Nice NMM on the hellknight, and sculpt is coming along nicely. Really enjoying seeing it come together step by step!

Ooh, I really like the Hellknight. Nice edge highlights on the armor, and the gold/gems on the cloak really pop out.

Nice to see all the saurus sculpts in the one post. The Hellknight is really cool and an apt model for the painting comp. The red/grey works great and love the gem work.

theCrowe: Not really sure my cell camera will let me do that, but I thought it also depended on distance to the model in question--been pulling back further and trying zoom, but its kinda hit and miss. Also, no idea what I'm doing with the sculpt, kinda winging it based off what I've seen you and other tutorials do...

tzurk: thanks on both of them! Far from satisfied with the NMM, but that's for the next model...

Don Qui Hotep: thank you!

Viterbi: they're more krox sized, but still, hoping I can get them all done this month. Thanks on the hellknight, just got to remember to submit it...

Did more general hobby work than strictly painting this week.
Cleaned up and primed the last two Basti formed units. No idea what the yellow stuff is or where it came from, possibly splash from taco night? Either way, means when I get the next burst of mass painting energy, they'll be ready.


Also cleaned up and started highlighting the blood bowl krox:


Think I should have used a darker blue, hopefully a blue wash and drybrush on the skin wil help clean it up.

my bigger reaper krox, on the other hand, is down to just needing a base, and me deciding how bad I want to look for where ever his sheild got off to, vs just jeweling his little arm bit and calling it good:


On the sculpting front, I had a brain wave, and decided I'd waste less green stuff if I had two on the go, so when I inevitably mixed too much for whatever section of one I was doing, I could just slap it on the other, so going to try to run a greek-ish gecko, hopefully using the head stuck to the dog's cork.


I also threw a bit more detail work on the dog, and then decided it was time to really start on his head:


Not quite sure how I'm going to fill those eye sockets, and it looks like he'll be smoking a cigar or the like, given I started with a single large blob of leftover green stuff from the krox base and the wire shifted (really, more just I ended up getting confused which way I was sculpting I think, and ending up 90 degrees to the way I meant to)--didn't help I couldn't find my pre-prepped "gator head" base bits for this. Needs a good bit of detail work yet, but that's for my day off tomorrow and the coming week.

And one lizard down:


Also made some progress on the other two big lizards and the Sheildmaidens:




Playing with army painter quick shades on the scales for the lizards. Not really happy with the results, but still time to do more layers and fixes.

I like the last lizard a lot, the cloth looks naturalistic and a great contrast to his saturated blue scales. What's your concern with the army painter shades? You've got some clean block patches of color that look great.

Mostly patchyness, glossyness, and a feeling that I'm not getting the details picked out well--the lamp shine is doing a lot of work in that last picture. Tried some more work on the two today. Right one...kinda worked? I think? Photo is admittedly pretty bad, but I think I kinda rendered the left one a complete mess.

Probably try fixing it with even more quickshade tomorrow.

It may be the lamplight again, but I still think the Kroxigor on the left looks really good. The scales especially look great. I do hate a patchy shade, though. Haven't tried Army Painter's shades myself, so if you're not recommending them I'll probably stay away.

...I guess the scales came out better than I thought, because not enough contrast on the scales was my main problem with it, admittedly more on the arms than the crest. I actually rather like army painter's shades (though I'm kinda iffy on their actual paints), I just feel like I was slopping it on a bit heavy (and also most of the shades I've got have been sitting a year or two, I think, and probably have had their matting agent settle out)
For instance, pretty much all the ropes and straps on this guy is their mid brown over VMC Iraqi sand with a little rough VMC Pale sand highlight, and the yellow scales are Sculfurous Brown highlighted with Sun Yellow then washed with more mid brown:


And then did the club and bones with more Mid Brown (admittedly, the bones got some highlight layers both before and after) and most of his shading is 2-3 layers of blue shade with a cleanup highlight and base layer of VMC UK Azure.


Both are done save for basing, and possibly a bit of additional eye work on the club dude.

Your lizards are looking great. Loving all the blue and yellow. Nice work. Excited to see another sculpt on the go. Two at once is the best way for that exact reason. doggy face looks good so far. Looking forward to seeing it on the body. Do you have any plans for clothing/accessories for him?

theCrowe--thanks! Iprobably should have thought of doing two sooner, given the number of little green stuff balls I've got on the desk, but just starting one sculpt was intimidating enough. On accessories:



Probably also going to do at least one pouch, his other arm is getting a shield, and I probably should try for a scabbard at some point, he can't just run around waving his sword ALL the time, how would he eat? He did end up a bit...liebfieldian, I think. The fur-abs added a bit too much belly at the wrong angle. May add more pecs to help, but he'll still likely be a bit oddly shaped.

Other guy is going to be a gecko, but still early days on him:

Challenge there will be texturing I think, and all the little ridges because I want to make him a crested.

Almost done the blood bowl lizzie, just needs a bit of basing:


And finished the reaper club dude:


Hoping to finish the blood bowl krox's base tomorrow, and maybe get close to done on the back half of the hearthguard shieldmaidens...

And bloodbowl krox is done:


Need to do a little cleanup to brush the excess flock off and do the second gluedown layer, but close enough for tonight and final pics. Sadly, no shield maidens, but thats what tomorrow's project will probably be.

Love those lizards. Great work on them. The skin and scales especially.

BB Kroxy turned out great!

Nevelon: Thanks! Trying to highlight them up like skin, then wash them down to get the scales defined. It...kinda works?

Don Qui Hotep: Thanks!

Nothing finished today, but did do a bit on the shieldmaidens. Probably about two days out on them, bases to sculpt tomorrow, then let them dry and paint them up the day after (or maybe be bold at do it the same day)

Got them drying on their 1/8"x3/4" fender washers for now

And also got a bit further on the Kartikrea I started a while back, because hey, last two lizards were from febuary 2019, may as well do more lizards, this time started in 2018!

Wasn't bold, just did some basing:


And then while the green stuff was out, did some head and back work on the sculpts:


Not happy with the eyes at least on the dog, really got to figure out a better method. Kinda piled up a blob, squished in a brow, then stabbed in to either side of the iris to kinda form a shape? there's probably a better way or tutorial somewhere.

Vejut wrote:
Nevelon: Thanks! Trying to highlight them up like skin, then wash them down to get the scales defined. It...kinda works?

Sometimes when I’m doing highlights or drybrushing, I’ll go over it with a glaze just to tie everything together. It’s a good technique.

Like doing blended layers of fabric. Base, shadow, highlights, midtone mix. Then glaze down the whole thing, and pick out the very high points again. Lot of work which I’ll often cut corners on, but gets results.

Nevelon: yeah, I do occasionally try that, but don't have the thinness of the glaze required down yet.

Also finished the second point of Saga hearth guard:



Probably do a little jumping around for the rest of the week.

Really love that big blood bowl bruiser lizard. The different textures work really well, scales and bones look great!

Thanks Viterbi!

Kept on with the giant lizard kick this week. Finished Kartikeya from Hell Dorado yesterday after starting him...sometime in early 2018.






Also playing a bit with where and how I'm lighting him for desk pictures. Kinda like his pose, surprisingly stable on that 40mm. Not really happy with how the blades came out, but didn't want to burn more time on NMM or the like. Still annoyed I never pulled the trigger on buying their Ashoka character, and now he's waaaaay too much on e-bay, so despite being likely a pain to rank up, he'll probably just play Salamander for KoW.

Also started More Giant Lizard-

this guy's been assembled and sitting around on various desks or storage boxes since before the End Times (originally was trying to figure out how to mount a handler guy with a gun to use him as an ogryn), but eh, no use for that now and I feel like painting some krox, so the guy who can rank up gets a round, and the guy above who can't gets a square. Happens.

Also did a very little more sculpting--was having adhesion troubles, especially on the gecko, so not much progress but hey, heads are starting to look like heads.

Now this is some serious greenstuff work.

Mind asking me how long you have for such a model?

Heads both looking good. That shaggy dog will be great with his big heroic pose. I like his floppy ears. There is something particularly satisfying about sculpting dogs' faces. Because of the enormous variety in dog breads you have a lot of scope for style and character, so it's a lot of fun.

Not Online!!!--If you're asking how much time to get that far, I think its about 15-30 minutes each session on him, so based on the number of photo's he's, probably about 3-5 hours so far, but really spaced out based on enthusiasm and drying time? Going to be at least two-three more pushes before either's done though.

theCrowe--thanks!

Kinda slowed down this week, as my desk chair broke at the start of the weekend, and it's a choice painful or awkward to sit in, but the new one should be on the way soon. Still, got some work done.

I made some progress on the Krox. I like the way the scales turned out, though may need a quick dark brown-orange wash for some contrast in the bottoms. The unscaled skin is still WIP, but isn't looking right at this point, what contrast is there is a bit rough. Will probably try as close as I get to glazing to smooth it a bit, and probably push the contrast some more. Then just need to NMM all the jewelry and highlight the red of the axe and wood.


Put some very tentative first layers of paint down on the big final Basti push:


And started in on my challenge entry for the month, some Dreamforge Valkir:
primed:

and first color layer:


Think I went a little too thin on the paint, especially the green, and annoyingly it looks like the black (well, technically german panzer grey, because I want to be able to shade down to black) may have actually pulled OUT of the panel lines somehow. Likewise, the green doesn't feel like its giving enough contrast, I think because the panzer grey is feeling like a grey-green, not grey-blue like I thought, and the VMC bronze green I used is also fairly dark. Was trying for a darker green, but may just highlight back up through olive to the camo green I used on the blades. We'll see how it goes in the coming week, especially as I'm about to to shot back out to night shift with off weekends again at the end of it.

This is a large variety of projects. Good looking stuff, though.

The size and shape of the scales on the Krox's back make them look almost crystalline. I'd be tempted to go that direction with them.

It's gratifying to see that I'm not the only one not painting GW Space Marines for this month's challenge. I look forward to seeing what you do with the Valkyr.

Never seen those Valkyr before, I see a lot of unique things on your blog!

Re: Green, maybe just do another thin coat of the bright green you used on the sword and a shade to bring it back down.

Your various Lizardy dudes are coming along nicely, love the blue skin!

Warboss_Waaazag: thanks! I tend to kinda jump around a bit when I'm not feeling a specific one, better paint on something random than no paint at all.

JoshInJapan: I hadn't seen that before, though I definitely can now. Kinda had a different idea, but its one to keep in mind if I do more. As to the Space Marine challenge, I've IIRC actually yet to enter a GW model for any of my challenge entries, and started doing the challenge specifically because I felt there was all this room, and people just kept dropping the GW marines. Granted, some of that is that its a 40K focused site. Not sure if I'm going to finish the Valkir at all, really hitting the no-motivation point with them (though given they're basecoated, really should keep going...)

Don Qui Hotep: They're from Dreamforge, though currently OOP. Their line mates, called "panzerjaeger" are currently licensed and in production from Wargames Atlantic though, and its possible WA will pick up more of the line. With the green, that's probably not a bad idea, though I was trying to keep it a darker shade for...I dunno, some reason that made sense at the time?

aku-chan: thanks! Not quite happy with it yet, but its getting better.

