The Final Push – Lawnor approaches 100% painted

My prize copy of Conquest 2 player starter set arrived on Friday and I should start work on it soon so prep has begun with a good wash and scrub.  I’m not sure what colour scheme I want to work with so please please share your schemes for Spires and 100 Kingdoms with me.  I also have no clue what build options to go with for the stuff from this box to provide a fair game without buying more stuff.  I’m yet to compare this stuff to the Path of Conquest videos or look at points costs, but I will before I assemble anything.  Humans first I suspect.

I also snapped up some new brushes as my old ones were failing. As I said previously, I couldn’t get my usual ones so here’s a size comparison and a little feedback.  The black and white brushes have not even seen water yet.  The red and yellow have been used a handful of times at most so are as new.

Top to bottom:

W&N Series 7 00

W&N Series 7 1

Rosemary and Co Series 33 0

MIG MP104 1 (Red)

AMMO Synthetic Liner Brush 0/3 (Yellow)

Army painter Regiment Brush for reference as I assume everyone knows these brushes, or at least has access to them.

W&Ns are my standard.  The Rosemary & Co seems comparable in scale.  I’ve yet to test it out.  The red and yellow brushes I’ve had for a while but not used until recently.  They came in Asset Drop boxes.  When my brushes started failing I thought I’d test them.

The red brush looks great, but it loses its tip as soon as I start painting with it.  Its terrible for detail, but will hopefully be fine for open surface areas.  I hope I just got a bad brush, but I won’t be buying any more of these.

The yellow brush looks odd. It’s so long.  Its terrible for painting as it has no belly, but amazing for eyes and small dot details.  I’m loving it for that, but I do have to keep reminding myself to swap out to it .

The regiment brush is my go to mixing brush (Not used that one yet).  I always keep one on the go purely to destroy by mixing my paints with.  It tends to paint quite well to begin with, until I trash it.

I’ve got this song stuck in my head for now so I’m sharing it all with you, and asking the important question: If this was an option, why did we get the Spice Girls?

I’ve finished work on 6 of my Titan Forge Amazons.  It’s taken a while as I’ve been distratced by the D&D campaign I’m running, and my brushes are failing making everything harder and less fun.  There seems to be a shortage in the country right now.  Places are out of stock and prices are rising.  W&N S7 0’s are twice the price they usually are and twice the price of the 00 and the 1.

I’ve three dinos to paint for this warband and they’re done so I’ve started the prep work on the next project too.

I was also lucky enough to win a Conquest 2 player set from OTT this weekend so anyone fearful for my life should know that Gerry has bought me some time.

I finished the solo I started while working on Cyber beauty and I’ve also put a lot of work in to my Amazons.  The feathers are the next big step (I hate painting feathers) and I’ll be taking inspiration from the Seraphon, as this faction is clearly inspired by them and lets me add more colour.  I’ve got 3 dinosaurs yet to start work on to go with these ladies.

I’ve had this months Asset Drop box turn up with two more tiles.  I think I’ll only try out their bone recipe this month and put the crystals in my bits box until a time comes when its useful or I want to try out the recipe.

As I near the end, I feel my focus fading.  I can see me soon spending more time playing solo tabletop games and actually playing computer games again, something I haven’t done since I got in to this hobby.  I did actually start Sword Coast legends at the weekend.  Its not the best, but its not terrible.  its not really D&D and it sufers from being a toolkit with a game built in it, rather than being built as a game straight up.  It more Neverwinter Nights 3 rather than a Baldurs Gate sequel.

Cyber Beauty by Klullva Minis, based on 2B from Neir Automata.  I ran in to serious problems when I came to glue the sub assemblies together.  Either I have a misprint, or the legs need to go on in the correct order or they don’t fit.  Look at the last pic below.  I ended up having to glue that leg on with that gap.  I then had to try and fill the gap with liquid putty (Too thick.  Ended up going where I didn’t want it rather than in the gap but I got some in) and then a few coats of PVA.  Whole filling the gap I got something white all over the other leg.  The glue holding the foot to the stone stained the stones white and needed to be repainted.  While I was filling the gap an arm broke off and she came off the stones.  A lovely model to look at, but a pain in the arse to assemble.

I’ve only one KS left to turn up (Aeon Trespass: Odessey, 27ish minis) and it’s not due until end Q1 2021 (I’ll believe that when I see it) and I’m not expecting to gain any other models in the forseeable future so while I’m currently only one model ahead of where I was when I started this project, I feel I’m making good progress.

To keep the numbers always going down overall I need to get down to 35 models before AT:O arrives and I have around 3 months for that.  I have a solo just in need of a coat of varnish, two tutorial tiles almost finished, and I’ve made a good start on Cyber Beauty.

@Blinky465 asked me to document my attempt on black sheer stockings.

1: I painted the skin first.  Even where the stockings would go I shaded and highlighted fully.  Not sure this mattered in the end, but I did it.  I also did this on the end of a disposable plastic fork left over from a takeaway form The Before Times.

2: I made up a glaze from black paint.  I’ve been to sure of what I’m doing with glazes so I made a wash and used double the water and lahmium medium, s0 6 drops of each to one drop of paint.  I tested this on the fork and it did not look smooth so I added more water and kore water and more water until I ended up painting with coloured water.  I applied a coat or two of this on the fork and it was ok.  It took forever to dry between layers.  I then noticed I actually own a black ink (VGC 72.094  Dunno if these are true inks or not?) so I tried diluting that and tested it on the fork.    It dried quicker and stronger so I went with that instead.  Many coats later I ended up with what you see in the pics.  I tried to apply less layers where the flesh colour would show through more, but I don’t think I did a good job at that.  I need more practise.

3: With the stockings fully dry, I went in and painted the boots and the hem to help define the area and let me really see what I’m lookin at.  Its not bad.  Someone with more experience could get better results, but I think this method has its limits and there’s likely a better technique

I’ve been working on a Female Half-Orc barbarian, 3D print from Titan Forge for Orktober.  While painting her I also decided I would paint this months Tutorial tiles.  They currently have oil washes on them which will apparently want 24-48 hours to dry.  I also started work on the flesh on some other solos and finally started work on the last major project I pledged to get finished this year, even though she intimidates me.