6MMRPC: Qualified Failure

Oh dear, where did 10 weeks go? To be honest, packing up your life, and moving to a new home throws a spanner in any ability to paint, let alone to be consistently productive. The change in jobs didn't help much either.

I'm still fairly mired down with household 'hobby' - painting rooms, repairing tools, 'converting' light fixtures, using pink insulation (for it's true purpose for a change), and so forth.  I think I've managed to sit down and paint 3 times in the last 7 weeks I've been moved. The short term doesn't look a whole lot more promising either.







Goals achieved
-In regards to what my 6MMRPC goals were: utter failure -2. My trays of shame lie untouched except for Bones novacorp and my saracens  which were a delightful completion. Alas now that I've moved, my old gaming group is now playing SAGA Crescent and Cross. Cruel irony.

-Inspecting my productivity, I see that I did finish a few projects. Saracens, A battery of Warlord Russian Artillery, All my ainsty 28mm bits, Novacorp bones figs, and the vietnam Fortifications. It'd be a stretch to give the 2 Napoleonic generals a 'project' rating. I'm tantalizingly close to finishing another project in all it's glory, but I'll save that for a big reveal in a few weeks (or months....sigh).

It's a shame the Caffeineforge blog went quiet as well, as that was a big incentive for me to try and keep up with Bones painting. I presume he'll get back on the air eventually, and I'll probably not have finished the last set of figs queued up!

-Weekly postings: 16/26....not half bad. Cough. Almost half bad though.

-Zombtomber: no postings at all. Boo.




Input/Output
Given 2 jokers to start with, and 5 I earned, let's see how in debt I managed to go:

1- King's Minis chaos dwarves. I totally lucked out and managed to get a set before Delaney's life imploded. I seriously wondered if I was going to get them for a while as the shipping date lengthened and her posts got more ominous.

2- Front Rank Russian minis - a whack of lead that is part of the almost completed project. Unfortunately I botched a code in my email, and ended up with some infantry instead of the horse riders I wanted (I got the correct horses though. Doh).

3- TMP Front rank French figs - a clearout with a great price, this sets me up for working on the opfor for my Russians.

4 - TMP Demonworld - again, a great deal cropped up on 15mm fantasy figs. Demonworld have great looking minis, though they are hampered a bit by limited poses in the ranges.

5 - FOW Vietnam - cracked under the tanksgiving sale and bought some more figs. I really (REALLY) need to get a start on some of this stuff

6 - Armourcast Mutant plants & soda can toppers. I think I've been eyeing this stuff for literally 5 or more years. A 20% sale made up my mind

7 - Impulse buy at Heresy minis. A great sale (detecting a theme yet?) had me grab the lovely ghoul family, and some sci fi civvies. Unlike (arguably) the other purchases, this one doesn't really fit into a project. Ooops.

Summary:
Certainly less successful than my first go at the 6MMRPC. When I actually looked at what I had done and bought, I was pleasantly surprised....a lot better than I thought I'd have.

Community wise, it really seemed to quiet and nose dive just before I had to functionally drop out. It'd be interesting to see what others thoughts were. There some noise about starting up again quickly. I think it's some new blood, and some die hards. I'd argue for a couple month break, but it's rather challenging to control these things, frankly.

6MMRPC Week 12: Warlord Russian Napoleonic Artillery Battery

I finally finished a project that had been on pause for numerous weeks. Here we have 3 guns (batteries in Dougs General du Corp rules) of Russian Guns. Only the smallest gun, on the left, is actually Warlord, the other 2 guns I bought from Front Rank as I had other plans for the small 6lbs (4? lbs) guns. It's probably noticeable, as I forgot which greens I used, and the smallest gun is positively fluorescent compared to it's larger brethren.

6MMRPC: Week 11 Vietnam Firebase Fortifications

Having earlier completed my trial artillery fire pit (here) I finished painting up the rest of the hydrocal terrain I cast up using Thomas' molds. The hydrocal (tougher plaster essentially) was allowed to dry fully for about a week, and then painted with future floor polish to aid with robustness/anti chipping. I think this will also help avoid the hydocal/plaster from drinking up paint.






The scale is about 20mm (1/72). I will happily use if for 15mm figs, and I suspect it wouldn't look too far out for 28mm as well (although maybe the artillery pits would fit a heavy weapon rather than a true towed weapon).




 More pics after the jump....

