I had a week off over Christmas, and had the sudden realisation that my painting total was sitting at 81 painted miniatures. That would mean I only needed to get 19 models painted to have done 100 models in a year! I gave it a go, but a couple of days before the end of the year it became clear I'd had too much else on to be close to hitting the target, and rather than try and crunch to hit it, and leave myself with a huge backlog of housework from neglecting that, I was better placed to redirect my efforts to tidying up and setting myself up to be in a good place going into next year.
That aside, I did have a productive week, getting four models finished. They all ended up being D&D models for no reason other than my painting whims. There wasn't a particular plan to what got picked out and painted. I'd already been part way through two of them, so I finished those first and got a couple more done.
First up we have this Griffin that I bought from Iron Gate Scenery at Salute back in 2021. She had a couple of small misprint areas on the feathers that I just darkened up to hide rather than do anything clever. The stone blocks on the base area from the Rubble City pieces made by Fenris Games.
Having a good "scary big monster" for low level D&D is something I feel I should get a nice bit of use out of, so I'm pleased to get this one done. It's the sort of "work horse" monster miniature that should see a good bit of use. It's not going to come out as much as bandits or goblins, sure, but having a bigger monster come out now and again for variety keeps things interesting.
Next up is this really lovely dwarf miniature I got from Otherworld Miniatures. I think he's one of the best dwarfs they do, as there's a realism and a character to this one eyed veteran wielding a hammer. I spent a bunch of time hand highlighting his coat and am really happy with how it turned out. A real contender for my favourite model of the year.
Another Salute purchase, this time a hag from Encounter Terrain. I really wanted to up the creepiness factor on her, so after painting her in contrast, she got a quite heavy off white drybrush to make her pale and faded, with a few spots then re-painted with contrast to add a little more tone where needed.
Her unhealthy skin tones were achieved by using Magos Purple for the first coat, the aforementioned off-white drybrush, then a second pass on some areas with Guilliman Flesh to bring it a little more towards human tones but still not quite right.
Finally, we have Hakkle the Gnoll Pirate from the Reaper Bones line. He'd be undercoated in Zandri Dust, and I gave him an Agrax wash before starting painting. This did leave him a little too dark for Contrast in some places - I ended up using a layer paint for the trousers and sash in the end. At that point, I'd have been better off basing the other colours traditionally, then doing the wash and adding some highlights. Never mind, you live and learn!
Still, he's a troublesome Gnoll ready for mischief and villainy on the table. In higher fantasy settings I like the idea of adding a sole Gnoll, Goblin or Drow into a Bandit party to change up an encounter. This fellow seems like the sort of down on his luck miscreant who might have thrown his lot in with a pirate crew or bandit band for a chance of coin and luxuries.
So, all in all, while I didn't manage to get 19 miniatures painted during my holiday, I did have a pretty productive week, and got some miniatures I really like painted and ready for gaming with, so it wasn't a bust. Hopefully you all have had a good holiday season and have a more positive New Year.
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