Falling Behind...

Prompted by the arrival of a Kickstarter that's going to put the painting lead I'd built up back a rather long way, the camera's come out and the paintjobs of the last three weeks are here.

It's an eclectic mix of work in progress stuff, and a "why don't I do that?" project, along with a couple of the models that came in the Reaper lockdown bundle I got at the start of the month.

First up are some Oathmark Soldiers that have been knocking around for a while.  I've got several of the Oathmark Kits, and they're all full of character.  I'm told they're completely compatible with the Frostgrave kits too, which is unsurprising, but likely to be remarkably helpful.  I built one of these as a character model for an RPG, and he got painted straight away, but the rest of the sprue, plus the metal captain model have languished with just undercoat on them on my painting desk for a while.

Hi-res photography always shows up how dodgy my eye painting can be, but for tabletop play they'll be fine.  I was even mad enough to put magnets on the shields.

I think I'll do the next five with bows, when I get around to them.

Forwards men!

Next up some random Reaper Bones - these came with my lockdown survival kit.  Mrs H had some, and I took these.

This Way ...

Anyone who knows me well will know I have a weakness for Redheads, right Mrs. H?  So no surprises that this lady of *ahem* negotiable affections *ahem* was painted with a scarlet mane.  She's been based up to go with my Pirate collection, after all, Pirates need Wenches!

Strike a Pose!

And here's the creature from Devil Reef - it also seemed a sensible addition to the Pirate collection.  Once we're back gaming face to face, I'm sure it'll turn up in a roleplay session at some point.

It's Clobberin' Time.

I've had GW Orc armies before, and even though I've painted my Reaper goblins with 'traditional' GW style green skin, I just couldn't do it with this fellow.  So, Gryph-Hound Grey Contrast it was.  I rather like the Gray skin-tone, so when I get around to my other Reaper Orcs, I'll be doing them the same way.  I think the Oathmark Goblins I have may get even darker grey skin 'cause they look rather like Giaks from Lone Wolf, but I digress.

I've also painted a couple of Crooked Dice miniatures - I've been working through the Pulp Sci-Fi set released earlier in the year (or was it late last year? time is ... strange at the moment) Not-Flash and Not-Ming are still in progress, but I finished both Not-Barin's

A Secret Serviceman and a Man in Tights?

Both of them do a good job of reminding me of certain actors.  I'd really like some Not-Arborian guard with the same kind of jackets as these two. But I can wait.  It's not like I don't have a lot of stuff on my to-do pile!

I also finished a couple of scurvy swabs from my pirate collection - somehow these two got skipped when I painted up my Black Scorpion Elven Pirates.  No idea why, and they don't quite fit with the others as I've forgotten the recipe I used for the others. They're close enough though.

Back to Back they faced each other.

Last, but no means least, I've had these Reaper Nova Guard sitting in the blisters for a while, and they called out to me.  Liberal use of Orange Contrast to basecoat them made for easy, if somewhat slapdash work, but I now have some generic sci-fi soldiers to use as mooks in RPGs.  Once I get Zombicide Invader and Nemesis on the painting table (one day) I'll have plenty of gribblies as well.  I think I'm going to need some more clear bases though.

"I am in charge, and I say we go that way!"

So that's 32 models painted in the last three weeks or so.  Not my best effort, but by no means my worst.  And I'm on 377 models painted so far this year.

Now onto the kickstarter that arrived today ... Mantic's Terrain Crate.  Fortunately some of it belongs to Mrs. H - so I don't need to add the entire model count to my acquired total.  But there's still a lot.

Also, Father's day has happened, and Master H got me a couple of pirates.  Plus Mrs H did an order from Reaper to replace a dragon that our dog ate (yes, really!) and snuck in a couple of models for me too (thanks dear, no, really, I love the models, just not the addition to the pile!)

Sooo ... my acquired total goes up by ... 337.  Ulp!

And I still have several other miniatures-heavy kickstarters in various covid-related states of delay that will quite possibly be turning up over the next six months...

I'm still less than 100 behind at the moment though ... better get on with it!

Running Totals

Painted : 377

Acquired : 475

Nearly two months ...

Blimey - time flies when you're having ... well, whatever it is I've been having.

I lost my painting mojo again - the stresses of homeschooling, trying to keep a house tidy with a puppy we can't walk, and a 6-year-old  7-year-old (he's had a birthday, you know) that just won't tidy up, and a depressed me haven't been good.

A combination of lack of motivation and lack of clear space to paint in has meant I've not got much done for some time.

