A thing a week 2023, week 49

We're in the home stretch here and it looks like I'm going to hit my arbitrary "fig a day" stretch goal. That means that there's going to be a flood of big posts rounding out the year and hopefully none of the dodgy math that I'm known for.

These three are from Bones 4 who I know as witchy gal, gravestone gal, and barbarian chick (actually Willow Greenivy, Witch, Jahenna, and Talnyth, Female Elf Barbarian). They were done as mostly speed paints mostly because they weren't super complex. Probably Jahenna needed more highlights and again I didn't realize her dress was quite so shiny until reviewing these photos. Talnyth had some pretty bad mold lines and the white bones plastic detail was really, really soft. I did what I could. Probably Ms. Greenivy came out the best and I'm bummed I didn't do more work on the crystal in her staff.  

From blf1 we have elf barbarian and female dwarf cleric and Regis from the Legend of Drizzt boardgame. I didn't super like any of these figs so they were a batch speed paint. They came out OK and I note that the basecoat was shiny again. This time, I think maybe a homemade wash with Daler Rowney ink. The one thing I did do was try really hard to differentiate the different leathers since there was so much of it. Probably the dwarf gal's gold armor needed more work than it got and try as I might, I couldn't get the border of her robe to work.

These two are a moral victory more than anything. On the left we have Levita - Female Arcane Wizard from RN Estudio and Nemesra, Dancing Girl from Bones 4. Levita was one of the first 3d prints hot off my Mars Pro in late December of 2020 and before I realized I was using the wrong layer setting so she's got obvious layer lines like most of the prints in that batch. She started getting paint maybe a couple weeks after and had been sitting on my painting table since then getting the odd brushstroke over the years. Nemesra was in the same boat and both of them have way more paint than they need and end up worse for it. There's something extremely satisfying about completing both of these even though neither is painted well. 

Next up we have an Eye Terror from Crippled God Foundry. Monsters are usually easier than characters and  this guy was more or less the same. I thought I'd need him more quickly than I have (as I type this, he hasn't seen table time yet) so he's speed painted aside from his giant ridiculous eye which I spent good time on. Ultimately he's painted and should see some table time in the next few months. 

These five are clearly skeletons, particularly from blf1. They are questionable sculpts and I did not spend enough time cleaning mold lines (go figure). I could have also painted their hoods in different colors instead of their bases but I clearly didn't. What I did do is hit them with an oil wash. I've typed it before and I've typed it again just now: every time I use an oil wash I'm impressed with how cool they look for so little investment. 

Last up we have a potpourri of blf1 figures. From left to right we have: female human rogue, male gnome rogue, female halfling fighter, male halfling ranger, and female gnome paladin. I can't really call these speed paints because they really weren't weighing in at somewhere between 3 and 5 hours each with the gals getting more work on their faces because they should. Probably their cloaks needed more contrast especially top to bottom but instead I've been experimenting with blacklining. I think it helps and will be experimenting more with it in the future. Stay tuned!

2023 finished mini counter: 313/104 and boy I hope that number's correct.

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 46

This week we have more bads because that's where we're at. First up we have giant rats from Vae Victis, some of my favorite sculptors. Giant rats make frequent showing in my games as is tradition so when I saw these guys on sale, I didn't think too hard about it. Astute readers may note that there are four distinct sculpts there and only seven painted rats. That's because my new printer decided to eat one of them. Dunno why, but it does that sometimes. These are not good paint jobs but they work fine on the table. 

Next up we have a batch of Monolith Bots from Oshounaminis. I use lots of these kinds of guys in my sci-fi games and some day I may want to run another sci-fi game in person. Hence, when I found these guys for free I knew what I had to do. It also helps my cost per print ratios in addition to my painted fig count so it's doubly good. These are not painted well and I didn't even use metallics that I like (usually Vallejo Metal Color). The colors on what I assume is their backsides seem fairly insufficient to tell them apart at the table but I'm far too lazy at the moment to put color bases on them though they would be easier to handle if I did. Maybe someday.

Last up we have this enormous, nay Giant Scorpion by Crippled God Foundry. It is also not a sophisticated paint job consisting mainly of a zenithal (as usual), a wash, and a drybrush. Seriously, the base got more attention than the mini. I also dropped some red in its eyes which doesn't read like at all. I certainly could have done more with it (and I might in the future) but I didn't feel the necessity this time along. 

