2024 Painting Log

I’ve finished up the current queue of Mythic Battles: Ragnarök figures, meaning that I now have enough painted miniatures to play the next two scenarios in the game. I’ve got some trees and stone slabs mostly done (just waiting for varnish), but after that I’ll be taking a short break from the frozen north to catch up on Star Wars Shatterpoint.

Most of these were done with the same method I’ve been using all along, black primer and lots of drybrushing. Fenrir took no time at all (I even painted his alternate head). Thor and the Ulfhednar were a little more involved but still relatively straightforward. The source lighting on Thor was done to match the card artwork.

I tried a different approach for the Seers. I’ve been playing around with Speedpaints but so far only over black primer/drybrushed (still not calling it Slap Chop, seriously, it’s a kitchen gadget). This time I thought I’d try the Speedpaints as they’re meant to be used, over white primer without any pre-shading. The results came out okay, but I did end up doing a lot of touch up and drybrushing with traditional paints after the Speedpaint had dried. I don’t know that I’ll ever be able to do a model using only the Speedpaint method, but they’re good to have in my toolbox — if nothing else, they’re great as highly pigmented washes.

2024 models painted so far: 132, for 5 different games

The new edition of Gangs of Rome has rules for throwing roof tiles, amphora (clay jars), and sacks of grain, and a terrific set of accompanying scatter terrain. They’ve also got Talavus, a non-player character who will cheerfully throw bricks at passing gang fighters if they get too close to him.

This pack mule is part of Warlord’s Hail Caesar range. I don’t play that game and I’m not likely to get into it, but I was trying to get to the threshold for free shipping and thought this figure might be useful for Gangs of Rome. It’s generic enough that it wouldn’t look out of place in a wild west game, or a medieval fantasy setting. Anything that uses mules to carry stuff, really.

2024 models painted so far: 134, for 5 different games
2024 pieces of scatter terrain painted so far: 18

Although it plays on a printed board and doesn’t generally use terrain, Mythic Battles does have a few characters who can pick up trees and throw them or smack their enemies with them, so the game comes with some scatter that needed to be painted. The rocks interfere with ranged attacks, so I suppose the 3D pieces are just there as a reminder.

I recently received this miniature of Skadi as a damage replacement. Since the color scheme looked fairly simple, I thought I might as well go ahead and get it painted before putting it in the box. One less thing to worry about later.

2024 models painted so far: 135, for 5 different games
2024 pieces of scatter terrain painted so far: 36 (but are we seriously keeping track?)

Finally, Darth Vader enters the Shatterpoint continuum. This batch of figures wasn’t all that interesting to paint, being as monochromatic as they are, but at least they were quick. I did use blue rather that grey for Vader’s highlights, but the most exciting bits were the Trooper Sergeant’s shoulder pad and Vader’s lightsaber. This is a problem that isn’t going to go away, especially as the game delves further into the classic trilogy, so a challenge will be to start finding ways to make single-color characters more interesting. The characters from Rebels should provide some relief from that, but they almost go too far in the other direction.

This time I did the bases first instead of leaving them for last, which was the right move. When drybrushing the figure it’s a lot easier to avoid “splashing” onto the base (as opposed to the reverse), and it was nice to finish each figure and not have to go “oh wait, I still need to do the base.”

These were done almost entirely with drybrushing over a base color. For the troopers my base coat was a little too light, so I got a chance to experiment with some wash medium that I bought last year but never got around to using. I mixed a warm grey wash to darken them up just a bit, then drybrushed white over that. I used Speedpaint black for the armor gaps and weapons.

I honestly can’t remember why I bought the Lead by Example set — it certainly wasn’t because I wanted to paint more clones. I’m hoping that if they do any more of the prequel-era Jedi Masters for Shatterpoint, they stop putting them in sets with more clone troopers. There is a Jedi Council set coming soon that looks to buck the trend, so here’s hoping.

The clones were done the same way as Vader’s stormtroopers (in fact, I did them first to get the technique down). For the dark grey decorative bits of armor I used Gravelord Grey Speedpaint.