Speaking of blue skin, almost done with the latest lizard:


Up in the air, may do another wash-down dark-try-glazing-up-light Dark Prussian Blue/French blue pass or two, or I may just do up the base and call it done. Doing a schedule shift on minimal spacing (why I'm posting early) which means minimal weekend down time this week, so kinda short on steadyness for either at the moment, we'll see how the week goes.


And said kinda stalled Valkir:


washed the armor black, tried partially bringing back the german grey, may do another wash and then something like Basalt or sombre grey for the armor, then an edge highlight. (though I should probably do the eyes on the helmets first). Still needs a spot color or two I think though.

Lizard looks cool, the blue/yellow contrast works really well. Nice start on the Dreamforge minis as well, excited to see how the progress on them will go!

Thanks Viterbi. Its kinda looking like they're not going anywhere. May make some progress this weekend, but kinda enh on them, so I started another option for the challenge: Jade Falcon Delta Galaxy elementals:


Also, finished the Krox up--ended up not doing the blue glazes, though still telling myself I might:

Very nice Kroxigor.

Cheers,

CB

Krox looks great! Doesn't seem like the blue glaze is necessary at this point. I like the tone you ended up with for the scales.

Captain Brown: Thanks!

Don Qui Hotep: Thanks for the compliment. I was looking to use the blue glaze less to change the tone, and more to help blend the sky blue highlight and the Prussian Blue main color--the lighter color feels very stark. I think I've mostly gone to "next time" on it though.

Schedule shift and being back on midnight is kicking my butt this week, so only a little to report:
Did some work on the Elementals, probably will get them done this month, but I'm not sure it's going to be quality:


Feel like I'm not getting the detail well enough. May tone the green down with a nice olive wash, and then maybe try my brush control again for some very slight line highlights.

Also pushed myself to do more with the Valkir.

Needs edge highlights on the black, NMM gold on the brown stuff, and...whatever it is I'm doing with the swords. May also do another whiter, brighter highlight on the yellow one's colored bits.

and put one single pass of color on 6 more of the Basti. At this rate, I may get them done sometime before next Cold Wars, maybe, if I hurry:


We'll see how energized I feel once I start stabilizing back on midnight shift over the next week.

Nice batch of projects.

I like the Krox. While the highlights might seem a little stark, they are fine. And I think at arm’s length on the tabletop would look better then the zoom pic.

Elementals look fun. I should not be looking too closely at battletech stuff, less I get hooked again. Played a LOT back in the day, and have some old lead kicking around.

Valkir look really neat. I think the highlights helped then along a LOT. Just a few more detail passes and you can get them done. One layer at a time.

Rank and file can be intimidating with how much work needs to be done. But again, one layer at a time and you will get there.

Yes, those edge highlights on the Valkir are really effective - great brush control. Midnight shift is rough, but you're making good progress regardless.

Nevelon: Thanks on the Krox. You're right that he'll probably be OK for tabletop range, I just feel I should have gone with one more step of color.

Don Qui Hotep: Thanks! Sadly, don't think I kept that control going for the black highlights, but they're done now:


Not entirely sold on the bases, and the yellow swords especially are kinda enh, but done enough.

didn't get a lot done, but I did almost get my first Delta Galaxy star ready to base. Needs a bit of visor work on the fourth point, and some wash work, I think:

Krox looks good. I like the blue and yellow contrast. The highlighting on the green Valkir is ace.

Elementals looking great! Even if they are JFs. Smoke Jag all the way!

Thanks DJJazzyJeff.

theCrowe-- Oddly, they were originally planned as Ghost Bears, backed the kickstarter pretty heavy, and probably still going to want a few boxes retail. That said, almost got a (very scratch) star now, with the Hellbringer from earlier.


And since I had the green stuff out, more bits on the sculpts:


not quite sure how that foot's gonna work for the lizard, and I think the dog (and probably the lizard) has a head that is a bit too big, but we'll see how it goes. Also probably need to move that weapon to his belt as a knife and carve a bigger sword, its looking...dinky.

Well maybe he had a Big head, or a heroic scale head. Maybe. I like it though. You could maybe just fit him for some armour around the shoulders and it would bulk out the areas around the head and help bring it together. Then I'd want to give him big heavy boots to balance it out. And a bigger weapon. Hey is this how scale-creep happens. Maybe a new smaller head would save you even more work but it'd be a shame to loose that adorable character.
So jealous of your many projects right now. I'm moving house so all hobby is packed away and I can't paint, sculpt, game, nerd. I can barely browse dakka between house hunting! Thanks for giving me something to nerd over.

TheCrowe: glad I could help tide your inner nerd over. Good luck on the house. Already secured the head with green stuff, so he'll just be a scottie or something, though enlarging the arms and shoulders is tempting...

Trying for hobby bingo this year, my 48hr entry, a goatalry wizardess from westfalia miniatures Third Breakfast line:




And some better, more formal pics of the space marine entry valkir:





Sadly, only really primed the elementals bases, so nothing there, maybe tomorrow.

The Valkyr turned out quite nicely. You got remarkable coverage on the yellow armor, especially given how bright it is.

Thanks JoshinJapan. I think a lot of it is the camera flattening the colors, its much patchier in real life. That said, I think the yellow brown VGC Sculferous Brown as the base layer did help with coverage.

Also, got the elementals done. Still drying, and may give them some labels later, but for now:


Not the first star I intended but I'll take it. Not sure what to jump to next, thinking either halfling cavalry or some chariots for next month's challenge.

So, have the week off, and set out a nice set of stuff to work on this week:
Usual spoiler for bare breast basti:

Got a 4Ground chariot I'm going to put the two Basti in to, some Warlord horses pulling it ,with the camp follower as the driver and the Master of Words riding. Then a pair of old Demonworld/MegaMinis rats to fill out an infantry squad for my skaven guard, and some more progress on my Basti Archers group.

Progress so far:
Another Basti breast spoiler for the chariot riders:


The archers:

and also pulled a Heru Battle Sage out of the foam to keep working on them:

Obviously needs a lot of cleanup and neatening before metallics and shading.
The rats with their two whole colors:


And got around to that sword replacement for the dog sculpt. Need to do a few belt items (a money bag, mounting and sculpting a blob of green stuff into a proper Biting Pear of Salamanca, turning the old blade into a beltknife.) and extremeties next time I get to green stuffing.


We'll see how much progress I make and what else I jump to this week...

Love the status of the green stuff dog, he looks cool with his sword!

Sorceress on goat looks great, everything is better with goats

Thanks Viterbi! my ping pong ball of a brain is kinda shooting off in other directions at the moment, but I've actually got a whole box of halfling knights on goats from the kickstarter, and I do kinda want to get to them...

Almost done with the chariot. The driver and Master of Words before they were glued in place, usual topless spoiler:


A bit of freehand on a shield for one of them:


And then the full assembly. Weapons and shield aren't glued down yet. Not fully convinced of the positions, thinking I should maybe put the shield off to the side by the driver, maybe move the weapons, but figured I'd ask for opinions.


Still need a final metallic highlight pass on the blades, and then basing, though I'm open for suggestions for tweaks as well.

Nice one! Gotta get those chariots for extra mobility. My Olympus warband has two in 1000 points. Getting those support characters the ability to zoom around is loads of fun. Master of Words looks really cool. Her pose and the movement of her robe adds a lot to the motion of the chariot. The blue also really works for me.

Thanks Don Qui Hotep!

Got it fully finished, usual breast spoiler

Not fully happy with the base, too dark, but having issues with lightening it smoothly and avoiding efforvencence as it dried.

Also did some work on the battle sage:

Getting close there.

Also some progress on rats and cat archers:




Got most of the month to finish those though.

Finished chariot looks very cool, love the freehand, really nice with the lines around the freehand. That must have demanded a very steady hand.

Final chariot looks great! Really impressive.

Love the vibrant blues. Really stand out on the desert tans.

The chariot turned out quite nicely. I especially like the hieroglyphs on the shield.

Thanks Viterbi, Don Qui Hotep, Nevelon, JoshinJapan. The lines were done with micron pen and then veeeeery careful overpaint with the blue and a brush. Literally just says (female) cat.

Keeping on Egyptian things, almost done the battle sage, just need to paint up a base, trying green stuff instead of spackle:


Made a little progress on the archers, about two more colors on the front 10 and base colors will be done:



In other stuff, more rat progress, trying to trim up my autocannon team and stick the barrel better to the body, and starting an admech arquebus, plus a little progress on the gunners.


Started a dragon:


And nearly done sculpting the dog, mostly needs fur fill in and some last kit detail:


Hopefully get some stuff done by next week.

Nearly there with the dog, looks great, the fur is the right amount of furry.
We definitely need a group shot of all the Egyptian models at one time (preferred in front of a pyramid ).

Sadly, Viterbi, I don't have a pyramid. Group shot really only added the chariot and sage since the last one, but will probably take another when the archers get done. Also, finished sage:

So, got a bit of motivation on Basti stuff. Started and knocked out my Basti Gamer con exclusive from 2019, for use as the gunner on my ballista if I use them in KoW or Warlords of Erewhon:



Also made a few more colors progress on the archers. Don't think they'll be done this month, but probably before July. Almost done with all the base colors, and then the looong sapping fight of cleaning up all the mistakes I made trying to force myself to get that far...


Also visible in the background are some progress on my Transuaranic Arquebus rat, and a few splashes of pink on a special character beastmaster who is probably going to end up a squad leader for my skaven IG.

Also broke the green stuff out, and almost have the sculpting done for the dog, though sadly, its the bane of artists left, hands, especially annoying since I screwed up the angle on the sword one. Also I have to be figuring out how to blend from the furry torso and neck to the face, because I like the little jowl folds and I don't think furring that will let me keep them, and some final accesory attachments.




Also in that picture is the barrel of the rat autocannon for last week, so should be starting to prime and paint that soon.

Excellent progress. Chariot is really cool. Like the color scheme on all the Egyptian units.
Good work on the Doggo as well.

Egyptian stuff is coming along nicely, I particularly like the bird lady.

Thanks aku-chan, DJJazzyJeff.

Made a little progress on the Egyptians. Basically done base colors except the eyes on the back 10.


Did some rat stuff as well, started the beastmaster, and finished assembling my autocannon team:


Also did a little more on the arquebus:

Most of the energy for the week went to the dog sculpt though, and its now done sculpting:


And painting started, may enter it as the monthly challenge. Just got the base coating done:


Hopefully start closing some stuff up this week.

So cool to see real color on the finished dog sculpt, great work so far! And a lot of stuff coming along, like arquebus rat, that recoil must throw it right of the base

Viterbi-I'm glad I'm at the coloring stage on him. And don't worry about the rat, I'm sure the mechanicus has an attachment for that...

Minimal progress week, I'm afraid though.
Archers got all the base colors, and the front 10 got skin cleanup, though still have to do all the other color cleanups:

Did a bit of drybrush work on the dog fur:



Made some small highlights on the arquebus and primed the autocannon:


And gonna hedge my bets on the dog getting done for the challenge and maybe kickstart myself on working with a quick platypus:



Just gotta keep making layers, they'll get there eventually.

