A Bloody Crusader and Really Bad Dodgeball

11.05.2018

Another batch of "taking too long to paint", with only 4 minis to show for it. There was another that I'm not naming and leaving "in progress" although I don't know if I'll ever finish it as it's more of an objective marker piece than a usable figure.

Today's batch is brought to you by "it was on sale". The first two are left over fantasy figures from the last batch.

Above is the wizard Juliette from the Reaper Dark Legends line. This one turned out to be the best of this batch, as I was able to keep to my working method of primer + washes + drybrush + actually paint a few bits of details. The base is hopefully suited to something dungeon-y. Not really sure why her cleavage looks like there's 3 boobs if you look closely. Go look closely, you can't un-see it now.

Last up from the Dark Legends line is the Crusader Justifier. Armored up with a big freaking sword. I didn't want shiny silver armor, and I read Kevin's Weathering Metal Armor Tutorial. I didn't follow said tutorial, as I decided to start winging it after the second step. Between washes, metallic drybrushes, more washes, and more drybrushes, a slathering of blood splatter made sure I didn't end up with "silver". I've gotten used to brushing on the glossy Citadel sealant where needed after a standard matte spray sealant, and it worked well on this one just to keep the cloth from being overly shiny. The base is 50% bigger than normal, as the stance for this mini is so blamed spread out it was needed. Another dungeon-y fitting floor base.

Back to the good old Chronoscape line, this time with the super heroine Incredible Woman. I had nothing specific in mind, other than testing out how to eventually paint Batman. Primer grey with 2 heavy Nuln Oil washes has been giving me a consistent look I like by bringing out the body highlights. The yellow at the collar (eventually for the bat symbol on the chest) gave me fits as my yellow is just ALWAYS too runny and streaks. Citadel's Cassandra Yellow wash works well for me, but it needs a white base/primer to work well on. I still need another good practice run before committing to a Batman. For fun, I topped this mini off with red hair - honestly the orange Citadel wash works great for hear - and I think it turns into a vaguely Black Widow style mini. Same style base as the other two, just because I was cranking them out to the end at this point.

My obligatory crap paint job that was due. I picked this one up on Amazon for $4.79, and I have no idea what the game is that it actually goes with, but Takoshi University - Dodgeball was, well, I could have done better. I covered up the details way too much, especially the face. My dodgeball turned into a soccer ball. The skin tone turned runny, I was trying for a yellow shirt but the shadows came out orange. She's standing in poop. With perfectly white shoes.

Sometimes you just have to realize there's no fixing something and say "eh, I don't have to use it" and file it away.

4 more doesn't feel like a big hit to the overall total, but I'm close to 50% on the realistically painted total.

This is another busy meeting week at work, topped off Thursday by getting a new windshield on the car. Friday, on the way to Florence for Maw-Maw's 91st B'day Extravaganza, an errant pebble found its way to the bottom corner of the windshield well enough to nick it. Over the weekend the nick grew about a foot. With the length and location, the windshield guys said it had to be replaced, and they would have to order the windshield. I had a windshield replaced on the Explorer so it's not my first windshield replacement, just damned annoying. Since there's a good chance of rain Thursday, I'm going back to the Safelite shop to have them do it there instead of wondering if the weather will mess it all up - and force me to take it to their shop anyway.

I think my next fun hobby thing will be to work on the 15" x 22.5" maps for my cityscape that I've had on my list, yet been putting of for a couple of months. It's all computer/Paint Shop Pro work, and usually I do hobby stuff to get away from the computer, but I'm at the point where I've been putting it off for so long that THAT'S starting to bother me the most.

Permalink gaming miniatures ninja division reaper chronoscape

Fantasy Figures 2K18

10.22.2018

I may, possibly, play Dungeons and Dragons with Daniel. I've played one-off games a couple of times since 1984. I played a nice little campaign, with 2 other people, when going to Calhoun back in the 90's. I don't know what the current rule set of D&D is, even though I've managed to get a hold of PDFs of whatever is current. The important part of any role playing game isn't deep understanding of the rules and proper commitment to playing the role. No, it's the minis.

