Let's Play Catchup! Part 2!

 Since the last post ran long, I guess I'm writing about early 2022 to about a month ago.

Great aunt Arcee?!

I dipped my toes back into GunPla models (and related models), even going so far as to paint a few.  They're quite labor intensive due to their size and the fact that they are meant to be posed as freely as action figures.  The significant other and I found a Tiasha kit from Bandai's 30 Minutes Sisters line and it was kind of sealed from there.  The companion line to 30 Minutes Sisters is the 30 Minutes Missions and I picked up a number of those.  I got the bug to paint the Assassin-type Spinatia though.  Something about the design screamed that it ought to be pink; I blame my childhood spent watching a bootleg copy of Transformers: The Movie because the end result is very reminiscent of Arcee's color scheme from that film.

I'll have to write a post and show off the various kits, likely multiple posts given that I've managed to accumulate quite a few kits.  Anyone who knows how I approach my hobbies knows I tend to get into obsessive phases where I'll just buy everything that I can lay hands on as long as it appeals to me.  Heck, I think I'm like eight books away from a complete collection of Exalted first edition.

Since Japanese-style model kits aren't typically meant to be painted, I had to spray down the whole thing with a matte sealer to provide a surface for paint to stick to.  Then Spinatia was painted with Reaper's Brains Pink, a very lovely shade of pink that isn't too intense and works very well with the white and gray of the plastic.  The metal parts were painted with Citadel's Iron Warriors because the over-all colors were pretty light already.  The teal spot colors were painted with Vallejo Mecha Colors' Turquoise, as I recall.  The red bow was another Mecha Color; SZ Red.  I sealed the beejeezus out of it with matte sealer to prevent the wear and tear on it.I think the whole thing came out rather nice.  The paint and sealer also had the nice bonus of tightening up the joints on the model.

Gundam Barbatos, Titans version

I continued on my GunPla-related kick by painting up a High-Grade Gundam Barbatos in the colors of the Titans Gundam Mk. II from Gundam Zeta.  Why?  Because the Titan colors are pretty snazzy, that's why.  When a Gundam series names every Gundam after a demon, why not paint one up to look dark and villainous?  The approach was slightly different, as I had planned to not have any of the original plastic colors showing.  It was primed a flat gray, and then painted as it was assembled.  Most of the colors were from the Vallejo Mecha Color line, but the green parts were done with a bright silver then carefully coated with Citadel Waystone Green.  This technique creates a internal glow effect since the silver reflects light back out of the transparent green color.  It's one I frequently use for gemstones.

You'll notice that the colors aren't a 1:1 match for the Titans Gundam Mk II.  This is because it did not look 'correct' when some parts were matched.  Notable is that the front hip plates have yellow on them.  I tried them in the default gray but it didn't look right.

It's been neat to see how much the kits have improved in the 20 years since I first snagged a bunch.  As well as the variety.  All my old kits (save one) are gone courtesy of the LNU Complex Fire, but those are ultimately just things.  I've put together a few models of mecha I had when I was younger and it was remarkable how much I remember the small details from all those years ago.

Nurgle dudes of doom

I eventually did get back to wargame miniatures.  I wanted to paint something that was very different from my usual work though.  If you'd told me even six months ago that I'd collect a small Nurgle force for Age of Sigmar, I'd have laughed at you.  But here we are.  I have a 1000 point Maggotkin of Nurgle army for Age of Sigmar.  I prefer my Nurgle stuff to look more sinister than silly, mind you. 

I took some time to sit down and work out a paint scheme.  The skin, since it features prominently on many Maggotkin models, was the element I spent the most time on.  My initial scheme for the skin came out far too purple; I might go back to that more purple scheme but it wasn't what I wanted to start with.  I was aiming for the livid color of inflamed infected flesh, something I'm intimately acquainted with due to my past health issues.  The scheme that worked (as you can see from the photo) was a basecoat of Citadel Warpfiend Grey, a mid-tone layer of Citadel Deepkin Flesh, and then a natural highlight of Citadel Pallid Wych Flesh.  Add in colors for the boils and exposed organs (Citadel Zamesi Desert and Citadel Volupus Pink respectively), then shade the whole thing with Citadel Carroburg Crimson.

The other really important component was the corroded steel.  I did not want to paint their armor the stereotypical solid green, but still wanted to incorporate a green tone.  So everything was metal and dirtied up, then liberally washed with Citadel Athonian Camoshade.  The effect was inspired by driving around Pittsburgh as well as having seen plenty of gross metal when on fishing trips with my father and grandfather as a kid.  As my significant other puts it, you can feel that metal.  I'm quite proud of it, really.

No metallic paints were used in the painting of this miniature.

In May 2022 I participated in my local Warhammer store's Warped Painting Challenge.  I did it to challenge myself more than anything.  There wasn't any prize to win other than basically being the Audience Favorite.  It was quite a challenge and I did not come even close to winning.

The challenge was this: draw six random colors from a pot.  That's all you can use.  No mediums or washes because they were in the pot.  No texture paints because they were also in the pot.  You were allowed to use any of the Citadel spray colors you like.  If you're an avid painter and want to challenge yourself, I encourage you to try this.

I drew the following Citadel colors: Akhelian Green, Cryptek Armourshade Gloss, Fire Dragon Bright, Teclis Blue, Terradon Turquoise, and Xereus Purple.  That's a lot of blue tones, two of the colors are Contrast paints, and there's a gloss shade in there.  Not exactly the easiest color palette to work with.  I did a zenithal primer with Abaddon Black and Corax White because I thought I'd use the shade and contrasts to my advantage.  Well that didn't work except on the scythe, belt sphere, and the sand I used for the base texture.

I 'm glad that I learned color theory when I was younger because knowing those principles was very important for this challenge.  I had an orange and a brown amid a lot of blue tones, meaning I could de-saturate either set of colors and even drag out some gray tones with the right proportions.  Where things got strange was when I mixed the gloss shade and the Contrast colors with the normal paints.  You'll notice the caption on the Necron Overlord; it's true that there were zero metallic paints used.  Those metallic looking areas are the result of the Cryptek Armourshade Gloss.  The handle of the scythe was straight over the zenithal primer and the deep metallic gray was when it was mixed with Teclis Blue.  But the metallic effect wasn't the strangest part of mixing the two; it was that it started to behave like a Contrast paint. I'm not kidding.  Try it for yourself.  You'd also better do it soon since Citadel's gloss shades are going away soonish.

It was also very interesting to see how much standard paint I could mix into a Contrast paint and still have it behave like a Contrast paint.  I think this is likely where the different opacity of the Contrast colors originates, different colors have different concentrations of the pigments.

That brings us up to speed for now.  The most recent stuff will get their own posts.  Remember if you enjoy the content and want to send a materialistic token of your appreciation, there's the Ko-Fi link.

Cat tax.