Never thought I see a Platypus on a painting table Excited to see how it turns out. But there seems to be a slight error with the pics, the second one is the same as the first and not your lovely dog sculpt.

Doh! What I get for trying to quick post on the shuttle into work before I hit the bad signal area. Fixed, thanks!

The platypus is from Oathsworn, by way of Wirecat on here, he's a cut little guy. I had another one, but I think I gave it to a friend, unpainted. Hoping he comes out decent.

Because I'm happy with how its going, dropping some more platypus pictures:



The fur, both on him and the possum fur cloak I think came out well, but I'm worried about contrast. Also needs more on the blacks, especially tail vs footpaws, and I want to do some freehand on the weapons.

The Platypus is coming along nicely.

That platypus is cool, but it took me a glance or two to realise that he was wearing a cloak...

Thanks aku-chan!

Guardling--yeah, thats what I meant by contrast-kind of feel like the inside of the cloak and belly fur blend a bit much, even with his side fur there, likewise the tail and the cloak ouside, and the paws vs the tail. Tried to do a bit more today, purple wash and some grey attempts at glazes. I think I mostly just muddled the bill. I may add another drybrush highlight or two to his head, and then I have to just do the weapons and base him up.

Very nice work on the fur. I think the brown/grey are distinct enough. Anytime you are dealing with multiple shades of the same color it’s a worry about them blending, but I think you are OK here.

You could always paint him green and give him a fedora.

Thanks nev, actually pushed him through to done. Thinking about it, probably missed a trick not drawing a fedora on the platypus on his throwing stick. Maybe if I find and do another.


Probably do an update on the other WIP stuff such as it is tomorrow.

I love the painting on those Aegyptian figures, so vibrant and strong! A refreshing change from ye olde grim darke around t’interwebs. I like those elementals a lot - reminds me of encountering them during Mech Commander 2 And MW 3 and going WTF are these horrid little...*

That platypus is rock solid and I love how crowded your bench is. Kind of reminds me of mine.

Amazing work on the platypus, the work on the fur and inside of the coat is great, but I love all the freehand on its sticks!

Thanks Ragsta, I do like my bright colors. One of these days I really have to finish the last point of the Falcon star, and start in on my ghost bears.

DJJazzyJeff--thanks! The clutter is nice for having things to work on to hand if I'm not feeling something, but it does get a bit overwhelming sometimes, especially when something is lost in a drift.

Viterbi-- thanks! Glad it came out, it was a bit nerve wracking getting it in without screwing up too bad.

Made a little progress this week, but other than the playpus, nothing really concentrated:

The ratquebus got some base prep done, though still need to carve all the wood texture there.


Likewise, basic rat guard got some cleanup, about ready for highlights.



Got another layer of color on the front archer regiment, mostly just needs the red, and then can go to wash and highlights, but the rear one still lags.


And did about one small area of green on the dog (or possibly some blue and metallics as well? I lose track). Kinda stalled out on him, but may grind it down yet.



Hoping for a bit more this week, but kinda comes down to my mood and sleep schedule. More or less kept to at least one layer on something a day at least.

Doggo is coming along well. One layer at a time, man. Baby steps onto the bus.

DJJazzyJeff--thanks. He's almost there, I think, but really not feeling attacking the sword, which I think is really the last big peice. (Though another pass on the blue probably wouldn't hurt, and I plan to do another drybrush pass at the fur)



Also almost there on the first 10 archers--should have used soft tone not mid brown, but not redoing the wholenskin over it. Debating a blue wash on the cloth and some edge highlights on the bow and such, vs just declaring them done bar bases:


Plus slung some paint at the rats, who are also kinda getting there for the non weapon team ones. Weapon team I am really hating past me on, so hard to get some of the areas on the chest.


Also got some more paint on the rat-terminators for my chaos force, but forgot to grab a picture, may edit it in later.
(Edit: hey look, its later:


Plan for the black is color shift paints so it looks like the flamer dude has swollen warp energy boils feeding the flamer, basically...)

And I got a final package from Mierce miniatures, their Ysian Bow Annik, got really enthused about maybe doing it as a 48 hour model...and then I went to put it together and oh dear.

This is after gluing on the head and separate hair. Those arms ended up just as fiddly as they looked, putting the bow on was a nightmare, and I almost set it aside semi-permanently, but eventually it did get assembled:

Anybody else trying to assemble it, watch out, the antler on the side with the high arm doesn't want to go in if you put the arm too far over, which you can probably see on mine.
Maybe some day I'll even be not annoyed enoigh with it to paint it!

Hope the annoyance wears off quickly, because that is a lovely model, despite the assembly challenges. Would love to see it with paint on

Maybe eventually Viterbi, kind of flailing wildly motivation and direction wise, and it still needs mold line removal and gap fill.

Looking like the Platypus will be the only model done for may this year, though I'm pretty much down to basing on the first 10 Basti archers, maybe a highlight pass on the orange brown.


Likewise, all the rats except the big gun are pretty much at the "screwed up enough I may as well start basing and call them done" stage.


Hopefull will have those cleared away, and can start thinking about next projects. Thinking some Typhon skirmishers for the challenge, being both red and foot troops, and possibly some more battletech. Also got a airbrush for my birthday, so gotta find a good project to play with that some. We'll see what happens.

Kinda been blah all week, but built up work still leaves some stuff done.
Based up the rats:


Just need to paint up (or find) a heavy weapons team to fill out a full squad painted of infanfry.

Dog is also done:



Also started some Typhon for WarGods, since I'm close to finishing the Basti, it'd be nice to have two armies, will probably try to have some painted for boots on the ground this month.

More minor progress this week, but a little better and have time off coming up, plus a schedule change back to days soon.

Both the typhon and the basti got a little progress. Playing with liquitex inks to the typhon's red:


Just cleaned up the skin on the basti, but hey progress.

Also bashed up some more rats. The two admech guys gives me a minimum squad when they're done, and the grenadier fills out my vets. Still need green stuff gap filler before paint. May also try to bundle them with some heavy weapon figures I found for touch ups, but no pics of them yet.


And finally figured that the Typhon were probably not getting done realistically with my workrate and the amount of month left (seriously, how is it halfway through June already?), so started a singleton berzerker for the challenge. Likely she'll end up joining my saga vikings if they ever get done. She has boots, they're both on the ground, I figure it counts!

Hopefully get her actually shading and such done this week, and maybe get the 2nd basti group done so I feel up to basing...

Lovely fur work on that platypus mate!

Always impressd by the breadth of your work. So much happening in a variety of stages. Really excited for more skaven stuff and love the rhimey skin tones on the barbarian girl!

Thanks for sharing

Thanks tzurk!
Bit more busy than I'd hoped on vacation, so not much finished. I did get the barbarian finished. Took some quick cell pictures, need to take the real camera out for better ones:



Not happy with the skin, came out rather rough I think due to an overthinned wash, though I think the cloak came out ok.

Did a few more layers each on the archers and typhon, archers need the hull red and orange brown touch ups to go to highlights, typhon need some orange brown as metallic base, eyes, and whatever I'm doing for their mouths, then touchup:


And started to build a few more rats, with heads out of the Wargames Atlantic lizards kit with plans to make them into the backing group for some poisoned wind globadiers for a pair of demo charge special weapons squads, because I don't have enough projects yet. Plan is to turn the staffs to slings, mount lasguns in weaponless hands, and add a bit of stowage kit as something like engineers.


Slowly going forward

Barbarian looks cool and she most certainly has her boots planted on the ground!

Thanks Viterbi, that's pretty much exactly why I went with her.

Small progress still, gonna be another 1 model month, but should be a good bit done in July, I hope.

Some progress on the WarGods stuff--almost ready to clean up the Typhon, and the basti are up to wash and highlight (though I need to go over them to check for damage, the cat attempted to help today and ended up knocking a lot down)

Got the rats to follow the typhon mostly modeled up. A medic and a Master Vox, though the medic needs some filler:

And some gear carrying veteran special weapons troops, just needing guns to go on to getting filler:

On days now, hoping I can get back at a good rhythm.

Barbarian girl looks great finished! Really strong pose - ready to chop some necks - and snow looks great on the base.

Lovely to see more space skaven! The metallics on the big rats look brilliant too.

Good luck getting back into routine! Thanks for sharing 8-)

Thanks tzurk, glad she mostly came out.

Still slow, cat having teenage freakouts on my paint desk taking a lot of energy out, so I did what I usually do in this situation and dropped the other projects for some new ones. Started another pair of mechs:


About ready for highlights and then a wash. Not sure yet if I'm going to match bases between the two forces or not.

Also started my challenge models for the month: a scary lust demon from Avatars of war and two fearless monster hunters opposing her:
Primed:

And base coated:

May change out the mid purple for a prussian or sky blue, not sure yet. Hoping to get these three done by fay after tomorrow.

And threw the rats the rest of the way together, less one base that I can't get because secret weapon is backed up.


Now I just gotta get one of the other mass paints done to prime and start them, assuming another project doesn't grab me in the meantime.

Failed the 48hr attempt, but I am down to just needing bases on the models I was trying for:


Not quite sure what those bases are going to be though...

and some close ups:


Nothing bare, but still kinda risque, is a sorceress of Lust...

Hoping to figure out basing and maybe make some progress on the mechs tomorrow.

Sorceress is done:

Not my best work, and open for improvement suggestions, but it'll do.

Also just need basing on the other two, hanging out in my cabinet for now so the cat doesn't scratch them up:

And basing is done, two more down:


May need some patchwork on the cloaks and for small misses from base painting. I'm...okay with them, as long as I keep reminding myself they were a quick knockout thing to keep myself moving. Some bits I like, but I will admit the quality is kinda rough.

One more finished set for the week, broke down and just based up the first 10 man basti archer block, to get them off the painting table and back safe from the cat in the cabinet:


And an admittedly poorly lit army shot (ignore the bear and orcs on the left and harbingers on the right, they're just photobombing):



Also made a little progress on the mechs:


Hope to get those done this week, and debating starting painting the current rat batch, starting a titan, or trying to buckle down on the already started war gods models. Dunno why models I like so much are so much like pulling teeth to finish

Nice work on your comp entry, love the liquids on pocks mask man.

Cool to see the army shot and love the new Mechs that are coming along. They look like a buddy duo out to save robot crimes.

Thanks Viterbi. Trying more freehand on the vials, even if I'm not fully happy with them yet.

Did get the Mechs done, and again more freehand, though given the results, possibly a bit ill advised. Also should maybe have waited to take pictures after the glue dried for the basing, but enh, I was enthused.

Going to be less a buddy duo, and more OPFOR, but still good they look right together.

Mechs look good, and nice work on the other stuff.

For the sorceress, the purple of her skin and the fabric seemed very close in shade and texture. I might try to glaze the darker parts to help separate them a little more visually.

Thanks Nevelon.

And yeah, I was trying to not spread my palette too much, but also not match the armor, chains, or skin. Almost went with baby blue because I was worried about it being too much a giant blob of dark on an otherwise very bright model.

