The Final Push - Lawnor approaches 100% painted

The heat has been ridiculous this week and it’s been messing with my paints and my motivation.  I was able to finish off a Keeper of Secrets I’d started a couple of weeks ago.  I’d previously base coated and shaded her flesh and just needed to highlight it.  It didn’t go to well.  At arms length she looks fine, but in pics, or any closer, and it looks blotchy and patchy.  It was weird.  On some parts of her it felt like it was going down fine, but on others it was just messy and too thick.  I was doing it all at the same time with the same paint and the same technique.  It didn’t make any sense to me.  I knew this was a technique I needed to practise, but I’m still choosing to blame some of this on the heat and humidity messing with my paint.

The 3D print had some problems.  Firstly, I hollowed out the hair and put in a couple of drain holes where I thought they wouldn’t be seen once assembled. I was wrong and had to fill them up with green stuff which I then couldn’t get a file to, to smooth down.  There were also some bubbles on her hair.  Many thin coats of gloss varnish before painting seems to have smoothed this all out.  Her left eye didn’t fully print so that’s mostly just painted on.  One of her but cheecks had a large flat section, but a few minutes with a file made her more natural.

I’d already painted up a Slaaneshi starter set last year and I wanted to colour match everything for her.  For some reason I didn’t make any notes about anything so I had to try anf figure it all out from the same starting point and by holding up old models next to paint pots for comparrison.  I think I got it right.

I do not have a copy of KDM yet.  I bought it during the Black Friday sale in November and it’s been delayed until October this year.  He’s also revealed that tax has not been factored in yet which he didn’t realise might be an issue for people/foreigners.  I’ve already spent a small fortune on this and was gambling over customs charges.  Now he’s telling everyone there could be another 20ish% on top yet to come?  I’ve bought a house and been put on 6 months furlough since I ordered this.  This is not great news.

Whenever my resin was running low and I didn’t think I’d have enough to print a whole model I’d print off a little terrain for Kindom Death Monster and the resin usually went much further than I expected.  I don’t have a full set yet and I don’t plan on buying any more resin any time soon.  I tried to focus on the tiles models couldn’t stand on once I thought about it.  I’ll stick with tokens for the rest.  I don’t want models falling over.

I have a recipe for a ceramic paint scheme I was thinking of using or adapting here.  Until I saw those pillars.  Look at all that detail.  Painting this lot by hand would take weeks and would be suuuuper tedious, especially as it’s all one colour.  Also, one of those paints is almost empty.  I opted to try drybrushing them instead.  I tested out a new scheme on one of the ore tiles as I may not use them so they could look ugly if needed.  I think it’s come out quite well.  Here’s my method so I can replicate it later:

Base: P3 Trollblood Highlight

Light overbrush/heavy drybrush: GW Karak Stone

Heavy-Medium drybrush: GW Screaming Skull

Drybrush: P3 Menoth White Highlight

Finally, I took an old soft drubrush and rubbed lots of Vallejo Pigments 73111 Green Earth in to everything, tapped off the excess and then airbrush varnished everthing immediately. (I tried a different pigment first on one tile and didn’t like it.  For some reason it didn’t fade as much as the green I put over it)

The pigment is almost completely gone, but has some effect.  I really need a way to make it stay as a powder/dust when I varnish.  I’ve never quite got the hang of pigments.

I don’t think I’m going to get much / any painting done this week.  I’m supposed to be hosting a learn to play 40k day this weekend so I need to take the time to read the rules and then play a solo demo game to show how little I took in, and keep re-reading whole sections as I play.  I also need to tidy up 18 months of solo lockdown isolation laziness/madness, and set up three tables.

I’m also deep in a Diablo 3 addiction and the new season just started.  I’ve never done the Seasons or the ladder before and I’m looking to push through to complete this one.

The remainder of my models are still in need of assembly too, so thats got to come next, no matter what.