2020 Monthly Painting Challenge - January

[Monkeyfist]

So I present a finnished Guild Investigator for 7ss! 

Didn't come out as bad as I initially thought, but still far from my best work. 

 

Great work everyone, keep up the good work!

[Caedrus]

Caedrus, checking in!

We're getting towards the end of the month, and I have four miniatures on the 'maybe if I try really hard, I could get them done' pile. However, for the moment, rather than doing any real work, I've been looking at everyone's work.

In my opinion, the best thing about this forum is the support given. There's so much to like. So many different styles. Anyway, here's a very quick series of thoughts.

@Monkeyfist: Nice colour contrast. Purple and turquoise is right up there on my favourite combination list (alongside black and tan!). You gotta put some blood on the ground, though!

@thatlatinspeakingguy: I do love that Benny. I have just acquired a cat version for when I do my Curiosity set. I’m just one miniature away from finishing my December keyword!

@Hellomurse: That’s probably the highest SS count I’ve seen for a long, long time. Kudos on churning through the miniatures! Nice continuity with the turquoise glow effects.

@Stranglelove: I do love the muted tones of your painting. Is that Abuela the 1^st edition metal? You’ve capture the granny face so well!

@Harlekin: Welcome on board. I really, really like the shadowing you’ve achieved on your fabric. Those crooligans are tiny, so I know it’s not easy. The shadowy fabric on the female crooligan is particularly nice.

@Wintergloom: As I mentioned to @Monkeyfist, I do love this colour combination. That’s the first finished ‘grown up’ Dreamer I’ve seen. Really nice. I reckon 2SS/marker is pretty fair. I’ll put that into the costings page for February onwards.

@muraki: Was the Avatar mostly airbrushed? I’m an absolute novice at the airbrushing arts. The green continuity is nice. Will he be your Emissary? The photo looks a bit washed out, so I don't know about contrast on it.

@Purple Mist: I absolutely love that pale blue/green for scenery. It's atmospheric without detracting from the game.

@Viruk: Love that Raspy crew. For me, the highlight is the Wendigo. The opaque to translucent is very nice. Have you ever tried using Tamiya X22 on translucents?

@TeaCrusader: I’ve had my Arcane Emissary on the shelf for ages. I just can’t seem to start it. Yours is inspirational. I reckon the blue / metal contrast is spot on. If you're feeling brave, have a bash at doing the flame effects (the blue version of this).

@lusciousmccabe: You forgot the bicarb soda! Seriously though, this miniature is so stark and really lonely. I love it.

@Pastori: If that’s your first blacklining, you’ve started brilliantly. Those bases are lovely – sculpted? I like the subtle effects of shadowing for the white fabric. Very smooth, very subtle.

@Boomstick: I bought this boxed set purely on the miniatures. You’ve really brought that character out. They look fun.

@Polar43: I know they’re WIPs, but I do like the highlighting you’ve done over your purple tots. It looks like a tan / purple mix. Whatever it is, I like it.

@Magnus: Wow! They are super-saturated in colour. I thought I went big with saturation. I love those Mah minis. I’d love to see them on table!

@Antinea: Far from botched. I hope to start my Viks soon. I was thinking browns or blacks, but the rich blue on your Student might sway me in another direction. Great colour choice.

@Obskeree: I love that yellow on the Charm Warder! What colour is that?

@zesty: This is just an opinion, but I’d put your starter set miniatures at, at least, high tabletop. For a six hour effort, they’re awesome. Very neat. The cool whites are my favourite (and the tan smock on the orderly), but they’re all very, very nice.

@PetitDalek: I bought this same roller! You’ve probably thought of this, but: I’ve been wetting a finger and smoothing out the green stuff about 30 minutes after rolling, to get rid of the 3D printing marks. Beautiful bases though. I am such a fan of a pretty base.

@Yore Huckleberry: I’d love to see more of your Charles. What metallics are you using?

@Nikodemus: That Yasunori face and mane is absolutely superb.

@GlowingFruit: As others have said yellow is the weakest pigment, so a brown>tan>mustard buildup is often a good way to go. Nice work on Burt – the red leg vs green flesh ads to the chaos around this mini!

 Anyway, those are my thoughts. Please do give people feedback and critique - positive or instructive!