Tried the purple glaze, still not sure I like it, but its not hateful:



Of course, also started some semi new projects, starting in on another comissar, and trying to make some forward progress on the warhounds I primed a few months back:





Little at a time, I guess.

And a little more progress over the last few days.

Primed up the Elementals, one will fill out the Delta Galaxy star, one will start my Ghost Bear's infantry force:


Dropped one (1) more color on one of the Warhounds:


And made some progress on the commissar:
Thursday:


And Friday, last I worked on it:


May do some touch up on screwups I'm only seeing now in the photo, and maybe push the red a bit more, but really just waiting on me going to find a slotta for him. Feeling kinda iffy on the skin, was going for "african american warm brown", and I think I missed pretty badly, with too much green tint in the tone and too desaturated. Still painted model is painted, and I can always try again.

love the platypus cool idea

Thanks Bobbuilder, though I admit everything but the paintjob is Oathsworn, they do make pretty characterful minis though, even if they occasionally suffer pose wise a bit for insisting on making them one peice. Makes them nice for just grabbing and going when I just want a new thing to paint!

Also, quick WIPs of a Reaper Bones guy I've been doing this week. Kinda discovering I'm not a fan for man sized minis, weapons get far too wiggly, but I just really wanted to paint some abs:

Great musculature!

Thanks Gwyn chan'r Gwyll. Almost done with him, just need to finish the base:


Also almost done with the cat archers, finally! Maybe one more pass each of blue and pale sand, and then basing up, though I may just leave them as is and base:


Won't be a completely a finished project, I will probably add another unit or two and some characters eventually, but it'll have its core done and a usuable force.

Also threw some paint at a bunch of random stuff, like starting the demo charge carriers for my rats:

Also found a totally not Rocket Racoon from bombshell miniatures, though I think it looks a bit more fox, and plan to paint it that way with an yellow jumpsuit.

And then another reminder of why I'm iffy on Bones, that staff is just wiggly as all get out:


Also primed a pair of deep cuts hyenas, but no pics as they're just primed. Hopefully get some done this week.

Finished Barbarian:

Just got the bow cats done before bed:


Which means while I've still got some odds and ends to add, the core army project is now done! Would have missed Historicon, but enh, not happening until November now, so still calling it good.


Light was a bit crap, so not the best pictures, but still happy to get that done.

Impressive army pics! It’s one thing to see an army slowly work itself piecemeal across the paintbench, another to see them ranked up and ready for war.

Great job!

There's something special about seeing a forest of pikes waving in the air.

Thanks Nevelon, getting a project finished and ranked up feels pretty good, yeah.

Thanks Gwen chan 'r Gwyll. I agree, deliberately used the longer wire spears at full length because I love me some pikes.

Also got the base on the commissar done finally, so he's done and named. Something about him reminded me of the movie M. Bison, so figured I'd name him for the actor:



"For you this chaos invasion was the defining moment of your life. For me, it was a Tuesday."

..also almost got the hyenas done, actually did a little more after this pic, just need some foliage, final glue seal layer, and some black rimming

Commissar looks cool, love the pose, so bored of having to execute a soldier fleeing the battlefield

And congrats on more or less having a finished army, hope you can get it into action in November!

Thanks Viterbi, the old metals do have some character to them, don't they?
Hoping I get to use the army in November, but kinda looking at the vacation slot I've got and my schedule and counting hours of sleep for a saturday at 7p start game's finish time plus 3-4 hours drive time from valley forge vs 4AM Sunday wakeup for work and getting kinda side eye on it...

Did a little work this week, but cat continuing to knock models down and incoming bleahs meant I didn't make as much progress as I'd like, though I did get a nice box to store stuff in so the knocking stopped:

Hopefully can get some traction back and keep moving.

Nice job on the Commissar!

Thanks aku-chan.

Maybe should drop this in P&M instead, and may do that later, but just picked up some scale 75 insta-colors (their contrast equivalents) and I feel like I may be using them wrong. Can anyone give advice on these?


Two on the right are with two passes, three on the left are one, it feels very runny and messy if put on heavy, or very thin and untinted if light. Its over rustoleum 2x white, I beleive the matte or possibly satin. Putting it over my usual Vallejo PU white as a heavy layer gets this (just the brown, purple was done more normally):


It feels very patchy. Am I applying it wrong, do I need to shake my bottles more, is this just how contrast works without the special primer, or is the scale 75 stuff just not as good?

Still been a bit of a slow week, not having stuff right out in front of me means stuff I'd throw a little color at doesn't get that impulse paint, but still made some progress. Mostly on titans admittedly:
my warhounds as currently assembled. Dropped them on the base because my hands kept wearing the metal color off the feet. Going to make the base paint harder, but didn't feel like doing the glue-and-separate job I was doing with the stock bases, so thats future me's problem. Used base green of VMC German Camo Bright Green, highlight glaze of Army Painter Jungle Green. Also determined that the purple underlayer on the Metal Color Steel was unneccessary, though I may try for a nightshade purple wash to put a little color in there:



Test fits on their carapace:


And testing some trim highlighting with illustrators marker--my goodness does it work easy! Color could be a bit darker, hoping a second pass helps (and then more passes with light colors brings it back because that's a nice tone, I just would like some darks to it.) Right one is a little rough because I started by trying .01 micron pen, which was good color, but like trying to fill in space with a ballpoint. Wrong tool for the job, but possibly a good one for further messing about. May also play around with using a green for the darks, or just splashing my green right to the edge of the plate for that.


Also got almost all the base colors done for the challenge entry this month, too, less eyes, and some cleanup for handling and knockabout from the cat (and a dragonborn was there too):


and finally, forgot to take finished pictures of the hyenas, so belated flash pictures in the case, being prevented from hassling a sabretooth for its lunch money by a displacer beast:



Hopefully start hitting the shades on the challenge models this week, and maybe making some serious Warhound progress. Kinda want to try to get a Warbringer assembled next and ideally painted before October because a local GW is having a titan bash, but gotta get these guys off the table first.

More layers on the warhounds:


Still not sure how I'm going to finish the trim piping, and not sure I like the green compared to just a solid necrotite green like the last set, but still, progress.

More progress on the titans:
Test mule for trying another approach trying to speed things up:

More armor pads, including some shields to replace a thigh piece that went missing:

Current state of titan bodies, armor still unattached:


And hiding in the bottom corner, some new projects, picked up unpainted at a used sale:



Sadly, winged guy there is a strong contender for an iso bath--playing with color shift, and also drybrushed zenithal, and they just didn't play well together. I think I needed more highlight and paint work in between to make it work--I like the sparkly subtle under colors this gives me effect wise, but the main colors just aren't there because I was hoping for better coverage. May come back to it, or may just finish it as a bad job, not sure yet.

Finally, just gotta base the otter, pushed him to almost done, since I'm running out of month and the enthusiasm is mostly on the titan. I'll try to get the others done, but not feeling likely.



We'll see how tomorrow night and the rest of the week goes.

Almost there....

Really like that otter. Great job!

Thanks Nevelon. Even made a little more progress today:


Just need to clean up those tool scrapes in the red and finish the base up...

Also, titan progress, assembled the torso and did up the gold and the purple wash on the steel. Lotta armor plates still to go, and some cleanup to go back and do, but getting there. Now if only I can find that missing arm so I don't have to magnetize another one...

And done. More or less anyways. May drop some matte varnish on him and need more formal photos, but one less worry for the month.

Nice job on the Otter Pirate, love his base!

Thanks aku-chan, more plasticard strip and green stuff work.

Kinda stalled on the titan, sadly, though I'm pretty close on having the armor plates done:


I did however start some cerastus assembling:



Two fully assembled Acheron, and two castigator I'm going to convert to lancers.
Sheild arms, trying to figure out fit:



And made some (admittedly kinda mediocre) progress on painting them:

Using metallic sharpie for the gold trim, works great except for where I can't physically fit things in because I fully assembled. Learning for next time. Paint jobs still need some cleanup and washes, and waiting on Ragnarok Hobbies for basing, but close to done them as well. Hopefully this coming week.

I really like your anthropomorphic stuff-- you seem to have a natural gift for them.

thanks JoshInJapan, but really I'm pretty sure most of that is Oathsworn sculpting fur that just really drybrushes up well as well as being good at sculpting charachter. I'll probably be doing more of them though, I want to finish the rest of the crew up (and theres a beetle-riding knight they make I want to do for the challege this month, seeing as how its heavily armored AND made of white metal...)

but first I gotta get these titans off the desk, and I'm pretty close, spare magnetized gun for one and then its just basing for all four:

If you're getting sick of the titans, almost at a break point. Finished one warhound out:


And never found that arm, but started a new one, and the basing is almost finished on the other:

And a test fit of my base decor:

A little sand to hide the plugs and some paint, and we'll just be waiting on that loose arm.

Then, on to fuzzier things, going to try to finish at least this shrew for the challenge this month:

White metal, a knight in armor, feels like it fits heavy metal pretty well. Bonus points for my brain if I can finish this gnome with him:


Not sure what I'm going for next. Kind of want to try to hammer through a warbringer for titanicus but got demoralized looking at the scale of assembly, may jump to finishing some rats or typhon.

And warhound #6 is done:

*warhorns*

Anyways, also got some shrew progress, though pretty sure I've screwed it up--color shift I picked is really close to the blue I'm using for the reigns and saddle. Not sure what to do about it, thinking maybe going to my usual light blue UK azure as a strong highlight?

Almost to the end on the shrew, just needs some basing, and maybe a face powdering with a drybrush:


Sadly, bunged up the freehand on the non-checkered side--has more separation between the knife andnthe shield edge, but got sloppy with the color. Also mis sized the lettering on the checker side, but don't trust my ability to go back and correct either. Tempted to give them a shield of their own, but feel like it'd cover too much.

And of course, started more stuff looking for something my brain will latch to, some questoris knights with 3d printed plasma guns:


Hopefully clean those up soon.

Shrew knight is done. I'll need better pics for the challenge, but it'll keep a bit:


And getting close with the knights, base colors on and cleaned up, gold sharpie down, and some purple tone for some color depth, thoigh I think the last set I may have used a nightshade purple wash instead of army painter. Just need to go back with the magenta and clean up, then do some basing.

Hopefully this weekend will see these done.

And they did sqeek in as done this weekend:


And the titan force so far:


Not sure whats up next, more titans, or possibly additional rats. Or just haring off on a new tangent.

Beetle guy shaped up nicely. Good sized titan force you have there. Hard to wrap my brain around their scale.

Shrew knight is looking fantastic and nice to contrast the green titans with the pink knights.

Thanks Nevelon, generally try to stick some stuff on the bases to help with the feeling of scale, but was kinda just snapping the knights off quick and didn't have much 6mm printed and uncommitted at the time.

And thanks Vitterbi, trying to use a similar pink to the titan trim to tie them together, but that does give a nice contrast to the bodies too, doesn't it?

Also did some more 6mm stuff this week, kicked out some Battletech Pegasus and Scimitar hovertanks, a pair of Hetzers to go with my Urbie, and started on some elementals. Mostly done, just needs basing and maybe some freehand unit and faction markings...