Also, my eyes are getting worse (wow, this does sound like a 'woe is me' rant, doesn't it?) so I've bought myself one of those led lit magnifier things.  It's going to take me a while to get used to using it - so even though I've got back to painting a little, painting will be slower.

Fortunately for me, I decided to try my hand at some bigger figures before going back to the usual suspects, and I've managed to get at least some painting done.

As it's been six weeks since my last blog, it's unsurprising that I've had some new arrivals.  The Kickstarter for the Pirates of the Dread Seas has arrived from Dead Earth Games, giving me 12 new Pirates and ex-Pirates to paint up

I've also acquired a number of out-of-production Crooked Dice "Not-Doctor-Who" minis from someone who was selling off their collection, so they can be added to the pile of shame until the muse strikes me - but I have been wanting a lot of them for a while, they take the 'input' tally up to 36, and finally Mrs H and I shared a 'lockdown survival kit from Reaper, giving me another 4 to work on.

Finally, for our Bronze Wedding Anniversary, Mrs H got me a Bronze Dragon,  for  a total of 41 minis acquired in the last 6 weeks or so.

In return, I have managed a bit of painting, as I noted above - and here's what I've been up to...

Agramon with Burney Hand

Agramon, Duke of Hell, from Reaper - I'd used him as a tester for Contrast paints some time ago, but never got around to finishing him off, or all of his alternate limbs (and spare head)

He's like a Demonic Mr Ben, really.  Or Worzel Gummidge.
Or Kryten

He comes with a number of differing right hands, and two heads, making him quite a versatile beastie, if you don't glue all the bits in.

Dagon, Lord of the Deep

More Reaper - they have quite a few rather nice Great Old Ones.  Most of those that we have (including Shub-Niggurath, that I've pictured before) are in Mrs H's inbox.  But I did manage to nab Dagon for myself.  This was mostly done with Contrast paints, and has turned out rather well, I feel.  Hopefully once we get back to gaming in person he'll have a use in one of my RPGs

Mossbeard.  No actual beard of moss though.

Mossbeard the Treeman is HUGE!.  I also didn't use moss on his beard, but a fair amount of it elsewhere.  I didn't have a base big enough for him, so stole an old CD spool, and thickened it up with some air dtying clay.

Skeletal Dragon.  Does exactly what it says on the tin.

The Skeletal Dragon was wonderfully simple to paint, and looks nicely imposing on the table too.

Though Master H told me that "It's scary, but Shadow the Wizard (his RPG Sorceress) can kill it like the Giant Skeleton".  So I suppose it's not THAT imposing.

I'd wanted a Skeletal Dragon for a while, and when this came up in one of the Reaper Bones kickstarters I jumped on it, figuratively, and left it in a box for months, literally.  But it's done now, and I like it.

It was our Dragon Anniversary, Right?

My aforementioned Wedding Anniversary Present was from Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures. Pre-Undercoated, though if I get more of them, I shall remember to wash EVERYTHING, as the rocks on the base were a paint to paint, even with the pre-undercoatyness.  This was the first model I used my new magnifier thing on - and while it makes a great difference to the detail I can see on the figure, it really screwed with my head in terms of depth perception.  I just couldn't judge the distance from the brush to the figure well ... practice practice practice!

They call him Rand.

Rand, one of Reapers Chronoscope Heroes, was the next figure to get the magnifier treatment, and I Was getting a little more used to it by then.  I'm really liking the clear bases for Sci-Fi figures.  Can't see myself using them for Fantasy models, but they really set the Sci-Fi figures off nicely. I expect he will join the revolution against the following chaps.

Nothing Otherworldy about us ...

The Otherworldly Guard are another set from the excelled Crooked Dice Pulp Sci-Fi kickstarter, though now they're out into the general populace, so to speak.

Anyone who's seen a certain 1980's film can see the inspiration for them here, I chose to paint mine to match the 'secret police' General and Commander, but they lend themselves nicely to almost any raygun wielding soldier archetype whether Good, Evil, or in between.

As the big figures only count as one (thanks Gimli), I've only managed to complete 10 figures in the past 6 weeks.  I've definitely slipped ... but what I have done, I'm happy with, so that's good enough for me.

A little slide back on Painted vs. Acquired, even with the time since my last post, but I'm still ahead for the year, and only 21 more to go, and I'll have got one model painted for every day this year - which would be an achievement all of it's own!

Running Totals

Painted : 345

Acquired 138