End Of The Week - Better than expected (37)

It's not been such a bad week for figure painting. Most of what I have been working on for the last three weeks is now done and somenew stuff has made it through to completion. I am not feeling finishing the last two figues off for some reason but I am sure I will get round to them soon enough. I did start the Lizardmen skinks and have finished the first twelve and I have started the next dozen which are well on the way to being finished.

Skinks. There are rather a lot of them and more yet to do. These are a nice easy paint job as they are mostly low-detail plastic. There will be more next week and probably the week after that too. I now really hate turquoise.

This guy is the Frostgrave Snow Troll. He looks better here than he does in real life. I can see a few gaming uses for him so he seemed like a worthwhile project.

These are all Wargames Foundry  Street Violence figures. I got a job lot of eBay more than ten years ago when I was foing a lot of moden role playing. This is a nice range of figures and relatively easy to paint.

More Street Violence figues from the Foundry. These come from a coupleof different sets but as they are all dressed in green this seemed like the place to put them. Thre is no real purpose other than I was tired of them sitting there.

Artizan designs is where I got these cowboys from. Thy have just been sat around fo a while, the best part of five years I guess. When I first started painting 28mm figues for the blog I think it was some moe of the figues I got with these. How times fly.

This is really a mixed bag. On the far left is a Frostgrave vampire. I don't mcuh like this figure and I struggled to get him to look right. Second left is a Reaper gladiator whcih I got about fifteen years ago making it the oldest of todays crop. I am not sure about the crazy lady on the inner right but I think she came fom Black Tree Designs. On the outer left is the latest of what I have been calling the last of the Viking project. This figure came from Gripping Beast about five years ago when I first started the project off.

There is supposed to be another pictue here but it seems to be having problems loading it up. It's another four Street Violence figures. Some are meant to be members of the A-Team from the eighties which I guess dates the range or at least the designer. he others are just some random figues I got in the bulk buy.

I guess all of the Foundry stuff was set to do double duty for modern and post-apocalypse stuff. On the whole I like thema lot and they fit well with my Copplestone stuff. Definately more at the heroic end of the market.

Generally I would call this a good week but it has been a grind. The New, New Cruelty is happy enough. In genreal I have been just about okay with what I have achieved this year. I am glad I have almost finished most of what I have set out to do and I am now almost back on track again if not still slightly ahead. Given that I usually class figures like the skinks as half a figure I am still behind (should be closer to 31 and not 37).

End Of The Week - Too Tired To Stand Up (25)

I have managed to make most of my goals this week and exceeded a few of them. So all in all I am quite happy with myself. This was going to be a simple week. I was expecting to be busy. I was. Tired now and ready for bed and it is not yet 9pm.

The week began with a plan to paint ten figures. At some point I added one on the quiet because I thought it was going to be easy. Most of what I planned to paint this week was from the Star Saga game by Mantic. From the first time I saw it I liked the idea of buying it. It was the right price, there were plenty of figures and a decent amount of usable terrain. There were many sci-fi games they would work for. I had some ideas for the X-Com game that has been on the gaming burner of a low heat for about two decades. Mostly at the time I thought they would be good for what I had planned for Titansgrave: The Ashes Of Valcana, a game I really like the idea of but doubt I would get too many players.

Anyway the first set of figures I decided to paint were the security guards. I played about with the fleshtones a bit and I think they came out ok. This is despite the detail on the faces being a little soft as they are plastic figures. In the end I was okay with them. Not my best work but acceptable for tabletop standard.

Then there were a couple of hero figures. Most of the heroes don't seem to work with many of my ideas but I think I will come round to doing them eventually.These models were, to my mind at least, nice to paint although the face on the female warrior could have used a but more details.

In my head there were three more dark age figures to do and I thought I planned to paint the three. I could only find the two though. I doubt the horn playing musician will get used a lot so I didn't put a huge amount of work into it. Some work went into both but not a huge amount. They came out alright though.