Caedrus.

 

[muraki]

@Caedrus nah, just the base was airbrushed. I just haven't used my airbrush for more than priming, so even that little bit was a big step for me.  The mini was painted but I had a lot of trouble getting good green coverage so it ended up being a bit lighter than I wanted. Same with the skin tone, so while it's not a great photo it's prolly partially me.

Won't be my emissary. Gave it to a friend at the shop I go to since I had 2 of them and wanted to paint it + try adding a street lamp to his hand. He said he's gonna use it for an Archie or emissary in a Seamus crew... That said he didnt know I was painting / giving it to him, so who knows what he'll do with it. Ha.

[Viruk]

11 hours ago, Caedrus said:

Have you ever tried using Tamiya X22 on translucents?

Yes, in fact that's exactly what I've used here. It provides a solid transparent basecoat to work on - highly recommend it.

[Stranglelove]

@lusciousmccabe thank you!

@Caedrus thanks for the kind words!  That is the M2E Abuela.

I've prepped minis for February, but that will be it for January.  My total is 50ss.

[Lukkimus]

Hi,

heres my january one. Still missing basing and last coat of matt varnish but done.

Quite pleased with myself as thats the first attempt at Dark Flesh.

[khilin]

@Caedrus this are my minis for this month, one Gravedigger and one Flesh construct, both have two bodies in them, so I am pretty pleased with how my year has started!

 

[Magnus]

Here's my completed January pledge, really happy with how the whole crew came together. Also this is my first fully painted Malifaux crew. Thanks for the inspiration and thanks to @Stranglelove for helping with the pictures.

[Magnus]

That's 42ss for the month. I made my pledge! @Caedrus

[Hellomurse]

12 hours ago, Lukkimus said:

That level of detail is something to aspire to, tiny tats, individual scales - including the diamond pattern broken down on the scale level, not to mention the colour transitions and everything combined... beautiful work.

[Scatterbrain]

If this were a Jack Nicholson movie, this would be As Good As It Gets. 1x Shikome for 7ss. Painted to tournament legal standard as everything has a coat of paint or two, and there are (more than) 3 colours. Had some good luck with the GW/Citadel Contrast Paints. Need to buy some Micro Art Studio Cobblestone bases (in resin), just found an online retail supplier in Australia today with some in stock.

[Purple Mist]

Hello, I completed large parte of my pledge for current month: 3 scenic components that can be arranged to get a large ruined building and the 2 ruined city fountains I was going after for some past months.

In the pics I spawned around some old Malifaux minis painded in past years to give you a better idea of the size of the scenics I pledged.

Hope you liked it all. I please @Caedrus to estimate how many ss my pledge could be worth.

 

[Boomstick]

@Caedrus thanks so much! They were a blast to paint (and figure out the color schemes, expanding my RWBY theme for Thunders to the villains as well).

I managed to finish a couple more right in time for the month! Behold, both dragons (as Grimm, keeping with the RWBY theme). Had a blast with the custom work on the Emissary (wings and tail fins are press moulds of the wings I used on the Dawn Serpent and some for a Black Blood Shaman. They're a little rough around the edges from trying to make them thicker to be a bit tougher. Also filled in the holes where his lower legs should be for more of a sea serpent look.) Also the first time I've used any water effect for waves, so please, pour your tips and criticisms over me

So, with the 19ss from these two, that should bring me to 39ss for the month.

[Monkeyfist]

@Caedrus Thanks for your kind words :D And I can't understand that I forgot blood ión the base! Fixed it however:

[muraki]

Getting the last few stones in on the last day.  To complete this month I finished a huckster:

As much as I love the new m3e models, man do they got a lot of junk going on, which makes em a bit of a hassle to paint.  Guess I'll have to soldier on, ha.

@Caedrus that's 16 (10 + 6) for me, just sneaking by, hopefully next month is a bit better.

[Nikodemus]

Always a pleasure to re-read through this thread towards end of the month.

@Magnus Digging the colourful bunch. Lovely crew.

@Boomstick Such whimsical crew. A Joy to watch you expand it.

@Pastori Classy whites. Cool investigators.

@lusciousmccabe Ice ice baby!👍

@Caedrus Good stuff all around. Almost scaring me into not painting my own Envy

@Viruk Interesting skintone on Rasputina. Solid Viruk-quality yet again for the whole crew.

