Work in Progress Wednesday: Meridian Miniatures and Diehard Miniatures

 

I was complimenting a lovely paint job on this Amazon in a painting Facebook group, and Tim Prow of Diehard Miniatures sneakily mentioned it was a limited edition model that he had a few leftovers of, and he could sell me one. Darn it.

I also ordered Klint and his K9 unit at the same time, as I was thinking quite a bit about Stargrave. I don't have a particular colour scheme planned out for them, though.

I also sent these off for assembly as I was digging through the stash of metal models. They're "Steampunk Militia" from an old Meridian Miniatures Kickstarter. With a possibility that Starjammer might be coming back to D&D, I'm thinking that rather than use these for skirmish gaming, they might make some good baddies for either that or a homebrew campaign. Having some weird simple firearm wielding mercenaries working for the baddy is a fun aesthetic to work with.

A burst of productivity

 

I've finally finished the oldest "overdue" model I had in my paint queue. This is the wonderful undead centaur by Diehard Miniatures. I picked it up from their Kickstarter, but he's now available from their webstore.

This was an experiment in drybrushing and contrast. The whole model was heavily washed and drybrushed before I started using contrasts. Sometimes I'd then drybrush again and contrast again to build up depth of colour.

I'm really quite pleased with how he turned out, and I'll be doing some more experiments with that sort of thing.

This Daemonhost was also well overdue for painting. Having finished the centaur by this stage, I experimented with a purple wash to give a really weird tone to the model I was expecting him to be a paint to paint, but by keeping the paint scheme simple, the contrast was able to work with the fiddly detail without taking forever.

I was pretty pleased with being able to drop in the colours on the two syringes stuck into the daemonhost's leg. I managed to get a weird green liquid and the blue of the glass painted in by hand first time.

I also painted up this Otherworld Miniatures Wererat. I hadn't realised when I picked her up that she was definitely female, but looking at her chest, that's definitely not in doubt! This was a lightning fast contrast job, with a quick couple of pupils dropped into the eyes.

I basically got her done over two evenings with drying time, so doing more paint jobs like this on a week night will be a good way to get through the backlog.

I'm really pleased with how much I got done over the course of a week, so here's hoping it keeps up.

Work in Progress Wednesday: Diehard Miniatures Undead Centaur

One of my assembly people got the unenviable job of assembling this delightful fellow that I picked up in the Diehard Miniatures Kickstarter a while ago. He's now the oldest model on my "Shelf of Shame" having picked him up back in September 2018.

That means he's just passed two years old, so I'm keen to get him painted up and sorted out. That said, he's a really beautiful miniature who deserves not to be rushed, so it may be a little while before I get him finished.

Fancy Photos and a New Plan

I spent a bit of the weekend tidying the hobby area rather than painting, so I only managed to get the Shasvastii Mentor finished up. Various new projects have been undercoated and prepped, but I'm not showing all of those just yet.

I also found my light box, so took some slightly fancier photos than you'll have seen before. Unfortunately, I haven't yet found the cable to my light box, so the photos had to rely on natural sunlight, and are thus varied in quality.

The Mentor, I photographed with the Nox Troopers I've already done, and the look of them all together has made me very happy that the look of the force is coming together.

The Inquisition Cherub got a coat of varnish before he goes away, as I remain cautious about Contrast paint's durability without it.

My Diehard Miniatures skeleton also gets a nice photo rather than something weird taken on my parents' kitchen work bench.

The skeletal satyr, I sadly realised had taken a spilled wash to the base rim, hence the slightly weird angle. I've since patched it up, and I might keep him out to take another photo with the next batch of finished models.

The creepy scarecrow remains creepy.

I'm plugging through the Wargames Atlantic Halflings. They're not the most detailed of sculpts, but are fine for line troops. I'm really hoping to get these finished up this week.

My local wargaming club, HATE (Hackney Area Tabletop Enthusiasts) has decided on a lock down project of painting up a copy of the old Battlemasters game. I enthusiastically volunteered to paint a unit of the Chaos Archers, because I've always liked them.

What I'm not loving is the 90s mould line that's very close to being an out and out mould slip. The line runs right down the face and over several key details, so it's pretty annoying to deal with. I'm currently at 3 down, with 2 to go.

In a fit of enthusiasm, the goal is to try and get these all assembled and ready to undercoat by next week...

In a second fit of enthusiasm (uh oh) I put in a small order to Bad Squiddo Games, run by my friend Annie Norman. The idea is I'm going to put in little orders for models to various small miniature companies that might be struggling in the current climate, then immediately assemble and paint whatever I bought.

