Epoxy + end of the night project =

Well, it wasn't nearly as bad as it could have been.  I was slow in getting together all the things I wanted to epoxy so it set up before I was done.  That meant mixing another micro-batch.

Paint night went very well.  I had one new painter who already has good brush control so he's going to be a fun addition if he keeps showing up.  As with all new painters he's a little hesitant but once he gets some confidence he'll be slappin' paint like the rest of us.

I was able to get the lesser earth elemental painted and sealed with time to spare.  He's one of the epoxy items from above.  Time was taken as I confirmed what size base he needed, since I somehow misplaced the one that should have been in his package.  I know I'll find it now that I replaced it.

Due to circumstances I didn't have nearly as much time to paint as I normally would but I actually expected that.  I did a nice amount in the time I had.  But I did have to do something that I prefer not to do - leave a color unfinished.  Typically I'll try to finish up a color so that when I pick up the figure again I can move forward.  In this case I got the base coat done and that was it.  There won't be that much highlighting (and a colored wash on one thing) but it irks me that it's unfinished.   I just don't have the time to do it tonight.

The lesser earth elemental actually isn't for my tournament army.  It's for my optional 1,500 point army used for pickup games.  But it was assembled and easy enough that I could work on it at paint night so I decided to get it out of the way.  And I did.  Yay me.

Contemplating the amount of time before I leave and what I need to do has been a painful experience.  My goal right now is to get all the figures painted and the base material glued in place.  Priming it would be a bonus.  Then I can take the paints and static grass with me and finish them in the hotel when I'm visiting my dad.  Yes, I take time out for myself when I visit him.  I suppose I could take them to his house when I visit but it doesn't seem right.  I would have to take a few paints with me but they're legit to take on the plane and I don't mind taking half a dozen little paint bottles.  I'll already have the brushes.

I just checked on the last dwarf with epoxy and it looks like his hand/weapon are going to stay attached at the angle I wanted.  I'll leave him braced overnight just to be sure.  One nice thing about the epoxy is that it also works as filler for the joints.

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Paint .. Paint .. Pay Bills .. Paint .. Prep .. Post

I think I'll grow tired of these subject lines in the near future but no promises.

Errands and other things kept me from painting until a bit later in the evening but I made very good progress on the piercers (archers).  Even though they're all in the same pose I have to take the time to make the hair/beards different colors.  It's a quirk of mine and I like the way it breaks up the army.  So all the beards are done and the belt pouches except for the detail since that's a color I'm using later in the paint job.  I also touched up the primer (again) on the bits where it rubbed off.

I can see these getting done by the end of the week,easily.  I'm pushing it out because tomorrow is paint night and I'm not sure how much time I'll get to paint after all that.  I will be working on the lesser earth elemental so with any luck that additional figure will be done.  That would be spiffy.

I did take the time to prime up the next figure so I can move on quickly.  She really needs to be painted in 2 parts so the pieces are set up separately.  I was pondering colors as I was priming her.  I see a lot of white on this one for some reason.

I also started assembly on the last figure.  He's going to need epoxy to hold his appendages in place.  There's no pegs of any kind so it's all face-to-face assembly.  That doesn't hold well with superglue and I'm just not up to pinning them.  I'll mix a little epoxy and get that done quickly enough.  The odd thing tho is that this figure is very much like the mancatchers in how he's designed so I can use the same color scheme and painting order to get him done.  The hard work is already completed (decided what colors go where) so I can just fill in the pieces.

I keep all my colors on notecards for the army figures.  That way if I need to paint more later I know what colors I used where.  The unique figures don't get cards since if I ever do paint them again they'll be different.  Why would I paint a unique figure again?  Some special army sub-lists remove the 'unique' flag from figures.

I'm actually quite pleased with how these are looking but I'm getting darn sick of painting them.  I don't think I'll be choosing dwarf figures for paint-and-take at ReaperCon this year.

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Paint .. Paint .. Paint .. Post .. Paint

I think you get the idea.

To tell the truth I'm getting heartily sick of painting dwarves.  I know I'm on the home stretch and there really weren't that many and I should have been painting them much earlier but none of that really matters when I'm sitting at the paint table and painting more dwarves.

The piercers (archers) are actually coming along nicely.  They're mostly armor and that paints up fast.  As always there's some fiddly bits that will take a little more attention but that's to be expected.

I hoped to be farther along tonight than I am (going to do a bit more painting yet after posting this) but I also thought that the armor was complete after last night.  It wasn't.  Oh well.  It is now.

At paint night this week I hope to paint up the lesser earth elemental.  I'm not using him in this army build but I have my reasons for choosing him.

1. He's not very futzy so I can paint him reasonably well at paint night
2. I can use him in the 1,500 point pickup games, if I play
3. He'll be done

I think those are all very good reasons to paint him.

Back to the table.

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Progress on dwarfy goodness

The dwarf army is progressing!  The mancatchers are done and the bear rider captain is done except for the darklining.  I painted her up today.  She wasn't a 2 hour paint job, unfortunately.

The missing figures came in today's mail so now I have all the models I need to complete my army list.   Next on the block will be 4 archers (piercers).  They're the last of the multiple figures, which is true army painting.  It's assembly line work but in a way it's fun.

Then I have 2 unique models.  One is pretty simple, one has a lot of detail.  I'm going to work on the detailed one next and save the simple one as a treat for finishing all of these up.  I'm rather proud of myself for getting these done to my painting standards.  I probably could have been a lot farther had I not decided that I wasn't going to rush them just to get them done.  I'm never happy with the result when I do that.

