Can I play with madness?

A day late this week.  While I had all my painting finished yesterday, I'd not got the bases sorted, so did that this evening before updating the blog.

I've made a proper start on the Investigators from Mansions of Madness, and have managed to get 12 of them done this week, plus a few other sundry bits and pieces from the 'work in progress' pile, along with one brand new arrival.  The first of my expected Kickstarter deliveries from last year has arrived ... so the acquired number will tick up again.

But first, onto the Mansions of Madness - I had a little trouble with some discolouration on the clear bases from the superglue I was using - I'm not really sure how to combat this other than try to use less superglue.  Still, I'm happy with the results I've got on some not-terribly well sculpted models.  The more recently produced models are much better than the older ones, and I feel I've done them more justice, but they're also a little smaller than I'm used to painting, and my eyes are getting old.  At least, that's my excuse.

Agatha Crane

Somehow she seems to be welcoming our new lords from the outer planes.  Well, she is a Parapsychologist.

Bob Jenkins

I'm not really sure what Bob is supposed to be holding in his hand.  I painted it silver as if it's some kind of goblet.

Carson Sinclair

The Butler, Carson.  Either his eyes are a little dark, or he's been chasing the dragon.  Possibly both.

Father Mateo

Father Mateo.  While I was painting this I couldn't get out of my head that I thought he looked like Benedict Cumberbatch.

Gloria Goldberg

Probably the best bit on Gloria is the portable typewriter she's carrying.  Unfortunately I didn't photograph her from an angle that shows it off.  Or in focus it would appear.  Maybe I'll update this picture at some point.

Harvey Walters

Harvey is one of the better sculpts (in my opinion) from the original set of investigators.  He also has the same name as the sample character showing the character generation in Call of Cthulhu 5th edition, which was the first edition I played.

Minh Thi Phan

I tried to do an Asian skin ton on Minh.  Not sure I got it right as Mrs. H. has dubbed her "The Simpson".  Still.  Mrs. H. hasn't painted anything for me to photograph to put on the blog yet, you know, just to show off her talents and all that.

Preston Fairmont

Preston's a fairly dour millionaire, in miniature form.  I couldn't get rid of the bumps on his cane either, not without risk of snapping it in two.

Rita Young

Rita is one of the few non-white investigators - I'm pretty sure in one of the novels linked to Arhkham Horror she's described as mulatto, so I tried to go for coffee-ish coloured skin.

Sister Mary

I will admit I didn't enjoy painting Sister Mary.  At Mrs. H's suggestion I painted on an Alice band to try to cover up the mould line that I just couldn't get rid of through her hair. Her eyes are sculpted rather bulging, somewhat Innsmouth-Looky.  And the model itself is hunched over.  While the character art makes her look about 20 ... the model itself comes over as a lot older.  Ah well.

Wendy Adams

Wendy I'm rather pleased with, however. She looks rather scared and waifish, which she's supposed to.

William Yorick

Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him Horatio ... There's a lovely fracture on the skull he's holding (it's not a mould line I missed, honest) so whoever died, it was violent.

That's 12 of the 30 done, 18 to go which I'm sure I'll manage over the next couple of weeks.  They'll also come in nicely as characters for 7TV Pulp - and as I've recently received a number of Mythos gribbly stat cards, the monsters will be able to play their part as well.

I also painted a few other bits and pieces this week though nothing particularly fancy.

Objective markers - Always useful.

Another 'thing from the work in progress pile' here - I had these rocks glued to bases sanded and undercoated, and just lying there, so I finished them off as objective markers.  As I was painting Mythos things, I gave three of them Mythos symbols - the Elder Sign, the Icon of Nytharthotep and the Yellow Sign.  The final cairn with a handle sticking out of it is clearly some kind of weapon to smite the Mythos - just to keep in theme.

Ooooh.  it's and Ooze.

I also painted this Ooze - It's not got a base because I just have no idea how to base it really.  It's cast in semi-transparent resin, so I've picked out the rocks, bones, and other bits and pieces.  I'm sure it'll eat an adventurer or two at some point.