Another one of the big plans at one point was to run a superhero game. Whilst there is plenty of Heroclix stuff out there but the models, to be fair, a bit kack. Really what I wanted was to go for nice metal figures at around the right price. At about £5 this model from Reaper was not the cheapest figure I have ever brought. It did work out okay though and I am very happy with it.

By Wednesday, with eleven figures painted, it was all pretty much done. There was a few bits of detailing to do but not enough to keep me busy. So I had a rummage. Having enjoyed painting the guards I thought I would have a go at some of the others. So much for an easy week.

During the process of rummaging I some military types from Star Saga to do. These were an easy enough paint job. There were some mould lines that were hard to get out and so I ended up leaving them.  A simple paint job with mainly shades of green (I think five in total) and that was most of them done. These are pretty good for hard sci-fi and I can already see a number of uses for them.

Somehow I didn't stop there. What do you call these figures? Well I have no idea. Some sort of failed (or possibly successful) experiment. These are big hulking figures (with the faces looking not entirely unlike the big green wrecking machine).

 
So in the end there wa a total of twenty five figures done and dusted. This sounds like a lot but there majority are plastic figures with limited details so relatively easy to complete. Along the way I worked on some more terrain. For a while I have been wanting some standing stones. These are not yet finished. On top of that I have done a little bit of work on five of the fifteen figures I have planned for next week.

Elemental

Although my painting plans for the week are almost complete, I decided to finish off another project piece. I am pretty sure I got this large . elemental about three years ago. It's a Reaper Bones model. I am not sure I would pay for something like this in metal as it probably isn't going to get a lot of use but for a good chunk under £10/$10 I thought it was worth while.

It has been sat around, primed and on a textured for about two years so it is probably about time I got around to it. There is a fairly simple paint job. Primed light grey and painted a mid blue. You can't really tell the mid blue is there after heavy blue wash. If I was doing it again I probably would put the original base colour down and just use the wash. Lower down the model and in some of the crevices but mostly on the bas I put on a heavy green wash. You can just about tell if you look hard enough.  Then there is an old GW paint, Ice Blue for a highlight. It really needed something to bring out the details and finally a white high, highlight.

End Of The (Most Productive) Week

This week has not really been about  painting 28mm miniatures. It's been about  me finishing of what I have started. Whilst I haven't finished off every half painted figure on the bench, I have come pretty close. Some are abandoned rather than finished but not in bad condition all the same.

A couple of years ago I got these Grenadier tribal type figures from a bring and buy. There are fifteen of them in all so these are the first batch. I am not generally a big fan of repainting figures but I thought at the time I could maybe strip them. Upon close inspection I thought that the paint might be enamel so I decided against it. Repaints rarely turn out especially well (see the Grenadier figures a few weeks ago) but these didn't turn out especially badly. From a distance they look okay.

The Blood Bowl troll has been sat around since the beginning of last year. I have fiddled with it every now and again. So in the spirit of what I am doing I decided to add some finishing details. I could go a lot further with this figure but I think it is time to call it a day.

There is a whole load of scatter terrain to finish off from earlier in the week. This is what I have finished so far. Most of this is relatively recent although I think the well was brought in the mid nineties. Some is Ainsty, some Scotia, some Midlam and some Ristul Market. Just glad to have them done really.

The stone monster (golem or construct) is a Reaper Bones mini. I have painted one of these before. It's a nice easy paint job. I got this at the last show I went to in December.

The de-bearded carrion crawlers came from a D&D boardgame that I got at a fete for a pound a couple of years ago. Realistically I think these were the only two figures worth having from the set and I suspect the rest of the game, with maybe the odd exception. The type of plastic is a bigger to paint but I have learnt a few new tricks since starting on this.

I painted four actual fantasy miniatures this week. Three dwarves and a human priest. The dwarves are two from Midlam and one from Northstar and I think the cleric is from Gripping Beast. Some of these were not actually on the bench and the blacksmith and king had only been started recently but in my head they still count. I guess none of these are more than three years old.