Not really, but it's the most fun prep for me. It's been a while since I've painted something not zombie or (modern) building related. I hit Amazon for cheap Reaper fantasy minis and found some good ones in the $5-$7 range. I could get them cheaper elsewhere, but shipping always kills any deal for something this small. Small in both size, weight, and price. Thus, JeffyB wins my hobby money for this round. I wanted some women, both to practice painting and to see if when it comes time to play I don't go my normal route of "human fighter". Lady Magic User is un-me. Perhaps with a mini to inspire me I would pick such when it came time to crack open the rules.

• Goldar the Barbarian - I had fun with this one. I've yet to successfully paint "muscular", but I think I got it right this time. Or righter than I've been able to before.
• Tinley, Female Wizard - The dress on this one jsut screamed "paint me blue" which usually equates to "denim" for me. I had to try hard to make sure I didn't get the denim look that seems to come with ease to me. I managed to pick out some gold highlights on accessories, but not as much as with:
• Autumn Bronzeleaf, Female Elf Wizard - the purple and gold, wiggly wooden stick wielding magician. The purple wash on cloth was a given, and sure, I didn't completely cover up all the primer. But those are highlights from natural light! The gold highlights on the metal scroll (is that what's on the armor?) couldn't be drybrushed, so I had to make use of me fine tipped brush.
• Townsfolk: Strumpet - while $5 at Amazon instead of $3 from the manufacturer, I mainly picked up this one to see what the resin/plastic Reaper minis are like. Even though they primed fine, I don't like them.

I took my time with this batch. I actually primed 2 more minis with these, but something got me started on these 4 and I just stuck with them. Basing was a little tricky. These minis come with part of the base attached to the feet, not the slotted bottom/base most minis have. Goldar was set in an oversized beveled base, while the girls went atop a standard (non-slotted) base. I aimed for a rocky style base except for Goldar. He was an experiment in Citadel's Martian Ironcrust, which got primed and heavily doused with at least 3 coats of earth wash. The red dress on the Strumpet was my first use of Vallejo Thinner. I've had problems in the past with yellow and red not covering very well. From now on, thinner is the way to go with light colors like that!

The Painting Spreadsheet (again) doesn't show much progress as I ended up buying new minis and immediately painting (most) of them. On the realistic list, 209/454 has gone to 213/456, which is ONE PERCENT PROGRESS.

Next up is to paint the other 2 fantasy minis that got primed, which may or may not have a few other minis added if I get a wild hair. After this next batch, it'll be time for some more buildings or maybe start on the Antenocitis Workshop vehicles I got back in July.

Permalink gaming miniatures reaper chronoscape

Hobby Break For Movie Time

10.09.2018

I'm taking a little bit of a hobby break. After wrapping up the gas station, and it taking as long as it did, I just haven't had the gumption to finish up, well, anything. I could force it, but a hobby is supposed to be something for fun, not because I have to.

I've been catching up on watching TV, which for me is Netflix and Amazon Prime. The great thing here is that I no longer feel guilty when I start to watch something and don't finish, after deciding I don't like it. On the other hand, I'm more likely to watch something I'm iffy about in case I like it. After wrapping up season 5 of Agents of SHIELD, I was in the mood to watch some movies. While this may not make sense to common folk, there are times I want to watch something that's a story encapsulated within 2 hours, and other time I'd prefer the serialized adventures of a TV show to develop characters and story. Also, there's a fresh batch of DC and Marvel shows on Netflix (7 shows, I think) to watch, and I while I don't binge I like to keep a steady trend of watching so I don't forget what's going on. I've taken breaks from Game of Thrones and Walking Dead to where I don't know if I could remember what's going on or who's doing what at the point I left off without going back and re-watching more than I really want to.

So with that, here's some of what I've seen recently.

