misterfinn

Just moved back to the bay area after several years in Wisconsin and would like to pick up the ‘faux again. Where are folks playing nowadays?

Wow everyone, I am speechless at the rotten harvest entries here. Incredible work. @Caedrus I am taking my second Mulligan this month. It’s been a rough month physically and I’m having abdominal surgery in a couple of weeks so I’m not sure whether December is going to work out either. Crossing fingers though!

LOL I hate those sculpts and I'm glad they're both done. It's a shame because they're an auto-take for me in a Freikorps crew. It was good blending practice though, as my chops had gotten rusty after the Gremlin quick-paints from the last few months.

What Nikodemus said. I didn't know some of our folks got Wyrd commissions - that's awesome! Who were they? Oh, and I pledge another gender-swapped Midnight Stalker proxy that's a better fit with my Viks. The one I did earlier this year was fun, but it's too weird and sci-fi on the board with the rest of the crew. I'm basing it on a 1E Mannequin with a head from the TTB multipart kit and hands from the original Stalker. It's an almost identical pose to the regular version. Won't be able to play it in GG tourneys but I'm not much of a tourney guy anyway. I'll edit this post once I get a picture of it.

Claiming a Freikorps Engineer for 6SS Nothin' fancy, just painted it like my other one 😁 Those Scale 75 metallics make it hard to get decent pictures without the full fancy camera setup - they're so shiny!

Got one more grind model this month - another Engineer. 🤮 Don’t like the sculpt, but running with two of them is just SO GOOD. I’ll be back to real blending though, which I’ve been missing during my Gremlin stint. I’ve got a new Midnight Stalker proxy in the works, based on a 1e Mannequin. Waiting on it to show up from eBay. If I don’t get it done as a stretch goal for this month, I’ll do it for November.

@Viruk Wow, you actually made Killjoy look good! I’ve long thought it was a boring blob of a model but your detailing and smooth blends look fantastic. Color me impressed. @Caedrus You’ve got “shiny” on lock at this point. Your NMM practice has really paid off. Of all the shiny work you’ve got on display this month, it’s actually Queeg’s boots that impress me the most. So subtle but the highlights are perfectly placed. You’ve really nailed the texture. Kudos on your sculpting work too. I think you’re right about the hats on the Copycat and Miss Feasance though - a wee bit too shiny, even for a satin finish. I didn’t get through both models in my pledge, but I’ve at least got enough to meet my minimum: Fingers Leong for 9SS. A pretty basic paint job that looks rushed, but frankly I don’t like the sculpt much so I wasn’t trying very hard. 🙄 I’m done speed painting Gremlins for a bit - hit my burnout threshold.

@Wintergloom I actually really like the hybrid base on the left that contains both green and brown. The brown base on the right looks a little drab and I think that a completely green base would be too garish for a whole crew. The more red you have on on model, the more green you can get away with because the contrast looks so good.

I wouldn’t participate in that. One of the main reasons I like this group is that it’s explicitly cooperative. Our painters are at a variety of skill levels. Many of us are focused on just finishing models on our Shelves of Shame and/or models we want to put on the tabletop. I don’t think a competition with specific subject matter fits the spirit of the group. I am just one opinionated dude though. :) Others might have a different take on it.

@Franchute I dig it. Your highlight placement on the hair is particularly nice. I like that the dress has some mud and staining on it. Perhaps you might use this effect more liberally around the hem of the dress, where it’s likely to be dragging in dirt and muck and what have you. That’s just a nitpick though. Looking forward to the family album! @Stranglelove Very clean detail on your Parker so far. He’s got a lot of scraps and bullets and whatnot, and you’ve made them all quite distinct from each other. Good placement of highlight and shadow on the coat as well. My only suggestions are to ratchet up the contrast on the white shirt and smooth out some of the transitions on the coat. Nice work. 👍🏼

@KrazyeriK I suggest posting this to the Miniatures Showcase forum in its own thread. This thread is for participants in the Monthly Painting Challenge to share their models and comments as they work toward their monthly pledges. No disrespect intended.

