Day 29: Human Wizard

Now I'm all caught up. Just in time.

You might wonder why I pick the miniatures I do for this challenge. For the most part I look at the incomplete minis I have kicking around, gauge how much work I'd need to do to finish them, then plan accordingly. Today's mini?

I'm just tired of looking at him.

 I've had this guy since I left the Navy in 2005. A buddy of mine invited me to play in his game of D&D & he I picked up this mini, Reaper's Eredain, since it looked similar to the PC he described to me (but with hair).

He's been sitting, unfinished on my to-do shelf ever since.

Until today I suppose.

I'm the kind of person that prioritizes easily completed tasks over longer jobs, and this guy has always looked like a longer job to me. Between the straps, buckles, details, bags, studs, and staff, I just felt like my time would be better spent on other minis. He's been one of the standby minis for my mini-a-day challenge since 2012, but there have always been easier minis in line ahead of him.

It's true this year too, I just really wanted this guy off my table. Maybe I painted his face to be too judgmental.

I'm glad he's done though. I hadn't originally intended to give him greying around his temples, but it looked right to me. I think it gives him character.

We're into the last two days of the challenge now. I'm working as fast as I can, so hopefully I'll have something to show tomorrow.

~Muninn

Days 27 & 28: Orc boy, & Tau Fire Warrior

Alrighty. Now that I've updated my Tyrant Guard shots, I can post these:

 First off. one of the Orc boyz from the front line of my O&G mob. I've painted the 20+ orcs that stand in the back rows, but I'm taking more time with the front.  The guys in the back will die first, and be lost in the crowd (plus they only cost 8 pts or so). But I feel like the front line should be painted well since they're the focus of attention.

I'm particularly pleased with the decapitated guy. He really looks dead to me.

Now it wouldn't be May Mini Madness without one of my white Tau. Its an easy enough scheme to accomplish with some white primer and a steady hand. So here he is.

To complete my Tau army I'm gonna want a Riptide. Although I'm not sure how well the white scheme will work on such a a large mini with flat-open spaces. I'd probably have to fiddle around with it.

More later today.

~Muninn

Day 26: Tyrant Guard

UPDATE: Now, with better pictures.

Here's an old-school Tyrant Guard. I remember buying it back in 2005 right after ended my enlistment in the Navy.

Similar to my other Tyranid, he's painted in an orange and black scheme, like my home college team (my Eldar use the same scheme as the college just down the road)
The orange took a while longer than I'd intended, so I applied the black rather hastily to try & compensate. It's not an overly detailed mini, but it is big.

It just occurred to me that I have 4 large-based minis scheduled in this last week of painting (I've got two termis left).

In the last two years of this challenge I've only ever completed one large-based mini (although he wasn't actually all that large), meanwhile this year alone I'll have finished 6.

Apparently I back-loaded this year's challenge a bit.

~Muninn

Day 25: Khador Man-O-War

Three days into the final week & I'm running a bit behind. Sunday's mini took a little more prep than I'd considered, & I bit off a good bit more than I'd intended for Monday (Suffice to say, it's large & orange. Not a good combination)

Either way, Here's Sunday. Another Warmachine model: the Khador Man-O-War. I bought this one 5 years ago during a going out of business sale for a game store about 75 miles from where I live while visiting my fiance at her college. I'd always really liked the look for this unit. They're beefy and impressive, but still seem realistic to steampunk warfare. So when I saw there were a few blisters for 50% off I went ahead & grabbed one.

I'd originally wanted to paint them in a black & gold scheme, similar to a Necron test-mini I painted a while back, but I decided to stick to the classic red, since that's how I've painted all the other Khador I've done in the past.

I'm happy with him, although once I put him next to my other Khador types it occurred to me that the others don't have much gold.  I want Khador to have a more industrial look, not fancy, so most of them are silvery & brass rather than gold. Oh well. Maybe I'll sell him or give him away. We'll have to see.

Hope to catch up soon.

~Muninn

Day 24: Dragonborn Paladin

Last October I came up with an easy method of converting a Dragonborn Paladin. I got a good head start on the paint job, but then I stopped. Mostly becuase I was stumped on how to decorate his shield.

Well I finally buckled down & finished it.

I got tired of dragging my feet, & decided to do a little castle freehand with some simple shapes. It's a nice, long shield so I painted a little laurel motif at the bottom, and a few stars in the top corners to draw attention upwards. It isn't the cleanest freehand, but not bad for having been done sitting on my couch in the middle of the night.

I wanted to Dragonborn to be Black, and almost monochrome, while still having some pops of color. That's where the blue & gold came in. I suppose I could have gone for green accents, since D&D black dragons usually have acid breath, but this works just fine.

I have another, nearly identical, conversion ready to paint. Maybe I'll do that one green.

~Muninn

Day 23: Celestial Lion (4/4)

The last Lion

 
When the new Space Marine codex came out I started formulating a new army. The idea would be a primary detachment of Iron Hands for long-range & heavy support (Techmarines, snipers, Storm Raven, dreadnought, & Thunderfire cannon) & Imperial Fists for some reliable dakka (Tac squads in rhinos, lots of bolters)

Iron Hands are easy to paint, but Fists are a pain (as noted last week). So I've been considering successor chapters. Hammers of Dorn were my first choice, but now Celestial Lions are a contender too. Iton Hands & Hammers share a very similar palette, so the two chapters might not stand out on the tabletop. Lions would however. It'd just be a matter of whether or not I could figure out an easier way to apply gold.

I think they look pretty good as a group though.

~Muninn

Day 22: Herald of Tzeentch

I built this guy/gal (Tzeentch likes to keep you guessing) a few years back because I had too many spare parts. I purchased the Vampire Counts Cairn Wraith to use the scythe on my Plaguebearer Champion, which left me with a whole lot of mini left over.

While going over my options, I noticed I had a face & hands from the Pink Horrors box. They fit nicely onto the wraith body and voila, a unique & mysterious Herald of Tzeentch.

Where's his body? Tzeentch likes to keep you guessing.

I had this almost entirely complete early Thursday, except for the base. I'd just added a wash to its base when I I tipped the mini after I'd set it down. It broke off its round base, & splattering Nuln Oil wash across the whole mini. I was able to clean most of it off under a faucet, but there are still a few spots I missed.

As I was preparing to reglue the mini to its base I remembered that this month is a WFB painting competition at my local game store. I'm not really happy with the conversion I've been intending to submit, so I decided to whip up a quick scenic base using some cork and a bit from the WFB Battle Wizard box. He's only held onto the base by a peg, since I plan on using him in my 40k army (Those Malefic powers sound crazy).

It's funny though, if I hadn't tipped the mini & broke it off its base I wouldn't have thought to use it as my fantasy competition entry. How well will it do in the painting competition?

Tzeentch likes to keep you guessing.

~Muninn