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 inmygravenimage wrote:
Nice (well, not nice, but you know what I mean)! Particularly like the glow at its heart.

I'm glad you like him inmygravenimage. Happy new year to you and here is to getting off to a productive, but still fun, start. Hopefully you'll like this next one almost as much as I do.

This is the Lich Wurm, which is my favorite enemy design from Middara so far. Sorry I forgot to get another figure for scale, but it's the biggest in Act 1, except for the goofy looking Soul Butcher I replaced. It's hard to paint anything that is mostly black, but I think I got just enough shading in there to give a somewhat oily appearance.
I had a hell of a time getting all the nooks and crannies since this was one of the only times I undercoated in Grey Seer so there is still a spot or two sticking out.

Creepy! That blue-black oil sheen is very disturbing, a real HR Giger kinda look.

Wow that's huge and VERY creepy. Absolutely agree about the giger vibe

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Creepy! That blue-black oil sheen is very disturbing, a real HR Giger kinda look.

I appreciate that Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll. If it resembles anything like the alien movies than I guess it came out pretty well. It's great to see you back here btw.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Wow that's huge and VERY creepy. Absolutely agree about the giger vibe

I'm glad you liked it as I anticipated inmygravenimage. It's not actually that huge since the girl on top is not at all the same size as a normal human character. I'd say about 9-10 cm tall in total. She's back in the box at the moment, but I'll try and get a comparison shot taken at some point.

I managed to get a bonus mini done in the last few days I had left. I have yet to meet her in game, but her name is Echo.

I would have liked to have had the time to get some non-Middara models completed over my break, but I've nearly got all of Act 1 painted now. There are only 8 total models left, not including a few optional resin summons to get to eventually.
I'll be back hopefully some time around May to continue chipping away at my backlog. Happy painting to you all until then.

Technically my final semester isn't over until the 18th, but I'm close enough that I already fit in a bit of painting time. It's my first one done after another long hiatus so I wasn't going for anything crazy, but I think he turned out alright.
It's the first of my Horizon Zero Dawn minis, a Strider. Now I have to see if I can repeat that 3 more times before I get the urge to move on to something else.

I already had the base game, but I splurged recently and got 6 expansions, which isn't even all of what they offer. A few are still on their way so hopefully they all arrive safe and sound. The Thunderjaw is going to be the most challenging since I plan to try magnetizing it once my slightly bigger magnets arrive. He comes in 4 pieces, but if I glue him I lose the ability to store him back in the box.
It's probably not the best board game out there gameplay wise, but I finished playing Forbidden West not long ago which rekindled my interest in the IP.

I'm back with more progress already. I only have 1 Strider left now, but I'll wait and post them once the whole group is done. What is more interesting is that I completed my first test model for the Watchers today.
They're the weakest enemy individually, but in the video game they're sharp lookouts that immediately warn all other nearby machines to your presence.

As a side note, I also spent the better part of the day rearranging my workspace to take advantage of the new storage unit which just arrived. It's infinitely better than what I was working with before.
I'm itching to work on something a bit more display worthy, maybe even paint a 40k model for once in a blue moon, but I'm getting close to having enough Horizon minis done to actually try out the game a bit.

I actually sold quite a chunk of my unbuilt 40k models recently since I have so many board games incoming, but I still have nearly 100 left in reserve that I'd still like to work on at some point.
I also managed to sell my copies of the Order of Vampire Hunters and Gotham City Chronicles. The former wasn't as cool a game as I thought it was when I bought it despite having nice minis and GCC had to go once I heard that Knight Models is making an Escape From Arkham Asylum board game... eventually.

Impressive storage? Arkham Asylum still on the back burner, a lot of the models have been coopted into the new (ish) version of 3rd which launches on 22nd April. I never really got into GCC, it had some very problematic mechanics. Mind you, Arkham Asylum is essentially just Talisman. KM are a very frustrating company...

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Impressive storage? Arkham Asylum still on the back burner, a lot of the models have been coopted into the new (ish) version of 3rd which launches on 22nd April. I never really got into GCC, it had some very problematic mechanics. Mind you, Arkham Asylum is essentially just Talisman. KM are a very frustrating company...