@Wintergloom The oxidized metal effect on that pipe looks TIGHT. How'd you get that effect?

Pledging Fingers and Wesley for 11SS

Sneaking in my actual pledge under the wire: Brewmaster. He doesn’t look as good as my stretch goal Shinobi because I don’t paint black as well as I paint purple 🙄 but at least he’s done. I’ll try to put up better pictures next month. @Caedrus that’s a total of 21SS for me this month.

@Wintergloom My experience is similar to others in this thread. Sometimes I deal with burnout using the “carrot” - painting something that I don’t intend to game with or just putting the brush down for a few days. If that doesn’t work I have to use the “stick” - grind through 30 minutes a day at the same time every day. The latter method eventually yields a painted model or two, which is usually enough to get me rolling again. FWIW your Cult of Burning Man guys inspired me to go super color contrast with my drunk ninja gremlins! I actually painted a stretch goal shinobi before my pledge this month so I could work out the color scheme. It’s much brighter than my usual painting style. I like it.

Putting down the Mah box for a bit, and pledging the Brewmaster for 15SS. I might get some stretch goals in there too - my local group is doing a grow league, with points awarded for painting a new model every week. We'll see how many I can manage.

Thanks! I don't think I'm the greatest guy to ask about painting fast - the best I can do is fastER. I'm endeavoring to knock my normal 7-8 hour painting time down to 4-5 hours. The biggest change I've made so far is blending technique. It takes a long time to layer into smooth blends, especially on skin - often it takes me an hour or more just to get a face right. For my gremlins I'm teaching myself to do more wet blending and "feathering" - blocking in highlights/transitions and then doing quick little blends around the borders between the colors. It doesn't look as good up close but it's a lot faster. Makes it easier to get that high contrast too. Also I'm looking at the model at arm's length every 10-15 minutes to judge contrast and smoothness. If the blend looks fine from two feet away, I stop working on it. If the contrast isn't high enough, I increase it dramatically instead of building it up a little at a time. @Caedrus Thanks for the advice on reds! I'm going to experiment with some of the different RMS "flesh" triads, and I'll check out the Inktense line as well. For many years I've tried unsuccessfully to find an adequate replacement for the old, super-intense Citadel inks so maybe Inktense will fit the bill. @Wintergloom You're doing great composition work with those complementary colors. Combined with the high contrast style you're using, it makes for some very striking models on the tabletop. Your paint's looking a little texturally rough on some of those models though, especially in the lighter colors. Thin your paints a bit more maybe? I think you could spend more time on gap-filling as well.

I agree! When Mike McVey was painting all of the first-wave Khador stuff way back when Warmachine first came out, he'd highlight all of his reds up to yellow and then glaze them back down with a few thin layers of red ink. Not paint or "washes" or "shade" products - inks are far superior for deepening and intensifying color. Mike's reds were the most vibrant I've seen IRL. I don't know if this method would give you the hue you're looking for, but it might be worth a try.

Let’s be clear that “fast” for me means “less than five hours” 😅

@Caedrus That sword NMM is a big step up from last month's effort! I especially like the reflection where the blade rests on her shoulder. That's a tasty little detail that really helps the illusion. Also, I am claiming Trixiebelle for 7 SS. I just noticed there are a couple of dark spots on the back of her hat that need fixing - must've been slop that I didn't catch when painting her hat band. This "paint faster" thing I'm doing is KILLING ME. So much stuff I want to smooth out and fix up! OTOH I'm getting the hang of this ultra-contrasty style that fast painting seems to require.

Pledging Trixiebelle this month for 7SS Her default pose hurts my back to look at so she gets to sit down on a log

@Caedrus claiming Bushwhacker #2 for 6SS. Can't use my wife's fancy camera setup this month but the color's not too terribly off. I think the model's OK. Starting to get the hang of working faster.

@Nikodemus I like the idea of switching up the brushes to force a stylistic change. Very cool.

Pledging the Bushwhacker I didn't finish last month.

@Caedrus Travel + wrist surgery = mulligan for me.