Trying pinwashes on the tanks, not quite working, but just gives an excuse to try again.

Got some 6mm tanks done:







Puts me over 100 for the year, so thats nice I guess? Torn between more knights (but then I'd need to figure out bases, since Ragnarok Hobbies has gone non-responsive...), trying to push for a warbringer titan (lotta work...), and some finishing of already started projects next, and have to think about what I'm doing tomorrow for the spooky challenge...

And the next go round of minis starts--some Battletech because I am in a giant robot mood:


And some burrows and badgers undead with their necromancer for the challenge:


Really ought to finish some of the already started stuff too, but we'll see how it goes.

Spur of the moment update on the work done so far this week:


Started the base camo colors on the Ghose Bear mechs, blocked out the Falcon ones so I know what needs bright green and what'll be yellow, and began blocking on the undead. Still not sure where I'm going with the colors on the undead, but we'll see where we end up.
and a closer view of the ghost bear mechs:

Love that Shrew Knight! Sorry I missed that last month. Looks great. I must have an original Shrew Knight for my own collection. Looking forward to seeing your October challenge minis too.

Definitely interested to see what you come up with if you do your own knight, theCrowe! Maybe a stag beetle, or a hornet rider?

Some more incremental progress on my end:


Bat's non-wing skin needs a full redo, kinda picked a bad placeholder color, and the robe is probably getting mostly whited out, while a lot of the green on the other two is getting turned to bronze, but I feel like they're decently done blocking in.
Mechs, the Hellbringer/loki is actually on first highlight, playing around with order on when to shade, and ran out of time on the other two. The Ghost Bear machines just got done washing with black when I took the photo, they'll need a cleanup pass and some edge highlights and jeweling of the cockpits I think.

Been kinda focused on the Jade Falcon mechs, mostly I think because I'm liking painting the green and they're also out on my desk and easy for my brain to see and grab. Focised enough in fact, that I've got them done:


Kinda junky job, and I think I'm still overcomplicating things on my paint jobs, but enh, they're done.


And together with the older finished ones to form a full nova:

Nice collection of mechs/elementals. I forget Clan army structure (besides that it was mostly base-5) but if you say you’ve finished a Nova, congrats! You’ve done a lot of mechs, how big is your total collection and how many forces/paint jobs do you have? When I was painting mechs I did all my clan stuff in one color, but the Inner Sphere forces were either one-offs, or done by lance. And were quite random.

Lot of fun playing Battletech, back in the day.

Sadly, I've maybe another dozen metals I painted years ago in a variety of schemes, and then just what you see in this thread painted up. I did hit up the kickstarter pretty heavy though, so the goal is a pair of clan clusters (45-60 mechs a peice), and then a mix of IS and clan random stuff. To be fair, any game that has more than maybe 5 units a side is probably going to be an all-night event, so thats actually a pretty good selection. It can be a fun game, but man is it full of lookup tables and the universe reaaaallly needs you to turn off your brain and just roll with it..

And shifting back to the challenge models for a few days progress:

Slightly blurry bat from friday.

And tonight, with a little extra work (the runes are futhorc transliterated 'wake up') and his two minons getting close to done:


Probably getting these three done, not sure about the ghost bears or anything past that this month...

Nice work on the mechs, but I'm really digging the latest shots. Those skeletal beasts look great!

Thanks Viterbi, hoping then end up coming out and I don't get in the missed stroke downward cycle...

Almost there, just need to finish attacking the armor and base I think:


And a little mech progress:

I would love to get into Battletech but the mi is are such a pain to source in the UK. I think the Jade Falcon scheme looks great.

Looking good, love the Bat Wizard!

Thanks ListenToMeWarriors, I do admit a lot of the progress on the falcons is just because I really like that green and yellow scheme. I can't recall, does Ral Partha Europe not carry the mechs anymore?

Thank you aku-chan, glad the bat is working out OK so far.

And some progress on the skellies, think I just need to base at this point:


Plus getting into edge highlights on the Ghost bears, probably should have done my fleck camo first and still need the blue edging but they're also getting close

All over but the drying on the undead:

Needs better photos for the challenge, but I think that about does it paint wise.

And the mechs just need basing, and freehand if I can get myself enthused enough to try it again:


And now to figure out what I'm doing the next 10 days of the month. Thinking of finishing the pirates from a few months back, doing some smoke jaguar 6mm tanks, or kicking up some rat guard, but I think a lot of things...

Smoke Jags all the way! Clearly the true sons of Kerensky. I assume you’ve gotten all these other clan mechs painted up as Falcon clowns and Teddy bears so we can win all their mechs in trials of combat with only these tanks you speak of and then repaint them all in Jaguar spots.

I just feel obligated to rant as my clan were mentioned. If you were painting IS mechs it’d be all about “the Dragon”. It’s the Battletech way isn’t it.

Your Mechs and elementals are looking great. Really sharp work!

Vejut wrote:
All over but the drying on the undead:

Needs better photos for the challenge, but I think that about does it paint wise.

And the mechs just need basing, and freehand if I can get myself enthused enough to try it again:


And now to figure out what I'm doing the next 10 days of the month. Thinking of finishing the pirates from a few months back, doing some smoke jaguar 6mm tanks, or kicking up some rat guard, but I think a lot of things...

Your 'mechs look sweet. I have an unopened box containing my KS stuff sitting next to my desk, taunting me. I may have to break it open for a trip down nostalgia lane...

Thanks theCrowe, the desire to do some Jags really is about wanting to paint some spots, yeah. On the combine, I will note that hovercraft lance I did end up painting little Dragons on the tails...

JoshinJapan: You should! I think they'd look pretty sweet with your painting style!

Also, finished the ghost bear mechs:


Now just to figure out what I'm going to paint over the next week--may be the tanks, but man, the mold lines and sprue lumps on that set are just annoyingly placed...

Turns out "what am I painting this week" is more mechs because the Falcon scheme especially is pretty easy to paint, and I just like that electric green:


So the cycle starts over again at base colors.

Those mechs all look pretty sweet. Can't wait to see the finished product on the yellow/green ones.

Thanks Brushcommando. Made a little more progress today:

Kinda like the purple-blue effect, but I think I'll stick with the brighter blue for now.

Also threw some more paint at some dormant space airplanes, blocking some more of my Tau Tigersharks in a Avro Vulcan inspired scheme:

Gonna try to get them both done this week, but we'll see how it goes.

Looking forward to seeing these Tau ships. Very nice looking minis. Are they battlefleet gothic or some such game?

Thanks theCrowe, they're pretty stock minis for the current edition of GW's areonautica imperialis. Only real change I did was magnetizing the bottom guns. And some...I hesitate to call it progress, given the amount of cleanup on them I'm going to have to do, but at least additional paint layers:



And some wash on the ghost bear mechs:

Started some of the cleanup, and of course got messy enough I'll need to go back in with wash after I do the bottom, and around it goes...


Only the top done so far. Need to do some more layers and smooth it out some I think.

And the ghost bears, needing purple details and dot camo, before edge highlights:



Didn't get them for october, but probably will have a decent number of finished models for November.

That's a real big push with all those mechs, cool to see them develop so quickly. Love your October contest entry, the finished minis look great!

Thanks Viterbi. The mechs are kind of intended as speed painting, or at least easy low effort painting, glad they're coming out.

Did a bit more on the mechs:

Kind of feeling like the thickness of edge I'm getting on the edge highlights are making them hurt more than help, feeling like I should leave them off going forward, so starting in on basing.

Also put another white layer down on the Tau:


Not sure it made much difference. The effect I don't think is terrible, but not the smooth white I was going for.

And moving some stuff to finished, the knight cerastus acheron from a bit back, with some bases I got from battle bling. I think technically I may have forgotten to glue the toppers to the actual bases, worry about it later, when I get around to naming them.


Started three more falcon mechs to round out a trinary, but they're just primed for now so no pics. Likewise, really gotta figure out what I'm doing for Catch Me if You Can this month, but got a bit of time.

I feel your pain on having difficulty with thick edge-highlights. There's enough edges and such on those mechs that a drybrush may be good alternative? At any rate, the stuff is looking pretty good. Especially like those knights.

Thanks brushcommando, I've used drybrushing, but not sure it'd work well here--lots of flat panels, the detail is mostly recessed panel lines.

Finished them anyways:


And of course, started a new batch. Somehow, the side project to use the other mechs I didn't like as much turned into the faster one, probably because the paint scheme is simpler:


and some models for the challenge, a Dark Sword anteater theif, and a Oathsworn owl warrior I got from Wirecat a while back. May toss 'em over for some steppe horsemen though:

Well, minor progress on the mechs:


Mostly because instead of throwing them over for horses, I made some major progress on the furry guys:



Owl I think might need some spot work to kick the armor up a bit, and maybe darken the blacks on the feather, but I'm actually about ready to cut to basing, anteater is mostly just blobked out. Hopefully can get them both done before vacation...

Owl feathers are looking nice and clean. Love that blue on him too. Really works well against the pale feathers.

Robots are looking cool, but the owls are just too cute. Great work on the feathers! And they made me immediately want to watch Futurama, where owls have surpassed rats and doves as the parasites of New New York

Thanks theCrowe, just kinda feel he's missing something.

And thank you Viterbi. I guess since they got a new new york, they were able to explain what happened with the old new york...

Finished owl, or at least close enough. Like I said, feel like its missing something, too much open space. First thought would be a torch on the base, but then I'd be tempted to osl, and there's no way I'm doing OSL on those feathers.


Also made some progress on the anteater, though it feels like his paintjob is going a little sour. Need to do something with that bracelet at minimum.


And put 1 layer of paint on the beep boop bots, so now the blocking is mostly done, on to layering up so I can wash down...


Probably going to not be a lot done the rest of this week, headed on vacation for a few days later, but may have some pics from historicon.

Nice job on the Battle Owl, Anteater is coming along good too!

Missing something like... red warpaint on his face maybe? Tricky to pull off I expect but it’d give take away the peaceful elegance of his dove-like white birdlyness. But please, If your brush hesitates momentarily before applying something red to those lovely white feathers go with your gut and ignore me completely.

That's a tough one. I can understand that you want to add something to the owl, but I can't think of something at all. Although red as theCrowe suggests would be a nice contrast. A single red flower on the base may be a second focus point apart from the owl's face.

Thanks all!

Red warpaint actually doesn't sound like a terrible idea--as somebody else I asked pointed out, it mostly feels like its just all cold colors. Also kinda feel like the base is a bit empty--a flower seems off kind of going for dungeon floor, but something there like rusty chains or something maybe?

On vacation, so a bit late. Before I left, got the first layer done on the falcons:


And started playing with trying to sculpt some 6mm city street bases to match the Ragnarok/ Silver Back Games ones, as getting new ones is being a chore, and Battle Bling is very nice but steeper than I'd like in cost. Left is hand sculpt right is happy seppuku stamp pad, neither quite work I think, though I'll likely finish them out and test paint.


And brought a few mechs along to paint in the evenings--sadly, light isn't what I'd like. Some progress anyhow:



Hopefully gives me a head start to get them both done this week when I get home.

