonable paint and I think he turned out OK.

These two dudes are the wingless version of Nolzur's Aasimar Paladins one of whom showed up way back in week 24 and one of whom will show up later in this theme. They're not particularly complicated but I also didn't work particularly hard on them. I'm kind of put off by the sleazy politician sculpt of their faces and they have far too many straps. Most of these guys (the brown tones in particular) are a sole coat of Pro Acryl Transparent Brown which I think looks good enough as both leather and wood to not put a ton of additional effort into. This kind of trick serves me well in these kinds of batches and we'll see it a lot. 

These two are Nolzur's Female Half Elf Monk with a staff and Pathfinder Female Half Elf Rogue with daggers and I don't like either of them. The monk is neither a good sculpt nor a good fig and if I'm honest, I bought them for the other fig in the blister which is shooting an awesome fireball--stay tuned! The rogue has a nice pose and not awful armor but there's some significant part fit issues that really ruined my enjoyment of the painting. This is sadly also common in these kinds of figs. Any time there's a factory gluing, it's suspect. These were never going to support a proper paint job so they're the best color: painted.

These two are Pathfinder Human Female Fighters and I rather like the gal with the sword despite her bendy scabbard. The gal with the bow is not glued, sculpted, or molded particularly well and that kind of ruins it for me. She also has a really significant gluing issue on her head and cloak which looks really, really wrong. As an additional badness, her cloak has the typical difficult negative space underneath which I hate so much on these figs. I spent probably too long on these and only one of them looks OK. I did speed up over the course of the theme, so there's that. 

And ending on a high note, I rather like these two gals despite being Nolzur's figs. They are the wingless versions of Female Aasimar Paladin and Female Aasimar Fighter and no, I'm not sure which is which. They have nice poses, fairly good armor, and I can buy that these gals mean business. I mean, they're not half-turned around in a spine-snapping supermodel pose, nor are they waifishly thin and yet somehow ridiculously over-endowed. So naturally, I love them! The winged version will show up in a future week and hopefully those are just as nice!

2021 finished mini counter: 239/100

A thing a week 2021, week 39

This we have one of my favorite things ever: cheap and easy painting. Bones 5 fulfilled earlier this year and these are probably the easiest paints in the entire batch. Despite the time investment herein, I think these guys look good.

These six guys are listed as Boulderkin and they're apparently too new to be listed on Reapermini.com. They're primed, shadowed (anti-zenithaled) and zenithaled as usual but we use the airbrush one step further: they got a basecoat and basic highlight with the airbrush. After that, an ink wash, dry brush, and picking out their beady eyes finished them off. I put them on desert-y bases because my current campaign is happening in a desert-y environment. I'd intended to take two shots of these as normal but forgot so enjoy this uncentered photo.

I'm calling this guy a stump elemental. I have no idea what he's supposed to be but he's listed with the dark elves. He's painted basically like the boulderkin with the addition of picking out a few details and adding a few highlights in brushwork. He has no eyes so I didn't paint any. Note again my lousy photography and how terribly he's centered. Not clear what I'll use him for or why he's on cobblestones but he's done and that counts for something. 

2021 finished mini counter: 228/100

Elffest 2021, week 5 (week 38)

Thought we were done with Elves, were we? Well not today! This week we have bonus Elves from Bones 5 which fulfilled earlier this year. These are nice figs disrespected by a questionable batch paint job. They follow the typical pattern:

• prime w/stynylrez w/airbrush
• shadow w/payne's grey inks w/airbrush
• zenithal w/white ink w/airbrush
• some ineffective basecoating w/airbrush
• basecoat with pro acryl transparents
• highlight and whatnot

These five are Elf Rangers and they're new enough that I can't find a link on reapermini.com. These are good figs with terrible eyes. Following up from my observation on the Wood Elf Archers last week, these guys are relatively simple with minimal colors needed but still have enough details to be interesting. I went out of my way to texture the leather rather than leaving them as Pro Acryl Brown Transparent as I've been doing recently but don't worry, I'll be back to my normal shenanigans in the next theme. I think these guys came out pretty well despite not spending anywhere near enough time on them and despite their torturous eyes.

These two are a Dark Elf w/Bow and Lanaerel Grayleaf, Elf Ranger (in plastic). As non-rank-and-file figures, I spent slightly more time on them as they are slightly more interesting. After having done these seven, I'm not entirely sold on this color scheme even though it's technically a proper split complementary. Also, now shooting these figs, I should have pushed my highlights higher. 