2023 finished mini counter: 269/104

A thing a week 2023, week 45

This week we have some bads and one player character. First up we have Black List Fantasy Series 1 bandits. These are better sculpts than the time I put into painting them; maybe 4 hours for the lot of them in a batch. I could have painted their pop color bandanas in different colors and I could have spent more time on their details but I clearly did neither of those. Neither did I super effectively handle their mold lines. Then again, the molding didn't help me at all with lots of mold lines hiding in grooves which is my second least favorite place for mold lines. Colored bases also in full effect here so I can tell them apart in play. Probably these guys will see some screen time as bandits are regularly lurking right around the corner.

This guy is Jaxius, a weasel mage and ex-Stormking torturer turned player character. He was prominent in a previous online-only campaign but got screen time in our in-person game since his player was in town. He's part of an otter folk multipart kit by Duncan Shadow. He's got a super magical super powerful staff which I didn't have a part for so I clipped the top of a harpoon off instead. This isn't a super good paint job mostly done with contrast paints but it got the point across. Also notably, Jaxius is a weasle more than an otter but I don't have a "build-a-weasel" kit.

2023 finished mini counter: 249/104

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 43

Continuing our non-theme this week we have a mishmash of reasonably easy painted figs. 

These three rocky-looking dudes are Earth Elementals from Titan Forge and they are awfully cool. Their paintjob is not particularly complex starting with a magenta-from-above-and-paynes-grey-from-below pseudo-zenithal followed by a couple rounds of drybrushing and washing. Picking out the minor details was one of the last steps. The bases were some old ones I made a couple years ago. Every once in a while I crank out a set of bases to use whenever there's a need and these guys definitely fit the bill. Overall they work well enough but don't be surprised if they show up again at a point in the unforseeable future.

These two gold dorfs are Gold Dwarf Cleric from the Temple of Elemental Evil boardgame and Bruenor Battlehammer from the Legend of Drizzt boardgame. Neither sculpt is particularly good but IMO they did not do Bruenor any justice, his axe and shield in particular. I'm pretty sure I did the metallics with my airbrush and painted the rest of the details on with a brush but I honestly don't remember. I really wanted them to have a little more going on in the non-metallics but I'm also frequently disappointed. They were done in a couple hours mostly waiting for things to dry. They didn't shoot terribly here but they're a lot less impressive in person. Luckily, they're the best color: painted.

These two brutes are the other two Orc Smashers from the Wrath of Ashardalon boardgame. The first one landed way back in Week 21 of 2020. Fun times. I had the three of them on the table next to each other recently and boy has the contrast improved in the intervening two or so years. I picked out mostly the same details and worked in mostly the same colors accidentally. I don't know what that means; I just thought it was interesting. They were a speed paint which probably shows and done in a couple hours total. 

2023 finished mini counter: 235/104

A thing a week 2023, week 42

This week we finally break from the ongoing saga of speed paints and non-bangers. We get not just one but three characters this week who should see major screen time since they're characters in my current in-person game.

First up we have the hardest of the figs in the batch and literally the third fig off my brand new Saturn 2 MSLA, Princess Knight from Galaad. Despite the fact that my FEP failed about 30 prints in, it printed in excellent detail and very reliably up until that point, including a bunch of stuff that had failed on my old printer. The only real flaw on this print is that her front heel broke off with the support since it was right about the same size as the support. Should I have been more careful? Yes. This particular Princess is a player character so we expect great things even if she fits in not at all with the bruisers that usually populate my table. I had limited time to paint this fig but it didn't stop me from spending around seven torturous hours on her. I suck at blending which I'm sure I've saidtyped here before and this fig is full of that kind of work. I should have done more with her gems and shading/highlighting her crown (among other things) and I'm not certain the yellow heels super work even if it's compositionally reasonable. Despite all that, she'll count as my last high quality piece required for the year. 

Next up we have Essith who I built on Hero Forge and printed. For those who don't know, Hero Forge has a large library of parts and will send you an unsupported STL for a fee. Granted, once you have the STL you can print them out N times but $8 is way more than I spend on single character STLs like ever. That said, I like their canine heads and got to pick a sword an shield that fit the character's key art. I also have rudimentary understanding of skeletal animation and got her into a pose that a) I didn't hate, and b) was intentionally easy to paint. Essith is painted in the color scheme of the player's dog, particularly a Level 2 Dog of Distraction who hangs with us when we play. The fig did most of the work and she was done in a few hours. This fig may show up in the future to make good on my investment.