6MMRPC Week 10: Ainsty Furniture

My painting efforts continue to be stymied with weddings and birthdays cropping up in the late summer. I did, however, manage to finish off some bits I've been picking away at for a couple of weeks.

Up this week are tables, kegs, chairs, and part of a store set from Ainsty. Ainsty has some very cool ranges, all in resin, and are located in the UK. Naturally this means fairly steep shipping for those of us in North America (to be honest, it's getting crushing from everywhere to anywhere it seems). 

6MMRPC Week 9: Bones Horace 'Action' Jackson

A predictable summer lull, and on-call requirements of work have hit my productivity this week. Single figure complete, another Reaper Bones. Horace 'Action' Jackson.

I'm reasonably happy with this fig, it's a bad picture of the eyes, it looks better in real life. This is first for negro skin tones, and I thought they turned out well (check out those abs!). Yellow is pretty challenging for me as well (not sure if it's hard in general, or the paints I use), but this turned out passable.

The base is a bit weak, and his afro isn't amazing. Hard to know what to do with black hair and not a lot of texture. There is a very light amount of highlighting, but too much grey will (and does) make it look odd. Suggestions for this type of challenge gratefully accepted.

6MMRPC Week 8: Saracen pt 3: Cavalry

The final installment of my completed Saracen warband. These are legio heroica 15mm figures.





The flags and shields are (most shields) transfers from little big men studios.

Bases are from Proxie models, with some sand/rock and static grass. There is a metal washer on the bottom to make them stick to my magnetic trays, and give them just a bit of loft to pick up easier.

Spears are some steel spears that I negotiated away from Cameron (Cameron's minis) who used them for his Hospitallers. They are much less bendy (i.e not at all), but are wicked sharp and likely to end up embedded in my hand at some point.

6MMRPC: Week 7.5: Saracen pt 2: Spearmen

Another swarm of Legio Heroica 15mm Saracens swarm my blog. As noted before, these are part of a warband for Saga Crescent and Cross, to vie in the sands of the near east against the despoiling crusader barbarians of the west.


These fellows to the left are all armoured with chainmail, which suggests they are either more wealthy and/or more accomplished warriors. They will probably be hearthguard (or not levies anyway).
 


It's probably important to note that most of the shields were "little big men' transfers. Unfortunately, my shield mix used up all the available round ones, and only a few could be trimmed. I was forced to do some painted ones as well, which I'm sure jump out. 









The bevelled plastic bases I quite like, so I'm always happy to pimp the company "proxie models". Reasonably prices and quick service.  I add a metal washer to the bottom (same size as a penny) so they are able to stick to my magnetic storage trays.



The big bonus to these bases IMO is that it's much easier to grab and pick up, reducing the wear on your figs. Also, the spears have weak attachment points, so break fairly easily.

Week 6 MMRPC: Bones Oxidation Beast, Kord, and treasure chest

The classic D&D rust monster...but in non-patented form. This was a fun bug that defied finishing for awhile. I wasn't quite sure how to avoid making him super muddy. Not sure that I succeeded, but the milliput base, and some cut up plastic weapons loaded with rust effects help break up the beasts colour, and give a bit of explanation.









A less good second picture. Obviously not his most photogenic side.











Also finished this week (and again a struggle to complete) was Kord. A barbarian. Ummmm. His axe continually creeps to an annoying bed. I forgot to paint the cord wrapping his scabbard a real colour (instead of overpaint mixed with heavy inking). Otherwise he turned out well enough. Can't say the sculpt really calls to me.






Sometimes you have to ask, what do we fight for? Treasure should be the obvious answer. For those looking deeper, the answer would be a intriguing shaped oil lamp that may grant your deepest desires (like all your minis painted).

6MMRPC Week 5.5: Bones NovaCorp Quick paint

Well.....It wasn't actually done quickly. I've been plunking away at these guys for a few weeks now. I really can't seem to focus work on anything for very long, so I often have endless half finished projects on the go. These guys were in the roster for the Caffeineforge weekly paint up (on hiatus at the moment).

 A trial model, the sergeant, was done a few weeks ago, so it was pretty easy to replicate, and bang out, the remaining guys. I botched the bright green a few times until I rediscovered what I'd used. And, typically for bones, the faces of the helmetless mooks are pretty poor castings. These guys were finished much quicker than normal for me (actual elapsed working time), so I'm pretty happy with their passable tabletop standard. Also that's 9 more Bones done, which is a nice bump to my low numbers this year so far.