I mean, it doesn't help that getting little parcels also helps boost my morale at the same time.

Here's what I picked up. Other than the amazing free colouring sheets that were a "must add" to the order as a present for my wife.

I've picked up the new "Amazons" as well as the more generic fantasy civilian types. Sadly, I put in the order before the amazing Dwarf shield-maidens came out, or I "might" have started stretching the definition of a 'small' order.

But what's this, a free gift?

Annie also sent me an early sculpt of "SOE Annie" from her Women of WWII Kickstarter. I think I've already ordered her in the Kickstarter itself, but I'm not complaining. She's cool and getting painted up!

So, the goal here is that these also get assembled this week ready to finish painting by the end of next week.

Have I succumbed to hubris?

Tune in next week to find out...

Hobby weekend - Bad Things Happen

I've been away from the blog a little while as I had a couple of weekends away LARPing. But this weekend was a good opportunity to catch up with both housework and a little bit of hobby. I focused my time on getting three more figures for Malifaux assembled - Big Jake and 2 Desperate Mercenaries.

As with most Malifaux plastics, the builds are a bit of a pain, with multiple fiddly parts. But once put together they look absolutely excellent.

The reason behind the assembly rush is that I've signed up to a short, 3 round slow grow league for Malifaux at Dark Sphere. I had a "Henchman Hardcore" game - my first game of 3rd edition Malifaux - earlier in the week, and for the second round I needed a few more models!

I got a little distracted starting to assemble some Wargames Atlantic Halflings. I just got to a point in the evening where I didn't want anything complicated, and the fit the bill.

I've also finished painting my first miniature of 2020 - the Undead Spaceman by Diehard Miniatures. I experimented a bit with a light drybrush of light blue over the entire miniature to provide a different kind of highlight, and make him seem a little dusty. Definitely something to play around with again.

That's almost all of the Diehard Kickstarter done - just the Undead Centaur left to go, but I'll need to get him assembled.

I also started picking up the paint jobs on my Shasvastii again, starting with the Nox Troopers.

I picked up the White Dwarf Tech Priest model in a trade, and while I was in to Dark Sphere I grabbed the Hulang Skirmisher and Libertos with Light Shotgun for my Dahshat. I'm sending them off to my commission painter alongside the Qapu Khalqi I've had hanging around for ages.

As far as painting goals go - 16 models painted, 3 purchased. Currently on track to not buy more than I've painted.

Starting the year as I don't intend to go on

I spent a good deal of time last week day dreaming about how much painting I was going to get done last weekend. My wife is away at a wedding all weekend so I was confident that without having to worry about being inconsidering I could knuckle down and blitz ahead with the painting. Especially as I'm away for the next two weekends at various LARP events.

As it was, I wasn't hugely in the mood, I really needed to catch up on a bunch of housework and chores, and also managed to catch a bug that knocked me out for most of a day.

Still, Sunday mid afternoon I dragged myself to the painting desk, determined to get something done.

In between other jobs, I assembled Bishop for my Outcasts Viktoria crew. He's got a really weird gap on his arm that will need a little Green Stuff, and I wanted to be certain the glue was dry before messing about with that. So one little job for the the future.

Two previously assembled metal miniatures I hadn't undercoated got their relevant undercoats. The Shasvastii Caliban is the last of my Operation Wildfire Shasvastii. Meanwhile, the Queek Headtaker model is going to be a Claw Lord in my Skaven army. He was picked up when the Skaven book came out as a Made to Order.

I promise I'll move on to the rank and file once I've finished faffing about with the Malifaux crew and I've done a quick mould line removal job on those overdue scatter terrain crates...

In an effort to put some paint on something, I grabbed the Diehard Miniatures Space Skeleton. He's 2 of 3 of the models from their Undead Kickstarter on my Shelf of Shame, so I thought it worth getting him done.

The red on his overalls was an attempt to play around with possible Nomad colour schemes for Infinity. Broadly - green washes are excellent for desaturating colour and I really like the effect, but Vallejo paints seem to really not agree with dry brushing at all.

So . . . no models painted, but no models bought, either. Sadly, another item has crept onto the Shelf of Shame. However, I have managed to get through a week without buying any models, so I'm at least on track, six days into the New Year, on that resolution to not buy more minis than I've painted.

Feel free, future reader, to laugh at how badly I failed at this. But I'm at least optimistic right now...