6mm is tiny for attempting street cobbles or anything smaller than a flagged pavement.
I made this for some 6mm dispatch riders.

Just used PVA soaked paper for the flagged pavement and fine sand for the road surface.

Hadn't thought about tissue paper, theCrowe, that's pretty cool. And I figured the next thing to try would be some green stuff rollers off my 3D printer, but that'll take me actually getting it set back up and calibrated.

Didn't really do much with the time off, but I did get the Mechs done, so now I've got two admittedly kinda randomly composed binaries:

Probably should do some freehand logos and such on them, but later.
Also finished one of the two Tigersharks, second will have to wait on me finding the other base that goes with it, or deciding to pirate one from another plane:
finished guy:


Waiting on a base, and showing I need a better method of panel lining and shading:


May try doing the owl warpaint and finishing the other owl and/or anteater tonight...

Nope. Instead, assembled some more tiny aircraft, did a very minor conversion to make progress on the cerastus, and laid one (1) layer on a random sabretooth tiger for D&D.

Eldar smols, just missing guns. Can't decide on scatter guns or bright lances--lances are probably very slightly better looking, scatter lasers are probably mechanicaly better. May just magnetize.


Cerastus I just cut off the butt of the knife and attached the shaft of a fireforge spear whose head I'd grabbed for titan spikey bits, then reattached the butt. Will probably paint here, then worry about how I'm going to assemble the gun arms from these into sheilds.


And random simeleodon:


Hopefully get back to the challenge stuff this week...

Did the owl repaint. I like the face, but not sure the wing bits were a good idea.



Also started actual colors on the cerastus knights:


And did a few more layers on the sabretooth:


Slow progress. Probably won't quite get as far as I'd like by the end of the month, but that's every month

I think I like the minimalist owl a bit more, but the new one is still pretty cool. The smilodon is looking good as well.

Surprise smilodon is looking great and I like the color spots on the owl.

Thanks JoshinJapan, Viterbi, on the owl I did the face bits, felt like it wasn't enough, and then added the wing bits. Still not sure I like them. Likewise kind of iffy in the simeleodon, but calling it done:


Base could probably use something, but not sure what (possibly some rocks colored, or a spot of foliage?), so just rolling with it.

Likewise, just decided I couldn't really think of improvements to do on the not-rocket-racoon from bombshell I started a while ago, and moved him to a base:


And likewise based up the anteater:


Tempted to try a yellow glaze or drybrush for a bit of OSL on them, but really not feeling trying to redo it if it ends up like the color spots on the owl wings.

And of course, always starting new projects or at least circling back to old ones.
Started base coloring up a heroforge model I 3d printed a while back--was supposed to be part of a bunch of them I was planning to use for a counts as GSC killteam last killteam edition, but never got to, and just not feeling the new ed. So as the least misprinted of the ones I actually got to, started painting her up as part of my ratlings with gatlings guard.


Also got some color on my Cerastus:


Will need a second magenta layer, and then gold sharpie, and figuring out their arms...

And primed the eldar fighters, but despite doing it (vented) indoors, the tops got a nasty grainy lumpy finish to them, though the bottoms are good. Should probably have stripped, but just going for it:


Used the "pink wash before yellow overlayer" trick on the wings, actually came out good, though needs some blending, either from more top yellow layers or another pink wash. Not sure what color the nozzles are going to be. Fighting between iron (and probably recolor the intakes to match), dark purple, green, or matching the intakes in yellow. Think the yellow would look off, and the purple not enough contrast to the body, but not sure how I'd make the green fit right, especially with the exposed mechanics on the bottoms. I will try to work it out over the next week.

Keep multiplying my projects, but at least its mostly coming back to stuff I already started.

Threw together my Cerastus Lancer arms:

Loose test fit:

Some paint:


Kept moving on base colors for the crossbow women:

Going for more of a duller set of the colors I used on my women huscarls from a while back, to reflect they're poorer levy.

And trying to do up another 3d printed rat lady, just primed so far

Gotta start finishing stuff for the end of the year, but we'll get there.

Very cool mix of stuff. There should be more finished by year's end as you probably think!

I’ve been looking back at some of your Battletech stuff because the boy decided he’d like to try a proper game of giant robots so we got my old mechs out and I glanced at the QuickStart rules for a refresher. I’m looking at your elementals and those sweet little hover tanks and thinking my collection could really use some of that action. Not to mention your oodles of clan mechs.

theCrowe -- The elementals and a lot of the clan (plus some IS stuff) is up on the Catalyst website in restic from the Kickstarter, and of course, Ral Partha Europe has a license from Iron Wind if you wanted some metal...

Viterbi, Thanks, trying to get there, not far on a lot of it.

These fighters are almost there, arguing with myself over one more edge and cleanup pass, especially on the spirit stones and engines, and whether or not to magnetize the guns and engines, and then base:


LIkewise, pretty close on the Cerastus, just need a couple more armor pads off the sprue (have cleaned up the sheilds, but not taken pics yet.


Less progress on the 28mm stuff, though. Norse:


and the Hero Forge stuff:

More progress, pretty close on several things.

Eldar just waiting on basing, and a couple more gun sets--ended up gluing down stuff, even my .8mm magnets were too thick to fit..



Should probably do some freehand, but I have less room than I thought on them, and also kinda feeling short on ideas.

Also just a few armor panels, maybe some freehand, and basing and naming from finishing up the cerastus:
Bases:


Mounted:


And a little progress on the heroforge rats, gotta start shading


Must get back to those norse crossbow ladies at some point this month too..

Nice work. Freehand on those flyers? Aren’t they a bit small? Maybe some colorful squiggles?

I figure I got some freehand on the questoris sheilds, I can probably manage something on these guys...but yes, lack of space is one concern. Most eldar runes just kind of look like colorful squiggles to me, but I was hoping for recognizable colorful squigglez.

Fantastic work on those Cerastus bases. They look the business.

Eldar fliers look very snappy, great job! And love the mechanical knights walking these cobblestone bases.

Thanks theCrowe, Viterbi. Glad they're coming out so far.

Also, got the fliers done:

Cerastus lancers finished. Just the rats and crossbows to go for the month.
Culdehte and Alcarinecco:


And a last try to get the coat of arms and leg banners in focus:

Nice job on the flyers. Like the radar sweep bases. good way to add some nice detail to a functional base.

Gotta echo Nev there with the radar. And good to see both knights finished and good luck getting the crossbow minis done!

Thanks to both of you, the areonautica bases just look kinda plain without something there, don't they?

On the crossbows, well, some forward motion in that theres more paint on them, but having that bleah feeling on the quality:


And the backup for the challenge is the chain rat of this pair, which isn't feeling much better:

Ah well, get paint down, do what we can, see if we can do better next one.

Progress is good, even if just incremental steps. Keep at it!

I did do some more progress.

Got some areonautica valkyrie and stole a base from one to finish the tigershark:


More or less finished the two rats, just need to do basing:


And did the faces of the crossbow ladies. Kind of. Didn't come out the way I want, will probably need more attention. Or maybe not. I might just use the rat with the meteor hammer for the challenge, and at that point the crossbows are just levy swarms, I can probably accept lower standards there.


It'll be tight getting them done before new years, hopefully make it.

Another random set of models started, and a little more progress on the stuff already there.

Basing started on the rats:


Some minor shading layers on the crossbows:


And started some scantily clad archers at random. Kinda liking the skin, scale 75 arctic blue, washed with thinned reaper burgundy wine, and relayered slightly wet with the arctic blue. Pity I didn't properly clean and fill the mold lines and joints before kicking into them. Probably need a dark purple or blue for the clothing and bits to contrast the pale and bright colors.


Not sure where I'm going with those horn colors...

Almost there on the rats, just needs some wash and drybrush work for the bases, plus rims and names.


And some color testing for the bows:


Not sure, even for me thats some clashing colors, but I kinda like the individual ones. Maybe a lighter blue for those parts? And of course, stray marks all over the blend job...


Automatically Appended Next Post:
And staying up too late on a work night but knocked out the two rats, so I'll have something for the challenge this month:


A basic infantry rat, and a squad leader. Should probably give her a holster for a pistol, but meh, later.

More progress on the crossbow ladies:


about as done as I'm going to take them, though not nearly as nice as I'd have liked. Just have to base them up before new years, and that'll be more or less what I expect to have done for the year, about 145 models. Definitely need to keep my self goals low next year so I can take more time on stuff and/or work on some bigger stuff like I wanted to this year, but my wandering attention span said no. Next year's another try, and we'll see what happens.

Bases greenstuffed and painting started on the crossbows:



Minor progress on the bow weirdos:


and the inevitable new impulse project that isn't helping long term goals, more draconis hovertanks:

Draconis hover tanks, therefore the best hover tanks. For the dragon!

Gotta love those surprise impulse projects that kick you right in the goals. But then isn’t everything an impulse project in the beginning. I had one I bought minis for last Christmas that I haven’t done a thing on and here we are again. Almost bought the rest of the minis I’d need to complete it this Christmas but thought, nah, maybe next Christmas. Not sure if I’m talking about an impulse project or a long term goal at this stage. Funny how they change.

I like your rat bases with the little planks. A very nice touch.

Thanks theCrowe, those planks make my hands cramp up every time I make them, but they do break up bases nicely. And yeah, kinda bounce around on impulse versus goals a lot, though the warbringer is definitely goals, want to start finishing out my Titanicus stuff for options and to play some this coming year, assuming things die down enough for it to be reasonably safe.

Also, finished the crossbows:


Of course, now I realize I left off the grass bits, but enh, levy infantry.

Some more little time fillers before the year ends. Progress on the mierce ysian bow, think thats more or less blocked out:


And base colors on the battletech hovercraft:


Might get done before end of year, might not, but that just means a head start on next year.

Wonderful! You are really improving Your bright side of the palette! Loving the crossbow lasses and rats with pretty hairdos!

Your crossbow(wo)men turned out quite well. It's always nice to see Bad Squiddo models in the wild.

Nice progress.

Always fun the see the range of things you paint. Any plans for a year end recap?

Thanks Wirecat, Heroforge does have some nice haircuts, don't it?

Thanks JoshinJapan, they really are nice models, and I'm a little sad they were 1/2 off when I got them, because that means they're likely not selling, but on the other hand, it means I got quite a few of them without feeling bad...

Thanks Nevelon. Was thinking about it, because it seems like everybody else is, so best try:

Was doing a little bit of the hobby bingo card floating around, so checking in on that:

Really needed to do more with terrain, almost got bingo except for that. Otherwise, feel like I did pretty decently, even if some of those feel a little iffy, as they're intended for people who actually have some level of yearly focus, or at least favored active armies.