I also said that I'd had a Kickstarter arrive - the Crooked Dice Pulp Sci-Fi Heroes and Villains plus a few extras (some of which were for Mrs H, fortunately) so I've got 24 models to add to the acquired count.

One of these will be taking the part of a Robot Sidekick to the Sci-Fi lizard I painted last week.

Long live Flash! You've saved your Earth!
Have a nice day!

And that's it for this week.  18 models Painted, 24 arrived, so a little in the red this week.  I'll try to get at least another 12 of the Investigators done, and see what else takes my fancy.

Running Totals

Painted: 310

Acquired: 89

The Heroes, The Zombie, and the Scenery.

No, not a pastiche on the C.S. Lewis novel, but what I've been painting this week.

I've finished 7 more of the Skull Tales heroes, plus a Zombie Sidekick, leaving just 7 more Heroes and a Dog to go to have completed all the models I have for the game.  I say "I have" because there were some Door and Treasure Chest minis as an add on, that I didn't buy, but they were more money than I felt they were worth, so I stuck with more 'gamey' pieces.

Again, there are some definite pop/geek culture references amongst batch two, one of which I really wish was different, but I can't have everything.

The Joker

Today was the day I finished painting
"Almost Captain Jack Sparrow"

Native Huntsman
"Hawkeye" I said to Mrs. Hill.
Then "No, not M.A.S.H.,
Last of the Mohicans."

Freedman
No specific reference here I can see.
Though he does match an NPC in an
RPG I'm running very well

Swordsman
Hello.  My Name is Inigo Montoya
You Killed My Father.
Prepare to Die.

Voodoo Shaman and Zombie
There is a certain Baron Samedi-ness
to the Shaman, but I think that's more
the skull makeup than anything else.

Far-Eastern Spy
No reference here for me
though theremay well be one
I'm not that up on my Eastern Cinema

Bodyguard
Kevin Costner he ain't.
When I heard there would be a "Turkish Bodyguard" that
would be a 'big fellow' I was hoping that as we had Inigo
this would be Fezzik.  Instead, I reckon this is Strong Belwas
(from the Game of Thrones novels - he didn't make the TV
series) which is just as good.

I also painted the The Walking Dead All Out War Scenery Booster from Mantic Games this week - I wanted to get some vehicles done for a painting competition, and these did well for that - and some objective markers and scatter terrain are always handy to have.  Not only that, Mrs. Hill will be running a Deadlands: The Wasted West RPG at some point, so Post-Apoc terrain will be very handy.

More Barricades

Barricades

Yet more Barricades

More Objectives.
So are Baked Beans

Objectives.
Campbells Soup is Important Stuff

I tried to do that sky/earth highlighting thing for the windows of the vehicles.  I've tried it once before and I'm not sure that I've "Got it" yet, but I think I'm getting better.

I also used a colour shift paint for the first time (and promptly covered it up with rust, muck and scratches).  It's interesting stuff to use, and I've been told that an airbrush will make its use much easier.  I've never really used an airbrush though, and don't want the expense of setting one up.  Nor do I have a "hobby room" outside of my area in the living room, so such things may have to wait.

Colourshift Paint

It makes for nice self-highlighting!

Black.

It'll never go out of style.

It all used to be one colour.

Honest, it did!

I think I should have done some kind
of Mechanic markings on this one.

"Dave's Garage" or something similar.
Maybe next time ...

And a Collage, because I put one together for my
painting competition entry and wanted to use it again.

So that's 28 models painted this week, and I didn't buy any models either.  However a good friend, apropos of nothing, bought me a bit of TT combat scenery - the Wild West Undertaker, which comes with 7 gravestones too.  And a Reaper Gravedigger to go with it.  So, that's 9 models acquired.  And very nice they are too.  More MDF and Plastic for the pile!  Still not quite 200 ahead, but I might get there next week, if going to the theatre (Back to the Future, the Musical!) doesn't get in the way of next week's painting.

Running Totals

Painted: 257

Acquired: 65

Holding out for a hero

As predicted, painting the Heroes for Skull Tales has slowed down the number of completed models this week. Batch painting is definitely a lot quicker, but I've enjoyed doing these more. Same feeling of accomplishment, but from a different source, I think.

