Unboxing Descent Labyrinth of Ruin

My painting tonight was in single digit brush strokes, but I did open a package containing the new Descent expansion, Labyrinth of Ruin. The sculpts are excellent all around.  On the hero side we've got a female alchemist who's a gnome-looking dwarf, very cool. But the witch is my favorite, a great design that straddles fantasy and superhero aesthetics.

The monsters give us a crab-spider and a dragon-snake, which are just okay. But we also get four goblin witchers, great looking goblin casters! My brush will first new applied to the Tyranid-like Volcrux Reavers, which look better than the previews. Overall, great set, I wish I could get started tonight!

Saturday Night WIPs

We did a lot of baby playing and baby training today, so there wasn't much time for painting! Otherwise these Descent manticores and hellhounds would be done instead of awaiting highlighting. Maybe tomorrow I'll get to them... but tomorrow my in-laws arrive, and the day after that I go back to work. So it's been fun, Painting Vacation! Time for a work slow-down!

Finally Night WIPs!

Oh thank fuckall god I finally got to paint tonight. I had an hour tonight and I put it to good use, finishing off my Descent Manticores and Hellhounds. I'm happy with both: the Manticores have some good cat eyes going, the Hellhounds have some quality flames. We'll see about tomorrow, but jesus I loved holding a brush again.

Sunday Night WIPs

I got a late-ish today and didn't really paint after 4:00, but the bulk of my Sunday was spent on babies and painting! I started with my Descent minion Demon and finished him around noon... then I worked through my minion Crypt Dragon.

The demon is purple, giving room for a red Master demon. I played around with the luminosity of the fireball, like everyone does, like you pretty much have to. The dragon is red, which in Descent means I'll need to work hard to distinguish it from the Master miniature. But in D&D, red is what you want, they're the best dragons, the only ones with fire breath. And the morphology of this sculpt was closest to red out of all the WOTC designs. So I'll deal with that challenge when I get to the Master dragon; next weekend maybe! Seven more minis, Descent!

Saturday Night WIPs

Big day of painting: my mother-in-law flew out this morning after two weeks here, and I think I had my paints out before she got to the airport. I finished 12 figures today, all from Descent v1. I did two minion ogres, six minion Bane Spiders, and then four minis that were waiting on more Tamiya Transparent Red to come in the mail: two master Sorcerers and two master Hellhounds. My Transparent Red replaced an exhausted pot, but I also got a Transparent Orange, a new color in my collection. An orange band between reds and yellows in a fire is the secret sauce, it's amazing how much better it looks.

So, tomorrow I want to keep painting. (And I'm sure as hell not leaving the house; thank you baby daughter!) I'm going to have to spray-basecoat more. I'm going to declare painting goals for the month of June, and I hope to declare them on the Reaper Miniatures "Speed/Army/Tabletop Techniques" board as soon as they make a June 2013 thread. My goal boils down to one a day, which is ridiculous; I never have two dedicated hours each and every day, but it's balanced by days like today when I knock out 12. Here's my Goal Pledge text:

For the month of June I want to finish my Descent monsters. I started painting Descent to get ready for the Bones kickstarter, and I feel pretty much warmed up! I've got 21 monsters left: 2 Ogres, 2 Sorcerers, 2 Hellhounds, 9 Bane Spiders, 2 Demons, 2 Dragons. The only thing making that level of production possible will be the fact that the list is 42 percent spiders, and those spiders are going to drybrush up very quickly!

There's a chance I can finish this Descent project, and then I'll move on to the non-Kickstarter Bones I ordered. I want to squeeze the Gnoll and the Ogre into June if I can.

And Wrath of Ashardalon stuff after that... I can be dipping into Ashardalon by the end of June if I make 30 minis; especially if I'm starting 11 minis in the black.

Dat's Dat, Descent!

Master Dragon done! I'm trying to figure out how many minis I did for Descent, maybe when I don't have a baby on my lap I'll put the math in a future post. Short answer: one metric shit ton of minis.

So now I'm sure the Labyrinth of Ruin expansion will show up tomorrow. Bring it on, Descent, I'm not out of paint yet!