The Ver'men (not Skaven) priest was started this week. I found myself with some paint to spare. Just a quick no frills paint job. I have a few more of these guys hanging around and I am not sure that I am that inspired to paint them but I can see them on the bench already. I think I got these last year or the year before.

Finally there are four Cold War Miniatures zombies. Nice minis but a little bit small compared to some. They do however fit with a lot of newer minis and you cannot fault them for character. The figures are probable ten plus years old and have been on the bench for at least five years.

As far as The New Cruelty goes this has been my best week for ages. I would argue that I have completed the equivalent of twenty five figures this week. I have done a fair bit of exercise this week including my first 5k run in over 7 years. I have kept up on the less vigorous exercise and kept to my step count. I have played one boardgame and I have even managed to do a blog post every day this week, for the first time this year I think. The New Cruelty is satisfied. Ish.

End Of The Week All Over Again

This week has all been about bench clean up. I have an unspoken rule that nothing new hits the bench until everything that is on it is complete. I have already managed about a dozen figures in the week and have finished off a few more over the weekend.

The Frostgrave soldiers are a bit of a let down. Aside from being tiny compared to everything else (including the metal Frostgrave stuff) they haven't turned out quite so well. The word I am thinking is abandoned rather than finished. There are a few nice details on them but in the main I am say "Meh" to myself over and over.

The Reaper giant demon is a much better proposition. I really like the figure and can see a few uses for it. In general, I like the Reaper Bones range. The detail is good (as good as the metal figures) and of course the price is right.

The remaining two human figures are also Frostgrave miniatures. All of these have been hanging around since I got the Nickstarter. The one on the middle bottom row has been on the bench is various states of incompletion for over two years now. I did not find either of these two figures especially interesting to paint. They have turned out alright though.

So in the round for the week that is eighteen figures down. In my way of thinking the demon is probably the painting equivalent of theee figures and the ogre/giant orc/goblin is about two. So call that twenty one figures for the week. The New Cruelty is very satisfied.

To be honest it's been a crap week for me. One element of my job has come to a head and that looks like it's about to resolve itself but not in a good way. This has meant I have been really busy and I suspect that I am now going to be skint for a while as well.  In general it has been a week full of arguments and upset and the fact today has been mother's day has really not helped me out. So all in all I am hoping for a better week next week but I am not extremely hopeful.

Back To Work

The stated goal of the week is to have a workbench clearout. Anything that is part painted is fair game. Let's face it, if it's on the bench it's also fair game. Hopefully the five dark age figures I am working on will be at the top of the list for completion. So starting as I mean to go on.

I got this Reaper Bones figure last year. Although it's kind of a demon, in my game it is a big fire giant. There are plenty of smaller demons and even a larger demon in the collection so I was tempted to do him as something else but he really does look demonic so I guess not. Although there is some paint on the details, the skin tone is mainly ink. I found a mix of red and orange gave a nice looking and solid colour. There is also a bit of purple in then for shading and more on the scaly back.

So the dark age figures have been tinkered with but they were not exactly the only thing I have looked at today. I have attended to a few details but they are not substantially closer to being finished than they were before.

River Troll

This uncommonly large beastie has been my main focus today. I am not really sure what he is meant to be in my games but According to Reaper he is a Marsh Troll. I don't have a clear purpose for him in the Viking game but I can see him as a Mutant in the Underground game. He is still work in progress. there is some highlighting left to do and some details to touch up (the teeth look pretty grim in the picture). I plan to do a water effect on the base but I am going o test this out on another base before trying it out for real.

I kept finding myself getting distracted again today. On top of painting this big guy, I think I have worked on another dozen miniatures. Nothing major, just tidying up. I have also moved into to doing some basing prep. I have gritted about twenty bases and attached another twenty to bases prior to gritting.

Earth Elementals

Just a quick little post, Some work has just been finished off on the smaller one by Northstar. Orange is apparently the new black. The larger one is a reaper bones crystal golem I think This has a few more bits lined up for the base as there is acres on unused space there. I like this model a lot and might get another one and actually paint it as a crystal golem/elemental.