Overall these seven were done to the tune of around 14 hours which is slightly higher than intended but being better sculpts, I'm good with that. I think they came out OK and I'm happy to add them to my collection of completed figs.

2021 finished mini counter: 221/100

Elffest 2021 week 4 (week 37)

This would be week two of the green team and like last time, these are the archers. If this theme has taught me anything, it's that I'm glad I don't play an army game.

First up we have the other half of Nolzur's Female Elf Ranger. This neither a good figure nor a good paint job and yet she's here shot by herself. The sculpt is questionable and like a lot of the Nolzur's line, they're lousy molds. I have no idea what's goin on with this fig so I mostly guessed and was lazy. Best color? Yes, painted.

And digging deeper into my vintage figs we have some Oldhammer Wood Elf Archers. These are awesome heavy metal figs that I bought decades ago at a going out of business sale. If I'd had any sense (or any more cash) I would have bought more. They're painted in the same scheme as the other Elves in this batch and based with a combination of flocking and old tea leaves. I think these guys look pretty good and looking more closely, I think I know why. They seem to have a critical amount of detail. Not too much to be annoying but not too little to be boring. As this was pretty early in these kinds of figs even being a thing, I don't know if that was intentional or otherwise, though it certainly is today. 

Last up we have Aeris Female Ranger and Alistrilee from Reaper Bones. These share similar issues with all the normal Bones lines. I do like these figures despite that and I spent a bit of extra time on them, though not as much as I might have otherwise done. Poor Alistrilee's face is taking more light in this photo than is strictly needed which is a good indication that I need to adjust my lighting again.

The green team in whole were finished in about 23 hours which is pretty high for 13 figs. I'd expected this to speed up but it hasn't, really. These are rolling in at higher quality and they aren't as self-similar as, say, the Frostgrave Crewmen from A Pirate's Life, so I guess that kind of makes sense. 

2021 finished mini counter: 214/100

Elffest 2021, week 3 (week 36)

This week we start the green team and, as we all know, green is a very Elfy color. Like most of the other figs in this theme we start with the normal steps:

1. Prime with Badger Stynylrez (mix of white and grey)
2. Anti-zenithal with Daler Rowney Payne's Grey ink
3. Zenithal with an off white, probably Pro Acryl Bright Ivory
4. Straight down highlight with Daler Rowney white ink

Just like last time we start with the melee team and this is the twin of Week 34's Elf Paladin by Stanislav Kuznetsov. I feel like I did a better job than on his twin but only marginally. I'm also starting to decide that I don't like all of the bejangles and other crap on him (I was on the fence in week 34 but I'm pretty sure now). Possibly a larger print and more carefully applied paint would be better but I'm not 100% sure I'm going to do that.

Next up we have the twin High Elf Female Guardians again by Stanislav. Their swords are droopy like the last ones and I still didn't do enough highlighting of their armor. These figs, on the other hand, I like more having painted another two of them. I don't think I particularly did any better painting them but there ya go. Next time around I'll probably do a better metallic pop color--I don't think this bronze works super well.

And if you predicted, "we'll have twin male and female Elf Soldiers by Velrock!" then you are indeed correct! I was in no way consistent in where I applied the bronze-ish color but meh. I think these would also be better at larger scale where their details would be a little easier to cope with but I really wish the cloth hangy bits were sculpted a little better.

This is Shardis, Female Elf Rogue and I'm pretty sure she came with Bones 4 seemingly forever ago. I rather like this fig. She's got a nice pose and fun armor and a pair of daggers which is under represented in my collection. Note the pillar attaching her scabbard to the ground. I might have cut that off but painted it black instead. Her eyes are better in person than they look in the picture and despite the fact that I didn't shade her super well, I think she turned out OK.

Next up we have Arael, Half-Elf Cleric. Despite my best efforts, the mold lines on this guy were a mess but as a normal white plastic Bones fig, this is a common issue. I did not appreciate the bajillionty straps on him nor did I like that his foot behind his sword is unsculpted. His left hand is pretty badly deformed which is common with old metal molds in Bones white plastic. I put quite a lot of effort into him and I'm afraid the results don't particularly show here. That said, he's the best color: painted.

Last up we have Fiara, Elf Heroine. I don't particularly like her weapon but her armor is pretty nice. I also put extra effort into this fig and I think she looks good for it. Probably more shading was needed on her weapon and the yellows could pop a little more but I'm pretty happy with the result.

