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 2024, week 25

This week is a return to batch painting because I have a need for some bads in bulk for my in-person Saturday campaign. These aren't good paint jobs but they're also not great figs so I guess that matches.

These three are Grell from the Wrath of Ashardalon Boardgame. This is not a good game, these are not good figs, and these are not good paint jobs. Heck, these aren't even good monsters! They were primed, partially pained with the airbrush and then drybrushed. Final details like their brain-beaks were done with the brush. All told we're at maybe 15 minutes per fig.

These three are Gargoyles from Castle Ravenloft Boardgame. These are more of the same except that I kind of like gargoyles as monsters. They're even more simply painted with just an airbrushed basecoat and a couple drybrush coats. I spent more time painting the rings on the bases than on the dudes, but hey, they're painted and that counts for something.

This last guy is a rock elemental from the Temple of Elemental Evil Boardgame. He's painted identically to the gargoyles with the addition of some textured grit on his base. That's about it. Nothing to see here; just some high drama low effort paint jobs.

2023 finished mini counter: 123/104

A thing a week 2023, week 24

Still in mini-land this week but no real theme beyond "stuff I had on my painting table."

First up we have Romud, Cleric from Crippled God Foundry. He has a General Kenobi thing going on, probably intentionally. I like that he's got an action-y pose but don't like the amount of negative space on him. He's a nice chunky model, otherwise, and aside from his shield being too fiddly to paint, I'd say it's a solid B sculpt. I put extra effort into his hair even though it doesn't show and notably didn't start with the normal low fleshtone that I usually used. Instead, I mixed the shadow color and lightened with the light fleshtone I usually use as a highlight. Not much to say beyond that, so let's move on.

Next up we have Dwarf Female from Galaad Miniatures, one of my favorite sculptors. I wasn't entirely sure what to do with the skull looking thing on her shoulder so I decided it was metal. I also didn't realize how shiny the dark tones on her cloak were. I didn't spend a ton of time on this paint job and it shows. Her face is OK since that's where the bulk of the time went but everything else is weak. Even the base is weak and one of the many I built at the beginning of the pandemic. If I've got a recommendation for anyone who hand builds bases: it's super convenient to have a bunch in waiting. 

This guy is Glavier from the Chainmail Starter Pack. His pack-mates have shown up here a few times over the years and like them this guy is metal. I didn't super get the moldlines sorted but I got close enough to not be unhappy with it. What I am unhappy with is the size of his weapon (a stupid fantasy version of an actual weapon) and his armor (a stupid fantasy take on actual armor). I get that artists aren't historians usually. On the other hand, I really feel like we'd have better art if we thought just a tiny bit about how the armor would function if it were real.

Last up this week we have questionably-named Lady D Mace & Shield from Artisan Guild's Fighters Guild. This set is great not only because they're well-sculpted, but also because they're modular. Even though I really like their work, these sculpts have probably too many details. In particular there are too many belts, buckles, and armor filigrees. While not quite as eggregiously fantasy as our pal the Glavier, it's still pretty fantasy. I painted her hair the same way I did last week's Elf Bandit and while it pops on the table, I don't think it looks good close-up. Probably the highlights need to be tighter with darker tones elsewhere. Overall, I think this is a good result in four or five hours. 

2023 finished mini counter: 116/104

A thing a week 2023, week 23

This week we have another high-effort offering, specifically The Elf Bandit from Vae Victis Miniatures and as you may have surmised, she's a 3d print. I didn't expect to paint her to this level originally though I do like the sculpt (I mean, I bought it; that wasn't an accident). 

Starting out I had two goals: first, paint the face expressively since part of it is hidden. Second, I wanted to push the quality on the leather. The face went first and I pushed contrast more than usual and even though I don't think her eyes turned out all that well, I'm pretty happy with the result. The leather was mostly an accident because I started out with a really lousy wash from previous work and ended up hilighting up and glazing down probably a half dozen times. After the third part of the cycle, I just kept going. It doesn't 100% work but I can see how it might and I'll give it a shot again sometime soon. Also, once I settled on pushing to a high quality, I spent extra time on her hair and looking at these shots, it looks like I didn't do the highlighting as well as I'd thought. Happy but never satisfied.

2023 finished mini counter: 113/102, 7/10 high quality

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

A thing a week 2023, week 21

And now for something completely different. Last weekend was BricksCascade and as is typical for Lego cons, when I get back I want to build. This is a heavy space truck that hauls containers. It's at the same scale as my other freighters even if the containers aren't the same. It's fairly complex but not particularly parts intensive and I worked awfully hard to squeeze it down to the size that it is. I may do more work to get it even smaller so watch this space!

