Year One

It has now been one year since I took up painting again. Looking back, I'm surprised how much I've done.

I usually get about a half hour of painting done every day. Hopping from one project to another I work on 1-20 minis simultaneously which means a lot of half-dones lying around.

With these guys laid out, the funny thing is, I don't know if I've gotten a lot better at painting during this past year but I've definitely gotten a lot faster. And maybe I'm now getting more hits compared to the misses..

Anyway, as a hooray to myself, my top five pieces of the past year IMHO:

This arthropod. I'm happy with getting decent paint job onto the plastic I was having trouble with earlier. And I'm pleased with the way the light source effect turned out. I also think the pose turned out fine; the spider rearing back from the torch, probably thrown by some startled dungeon explorer who has just noticed a spider the size of a cow sneaking up on them.

This pirate. I always wanted to paint a classic pirate, but never got around to it before. Also, he was one of the early ones I did after picking up a brush again after taking a break for a decade. With him I felt like I was really getting my painting groove back on again, painting was starting to feel fast and easy, and I like the result.

These marines. Finishing a full squad was very satisfying. Also, the droids had been taunting me from my "to-paint" pile for almost 20 years. Finally done!

These watchmen. The second time a did a whole unit, and finding inspiration in classic art was surprisingly much fun.

This fellow. The paint job is crap, but he is the mini that broke the decade long hiatus!

More Machine Than A Man, Or The Cyborg

Though he might argue that 86.5% is still human. The Cyborg player character from Timescape is one of the more powerful characters in the game. A permanent 4+ save and the ability to fight a second round of combat after winning the first with his starting strenght of 5 means he can often gain a good headstart in early game.

My machine man is from Reaper by Bob Ridolfi. I like the result, especially the pale skin.

Getting The Stars Right, Or The Star Predator

Something more cosmic, the Star Predator enemy from the Timescape expansion.

The figure is a walktapus from the Ral Partha Glorantha series for RuneQuest. An interesting, cosmologically convoluted setting with non-level based mechanics, which felt fresh in the 1988 edition.

This time I took some before-pics of the cephalopod previous to the new base and a fresh coat of paint.

Heavy Gear, Or The Battle Droid

I painted the rather powerful follower from Timescape, the battle droid, at the same time as the space marine.

The idea was that if ever got around, I could use them in some skirmish games as part of the same force.

The mini is an old Grenadier power armoured trooper. It originally came with a 2 cm slotta base, but I think it looks a lot better on a bigger base more suited for it's mass.

Another Glorious Day In The Corps, Or The Space Marine

The Space Marine player character from Timescape is your average Warhammer 40k space marine (tm).

But what I was thinking was more like this:

So what I ended up with, with a Reaper sculpt by Bobby Jackson, is this:

A grey base for the fatigues, then I painted the camouflage with black and green. A black wash and lighter grey highlights. Simple, fast and effective enough for me.

A Time for Steam Punk, Or Another Time Traveller

Back to the Time Travellers!

This fellow, labeled Steam Punk Hero from Reaper By Ben Siens. That's two. I'm planning on four.

In The Search For Fact, Not Truth, Or The Archeologist

The Archeologist player character  is from the Timescape expansion. Not a particularly advantageous character game-wise, but a very welcome break from the fantasy minis.

Here I was starting to go a bit overboard with the foliage, the character is getting lost in the base.

The standing stone is just a small stone and the leaves are thin felt cut to shape and covered with PVA glue to help them keep their shape and to prevent them from absorbing too much paint.

Lost Somewhere In Time, Or A Time Traveller

With this atmospheric sculpt from Reaper by Julie Guthrie and Bob Ridolfi, it should be obvious to anyone who knows Talisman, that my Project has nothing to do with gameplay.

Timescape is definitely the best expansion for Talisman. It adds sci-fi characters and space travel to an otherwise pseudo-medieval fantasy game.

One card from Timescape is Time Travellers, a group of chrononauts, whose effect is to transport the player immediately to another space on the Timescape playing board. After that, the card is discarded. So there is absolutely no reason to have an actual playing piece to represent them. I just love the idea so that they have to be included in the Project.

 

So here is one time traveller. I'm going to do a couple more to actually have a small group.

For base, I tried to created the broken marble floor of some long lost temple. Hope you can see that, now that I've pointed it out.