May Painting Challenge Week 5 - Done!*

*I didn't quite finish the Lilith and Viktoria crews. Theyre definitely up to a tabletop quality, but I've neglected a bit of detailing to finish them off. Viktoria's crew in particular is rather unfinished in highlights and facial details. That being said, I'd rather just leave them at this point and return to finish them up at a later date.

I started this challenge on May 3rd, with the intent to finish on June 3rd. 31 models in 31 days turned into 33 models in 37 days. Not too far off from my mark, this was due more to missed days and subsequent sluggishness to restart painting when I could.

 

So whats next? 

I've had a steadily mounting pile of unfinished terrain, newest of which are some great Terranscapes resin river tiles which I can't wait to start working on. My objective markers are another set of things which should be fun, and probably pretty quick to boot.

Other pieces will be a bit more time consuming, such as the large Tau center which still needs puttywork, sanding, and some extra doodads before its even ready to paint. The bastion is also still getting its required blocks cast from Hirst Arts molds, and I'm kinda making up the pattern as I go along.. The two Tau towers have been primed for ages, but I still think they need a bit more work before they can be painted.

Terrain usually goes pretty quick, so I am going to try to have this stuff done by the beginning of July. Have some terrain just begging to be drybrushed? Still using beer cans as objectives? Join in and get some terrain finished this month!

May Painting Challenge - Week 3

Ok, so to make up for no pics last time, here's extra pictutres with this update! First up, the completed 40k projects Eldar and Orks. Finished for the most part, except for a little bit of detail work.



 I've also completed the Perdita Ortega crew for Malifaux, and started on Lilith's bunch. I am really liking these models, the sculpts speak for themselves and don't need a whole lot of paint finesse to shine.

I'm happy with my progress so far, so happy that I added 2 more models to Lilith's crew! I felt that she could really use these additions game-wise. I plan to try out some NMM and light source techniques to keep these guys interesting. I still hope to finish them before leaving for vacation this thursday, leaving only Viktoria's crew.

I am starting to get annoyed dealing with all this metal however. The resin bases have no hollow bottoms, so I cant stick them to paint pot handles like I normally do. This means I'm handling the minis too much, which leads to wear and tear. Also, the amount of chips I've caused from dropping and transporting these guys is staggering. My last part of this challenge will definitely be clearcoating all of them.

I was distracted a bit from my painting this Sunday due to my Hirst Arts molds. I managed to finally make use of my new machinery molds to pump out a few neat looking objective counters. The medium base is still a little cramped for most of my ideas, but I managed to fit them down to size. This was a good primer to other things that I can make, so expect some larger pieces of terrain in the future: Zzap guns, power generators, interior computer terminals and the like.

So there you have it, results from the first three weeks. Almost there!

May Painting Challenge - Week 2

Current status:
Striking Scorpions - 6/6 done!
Orks - 3/3 done!
Ortega's Marshalls- 4/8
Lilith's Brood - 0/4
Viktoria's Outcasts-  0/9

Pictures to follow soon.

My painting speed has really picked up, as I was able to get through the ork bosses and four of Perdita's warband this last week, and that was with taking the first three days off from painting. I'm hoping to finish the last 4 and get through Lilith by the end of this week, which would leave me the viktoria band to finish during the week that Liv and I will be visiting her family in Michigan. I don't know how much painting I can actually get through while there, so I'd rather just be done with it by then.

May Painting Challenge - Week 1

So 1 week has passed, and I've been keeping a very good pace. I went into this week with a bit of more prep to finish to alot of the Malifaux models. I spent the first day priming and working on the custom cobblestone bases for my Viktoria gang (I had ordered resin bases for her group originally, but it was delayed). They came out passably and I was able to prime all of them on the second day while starting to tackle the major effort of the week: The Striking Scorpions squad.

After painting an Eldar pathfinder squad, I was worried that the models might not hold my interest enough to put the proper love into their paintjob. Thankfully, a change of technique helped to push me to work very hard on these guys. I've experimented with two tone priming, starting with black, and then applying white primer from a directional source to provide an initial light/shadow. It has worked ok, though I think I will continue with just learning to use all white primer from now on. I daresay they are some of the more polished squads I've produced. I really enjoyed watching them progress, though by the last two I was ready to move on to other things.

Next up this week is the three ork bosses. They've already been started and I tend to paint orks pretty quickly, so I hoped to be into one of the malifaux bands as well by the end of the second week.

Time to Test My Mettle/Metal

After taking a painting break for a few weeks, I've tried to get back into the swing of things. I can feel the projects piling up, so I'd like to get a few of them done. I was able to finish the 5 Eldar Pathfinders for Pedro, but I am staring down a mountain of other metal figures to get through. I've decided to try out a month challenge to see just how much I can get done when under a schedule. To list them out, I have:

Malifaux:
Lilith warband, 5 models
Viktoria warband, 9 models
Perdita warband, 8 models

40k:
6 Striking scorpions
3 Ork special characters (these will be more of a treat, Orks are fun!)

So 31 metal minis in 31 days, June 3rd. Got a squad or two of stuff you've been dragging your feet on getting done? Feel free to join me with your own May Painting Challenge!