A thing a week 2023, week 20

I'd like to claim that my four weeks of non-bangers were covering for this week's offering but that wouldn't be true (I was just being lazy). This week we have an actually reasonable paintjob--I might say quite reasonable. This is an Orc Thief 3d print by Vae Victis, a group of sculptors I really like. 

This is a good sculpt. It's got enough detail to be interesting but not too much to be tiresome--a difficult balance. It's also bereft of the typical-of-3d-sculpting-and-not-by-painters negative space that really bother me. If I have a gripe, it's that her main hand is at a weird angle that doesn't look entirely reasonable but that's really my fault for gluing her hand on weird.  

I didn't start this paint job with any lofty goals though I do think I pushed far enough to count as a high quality one for the  year. A wash of whatever was leftover from other paint jobs plus some sloppily applied contrast paints produced a less-than-stellar base. I spent a bunch of time avoiding other work doing the leather on her boots, a thing that I really want to get better at. The results were good enough that I kept pushing. After about eight hours of work with good paints and a dying Winsor & Newton, this is where I ended. Not glamorous, but I'll take it.

2023 finished mini counter: 108/104, 6/10 high quality

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 15

This week we have tiles...lots of tiles (not all shown). These are from Dungeons and Lasers kickstarters one and two from Archon Studio. I've been prepping and not painting stuff from these kickstarters for months now though the props are very well represented. I also have lots of tiles that I've built over the years so the main motivation was less to use them on the tabletop and more to reclaim shelf space in my studio. 

These are not particularly well painted. Rather than priming with the airbrush as normal, I used a 1" craft brush and was very sloppy with it. That has resulted in some bubbles in the recesses which I do not like but didn't take any corrective measures around. After that I did a very rough basecoat with the airbrush which took a really long time because there are dozens of these things. After that I picked out some details like grates, the light Celtic knotwork and red star and then the magic started.

Every time I use oil washes I'm amazed at how good the results are. These posed a different challenge since a) they're flat, and b) they're large. I let the wash sit for a day so it'd cure enough that it wouldn't pull out of the deep recesses. I re-used some paper towel that was last seen wrapping Lego builds and burned through a lot more of my thinner than I would have liked but overall the entire process wasn't too difficult. 

No minis this week, maybe next week, so no updated counter.

Kitty-a-thon 2023, week 5 (2023 week 14)

This week we wrap up this theme with a high quality sculpt and paint.

This is a Lion Man from Reaper and he's both big and metal. This fig was PC and part of a campaign run before the current cycle in the heady days of 2019. Prep began as normal though notably he had some really lousy mold lines and I proceeded to start painting with the airbrush. Knowing that the previous leonins had paint jobs that didn't go low enough or high enough, I put extra super special effort into shadowing and highlighting and I think it shows. I didn't quite get to 1 (the lowest shadows) and not enough of 5 (the highest highlights) but I think I got the important parts of the shading on his physique. His mane and other darker fur were mostly done with contrast paints and the metallics were played by Vallejo Metal Color as per usual.

I spent a lot of effort on this fig, particularly on the details and he was done over about a week in something like a dozen hours. I will almost certainly buy and re-paint this fig but this guy is done and will count as my fifth high quality work this year.

2023 finished mini counter: 87/104, 5/10 high quality

Kitty-a-thon 2023, week 4 (2023 week 13)

Kitty-a-thon 2023 continues with three lovelies and one big bruiser. 

The gal on the left is Cursed Sands Lionness from Titan Forge. I've bemoaned the paucity of lion figures in the past and female leonin figures are even more rare for reasons I cannot fathom. This sculpt has some not fun negative space and I wrestled a lot with my color choices. I don't think her linen-colored details sell particularly well and the yellow trim on it really doesn't sell. Dark lining might have saved that choice but nearing the end of this theme I was seriously running out of steam. Astute viewers will also note the pock mark on her hood because I haven't used my printer correctly, maybe ever. I expect to print this gal again at some point and push more than the three-ish hours I spent on her.

Next up we have Cheetah Girl from Reaper and she's a metal fig. This sculpt did a lot of the work and while I didn't have to pick out the stripes in different colors, I figured that I should. The color scheme sells a little better here though the highlights on the red didn't photograph well. Her spots and markings on her face freehand weren't hard but the spots are probably too regular. Either way, I'm counting her as a high quality figure that I spent somewhere like six hours on. I'm happy with the result and expect to buy and re-paint this figure again. 