Ya GCC was another example of me completely overlooking shoddy gameplay in favor of pretty models. Even if Knight Models takes forever to launch Arkham Asylum I'll at least check it out. It's one of only 2 upcoming kickstarters I have an eye on to maybe pledge for, the other being Sankokushin. I'm not familiar with Talisman.

It's not often that I feel the need to show off a WIP, but I'm taking a break from Horizon Zero Dawn to work on something significantly bigger, my first non-board game mini of this year. He's an old Creature Caster model called the Lord of Virulence, but don't confuse him with the GW Death Guard one.
He came with the option for wings, but they really dropped the ball on sculpting the wings so I'm attempting to mount some Hive Tyrant wings instead. I'm kind of dreading the gluing process, but hopefully they'll work. Once his other arm goes on it's going to hide a lot the hanging guts.
Also I think I still have to go back and touch up some of the skin on his torso since I kind of screwed it up trying to save time by drybrushing instead of highlighting.

I've been working away on the Lord of Virulence and it's now time for his final unveiling after only 3 and a half days. While that's not a long time, I packed in a whole lot of painting hours in that period and I think it shows.
He stands 9 inches tall at the highest point. You can see how he dwarfs the marine-sized models for comparison.

I'm not entirely happy with how the angle of the wings came out, but they're so huge it was difficult to get them attached at all. Hopefully they will appear to add a sense of motion rather than just looking goofy.
I haven't used my rust pigments in a very long time, but I think they add a lot to the sword.
I checked my collection the other day and it turns out that this is the 11th Creature Caster model I've finished and I have 11 more left so at least I made it to the halfway mark on that front. There's still a few other enormous projects from them for when I feel I have mustered enough courage and most importantly sufficient time set aside to devote to them.

Phwoar. Check out the wings on that. Looks top.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Phwoar. Check out the wings on that. Looks top.

I'm glad to see you approve inmygravenimage. I thought you might enjoy something more warhammer adjacent than the board game minis I've been focusing on lately. I'm happy to have you join me again while I start to chip away at my backlog once more. I'm happy to say that this season should be a bit longer than usual since as far as I know I'm about to graduate from my accounting program .

I'm actually thinking of starting a Warhammer model soon, the Great Unclean One I got years ago. I haven't done any since way back on my Acastus Knight, but for now I'm getting close to the point where I can feel comfortable trying out a game of Horizon Zero Dawn.
This guy is called a Scrapper. I've also got a couple more Watchers done. After them there are only 3 more types of machine left in the core game. Soon I'll be starting to get into the slightly bigger varieties, the Sabretooths and Shell-Walkers.

I also bought my first Age of Sigmar models in the longest time, the Mirebrute Troggoth and Archaon, even though I have no idea when I'll get to the big man himself.

Hey, I'm not fussy, and I'm one of those weirdos that likes to paint board game minis. But hey, love some good old fashioned action.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Hey, I'm not fussy, and I'm one of those weirdos that likes to paint board game minis. But hey, love some good old fashioned action.

Good to hear I'm not the only one here that does it. I've also got a Glottkin and a Lord of Change on the way. I've told myself that has to be the last of my purchases for a good long while .

I played my first 2 rounds of HZD yesterday, but quickly got to the point where I'd be facing unpainted minis again. It's not a bad game so far.
I intended to start work on the Shell Walker, but ended up finishing my first hunter instead, the Oseram Forgesmith.
His hammer is a bit crooked. I tried straightening it out with hot water, but it just reverted back after a while anyway. Nevertheless I like the way he turned out. All the hunters are made on an extremely small scale to make the machines look bigger so it's a bit of a challenge.
Once I finish a few more I'll get some group shots for comparison.

Following closely on the heels of the forgesmith is the other character I've been playing as so far, the Nora Marksman or markswoman in this case.
I've also included the aforementioned group shot of everything I've done for the game so far. If I finish 1 more model I will be halfway done the core game.

Oh that Archer is something else. Love the pallete.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Oh that Archer is something else. Love the pallete.

