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

A thing a week 2023, week 31

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

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

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

2023 finished mini counter: 157/102

A thing a week 2023, week 30

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

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

2023 finished mini counter: 147/102

A thing a week 2023, week 29

This week we have a single offering but a large one. This guy is a Wolf Dragon from Reaper and he came in Bones 5 but I can't find a link. Possibly he's not available just yet which sucks because he is very cool. I needed him for a session so he got paint.

Just like last week's griffon, he's a high drama, low effort paint job consisting mostly of zenithal, wash, drybrush, wash, drybrush again, details. I do like this fig and probably should have spent more time on him but a) I don't expect him to get much (if any) screen time (spoiler: the character got screen time but not the fig) and b) I don't know when I'd be able to use the fig again. So he's basic but cool and like many of my favorite paint jobs, didn't take too long. He'll count as the first of the large minis for this year.

2023 finished mini counter: 142/104, large 1/2

A thing a week 2023, week 28

This week we have three medium sized offerings, the first two who I needed for my campaign (boss encounter at the end of the dungeon) and the last of which I was pretty sure I'd already painted but hadn't. Protip: don't hide prepped minis in a hard-to-get-to drawers.

These first two who I've called Tweedle-Dee and Tweedle-Dum (also Trident & Khopesh) are Devils from Bones 4. Notably, I didn't need the succubus so she didn't get paint (yet). I did a bunch of work with the airbrush on them and picked out details after the fact. They were done in around four hours and I really wish they had sharper details, weapons especially, but they are what they are: painted.

This guy is a Nolzur's Griffon and like I said before, I was pretty sure I painted this guy already when I did the griffons last year (or whenever it was). This is a high drama, low effort paint job--the best kind! It mostly takes the form of contrast paints over a zenithal (as per usual) with the bare minimum of details picked out. Dude was done in like an hour which is good because these guys don't get a lot of screen time, usually. What's that? Griffon rider cavalry?! I may need to amend the screen time thing...

2023 finished mini counter: 141/104. 

 

A thing a week 2023, week 27

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

2023 finished mini counter: 138/104

A thing a week 2023, week 26

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

2023 finished mini counter: 133/104

A thing a week 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