On the left we have Hu-Ren from Wrath of Kings, a game that I notably don't play. We saw his box-mate Za'ken way back in Week 3 of this year. I had hoped to use him as an NPC in the predecessor of my current Saturday game but never got him fully painted. In fact, I started painting, stopped, re-prepped, and re-started painting twice before carrying him over the finish line with this theme. His sculpt also has some really lousy negative space and the seam where his head fits is really, really serious and I did not do a good job filling it. Looking at the shots here, probably I should have colored his armor at least slightly differently; it's pretty samey even if it sells better up close. The shading on his fur, on the other hand, I think worked well. Sadly, I have to conclude that the base is the best part of the paint job.

Last up is Rashakin Headhunter - Modular F from Artisan Guild and I super love this fig. Like Cheetah Girl, the sculpt did most of the work and the bulk of the lift was done with the airbrush and washes.That didn't stop me from spending hours on her fur not including the freehand stripes. I especially like that her face is so expressive and I spent extra time there, too. I figured that the teal details would be fine over the orange pop-color of her fur but looking at the finished pics they're a little detracting. Overall if I'd spent a little more effort on the details, particularly her clothes, I might have counted her as a high quality fig. Probably we should expect to see her re-printed and re-painted at a later date.

2023 finished mini counter: 86/104, 4/10 high quality

Kitty-a-thon 2023, week 3 (2023 week 12)

For week three of Kitty-a-thon 2023 we have a hodgepodge of leonins that have needed paint for a while. It's surprisingly hard to find leonin figures because they're not super common in games but they're common people in my fantasy games. That poses some fun logistical issues.

From left to right we have Reaper Bones Avatar of Courage, Kyros, Lionman Warpriest from Comet Lord Miniatures, Leonin Ranger from Galaad, and Leonidal from Printed Obsession. They weren't as much a batch paint as pervious since they only really share their skinfurtones. 

The Avatar of Courage is painted as a Zulu warrior which matches his attire. I was pretty sure that getup was from history so I did some searches and figured it out. He's got some gaps in his arms which came separate and because I'm lazy I didn't paint in subassemblies. I wanted to do more with his muscles but honestly, I wasn't feeling it and was done in a couple hours. The lows need to be lower and the highs aren't high enough. I've got another which I expect to do a better job with.

Kyros is like a lot of 3d sculpts: very cool in preview but very hard to paint. He's got a mess of negative space and because he's resin, he's kind of brittle. I didn't do enough work pulling supports off and he's got the scars to prove it. Ultimately I think it's an OK result for the three-ish hours I spent. 

The Leonin Ranger is a pretty good sculpt (Galaad does good work) and my printer really didn't do a good job. Like I said, it's kind of broken. The pose is doing most of the work on this fig. Unlike a lot of sculpts, he doesn't have a surfeit of details. He's painted simply but because he isn't extra complex, every piece is a little bit better than otherwise in the two-ish hours I spent. I'll almost certainly print and paint this figure again somewhere in the unforseeable future.

The Leonidal is the problem child of this group. He's got a stupid number of details. He's got a huge amount of negative space. He's got a bunch of soft details that are hard to distinguish on his armor. He didn't print correctly. As such I didn't spend as much time on him though more than the others over time. I repainted his cloak probably four times and didn't even end up in a good place. I probably spent four or five hours on him all told and the best I can say is that he's painted.

2023 finished mini counter: 82/104

Kitty-a-thon 2023, week 2 (2023 week 11)

Kitty-a-thon continues with these six lovely kitty people. These are 3d prints from Velrock and more specifically the Leonin Tribe. If you follow that link you'll see that there are 18 different figs in there but that I have only six. Well. My 3d printer is ever so slightly broken. And by "ever so slightly" I really mean "my failure rate is awfully high." These are the ones that I thought were still salvageable but most of them have some kind of printing defects. I don't think this is due to the provided supports which looked perfectly reasonable to me. 

I speed painted these all in the same color scheme and all at once. They spanned maybe five hours total and I didn't do enough work on anything to be super stoked about them. While I like the sculpts in general, they were really inconvenient to paint due to a bunch of weird negative spaces on them. Things always look good in preview but it's hard to tell that kind of stuff until you're turning the fig around on a painting stick and asking "how the crap am I going to get paint in there?" While I like the color scheme (the jade paints in particular) 

I'm not certain that the Plasma Fluid over the metallics are working for me which sucks because I really like that paint. I did less on the gals than the dudes and I think they're better for it. Some day I'll figure out how to use that stuff effectively. I also think that these were not well served by being a batch paint since I left out a lot of details like their saber teeth and details on their bejangles and whatnot. Overall they were done in around ten hours and I'm not unhappy with them.

2023 finished mini counter: 78/104

Kitty-a-thon 2023, week 1 (2023 week 10)

This week we're starting our first theme of the year, the infamous Kitty-a-thon, which is a lot better than the normal "working through the prepped stuff on my desk." This week also continues the non-theme of working through my vintage backlog. 

