Nikodemus' minis 2019 (expect non-Wyrd)

[lusciousmccabe]

Off to a strong start again I see. 😀

Catwoman also looks great. Pulling off such a monochrome scheme is often much easier said than done.

[Purple Mist]

15 hours ago, Nikodemus said:

First one for June

Great mini and so realistic; the leather jacket with fur is impressive!

[Nikodemus]

Thanks guys!

So that's one Tom Hardy plus whatever I'll be posting below I finished this month. In chronological order:

Avatar of Courage, a Bones figure by Reaper minis. Bought this guy on a whim. He's a lion dude. Battle Beast and Beast in Black have album covers with lion dude on them. 

This guy was supposed to be a quick 1-night figure. Wetblend practice on the skin and little else. Ended up giving some fur texture on the skin which bumped it to a 2-nighter. I had fun though, which is the main thing. Messing about, enjoying it. Red head because I don't know why. Neat figure, despite being Bones.

Pair of Latigo Pistoleros I did for the painting challenge. Quick paintjobs both of them. I was feeling quite exhausted for a week or two middle of the month and these were easy successes I needed to get back into swing of things.

Some experimenting with different colours was going on. Not at all happy with Lady Pistolero's shirt. Live 'n learn. And still an "easy win" for me so can't complain. Happy painting, as the hashtag goes I think.

Wizkids Grizzly. Painted this guy up as a Slate Ridge Mauler proxy. Not a huge fan of the 2e sculpt. Waiting and seeing if 3e gets a new sculpt. Either way I'll get an official Mauler before too long. But for now this'll do for my Marcus outings. First time using a big, soft make-up brush to do drybrushing. It's about as magical as online videos say it is

Bane's Mercenaries. Based on Dark Knight Rises film. These finish up the Tom Hardy commission lot. Client will do the bases. I went too dark on the camo. I prefer mine a bit more brighter and cartoonish. Was a mistake in my painting plan. But overall happy with what I did. Quite a stark contrast on the black bits. Makes me happy.

 

That's it for June. July will be filled with some models I need done for a tournament on 27th and a super secret birthday project I'm working on. More on those when I've got something to post.

[Nikodemus]

Quiet month. No idea where my time went.

Pair of Mi-Go, Bones minis from Reaper:

Painted for a friend for use as Void Hunter proxies.

alt Ototo:

Really happy with this one. Left the helmet off to show off his face & hair better.

Should have more done next month. At the very least I've got another BMG commission to go through. Don't want to leave that hanging. Got plenty of TT and Arc stuff on the personal pile too, really want to get some of those painted so I can play them.

[lusciousmccabe]

Was about to complement your use of stippling to create fabric texture, then noticed I said the exact same thing ~6 months ago.

Well, if it was true then it's still true now. Great stippling Nikodemus. It's stippletastic. 

Also, really like Ototo's weapon. That gradient from business end to handle with the edge highlighting consistent all the way down is great. Brings out the interesting shape of the kanabo and makes it look like it's seen some use. 

[Nikodemus]

On 7/31/2019 at 11:12 PM, lusciousmccabe said:

Was about to complement your use of stippling to create fabric texture, then noticed I said the exact same thing ~6 months ago.

Well, if it was true then it's still true now. Great stippling Nikodemus. It's stippletastic. 

Also, really like Ototo's weapon. That gradient from business end to handle with the edge highlighting consistent all the way down is great. Brings out the interesting shape of the kanabo and makes it look like it's seen some use. 

Thanks. I really like the stippling technique on cloth. It's quite easy (says the steady-handed, well-eyed young man with an expensive brush) and tends to look really good.

So glad you noticed the weapon. I painted the studs metallic but it doesn't photo well. For the wooden bit I did what I've started to do on my metallic blades. Light gradient going from one end to the other.  Tends to look a lot more interesting than just a monotonely lit paintjob. Started with an initial wetblend and then did a few layers of broken highlights to bring out the shape of the weapon. 

Unfortunate that he's only been on the table twice and been rather promptly smashed into a bloody pulp both times. But he will have his day!

____

First five minis for the month of August:

Sidir Alchibal, from Lucas McCabe Core Box. As seeon on the August painting challenge thread. Wife took the kids out, so I spent the Sunday painting this guy up. Practiced my "white", though I guess it's more of a grey. Whatever, it looks pretty. Picked purple as a secondary colour since I don't feel very comfortable painting it, despite having used it on a fair number of models. Overall though this was a very "comfortable" paintjob, nothing much was new or boundary pushing. Just some safe, familiar techniques and recipes.

