Amdor

Whelp. Strike three and I'm out of here. Quite a pity, but july was even more busy than june or may. I'm seriously starting to regret letting may go so easily, since I'll finally have the time to paint again from august onwards and may was just a bit of a motivational low. Well, too late now.

Last chance. I'll keep pledging Von Schill but I'm afraid I'll be dropping from the challenge this month. I really can't find the time to paint during summertime.

Sigh, time for a second mulligan for me. Still been busy with the same stuff and having to move temporarily and make due with a reduced hobby table has put a big hamper on my enthusiasm.

Back in the early 2000's my family found a Tolkien-themed Elf name generator and my name came back as Amdor Elensar. A couple of years later my moody teenage self got fed up with my previous naming conventions (the typical 12-year-old stuff) so I tried Amdor for the heck of it and it's stuck ever since. Sometimes it's AmdorElensar or some other variant, but I have a habit of dropping the surname when possible, because back then remembering login details wasn't a thing and I was too lazy to write the extra 7 characters. Haven't really found an avatar that struck a chord with me, so I switch it quite often based on my current interests or whenever I find something neat I can use. The current one is the Moon Precense from Bloodborne, one of my favourite games in recent years.

I'll try to finish Von Schill this month. Can't be bothered to post a new picture as it hasn't really progressed in the past two weeks.

Well, this month will be my first mulligan. Been too busy with other stuff and not really feeling like paiting even when I had the time. Hopefully I can do better in june.

Time for a mid-month WIP. Schill hasn't progressed that much with just one week of work, but I'm not in a hurry yet.

Good thing I managed to snap the pictures for last month in time, because the delay I mentioned ended up taking a week longer. Anyways, I'm back and this month it's time to paint the man, the legend, the guy who has been sitting on my painting table for nearly four years, Von Schill! (So may pledge is Von Schill for 15 ss)

The weather decided to give me a chance to snap some pictures, so here's the performer for 7 ss total this month. Honestly, I'm not too happy with this one. The sculpt is rather tame to begin with, so deciding to go with a darker blue colour scheme didn't do it any favours. Still, can't be bothered to try and improve it, since she probably won't be seeing much table time anyway (my least favourite sculpt out of the three performers, including the LE). I would have loved to take part, but was unsure if the creatures I have available would have been considered "too humanoid," and I knew I couldn't finish any of them in time even if they were fair game (I have a problem with bigger models and my options were Banasuva, Snow Storm and Desolation engine).

Probably will be finished by friday, but pictures might get delayed as far as the 2nd.

Dove's done (2 ss in total so far). Painting shaded gold on the raised areas of the body and gem effects on those tiny eyes was rather strenuous, but I'm happy with the results. The platinum could have been a shade or two lighter, but that's more of an issue with having only one grey metallic paint on hand (and not being willing to try NMM). I'll probably fix that with the other doves. @Purple Mist Now that the gold parts are a bit shinier, I doubt it needs any more finishing. Otherwise, I agree with you and usually try to put some rust on my models (and will try oxidized effect in the future). Sizewise the Doves are rather manageable, but can be difficult if you start going crazy with the details. I will also put some makeup on the performer but try to avoid going overboard, so the final version might be quite mild. @H4ml3t Red whip is an awesome idea, but otherwise I'm not feeling the red on this model (the other one will be mainly red and I want the two to contrast eachother). Do you think white trims/highlights/details would look any good?

Time for a mid-month WIP (rainy day, so the picture is a bit crap) I probably could have finished the dove already, but since all that's left on it is loads of tiny details, I've been putting it off for a while now. There's two weeks left, so it probably won't cause an issue. The performer on the other hand, I'm afraid will end up rather dull with the colour scheme I'll be going with. Does anyone have tip/tricks on how to make her look like a proper flashy showgirl?

@Purple Mist At least mine came with a flight stand for each dove. Of the bases themselves; Yeah, that would be effective, but way beyond what I'd be willing to do for a 2 ss peon (also there might be some confusion whether the dove or the performer is the operative part). I was thinking more of small stage props and magic puffs to support the doves, like on the original metal ones.

