Nikodemus' minis 2019 (expect non-Wyrd)

[Nikodemus]

Since joining monthly painting challenge (Overall thread here and January thread here) it occurred to me that some people might enjoy seeing what else I work on. Then again maybe not, but it's always fun to share  Expect emphasis on non-Wyrd minis, but I'll be doing at least one per month of Wyrd and posting it here as well. And who knows, might be more as well. I'm already eyeing some new pretties. I don't know if I'd describe my work as "tabletop" or not. I try to paint them pretty and +4 hour time investment per mini isn't out of the question, but I do take shortcuts when I'm tired or just don't care to put 100% into a mini. C&C and questions welcome. Always fun to talk about paint

This year I've only painted two minis to completion, but I've got a batch being worked on and did a bunch of objective markers so I've been painting. These two have already been posted on this forum but for completeness' sake I'm including them here:

Scarecrow from Reaper Miniatures. Main thing here was trying out a new technique. I used a ripped piece of blister foam to do most of the highlighting/weathering on his coat (see backside). Bit rough, but that was the idea. Definitely something I want to explore in the future. I can't replicate that with a brush.

Gun isn't straight, which classically didn't bother me when I started but is a bit annoying now. Oh well. It's a cheap proxy, I can live with it. And while I'm really happy with this piece, I think I should've used more colours in the face region. As is, his face, teeth and rope that's tied around his neck all kinda blend together a bit much since I used various yellows/beiges with brown shadows on everything. Can also hardly see rust effects from these photos for some reason.

Obsidian Oni, Wyrd. Already complained about this paintjob in the January thread. Suffice to say I hate the (appropriate to the mini admittedly) straight edges here. And that backside tabard should've been filled properly. I'm really happy with the metallics. I tried stippling on my highlights and that gave a really nice used look without going deep into weathering town. Also mixed some violet to my metallic shadows and while that doesn't show up obviously, it is more "interesting" irl than pure black would be. Subtle thing for sure. Frustrating mini all told, but I'm happy to game with it

Expect actual new stuff before the month is through.

[Nikodemus]

Finished some wannabe spec ops for my Bane crew, Batman game. "Bird & Mercenaries". Bird's the bald dude. I took a little extra time in polishing that chrome dome of his

My main gripe with this paintjob is the yellows. I rushed my yellow shading a bit and that meant it went on way too heavy. You can see this particularly well on the shoulders of the knife guy on the left. I also used a different wash on some of Bird's yellows, again due to time concerns. Not a fan of how it's different from the rest.

Overall though I'm very happy with this set. With BMG especially I've been trying to consistently push for more value contrast in my painting. I've done thirteen figures for it so far (including Scarecrow from previous post) and I'm surprised at how consistently satisfied I am with them. This style isn't a new thing to me per se, but it was a lot more sporadic in my Malifaux painting, and a somewhat late revelation in general.

I'm expecting to finish at least one more mini this month. It's for a painting challenge elsewhere and I'd like to try be a bit more "tryhard" with it. It's gonna get most of my attentions next week.

[Nikodemus]

Mid-week impromptu speedpaint! Felt like it, so I did this guy. Took me 93 minutes, screw ups and all

One of the barbarians from Russian Alternative. They're from Russia. They make alternative minis for fantasy army games. Really neat figure this.

Copper was a bad call for metallics. Blends in with the skin too much. Wouldn't be a problem if I gave myself the time to do a little blacklining or something. Speaking of skin. I spent almost thirty minutes painting it up good. Then I went over it with unthinned (!!!) wash. Ate away most of my highlights. That was annoying. I never fixed it so what you see is the remains of that work. Bit too subtle for my taste.

I don't usually work this fast. Even a "fast" mini for me is easily over two hours spread over two or more evenings. This guy was 90 minutes and change in a single sitting. Quite refreshing. I'd definitely recommend the experience.

[lusciousmccabe]

Looks good! Bit monochrome from the front as you've mentioned, but the fur and hair break the back view up nicely. I'd be very happy with him for a speed paint.

[Nikodemus]

Finished some things over the weekend. "Finari" from Reaper:

Sword is my first try at basic NMM. I think it showsIt's not a style I'm particularly fond of but I was challenged to do "something new". So I did. Will probably revisit this style few times throughout the year, just for education's sake. It certainly looks neat enough. Need to go a few steps above this though if I give this another go. White was another "new" thing. I've painted white before, but it's been a while. I sort of avoid the colour. This one's ok I guess, bit too flat for my taste. With more time I could've pushed the shadows and midtones a bit darker, but sometimes you just run out of creative juices you know.

Overall this was probably the most annoying thing I painted all month, but I think she looks nice, now that she's all done. One more for the cabinet

This one's "Mountain Giant", from Battlore 2nd edition board game. Quick "rough highlights & dirty washes" project. I've been painting that game on and off for few years now. Mostly off. Still only about third of the way through. Slow and steady wins the race, right

9 figures done for January, unless I do another 1-night barbarian in the next few days.