• Annihilation - I liked this one, more than I thought I would. It's slow, but it a bit of a hard science feel that I was in the right mood for.
• Extinction - Battle Los Angeles mixed with some Skyline. A good trailer had me add this to my list. About 30 minutes in I stopped and just looked up the ending on line to see what the plot twist was going to be (and it was a pretty good plot twist, but not worth another hour of watching the movie).
• Destination Wedding was terrible, and I loved it. Keanu and Winona are the only people with speaking parts. I'm not sure if Keanu knew he was supposed to speak to Winona. Watch it with the mindset of "John Wick Goes On A Blind Date" and it's hilarious.
• Baytown Outlaws - I'm not sure about this one. I don't know if I liked it, or didn't like it. Nothing new, but it was all pulled off well enough that I didn't feel like I wasted my time watching it. How's that for a rave review? Or a panning?
• The Girl With All The Gifts - another (mostly) slow movie that I was in the right mood for. The zombies/hungries made me think of World War Z. This movie was just well pulled off.
• Death Race 4: Beyond Anarchy - I like (watched) the Death Race movies. This one was supposed to be released on video, I think, back in February. Something happened the week before release, and then over the weekend I saw that Netflix had it. Lighter on the car mayhem than other Death Races, but on par with them. I can honestly say that now I like (watched) this one as much as the other Death Race movies.
• Special consideration goes to the Netflix limited series Maniac, which I decided halfway through the 2nd episode that I didn't like because I didn't know what the hell was going on. I might give it a 2nd attempt later, very very later. The previews were reminiscent for me of Cloud Atlas, which I had to get into a second viewing of before I really appreciated it.

I'm not just vegging out in front of the TV. Hard to tell with that list, I know. I'm reading Crucial Conversations in an effort to better myself while not biting the heads off people I think are trying to sass me. It's a good book, but I'm rueing my slow reading speed on getting through the 240 pages because I can really use this stuff at work!

This weekend also sees Dr Blondie turn 50. The first of my "school friends" to hit 50. I have to push down urges to give her hard time about her elderly status. Mainly because it's my turn in March.

Permalink movies/tv/dvd random

Dinogas Is Open

09.23.2018

After mentioning the TTCombat gas station for the past couple of weeks (or maybe a month), the final product really doesn't live up to the hype.

Thanks to a suggestion from Bob, I was going to go with the Gulf Oil color scheme of Orange and Blue, but the signage on this version of the kit had Dinogas and the dinosaur burned into the wood instead of heavy cardboard (which could be easily switched out) that I was expected. For whatever reason, I thought of the Joker and his classic orange & purple motif, which was an easy jump to make the dinosaur purple, ala Barney!

I still need to work on masking when spray painting stripes. I still got a little bleed this time around. I was also using old, and I mean old, Citadel paints for the detail work on this kit. Most of the paint was just shy of dry in the pots. I was thinking the thickness of the paint would work well on the MDF - and once again I think I came away with mixed results.

The 3D printer was cranking out interior fillings for this building for the past couple of weeks, too. Thanks to a Kickstarter (which I'll link to the website when I can dig it back up) of modern furniture and building materials, there was a "Tire Shop" set which gave me enough stuff that would fit in my little gas station. I actually printed a lot more than I used. Once again, my little trick of using sticky tack to keep everything in place worked out. I Google-Imaged some random vintage signs to help fill out the walls. My favorite little inside joke was getting some Roxxon signs as a throwback to when I read Iron Man all the time, a good 20 years before the movies came out.

I don't really count buildings in the To Paint tally. They're on the list, just not the part I show. As such, this counts as progress in spirit!

Permalink 3D Printer gaming miniatures ttcombat

Still not the gas station

09.17.2018

The TTCombat gas station is taking longer to wrap up that I predicted. Once I got the 3D printer printing again, I got on a bit of a roll printing things out. I'm not sure how much of the above will end up in or around the gas station, but it's sure not going to be an empty building! After ~2 (maybe 3?) weeks of printing, at 100% infill just to give Daniel a coronary, the printer is now off and getting a little rest. Printed models have had brims cut, errant plastic trimmed, and run through a thorough warm, soapy rinse to help get rid of cruff that will get in the way of the next step, PRIMING!

The way the rest of the week is looking, said priming may not happen until Friday or Saturday.

Just because they look out of place, the 4 discs at the top of the picture are tank tops for Pringles cans, which will hopefully work as fuel tank/storage for the gas station.

Permalink 3D Printer gaming miniatures