At the end of Paint Club tonight I picked up a paper bag that I brought chips in, and it was heavy with moisture. "Oh," I thought, "that explains it." That's why I was working on 5 projects at once; that's why all of the paint I put down. Would. Not. Dry. You. Guys.
So Yochlol, Dritzzt, and Drizzt's panther Guenhwyvar are all done, and I'm pretty happy with my progress on the Drow Priestess and Athrogate. Progress is good, new minis start arriving in the mail tomorrow!
Tonight I did Wulfgar from Legends of Drizzt. How great is this as sculpt? I mean, it's not that great, kind of all in one plane, lacking a certain dynamism. But still, it's all fur and flesh, it was a blast to paint.
He's one sword away from being Fafhrd.
I wasn't able to paint on Sunday but I got a half hour tonight to start new projects. These Lizardmen are a gift from Matt, they came with a Citadel paint starter that he got years ago, and he gave me their three sprues on the first night of Paint Club. The goblins are from Legend of Drizzt, my next D&D set, and I've got the basecoats at various stages of completion.
Today I finished Ashardalon, Ancient Red Dragon, the last piece in my Wrath of Ashardalon set. I've still got the whole set out, so here's their yearbook photo.
Ashardalon himself came out okay but looked dodgy during the process, I thought the wash was too heavy and would make the whole thing muddy. But my highlights worked to bring out the colors I wanted. I'm starting to blend a little with a watery midpoint when the shades and highlights get too dramatic, and it's a good technique. So he's ready to set fire to all adventurers within two tiles.
On Friday I didn't have much time but I did finish that young Green Dragon. Here's all my practice Bones together... except for three goblins that are already downstairs filed under G for Goblin. I love these Bones.
That's the Bones Young Fire Dragon on the right and Ashardalon on the left, both having received washes. Big A is dripping and pooling. My Reaper dragon is almost dry, I can just see one or two wet spots that will fuck up a drybrush if I start it. So tomorrow night both of these guys get the Finishing Moves.
In the foreground is the Rage Drake from the Ashardalon set. He's not wet, he's done. He came out looking a lot like my prepainted drake... so mission accomplished! Now in an encounter I can field two of them!
Tonight I knew I could finish my Bones Giant Spider, but I'd only get through the Ashardalon Human Cleric if I was lucky. Which I was, although I'm also up late. So Spider here is a simple drybrush job, lots of chitinous surfaces to catch four ascending shades of blue. I did the mandible in transparent blue to suggest that they were dripping with venom.
The cleric looks pretty good for how fast he came together. You'll just have to trust me, though, because he's designed to photograph well on the shield and the cloak and nothing else. I had to hold his plastic arm down while I did the face. I guess you don't enjoy photos of minis; that the actual use case is the physical mini that you turn around and look at, but this sculpt blocks you at literally every turn. It is dynamic, I'll give them that. The armor had lots of big interesting blocks, and this would be a good candidate for NMM, but instead I just went all metallic or white. In sharp light it gives the effect I was after: the White Cleric to go with my Red Fighter, Blue Paladin, Green Wizard, and Yellow Rogue.
I finished one of these guys yesterday, but my baby had a five hour meltdown and there was never time for a blog picture. So! Two from Ashardalon: the Half-Orc Rogue and the Otyugh! Accompanying them is the star of yesterday's WIP pic, the Bones Minotaur!
This rogue is a badass, a really expressive sculpt. He may be getting sneak attacks because the monsters are afraid to admit they spotted him. I love how he's a rogue and... how to put this... not a halfling.
I wanted to do the minotaur in white, so I started with yellow and worked up. White bulls are more likely to have grey skin folds, but I know I've seen animals like him somewhere. I may end up with one or two more of these guys to do different hides and colors.
The otyugh turned into the Hitchhiker's Guide Guy, but in my defense not until the very end of my paint job! The traditional colors are brown or orange, but I got a nice dinosaur look out of this green and yellow; it grounds him in reality even though he had three legs and two hairbrush tentacles.
Tomorrow is Paint Club! I've got nine more minis in this set, and I might knock out between four and six of them!
