Kingdom Death Monster - Zachary

Woohoo - I finally started painting my KDM set!

As you can see, I tried to really push the contrast for the OSL on this one.  Considering it's the first time I've done this, I'm really happy with how it came out.  What does put me in two minds though is the fact that now I've done this, I have to do this for all the survivors and monsters otherwise they will look odd next to each other on the board!

The other thing that happened is that midway through painting this, I lost motivation and it sat there for a couple of weeks while I waited for a spark of interest to return.  Looking back, I've been doing a lot of single minis so I think I need to cleanse my palette by doing some simple army painting (i.e. basecoat and wash).

Zombie game - Smith - Complete

Wow - it's been a long time since I posted an update here.  I actually did a whole bunch of painting at Christmas (when I had some sudden inspiration!) but outside of that ... yeah, it's been a while.

Partly, it was because it got cold in Hong Kong.  Without any real form of heating, you end up wearing so many layers (and still find it's cold!) that fine motor control for painting is the last thing you want to do.  That doesn't fully explain it though.  The reality is that, even after the temperature warmed up, I didn't have much motivation to paint. 

Part of the reason for this is that at some time over the last year, I changed from painting for stress relief to painting for games.  And seeing as my current lifestyle means that I don't have much time to game ... yeah, there went my motivation.

I still don't have much time to game but I do have an intention to do more painting.  Not for stress relief but just so that I can get that measure of satisfaction that comes from looking at a finished mini and saying, "I did that."

Anyway, another finished mini!

A quick paint job but I like how his trousers came out.  And as you can see, I still struggle with black!

Zombie game - Zombie Dogz - Complete

An entry in my series of "Anyone can paint"*

As with my other zombie figures, these are painted to a basic tabletop quality.  The paint job consists of a basecoat and wash followed by the blood effects.  Simple, easy, quick while still looking okay on the table.  👍

I didn't even bother painting eyes!

I also didn't bother breaking out my lightbox for these pictures as there isn't much detail to look at.  Slightly larger picture of the dogz below though.

* Not an actual series but it probably ought to be!

Zombie game - Will - Complete

This is an interesting paint job in that it was done at two different times and at two different levels.  I actually started painting it a while ago.  At that time, I was still painting to the usual careful standard that I have been applying to my survivor minis.

However, in the middle of painting this, I took a bit of a painting break.  After I came back, I wasn't very keen on revisiting this mini so I painted the rest of it to a much quicker (and lower) standard.

As a result, you can actually see very clearly which part of the mini was painted before the break and which parts were painted after the break.

Either way, glad to get this mini finished and to move on.

Also, just realised that I forgot to put the blood effect on the zombie version so that's something I'll need to go back and fix.

Zombie game - Helen - Complete

Went back to a quick paint job for my next mini.  Didn't do a good job with the face but given I was going for more of a speedpaint with this min, I'm okay with the end result.

Zombie game - Chuck - Complete

Despite my initial assertions that I would do simpler paint jobs with the aim of getting more minis painted, I couldn't help myself and reverted to type when painting Chuck.  Primarily, I wanted to do a bit of wet blending on the shirt to try and get a nice blend over the belly.

I'm actually really happy with the end result!

Galaxy Defenders - Agent G-Droid - Complete

After another unplanned hiatus, I finally managed to finish some more minis.

This is Robocop Agent G-Droid from Galaxy Defenders.

I used the same technique I previously used in painting the Nexus.  However, I ended up slopping on the blue wash a bit too thickly which resulted in it pooling in certain areas.  oops.

Still, the key thing is that I have now finished painting all of my Galaxy Defenders minis!  Woot!

Galaxy Defenders - Xeno-Hunter - Complete

This is the Predator Xeno-Hunter from Galaxy Defenders.

I actually managed to finish this mini last week but never got around to taking the picture.  I really enjoyed painting this mini which was part of the reason that Agent Iron was sitting around with an unfinished base for so long.  In particular, I enjoyed painting the skin and think I did a good job with it.

As I had two of the mini's, I painted one of them with blue highlights and the other with red highlights.

Naturally, I had to take a picture of the Predator Xeno-Hunter together with Dutch Agent Iron.

Galaxy Defenders - Agent Iron - Complete

This is Dutch Agent Iron from Galaxy Defenders.

I've actually had him finished for a while but hadn't completed the base.  I finally finished the base so here is the completed Agent Iron.  Overall, I'm fairly happy with the paint job but have to admit that I really need more practice painting black armour. :)

Galaxy Defenders - Agent Silver - Complete

This is Ripley Agent Silver from Galaxy Defenders.

Still trying to find the right balance between quality and speed.  In some regards, I'm quite happy with how this mini came out.  I am trying to do less work on highlighting and relying on a wash for shading.  The result still looks decent from a tabletop perspective but I am keen to try speeding up some more.

I did try a little experiment by adding a little bit of blue to the shading.  The hope was to make the model complementary with the Xeno-Morph model (for obvious reasons!).  However, I'm not very happy with the result.  In particular, the shirt doesn't look very good with blue in the shade areas as it looks a little odd.  I managed to hide it partially in the photo but the actual mini itself looks a little odd.

For comparison, here is Agent Silver next to the Xeno-Morph.

Galaxy Defenders - Xeno-Morph - Complete

I'm finally painting again!

Just doing some rough tabletop quality painting as I now have a mountain of minis to get through.  I figure at this point that it's more important to get through them before I start trying new techniques etc.

Below is the alien Xeno-Morph from Galaxy Defenders.  This was one of the KS sculpts and is inspired by the classic Alien from the movies.  The mini itself is done with just drybrushing and a little bit of edge highlighting at the tail.

As you can see from the photo, it's been sitting around on my table for a while - such that it's covered with random hair and dust.  :(

Galaxy Defenders - Agent Chromium - Complete

Agent Chromium - which completes all the agents from the GD base set.  I still have some of the KS exclusives to go through but this does feel like a real milestone!

In particular, I'm really happy with how the face came out.  To start with, it's a great sculpt but I think I managed to imbue it with a level of intensity that I didn't get in some of my other minis.

Galaxy Defenders - Agent Thorium - Complete

Another completed GD hero mini!  Yay!

Below is Agent Thorium who has a completely different colour scheme to the other hero minis. I'm not actually sure why that is the case but even the official art has Thorium with a completely different scheme. I also tried to find some thin clear plastic so that I could add a "virtual screen" to his hand (the official art has him pressing some buttons on "something"). Unfortunately, I couldn't find anything and didn't want to spend money on it. Will try to keep an eye out in future.

Galaxy Defenders - Agent Titanium - Complete

My third agent completed!  Woot - I will soon have a full squad (which is 5) which means I will soon be able to actually play the game!

This is the first time I've done African skin.  No idea how realistic the paint job is but I'm really happy with the overall job I did.  At this stage, it's worth mentioning that I started this mini right at the time that Ghool posted his quick tip on African skin - which was really helpful!

Galaxy Defenders - Agent Iridium - Complete

Yet another completed GD mini.  I'm on a roll!

I'm actually really happy with how this mini came out.  Similar to Agent Mercury, this is probably the best that my current skill level can achieve.  I actually considered trying some freehand on the cloak but chickened out in the end.

Galaxy Defenders - Agent Mercury - Complete

Another completed GD mini!

I'm now onto the main agent minis so it feels like I'm close to completing the set.  The below is Agent Mercury which is a scout/infiltrator type character.  The sculpt is quite cool and I had a lot of fun painting her which resulted in me spending a fair amount of time on her trying to get some nice blends.  Overall, I'm actually really happy with the paint job I did.

Which is why I'm so annoyed that the varnish bubbled up and, to an extent, ruined the paint job slightly.
>:(

Galaxy Defenders - GD 209 and Sentry Gun - Complete

Some more completed GD models!

Went for a relatively simple paint scheme and tried to add a bit of variety using highlighting.  Overall, I'm relatively pleased with the final result.  In terms of what I would improve with more time, it would be to add more contrast and highlight the green to an even brighter shade.

Galaxy Defenders - MIB agents - Complete

Took a bit of a break from painting over the last month or two but I'm now back in action!

Finished off the MIB agents from Galaxy Defenders.  I'm not good at painting black and white so I tried an experiment to see if I could get decent tabletop quality results quickly.  Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo, the experiment failed.  By that time, I couldn't be bothered cleaning the mini and restarting so I just kept it and moved on.

Galaxy Defenders - Xenobots - Complete

Finished off the Xenobots.  This is actually a really simple paint scheme which I found online but which still manages to looks very nice.

Galaxy Defenders - Spine Critter and Aracnos - Complete

I finally managed to get my Spine Critters and Aracnos sealed which means they are now finally completed!

Mentioned it before but its worth repeating - I had a lot of trouble painting these and in fact, I actually had to clean them and start from scratch at one point.  By the end, I was just looking to get them done and off the painting table.

Ultimately, even by tabletop standards, I'm not super happy with them but they are good enough for the table.