I've been playing with doing colored washes over the metallics.  I started on the mancatchers with a blue wash over the gold to bring out the details and tone it down a little.  The bear rider captain (Ursula) got the blue wash over all of her armor and a red wash over the gold on some of her weapons.  It adds a nice variety to the metals and I'm looking forward to experimenting with this more.

I've got some time left tonight so I'll probably take that last piercer out of the package and get him ready for priming.  I have to glue his arms on and I like them to set for a while before I start painting.

As I've been painting these I've found quite a few mold lines that I missed when cleaning them up.  I was tempted to clean them some more and prime those spots again but I know where that leads.  There's always mold lines unless you're completely obsessive about it.  These aren't for a painting competition.  They're tabletop army figures.  A few mold lines won't matter.  I try to clean them up nicely and if I miss something really obvious I'll go back and get it but I won't worry if I find one here or there.

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And back to the paint table I go

My sojourn into sewing completed, I hit the paint table again.  Well, not literally "hit" because that would have made a mess.

Of course I've had a few delays that put me about 2 hours behind my designated paint schedule over the last 2 days.  And guess what, I'm about 2 hours away from completing these guys.  Funny that.  And I mean complete up to the lining.  I always let the figures sit for at least a day after the last paint before I put on the varnish.  I like to make sure the paint is completely dry.

3 mancatchers, 3 different eye colors, 3 different beard colors and just for fun 3 slightly different bedroll colors.  The bedroll color differences are so slight I really should have just painted them all the same.  I'm going to file that away for future reference.

What's left?  The highlighting on the grip bands on the polearms, the blades of the polearms, some metallic accents like rivets, and the darklining.  Not a lot, not a lot of work, but enough to keep me amused.  I don't think we have plans for tomorrow night so Spaghetti willing and the creek don't rise these guys will be painted by the end of Friday night.

I got word that 5 of the 9 minis I sent off to be painted are going to be coming home soon enough that I can use them at ReaperCon as I hoped.  I only need 4 in my army so I'm very happy that I'll have enough.  The problem is going to be choosing the ones I want to use.  Actually, that isn't my problem.  I told Mr. Rastl he gets to choose the minis when I have more painted than I need.  He said it's just so I can blame him if I lose.  He's right.

No gaming this weekend so that gives me large blocks of time when I can paint.  Hopefully.  I'm sort of scheduled to go to a gem and jewelry show on Sunday but that's looking iffy on my companion's part and I won't be all that disappointed if we don't go.  I will miss the used book store we were also going to visit but there's a good chance I need to head up that way with Mr. Rastl for a project I just handed him.

Mr. Rastl and I had a franker-than-normal discussion about my birthday present.  Yes, it's coming up.  We're at the point in our lives when we really don't need anything and if we want it, we buy it.  So presents are difficult.  After some thought I said I would really like and use one of the portable light boxes so that I could actually take pictures without a lot of setup.  I found one I liked, sent him the link, and I believe he ordered it.  Not a lot of surprise there but something that I will truly appreciate and enjoy.  Sometimes getting old isn't that bad.

And finally, I handed off a project to Mr. Rastl as noted above.  One thing that's really cool when showing miniatures is the 360 degree view, like I did for the exchange piece.  That was a lot of work:  moving the turntable, taking pictures, editing, making a video file.  So I'm asking for a turntable that turns at about 1 revolution per minute, perfectly smooth.  I have to send him the details but he's already got ideas.

If anyone can make this, it's Mr. Rastl.  Seriously.

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Dwarf army update

This is pretty much my main project right now.  I've tweaked the army list some more but luckily that didn't remove any figures I already had painted or I probably would have gotten very annoyed at myself.

The bear riders are done.  I might put one more highlight on the gold metallic but that's in the 'nice to have' category.  I'll have the color out in the next day or so and I'll make my decision then.  I did try something new to do black hair and I'd rate it 6 out of 10.  It will do for now.

The mancatchers are pretty darn close to done.  Faces and hair, the polearms, and a few miscellaneous metallic buckles and such.  I had a bit of a mental block less than halfway through but once I got past that things really moved along nicely.

The only remaining multiple figures are the archers and I don't have all of them yet.  I need 4, I have 3.  So the last one is on order.  Since it isn't efficient to paint the other 3 I'll turn my attention to the unique figures that need painting.  Given that I'm missing 2 of the 4 uniques (on order) that gives me a very small painting selection.  Hopefully the missing figures will show up soon.

Now, why did I tweak my army list again?  I realized that I was confusing 2 model types again and I could collapse some of the troops.  Letting me use the leader points on other figures.  It's a gamble.  I have fewer troops so I have fewer opportunities to use them and react to my opponent.  On the other hand these are some pretty darn solid troops so they can take a lot of abuse.  And once they hit something, it stays hit.  With the changes my point level is exactly 1,000, which is the point limit for the tournament.  Nary a wasted point.

I'm making the assumption that I'll have the 'special dwarf figures' that other people are painting back in my sweaty little hands so I can use them in the tournament.  I need 4 of them and I'm using them as a proxy for the actual figures.  So if I have time I'll paint up the actual figures as well.  Especially if it looks like I might not get them back in time.

The circumstances haven't been right for me to take pictures of anything.  Lighting, time, etc.  And the longer I wait the more pictures I have to take, edit, post, etc.  It's a vicious cycle.

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I'm debating a hobby blog split

I seem to have two entirely separate hobby interests - gaming/terrain/miniatures and sewing/handwork/dolls.  And while they're interesting to me I'm not sure how my few followers feel about mixing them in my posts.

So I've been considering starting another blog with the sewing/handwork/doll stuff since most of my friends here are part of the other hobby.  And of course the personal commentary would stay here since, well, this is where my friends are.

So chime in and let me know if you feel that separating the blogs is a good idea or if you're fine with the variety of things that show up in my blog posts.

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