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Zombicide Invader - 3 More Good Guys

10.20.2022

3 more non-zombie Good Guys for Zombicide Invader. This isn't much to show after almost a month of no updates, where I've undoubtedly been toiling endlessly painting these little buggers. I was trying to up my game on painting details. It halfway worked. While I think I did a better job painting and bringing out those details I concentrated on, overall these minis just seem... kind of ok.

Playing around with my selection of metallic paints for armor bits looks ok, but everything seems more muted. I tried out some of the colors I forgot I had, like Gunmetal Blue. I should remember that's to be used sparingly on accent bits, not most of a backpack. I'm still getting splotchy skin - maybe it's time to go back to adding a pale/flesh coat before skin-like contrast paint, instead of applying directly to white primer?

As it is, these 3 are done enough. There's 3 more that I've been working on a little bit at the same time, so maybe there won't be another month before the next update. Maybe.

Permalink gaming miniatures Zombicide Invader

Zombicide Invader: 3-Guy 2-Guns

09.26.2022

A continuation of my Zombicide Invader Good Guys (I think) progress, as 2 gun thingies and 3 people thingies get checked off.

I really needed some color choice help on the guns. Even looking at what other people have painted, I didn't find a combination that I liked and thought I could pull off. As it is, I stuck with some simple colors hoping to not make things look too cartoonish, while still trying to keep the metallic look to things. I'd give myself a solid C on those.

For the trio of people, I found a black with red lining color scheme I liked for the clothes, and I had fun trying that out. I've done some similar things in the past, but this was the first time I went into with forethought and took into account not just she colors and shadows, but also the nooks and crannies where I was going to put the wrong color of paint while trying to get to another part. These turned into a weird balance of good and bad discoveries. I'm not sure what I did different than normal, but the skin was splotchy. For the (outer) black coats, I used a purple wash to try and bring out some shadowy highlights. That's a trick I picked up from all of the Batman cape painters on YouTube. For a first attempt at it.... not too bad.

I seem to take horrible pictures of minis with a gloss seal. Picture-wise the details seem to be covered up on these, but with a naked eye they're not that bad. or maybe I have a forgiving eye?

Permalink gaming miniatures Zombicide Invader

Zombicide Invader: The Return

09.08.2022

After mechs last time I find myself returning to Zombicide Invader, but this time going the opposite direction of alien zombos and instead sticking to the mech-like blockiness afforded by gun emplacements wielded by robots.

Yet again I still have no idea about the rules that go with what I'm painting, but all that can come later and would just get in the way now!

I still have the goal of getting Zombicide Invader painted and ready for a potential game with Jer and Keith by the end of the year. All of the alien zombos are painted. All that's left is 28 non-alien zombos. I would say good guys, but those unread rules could come back to haunt me.

I picked the biggest things remaining to paint first. Some evil looking robot thingies, with guns and pointy bits. Like the Battletech mechs from last time, I didn't want to go too colorful to keep things from looking cartoonish. This also ended up being discovering that I really like Citadel Necron Compound for a metallic drybrush. For most of these I just primed grey, Nuln Oil wash, Necron drybrush, and then picked out some details to colorize. After the fact I might need to use some gloss coat to make the metallic parts stand out better, but I kind of like the dull look right now.

4 down, 24 to go.

Permalink gaming miniatures Zombicide Invader

BattleTech: Miniature Force Pack - Clan Support Star

08.29.2022

On a recent trip to Nashville, I tricked my good close personal friend Charles G into purchasing a Battletech game. For my goading, I agreed to get a support team for him to quash should the need ever arise to do battle. Also, it's been a while since I painted something that didn't have eyes.

I picked up the BattleTech: Miniature Force Pack - Clan Support Star, and I have no idea what that means in terms of game play. I have a copy of the rules.. from the 90's. I'm not sure I even read the rules in the 90's. But that's not the point of this. This is a game in which my good close personal friend Charles G has always enjoyed the background and history - kind of like Warhammer 40K. This was an excuse to buy some toys and read some stuff under the guise of "yeah, we'll play that"; which we actually might.

I went fairly simple on the paint job, as too many colors would look overly cartoonish, and I came across some paint jobs online that lost the scale for the mechs and started to look like man-sized powered armor. Vallejo Olive Drab for the base coat. Each mech got a different green-based contrast paint for some highlights/panel and parts differences. I had fun trying to add in the plasma-green for energy weapons (I think it worked). Sky Blue for windows and canopies still works well, although adding it a drop at a time to get color coverage while not overlapping non-windowed details took a steadier hand than I thought I had. I found some Citadel Nechron Dry "compound", as it didn't claim to be paint. I honestly thought it was dried up paint, but when I dragged the brush across it, it had a rubbery bounce-back to it. It had a nice metallic look so I thought I would give it a try at drybrushing instead of the tried and true Use Too Much Paint/Try To Find The Sweet Spot/Now I Need More Paint method. I've got to say, while the first swipe was a little heavier than I generally wanted, after that it was a really goo drybrush. I don't care for the pots they're in, but I'm finding more and more Citadel paints (and paint adjacent) that I like.

Permalink Battletech gaming miniatures

Malifaux and Fallout

08.01.2022

Today helps to show the epitome of painting things for games I don't play, as I have no idea about the rules for where either of these sets come from. First up is a group of 4 from Malifaux, because the guy with the hatchet looked like he would be fun to paint. And he was fun to paint! Ditto for the trio from Fallout.

Thanks to various sales over the years I've gotten a handful of sets from the Fallout game, yet never opened any. There was a recent sale of even more from the line which looked fun to paint, so I thought it was time to actually see about that before buying more. The Fallout minis are resin which needs some assembly, which is not my favorite combo. These minis are slightly larger (32mm) than most other things I paint (28-30mm). It's such a small difference I didn't think I would notice, but these had some nice detail that made me think that just having that little but larger scale might make a difference.

Having learned a little from Blood Bowl construction previously, I painted before gluing. Also having learned from Blood Bowl construction, I didn't get fancy with the paints used where parts would join, so that shades would match. The glue-points for some of these was a little weird - the guy holding the pistol with both hands had 1 arm, both hands, and the gun as 1 piece, while the other arm from shoulder to wrist was the matching piece. I was a little worried about things lining up, but I managed to get everything close enough (without gluing my hands to the resin).

After long runs of just cranking out minis this year, between alien zombies and Blood Bowlers, it was nice to just paint some random stuff. I'm not really sure what will get painted next, as the backlog of shrinkwrap needs a little organization to both see what all I've got, along with make things a little easier to get to/grab and paint.