Finished - Potpourri

Since very much awesomely fixing the hatchet handle I actually HAVE done some painting. I finished a couple of Black Plague heroes, about half of the Black Ops heroes and an experimental mini that has been sitting half-finished for ages. 

Initially, I got to work on Lady Grimm and Glynda Battlestout with the same 10/0 detail that I approach most minis with. Frustrated at my chunky paints and fraying brushes I reached for new ones of each. While doing so, a corrupted version of an old axiom "don't let the great be the enemy of the finished." I knew it wasn't right but with the years of backlog I have, I can't take a week to paint a single mini. Let's get some colors down, a little detail on the faces and let's get them done. 

I finally have two of the very many Zombicide boxes finished in their entirety and that has me jazzed to finish some other boxes like special guests and Heroes boxes completely. To do that, we gotta get paint on minis. I am far from batch painting but I've stopped doing three stare highlighting and going blind with fine detail brushes. Part of me regrets this because I know I can do better but... but let's get things finished while we have spare time. 

Also, I've stopped with the clear coating. When it works good, it makes the mini look all satin-y and when it works poorly, it frosts over ruining hours of work in an instant. People say watch the humidity, shake the can, don't use old cans, thin coats, 3 feet away, to a test swatch first, etc. I know all this and do most of it. I am tired of having frosted minis and have accepted a little paint wear. I am careful with my minis and those I play with are careful too or they don't play. 

I also finished three Black Ops minis. they tried so hard to make them unique then painted the minis in all the same colors neutering their individuality. I could not tell them apart aside from the poses. This was a mis-step for this box. 

Painting black armor reminded me of how much I hate it. So easy to screw up and so mediocre when it turns out well. The first mini was based Eshin Grey, an overbrush of Dark Reaper, washed black, touch up of Dark Reaper then a hard edge highlight of Dawnstone. On the next two I did the same but rather than touch up with Dark Reaper, it was just a drybrush and the hard edge highlighting was a little more sloppy. I finished two minis in half the time it took to paint one. On the next ones, I am going to do all the black at once then paint on the red and metal details. Also, I think I am going to incorporate some Thunderhawk Blue into the mix to blurr the lines between the black blue and grey. This may make it too blue, so I'll do a test mini. 

Lastly I finished that blob thing that is going to stand in for a Beast of Nurgle at some point. It was also a test of the new contrast paint Plaguebearer Flesh. I applied it over an Ushtabi (sp?) Bone and it looks ok. I should have mottled the base coat to break up the big patches of the same color but it worked out pretty good. I have one more to test out so will experiment on that one.