Marking Time By What's On The Workbench

I haven't done much painting for a few days and this morning I was feeling the absence. Although I have had plenty to do, I have found time to do some painting. The New Cruelty dictates that I paint five figures per week. This means finish the paint job, nothing else. Things like bases, decals and various bits of set dressing doesn't count. By this standard, I have finished eight figures this week. As a bonus I have gotten close to finishing with quite a few more.

I showed six Blood Bowl Human Team linemen earlier in the week. These are here. As I thought I might get a couple of quick wins, I started and finished a couple of earth elementals. I will take a some better pictures of these and post them next week.

I have gotten close to finishing another seven Blood Bowl Players. One Troll for the Orc Team, four Human Blitzers and two Human Throwers. There are a couple of  Frostgrave miniatures that are pretty close to being done.

When I was doing the eyes of the larger of the two elementals (one Reaper one Northstar) I spilt a load of blue paint. This sent me off on a huge side track to use the paint. There have been some chemical barrels lying around, primed but unpainted, for a while. They have now been painted and washed and a little bit of work will see them done. A lot was used on the coins used as Blood Bowl re-roll counters. I have eight from the Humans and Orcs and some more from the Dwarf and Skaven teams.  I did  bit of work on the hands used as markers and the ones for the Orc team are fairly close to being done.

Now all I need is some spray varnish.

Spiders Are Done

Anyway I have finished off the Reaper Bones Spider Swarms for Savage Worlds and Dungeon and Dragons. It's good to have something else finished. All the time consuming drying has been done already so it was a fairly quick process.

Maybe I am getting work done because I am naffed off that I am finding the urge to do something. The house is generally never cleaner that when I am naffed off and it is pretty clean today not to mention getting a load of jobs done around the house. The truth is probably that I am a bit naffed off with myself because of what I am doing or not doing. Decisions to be made I think.

I went with brown as the main colour with a little bit of a wash and a highlight. Perhaps it's not as menacing as black but I have just done the beetle swarm in black, blue wash and grey and I didn't want the two  bases turning out like carbon copies of each other (I am not sure that I like the phrase carbon copy any more, it makes me sound older than I feel). When I think back this model this is actually quite a pricey model. £7 of figures and a £1 of bases plus a few bits and pieces. It's certainly the biggest base I have ever used. Now I just need to figure out a way to transport them.

I have also done a bit more written work on some post apocalyptic stuff I have been working on. I have been working on it for a good long time now, you would hope it would be finished by now.

Still, I am tired now.

Spider Swarms And Making Progress

I have come very close to missing the post tonight. Having posted at least daily for three months now I really didn't want to miss the deadline. My other half tells me the clocks are going forward as well which really would have cut into me time to post. So I just made the deadline which still counts.

Time is never on my side and I haven't had much time today. My other half has been hit by another illness which has meant she has been out of commission most of the day. Worse still she has needed a huge amount of attention along with family commitments. I did manage to find the time to sleep through two films. No great shakes as I have seen both of them already. This is after another night of sleep broken by outside forces. My current plan is to put the dog on tranquilisers and lock the cat in the kitchen.

Despite all that I have done a bit of work. The spider swarm base and it's two sub bases is just about finished. The texture I have used on the base is now curing and when that is done, I will get it painted. I am still not feeling the love for this model but it has been sat around, in kit form at least, for a while now.

Once I have finished that I have done a bit of policing up of stuff on the desk. I have done some trimming on another one of the X-Com Cyberdiscs and played around with a couple of the cars. Small steps but definitely progress. The blog is helping me focus.

End Of The Swarm

I think this is just about finished. Add some more highlighting, a little more texturing and a bit of flock later and this is about it. It looks okay to me.