These are 02-130 Dae-Shiru Commanders and 02-132 Dae-Shiru Regulars from Ral Partha and are among the first figures I ever bought, somewhere back in the heady days of the early 90s. These are OK sculpts and questionable molds as is common in figs from that era and I didn't take super good care of them over the last three decades. I don't recall ever using them in play and while I could contrive a reason to have them exist in my games I don't have any particular need to do such a thing. I bought them because they're cool and now they're painted. Early 90s me would be impressed.

For those who don't spend a lot of time with metal minis: the primer you use makes a big difference. Normally I use Badger Stynylrez which works great for all kinds of figures (it's even in the name) but not metal. Vallejo Surface Primer works on just about anything I'd use in the hobby. Stynylrez is inexpensive, has good leveling properties, and is paintable in about 15 minutes so far as I can tell. VSP requires about a day of curing time before painting. Also you might notice that I didn't add all the bejangles and other bits. That'd be because a) I didn't now how to assemble them (I don't still have the instructions and found them online too late) b) a lot of it is really fiddly with heavy metal bits, and c) I've just plain lost some of the bits.

Ultimately, I think this is an OK representation of them. Nothing spectacular here, just regular paint jobs partially done with the airbrush with some fancy detail work. I didn't have to call out the stitching on their armor and didn't do an especially good job on it anyway, but I did. These five were done somewhere in the 12-15 hour range for the batch and it's good to have them painted after all these years.

2023 finished mini counter: 72/104

A thing a week 2023, week 9

This week we continue our pseudo-theme looking through the remaining unpainted figures in my vintage collection.

These are Maria Mercurial and Kyle Morgan from Shadowrun and also by Ral Partha. Shadowrun is a game I have a lot of nostalgia for even though I've only actually played it a handful of times. These are fantastic sculpts and are on opposite ends of the complexity spectrum. Because most of both of these figs was done with contrast paints and because Maria is far less complex, she got a bunch of extra time which I think shows. Kyle's sculpt has a mess of detail in a very Daniel Craig-like way. About the only thing I don't like is their sculpted eyes but I can look past that (pun intended). Ultimately these figs can hold a higher quality paint job and I might repaint them at a much later date. Harder with vintage figs than 3d prints but I'm not above painting right over the existing paint job. Either way I think they look good and I'm happy with the four-ish hour investment in them.

Last up we have Laian and Tammis from Mekton, an ancient game that I actually played a long time ago. These are at best OK sculpts and the cleanup was really bad. You can kind of see how off the mold was on Laian's helmet. For this paint job I wanted two things: sculpt some with paint to make the most of out of these sculpts, and to experiment with teal and orange as a color scheme; a new one for me. Laian has pink hair and pink tights since I mostly paint fantasy figs and don't get to paint that kind of thing often. The former kind of sells, the second not so much. Overall they were done in around five hours and much like their sculpts, I think they're OK.

2023 finished mini counter: 67/100

A thing a week 2023, week 8

Continuing my trip through the remainder of my vintage collection, we start with Ral Partha 11-103 Demihuman Vampires. I bought these sometime in the aughts because at that point I had very limited non-human figures and I didn't look close enough to see that their fangs are indeed, very prominent. I  speed painted them in the same color scheme and in retrospect I should have painted the Elf's cloak red to match the others but I painted him first and really wasn't thinking. The Kender's getup doesn't really work for me but then again, Kender don't really work for me either. These aren't good paint jobs but they're done and that counts for something. 

Next up we have vintage RAFM Manipulators. These are good sculpts let down by bad molds and a questionable paint job. They're supposed to be vampires which I guess works but I think they look more like lawyers or politicians which I guess are not mutually exclusive. I had intended to paint hosiery on the gal but got lazy and didn't do any of that and ended up painting both their suits in the same color scheme for, I dunno, consistency or something. I did not realize they were quite so shiny before looking at these pictures. All things considered, I think they turned out well given the maybe four hours combined they took. 

2023 finished mini counter 61/104

A thing a week 2023, week 7

This week we dip way back into my vintage collection. These are Lawnmower Man figures from Leading Edge Games, specifically sets #44104 Character Pack and #44103 Friends Pack and I don't have proper references for them, sadly. These are early Bob Ridolfi figures and if I'm honest, while the sculpts are only OK, the molds are pretty awful and I spent not nearly enough time cleaning them up. These were a speed paint as I don't super expect any of these to get particularly much screen time. Done over a few days mostly with contrast paints they maybe took six hours all told for the eight of them. No awards are given for this effort but they're the best color: painted.

2023 finished mini counter: 56/104