2022 a year for resolutions… right?

Too many projects! I’m loosing oversight… at least the heresy miniatures ladies are now done. As well as the pesky bug.

Sometimes I do make impulse buys. This was one. I need Andy to make the skellibob KS so I bought some metal to keep him afloat a bit longer.

Not quite finished but I lack some inspiration at the moment… ideas?

Just to round up the experiment here is the video that I took that Sunday. Beware: it was a spontaneous stream and I might be of camera more then once

I then tried a few more freehands on the back.

In the last Freehand I had painted Blood Red over the Fiery Giant Orange and that is a very aggressive red.

Conclusion: The Speedpaints from Armypainter do what they are supposed to do and as they are advertised. And that for a quite reasonable price. 34€ for 10 colours and a good brush are a worthwhile investment. Will I paint everything with them now? No, there are still too few colours for that and I don’t want to paint my armies differently “in the middle”. However, future projects and especially board game miniatures will probably be painted with it. A clear buy recommendation if you keep in mind the limitations and protect the minis with a layer of varnish from time to time.

As a reminder, here is the video of Army Painter itself:

[1] A small drop of bitterness: The 28-page painting guide stated on the package only has 24 pages. Has someone miscounted or should there be a new version of the guide that also contains the Speedpaints? They are missing.

After that it was one after the other: Goblin Green (Citadel) for the base, Boltgun Metal (Citadel) for the shoulder armour and the helmet and Pallid Bone (AP Speedpaint) for the horns and skulls. The teeth got a new base coat of white and then a small drop of Pallid Bone as well. Not to be seen on this photo: the round “back shields” are all painted with Fire Giant Orange (AP Speedpaint). And here you can see what Army Painter said before: Speedpaints are not good for smooth surfaces. The result is not bad but you have to be much more careful that the paint doesn’t pool.

After more Goblin Green for the bases, I experimented with “paint over paint” to see what the “it reactivates the paint” panic was all about. And with the best will in the world: nothing reactivated for me. However, my minis have also been able to dry for more than 48 hours. It should be mentioned, however, that Army Painter itself says: if you want to paint over Speedpaints, you should let them dry very well or better still protect them with a layer of Varnish.

This colleague (first picture) got a little Highlord Blue (Speedpaint) on his face and the green seems unchanged.

[The following text is translated with https://www.deepl.com because I can’t be bothered to do it on my own. Apollogies!]

There are many paints on the market for our hobby that say “one coat and good”. The best known are the Contrast Paints from Games Workshop. But they were always far too expensive for me, I don’t like pots as a form of paint, and then you always hear how different they are in consistency and opacity.

Enter Army Painter SpeedPaint. Even beforehand, a few YouTubers were able to try these paints and the general consensus was: do what they are supposed to and are all similar in opacity and consistency.

So I did something I don’t normally do: I pre-ordered a starter set of 10 colours.

To familiarise myself with the colours, I dug out some old models. Space Goff Orcs where someone (maybe even myself) cut off the weapons to use them as linemen at Blood Bowl. All already primed white. How handy!

Slowly I feel my hobby mojo dripping away… but this time not due to lack of want but an infection on a root of a tooth… painkillers and antibiotics are my diet right now… well.. past-me should have taken better care of his teeth…

But Clan Wren is done! Only thing that bugs me about that is that none of the pictures really show the gold how it is… :S

And here are the final results

So I’m still painting on my Clan Wren minis and they are almost done… but I needed something different.

Next to me there sitting silicone moulds from Green Stuff World and I never used them. So on Friday night I just went to town. The first batch (and the rest of my casting material) didn’t go too well. Most parts where way to thin and broke when I de-moulded them. So on Saturday of to the local arts ant crafts store and some more casting material is bought.

This time I made more material as I didn’t have enough in attempt #1 and used a metal spatula to scrape the top of. That helped a lot in regards of filling everything and not having to sand things down later.

Some of the broken pieces (the wall parts in the upper left corner of the picture, the arch- and doorways) have been glued back to back with intact parts from the second cast. So now I have some parts that actually are usable.

I really don’t know when or if I’ll ever need these parts… but I have them now. May even cast up some more… because you can never have not enough tiles can you?

So like most other empire troopers… these where done quick! What did I do?

• prime with Army Painter black
• drybrush with a mix of Army Painter black and Vallejo Game heavy bluegrey in three different mix ratios
• paint red details and eyes
• green dot on the scope
• Army Painter barbarian flesh for the faces
• browns for the hair
• Army Painter matt varnish (ALL OF THEM!)
• Army Painter gloss varnish brushed on the shiny boots, gloves, helmets and armour parts.

DONE!

So this is the Vital Assets pack for Star Wars: Legion. There is a lot of stuff in it but all very much basic. Even the two hostage minis have very limited colour ranges on them. Senator Riyo Chuchi and Rune Haako. And that lead to my finishing Haako on the 13th, Chuchi on the 14th and the rest took me two more evenings.

I think I need help.

And now…. next up:

More Star Wars. Can you guess what?

One week has passed and I managed to finish them. And are they a delight to paint!

One small manufacturer for minis I really like is Morgue Miniatures. Their latest Kickstarter was Hellions. Nice undead evil looking dudes.

The plan was to paint some Star Wars Legion after Papa Diabulus but then the Kickstarter finally arrived. And now I’ve build and based them. Might as well go all the way now…

Too late, too dark and too cold now to go out and prime them but there is always tomorrow….

So last year @brennon made me buy this lovely Papa Diabulus from antediluvian miniatures (currently out of stock) by writing words here on the site. Damn you Ben!

This is my first painted mini of 2022

So 2022 is 4 days old and I already have spend my budget for January. Well at least if FantasyWelt actually delivers my Bot War Turbo Edition pre-order from November 2021.  Which could actually happen since I talked to one Anthony from Traders Galaxy. He said that the shipment for FantasyWelt has arrived at the store today. (And he also made me join the Bot War Facepage group because there is a painting contest at the start of February… ARGH!)

Also waiting for the Army Painter Speedpaints beginner set.

Oh and I still need to go through all my Celtos stuff to see what I can use for Frostgrave and what I need to buy for warbands and monsters. And wizards.

Makes me almost glad Atomic Mass Games hasn’t announced anything for Star Wars: Legion yet….

Oh and then there is unpainted SW:L stuff sitting here and some boxes of Battletech…

Why… WHY?! Why am I in this hobby.

In other news: My wife gifted me for Christmas:

• 2 Winsor & Newton Series 7 (size 0 and 1)
• Battletech novels
• a tamiya hobby saw with two blades
• and I’m sure something else I completely forgot because I’m a horrible person

Oh and there are still two sets of silicone moulds from GSW (Dungeon and Stonework) that I need to try out.

Again: why am I doing this?