Overall, got 147 minis total done this year, with 2 more probably likely to be done before Friday night. Less than last year, and more small stuff, but I also actually had to work 5 days a week this year. Also, I was supposedly trying to cut back to do more big stuff, which uh, didn't happen.
Project wise, we had:
33 Crocodile games minis, including a chariot and a Heru hero, and finishing out the Basti army (next year, maybe we try to start actually finishing units for the Typhon...)
22 models for the shelf queen imperial guard (well, 21 and a loose Ad mech rat, but whatever)
13 models for my norse women saga project (hey at this rate, we may have a playable painted army by the time 3rd ed comes out in 2025!)
9 each generic D&D and Animal adventurers minis
5 ogre sized angry lizard boys of various kinds
4 random SF dudes
and lots of 6mm:
2 titans and 7 knights
8 Areonautical Imperialis fliers
and 34 bases worth of battletech (21 mechs, 7 elemental points, and 6 tanks, to be 8 if I get those last two guys done...) in four different forces.

Could have used a bit more consistency, not least because then I could actually have shown a group shot for the year, but whatever works.
Speaking of "getting a few last things done", progress on said hovertanks:


and a heavy weapon team and some filler models for the the Imperial Guard:


But those are almost certainly not getting done until next year, along with the two archers.

Last two for the year, finished hovertanks:


Hope everybody has a good new years, and see you all in 2022.

Those hover tanks really should watch that tiger, it looks ready to pounce on them Lots of fun stuff at year's end and at least for us it is great that you switch between projects

Thanks Viterbi!
Speaking of which, another new pair, potential entries for the monthly challenge:


A Reaper Bones Black griffin, or a Mierce werewolf (technically Cnebba, Magenwulf but lets be honest here...)

They look almost diorama-able. But that’d be loads of work, and my own entry this month will just be a small single mini. Always nice to see a good gryphon on the go.

...you know, theCrowe, you say that, and I think you're right on both sides. They kinda pose well together, but that's gonna be a lot of base terrain sculpting. I think I'm probably going to try to compromise on a scenic base with some spare models getting smashed by Cnebba, but especially if it were easier to get him or I had more time and better project management, it'd be tempting...

also, base colors on griffin because it assembled easier, and cnebba built out except for some last gap fills with a pose to consider...

Love the Wolverine Rats.
Little hover tanks are always great.
Scantily-clad is the new fully armored.

Thanks DJJazzyJeff.

More progress. Werewolf is ready to prime once the green stuff sets up.


and some (still wet) layering and washes on the griffin:


Need to figure out what I'm doing for feather patterns, and the post-wash drybrush layers there...

Late to the party but I really like the range of stuff you paint. Good luck with the griffon, are you going for the classic black and white feathers?

Thanks Olthannon, I wish I could say the wide spread was intentional, but really its just "what gets me to put paint on something today?"
And yeah, planning on black and white feathers, using thinned VMC black grey:

(With a now primed up Cnebba...)
and the back feathers, more iffy on them here, kinda feel like it ruins the accidentally decent looking browns...

Feathers are coming along great on the griffin! And excited to see where you take the werewolf colorwise.

Griffin is coming along great!

I'd say this is an unusual color scheme for a fantastical being! Marbled wing underside looks quite interesting, inverted. Good luck with finishing it!

Thanks everybody, hopefully I can bring it in looking decent. I'm not sure what sceme I'm doing for the werewolf--white, black, or something like the cream-black realistic-ish wolf scheme I've used for others.

On vacation but brought a travel set of paints, so have some rat guard progress:



Almost finished them.

Mixed news--rats are mostly close to done, and I got a nice Titanicus game in, minus side, reminded the hard way 3d printed resin is brittle....

Disappointing, even if its probably pretty easy to fix with green stuff....

Just need to do the sand, wood, and wire when I get back, maybe with a color touch up or some varnish.

Game wise, played my cousin in a learning game of Titanicus, both of us using mininal Venator demi maniples (though neither of us remembered the maniple rules). He set up a small board, and we did the magma planet scenario, modified to fit, and with random secret objectives and strategems.
His forces:

My set up (technically he set up first, very wide and this is actually pre deployment, but I ended up about the same place):


I ended up with Honor and Glory, so first turn was me going full bore into his reaver:

Pushed one warhound, Lunae Latrator, then rolled two heat and immediately suffered a self inflicted devastating hit to the body. Not sure we played heat right--going right to the minimum is s9 hit chart in the orange seems quite brutal. He focused on the already wounded Latrator, I focused on the reaver, he grabbed an engine kill, I just had his reaver down to critical body.

(Start of turn 2)

I had and used a lance strike, then immediately charged with my reaver, Eternus Dio, made it by the 2" melee range of my chainfist and even then barely...but the attacks more than leveled the opposing reaver, netting me 15 VP.

(We forgot the blind barrage, so he took it back and used it later, less effectively. Oops)
Of course, return fire then leveled Dio and left me in a bad spot...

Plus side, left side hound is immobilized from my warhound's fire.
I forgot to take pictures, but I charged his right hound turn 3, did some damage, but took down to crit body and didn't kill him, by about two head crits, and my flamers first hit legs...then wiffed. Plus he got my legs down to stabilizer damage.
Turn 4, left hound repaired up the immobilized, I did another charge into the same guy, and karate kicked him to death in the head--but in return, got my plasma taken out.

Turn 5, his fully mobile hound and I turned to look at each other--but he emergency repaired his collapsed voids up, and I failed to repair my plasma, so my flamers took the voids down again, but I had no follow up, as I'd positioned to use the fact I had near full voids and he didn't, so I had no way to use that. Final result was 38-32 me, as I had a table quarter and the 2nd turn kill, vs his 3 vp hold the line, and counting my up titan for vp as it was structurally compromised.




Automatically Appended Next Post:
Apparently on the enthusiasms this week, though I expect a crash coming, hopefully after I get the challenge models for the month done. Had an Anubi hero for wargods lying around, and went from unprimed to just waiting on basing on him tonight:


Sadly, off theme, and I forgot to take pre-paint pics of him, or I'd be tempted to just use him as a backup challenge entry. Hopefully doesn't get too chipped up on the way home so I can take better pics. Really needs better hair now that I look at him, but black hair felt right, and anubis is likewise black, wasn't sure what to do with it. Maybe a dark blue glaze when I get home?

Small back at home update:
Rank and file just waiting for some wash and drybrush base work and names:


Greenstuff repair to snapped ankle started:


And just needs a wash once the plaster dries and whatever final touches I decide to do on the Anubi hero.

Once again suffering through poor lighting on the work surface.
Did a light dry brush on the griffon, but not much to show, and still not sure where the werewolf is going, so no pics there. Hopefully bring some of this in to the done pile soon.

Nice work on Anubis, and I'm enjoying the rats.

Thanks Monkeytroll. Actually just finished the rats up, which means I have one full infantry squad of guard fully painted up, and most of the work to a second:


Also the Anubi. Still kinda think I should have glazed his skin, but I didn't and I put him in the cabinet already so...


Though looking at those pictures, my phone still refuses to focus on him. May have to take him out to shoot pictures with the Nikon,

also a little progress on the griffon, actually think its about done except for basing:


hopefully can get that basing and a start on the werewolf tomorrow.

Progress check in:

Started the base on the griffin, realized the yellow was far too unnaturally saturated, and starting trying to glaze down with Iraqi sand ended up as "basically redoing the whole body." I think we're more or less down to the base now though:


Started the werewolf, thinking I'm going to try to replicate Mierce's studio job, though likely much worse, with a wash based technique, maybe? Started filling in under colors and small details before the main fill:
(spoilered because Mierce makes their werewolves anatomically correct)


And pulled a few more rats down to try to fill in a second basic infantry squad. Mostly going to be trying to salvage 2015ish me's iffy paint jobs:

Back to real life work soon, we'll see what we can manage in the rest of the month...

Finished griffon:

Not looking great for the werewolf, but we'll see what comes up.

Gryphon’s looking great! But maybe grab a couple of blank sheets of paper for background or a move a lamp next to a blank wall for your competition photos. The colours in your workbench are a quite close to the mini and it’s not easy to distinguish. It doesn’t show off your hard work as well as you might.

Thanks theCrowe--mostly intended for those to be a quick "woo! done!" sort of pic. Just got around to making pictures with a better background and lights and the digital camera:




Of course, now I'm seeing flaws in the wing edges, don't think I'll go back, but I may cause it bugs me a bit.

Also while I had the camera out, those better pictures of the Anubi hero:

Very nice work on both of those.

If it makes you feel better, I can’t see any issues on the wings.

Anubii are great, and not in the easiest to do colors!

Internal bug is a nasty biting beast, I know that. These weird wings look nice, but if they cost You some uneasiness, go for fix. Good luck!

Thanks Nevelon, Wirecat. The issue on the wings is at the tips and edge, there's spots where the black wash didn't get to, so its got glaring little brown spots. Also at least one chip I think already...
Spent most of the week staring at things and not moving things forward much, but I did a bunch tonight and last night, so got a bit to show:

Some movement on the rats:

Needs eyes, and then washes and detail work.

Made some base colors for the Jade Falcons:

Didn't really touch the Ghost Bears to be though.

Did smash out most of the Nova Cat though, down to being silly enough to make a full TOE position for it...




Really should break down and get some transfers or at least transfer paper, but did some freehand instead. Point 2, Beta Star, 43rd Binary Battle, 274th Battle Cluster, Tau Galaxy, Clan Nova Cat. Made up the colors on the shoulder insignia, because the only picture I saw was black and white.
Hopefully have some basing done this weekend, not sure if I'm going for all the snow basing, or some green/brown with snow and flock tundra style.

Hopefully finish some stuff before the end of the month.

Needed to get caught up, great updates all around. Good to see you get a game in and love the makeshift terrain. It always gives some kind of Micro Machines vibe Once played a game of 40k with Duplo terrain, also recommendable

Finished griffin looks ace as does the Anubis hero. Love his base, the sandy effect came along very well!

Thanks Viterbi, I'm glad this time the paint and plaster mix didn't get too messy...

Tried going out to a painting night at the local flgs, ended up doing a little here and there on the old badger and typhon swordsmen that I didn't take pictures of, and then bought a reaper pterodactyl-man, and ended up finishing him tonight:

I feel I did decent on the blending for the wings, but the veins needed to be painted first, and the rest of the skin and the other color choices are a bit enh--should have done more color mixing.

Still avoiding finishing the mechs and rats it seems. Didn't even touch the mechs, but did a little on the rats:

Finished up a werewolf lady that'd been sitting on my desk for a while:



and did a push on some likewise older cat pike:



Eventually, some of this half started stuff will get done I hope, I mean, that werewolf only was started in june 2020...

Remember, every bit of paint brings a mini closer to completion. Don't let mundane conventions like calendars rush you.

Pike cat looks cool from the start and werewolf lady can now go hunting when the next full moon arrives!

A little late, but love the space rat conversions! Wish there was an official space skaven army back in the day!

Viterbi--more or less what I'm going for. One layer paint each day on some model, more if I get enthused. Thanks on the models!
Boxhead--thanks! I suppose there's the demiurg, but they never did get to the table...

And some finished stuff:
Yesterday, finally based up the Nova Cat Nova Cat:


And today, finished one of the pike cats from...(checks notes)...2017 apparently.
Tried to push for quality here, not sure it was the best idea for a rank and file space filler, but here we are.