4 out of 5 models from Court of Owls faction Talon's Night starter set commission for Batman Miniatures Game. Fifth guy is a really big dude and client wants a different colour scheme so he's still wip. As usual this client will do bases after I'm done with the models.

Fun fact: Sidir's white and Owls' main bodysuit are both made with just VMC Dark Sea Blue and white. I've gone nuts for that paint ever since I got it.

 

As for what's to come, I need to do the fifth Owl to finish the above mentioned commission. Another BMG commission has me tackling Batman himself and then there's a Games Workshop themed Chaos contest semi-locally that I'll be participating. Those three should all be done August. On the Wyrd front I just based Saboteurs and primed Komainu. There's a decent chance I'll decide to speed paint one or the other set of minis in the very near future. Saboteurs in particular don't really inspire me so I might just do some quick wash & drybrush job on them and call it done.

[Nikodemus]

Rest of August:

Pair of Komainu for Yan Lo:

Just a quick drybrush of increasingly light metallics with some oranges painted in a few spots.

Sun Quiang for Yan Lo:

Went for a bit more dramatic light gradient on this one. Bit overboard on the back, but it works. Was fun. Very simple figure. Enjoyed painting in the textures and the like. Lately I haven't been feeling very comfortable with warm colours so I decided to do this one in orange. It was fun to poke my boundaries a bit, if only very slightly.

 

For a not so local game store I did this piece for a Warhammer Chaos themed painting event:

Early 90s metal Horror from GW. I say event because even though organiser used the word "competition", prize was raffled out so it was really more of a feelgood "paint something vaguely in the theme" thing. I enjoyed it. Wouldn't have grabbed this mini otherwise. I think out of five entries, mine was only one made before 2010s Neat thing, that. I was feeling quite pressured for time this month so I didn't push myself much at all with this one. I practiced wetblending on the skintone and pretty much left it at that. Highlight placement is all over the place too. I did get a little creative and added some candles for the summoning circle surrounding the demon. It was actually my wife who did the candles out of some paper clips, greenstuff and PVA. Not a normal occurrence at all, but we both enjoyed it.

For other "contest" entries here's a link: https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipMyvl2pTzcUx5jSqZhgCK1JbhYK-9H0yW8JnWQhUs_C_UO-aUQBQF_FIf1o9EmBcg?key=eFZ5TlIzUFlUOWJaTGRFb1Nvb0FheXZpM2FXcURB

Only five pieces in total. But I enjoyed participating and seeing what others did for this.

And to end the month another pair of quickly painted metallics:

Mecharachnids for my Arcanists. Decided to have a little fun with coloured metallics. Same as Komainu, few drybrush layers with increasingly light tones. One of these days I just might paint up a Kill Team's worth of marines in coloured metallics. Way I do it is not very high quality paintjob, but it's a quick, easy effect for decent tabletop look I feel. Vallejo Metal Medium mixed with Scale75 Inktensity Inks.

That's 11 models for August.

74 for the entire year thus far. 8 months done, 4 to go. I wonder where I'll end up.

___

September plans... I got half finished Order Initiate and two Saboteurs to paint for my Arcanists. Would be nice to have those available sooner rather than later. I got a few BMG commissions still floating around that need to get done. Beyond those, I'm craving something. Not quite sure what yet. I've been rushing a lot of models for the gaming table lately. I think I just need a few chill paintjobs, tryhard or not. Let's hope I can squeeze some in.

[Nikodemus]

Bit late on this one. September paintjobs:

Pair of Saboteurs done quick:

Bought pre-built/used. Not terribly well cleaned and Wyrd plastics are a bit too delicate for my taste when built so I left them as is. Limited palette and rough highlights is name of the game. Pretty happy with how the browns turned out. Some rough white drybrushing over a beige base followed by a few layers of brown glazing/washing.

Third and final model was Gotham Butcher for BMG:

With him the Court of Owls starter set got finished. Here's the family portrait:

As usual client will base. Really happy with the set.

I also nearly finished a fourth model, but didn't quite make it.

____

 

Confession time: haven't painted anything in close to month now. Guessing I got hit with a burnout of sorts. Starting to feel the need to be painting again though. Hoping to have something to show for October. Still a week to go

[Nikodemus]

October paintjobs:

Order Initiate for my Marcus crew. Not much to this. I had this guy half basecoated for a good while, broke out of my burnout to get something done for the painting challenge. Pretty happy with how he turned out, despite just tossing some paint around and calling it day. Not a fan of their rules but I might have to give him a few more chances now that I've got a painted non-proxy version to play with.

I actually prefer the other two sculpts more but I wanted to do this relatively quickly to have something for the table.