Looking back at the process I think I got things pretty much right. Maybe I could have built the lip up around the smaller bases a bit more. If I had a laser cutter I would probably cut out to layers of thinner MDF. If I was more into playing D+D I would probably made a couple of 25mm/1" bases in the gaps. This would allow the D+D bases to be made up of 1" bases so that it could morph shape.

With a 28mm X-Com trooper for scale

The next task is probably going to be making the next swarm base which is spiders. I have said a couple of times that I am not so struck by the models. This is kind of putting me off the idea but I have already half started the base. I am still looking for some Reaper Bones rats but I am guessing that I will have moved on to something else.

Insomnia , In Your Face And Some Work In Progress

Insomnia no, miniatures and stuff yes. Swarm bases are going to be the next project.  I got to spend last night in an actual bed and a bed big enough for me to fit in. I had a great nights sleep and have been full of beans all day. I have hardly spent any time sat down. The House is much tidier and a load of jobs have been done.

I got some reaper bones swarms a while back. Nice and cheap but I still wanted more. After I got these I needed some bases for them. The aim is to do them for savage worlds. This means that they start as a medium burst template of 100mm/4" and can divde into two small burst templates 50mm/2". 50mm is also the same size as a basic d+d swarms, well kind of so I might need to make some smaller bases as well.

So what you can see here is a couple of test layouts. The plan is to have two small template with two bases in each. The main base would have a couple of single bases to fill in the gaps. My original plan was to have just one cut out withe no extra bases on the, but now I have some cheap bases so what the hell. The plan calls for some moulds to be made with some green stuff impressions. These are to be cut up and spread around the base. So far I have beetles and spiders. I am not sure I like the spiders.

If the concept works out I will get rats next. There are a few possibilities for these models and I can use them in just about every genre. I would like to do bats but I have had a lot of problems finding them. Birds, like ravens, would also be nice for a horror post apocalypse game. The same go for bats.

On the wish list but I have no idea how to make it happen are: flying and none flying cockroaches; I would like a mixed base of creepy crawlies (something along the lines of of Indiana Jones and The Temple Of Doom); piranhas; and ants.  I guess when you have the figures you make sure that they can fit in with the genre of games you play.

So before I did anything, I tidied the workbench as well. It's the cleanest it's been all year. Around the edges of this I tied up and sorted out stuff. I may have just made more space to fill it up again but that's progress?

Spirit Of The Forest and Jabberwock

I like painting figures. Not much of a surprise I guess judging by what else is on the blog. I don't much like painting anything much bigger than regular sized figures. I especially  hate painting horses. I have got better at horses over the years, more by looking at pictures than anything else. I rarely play about with anything bigger than a horse. Yet I find myself with a few bigger things on the go at the moment.

The biggest I have started so far and by far the most complicated is the Spirit of the Forest. This is a Reaper Bones mini. The figure wasn't too  bad but the legs were slightly curved inward making it a little entertaining to put it on the base. This wasn't a huge problem but it does seem to be a common theme the bones minis. I love metal minis and they definitely win on the quality front but the bones figures win on price every time. Some days you want fish and chips not a double starred Michelin Restaurant. There is still a long long way to go here.
 
I wasn't sure about posting the pictures because currently I think I am making a bit of a hash of it.  I am sure I will bring it around eventually. There is a huge amount of detail on this figure  so it may take a while to get it finished. Given what it is, I was hoping to go to town on it a bit. I was thinking that it would make a great monster for Shadowrun.

Even with the coin as ballast, the base is still a little misshapen.

I have got a few of the larger Reaper Bones monsters and some odds and sods. Most of them, especially the bigger ones seem a little warped. Just to show you what I mean this is the jabberwock. The base is bent and the figure itself has a bit of a list. Currently I am feeling a little Monty Python. A cross between Jabberwocky and the Ministry of Silly Walks.  I am currently debating what to do with it but I doubt it will end up as a mini but maybe some scenery instead?

There is also a dragon which looks pretty good even if it needed to be clamped to the base when it was glued down to get a flat surface. I'll post a picture of this on a another day.  All the smaller stuff turned out to be fine however.