Dreadball Spring Clean Hobby Challenge 2022

There’s 25 models left to be completely finished, 6 of which just need eyes, bases and varnish as a bulk job at the end.  That’s 19 models that require bringing up to that standard.  I was busy across the week so I focused on a small job I could fit around stuff.  Melissinandra was almost finished, so I worked on her.  On monday evening I painted her hair and based hr shoulders, and on friday I finished her off.  If you look at the studio scheme she’s painted black and covered in lots of nice thin green glowing lines.  So clearly, those lines must be sculpted on so you can pick them out?  Probably nice thin trenches you can pin wash, and hard edges you can run the side of a brush along?

Nope.  Nothing.  Worse than that, there’s impossible to remove mold lines in the way of these lines.  Its a hard to see mess.  Once again, the studio/shop display piece is not the sculpt they’re selling (And their painter is much better than me).  I painted on the lines by hand as best as I could, but I didn’t do as many.  I’m not a mad man.

Turquoise Hair

Base Reaper MSP 9078 Surf Aqua
High 1 Gently drybrush 50:50 Surf Aqua and white
Wash Reaper MSP 09471 Bright Turquoise
High 2 Dryrbush Surf Aqua
High 3 Repeat High 2 but even lighter

Turquoise Metals

Base MP0017 Aquamarine
Wash with MP0013 Deep Bronze Green
High 1 with base
High 2 with base mixed with P3 Menoth White Highlight
High 3 & 4 add more and more Menoth White Highlight

Green Glow

Undercoat with white
Base 2:1 P3 Yellow Ink: P3 Green Ink.  If this is a glow, don’t be too afraid about going outside the lines.  It can look like OSL

Once that was done I went to bed and watched the 2003 Daredevil Directors cut.  With Multiverse of Madness coming up, who knows what’s going to get pulled in.  I’ve this theory that Jennifer Garner has filmed something MCU that we haven’t been told about.  Look at The Adam Project film.  Most of the others are MCU actors, or we’re waiting for them to get pulled in.  It feels like a side project started while something else was getting made.  She played Elektra back then and I’ve not seen that spin off yet.  I can see her potentially reprising that role for a few minutes in a multiversal situation.

So I remember Daredevil being ok, but not brilliant.  It hasn’t aged well.  The special effects on the exaggerated jumps are bad and overused.  Bullseye is clearly auditioning for a role in a Matrix sequel.  Daredevil gets a bit rapey towards Elektra!  When they meet in a coffee shop she tried to leave and he chases after her.  She refuses to give him her name while insisting she’s leaving.  She’s showing no signs of interest.  He doesn’t want her to leave so he grabs her and starts a fist fight because she won’t tell him her name!  It ends up flirty on both sides, but to begin with he is straight up attacking a woman because she said no to him.

The film does nothing with Elektra either.  She’s just there to die.  Her only back story is that she’s got rich parents and knows how to fight.  one good thing about this movie though, is that it didn’t kill off any of it’s bad guys.  They learned from the Batman movies.  There’s another problem.  In terms of tone and wonky camera angles, this film often felt like it wants to be somewhere between Michael Keaton and Adam West’s Batman.  Not a good choice.

It’s Saturday morning and I’m between models.  The blue cloth on Weiss and the prison warden has been intimidating me since the beginning.  It’s not something I feel I can just drybrush. It’s going to require time and focus and proper painting techniques.  A Saturday morning seems like the best time for that then.

Blue Cloth

Base VMC 70.899 Dark Prussian Blue, previously airbrushed on over a zenithal prime
Pin Wash GW Nuln Oil
High 1 Cygnar Blue Base
High 2 Cygnar Blue Highlight
High 3 Cygnar Blue Highlight with increasing amounts of P3 Frostbite
It was all then unified with a glaze of P3 Blue Ink which I may have thinned with a little GW Lahmium Medium

So Weiss is now all done except his red.  I can paint the wardens tie red too while I’m at it.  I need to paint his shirt white first though, and there’s another models who has red and white on him so I should do him at the same time: The Teraton Kraato Gon.  He’s going to need his skin painting first though.  While doing that I got tempted in to doing his shell.  I don’t think I’ve ever painted a tortoise shell before and wasn’t sure how to do it.  I came up with something.