Damned One of Pride, from Helldorado. Painted for a friend to use as a proxy. Guild stuff. This had sat on my desk unfinished for way, way too long. Helldorado had such kickass minis. I should get more of them.

Batman 80 year anniversary miniature by Knight Models. Commission piece. This is the mini I nearly finished at the end of September. I couldn't get the flame right despite several attempts. Really bugged me. I'm still not happy with the flame but it isn't worth the headache. Plus the client is happy, that's always nice. Really happy with the black I managed on the cloak. Probably my best black to date.

Assembly was a pain. Those resin bats are fragile and I didn't manage to get one of the arms lined up just right, so I had to do a little sculpting/filling to fix it. But I do dig how it looks all finished. Pretty imposing mini.

Final minis for the month were Blackgate Prisoners for BMG. Also a commission piece. I've done these guys before in a different theme for myself. Probably the last thing I painted in 2018 now that I think about it, so they just barely missed this thread. They're a fun set of minis. Well sculpted. I'm really happy with how these guys turned out. Like, really happy. Limited palette and somewhat dramatic lighting works well. And only took me 4-5 hours for the lot. But that's batch painting.

My own set for comparison's sake:

Not sure which I prefer to be honest.

___

That's 7 minis for October. Yeah, the month where I suffered a dramatic hobby burnout This last week was pretty busy with a brush. To be honest all these minis were in various stages of completion. Batman was mostly done and rest were "somewhat basecoated". Now that the desk is mostly cleared of WIPs, I can hopefully be a bit more relaxed going forward.

If my math is good that makes 84 minis so far for 2019.

 

I hope everyone's having a chill autumn

[TeaCrusader]

Fire and explosions are pretty damned tricky, but I think you did a great job on the explosion on that batman figure. It looks suitably comic books but not in a way that clashes with how you painted the rest of the model.

[Nikodemus]

So. November. Cool month.

Started with metal Samael Hopkins for the monthly challenge. Had a big non-Wyrd project coming up so I needed an easy "out" for this month. No pressure, no aspirations, just pushing some paint around for a wee while. It's grown on me.

Diablo, I think? Dude from that Suicide Squad film I haven't seen. For BMG. This was a quick commission piece for a friend. "Don't make it look like the film". After a few reference shots I ended up on minty green. It's a neat fig.

Then the big project. Took a few weeks:

Watchmen set for BMG. Read the comic book in my teens. Big fan. Had to have these. Solo shots below:

Ozymandias. Wanted to do marble throne, but couldn't get it working after a few evenings. Ended up just washing light browns over off whites.

Nite Owl II. I rarely paint a lot of desaturated colours, so this was an interesting departure. Took while to mix the right tones for what I wanted. Pretty happy with the result.

Comedian. Especially in contrast to the simplicity of other figures in this set, I found the amount of details on this guy wearying. Sure it's no GW details-on-details-on-details, but ugh. Happy with the look, but definitely most "work" out of the whole set.

Silk Spectre II. It's been a while since I put some effort into yellow. Was fun. After Comedian I really enjoyed the return to simplicity. 

Rorschach. By now project fatigue was setting in, so I did a quick 1-nighter on him (ok it was a long night, but still).

Dr Manhattan. Bit of self censorship here. Not sure if a crudely DIY sculpted miniature blue ding dong is "sexually-oriented" as per Terms of Use, but erred on the side of caution here. Funny thing happened with Manhattan. While I was out gaming after finishing below the belt parts of Manhattan, my 4yo sneaked into my painting corner and painted some bright pink all over the legs. "Needed more pink" he said. If I wasn't aiming for somewhat canonical look I'd agree

Bubastis. Rather than going for the canonical tiger look I decided to try out a new purple paint. Plus I was really itching to finish the project so I kept to a fairly monochromatic colour scheme. Magnetised to fit either her own base or Ozymandias', for gameplay reasons.

After the Watchmen project I wanted something low-effort, so I decided to paint up a small frog and pair of safes. Safes are from an official BMG tournament prize kit, frog is from Greebo Games.

Had the usual post project "what now?" after Watchmen. After browsing my primed shelf I ended up working on this "Wartart with katana" from Greebo Games. Relaxed 2-day paintjob, would've really benefited from another 30 minutes spent on the skin (went too heavy with a wash, killed some of my highlights). Cool little mini.

Greebo sells other "Wartarts" too, there's a staff, pair of daggers and nunchucks too. And a few themed villains to go with the tarts.

Capped the month off with a quick bag. I guess I could use it as an objective in BMG or something. 

___

11 minis (counted the frog but not objectives). 95 total for this year. I reckon I'll break 100 this year

For December I'm working on alt Barbaros for the monthly challenge. I've ordered "Sepulchral Guard" 7-skeleton warband from GW that should be here within a few weeks. Hoping to turn that into a week (or so) long batch project.