[Nikodemus]

Not a barbarian, but something else quick! Elsewhere someone wondered about painting metallic Alpha Legion space marines. Sounded like a fun thing to try. Metal is mostly heavy drybrushing, some stippling and glazed blue shadows. Freehand took another day, but painting freehand over metallics is a major pain so cleanliness was... uh, not a major considerationI also couldn't find a tutorial for the Hydra symbol so it looks like a three year old painted it.

Photographs super badly, as TMM does, but it's a neat effect irl. I understand why some 30k/40k players like their marines metallic.

[Nikodemus]

First mini of February done. Gosh that took a while.

Batman based on the Frank Miller comics, from Knight Models. This guy is solid metal. That cape is godawful for a gaming piece. Looks good though

I like the... I lack words, "rougher" style I used with this. Was a lot of fun to paint. Got this in a Christmas mini exchange. I didn't do as much painting as I'd have liked this past week but everything went into this model. I'd like to think it shows. Plenty to improve, of course. But happy to call this done. More minis to do. There's a monthly Wyrd challenge going on!

[Nikodemus]

Busy week.

Was painting at a friend's place. While waiting for my ride home I offered to basecoat this lovely lady. Ended up painting the whole thingHair looks a bit faded in the photo for some reason. I'm particularly happy about the one minute (ok maybe 90 seconds) lens effect I smudged onto the camera.

These boys were done in the same session. Not quite so fast though.

Metal Vik. Lovely figure. I've been struggling with my purples but I'm happy how they turned out this time.

Moleman. Simple figure. Not much to say really. He was fun.

After spending over a week on that Batman it was fun to just blast through some tabletop ok minis without dwelling on any of them.

[Nikodemus]

Must've been exhausting to do that many minis. Spent half a week doing nothing. Other half doing this (and a bit of nothing, but mostly this):

Meet Nazir ibn Hamid ibn Hajjad, Emir. This is a Helldorado mini I acquired late last year. I've loved this mini ever since I saw it online and was overjoyed to get him basically for free from a local Malifaux newbie. This is only my second Helldorado mini I've worked on, but as a minipainter I gotta say these are really good quality figures.

Tried a more textured approach to doing fabric here and gotta say, I like what I see.  All three colours of cloth had a different work flow to them. Green was highlighted, then given a brown wash. Turquoise was painted grey, given a blue wash, theh highlighted up to grey/white, then tinted over with turquoise ink. White was basically layered up from brown, by way of stippling.

I doubt my Arabic freehand is legible. Can't write it on a piece of paper, let alone on a rounded surface. But this was for a freehand themed online challenge, so I tried. Idea being the big guy is magically enslaved by an old sorcerer. Words of power and all that.

[lusciousmccabe]

Looks great. Stippling/texturing is nicely executed and I love how the two minis have different but complementary palettes. 

[Nikodemus]

I intentionally went for more earthy tones on the carrier (Youssef, in Hell Dorado lore). Emir seems like the kind of character to bask in his own opulence. Can't have servants upstaging you. To keep things together I used the same auxiliary colours on both. Same off-black, gold and blue on weapon hilts.

For the past months I've been trying to be more frequent in my use of textured painting. It looks really appropriate on fabrics but sometimes I do it just for the heck of it (Youssef's skin had it, though far less than on cloth). Bit more time consuming than just drawing a straight line, but as someone who tends to do single figures anyway, it doesn't add that much to the proceedings.

[Nikodemus]

Catwoman by Knight Models.

Sure enough, after Emir it was time for a simpler, quicker paintjob. Overshaded the yellow, but this was a relatively fuss free paintjob so I left it instead of fixing. Happy with the highlights and all, just overall a tad darker than what I aimed for. Tableworthy for sure

[Nikodemus]

Professor Pyg & Dollotrons. Quick commission piece for a fellow local Malifaux and Batman player.

I'm pretty happy with the skin. Feels like I've got a decent "get it done quick" recipe I can use for paintjobs like this. Prepping these reinforced my decision not to get any more Knight Models stuff for a while. Game is fun, sculpts are great, but casting quality is really sloppy sometimes. You're definitely paying for license, not quality. Makes me miss Malifaux models (just made an order for Yan Lo & friends, so yay).

[Ultravanillasmurf]

Nice job. The Knight models always look nice on the site (and when others paint them) but they are hard work.

[Nikodemus]

22 hours ago, Ultravanillasmurf said:

Nice job. The Knight models always look nice on the site (and when others paint them) but they are hard work.

Their sculpts are great. They will turn out gorgeous if you put the work in. But at that price point I expect more. Such a pity. Now for something completely different:

Another one of my Russian Alternative barbarians. This one wasn't a speedpaint, but was done in a single day. Not doing anything fancy with this. Just having fun and test driving some new paints I got. So far these have been very cool models to work with. Not my favourite barbarian aesthetic, I prefer them less armoured, but that's a small downside considering I got a box of these for dirt cheap.

Next up will probably be more work on my March challenge Jorogumo. That big boy takes a lot of work.