I appreciate you saying so. I actually did a bit of touch ups afterwards since some of the robes were slightly muddled together, but the face came out pretty decent.

I finished the rest of the core box hunters today. Their faces on the other hand came out a bit wonky, but like I said their tininess can easily spell disaster. Maybe I shouldn't have bothered with pupils at all for this game, but oh well. It's too late to go back now.

These two are called the Banuk Survivor and Carja Warrior in that order. I fixed a couple things on the latter after taking the photos, namely her boots, but you get the idea. I've also included a shot of the whole set.
There are another 7 hunters that are found in the expansions I have, but this is enough options for now.

Great fur and great red cloth bud.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Great fur and great red cloth bud.

Thanks inmygravenimage, you're too kind. The fur in particular was just a bit of quick drybrushing.

This next one hopefully looks okay. It's the first of the bigger machines and probably my least favorite sculpt of the core game, the Shell-Walker.
I had to go back and make a few rounds of touch ups after taking photos. First the blue on his arms was too grey so it just blended in, and then I realized I had been too lazy with the white on the back of the arms so I had to go back and shade it a bit.
It's nothing that complicated, but it also has a bit of freehand for the symbols which I don't have much experience with.

I still have 1 more left to try and replicate at some point, but for now I have to get to work on at least 1 Sawtooth.
I'm planning on showing off the game to some friends in a few days and it just wouldn't do for the boss hunt of the main game to just be a blackened lump of plastic.

Here it is, the boss machine of the core game. It's called the Saw Tooth.

He was actually pretty fun to paint compared to the big crab. Now that just leaves the deer-like Grazers and a bunch of doubles of what I already did left in the main game.
This is probably the last Horizon model for a while. I have to get a couple more games in before I'm comfortable teaching it to others and after that it will be nice to switch it up for some variety, whatever it ends up being. I am looking forward to painting some of the expansions though.

I had a bit of an alarming mishap with my varnish though. I've been using Army Painter matte varnish and I just noticed that the bottom of the can had started to bulge out so I was too nervous to use it any longer and had to throw it out despite still having a bunch left. I have another 2 fresh cans, but I really think I'll have to find something else to use after those.

It's a shame because it did a much better job of preserving the paint jobs than the generic stuff I was using before and everywhere I read says the Games Workshop stuff leaves an unsightly "frosting" which is ridiculous considering they are the market leader yet can't even develop something as essential as varnish.

Snazzy. I really like the ramped, slightly cartoony highlights.

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Snazzy. I really like the ramped, slightly cartoony highlights.

I'm glad to continue to be keeping you interested.

Now for something a bit different, but still within the realm of board games. This one is from a new campaign I just caught wind of, Waste Knights, which is basically the unofficial Mad Max game. I was able to find a retail copy so I could test it out ahead of time.

It still has a week to go for their new expansion on kickstarter called Beyond the Horizon so if you like the theme and the looks of the game please consider checking it out. It continues to get better as more stretch goals are gradually being unlocked, but it doesn't seem to be getting quite the amount of funding I would have thought.

Maybe that's because it's a bit light on the actual models. The base game pretty much just has the 6 player characters themselves, starting with the generic version of Max, Logan Harris. I just might get to finally painting the Interceptor-like car I already had to go along with him though.

Ooh, I do like a bit of near future apocalyptica. How's the gameplay?

 inmygravenimage wrote:
Ooh, I do like a bit of near future apocalyptica. How's the gameplay?

I'll be having my first game sometime in the next few days, but just based on what I know about it it has a fairly strong focus on the narrative. It has about 150 pages of choose your own adventure type story. There is also an app if you prefer that to using the book, but no narration.

The retail game only comes with 4 scenarios, but they are fairly long and having branching paths for replayability. The expansion's campaign has the option for the previous stretch goals as addons which doubles the number of scenarios up to 8 and adds more story to go along with it. Only one of them is playable true solo with one character, but the Beyond the Horizon expansion is supposed to add a further 5 scenarios that are all solo-able and a few that are more open-ended or "sandbox" as they say. BtH expands the map of Australia to include ships and sea travel to islands as far off as New Zealand. It can be played competitively, but most of them are co-op up to 4 players.