[Boro]

Very nice, your Watchmen.

[Nikodemus]

Thanks @Boro (and @Caedrus), Much appreciated.

___

Doing the usual "wot I painted this month" in this post, and then a followup a bit later crunching some numbers and making casual observations about what/how/for whom I painted this year. Little personal retrospective if you will

Quick Slipknot to start the year off. Another Batman Miniatures Game mini by Knight Models sculpted after Suicide Squad film. Simple black 'n white colour scheme for him. Not a very exciting mini, but I did enjoy the ease and simplicity I felt when painting.

Random commission I was offered while at the LGS. Metal mini, unknown origin. Thoroughly unremarkable. Yes it's missing a hand.

After seeing GW's Da Red Gobbo pop up everywhere, I felt the need to do one too. LGS 2nd hand shelf to the rescue2nd edition (?) 40k plastic goblin. Fun little paintjob.

Barbaros Alternative as seen in the December Challenge thread. Took a while figuring out the colour scheme and then actually implementing it. Hence why I did a few easy figures in between various stages when working on this. Not perfect by any means, but am quite happy with it. Got a bit more comfortable with nmm. It's fun to dabble with. Definitely one my favourite paintjobs for the year, but well, that's for the retrospective.

After the pink knight I wanted something a little different. Did those GW skeletons I've been mentioning. Muted colours, (over)weathered metallics, bit of a departure from my usual style. And a batch project too. Wanted to do something a bit out of the norm. It's a neat set. Still not a fan of batch painting.

Papa Loco, metal. Another "as seen on the challenge thread" mini. Went to Sweden for a few casual LGS games on a whim, so decided to paint him up quick in case I face destructible spam. I didn't. Faced NB. Papa stayed in the case

Arathanel, Reaper Bones. Final mini for the year. Another low end commission. New client. They were happy. 

___

That's 13 minis for December. 108 for the year. Not a bad number to end up at

I'll get the navel gazing post up within a few days and that's that for this thread I reckon. I've enjoyed this. Will probably do another one for 2020. Keeps it easy to reference.

[Nikodemus]

So. Numbers. 108 minis painted. Quite happy. Last year was around 60 or so (no exact number). And I dare say quality increased.

By make:

• 41 Knight Models/Batman Miniatures Game
• 31 Malifaux
• 15 GW (mostly easy build sets)
• 6 Reaper (mostly Bones)
• 5 Russian Alternative (ah those metal barbarians)

And some more at 1 or 2 minis painted. 12 companies/games in total. Amusingly out of those 41 Batman minis, only 14 were for myself. Which brings me to:

• 69 minis painted for myself
• 39 painted for others (30 commissions/9 "gifts")

That's 36% of my painted stuff going to someone else. No wonder my display feels empty relative to hobby hours. Quite a change from last year. Quite tellingly 90% of my commissions were for Batman. Few guys in that group took a liking to my paintjobs. I took a liking to little extra hobby fundsWe sometimes joke that it's possible that half of the crews in any local BMG event could be painted by me(they never are, but it's close).

Interestingly only a single Malifaux figure counted as a commission. Rest I did basically for free, for various reasons. In fact I think all 9 "gifts" were either Wyrd minis or Malifaux proxies. We got a pretty cool local community.

Fun year. Ups & downs as ever but overall rather positive. Lots of cool paintjobs. Happy I finally gave NMM an honest go. It's fun to just slap some paint on and enjoy the highlights. Interestingly I don't feel like I got better this year, comparing my early -19 and late -19 paintjobs. I won't say I plateau'd, I can definitely see a way up. Right now I just don't really care to make the effort. Pretty happy with my speed/quality ratio for the moment. Although I toy with the idea of making an actual effort at Ropecon painting contest next year (late summer). To be fair I toyed with that same thought this year and nothing happened on that front We'll see. I'm a fickle thing.

 

As for next year. Well, I already pledged Yasunori for 2020 January challenge. Past that I've got Crossroads 7 and Altered Beasts sets mostly built, waiting for primer. Some other TT and Arc bits and bobs. Received 7 Hasslefree ladies in the mail recently, for use as proxies in Batman. I've got at least one too many unpainted boardgames which I really want to get done before too long (Battlelore 2, some GW boardgames). Plenty to do. "So many possibilities" indeed.

I'll end with a groupshot 2019's painted:

Such a small footprint. Minis indeed  

[lusciousmccabe]

I think you can be very proud of your efforts for the year.

If you're looking for more area covered then maybe take up painting walls. 🙂