@Harlekin You may be slow, but I can see where the time is spent. Rocking it!

@Monkeyfist In my experience "not my best" often translates into "pretty good". Not a bad place to be inDigging the investigator.

@Lukkimus Inspirational snakeman!

And big thanks to everyone I failed to mention too, for participating. 1 done (or almost), 11 more to go. Here's to many more painted minis this year🍻

[Diddick]

@Nikodemus did you manage to finish the yasunori?  i have one assembled myself, but it's such a nice mini that's kinda intimidating to paint, and your color approach was great, i'd really like to se more of it

[Monkeyfist]

@Nikodemus Haha true! And as I said, it didn't come out as bad as I first thought it would, but there is soo much I can improve on that one, I actually rushed it to get it ready in time.  

[Nikodemus]

@Caedrus 10ss done.

31 minutes ago, Diddick said:

@Nikodemus did you manage to finish the yasunori?  i have one assembled myself, but it's such a nice mini that's kinda intimidating to paint, and your color approach was great, i'd really like to se more of it

Sure! Was sort of cut short on my last post by kids bedtime preparations. So here's wot I painted:

 

Wings ended up being a really big block on my progress with this. Didn't know how to approach them. Wasn't happy with initial attempts. Ended up with something I was fine with. And by the end I was quite done with this mini. Thinking back, what was it that I said early in this thread..:

"Realistically something as big as this is likely to wear me out by the end. So no promises on quality."

Well, I do like where I ended up with it. Certainly tableworthy now. Even if there's things I'm not happy with. I likened the latter half of this paintjob as stumbling downhill. Relatively fast, not that difficult, but certainly not ideal. Happy to be done with it now.

...and fuuuuuuuudge.  Forgot to paint the sword pommelsWell, I guess I know what I'll do after I finish this post. Probably won't take another photo though.

 

And a friendly tip, do consider painting him in subassemblies. Yasunori isn't an awful model to paint when all glued together. But if you can do the rider separate, or even the wings, it'll make life easier and be easy to glue on afterwards. Small regret I had while painting this.

____

Fun non-painterly tidbit, composer of Chrono Trigger's soundtrack (SNES era rpg) is named Yasunori. It's a pretty good soundtrack if you like SNES sounds. And individual songs were remixed/redone by Bad Dudes in their Chronotorious album. That one isn't very SNES, but it's quite good. I recommend both if you're into that sort of thing, just look'em up on youtube if interested

[Monkeyfist]

@Nikodemus Love the colours! And whatever you say, this is a great paintjob  

[thatlatinspeakingguy]

32 minutes ago, Nikodemus said:

Fun non-painterly tidbit, composer of Chrono Trigger's soundtrack (SNES era rpg) is named Yasunori. It's a pretty good soundtrack if you like SNES sounds.

Cool! I've played original Chrono Trigger, good memories and I love buzzling-tinking SNES sounds! Final Fantasy VI soundtrack is my absolute favourite (as is the game itself).

[naicigam]

Awesome work, everyone! Very encouraging!

These are my 6 points for January! I wanted to have all three painted, but I am still working on the other two bases, so I will post them next month (not for the challenge!).

[Chou]

Hey! Here are my models for January! @Caedrus that would be 44SS (I only count one Anna). 

* Anna Lovelace: 10 SS. I wasn't sure I liked the new version, so I painted the old one two. 

  

* Student of Sinew: 7 SS.

* Student of Steel: 7 SS.

  

* Student of Viscera: 8 SS.

  

* 2 x Undergraduates: 12 SS.

  

 

[Obskeree]

@Caedrus Thanks so much!  The yellow is simply aveland sunset with iyanden yellow contrast on top.  It ended up pretty striking, i love it.  I love bright colour! :) Gonna do the same yellow overcoat on my second warder too.  

[PetitDalek]

Wow, how are you all so productive? A very solid start for 2020! I am happy to see so many new and old faces.

I finished three Arcanist constructs, Colette and Kaeris will be happy. I also started fire gamins, but my idea for blue/orange colour scheme didn't really work out, so they got stripped and await the classic orange colour.

Edit: The total is measly 10 SS