Last up we have reliable NPC Hinako who is also a Hero Forge build and print. Kitty tank Hinako has been with us in two campaigns now which probably that means she's going to die horribly. I mostly phoned in the freehand on her tail (tiger calico) and shield which is probably pretty obvious and I'm continuing to struggle getting smooth applications of Badger Ghost Tints over metallics. We played online in her previous campaign so there wasn't a need for a fig and for those probably zero people wondering, the symbol on her shield is "Kal" which means "worthy" in Firstborn. Lots of history here. Given my propensity for kitty NPCs, do not be shocked if this fig shows up again.

2023 finished mini counter: 228/104, high quality: 10/10

A thing a week 2023, week 41

This week we get "stuff on fire" as a mini-theme. These are mostly technique but my normal approach broke down on some of these. 

First up we have these Fire Bats from the Temple of Elemental Evil board game. I had no idea these were a thing and may have snapped them off their stands which is why they're sitting wonky. The magnet strip on the bottom isn't helping, either. Of the figs in this week's offering, these were by far the easiest because the normal drybrushing worked pretty well. I don't know when exactly I'll use these (if ever) but I'm sure I'll think of something. 

Next up we have a pair of Reaper Bones Dire Crabs. They came with my Bones 4 pledge along with the Dire Boars and Dire Crocs which have been here somewhere. And yes, I'm too lazy to look those up. I didn't paint these as a batch but not for any particularly good reason which is why they look so different. Ultimately this is better for me at my table otherwise we have to stick a colored ring on them or something. These were a pain because I'd dumbly glued them to their bases rather than pinning them and they have a lot of negative space. This is also why their bases are so blah. I've used magma crabs in my game before and will probably use them again but they don't come up all that often.

Last up we have a vintage metal Ral Partha Gorgon that I bought sometime last millennium and I don't remember why. He's gotten some screen time circa 2016 or 2017 as a boss that my players cleverly peaced out of until they could enlist the help of some Dwarven sharpshooters. The very fine texturing on this guy isn't super deep and my drybrushing efforts were largely thwarted so he sat on my painting desk in various states of not-doneness until this summer. Not sure when he might next get screen time but he'll be ready when the time comes provided his horns don't fall off again.

2023 finished mini counter: 225/104

A thing a week 2023, week 40

More speed paints this week. Maybe that should have been the theme name. 

First up we have Blazing Skeletons and if you guessed these are from the Castle Ravenloft board game, you would be correct.  These are a half step up from some of my other speed paints since their sculpts are slightly more complex. I struggled some with getting my bone color paints to cover so there are like three layers on there. Probably this means I should use(buy) different paints. Why blue rather than red? Dunno, I felt like that would be more fun and I vaguely recall having a token in Roll20 that had blue blazing skeletons. Felt like a change, but not to worry, there are red fiery guys in the near future!

This guy is a Reaper Bones Grave King and came in a set with my Bones 5 and I can't find a link on their website. Still a speed paint but not nearly as quick as the others. I wasn't bothered to make the blending on his cloak smooth because, hey, skeleton dudes aren't doing a lot of laundry. I did have some fun with the weathering on him and probably should have spent more time with it. I also missed an opportunity for proper color composition to make his crest orange but I didn't because I wasn't thinking. Overall, I'm not unhappy with this result. The other four guys will arrive at some point. Stay tuned!

2023 finished mini counter: 219/104

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 38

This week we have offerings from the Castle Ravenloft boardgame and like last week, these are speed paints. 

First up we have wraiths. They're cast in a transparent material which I stuck a semi-transparent wash over followed by a drybrush. I've done this maneuver a few times here but I am far too lazy to look up links to stick here in much the same way that I forgot to take back-shots and I'm far too lazy to do that now. Nothing to see here; just some speed paints.

These are (quite obviously) skeletons and from the same set. These are also not great paint jobs but took slightly longer since they have actual details. I rushed through the weathering on their equipment and more or less stuck the rust spots on the same places on all three. Whoops. The basing material is back to Geek Gaming Scenics Base Ready series which I'm starting to really like. Probably I'll buy more in the future (budget permitting) since they take an otherwise pretty poor paint job and elevate the fig to "OK".

2023 finished mini counter: 208/102

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 36

This week we have another mini-theme of Artisan Guild Fighters Guild (plus one). All of these are 3d prints and they're all mostly OK which for my old printer, is pretty amazing (note: it's been broken a while). I printed these in the fall of last year and have only now (well, several weeks ago) gotten around to painting them.

