I did not finish this mini in one day as the time stamps might suggest. As you can tell from the previous post, she was pretty well complete before I thought about making an On The Table post about her. All that was left was a little detail and the wings.
This model was really challenging to paint. GW has learned that large detail that is easily separated by deep groves is easy to paint for the 11 to 19 demographic they seem to be targeting. (Come on Vurumai, it is easy for the 30+ crowd too. Don't be snooty). Wyrd Minis does not seem to have gotten the memo. The laces on her boots were not easily distinguishable let alone paintable after priming and basecoat. Ruffles and fringes on her dress were too small to pick up the wash adequately. Details on the sword were so shallow that drybrushing would not pick them up. It was a case of painting, washing, not seeing any change and then having to guess where the detail was.
The places where the mini connects as pieces are also strange. Her right leg (the one crooked in the air) joins the body in the middle of the flesh part but close to her bikini bottom. It is a place where there is no natural crease in the body and in a space that would have been really hard to fill with green stuff. It would have made more sense to make the place where the leg joins at the division between skin and boot.
Or put both feet on the ground! Her ankles are metal and maybe 3mm wide. With only one foot on the ground, it is not going to take too much to bend or break that little piece of metal. It seem like they wanted the one foot on the ground pose so much that they were willing to initially weaken the model.
Also in terms of mis-modeling, Wyrd does not seem to understand the concept or "reverse-hinged" legs. In most animals with this anatomy, the knee points forward (anterior) and the ankle points backwards (posterior). The last segment of the leg is actually an elongated foot (tarsus). Nekima does not have this configuration but instead has an extra ankle then a foot. It is really strange looking but hey, she is a flipping Daemon.
Also in terms of modeling missteps, are the wings. For the most part, they are awesome. The detail on them could have been deeper to make dry brushing or washing easier, but they have good detail. I think they are overly large and have too many fiddly bits attached to them. They also do not attach to the body ate discrete points and they are really flat. If I had spent a little more time in the pre-assembly phase figuring this out, I could have avoided it and filled the gaps with green stuff. I guess that last bit is my bad.
I was going to paint Nekima in the same way that I painted my Daemonettes, but I had such a hard time with pink skin thanks to some paint problems and bad decisions, that I decided to reverse the pink skin and black armor. I am much better at painting black that I am at pink and skin is more complicated to paint than fabric. For the most point it turned out well. I really like it on the wings and face.
Overall I would say I this model is painted fairly well. It is more painted to fit into the other Slaanesh minis rather than as it should be painted to highlight the qualities of the mini. It is a 7 of 10 for me. The mini is hard to get and may be as low as $15 but as much as $40. It is difficult to say. The paint job is worth at least $40. I would say to replace this mini would be no less than $60 and probably $80. Trade value is probably the same but as hard as this mini was to get, I don't think I would part with it. At this point a painted and finished mini is worth more to me than an unfinished one. This pink and black bitch is going to look pretty on the shelf and, regardless if she ever sees table time, I will cherish her.
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