More Fyreslayers – I based a couple that fell off the temporary bases, and getting them slowly moved towards done… finishing up final details, tidying messy bits, and generally getting excited about moving onto the next project. I’ve been playing more Age of Sigmar with the eldest child, so will be good to get onto his models next.
After a very slow spring/summer, I started to push myself to get back to painting regularly. For one thing, I’d like to get our Age of Sigmar models completed to take to the local club!
So I’ve been plugging away at the gold bits of Fyreslayers. I’m in my old pattern of batch painting All The Things All At Once, so it’s getting repetitive as I’ve got 21ish Dwarfs to paint at the same time… and to be fair, Fyreslayers look cool but at the end of the day every unit is kind of the same.
The end of the last quarter trailed off a bit – I got behind and couldn’t make it back up. It was only a near miss though so I think the target is just about in the right place.
No updates for a while because I gave myself October off of painting. Since the beginning of the year I’ve managed an average of 20+ minutes painting a day, so I definitely think I earned the break! It was originally going to be shorter but then the whole family came down with Covid.
For most of September I was working on these water merchants:
There are small details left to finish – a few highlights here and there, water sloshing in the bottles on the big guy, and the bases. As well as some mechanical arms to add to the central figure which were easier to paint separately.
As November starts I’ll be sticking to the 30 minute daily average target, got some new techniques to try (contrast paints being one of them), and will also try to improve my photography a bit.
I finally got the large deficit off the edge of the graph! Still bouncing up and down a little, but got it under control.
I’ve nearly finished the slopper now, just some eyes and small highlights to do.
The pot has been darkened and the slop painted, but the tentacle needs more highlight and probably a bit more shade on the pot itself.
Klingons are looking good, need more work on the armour though.
I’ve also started on the Mercator Nautica for Necromunda, but I need to pick up some more paints first. They’re tied in with a pre-order of the Delaque book so I have to stay patient. I might move onto the Koris Dreadball team while I am waiting instead.
In good news, the big deficit is falling off of the chart and shortening the Y axis 
On the other hand, the weather is rotten for painting; I’ve only been able to get short sessions in (not just complaining about the heat!). This is good for testing colour schemes though; I’ve been experimenting with skin tones for Klingons:
and working on smaller models like this ratling slopper, and his cooking pot.
The pots a bit too shiny, I’ll need to muddy it up a bit.
It’s been tough hitting the target for this quarter. Part of that was down to illness where I couldn’t get anything done, and following that I found it hard to get back into the routine of painting every day. My deficit climbed very high, and I only just got it down to zero again in the last couple of days!
As predicted, my painting streak never got above seven days in a row. My aims for this quarter were:
How did I do? Well, I managed to hit the time target – barely.
I started to plan ‘in my head’, but I was still mostly making things up as I went along. I will be making a concerted effort to do this better in the next models I start.
I tried a couple of new techniques. Firstly, I tried using my airbrush for colours and highlights more. This was mixed – I think it will work best for the centrepiece models. I tried zenithal highlighting again; I don’t think this technique is for me, but I may come back to it later. I also tried painting some 3D printed models for a friend (www.immersivemadness.co.uk) – none of my favourite techniques worked on the FDM print because of the texture of the model so I had to experiment a bit more. That’s something I’ll probably get more chances to work on in the future. The thing I’m happiest with is blending, that’s getting much easier and I’m getting some nice finishes with it.
For centrepieces, I worked on the Big Boss models for the Hellboy board game – which are nearly complete – and I’m making sure to add another large model to my queue for next quarter.
Overall this quarter, I finished 36 models and only bought 8 new ones. Slowly working my way through the Pile of Shame and keep those numbers going in the right direction.
Next Quarters Goals
Keep painting for 30 minutes a day. It was more challenging than expected, but achievable, so I will keep up that target.
Plan better, and write it down. I know it will help me when I get stuck later.
Keep trying new techniques. There are more things I haven’t tried, and I can drop these into my planning.
I’m starting to bring the deficit down, but I need to average 41 minutes a day over the next two weeks to hit my target. It might come down to the wire this quarter…
In better news, I finished the minis and busts for the heroes in the game:
The minis stand about as high as their busts. And no matter what I did I couldn’t straighten out that harpoon at the back…
I also finished the smallest enemy figures – frog swarms.
Not a lot of detail needed on those, fortunately. But I might go back and paint some stripes on their backs if I want to spoil a good day!
I gave myself a break for being ill, but it totally knocked my habit. As a result the deficit built up pretty high and I’m going to have to do double time to get back in front of it.
The Hellboy miniatures are getting to the final details so I’ve been focussing on those to make sure they get finished before I head back to aliens.
Liz Sherman, a pyrokinetic hero in Hellboy. Still to finish – eyes, fire and boots. Maybe another highlight on the hair.
Hellboy – boots and BPRD patch still to do.
I still have 3.5 hours to catch up to hit zero, and only one month in this quarter left. That’s achievable.
My average started to drop again, and I’ve got another deficit to work down. Not much planned this weekend so I should be able to get on top again.
Carried on with pieces for the Hellboy board game, and weighing up whether I need to get a new pot of black (mine has fossilised…) or if I can make do with black primer instead. I’ve decided that the blending on the aliens is done, otherwise I will be going forever, and getting on with finishing those models.
Sorry about the lighting, the clouds have been uncooperative recently.
Target: Wobbled at the beginning of the month but got on top of it.
Focus: Got the first layer of armour on the Crystallans done, finished adding a slight highlight to the crystal to make it ‘pop’. Also played the Hellboy board game and got hit with inspiration, so started painting that box too.
A note on data presentation: I’ve adapted the graph from last quarter into a continuous/rolling graph so it doesn’t keep going into thousands and thousands of minutes painting. The blue area is the target and the green line is the 7-day average (to even out the highs and the lows), and is a better indicator of whether I’m sustaining a certain level than tracking individually productive days and unintentional breaks. Orange line is bad – that means I’ve slipped beneath my target (and as it’s not an average, will look much worse than the actual effort).
