Going a bit old school

This post is a bit "old school" themed this week. And not just because I've failed to finish anything. I'd tried for a little while to schedule posts in advance, splitting up models I'd finished across several weeks to pace out the posts. I've now reached a point where I haven't got anything finished - so here's an up to date, unscheduled post of what I'm working on.

Please do let me know in the comments which types of posts you like. I'm kind of curious.

Anyhow, I got a bit tired painting last night so spent a little time starting to assemble a GW Inquisitor model before I stopped hobbying all together. There's very little in the way of mould lines, but there's tons of parts and you definitely have to follow the instructions rather than guessing! A very different approach to having a couple of arms or a head to stick on, which is what I've been used to of late.

The Shrouded is coming along. I'm reaching the stage of fiddly tidy up, where very little progress takes loads of time. I'm also about to try a different process for the gun to see if I can cut down the number of steps it takes.

I'm also working on this classic pit fighter with a mix of contrast and metallic paints. He's coming along OK, I guess. The Basilicanum Grey contrast over the metal has come out much darker than I thought it would, so I'm going to dry brush it back up.

In a different kind of "old school", I picked up the Battletech computer game and have been playing it a whole bunch. It's delightfully nerdy and involves trying to manage the weight, damage and heat production of your different weapon types.

I strongly suspect that this is something that's much, much better in a computer game than a tabletop battle game, as having to work all this out by hand and then roll dice would be a nightmare!

Work in Progress Wednesday: Aenor Miniatures Half Giant

The last of the Aenor Miniatures Kickstarter I got assembled was this half giant. He got done a little after the others as I needed a break from assembling miniatures after getting all the trolls done.

I've given him a zenithal highlight, which has added another type of texture to him, and should provide a good base when I finally get around to painting him.

Not Easy Being Green

I was re-reading Secrets of the Void's Black Legion Tutorial trying to decide if I should use it to paint Anvilgard, Deathwatch, Ebon Chalice or some combination of those, when the thought came to me "does this work for other colours?"

The Otherworld Miniatures Dryad I picked up when this whole nonsense started was perfect for this. I painted Dark Angels Green up from the bottom, and Warp Lightning down from the top, letting it mix a bit in the middle. While that dried, I took the picture above. I then gave it a good drybrush of Hellion Green and started picking out the detail.

This is how she turned out. The sandals, torcs, belt and eyes got a base of other colours to have them stand out from the rest of the model. Almost all of them then had a contrast colour applied over the top. The flesh got a coat of Plaguebearer Flesh, while the dress got a coat of Warp Lightning.

To finish up, I picked out a few points on the face as if it was a normal human face, just with a pale green, and added a highlight on the hair, as the brown coat over the green contrast and drybrush didn't have enough variation between the light and dark points.

A quick bit of basing, and she was done.

I added quite a few plants onto her base, because I thought it was a good idea. She's turned out pretty well, although I don't really have any idea what I'll use her for..

Second Quarter Painting Review

Halfway through the year, and it's a good point to take stock. How are we doing on the goals?

• Paint more than I buy

Painted: 56

Purchased: 353

Well, fuck.

(At the end of the last quarter, I was at 99. The big offenders here were the Malifaux sale, getting a bunch of minis to promote small companies, deciding to grab a GW thing that was going out of print, the next batch of my Combined project and Operation: Kaldstrom for Infinity.)

• Paint 60 models this year

Up to 56, so going strong here! There have been admittedly a couple of "cheap wins" with some pre-coloured terrain, but they still take time to do and are completed hobby projects, so I'm not worried about that.

I also spent a whole bunch of time assembling and prepping miniatures this month, as you might have picked up from the amount of WiP shots I've been putting up on the blog. I'm looking forward to settling down and really plugging through getting some models painted in the coming months, as there's tons ready to go.

The Shelf of Shame isn't looking terrible. Plenty of things are getting crossed out. And five things on it are already assembled and undercoated and ready to go.

I've also completed an Otherworld Miniatures model this month, but I'll be showing her off on Monday.

Looking forward, there are a few things I know I'll be picking up - Infinity N4 will doubtless have a pre-order miniature, for example. But I'm going to try and make sure I both sell things out of my stash and have painted stuff before investing in anything new.

Lets see how well that goes this time, shall we?

Work in Progress Wednesday: Shasvastii (Mostly)

Just before lockdown, I sent off all the Combined Army and O-12 models I had to my assembly guy so he had plenty to be getting on with. They recently got back to me, and once I'd based them and done a quick zenithal undercoat on them, I thought I'd share what's coming up for the Shasvastii.

First up is the "Beyond Coldfront" models. Now available as the Combined Army Action Pack, it rounds out a 10 model starter Infinity force with the special character Sheskiin, a Malignos with Boarding Shotgun and a Caliban with Spitfire.

I'm intending for most of my Shasvastii to just be the new sculpts. But I did also pick up a few of the older models where I knew I might want to run two of, to give me the option of different sculpts. Centre, we have the Speculo Killer, who can even deploy within your opponent's deployment zone, pretending to be a friendly civilian. The other two are Noctifers. The missile launcher profile is particularly infamous in Infinity for it's ability to deploy hidden and then interrupt a move with a missile at the Least Convenient Moment.

I mean, there's never a convenient moment to be shot at by a missile, but right as you and your buddies are all moving through a choke point is less convenient than many other potential times.

The Cadmus drop trooper on the left I picked up as part of the "Advance Pack" with the order. He's now out retail, which gives away that maybe I could have waited. Meanwhile, spooky and brooding on the right is a Combined Army civilian, used in the game as a High Value Target for certain missions.

And finally, we have the Spec Ops. The more Infinity - aware of you will notice that one of them isn't a Shasvastii! I picked up Treitak Anyat, the Morat Spec Op in the centre in a cheap deal, and I thought I might as well get her assembled and undercoated to paint as a little side project. We then have Corax Hasht, who is slightly less punchy than Sheskiin, and a generic Spec Ops who is an excellent model to proxy stuff that hasn't been released yet.

While I get the Wildfire box painted up and then move onto these, I've got my next batch off with my assembly guy. In particular, I've grabbed the key Doctor-Engineer model you need to get models back up again, and an assortment of the support remotes that are the majority of your cheap troops in the Shasvastii force. I threw in a couple of the newer Shasvastii releases as well, just so I don't fall behind.

Getting this lot based and undercoated took up a bit of time I could have been spent painting, but there's no longer any steps dependent on the weather until they need varnishing left.

Hope you enjoyed a peak at what's coming up on my paint table.