The Final Push - Lawnor approaches 100% painted

Models remaining:
Batch: 0, Normal: 7, Luxury: 7, Modular: 0, Bits Box: 3, Terrain sets: 11, To Ship: 80+

I’ve not been buying new models, and yet I’ve gained 10 new models over the past week.  Sort of.  Turns out there are 8 models in the Jaws of the Lion box, not 4.  Monkey With Fire is having another Community Challenge and I’m taking part, so I’ve gained a Steamforged Crabman.  I also signed on for a Warmachine tournament a few months back, which got cancelled due to a medical emergency on the day.  A few weeks after the fact they contacted us to say Cerberus, the people who used to handle PPs missing parts in the UK, were willing to give us our ticket price in old stock.  Super generous and totally not needed.

I picked up a box of 5 Druid Mist Riders.  I already have a unit of 5.  under Mk3 you could have 2 units of 5.  under Mk4, who knows?  It’s probably units of 3, and it may still be capped at 2 units, but perhaps not?  There are not many options available for the Blackclad theme list, after all.  I was hoping for confirmation when the app went live at the weekend, but they’ve only given us one list per faction, and Circle got Tharn, not Blackclad so I’ve got to wait and see.  As such, these guys are going to remain untouched as I suspect I’ll end up selling on 1-4 of them.

On to the painting.  I got my new models on the Monday, cleaned them up, washed them, and left them overnight to dry.  I then base coated those walls from last week with London Grey.  I’m following Gerry’s Fogou old stone video guide, which I’ll link later when I focus on these walls.  It’s all prep work for now.  I have no free time for hobby on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, but Thursday evening I was able to prime the Gloomhaven models and Crabman.  The Crabman is my focus for the weekend.  The challenge has a deadline and I’m a week behind on my work.

Friday night I put down a base coat of VMC Deck Tan on the crab, and also pulled out my Beholder and put this in as his underbelly colour.  He’s a project for another day, but may as well save time and do this while I’m at it.  I’d just be waiting for paint to dry anyway.  With the airbrush already out I put down base colours on the Dust Devil and Power Armour from Gloomhaven.  Everyone then got overnight to thoroughly dry.  I sometimes find that airbrushed paints can activate with washes a lot longer after application than brushed on paints.  It’s not always the case, but I do like to give them as long a drying time as I can, when sensible.

I then went to bed with Season 3 of Harley Quinn.  I watched all 10 episodes this weekend.  I was a little concerned to begin with that it was focusing less on character growth and their emotions this year, but I was proved wrong, thankfully.  Harley Quinn remains far far better than it has any right to be.  At first glance its just sweary and violent and funny and all about shock value, and will probably wear thin quickly.  Watch a few episodes and you’re in it for the heart as much as the great humour.  While somehow being OTT and dumb, this is possibly the best DC I’ve ever seen and every character gets explored and gets to grow eventually, while also still being the butt of a joke.  Give it a fair shot, if you’ve not already.  I spent a lot of time laughing uncontrollably, and they still managed to put a knot in my stomach towards the end of the season.  Plus, any show that gives Alan Tudyk full permission to go over the top in multiple rules is always worth a watch.

(I don’t have sound right now so I’ve no idea how good that trailer is)

Saturday morning I got the airbrush out again and and put down the reds and oranges on the Crabman, who I was able to finish over the weekend.  He presented many periods of waiting for paint to dry for me to work on the Gloomhaven minis too and I was somehow able to get all 5 guys done, and play two solo games of Gloomhaven, and have time to spare before D&D on Sunday evening.

The Crabman was full of experiments so I’m going to document my colour schemes here, in case I want to revisit them later.

Undercoat: VMC Deck Tan

Carapace: 
Base: AP Mars Red
High 1: 50/50 Mars Red & AK Burt Orange
High 2: Burnt Orange
Pin wash: GW Carrouburg Crimson
Drybrush 1: Burnt Orange
Drybrush 2: Burnt Orange with a little VMC Ivory

Claws: 
Base: VMA Dark Grey
High 1: Dark Grey with some Black
High 2: Dark Grey with more Black

Flesh: 
Base: Deck Tan
Pin Wash: Thinned AK Sepia Ink (Not GW Seraphim Sepia.  This is darker)

Eyes: 
Base: P3 Sickly Skin
Iris: P3 Greatcoat Grey
Pupil: P3 Thamar Black

Ground: 
Sand & Barnacles: VMC Iraqi Sand
Rock: VMS Stone Grey
Drybrush Rock & Barnacles 1: P3 Bastion grey
Drybrush Rock & Barnacles 2:  P3 Sickly Skin gently!
Wash: water, GW Lahmium Medium, & Broken Toad Grimy Dirt pigment

Seaweed skirt:

Base: Mig Deep Green
Drybrush 1: P3 Orid Olive
Drybrush 2: Bog Moss
Wash: VMW 76.519 Olive Green
Selective Drybrush 3: Bog Moss

Starfish: 
Base: MP 17 Aquamarine
Drybrush P3 Arcane Blue
Wash: 50/50 P3 Meridious Blue and VMC Turquoise
Drybrush 2: Ammo Dio Drybrush Medium Blue 0614

Choral thing on head:
Base: P3 Hammerfal Khaki
Wash 1: GW Seraphim Sepia
Wash 2: Handcraft Tabletop Terrain Wash Dunkelschatten 267.01
Drybrush 1: Hammerfal Khaki
Drybrush 2L P3 Menoth White Base

I’m running low on models right now and I’m aware that 2 big Kickstarters are landing in the UK about now (One ship which might contain a box for me docked midday Sunday).  I don’t want to embrace any large projects as I want to be ready to embrace them when they arrive, hopefully any day now.  I think it’s time to get those Mantic walls off my painting desk next, and then maybe embrace that beholder?

I also want to finish playing Jaws of the Lion by 2023.  25 missions in the box, 4 of which will get locked of my choices, and 6 of them need unlocking by random events.  I’m 8 missions in, of the possible 21 I could get, leaving 13 to go.  Nine weeks left in the year, so 1-2 games a week and I’ll be done.  Two a week, if I also want to do the locked off missions once the story is complete.  That’s plenty of time, especially with a week off for Christmas.

Hobby Bingo came up on the Weekender, so I though there’s no harm in seeing how I’m doing.  I’ve not been working towards this.  I’d dismissed it when it was first mentioned as being something that didn’t line up at all with my Pile of Shame.  Looking at it now, I’ve certainly checked more boxes than I’d have expected, but it still definitely leans towards a GW army painter mentality.  I’ll have some terrain done soon so I can cross off one of those boxes, but I have no medium or large based units to do so I’ll never get them done, unless there’s some real surprises in a Kickstarter and it arrives real soon.