6MMRPC Week 5: Warlord Napoleonic Russian General

A day behind on my week review. I managed to finish off this fine fellow, to add to my slowly growing Russian force for Doug's convention rule set General du Corp (Dots of Paint).

The generalissimo comes in a set which includes another (foot) officer, and a musician, both of whom were also finished this week. They will remain under wraps until based up appropriately, which means painting more figs, so it may be a while. 

 The model was a 3 part casting if I recall correctly. There were 2 or 3 options on the arm (handing off a document being one of them). My biggest (sole?) complaint is the weird horse pose. Look at it. WEIRD. It's like it's scared of it's own image in a mirror and backing away. *Not* a natural horse pose, and I know very little about horses.

I grapple with the decision of whether to highlight the greens of my Russians lighter (their green was very very dark). I'm also slightly critical of my horse highlights, lack of markings (socks, spots on head), and the golden shoulder boards maybe should be more gold in the recess?

Fairly pleased overall though.

6MMRPC Week 4.5: Bones Elladan & Mocking Beast

Elladan was a bit ho-hum this week, so I decided to lead with the mocking beast, and obvious copy (but copyright dodge) of a mimic from D&D. Adventurers! Always consider why there are eaten piles of corpses/bones around that pristine treasure chest!

This one was sorta fun. I got to use some of the expanded range of pink/purples I've been collecting lately. The gold in the mouth is possibly TOO gold, and the edging/metal banding doesn't pop much, but I very much like the overall effect. I tried to create a slit eye, which I think comes across most in the right photo. I also ended up sculpting a base, which is just passable. You can spot where the slathered on grey didn't quite cover the miliput, but from range it's hard to see.


Back to Elladan. Ho Hum. Generic elf ranger. Whoo. I did end up giving him pupils of the same colour as his pommels which was a fun effect. Too bad about the over paint in orange obvious in the middle shot.

I'm not super happy with his skin tones. Also, I wasn't too sure what to do with his various kit. I wanted rustic, forest, but that largely comes out as boring in this particular production. Oh well. On to the next!











asdf

6MMRPC Week 3.5: Autumn Bronzeleaf

Yet another Bones figure done for the Caffeineforge blog lineup. In hindsight, blue is not a particularly 'autumn' colour I suppose.

Numerous critiques here, looking at the mini under the unforgiving camera eyeball. Black hair is hard to do well, without it looking shot with grey. The staff is under highlighted (in fact, I don't think I did it at all). I probably should have gone with less metallics (such as her shin guards). The right thigh is a bit rough, so makes the skin job look much worse than I think it is.

I was hoping for a very light, ethereal blue, but I suppose I lack the paints to achieve that. I'm okay with the final blue colour, but it's not what I originally set forth to do. I feel like this mini could easily be more than it currently is, but I'm not sure what I'd need to add to get there.

One more down on the Bones marathon endeavor.

6MMRPC Week 3: Follow the light!

 It's nice to get to bash out some simple terrain pieces from time to time. These light poles were part of a large order I made from Critical mass games a very (very) long time ago. They have since been removed from their catalogue, but I sorta like them.

It took me forever to decide on the colours, do a image search for light poles, and there's really not that much that is interesting/inspiring. I eventually decided to go for the colours of my human sci fi force. Also the poles around here are mostly green if not mounted off of treated wood.

6MMRPC Week 2.75 Zalash Dark Elf Assasin

My "Wednesday" mid week post is quite late this week. I've been fairly distracted with roleplaying games, and the miserable saga of my motorbike. Let me spare no encouragement to stabilize your gas if you are planning on parking a vehicle for more than a few months (let alone nearly 2 years).

I finished this fellow off, yet another Bones addition. He was in the Caffeine forge line up, which I managed to fall out of sync with shortly after the last painting challenge ended. I'm trying to work forward and back to get up to speed.

Zalash is a fairly weird spindly sculpt that I've seen more than one person criticize. He's certainly different. I sorta thought he was some creepy undead assassin, but apparently not. He may have control issues over his destiny and be fighting back by starving himself. This guy needs some counseling.

I feel like I ought to have given his weapons some sort of glow or poison effect. Maybe some more highlighting on the leg wraps? I dont' really think he should 'pop' so much, but I feel like he is missing something.......can't put my finger on what that something is though.

6 MMRPC Week 2: Bones Townsfolk and Plaster casting

I've been continuing to plug away at the bones miniatures. I managed to finish off 3 of the townsfolk models, although it would appear I missed another one or two that came in the set. I'll have to track them down at some point.