Also, we've got a puppy moving in on Tuesday, so there's been a lot of moving things around the house to make it as canine-safe as we can - my painting area being in the living room that's meant a few things moving - and I'm going to have to stop leaving things out too. 

Fortunately my painting desk is an old writing bureau, so the desk part will fold up and lock.  It'll just take some re-arranging to ensure I can pack away and close things when I'm done.

Even so, I've completed 8 of the Heroes, and got the remaining 14 (plus two 'sidekicks' - a Zombie and Dog) undercoated, and all the flesh painted, which puts them into my Work in Progress pile, I suppose!

There are several 'homages' to Films, Games, T.V., and Books amongst the heroes - and I'm pretty sure I'll have failed to spot some too.

The Avenger.
I think he's been mostly dead all day.
I think he'd make a good Dread Pirate.
Definitely channelling The Princess Bride

The Cabin Boy.
Complete with Chicken.
I wonder if there's a pulley in there?
Maybe he's Guybrush Threepwood?

The Captain's Daughter.
So many jokes ...
I'll restrain myself.

The Cook.
Lovely Parrot. Two Legs though,
so not Long John Silver.

The Cutthroat.
I'm getting a definite Assassin's Creed
vibe from this one.

The Surgeon.
I've got nothing for this one.
No references at all.

The Twins.
Twice the Trouble.
But again, no reference point for me.

With two weeks to go until the vehicle painting competition, I might end up entering the ships from Skull Tales, but I also have Mantic's Scenery Booster for The Walking Dead game.  Four somewhat battered vehicles are in there, and I'm hoping to get at least one of them done by the end of the month as well. 

I'll just have to see if I can get them sprayed this week.

With just 8 models painted this week, I'm ahead by 173.  Just 16 left to go to have Skull Tales finished completely, and then I'll have to decide whether to do another 'project paint' or just have a bit of a 'this and that' month during March.

Running Totals

Painted: 229

Acquired: 56

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, A Pirate's Life for me!

Sunday again.  This may be a thing.

Having tried out my colour scheme for the Royal Marines in Skull Tales I did, indeed, get the other Seven painted this week, along with the two Officers.  They'll likely find use in my RPGs before I actually get around to playing the boardgame.  This happens a lot with boardgames with miniatures in them - the minis get more use than the game itself - or at least, they get re-purposed for use in RPG scenarios.

Which way sir?

Deciding I should have painted both Darkclaws from the game at the same time so I didn't get the painting recipe  different, I got the other one undercoated and cracked on with that this week as well.
Did I get the paint scheme the same?

*shrug*

I'm not certain - but it's close enough.

Once I was setting that up to undercoat, it dawned on me that if I stuck with this, I could get the whole boardgame painted up over the next few weeks - burnout notwithstanding, so I picked three other groups of Enemies from the game to get painted as well.

Pirates

Cannibals

Cursed Ones

I've been working mostly with Contrast paints for the basecoats, with a few highlights, and metallics added. The Contrast works well, though I have found that after they've dried there are sometimes areas where the paint 'pulls back' from the undercoat and has needed a touch up.  Or perhaps I need to be using thicker coats in the first instance.  

As with most things, practice will likely help me find the best way for me to use them.

While finishing off the bases I also decided to get a couple of scenery pieces that have been sitting on my painting desk for several months finished off. 

I made some 'pirate treasure' objective markers for a 7TV event last year, and used some smaller Mantic Terrain Crate pieces that I had lying around.  I had undercoated two larger treasure piles at the same time, but as they weren't needed for the event they hadn't managed to get any paint on them at all.

GOLD!

Now they're looking rather better, they can be relegated to my painted terrain box, ready for when they are needed.

There are a few more sets of Skull Tales enemies sitting in my sanding tray, that I'll hopefully get sprayed tomorrow, if the weather holds after work, and I'll get to painting them over the next week.  If I complete them, there will be around 60 more models left to do to have the game fully painted - though most of them will be the 'character' models, so there'll be no batch painting involved and they'll probably take longer.  Still - it would be good to have a 'fully painted' game.  Unlike wargaming armies, at least with a boardgame with finite expansions I can honestly say that it will be 'done'.  Well, unless an expansion gets released to make me a liar (Firefly Adventures, I'm looking at you ... you were 'done', once, but then Inara, Book, and the Tams were released - and I've not got them painted yet - or even opened the boxes ...).