@Purple Mist Unfortunately I haven't gotten anything special planned. I might try to base the other doves more lavishly, but for the first one I just want to see what the flight stand looks like.

This month I'll try to get a performer and one mechanical dove painted.

And here's Mouse as well, giving me a total of 11 ss for the month. Maybe he'll see some table time, now that he's all painted up. And here's the whole Ht 1 gang for march.

And done! That's 5 more ss for this month (7ss total). The poison gamin ended up a bit too dark, but considering it has three different effects I'm not comfortable with I'm happy with the results (that and I can't be bothered to try and fix it). Also I tried a new backdrop, which seems to be working quite nicely, so here's a new picture of the Eternal Flame. EDIT: The pictures are working again!

@Rikk Icarius suggested https://imgbb.com/ and it has worked fine for me. It's free, easy to use and provides a link the forum converts directly into an image.

Thanks. I'm aware of the issue ever since I decided to use cobblestone basing for most of my models. I don't think it's an issue outside the smaller minions and those don't need to pop that much. But how would you spice up a grey cobblestone base without making it look out of place? Ditch grey and go with another colour altogether?

Time for a mid-month report. The eternal flame got finished about two hours ago (2 ss). The decision to paint an couple of brass and bronze parts made the model itself look quite nice and I'd say the flame effects aren't half bad. I also tried a bit of OSL (barely visible in the photo) which could have turned out better, but that's what practice is for. The gamin on the other hand I'm struggling a bit with. I tried some weirder shading to give it a translucent feel and mulling over the results has made progress slow, so slow I haven't even gotten to the chitinous highlights. Still, I'm happy with the results, though the current layers are too dark for my camera to pick up. And here's mouse for completions sake. Haven't touched it yet this month, but I wanted to upload a picture that showed that the model did have some colour already. And once again I'm back to the potato camera, so pictures are a lot greyer than in real life. I'll try to borrow the better camera once every couple of months or so, but untill then this is the best I can do.

Thanks for the tips @Scatterbrain and @misterfinn. So far I've dreaded using NMM and high contrast highlights, but I guess it's time to give them a try. I didn't have anything fancy planned, just trying to make it match the box art with the same techniques I've used for my dawn serpent and ice gamins. Now, though, you've inspired me to try and make it a bit more... wyrd.

Plans for this month: The eternal flame and a poison gamin (7 ss total). I'll also try to finish mouse if I've got the time or if either of the other two prove too difficult. (would have been finished last month, but couldn't be bothered during the holiday) On a side note, do people have any tips for painting the poison gamin? I've got some ideas, but would like to know how others achieve the chitinous look.

Can't find it at the moment, but there was a topic where Mason pointed out a couple of things that can get people killed faster: Negative wounds affect all Critical effect flips (so if your critical effect is flipping another card for a different table, you add your negative wounds as a bonus to that card as well) If a critical effect would affect a missing limb, that effect is transferred to the torso (so if your character has both arms missing and suffer another amputation to their arm, it hits them in the torso instead, aka death) As for dying. Most of the time that's going to be it, but there are effects and talents that can still revert it. For example, the Sawbones pursuit has the talent Life Support that lets them use Doctoring to revive a dead character, as long as they haven't been dead for too long. Alternatively (IIRC) some pursuit (most likely the Necromancer) can resurrect dead characters as undead, or in case of Fated characters as Stitched. And of course the FM can always come up with a way to revive a character they aren't ready to let go.

As promised, here's some pictures taken with a proper camera. I'd say the quality is a bit better, or at least close to the real things colourwise. Also, it was pointed out to me by the owner of said camera that the backdrop I was using could be the cause of my issues, so I'll be experimenting with other ones in the future (and I'll be the first one to call myself an idiot for not realizing it sooner).

Ditto to @MuMantai, The Captain is my favourite model in the whole range and I fielded him a lot even at 12 ss. The support he offers is just golden, the 11" threat range with a min 3 damage is nothing to sneeze at and with soulstones he's surprisingly hard to take down. I've never regretted bringing him and now that he's 10 ss with the upgrade, I'll be cramming him in every crew I can.