From left to right we have Fighter A Male, Fighter D Lady, Brent of Goobertown, Fighter C Lady. As much armor as these folks have, I don't know why I didn't airbrush them in armor colors. I mean, I did one just like that last year and from the same set. Overall, they've probably got a few too many details but I forgive that because they also have nice dynamic poses and expressive faces. Fighter A has a Obi Wan thing going on which I like. Lady D's mascara is probably a little too heavy. I recall having a really hard time with it. Lady C had a punk rock thing going on so I painted her hair a fun color. To save time, it's the same color as her cloak and whatever she's got at her waist. Brent, if you didn't know, is a youtuber and he shows up a lot in the 3d printing world. His tuft is because I failed to glue the rock down properly and needed to hide gap after missing it with the texture paste. None of these are great paint jobs, each clocking in at around the four hour mark but they're good figs and I'll probably print/paint them again. 

This is Sigfrido Dragonsbane Fighters Guild Hero. He's a pretty complex sculpt and I didn't decide to take him to this level until I was most of the way through painting. Seemed right, you know? I was pretty sure I took the highlights on his cloak higher than it looks in these photos and I didn't realize that the shadows were quite so shiny. I spent a bunch of extra time highlighting and shadowing his armor but none of that is showing up here, sadly. The edge highlighting does, however, and that's good because it took a lot of time. He'll count as a high quality fig for the year.

Last up we have Morgana the Ascended Fighters Guild Hero and she will also count as a high quality fig. I spent a lot of time on her face and not enough time on the fire effect on her hammer of burninating, her hair, and her cloak as is evidenced in the turnaround. It all reads a lot better in person and in retrospect, I I had known I was going to paint her to this level, I would have painted her in sub-assemblies. Lord willin' and the creek don't rise, her winged version will be making a special guest appearance to a printer near me in the future.

2023 finished mini counter: 197/104, high quality: 9/10

A thing a week 2023, week 35

This week we have a mini-theme of rogue gals! That's right, these are all rogues or rogue-adjacent gals many of whom are 3d prints. Many of those 3d prints have weird printing errors so we got that goin' for us.

The gal on the left is Southern Archer from The Printing Goes Ever On. She may be the only one of my prints today that doesn't have a serious issue. I like that this sculpt is uncomplicated which means that I have the choice of either going fast with reasonable quality or spending the normal amount of time at higher quality. My only real gripe about the sculpt is that her face is hidden by her cowl which makes painting tiny details much, much harder. 

The gal on the right is Female Ranger from Galaad and her bow is fucked up. I love this sculpt and it's from one of my favorite sculptors. I'm not super sold on the green of her outfit thought it felt right when I was painting her. I spent a bunch of extra time on her face but overall not enough time to warrant a high quality paint job. Now that I have a new printer (Saturn 2 if you're curious), we should expect her to show up here again sometime in the unforseeable future.

These mirrored Rogue gals are also from Galaad and I mostly like this sculpt. Sadly, their arms are pancaked so I didn't have to feel bad about not spending more time painting them. I do wish their cloaks were, I dunno, a little less long and flowy because a) they're a pain to paint, and b) it looks like they'd drag badly on the ground were it not for the invisible wind. They're mostly painted in contrast paints as has been my habit of late. I experimented with white hair on the one which I liked a lot and I also experimented with mixing my own fleshtones on many of these. That worked out OK but in these photos it looks a little too blue. Also, the highlights on the black cloak doesn't really work. Both painted, though, and that counts for something. Namely two ticks on the finished mini counter.

Last up we have Goonmaster Human Rogue 1, Titan Forge Bodyguard, and Reaper Bones Lanelle. The rogue's sculpt is probably too complex and I spent a lot of time just trying to get all the details painted. Also, despite the fact that I like her dynamic pose, she was a real pain to glue down to the base and you can almost see the hole in her foot where I failed to pin her. The details are a little soft which I'm not a fan of, especially on the cloak. 

The Bodyguard is a good sculpt that I really made a mess of. Either the print was soft, the prime was too heavy, or both. Either way the details were soft and despite spending a bunch of time on her, the result isn't super good. Probably she'll show up again in the future. 

Lanelle is a good sculpt with a really, really bad molding defect. Her chin is almost completely missing which means that no matter what I did, there was no amount of sculpting with paint that was going to fix it. Other than that, the dumb fantasy shoulder pads, and her iffy weapons, I really like this fig. And for reasons that I don't fully understand, this paint job came out way better than the others despite spending no more time on her. 

2023 finished mini counter: 191/104

A thing a week 2023, week 34

This week we have assorted speedpainted bads. They're not all that interesting but I got to mess around with some fun effects so I've got that goin' for me.