Still drying actually, but kinda wanted to post it and put it away. Kinda like how mixing iraqi sand with violet worked for the skin shading, will have to play with that more in the future. Om the other hand, you can see where I could have done a little more fitting the wire spear to the hand or hiding the hand join--that was me being worried about sanding it so thin it lost all strength.

Nova Cat and indeed Pike Cat are looking nice. Mission clearly successful!

Nice pair of cats.

I’ve heard of using purple to shade, but never tried it. Looks good. One nice thing about the back ranks, you can try new things out and if they don’t work it’s OK.

I hear you about old stuff. I’ve made a push myself to clear out the stuff that’s been lingering. Good feeling.

I've already remarked how good and contrasting is this blue against brownish and pale body colors, but this time I must also add - the base is ace for this palette. Ma-a-a-aybe a little too few highlights or shadows in the fur and the cloth at the end of the pike, but very good overall!

Thanks Ragsta!
Thanks Wirecat, glad the choices worked. I agree it could maybe use a little more on the pike tuft, and I could see going a little darker and further on the shadows on the fur.
Thanks Nevelon, seems to work OK, mostly working from some tutorials I saw online about mixing in a bit of cold with your warms and vise-versa for shadows. This month ought to help with some of the clearing out the old too.

Speaking of: not sure which one of these to do. Bear cav has the older scuplt (one is 1998...) but are techically fresh produced and just came in the mail from Reaper. (Also, they're going to be more coverage and thus work...) Stygians would be quicker, and have been actually existing longer--I picked them up from a (now closed for several years) game store about 6 years ago, and they were completely opposed to sales to clear out dead stock on the shelf--I think I saw a serial port compatible trackball on the shelf there in the 2010s--so who knows how long it was on the shelf before I grabbed it, probably not the 1999 date on the actual mini...



Also, another social paint tuesday, mostly finished a badger except the basing, decided to give milliput a try for the base after bringing it home. Its....enh, though some of it may be me--very crumbly. also, now I need to re-do the feet and possibly some of the skirt and the like, and should have re-done the TMM anyways...


Should be the first model done of the month.

Knightly badger looks very cool and quite fun what old minis you can muster for the painting comp!

Badger looking good.

Milliput can be a bit crumbly when initially mixing, but should be good once fully mixed and left for a few minutes- the yellow standard version particularly so if memory serves correctly. Keeping the surface damp when sculpting helps if you're having issues at that point, and mixing in a bit of green stuff can also give a better surface (mix the milliput together, mix the gs together, then mix the two together).

I like that Badger Knight.

Thanks Viterbi, aku-chan
Monkeytroll--probably didn't knead the milliput enough then, especially as I had very dry fingers. Will have to try that next time.

Did finish off the Badger knight--did up my usual dungeon cobble base for her then decided it needed a little more to help separate her from the base, so did a little bit of fairly copious blood trails. Probably overdid it, looks a bit like graffiti at his point, but I think it did help:


Probably should use base clutter--leaves and fungus and such next time, but done for now.
Started some work on the chronopia stuff, going for very pale and either washed out or shaded to fit a name like 'The starved':

And started laying out plans for the dwarves:

Need taller bases there, and not sure they're all going to end up looking in scale with each other and the other two I have, but we'll see what happens.

Those dwarves look like fun on their mounts! Finished knight looks great, maybe doing the "toes" in a more creme/beige like color might separate some more? Blood trails look fine, I've done blood that was more overboard

Viterbi--yeah, not right for badgers but knowing I'm doing cobble bases, I should probably do cream or pink claws...

Progress on the starved:


Kinda not sure on the skin, keep adding purple or magenta washes then taking them back out again trying for something sickly looking but not like a random splash of color...

I think blue pale blue/purple looks pretty good, but the model might benefit from deeper shadows (like, close to black) to really sell the pale, washed-out colors.

So, tried to do exactly that, joshinjapan, and I think it worked ok?


Think I'm done except for the basing at this point, though tempted to try to un-screw-up that one nmm try on the sickle. Or really the sickles in general.
Also did yet another mech start:

Scorpion tanks probably getting 3 color blob camo for generic service, catapult getting the pink camo on the stick, possibly with some blue added in...

And even did a very small amount on the rats. Really need to highlight the tan and clean up the reds and blacks so I can wash and get them done. Plus side, once that happens we're maybe 1-2 ordinary troopers from having three fully painted generic infantry squads, and thus over halfway through the full platoon.

Also pictured, random icebreaker preprimed model from my tuesday at the game store paint night sessions, really need to start taking pictures of those...

Pffff, nature... What does it know of badger claws But thanks for the info, my go to for anything claw related (be it creature, mutant or else) is always Ushbati bone

Love the new stuff and really nice to nearly be at the halfway point with the rat's platoon!

Sadly, looks like I'm wrong on that, looking closer at my reference images--cream is probably more correct.

Also, some more mech progress, next step is finalizing the camo...

Finished Catapult C5. Took two tries on the camo, but done now:

The lizardmen look much better with the shadows. Nice job there.

I never would have thought to paint a bright pink Battlemech. I suppose at that weight class, there's no point in trying to hide from the enemy...

Thanks Josh, now I just gotta figure out how I'm basing the lizards. And on the pink, mostly just like the color and figure its an arrow IV boat anyways...

Also, paint night results, taken at home because I forgot when there. Typhon are getting worrying close to getting washed and highlighted:


And the animal adventurers just need some final touchups and basing:

Hopefully this week...

Basing night:


And closeup of The Starved:


Mostly just cleaning up feet and the like I splashed with bad brushwork while basing at this point.

And completed. The Starved for the contest (may do one more rim pass of black):


An Oathsworn Hero in Sensible Shoes dragonborn:

(probably should do different color nails, the other green color isn't really showing, maybe a red? But at the "done enough" point)

And four Burrows and Badgers fighters to go with the otter from a few months ago as a bit of a docks gang:

Greens on the front could probably use more blending, and not really happy with the fur in general, but again, feeling like I'm not really into working on them more for a while, at least not beyond getting around to a matte varnish coat of one type or another...

Now I just gotta get those Typhon and rats done in the next week or so...

B&B docks gang have come together well. Those bases give them that little bit extra to help their world come to life. Great job.

I always seem to be commenting on your bases a lot. You’ve got great base game.

I feel envy when confronted with so much bright blue. How are You doing it?! :^) Very pleasant choice of colors, blueish stones go really well with the figures themselves. Cheers!

Thanks theCrowe, was hoping they'd help tie things together!

Wirecat, not sure if you mean the Starved and the rat fur, or the coats. The Starved/rats is UK azure (or sky blue? Something like that) from Vallejo, highlighted with their deep sky blue and I think one more layer mixed with some white, and possibly some game color wolf grey or similar bluish off white, and then washed with heavily thinned purple and Vallejo Game Color night blue (and then going back and forth like three times trying to get it to blend but keep the off white showing...). The coats are night blue, washed with night blue mixed with black (probably either msp dragon black or army painter matte black), and highlighted with vallejo air french blue. Thanks for the compliment either way!

Scorpion tanks are almost done, sadly pretty well botched the camo job. Went for woodland ended up at messy blob:


May do a little more to the tracks, but they're done as they're gonna get, short of basing.

Also actually took pictures at tuesday paint night finally!

Some typhon, asymptoticly approaching finished. Probably next month, but thats ok.


Need to clean up the red from foam damage, metallic the swords, and then shade all the things I think.

Some rats I debated putting into my guard before deciding I was keeping them stock and running them as slave soldiers for Burrows and Badgers, and a random bones tengu:


And last months featured bones USA bonus model from reaper, a harefolk entirely painted at the event. Think I should maybe do a little more on breasts and nose, but mostly she just needs basing:


Happy Twos-day everybody, hopefully get some of these done soon...

Basing day!
Based up the scorpions:


And sculpted the harefolk a base yesterday, painted it up today:


Kinda happy with how it turned out.

Nice job on the rabbit lady!

Thanks aku-chan!

In much less nice looking news, rats are ready for basing up...

And I really need to take formal pics for the challenge in the next two days on those lizards...

Thank You for the recipe, Vejut, but this was more an exclamation of wonder than an actual question. And the Reaper hare is wonderfully finished too!

Thanks wirecat, and sorry for missing that.

Paint night tuesday, did an Andromedean with a big ol rifle for the challenge, bought at paint night:
Started:


And after three hours at paint night, finished:




Probably will go back and take better pictures, the blue tablecloth wasn't nice to this mini, but they'll do for now.

Also did a little shading on the typhon:


And threw some colors on the reaper rats, planning on using them in badgers and burrows:


Also almost done the rats, got to basing last night:

Kinda delaying finishing them up by posting this, but hoping to do the second seal layer of glue tonight, and then want to wash and drybrush, then black rims names and done but probably a bit late for that.

The Andromedan is sweet, but Great Googlie-Mooglie is that base spectacular!

Thanks JoshinJapan! Its actually just a grid with squares inset carved into the base and block painted and then fake edge highlighted on the colors and freehand squares drawn in inset on the grey. Was trying to do a base at the paint night without flock or sand. Still glad it worked!

Finished rat batch, brings me up to two infantry squads and two models short of a third.

Clears my model numbers for the month, and my challenge model is done, not sure whats up next. Thinking either minor conversions of a Reaper MAF bulldog to a bullgryn for these guys, a tank, or shifting to knocking out some typhon...

You know what breaks everything in this group photo? -WHEELS!- They are cleanliest things in a bunch, making me invent more sad puns about rats and wheels.

Good luck choosing and doing!

Lovely skin-tone on the purple lady!

Thanks aku-chan, I do like my purples!

Wirecat--fair, really noticing it now that you mentioned it. Choosing wise though didn't really happen so much?

Threw a little paint at the poison wind globadiers I was going to use for demo charge squads, just the red to get a layer down yesterday:


and today did something similar with some random models--a reaper blacktooth suppressor I planned to use as a possible further entry in the challenge, and a reaper IMEF bulldog I was thinking of making a counts-as bullgryn for the rats:

And with one layer paint on them:


There was supposed to be one of Reapers S-F pterodactyls with them, but the bag fell out the car when I opened the door at a buddies house and apparently I did not grab all the spilled bits like I thought I did. At least it was cheap...

Idea going forward with the Bulldog is finding a replacement big weapon, preferably a mace for the bendy sword hand, and a nice sheild I can use as a buckler to match the invulnerable save toting bullgryn setup, but not fining a good option yet.

Still haven't given up doing that demolisher tank on my table, but haven't got there yet...

Another tuesday paint night, and some more progress.
Typhon just about done, maybe some punching up the yellow and basing to go:


And also kicked out a quick J guthrie gnoll from reaper's bones usa series:

Not sure, think I need a bit more on the green and blue-though not sure those are really kicking. Also need to expand the base to 25mm round. Skin is actually light pink shaded with magenta, and then layers of soft tone shade. Kind of works, but the camera's color issues are doing some work there, and the back is worse, but I think the idea of washing pink is sound.

I love the vivid red-and-blue on the Typhon.

Thanks JoshinJapan. Here they are fully finished (less some future fixing of paint chips and an eventual varnish coat:

Great job on the Typhon! Starting a new warband or can they hang with the Basti?