Wednesday Night WIPs

Kudos to my wonderful daughter, who's lack of fussiness allowed two miniatures to be finished tonight. Here's the Descent Master Ogre and Demon. I don't have a lot to say; I've done both these molds already, and I feel like I executed these pretty well.

And then there was one!

Monday Night WIPs

I'm going to run out of red paint before I finish these Descent Master monsters. Here's my boss Naga and Bane Spiders. I put some red on my minion spiders so I really had to crimson these guys up to make their roll clear. They kind of look like lobsters... three minis left!

Wednesday Night WIPs

Tonight I had only stolen minutes to put the finishing touches on the minion Nagas and start the basecoat on these ogres. Cheers!

Paint Club WIPs

Great Paint Club! We welcomed Marc, who's working through his Ashardalon set and off to a great start. Here's my Descent stuff.

Sunday Night WIPs

Considering the amount of time I spent stealing away to paint today I expected to have more done. Still, these three skeletons finish off my Descent archers, and I'll have this giant done tomorrow.. that ain't nothin'!

Friday Night WIPs

I had a lot of WIPs this week! Here's my minion Giant and Sorcerers from Descent v1. I'm now well into that set, although my paternity leave is drawing to a close and I won't be near as productive next week. You know what rules, dudes? Painting and playing with your baby.

I like how all these guys turned out. Next are Manticores and Hellhounds!

Descent Complete!

This week I completed the last of my monsters from the Descent v2 box set, so I can now bring a totally painted set to Game Night! I've also done the contents of the Lair of the Wyrm expansion and two monster groups from the v1 set, with more on the way.

This was fun and taught me to work fast! I'd recommend the Descent game as a beginning painting project: it's the right mix of challenge and reward.

Wednesday Night WIPs

Tonight I did some touch-ups to finish off the boss monsters I did at Painting Club last night, then worked through my six minion skeleton archers from the Descent v1 box. But enough about that box... with this red Shadow Dragon done, I've completed all the miniatures in Descent v2! And Lair of the Wyrm, and Beastmen and Razorwings from v1... I've done a lot of Descent minis! Tomorrow I'll spend some time on bases, spray with matte sealer, and put this kid to bed.

Reaper updated us on their Bones Kickstarter last night, and it sounds like they're running about a month and a half behind. So I'll have June and early July to paint Descent v1, Wrath of Ashardalon, and maybe Legend of Drizzt. After all that, I'm going to be in great shape for all my new Bones stuff!

Painting Club WIPs

A dragon and as bunch of other red monsters. Good painting club!

Monday Night WIPs

More Descent boss, aka red, monsters today. I finished the two fire imps and the hybrid, then banged out the elemental, the zombie, and the Flesh Molder.

Tomorrow is paint club! I need to figure out what I'm bringing!

Sunday Night WIPs

More Descent Master monsters, this time my three boss Beastmen (done as a Masters of the Universe reference), two fire imps, and the draconic hybrid. The last three need some work, hopefully tomorrow. I've got some good stuff working with transparencies on these guys!

Saturday Night WIPs

Good night of painting as we stay home with the kid! I finished this ridiculous Descent v1 Lizard Guy hero and did my Shadow Dragon up like the Pathfinder Black Dragon. That worked against the sculpt occasionally but I like the end result, especially the wings. Then I powered through three boss monsters: the ettin, the goblin archer, and the cave spider. I will finish you, Descent Box!

Thursday Night WIPs

Finished my merriod, which I like! And my Descent v1 falconer, which isn't great. But he's done. Tomorrow, the shadow dragon!

Wednesday Night WIPs

I took a week-long hiatus from painting. We just had our first child, and I thought it was appropriate.  But now our sleep is under control, and my little squirt does a lot of nursing which does not involve me. Tonight I decided to try painting again.

Here's a Merriod, falconer, lizardman shaman, and dragon ready for highlights. (hopefully tomorrow!) Most of these guys got a simple basecoat, but my vision for the dragon is a Third/Fourth Edition black dragon, so he can start at 100 percent black, then drybrush in the blues and purples.

Why did I say we have sleep under control? I am tired as hell...