First up the minions, in this case, Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 Fire Beetles. I could have looked up what these guys were supposed to be but I didn't and so I painted them in faux metallic. I did zenithal these (for all the good it did me) but I covered all that up with mostly transparent metallics through the airbrush, and no, beyond being a Vallejo Metal Color, I don't remember which one. Once they were airbrushed I hit them with a coat of Badger Ghost Tints and did just about nothing else. The metallics and candy coat do a lot of the heavy lifting to the point that I'm hoping folks don't realize how lousy a paint job these were.

But what if we did the same technique on a bigly fig? Well, that would be this guy. This is a Bones 4 Giant Rhino Beetle and he's painted exactly the same way and with the same colors. I could have picked out the weird textury thing on his back with a different color, but I didn't. I like the color effects but honestly, way more effort went into painting the rockery badly than with the rest of the fig. I do like this fig but I'm not super likely to strip and repaint it.

Last up we have these crappy constructs which belong in a Skyrim Dwemer ruins more than they do in my game. I use a lot of constructs but these guys look way more clockwork than I'm comfortable with TBH. That clearly didn't prevent me from painting them badly, however. They're a copper to gold fade which mostly doesn't read unless you pick the figure up and look closely at them but I think that part looks pretty good regardless. It looks like my drybrushing pulled up some of the paint on their heads but in fact, my airbrushing was just bad since it was the end of a session and my paint was not cooperating. For the about an hour I spent on all five of these guys, they're the best color: painted.

2023 finished mini counter: 184/104

A thing a week 2023, week 33

One more bads post and then we'll switch gears. Luckily (?) these are slightly better paint jobs so we got that going for us and if there's a theme for today, it's "big stuff." These weren't painted in the same order they're shown here so let's see if my counts add up when we catch up!

Kicking off first we have a Reaper Bones Hill Giant Huntsman's Dire Lion. This is my favorite kind of paint job: high drama, low effort. The Hill Giant Huntsman will follow along at some point. This guy came with Bones 4 and sat around primed for an embarrassingly long time until now, err, many weeks ago since I'm pushing a pretty big bow wave of posts right now. I didn't realize just how shiny his fur was until looking at the photos so, yeah, that's not fantastic. If I'm feeling frisky I'll dullcoat him but I probably won't. 

Following the big cat we get a big dog. This is also an animal companion to another set of figs, in this case the Bones 4 Frost Giant Raiders. I painted him like a red wolf before I learned that he was supposed to be from the frozen north (or south, I guess) and if I'm honest, this is not a good paint job. I got the markings mostly correct but at the time, I just wanted to be done. He was painted at the end of a fairly long session and my back was really hurting. IIRC, he was done in like an hour or so. 

Next up we have The Thing In the Well from Bones 5. I don't have a link handy as it doesn't seem to be on their site yet. I wanted this guy as a boss encounter for a future dungeon and he's both big and pokey and making a mess of one of the Bones 5 boxes so I painted him. This is not a great paint job and it was mostly done with the airbrush and followed up with some messy washes and the most minimal of detail work. I think it's a good effect but mostly because it's big. These kinds of figs tend to get used sparingly so not having a great paint job isn't the end of the world. He'll count as the second large fig for this year's challenge.

Last up we have a Nolzur's Adult Remorhaz. I think this was a gift and has not only been painted somewhere in early July, but has already gotten some table time. I don't know how often I'll be able to use a remorhaz on the table so I'm glad I got the chance. Like most Nolzur's mini products, he had lousy mold lines, a very gloopy prime that obscured otherwise nice sculpt details, and hydrophobic patches that didn't want to take the contrast paint basecoat I did because my airbrush station wasn't setup. Overall I think it's a good result mostly owing to color choices and we had a memorable encounter where it chewed one of the PCs in defense doing itself significant harm. Good times. He'll also count as a large figure for obvious reasons.

Blacklist Fantasy Series 1 Dire Bear. Honestly, this is kind of a lousy bear looking a heck of a lot more like a werebear than a dire bear. He was painted mostly with the airbrush with a light coat of a Vallejo Model Air brown over the  top of a zenithal. A quick drybrush and picking out of details rounds out the work and it looks like I forgot to put Reikland Fleshshade gloss in his mouth. Nothing like a "glamour" shot to highlight your mistakes. 

This guy is a Chaos Toad Savage from Bones 4. He was also mostly painted with the airbrush but with extra volumetric highlights over the scales. A wash, some details, and demon dots were most of it though the rockery he's standing on took longer than I care to admit. This guy was a mess to glue. He was in parts and was warped to the point that I had to clamp and torque and swear a lot to get him together. The demon dots are too regular which isn't great but overall I think it works. 

2023 finished mini counter: 173/102, 3/5 large

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