WIPs 220415

Slower progress this week and no unboxing/gaming...

Martin is as done as he will be, I had a go with the osl but lost patience (the bendy malformed weapons didn't help!).

I had a good session on the flesh tone project - I started with the same base tones for all three (GW Kislev + VMC Iraqi Sand) then darkened it a little, particularly on the men. These have a lot of hours left.

This guy is great! A Mistmourn Shaman from the new Super Dungeon Explore, the soft plastic was easy to clean up, a couple of thin coats of (vallejo white) primer and I was away. I've put some base colours down, I want the whole model to be duller eventually. The wooden mask and green flesh have had a bit of shading/highlighting as well. It's Salute on Saturday, my first visit, can't wait!

WIPs 160415

Progress! I've had a couple of good sessions this week :

Martin from Escape has had a little highlighting on the skin and a lot of faffing on the cloak, which has gone as far as it's going to. Next it's nmm and the weapons.

The Riot girl had the touch up done and now just needs basing.

The sniper from Aetherium is the main event - watching a Painting Buddha Academy video on wet on wet blending helped me massively here, I still have a long way to go with the technique but for a tabletop/test model I'm happy with it. Also the the metals have had some shading, the hair's had a highlight and I've tried to vary the highlighting on the various black cloths - these still need work.

And then this guy escaped a newly received box...

Works in progress

The state of the desk... most of this was done over a week ago before a holiday...

The Riot Girl promo, from Aetherium. Almost done, this was a test model and I messed up the priming. That said the trousers and top came out nicely. I'm not happy with the cloak (I'm never happy with cloaks, need to watch some guides). There's a little touch up left to do and some decisions to take on basing.

The flesh tone challenge 3 - built and primed, waiting a long session to start.

More Aetherium, this is the sniper promo model. Mostly just base colours so far (taken from the cool art in the rulebook), with a bit of shading on the hair and cloak. There's a long way to go on this.

Escape and the difference backgrounds make! The orange is more or less done but washes out in the picture whereas the flesh only had one pass but looks good already... the other Escape models have all been 'finished' at about 90% done, this one may be similar. There are always elements of these sculpts I enjoy painting - here the flesh and overalls - and elements that don't seem to work (the canister looks like it's glued on too high, the blades/rods are fuzzy on detail and despite multiple hot water attempts would not straighten). 

The aim for the week is to complete the Aetherium and Escape models, and get a start in on the flesh tone work. But then a box from Soda Pop/Ninja Division just arrived...

Unboxing Aetherium part 2: the models

So I wrote most of this last week then delayed posting while spending a week in a tent with the family (kids aged 1 & 4, not so much sleep, lots of sunshine). While away I skimmed the rulebook, looking mainly at the fluff.
In the core box you get two factions - the Axiom and the Nanomei. The Axiom are Aetherium's version of quasi-religious officialdom - fanatical leaders in robes and enforcers in riot gear:

We get two characters - the priest waving his hand and the the female leader - five riot shield guys, the grenadier, two hounds and two scenery pieces - these are the little brothers of the monoliths from the last post, they are key to the game (it seems they stabilise areas of the digital dimension to allow human minds to exist there)

This is the Axiom leader - Lady Aemelia Mastrona - I won't spoil the backstory but she's an interesting character. The model is well cast (as they all are), there are a few bits to trim and mould lines to clean but nothing too difficult.

Opposing the Axiom we have the Nanomei - anarchist types, scrappily dressed:

We get two multi-model units (the picketers and the riot grlz) - and three more character like models (although except for the guy in the mask - The Masque - the single models can be fielded multiple times. My favourite at first glance is the Tov:

The Nanomei I received had several shades resin used for different models, as below. Whether there's any difference beyond colour I'll see when I get to cleaning up the models, the detail on each cast is crisp.

There was a third blister pack in the box containing the two Kickstarter exclusive models - an extra riot girl and an Axiom sniper. I decided (after reading the training scenario and seeing I'll need most of the models to play from the beginning) to paint these as test models. Here they are, primed...

... several times over. Yeah, read the instructions! The little paper insert with the model prep info from the caster is IMPORTANT! I cleaned up the vents and mould lines (less than 5 minutes work) and gave them a good wash. The instruction sheet specified a primer to use, but I figured (rather than looking for this or its UK equivalent) I'd just give it a go with what I had... Vallejo white brushed on wouldn't stick, neither would Tamiya spray. A mix of Vallejo white and some old Citadel foundation (Khemri Brown) eventually did the job on the riot girl, and several attempts with Vallejo grey brushed on worked on the sniper... at this point I decided I'd definitely prep all the other models together and prime as one with the advised primer.

Once primed, the paint went on easily - I'm further on than this now but here's how the riot girl started:

Workbench 010415

The daily painting session is producing just over 1 completed model a week so far this year (though of varying quality...) The latest finished is a warrior priest (Edan, the Cleric) from Legion of the Cow Predictably this was another Kickstarter derived miniature, one of a handful I bought from their project last spring. I don't have any wip shots from this but the resin cast was very good, easy to clean up, very detailed.

Geralt - almost.

There were three elements I wanted to try to capture on this model - the contrast between cloth types, the osl from the flame and the motion of the piece. The latter handled itself - this is a very good sculpt. I'm not happy with the flame - the red to black transition is too harsh. And the cloth is kind of okay, but the jerkin looks too glossy and the shoulder pads too matt.
I wasn't going to let myself just stick this one on a clear base (and I didn't buy it as a gaming mini anyway - although when Mantic's dungeon saga ships it might have a role there), so I painted a rock grey...

Currently in progress: along with a couple of mini's from Aetherium, I'm still working through Taban's Escape models, these two are wip (and with all these I've been trying to match the card art):

That's gonna be a lot of nmm... 

Next up: I've been trying to have one challenging model on my desk in parallel to the tabletop standards etc - I've mainly used Kingdom Death stuff for this so far. The paint jobs on these have been aspirational - none have hit the target yet but they've been getting better. I couldn't decide which to choose next for this so I'm going to try having three on the corks at once - and make it a skin tone project:

The challenge...

So here we have an Ax-Drune from Mierce (resin), the Kickstarter exclusive Male Barbarian from Minx Studios/Legion of the Cow (resin) and the Kingdom Death Architect Pin-up. That's a lot of flesh...