[Purple Mist]

On 2/15/2019 at 11:03 PM, Nikodemus said:

Metal Vik. Lovely figure. I've been struggling with my purples but I'm happy how they turned out this time.

You must be proud of your achivements. I like a lot this mini.

[Nikodemus]

She turned out pretty good yeah I try to find joy in everything I paint. But I want to be mindful of when I cut corners, mess up, outright fail etc.. So even my best minis have much to improve. Importantly I'm still happy when I do them. It keeps me going. At least on a technical level she's nowhere near my best, but technical proficiency is only half a paintjob (if even that...). I think I chose pretty good colours for the mini. Lack of any blending on her coat really shows up in pictures, and drags it down there, but irl at more realistic viewing distance it's pretty striking. And everything else just works.

And I think it's worth pointing out there was nothing I was doing for the first time on that mini. Quick few minute colour fade on her blade, wooden stock on the gun, skin, pink hair, way I did her pants... Every "recipe" and technique has been tried and tested on numerous past minis. For a few day paintjob she was pretty fast 'n loose, but it's been a long journey to get to where I can whip something like that out and say it wasn't even trying my best.

Sadly Vik wasn't for me. She's gone now. I did take a little family portrait before she left though:

I don't time my paintings, but I'm pretty sure she was fastest paintjob by a comfortable margin. And dare I say she's not worst looking of the bunch. It's pretty nice to see oneself get better

[Nikodemus]

Did some boys in blue earlier this month:

Batman and Gotham Police are for BMG. Payback for a local player who gifted me all objectives and tactical scenery I needed for the game.

Minsc & Boo was bought from a local Malifaux player. Repainted his cape three times before I was happy

[Nikodemus]

More barbarians from Russian Alternative. These were all done seperately in a single day each. Not speed painted. Maybe "briskly painted"

Jorogumo as seen on the March painting thread. For few more pictures and few words here's a link to my post in that thread:

https://themostexcellentandawesomeforumever-wyrd.com/topic/143911-2019-monthly-painting-challenge-march/?page=7&tab=comments#comment-1170279

Started and finished these five guys this weekend. Chaos Cultists from Warhammer 40k. Fun models. Fun quick project.

This month I participated in a "paint more than you usually do" challenge elsewhere, so there was some emphasis on quantity over quality. Particularly evident on barbarians and cultists in this update. For reference I painted 20 models this month, as opposed to less than 20 I did in January and February combined. Was a fun challenge. I'm quite happy with what I managed to achieve this month despite some amount of rushing. Comforting

[Nikodemus]

Orc with Blunderbuss by Spellcrow.

Been doing this guy on & off for the last few weeks. Finally finished. Turns out output is slow when you don't paint as much. Had a lot of fun with this. Not very many bells & whistles and what's there was well sculpted.

[Nikodemus]

Slow month. This post is just rehashing what I did in the painting challenge thread. But I like this thread for archival/reference reasons, so here they go:

Posted a few words about Manos here: 

 

And for Tengu:

 

Next month should be more active. Got some Yan Lo stuff I need to get painted

[Nikodemus]

Oo, already painted more than I did last month. Wild.

Crime Boss. More words in the May challenge thread:

Ashigaru. Ditto:

 

Here's 3/4 of a commission I'm doing for a local BMG player (1/4 still not in my hands):

Nightwing (Arkham Knight, metal), Robin / Damian Wayne (metal) and Sierra the taser SWAT (resin). Not too shabby of a trio for 2-day's worth of painting  Figure quality was a bit suspect. I'm used to KM resin being very hit or miss but Nightwing too had some unsightly crap on his knee. Must've been an old mold back when it was cast. Nothing you couldn't play with.  It's an interesting distraction to paint known super heroes roughly according to box art. Usually I like to go for my own colour schemes and they're hardly consistent. It's how I enjoy this hobby. This isn't that. But this is interesting, every once in a while. At least client knows what they want and that makes it easy for me.

5 figures in 7 days. Crazy.

[Nikodemus]

Painted Yan Lo's core box as part of the Painting Challenge here. Here's the whole set:

Painted over a course of 2½ weeks with that Batman commission in between. Particularly happy with the white on Chiaki. Those turquoise shadows are quite something  Fun set overall. Tested out heavy body Titanium White on her. Neat stuff.

Hoping to get a bit more done in May. I need to finish one more model to qualify for Caedrus' painting achivement (50ss painted in a month). I also got another BMG commission (5 figures) which I naturally want to finish and get paid for as soon as possible. Week and a half to go. Gonna be busy if I want to get all that done.

[Nikodemus]

Bit late posting. These two were painted in May:

Quick Domadore de Cadavere for a friend. Pretty cool mini.

 

BMG commission. Catwoman based on Anne Hathaway's likeness in Dark Knight Rises film. I filed off the excess crap on her pistol since taking the photo. Client will base. Surprisingly quick figure since it was very monotone in colour. Quite happy with the accidental dark redhead look I got.

Have a good June everybody!

[Nikodemus]

First one for June:

Tom Hardy's Bane from Dark Knight Rises. 2nd best live action Bane seen on the big screen, am I right?