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

Life in Lockdown

Wow - It's been almost a month since I last blogged ...

In my defence, not that I need to defend myself, Mrs. H. got ill, so we were quarantined for a fortnight, and I was looking after her, and young Master H, so in spite of thinking I might get some painting done, nothing happened but 'firefighting' household chores and trying to keep everyone in the house sane.  Also, the Mansions of Madness Investigators that Mrs. H. had set me the challenge of painting just weren't inspiring me - perhaps because I didn't choose them myself, I don't know. 

I'm sure I'll get back to them at some point.

Then I got ill, just as work provided me with a Laptop to work from home, and a week later when I was well enough to paint again, that meant I was well enough to be working too, and the weeks in lockdown had taken their mental toll.

Fortunately this week Mrs. H. did something wonderful.  last Thursday she painted a model. This one, in fact.  And yes, she did it all in one day.  I suppose, just like the ghosts in "A Christmas Carol", she must be magical so can do it all in one night and change the heart of this old curmudgeon here.

Gizza Kiss!

Reaper's Shub-Niggurath.  It's so big it almost fills the light box!  I said I'd share some pictures of her painting at some point - and here it is!

Her doing some painting gave me the impetus to get back at the desk again - but even better, she painted with me.  She's currently working on some very cute baby dragons (Also from Reaper) which I hope she'll let me photograph too.  Having her to paint with helped me get back at it - and getting back at it has helped my locked-down head too.  I may not get much more painting done this week as I'm back at work, and next weekend I have a Role-play convention that has moved online in response to the Coronavirus epidemic, but who knows, I may still manage something.

So, on to what I've got painted this week - it's somewhat eclectic, as it's mostly been what I fancied.  As I said above the Mansions of Madness Investigators have taken a step to the side until they are the thing that inspires me again.

It was Crooked Dice's 10th anniversary during my painting hiatus, and as I love their stuff, and wanted the free Janey Paranormal Investigator for Mrs. H. (hey, a model arrived that doesn't go on my acquired list ... Huzzah!) I ordered the fantastic skeletons that were released not too long ago.  They have a great "Ray Harryhausen" vibe to them, plenty of character without any fiddly detail, and will be lovely when 7tv Fantasy arrives.  Fingers crossed that some with Spears and Bows are in the offing as well, and I'll have a good selection for both skirmish games and RPGs too.

Does his skull go all the way to the top of that hood?

Next up I painted a few things that were on my work in progress shelf that had gotten as far as being undercoated, but no further.

Some Mermaids from the Pirates of the Dread Seas range from Dead Earth Games.  These came with their Dwarf Crew Kickstarter, and I'm awaiting their Human and Undead crews along with the rulebook, from the Kickstarter that followed.  There are some great sculpts in there, though the scale is a little larger than some of the other pirate figures I've got, they still fit in just fine.

With and Without Makeup?

The Savage Worlds 50 Fathoms game I'm running has moved online for the foreseeable future, but that's no reason to not keep painting Pirates!  The PC's have recently hired some more female crew, so I painted these up that had been sitting in an undercoated state for a while.  I can't for the life of me remember where I got them from though.

Don't call them Wench!

The last piece of work in progress is this Reaper blacksmith.  Painted just because I liked the look of him and it made for one less unpainted figure on the shelf.  I have a feeling we're going to need to get some more figure cases.  Or at least some foam that can go on shelves.

Have Anvil, Will Travel

The rest of my painting this week was 'shiny and new' - or at least relatively new.  Last month I painted the hoverdrone from Crooked Dice's Pulp Sci-Fi kickstarter, that looked suspiciously like one from a certain 1980's Sci-Fi film with an iconic score by Queen.

The next set of models that I've painted my also look as if they've stepped out of the same film.  They don't look very friendly, mind.

*wheezes* Fires Gun.

These, like the drone, are getting based on clear bases - I'm going to stick with sand and flock for my fantasy models, and the beach bases for my pirates, but I think for boardgames, and at least my 'current' run of Sci-Fi stuff that clear bases are the order of the day.  Just as well Warbases were still open and delivering last week!

Dispatch War Rocket Ajax!

While the most merciless of the character types hasn't gotten painted yet, I have managed his generals and his 'bride to be' - I picked blonde rather than brunette to match the film for the bride because it's my model, and I can.  The black and gold though.  Can't mess around with styling like that!

So, that's 25 Models painted since Friday, and 8 acquired since the last blog.  Still keeping ahead of the game!

Running Totals

Painted: 335

Acquired: 97

Staying just ahead of the game

I'm intending to update this Blog every Saturday - I didn't manage it last weekend as I was away at the Winter Stabcon - a bi-annual boardgames/rpg con in Stockport - there's even a bit of miniatures gaming goes on as well.  In fact, it's the place that I was introduced to 7tv 2nd Edition, from Crooked Dice, which has now become my go-to rules for skirmish gaming.

This week I stuck to my rules, and managed to accomplish a fair bit.

The various Reaper Bones Heroes that I was working on have been finished - and I now have 30 of them done.

Hopefully the photography will get better as I get used to my camera and the light box that Mrs. Hill gave me for Christmas.  I appear to have manage to paint the heroes in 'colour sets' of a sort - the first 10 tied together with Red. Not that this was in any way a conscious decision, it just happened to work out that way.

Though as I have another 30 or so heroes undercoated in my work in progress pile as I stuck them all to bases and sprayed at the same time, I may end up continuing this theme.  After all - Team Red outnumber all the others 2-1, and I can't have that.

Red Team 1

Red Team 2

Blue Team

Turquoise Team

Green and Yellow Team

Brown Team

I also went to the work in progress pile and found a load of Reaper Bones Goblins that I'd experimented on with Citadel Contrast paints.  It turns out the Contrast paints work very well over the bare white bonesium.  I doubt they'd do well over the newer Bones Black material without an undercoat - but these were all white so the contrast went straight on.

All that was left to do were the bases, so I did them at the same time as the Heroes, and got 45 of the little green meanies done.

 

The trays are Scenery Bases from Warbases - keeping the disorganised rabble in check a little.

Here are some close-ups of the Goblin Heroes (Villains?)

The last bit of painting I managed this week was actually just before Stabcon - I was running a Fantasy RPG session, and needed some "Shadow Panther Familiars" - as Mrs. Hill happened to have a couple of big cats from Critit so I 'borrowed' them and got them painted up.

This brings my painted total so far this year to a pretty reasonable 77 models.  Not bad, I reckon.

However, as I mentioned earlier we went to Stabcon, and this usually involves buying something from Fanboy 3 who always have a stall there.  Mrs. Hill and I rather enjoy Mansions of Madness, so got a new supplement - Path of the Serpent - which adds 12 miniatures to the number of Mansions of Madness minis I need to paint (not one done yet ...).  I also had a birthday, and a good friend got me some TT combat terrain (I love the smell of lasered MDF in the morning, smells like ... Scenery).

All told, I now have 56 more 'things to paint' than I did at the start of the year.  Still, I'm ahead by 21, so it can't be ALL bad.  And none of the Kickstarters I backed last year have arrived yet either ...

No idea what I'm going to paint this coming week - though I doubt I'll manage to finish off quite as many miniatures as I did this week.  I also need to work out how this blog thingy allows me to put down permanent links to other folks blogs, as there are several that were in part the inspiration for me doing this one, Cheaphammer!!! and Brummie's Wargaming Blog, I'm looking at you two in particular here!

Running Totals

Painted : 77

Acquired : 56