I've got 30 models done this week, and no new arrivals yet.  Kickstarters should be arriving next month though - including Mantic's new Terrain Crates - which will add about 400 to my 'acquired' total.  It's early days yet, but I DO intend to get more painted than comes 'in' this year.  We'll see how I feel once the arrivals start!

Running Totals

Painted: 160

Acquired: 56

50 Shades of Brown

I'm a day late on my updating every Saturday.  So maybe I'll just say I'm going for every weekend... until that doesn't happen as well.

In my defence, I spent a lot of yesterday drybrushing brown, brown, brown, and brown.

I decided that this week I would build and paint up the TT Combat crates that I got for my birthday.

All they need is an 80's Detective in an Audi...

While building them I remembered I had some other crates that I'd got for Christmas (2018 *cough*) that I'd built, but never painted - so I dug them out too before I began painting.  I'm not sure which company they are made by, it's been that long since I built them.  I think they came with a couple of "Jungle Outpost" buildings though.

... or an Intrepid Archaeologist searching for a stolen McGuffin.

While trying to find them I came across some fences, and since I'd be painting them in similar colours to the crates, they got added to the painting pile.  Which meant that the fencepost/columns that came went with them would also need to be painted.

8 Fences, 2 Fences with Gates, 10 Columns.  I'll need something for them to fence off now.  I've been having ideas for a new skirmish gameboard that they might work with - but I'll be waiting for better weather before I start painting up new base boards and suchlike.

Oh, and there were some chairs and tables too, so I added them as well.

These will most likely find play as added decoration for RPG battlemaps.  They're a little strangely scaled against each other, though they all came in the same set.

I did manage to get some paint on a couple of other miniatures this week as well.  I'm currently running a couple of Savage Worlds RPG campaigns, one of which is Pinnacle Entertainment's 50 Fathoms setting - think Pirates of the Caribbean meets Pirates of Darkwater (for those that can remember that cartoon) - one of the races, the Scurillian, are a group of magically created Crabmen, and my players have recently recruited one as a member of their crew.  I was frantically scratching my head for something that could represent them when I remembered I backed the Skull Tales - Full Sail Kickstarter last year mostly for the large number of Piratical/Fantasy miniatures.  The Darkclaw monster, while not exactly matching the description of the Scurillians, is close enough, so got painted up to add to the crew.

I just want a hug!

The same game has a set of Redcoats as well, so I painted one up, mostly using Contrast paints, with a few highlights, as a tester.  I'll hopefully get the other 7, and the two officers done over the coming week.

Ready, Aim, Fire!

I expect a lot of my painting is going to be RPG or Boardgame related for a while, possibly both linked together.  I do need to get a new 7TV cast together for July though - not that I'm able to go to Wargames Illustrated's 7TV Day V: The Crosstime Caper - as it clashes with Summer Stabcon (again!) - but I'll be having a game there with another 7TVer, just as I did for the Pulp day last year.

Hopefully the Supers Unlimited models I backed on Kickstarer from Kitbash Games will arrive in plenty of time so I can add to my 'acquired' total, but also get some painted up as a cast.


One thing I've noticed this week is that there's nothing like high-def photography to make you realise just how sloppy your painting is, but that I really don't mind all that much.  They're never going to win any painting competitions, but they're plenty good enough for my gaming table, and that's what really matters.

So, with 8 Fences, 2 Gate Sections, 10 Columns, 13 Crates, 6 Pallets, 5 Tables, 4 Chairs, 1 (very low) Bar, 2 Bookshelves, 1 Darkclaw and a Redcoat painted this week, I've managed to complete 53 things.  Drybrushing is my friend!

I'm still ahead of the game, and building up a bit of space for future arrivals.  I've still avoided any new purchases, and I'm not likely to head off to any shows - though Chillcon IS tempting me - so I'm pretty sure I'm going to end January well ahead.

Running Totals

Painted: 130

Acquired: 56