2021 finished mini counter: 209/100

Elffest 2021, week2 (week 35)

As mentioned last week, this week we have the blue team's archers and it seems like all of these figures were challenging in some way.  As per usual, they are primed, anti-zenithaled, and zenithaled. I'd intended to do glazes over a value sketch but that didn't really work out as we shall see. These six weigh in at around fourteen hours total which feels heavy for the intent but heavily weighted toward the last one.

First up we have one half of Nolzur's Female Elf Rangers. The more of these Nolzur's figs I paint, the less I like them and I suspect that I may at some point burn through the rest of them to get them out of the way. Look, I like that I can get a wide diversity of figs for a relatively competitive price, but even with a lot of work, these can't support great paint jobs. I guessed at what was going on for most of this fig which is why she's got so much armor. I have no idea what the intent of some of her details were. I am not fond of this figure and I'm glad I don't have to paint her again. Hopefully her blister-mate will go better.

This is Lindir, Elf Archer from Reaper Bones and I liked this fig more prior to painting it than after. His face is kind of messed up and my paint job did not help this. A lot of the details were soft and if I'd been more into this fig, I'd have popped out the details on his boots like the ones on his jerkin. I think this color scheme works and overall and he looks OK at a distance but it doesn't hold up to scrutiny. 

These three are the fun ones. These three are vintage Earthdawn figs from Heartbreaker, ones I bought a long time ago and I wish I'd bought more of. I'm sure I've typed this before, but Earthdawn is one of my favorite RPGs. These three are fairly exaggerated even for early 90s sculpts but that doesn't keep me from loving them. I did what I could with the skintones but their arms and hands are pretty nuts. I struggled to highlight the volumes reasonably partially because I was going fast, and partially because I was being lazy. I do like how these turned out all things considered, but I wouldn't be surprised if I decided to revisit them at a later date.

This is a Wood Elf Scout from the Chainmail Ravilla Box set, and a gift from a pal. She's been sitting on my workbench for many months like most of the Elves in this theme. The non-metallics are mostly Pro Acryl Transparents lightened by light fleshtones and off whites. The metallics are Vallejo Metal Color and highlit with Golden High Flow Acrylics and washed (not very well) with Badger Ghost Tint Midnight Blue (not in that order). I like this fig and spent a lot of time on her and despite the bad shots over here, I think she turned out pretty well. I'm going to count her as a high quality fig for this year. Ultimately, I'm happy but not satisfied and will count this as one of my high quality figs for the year.

2021 finished mini counter: 201/100, 4/5 high quality

Elffest 2021, week 1 (week 34)

This week we kick off a new theme: Elves. This breaks up a month of one and two-off paint jobs some of which were creeping up in the number of hours spent. I have a lot of figs in this batch and my observation is that I generally speed up overall from doing big batches because I have to focus only on the details that really matter to finish in a sane amount of time. This is the first batch of the blue team: the melee line and we've got the usual going on. More specifically, anti-zenithal with Payne's Grey and zenithal with a white or off white after priming. Metallics are washed with Badger Minitaire Ghost Tint Inidgo and highlit with Golden High Flow Acrylics. 

These two are Nolzur's Female Elf Paladins and like many Nolzur's figures, they are questionable sculpts with bad molds. The gal with the greatsword's skirt's negative space is super hard to paint. The gal with the mace's cloak is extra bad and the one I have is posed such that the shield is directly in front of her face. Good luck with painting eyes! Despite that, I rather like these figs and really wish they were done in, I dunno, nice plastics instead of the typical rubbery Nolzur's junk. I punted on the wood on the shield and the rocky bases they're standing on. 

These two are High Elf Female Guardians by Stanislav Kuznetsov and despite my terrible printing and painting, I really like these figs. The swords weren't properly supported so they're both leaning down and some of the supports have made things difficult. I printed them kind of small and I think they'd benefit from being slightly better and not being part of a batch. Since this is a 3d print, I can make that happen so sometime in the unforseeable future, I expect these to make a return. 

This is a 3d print Elf Spearmaiden also by Stanislav. I like this fig but like many of my other early prints, she's way, way too small. She was printed last October which feels forever away and sat partially painted on my desk from before I conceived of themes at all. One thing I really don't like about this fig is her spear. Like most things in resin, it's brittle and has broken off like a billion times already. It will probably continue to break until I get pissed enough to replace it for a more durable one. This paint job isn't all I wanted it to be and I'm sure I'll re-print her at a sturdier size at some point in the near future.

