I never got any pictures of the finished trophies (before they were awarded), but I did find some work in progress (WIP) shots I took of the Gold trophy. This doesn't include any highlighting (just the blocking of colors). I ended up doing a wide edge highlighting of light gold/silver/bronze around the edge of the star, which made it look like it was "glowing" slightly. Once I hit these with gloss overcoat they also looked much shinier.
I hit a bit of a painting slump. I only painted 8 miniatures in the past 3 months. I also painted 3 trophies for an office Mario Kart tournament (which I'm also going to count toward my totals). The "real" miniatures were all the ships from Mantic's Armada starter set.
Year to date: 103 miniatures
I got "stuck" on these ships. I like them, but I found it difficult to find time to get them painted. They are the contents of Mantic's Armada starter set. It took me a few months to get them painted (other, non-miniature related, things have been going on in my life that caused me to take a bit of a break). I thought it'd take a long weekend. They are surprisingly large (about 2-3 times the size of a man o war ship) with a lot of detail. Without a doubt the most annoying bit was the blue and white sails on the Basilean fleet. I think I spent about 2 months on getting those sails painted. By the end I was wishing I'd just painted them white like all of the ones online are.
The formula's used:
Basilean Sails: Contrast Snakebite masts and spars, Contrast Guilliman Flesh ropes (highlighted with Ushabti Bone). Contrast Talhasar Blue, Caledor Sky Blue, Lothern Blue for the blue stripes. Contrast White, Pallid Whychflesh for the white. Nuln oil painted between the stripes to separate them (after washed, but before highlights put on).
Basilean Ships: Light wood, Contrast Guilliman Flesh. Dark wood Contrast Snakebite Leather. Accents I did two ways. One was Contrast White followed by a drybrush of Pallid Whychflesh, the other was Contrast Guillaman Flesh followed by a drybrush of Pallid Whychflesh. The second came out better (the first looked good from a few inches away, but "washed" out when viewed from 2-3 feet away ... the second seemed more vibrant at both viewing distances). Fire was my standard fire technique. Metals were Runefang Steel with a wash of Nuln oil, highlighted back up with Runefang. Dress was Contrast Talahar Blue.
Orc Sails: Iadyen Yellow with a drybrush of Git Yellow. Spars and Masts Snakebite Leather. Ropes (& Horns) Contrast Skeleton Horde. Horns highlighted with Ushabti Bone and Screaming Skull. The axes are a light bronze, wash of Agrax earthshade, followed by a highlight of light bronze.
Orc Ships: Light wood is Contrast Skeleton Horde. Dark wood is Contrast Snakebite leather, followed by a drybrushing of Zandri Dust. Metallics are Ironbreaker followed by a wash of Agrax and highlighted with more Ironbreaker. Any horns were done like the sails, Contrast Skeleton Horde followed by highlights of Ushabti and Screaming Skull.
Water Bases: Followed a youtube guide for these (labeled something like "Easy Mantic Armada Water Bases"). Toilet paper soaked in white glue around the ship and spackle to fill in the gaps. I think if I put the toilet paper in two passes I could almost skip the spackle. One to get the "shape" of the ship, and the second to make some waves. Tricks that worked well. 1. Apply near a sink with wet fingers (else it sticks to your fingers better than the base and you can't make realistic wave effects without it all falling apart). 2. Apply in a ribbon around the edge of the base and use a tool to push it toward the hull of the ship carefully. Ideally you'll be a 1/2 mm away from the ship (you won't notice it once you glue the ship down, but you'll get a much better/flatter attachment if you don't have any toilet paper pressed against the ship ... I think part of the problem is that when you pull the ship up to let the TP dry, the suction pulls the TP in a bit, making it not fit after it dries). 3. Spackle is a bit of a pain to put on, but it will paint better than it looks. 4. It all dries rock hard, so even though it seems flimsy when you're putting it on ... it won't be. For painting, Caledor Sky Blue, Dark Blue Wash (Naggaroth Night?), Caledor drybrush, Biel Tan Green wash, Caledor drybrush, Lothern drybrush, White Scar drybrush.
I finished off the Star Wars Legion starter set. Then launched into the resin Skaven Warmaster miniatures I picked up last March.
I need to get some pictures up. I usually give the formula's of how I painted the miniatures at the same time as posting picture, and I'm starting to forget how I painted some of these things.
It's not been a very productive end of Spring & beginning of Summer. Still managed to get some stuff done. The numbers seem low, but I did a whole slew of assembly. The realist in my realizes that I'm probably assembling stuff I'll never get around to painting though. hmmm...
I'm still working through the starter set of the clone wars edition of Star Wars Legion. I finished all of the droids and have started the clones.
Almost half way through April and I'm only now getting around to posting the March totals. I finished off the Forest Spirits for the 10mm Warmaster Army. I then launched into a bunch of leftover stuff I've been meaning to do. I built/based & primed all the miniatures for Star Wars Legion box set (clones vs. robots). I finished all of the flags for all of my Man O'War fleets. But I didn't paint any more miniatures. Been in a bit of a slump.
It's the shortest month of the year. I got close to getting 1 mini/stand a day this month, but in the end, I couldn't quite finish all of the Warmaster Wood Elf Tree Spirits in time (18 stands worth). So they'll need to count for next month. Now onto totals:
I don't think I'll match last years productivity, but I'm off to a good start.
I'm still working on the Wood Elf Warmaster Army, getting closer and closer to finish it. This is the first time I've painted a unit that is horsemen (not counting centaurs). It went better than I expected. I'm down to just character models and tree spirits. There's a part of me that wants to pick up another 500 pts or so, that would allow me to field a 3000 pt army.
The boy got a Star Wars Legion starter box, Clone War edition. I assembled all of the miniatures, and will probably move it to the front of the painting queue. He wants to play it, so I want to play it. :-)
Totals:
No pictures this month either. I'm still working through Warmaster miniatures. I hope to have the Wood Elfs complete relatively soon.
I managed to pass the goal of over 365 miniatures (1 per day for a year). It was mainly due to doing 10mm terrain. It painted fast and had lots of pieces. But I'll take it as a win!
At the start of covid I decided to try to assemble all of the miniatures I own (and I made a huge impact on that front), but now I have a bunch of unpainted miniatures that need storage. I might slow down a bit, I need to spend some time organizing. We'll see what 2022 will bring! Hopefully I can finish off some projects.
Totals:
