Week 38 - Making Things Clearer and New Toys

So no new painting progress this week, between the weather and distractions I wasn't able to get anything assembled and base coated soon enough to get it finished for the post. I have got some things to talk about though so it isn't all bad.

In my usual meandering around the internet I came across some helpful tips on how to set up a photo booth for photographing miniatures. So I spent some of today setting one up. I still need to print off a background and get a plinth for the miniatures but I have at least got it started. So below are photos of the old booth and some comparison shots between the two. I invested in 2 additional lights but have stopped using my painting lamp, I need to see if I have sufficient lighting with the new set up but that relies on having the background...

The old photo rig. Seriously...

The new rig, missing some key pieces... Coming soon I hope!

Photo from new rig.

Photo from old rig, miniature on the left.

So a cursory look suggests I may need more light. The new photo looks more like the actual model though and has less shadowing. I need to find my tripod for future shots (or pick up a cheap one from somewhere...) and get a proper camera. The camera is the most important part of this but I can at least try and get the best shots I can in the mean time.

I finally got out and played with my airbrush today. It took a bit of faffing about to get the paint:water ratio up high enough but I eventually got the hang of it. Below is a test panel that I was playing around on once I got the ratio right-ish. The photo looks better than the piece does in person...

I still have to invest in some appropriate tools for this kind of thing and I am way off trying this out on models but messing about with it will be fun over the coming months. I'm going to have to get some felt to try it out on too...

After the assembly session Knightwolf and I had last week I have assembled a further 11 containers, so I have 20 ready for corner plating and then detailing. I have a further 2 prototypes for cold storage containers as well. I will knock up a tutorial for them all once I get hold of sufficient corner plate as they are dreadfully easy to make and very cheap too. In the mean time I did manage to get 36 crates base coated so I will probably be working on test schemes for them tonight. I have another game or two of Infinity on Monday and I plan on bringing my Morats to the table. They do suffer in low point games but hopefully I will learn about what they can do in time for bigger games. I'm going to discuss with the guys about starting to escalate the points level by 50 per month, that way it doesn't cost us much and we can build up to the more standard 300 point game size (by Feb anyway...)

Day 265
368/265 Painted/Days passed
368/366 Painted/Target (100.5%)
50/50 Dreadball: Season 1(100%)
6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)
71/71 Zombicide! (100%)
31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)
7/7 Infinity - Haqqislam (100%)
48/54 Dreadball: Season 2 (88.9%)
32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)
11/18 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (61.1%)
89/150 Corporation Marines (59.3%)
21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)
1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)
1/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.2%)

Week 37 - Crossing the Finish Line

Here we are on day 258, the 15th of September. I have officially completed 368 models as of today. This week I completed 6 more Corporation Marines as well as the last 2 Zzor, 2 more Robots, the last MVP and the Ronnie Coach, all for Dreadball. Pictures are below.

So I have learned quite a bit about myself over the last 9 months. I learned about my limits, how well I can paint at the cost of speed and how fast I can paint at the cost of quality. I learned that it takes a solid weekend of work to produce 2-3 top end quality models, one of which got me 3rd in a painting contest at a tournament. On the other end of the scale I can produce 40+ models in the same weekend if I paint them in 'board game quality' and use Army Painter dip. The compromise is that I can paint 5 models in ~2 hours to a three colour standard with minor detail work. The pile of Corp Marines I produced in the last couple weeks is proof of that.

So where am I going to go from here? Well I would like to try and reach 500 models by the end of the year. This gives me 15 weeks to complete 132 models. Very possible if I can just manage to assemble enough in that time. I also need to work on my terrain competition entry as well. I spent half a day with Knightwolf today working on some prototypes and sorting out some final materials to speed up production. I also tested some gap filler on some polystyrene for durability testing this week. Once I am confident I will purchase more gap filler and get to work on that.

From all of this I hope to start doing regular tutorials here on the blog, some of which will be things I have learned myself (like the animal print tutorials) and others will be adapting or improving tutorials I have found, making them either easier, cheaper or improving the final result. There are bound to be some posts just involving my crazy ideas, hopefully that will encourage me to actually finish some of them!

What I will add to the blog soon will be a page dedicated to finished projects, listing when they were completed, number of models and a group photo. Unfortunately several of the projects currently listed as complete will not be shortly... In particular there are quite a few models that will be arriving for Dreadball in a month or so which expand on the season 1 and 2 teams, so I will have to go back and complete those new models to truly finish those projects. I also plan on trying out each of the teams fully so I can pick one or two as 'my team(s).' These will be painted to a higher quality as I will be able to look after them more than the rest of the set. My current thinking is the Robots team but the multiplayer rules will make them a bit lacklustre. Time will tell!

Day 258
368/258 Painted/Days passed
368/366 Painted/Target (100.5%)
50/50 Dreadball: Season 1(100%)
6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)
71/71 Zombicide! (100%)
31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)
7/7 Infinity - Haqqislam (100%)
48/54 Dreadball: Season 2 (88.9%)
32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)
11/18 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (61.1%)
89/150 Corporation Marines (59.3%)
21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)
1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)
1/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.2%)

Week 36 - The End is in Sight

Another week down with more progress to show. This weeks post is early-ish because I am not really in a position to finish the challenge this week. I have just about run out of assembled models to paint! Not that I am complaining. This week I finished up 35 more Corporation Marines, which I am pretty proud of! I also painted up a pair of Generals. This brings my total to just 10 models short of completing the challenge, which is great!

This week I was also published in Ironwatch Magazine, a fan made Mantic magazine, with my tutorial from earlier this year on how to put lights in buildings. I will be looking to contribute more to the magazine in the future, with more tutorials on lighting and possibly some other terrain making articles. Assuming they will have me of course... For those interested in the magazine the links are here.

I also acquired some 2'x2' square panels for making terrain boards this week. This will be my project for the Hamilton Immortals terrain competition, ending in July next year. I am still figuring out exactly what I am going to produce but the boards are probably going to be a concrete slab design. I need to nail down what I am going to do before I just start though as it will be difficult to replace the boards. I also received my small cargo crates from Antenocitis this week. They are great little terrain pieces, I just need to clean up all the bits of silicone left in the crevices...

I played through a game on Infinity on Monday night. It was good but having had some time to reflect on what happened I can see several ways I could have done better. Particularly I didn't know you can take a 'cautious move' action, which prevents models from shooting you if you move from cover in to cover. That could have saved me quite a bit of trouble... That and taking a model with a multispectral visor, so that Knightwolfs ninja wouldn't be near invincible while camouflaged. I have another game this week so I will bring along my supply of crates to increase the available cover.

Yay just 10 models to go!!!

Day 251
356/251 Painted/Days passed
356/366 Painted/Target (97.3%)
50/50 Dreadball: Season 1(100%)
6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)
71/71 Zombicide! (100%)
31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)
7/7 Infinity - Haqqislam (100%)
32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)
42/54 Dreadball: Season 2 (77.8%)
11/18 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (61.1%)
83/150 Corporation Marines (55.3%)
21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)
1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)
1/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.2%)

Week 35 - The Dominoes Fall

So I got lucky this week as my Australian order came in on Friday afternoon so I got the paints I needed to finish up the Corp Marines. I also got some Combined Army models for Infinity which will be added to the wall of shame shortly... So with so many models 'almost' finished last week it shouldn't be too surprising that I have quite a bit of progress this week. I finished up all 20 Corp Marines I started last week, the new blue has come out almost the same as the old colour, I actually like the new colour more which is good. As for redoing the other batch I haven't decided if it is necessary or not just yet.

As promised I also finished up the 7 Haqqislam models as they only had a couple details needing done. I have a game with them tomorrow night so I hope they serve me well! I have brushed on varnish as they are metal models that I expect some reasonable use out of. I will probably go back and remove the shine later when the weather clears up.

The last set of progress to report are the Judwan and Robots teams for Dreadball. These just needed the dip brushed on last week but I had time to finish up some extra models for both teams. I also got 6 MVPs done. I have got pretty close to finishing up season 2 now, I just need to finish trimming and assembling before I can get them wrapped up.

This is a fairly substantial week with a total of 51 models completed. So I hope to get more of the Corp done this week as it will put me much closer to finishing, particularly if I get the 40 I have ready to paint done! If I get the last Dreadball models trimmed up I will finish them as well. I still haven't had time to play with the airbrush yet but I have started gathering useful materials (like dropper bottles) to make it all simple once the time comes. In the mean time there are plenty of tutorial videos for me to watch online.

Just 47 models to go!

Day 244
319/244 Painted/Days passed
319/366 Painted/Target (87.2%)
50/50 Dreadball: Season 1(100%)
6/6 Mercs - Kezai Wazza (100%)
71/71 Zombicide! (100%)
31/31 Dystopian Wars - Republique of France (100%)
7/7 Infinity - Haqqislam (100%)
32/40 Blindwater Congregation (80.0%)
42/55 Dreadball: Season 2 (76.4%)
11/18 Malifaux - Kirai Crew (61.1%)
46/150 Corporation Marines (30.7%)
21/89 Forge Fathers (23.6%)
1/85 Kings of War - Abyssal Dwarves (1.2%)
1/474 Kings of War - Undead (0.2%)