I often end up painting multiple models and using the same paint colour on all of them (to finish off what I've squeezed out of the bottles). It appears that a deep red is a popular colour in this town. Perhaps not surprising, as I'm sure a town couldn't support more than one or two clothiers.


I'm reasonably happy with the group. I think I intended on painting some trim on the lady (I think of this one as the inn keepers wife), but it escaped me. The slightly rouge cheeks turned out well. The inn keeper on the other hand ended up with wonky eyes and overly pink/red lips. Ah well. 

6MMRPC Week 1.5: Bones Nova Corp Sgt

This is yet another submission to the CaffeineForge weekly bones mini painting.....blog? It's certainly not a contest, more a friendly pressure to paint and share results. Definitely motivational for those of you with unpainted bones figs (and who doesn't have a lot?).

In about 2 weeks there is a speedpainting version, where we try and bang out as many of the other novacorp mooks as possible. With this in mind, I tried to go for an easy paint job. I also wanted to have some sort of sci-fi forward colour that really makes no sense as a modern bit of kit.....hence the purple. I used the opportunity to fill in some gaps in my paint collection as well.

I'm not entirely sure about using the leather colour for the straps, but it is fairly high contrast. Grey was already getting used for the between armour sections (possibly not very noticeable) and other gear, so that was out. I tried to re-iterate the colours of the limited pallete in the base as well. The nice thing about all the novacorp figs is they have similar bases that will really pull the group together.

6MMRPC Week 1: Bones Undertaker & Flesh Golem

Going with the theme of 'finishing things off', I've completed these two figs, who were in partial states of work for a while. Indeed, I've own the lead version of the undertaker or *years* with no work on him. The lead version will now be retired to the 'get rid of' pile.







I was hoping to create some semblance of 'belonging' with these two figs. Hopefully the common dark red, and the glowing pulls them together. Obviously the undertaker is sourcing the tissue for the creation of the flesh golem. I tried to use all my skin tones for this repulsive creature. Who knows if there is another master of the dark arts who breathed 'life' into the beast.....


To critique the figs, I'm not a fan of my basing colour. Luckily this is pretty easy to go back and fix in the future. The eye sockets of the golem are a bit too light (flesh tone), and the darkest flesh tone didn't highlight up very well. I had contemplated trying to make some angry red borders between the various skin tones, but time defeated me, and I was afraid I'd run an otherwise decent paint job. Otherwise, I'm fairly pleased with the two. 

2nd Annual 6MMRPC: The plan - trays of shame

Currently working on this stuff....sorta

And we're off! Lots of folks seem to be keen on having plans for the reduction challenge. I found that I'm much happier when I can kite from item to item. I often get hung up on choosing colours half way into a project, and decide to 'step back'. I have therefore accrued many....many.....half painted project. Though to call them half painted is probably a bit generous.

One of my new years resolutions, and my reduction plan, is to try and attack these half painted monsters and get them out of the dusty queue. Lets have a look a a few of them, though I need to point out there are still things that are in transport boxes and packed away that I haven't photographed, to say nothing of the unassembled and/or unpainted stuff.

2nd Annual 6 month mountain reduction and painting challenge (6MMRPC)

The pre-season has begun! David at Spiderweb of History has taken the lead on burnishing the rules and started the collective dash of lemmings towards the mountains of lead.

 6MMRPC was a GREAT boon to my productivity last year (and this for that matter). It was quite fun to see fellow painters projects (or randomness) proceed and wonderful to have folks commenting with encouragement and suggestions.

While it may seem difficult, it's a very chill group and very few people managed to fulfill all the requirements (weekly postings were pretty hard). Even if it *reduces* your rate of miniature gain, you are ahead. It would be lovely to have more company, so any readers are welcome.

Actual rules (copied/pasted from David's post) posted after the break....

6MMRPC: MISSION ACCOMPLISHED

The 6 Month Mountain Reduction & Painting Challenge started in September. It's been a fun 6 months. Between a blog roll (here), and a facebook group, we small group of challengees kept in fairly regular contact and were able to share stories of success/failure, and words of encouragement.


The challenge (roughly) involved not buying anything for 6 months (baring 2 'jokers' as cheats), and posting weekly updates. It was not unusual for people to drop off the face of the planet from time to time, sometimes resurfacing........life happens, right? It's interesting to read the summaries of the group now, as it was hard to keep track.

My own summary follows *The below was copied directly from Dave Brawley’s great blog “Towerof the Archmage” and my own answers thereafter.*