Plo Koon and Ahsoka started out with black primer followed by brown drybrushing, then the usual base color – wash – drybrush. I sometimes think I rely too much on drybrushing, so for Ahsoka I decided to try painting in the shadow areas and highlights, and only drybrushed the green lightsaber glow. I think it looks pretty good, and I did like having more control over where the paint goes. I will probably experiment further with this style on the next batch, especially the Rebels crew.

2024 models painted so far: 144, for 5 different games

Out of these four, Boushh and Lando were the most satisfying to paint. Luke in his all-black outfit just wasn’t all that interesting, and Artoo was pretty difficult — for some reason I got really hung up on the blue stripy bits on his front.

For Boushh and Lando I started with black primer, then drybrushed in brown, then basecoated the lighter colors (Lando’s pants, Boushh’s tunic and boots) and the smaller details like belts and weapons. Then hit them both with an Army Painter strong tone wash, followed by drybrushing with Reaper Yellowed Bone for highlights.

Luke was even simpler, with black primer, dark grey drybrush, and then filling in the lighter colors on his head and lightsaber. I tried painting in some lighter grey highlights but it didn’t look very good so I dulled them down with a Dark Tone wash.

Artoo was done more or less the same way as the Stormtroopers and Clone Troopers from the previous post: light grey primer, a slightly darker grey wash (made using Reaper’s wash medium, which is pretty good for making their paints into washes), then white drybrushing and filling in the details on his dome, chest and feet. The serving tray was gold and silver followed by a Strong Tone wash.

I am somewhat tempted to pick up a second copy of this pack. Not because I relish the idea of painting Artoo again, but because all four characters have alternate options. Luke can be with or without the sort of tunic-vest he wears at the beginning of Return of the Jedi (I didn’t realize this until I was halfway through assembling him), Lando and Leia have no-helmet options which I think might be interesting, and Artoo has an option to skip the serving tray and add his third leg and tilted body for when he’s moving at speed. Maybe if I find a discounted copy…

2024 models painted so far: 148, for 5 different games

You can hear that meandering theme tune now, can’t you? I like The Mandalorian, it’s like watching two kids play with their Star Wars action figures in the sandbox. Which should make it perfect for a skirmish game, especially Shatterpoint which doesn’t get too hung up on details like what era we’re in…

These all went very quickly. Most of the characters are a single color with a few accents, so my usual technique of starting with a single color drybrushed over black primer worked very well. Assembly was pretty easy except for Moff Gideon’s Dark Troopers. Sometimes I swear Atomic Mass is just messing with us, there is no way the models need to come in this many separate pieces…

I’m happy to have these done, they’ve been parked on the shelf of opportunity for a long time. Now to get a game in…

2024 models painted so far: 155, for 5 different games

Soldiers, samurai, gunslingers, pirates… Star Wars really does have it all. I love the variety of different types of characters in the various Star Wars media, and Hondo Ohnaka is one of my favorites. Whenever he shows up you know you’re going to get that perfect blend of humor and danger that is Star Wars at its best.

These are a lot more colorful than the majority of Shatterpoint characters I’ve done so far, and they were quite a bit of fun to paint. Rather than starting with a single color I went for a more traditional method of blocking out the base colors and then adding shade and highlights with a combination of washes and brush work. The fellow in blue gave me the most trouble — I did his shoulder pads in a silver that ended up being pretty overwhelming, and then spent a lot of time trying different ways to dull it down. The other three went well though, especially Hondo himself who was an absolute treat.

2024 models painted so far: 159, for 5 different games

Some time ago I posted on a wishlist forum for Shatterpoint that I wanted to see a set of the four main characters escaping from the Death Star in the original film. While I don’t imagine that my post influenced Atomic Mass’s decision to make this squad pack, I’m still happy they did. I’ve had a lot of practice painting white armor so this one was a breeze to do.

I started with grey primer, then a base coat in a slightly lighter, cooler grey, then drybrushed up through light grey to white. I used speedpaints for the skin, hair, weapons, and the dark areas between the armor plates.

For Chewbacca I started with black primer and drybrushed brown, occasionally course-correcting with brown speedpaints and washes. If you look at photos of Chewbacca he’s not a uniform brown color, he’s got patches of dark grey across his torso and shoulders. I’m not sure if I quite managed that, but I like the way he looks so we’ll call it good.

2024 models painted so far: 163, for 5 different games