The Final Push – Lawnor approaches 100% painted

That’s 3 more Bloodcrushers of Khorne, taking me up to a max unit of 12.  This leaves 25 models left to go.  If I can paint 13 more models this year I’ll have painted more than I’ve gained, which is my goal.  I’ve already passed that goal if my KD:M 1.6 core box doesn’t turn up this year.  I only ordered it last Black Friday, and it was only due Q1 2021.  There’s no word from Poots about if or when it’ll ship at this point (Last estimate had it in the post already, and possibly delivered).

Last weekend I finished off the models I’d started before Alexandra.  I’ve also made a strong start on the final three Khorne Bloodcrushers I need to make up a max unit of 12.  40K has some silly unit sizes for a non rank and flank game  I don’t know why I’ve ended up building a horde army again.

I done mucked up.

My housemate has moved out and I’ve removed all the furniture from his room and stacked it in the box room, high enough that it’s almost touching the light bulb, all so I can replace his carpet.  Do you know where all my remaining unpainted models are, once I finished the Bloodcrushers?

You see the pic below?  You see that wall of furniture and rubbish?  You see that red box up the top at the far far back corner that cannot possibly be reached?  Yup.  That’s the models I want.  The new carpet is being fitted early December.

This months MWF challenge model, Alexandra of Macedon, has arrived and I’ve been so lazy in these updates that I’ve already got her painted.  I also finished off what I’d started before she arrived.  There’s one more challenge mini to be revealed and then we’re done and I can get back to focussing on my existing collection.

I’m experimenting with an app called Snapseed to clean up my pics using the advice MonkeysWithFire gave me:

“Basically I used Tune (magic wand) to set a base, used curves to increase brightness to make the background whiter, used healing to remove the shadow line and all the marks on the surface, and adjusted contrast to make the overall image pop.”

I’m loving the cleaner background, but I need to experiment more with the rest of the tweaks.

Under lockdown and furlough I made a point of updating this project once a week on a Sunday or Monday, in time for the Unofficial Hobby Hangout, but since I returned to full time work in the office a few weeks ago I find I lack the motivation to do this as often, and not just because I’m getting less hobby done.  Life was just better when I didn’t have to go in to the office every day.  If you ignore the dangers and the fear, life was better under Lockdown.  I hope the world learns from this.

A few weeks ago the September Monkeys With Fire community challenge model arrived, and yesterday I finished her off.  I’ve also started work on a few other models while waiting for her to arrive, or while painting her skin tones.

I know I said I was likely to slow down as I’m back at work now, but somehow I got 5 minis painted.  I’m gonna get almost nothing done this week unless plans start to fall apart as I have a whole weekend of Gloomhaven ahead of me.

They made me end furlough and return to the office this week so I’m going to slow down production now unfortunately.  Luckily, I’m near the finish line.  I’m seeing only 28 small based casual models left to point and the rest are more interesting or bust type things (I’m still ignoring the Box of Undesirables.  That might form the basis for my next Spring Clean Challenge).  KDM is supposed to ship October (We will see) and if I only average one mini a week before it arrives I’ll still be content.  I should probably try and finish playing Reichbusters before it gets here too.

This week I finished off two more minis.  A black dragon called “Ornithaax the Majestic” by Artisan Guild, and “Female Monk 2” by Ghamak.

I finished the MWF challenge mini. It was a big learning experience. I like the Grisaille / greyscale technique over large areas with folds and shadows like the cloak, but hate it over fine detail parts like buckles. I don’t like it for metal either. Not every paint with ink in its name is an ink or acts like one. I won’t be embracing this technique going forwards, but I will use it from time to time for certain areas but never whole models. I’ve done that before anyway. I learned in the past that I left too much of the greyscale in darkness and the colour didn’t show up so this time I overcompensated and applied too much near-white, which meant I needed more colour to mute that down. next time 80-90% of the model needs to be more or less mid tone, only approaching black or white in limited areas.

I also painted up two of the goblins I’d 3D printed and I’ve started lating down base colours on a dragon.  The two goblins had some misprints.  The chair goblin has one through her left arm, which I didn’t notice until after I’d started painting her.  The chair is also missing a leg, which I’m taking as IC damage even though its a printing fault.  The “flasher” goblin has an error though his hat which I think looks a little like a crook in its floppy peak.  It appears the fault in my FEP was causing issues long before I realised it was a problem.

I hope to finish the dragon and a couple more models this week.  If my calculations are correct, then I only need to finish 28 more models this year to paint more than I gain, assuming no unforseen arrivals.  Unforseen arrivals are welcome though!  If KD:M has another delay then I’m already across that finish line.

The numbers are moving in the right direction again!  Yay!

I’d got the challenge mini primed and ready to work but I was intimidated by the challenge so I finished off the four minis I’d already started and played more Diablo 3 rather than get started.  They’ve finished now and I finally completed the Season so I ran out of excuses.

Work has begun on the challenge mini.  I primed black and then took some pics under a lamp over his left shoulder to show me where the highlights should be.  Afetrwards, I primed a grey from the direction of the light only to get me started.  I then mixed up progressivley lighter greys and finally a white and developed the highlights further by hand.