Also from Stanislav is this Elf Paladin. I did not do a good job with this one mostly because I failed to get the magnet in a good spot and he wobbled around badly while I was painting him. He's mostly metallics and there are a lot of bejangles and doodads hanging off of him. He's also printed fairly small and I suspect that a future print and paint (non-batch) would yield a better result.

These two are male and female Elf Soldiers by Velrock available for free on Thingiverse. Velrock does good work and should you be so inclined, I'd recommend visiting their store on MyMiniFactory. These are great figs and despite my bumbling with their paint job, I still think they look good. Like the other prints in this batch, I probably printed them too small and painted them too fast to get as good a result as they probably warranted. We may see these show up again at a future date.

This last gal is Aviriel Tellerion, Female Elf and an old Reaper Bones figure. This is a questionable sculpt and a terrible mold and like many Bones figs, despite heavy cleaning and good priming, paint did not want to stick to her. I started liking this fig a lot and ended up really not being a fan. Her hair is nuts and there are a lot of awful negative spaces on her. Despite the time spent, I ended up not liking this paint job and might revisit later. For now, she's the best color: painted.

All told this batch of nine was around nineteen hours but at least some of that was burning paint on other figs in the batch so it's a little high. Even reducing colors I ended up spending more time than I expected. It'll be interesting to see if this batch speeds up on a per-figure basis. Next week: blue team archers!

2021 finished mini counter: 195/100

A thing a week 2021, week 33

This week we continue our not-theme of "stuff on my painting desk." I've got some longer projects bubbling in the background that get effort over time but we'll get to those in due time. For now, this is what we've got.

This is Joanna the Cleric by Twin Goddess Miniatures. This is a multi-sculpt figure and of which these are my two favorite, though honestly, I could have done without the high heels. These were a one day paints. A single day for me is between 3 and 5 hours, so still pretty substantial, and since I've got a pile of stuff I want to get through, this is a thing I want to do more of. Since so much of their getup was metal, I did some shadows with Badger Ghost Tints and highlights with Golden High Flow Acrylics as per usual. This is a fairly cheap and easy way to punch up an otherwise fairly dull model. Despite the time spent on them, their faces aren't spectacular but overall, I'm not unhappy with this result weighing in at about six hours all told for the both of them.

I shouldn't like Brianna of the Blade (and yes, I did get the metal version). She's got dumb fantasy armor which I'm just about allergic to. She was sculpted in 1998 by Sandra Garrity, a sculptor whose work I like quite a lot, and I could not resist the 90s era hair. This is a good sculpt, fashion choices notwithstanding, let down by a lousy mold. I did a lot of sculpting with paint and I notice now that I didn't properly give her hair the Pantene Shine(TM) and that's a bummer. She was done over many months done in what I'd guess is three hours and I'm not unhappy with this result. Minus the hair.

Zadim, Iconic Slayer came with Bones 4. I understand he's from Pathfinder, a game I don't play and if I had looked up the concept art, I might have painted him differently. Like many of the others of this week's offering, he's been sitting on my painting table for a while, since the end of last year if I recall correctly, and I didn't particularly like all of his fancy...fancyness. He was done in around three hours which is where a lot of my not-tryhard jobs are landing these days. 

This is the Paladin out of the Chainmail Starter Set. She's metal (and heavy) and the mold defects were pretty awful. Yes, I said defects instead of lines because these were way worse than lines would have been and, naturally, there's one going right over the left side of her face. Her armor is the typical fantasy trope crap but she was a fun paint nonetheless. I did minimal shading/highlighting on the armor--just the stuff that would pop out, but I think it all works. She sat partially painted for months on my table before finishing for this week's offering so I wouldn't hazard a guess as to how long it took.

These are 3d prints of Amazon Warriors by Artisan's Guild whose work I quite like. The STL is available for free. I printed these too small at roughly 25mm scale at a time when I thought I wanted that. Their eyes in particular were exceptionally difficult because of this. On the other hand, I got to do a lot of work with fleshtones which I'm actively trying to improve. These mostly show that with some improvement but ultimately I think I need a lot more work. The two of these gals were done in around eight hours total and I'm not unhappy with them.

The last two are figs that I don't like. The sculpts are soft and the molds, like most of the official Pathfinder and D&D lines, are crap. These were purchased for a PC in my last intended-to-be-in-person game from last year so they hadn't gotten painted. Well, they're on my bench partially painted and I finished them off in a few hours in early August. The fleshtones probably needed to go to a higher highlight. These aren't good paint jobs but they a) don't particularly have to be, and the figs themselves won't hold a good paint job but they're done and I'm happy with that.

2021 finished mini counter: 186/100