Gameplay revolves around exploring the world map and fighting encounters that are fast paced since each side only gets one attack per combat. It uses dice so it can probably be swingy at times, but there are 4 different types of varying power. There is a bit of leveling up to get more upgrades and a good variety of weapons and enemies. If you die you get an injury card, but you can go to doctors or repair your vehicle. Pretty much every item has a weaker version once it breaks from overuse.

I'm continuing to make good progress despite the fact that the first real heat wave has already hit were I live. I hope there are still some cool days ahead, it's not even June!

Anyway here is the next character I have for you from Waste Knights, Zoey Shaw the mechanic. I think she turned out pretty good. Some of the youtube reviews were a bit critical of the minis, but so far they've been pretty fun to work on.

I also completed my first playthrough of the game yesterday. It's actually pretty fun, though it's a bit unforgiving since there are very few opportunities for rerolls.
I made it the entire scenario without even getting knocked out. I only failed at the very last second because my rolling let me down. I should have spent a couple more turns trying to get some better weapons as I was still using the ones I started with, just a pistol and knife. I had a grenade but it just ended up damaging me instead.

The campaign for the expansion, Beyond the Horizon, just revealed today that there will be a couple options for adjusting the difficulty level added to the game with the new stuff so that's nice to hear.

Great hazard stripes on the gun there!

 Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll wrote:
Great hazard stripes on the gun there!

Thanks Gwyn chan 'r Gwyll, it's great to see you back. I can't take that much credit for the stripes though since they're molded on to the model.

This one is from a different company altogether called Wargame Exclusive, but I thought it was reminiscent of Mad Max's Interceptor so it seemed fitting to do it in between working on Waste Knights.
They're based in Ukraine so hopefully they're okay relatively speaking. I've had it for several years so it's nice to finish it.

I plan to use a pigment powder to simulate dust around the wheels, but that requires me to varnish it first and I like to get pictures before that step.
I don't know what the deal is with the guy hooked up to the back. Maybe he helps power it or something.

Nice wheels!
Those cars were made with 40k in mind, so the guy on the back is a servitor (mind scrubbed cyborg slave) which fills the Imperium's need for an AI and skirts the total ban on AIs.
He could be controlling anything from air conditioning to sat nav to self drive...

 Guardling wrote:
Nice wheels!
Those cars were made with 40k in mind, so the guy on the back is a servitor (mind scrubbed cyborg slave) which fills the Imperium's need for an AI and skirts the total ban on AIs.
He could be controlling anything from air conditioning to sat nav to self drive...

Thanks Guardling, always nice to see a new face. A servitor makes sense, I take it you're familiar with this company's models?

I was actually considering replacing the servitor with an old chaos marauder that somewhat reminded me of Chumbucket from the ps4 Mad Max videogame. He rode around on the back of your ride to man the harpoon, but unfortunately they're a slightly bigger scale than the Waste Knight characters or the car itself.

Anyway for now I thought I'd go back and work on the last handful of models left for Middara. I wanted to finish playing Act 1, but Wave 2 will hopefully be on the way by the end of this year and it includes a lot of models that are only represented by standees at the moment so I may just wait until everything is in hand.

Either way these creatures are called Gatekeepers. That brings the count down to only 6 minis left until the rest hopefully arrives.

I'm pretty proud of how this one turned out. This is Herena from Limbo: Eternal War.
She's one of the last 75mm models I had left so that's why the details seem a bit crisper. Of the ones I ordered from them I only have the smaller dwarf character, which I only got because he was free, and the big viking dude left.

I'm kind of kicking myself for using sand on the base instead of grey gravel since it looks a bit out of place, but oh well it's too late now. I suppose I could go back and paint over top of it.

The kickstarter for the main game is still a long ways off from delivering, but I'm looking forward to it nonetheless. It has a ton more minis with it. They'll of course be smaller, but still big enough since they are on a 40mm or so scale.

I also went back and touched up the chests of the Gatekeepers since I had left a bit unfinished.

Lovely work. Great greens, beautiful skin and amazing eyes.