The Monthly Best

February 14, 2017 by David Springer in Miniatures

There's more to miniature painting that simply completing forces.

... Duh.

Sometimes when you get in a groove, you wind up in a rut. That's where I was stuck after painting forty Anglo-Saxon and Viking Warriors in five weeks. Burnout was on the horizon, and the easy way to stop a fire is to stop putting wood into it.

A break was needed. Something different. Something without cloth or chainmail. Science fiction would do the trick, so Drakios and Hector from Infinity were chosen after an intense hunger games competition between toy soldiers. Okay, really just a hunger games for my head, and my heart.

The Tinbot, Hector, and Drakios from the Steel Phalanx of Infinity.

Determined to reverse the burnout from painting that many little soldiers to a low standard, Hector was volunteered as the model to receive the best paint job. The shift from focusing on speed to giving myself as much time as I wanted to finish helped reverse the burnout and motivate me to pick up the brush again. Nearly twelve hours later, triple the average Infinity model paint time, Hector was ready to put his chubby face on display to the world.

The ultimate intent of doing a model to the best of your ability each month is simple: deliberate practice.

Hector showing off his back side.  I think this is the best view of the model, but that has more to do with the color choices that are obvious from this angle.  Had I chosen a better color scheme, the model would be much more interesting. — Hector showing off his back side. I think this is the best view of the model, but that has more to do with the color choices that are obvious from this angle. Had I chosen a better color scheme, the model would be much more interesting.

On Hector, the focus was smooth blending and a stronger Zenithal highlight. The result is good, but in the end doesn't quite fit the model. I think he would have turned out more interesting if I had simply done diffuse lighting, making everything pop.

The turn of this post is that even painting models as quickly as possible can be deliberate practice with a little thought applied to the process. For example, these wolf pelts that I recently painted on a few Berserkers.

Saga Berserkers parading their wolf pelts. Thankfully, the animal rights group hasn't found Saga or Vikings yet...

The pelts were an easy combination of dry brushing and applying washes. The focus was painting them quickly, but some before and after thoughts on them, as well as feedback from the experts at my FLGS, help turn it into something more than just painting quickly. Those extra efforts and thoughts are the key to improving.

This post was originally intended to emphasize the value of painting a model a month to the best of your ability. It is a good idea, and will help you improve your painting. Instead, I would rather exalt finding the nuance in all of your painting. It's in this nuance, and the celebration of it, that improvement lies.

Caledonia Coming Together

September 19, 2016 by David Springer in Miniatures

I have been watching an excess of airbrushing videos recently. YouTube's next recommended video has been a great guide. One of the videos last night was an old one from Kenny of Next Level Painting. He made the following point (summarized):

An airbrush is a great tool to help you paint faster. What makes the difference is what you so with that extra time. If you don't do anything with that time, it will only look like you airbrushed your miniature.

It is an obvious truth once I thought about it. It is noticeable when a miniature has only been painted by an airbrush, even when done well.

On the painting table recently has been the force of crazed Scotsmen known as the Caledonian Highlander Army from Infinity. They are being painted as a response to the difficulty of playing against the Steel Phalanx I currently have painted.

It should be noted that Steel Phalanx is cool. An army of AI recreated heroes from the Iliad, they are a mix of high technology and brute force.

They are also incredibly difficult for a new player to play against.

The Steel Phalanx has a host of special rules that give them a large advantage on the battlefield. They can easily form multiple link teams. Their most common trooper, the Myrmidon, has an Optical Disruption Device (ODD) that makes it very difficult to hit.

Myrmidons.  The core of Steel Phalanx and some of the most difficult troopers to play against. — Myrmidons. The core of Steel Phalanx and some of the most difficult troopers to play against.

They punch you in the mouth and easily dodge your counter punches. That makes the not very fun to play against until you have experience against them.

Caledonia has a similar spirit. They are angry Scots and Englishmen who want nothing more than to punch you in the mouth. The difference is that the Highlanders do not care enough to dodge your counter-punch.

All of my painted Caledonian Highlander Army as of September, 2017.

When I started on the Caledonians, my goal was to put together a furious (and furry) horde of kilted berserkers with some specialist support. Multiple Dog Warriors, Highlanders, units with Frenzy, and wonderfully dynamic (if uncomfortably constipated) sculpts define the faction for me.

I find that the only disappointing part of the faction is the reliance on the worst line trooper in the game, the Caledonian Volunteer. All of the Volunteer's stats are laughably bad. They only have a Paramedic specialist option. The only interesting weapon load out is a dirt cheap HMG.

Here's two of the recent Caledonian Volunteers I painted.  I did the green of their jackets using an airbrush and light shading.  These two made the quote from Kenny more relevant. — Here's two of the recent Caledonian Volunteers I painted. I did the green of their jackets using an airbrush and light shading. These two made the quote from Kenny more relevant.

The real problem I have with Volunteers is that they don't embody the faction. Haqq gets absurd WIP 14 Doctor+ directly fitting their lore. Fusiliers are better shots, but a consumer society (and potentially interference from ALEPH) has weakened their willpower. USARF Grunts have heavy armor and are shock immune from their years defending the wall.

Volunteers are cheap and bad; not the angry, scrappy survivors from a land rich with Tesium that I would expect. They should have armor 3, access to T2 weapons on base profiles, or even simply Frenzy and something like Natural Born Warrior. Instead, they are the very definition of cheerleader, but in a faction that does not have good enough units to justify them.

Volunteer complaints aside, I finally have a list painted that I think will be solid for most ITS missions. It is formed around three Dog Warriors who are responsible for shredding link teams, and utilizes William Wallace to provide free Coordinated Orders to move up the table. The list should be a blast to play, but has obvious weaknesses. Sounds classically Caledonian.

The first Caledonian list.  Scylla is my Wardriver Hacker.  She certainly has the sass for it. — The first Caledonian list. Scylla is my Wardriver Hacker. She certainly has the sass for it.

A Year of Painting

August 06, 2016 by David Springer in Miniatures

I almost didn't do this post.

To do it right potentially requires pulling out the camera and taking quality photos of newly painted figures. Honestly, I don't want to stop painting long enough to do that.

The story goes something like this. While we were in Scotland for my brother's wedding I found Sorastro's Painting Guides for Imperial Assault. I had been fooled into buying the Imperial Assault deal on Massdrop, and it had arrived shortly before we left. There was not much literature about IA, and searching for it instead produced a link to Sorastro's guides.

It only took one watch to know that I wanted to try my hand at painting.

The first Stormtroopers were full of mistakes. You can read about those mistakes here.

The first Imperial Assault Stormtroopers.  You can see the brown wash used instead of black on them.  Having the correct paint helps. — The first Imperial Assault Stormtroopers. You can see the brown wash used instead of black on them. Having the correct paint helps.

The droids that followed weren't much better, but they were easy to do.

These minor improvements continued. Each miniature introduced a new technique to understand and master.

Then Vader was the next figure I wanted to do. That said, I had zero confidence in my own ability to properly highlight a miniature. An alternative was needed. Queue Zombicide!

Zombicide comes with so many miniatures that it was the perfect tool to help get better. Painting half of the zombies and the survivors helped me understand contrast and color theory better.

The Zombicide survivors are under attack...

Then, "real" miniature games started calling. Infinity was the next game painted, and that phase lasted for a good 8 months and will continue once I have wrapped up Zombicide Black Plague (and possibly RelicBlade as well). There are still hundreds of unpainted Infinity minis. That said, many of my favorite paint jobs have been on the Infinity miniatures.

All of the Infinity miniatures completed in 2015.

Painting the Corvus Belli sculpts is quite different from painting the Imperial Assault or Zombicide minis. Infinity generally has detail to the extreme, including what could best be described as greebling. The poses aren't as dynamic as I would like, but they generally gave character and style.

After dabbling in three different factions, the Steel Phalanx of the ALEPH was the force chosen to be focus on.

The first Infinity list, 150 points of Steel Phalanx.

This was my first alternative color scheme, and it didn't really hit its stride until about 15 miniatures in. There are a few good miniatures in there and they have a similar theme, but the identity and cohesion I was hoping for never matured in a way that looked great on the table.

Infinity has officially occupied most of my painting time. I started painting Caledonians in October and continued until June when I took a break for Zombicide: Black Plague. Over 8 months of painting miniatures for the same game.

And now for a sad statistic. In that 8 months, I only completed 56 figures for my collection. That is nearly 255 days at a rate of a miniature every 4.5 days.

Ouch.

Zombicide: Black Plague has been fun even if the miniatures are a lower quality. I learned how to airbrush while painting it, and it was like being back at the beginning all over again.

The airbrushed Abominatroll next to Scowl and Grin from the Zombicide Black Plague kickstarter.

Man, I am bad at airbrushing right now. But with practice, and I have a ton of miniatures to practice on, I think it can be an amazing tool in the arsenal.

So there it is. My year of painting in review. Honestly, it was all possible because of the magical Sorasto. Please check out his guides and consider sponsoring him on Patreon if you fall in love with the hobby as I have.

Finally, here is a small gallery of how my panting has improved over the year. Thanks for reading and- to quote Sorastro- happy painting!

First Stormtrooper and Latest Infinity Trooper

The Stormtrooper was the first model I painted. And here is my last standing next to him, a Chandra Special Ops for the ALEPH faction of Infinity.

Phil from Zombicide and Scowl from Zombicide: Black Plague Kickstarter

Two versions of the law in lands overtaken by zombies. Phil was completed nearly a year prior to Scowl.

Wanda from Zombicide and Nelly from Zombicide: Black Plague

Wanda was the first miniature I painted where I was thrilled with the highlights I had done on my own. Standing next to her is Nelly, one of the first miniatures I tried to shade with something other than a wash (though I did use a wash as well...).