Teraton Flesh

Base P3 Mouldy Ochre
Shade GW Agrax Earthshade
High 1 Drybrush P3 Mouldy Ochre
High 2 Drybrush P3 Menoth White Base
(I’ll come back for the bony protrusions later)

Tortoise Shell 

Base P3 Battledress green
High 1 P3 Beast Hide drybrush
High 2 P3 Hammerfall khaki drybrush
Wash GW Athonian Camoshade
Targeted spotty GW Agrax Earthshade wash, while the last parts of previous stage are still damp
Repeat Drybrushes lightly to taste

Light Brown Leather

Base P3 Beast Hide
Wash GW Agrax Earthshade
Drybrush Hammerfal Khaki (Done at same time as shell)

For some reason, this model didn’t want to dry in a hurry.  He seemed to have areas where paint wanted to pool and just sit there.  I had ample opportunity to go and do some light gardening, and wash some sprues for a later project.

With him all caught up, it’s time to paint the white.  I grabbed a light grey and based with that, and then kept adding more and more white to it to develop the highlights.  This was done to the Teraton and both Wardens only.

White Cloth

Base Reaper MSP 09148 Ghoul Skin
Highlights Ghoul Skin with more and more pure white, never going full white

I delayed the red a bit here as I decided to paint the wardens skin next.  According to the studio schemes I had 2 other models to paint the same, so I grabbed Tracer and Rathmar Ul-iheq and did all 4 models at the same time.  I followed a Asset Drop Guide 7 using the Foundry African Flesh triad.

African Flesh

Base Foundry African Flesh Shade 126A over a zenithal prime
High 1 Foundry African Flesh 126B over all but the darkest regions
High 2 Foundry African Flesh Light 126C
Shade Pin was Army Painted Strong Tone in the darkest recesses

I quickly and lazily painted the cigar here too

Cigar

Base P3 Beast Hide
High P3 Hammerfall Khaki
Wash AP Strong Tone
Put a dot of P3 Ember Orange on the end

It was apparently getting a little late, and I wanted to watch a movie so I called it there and went and watched the 2005 Elektra Directors Cut.

Elektra was something of a bland movie.  A huge shame as I’ve always liked Jennifer Garner and I think she was a much better stage fighter than Ben Affleck.  her back story doesn’t seem to gel with what we saw in Daredevil.  Now she’s been an assassin her whole life, even though in the previous movie she was sheltered by her daddy and not allowed out alone.  Either that, or in the 6 months between films she’s had a life of martial arts training, and a life as a killer for hire.  It doesn’t work.  It feels like someone tried to force their existing script to fit Daredevil.  All the cast appear to be TV actors, except General Zod / Stick, so I’m guessing this had limited budget and support.

Anyway, that’s me all caught up on every Marvel movie since the first X-Men film in time for whatever Multiverse of Madness decides to pull in or reference.  What?  The Punisher had a sequel?  Oh, and I’ve forgotten the Legion TV show, which I’ve not even seen a trailer for yet.  And there’s the fabled Roger Corman Fantastic 4.  Oh well.  Another time perhaps.

It’s Sunday morning on a bank holiday weekend.  I’ve got a D&D game to run tonight so I can’t paint all day.  On to the red.  I tried drybrushing on the highlights here for speed, but it really didn’t work.  I couldn’t safely do it in most places, and it just made a mess of things. I had to go back over it with traditional highlights, but I’m sure you can still see some of it.  This was painted on both Weiss’s, both prison wardens ties, and on the Teraton.

Red

Base GW Evil Sunz Scarlet
Wash GW Carroburg Crimson
Reclaim with base where appropriate
Highlight with GW Wild Rider Red

Thats the Weiss twins finished, and the Wardens and a few brush strokes off too.  let’s get them done next

Badges and Buttons

GW Retributor Armour

Shoes

Base P3 Umbral Umber
Drybrush P3 Beast Hide
2 Washes of GW Nuln Oil

That’s them done.  Five models already finished this weekend, with a target of three.  Time to spread the love around the others.  Let’s focus on skin and hair so I can batch paint clothing etc as appropriate.  I did the African flesh yesterday, so lets do their hair next

African hair

Base 75:25 P3 Umbral Umber:Black
Drybrush P3 Bloodstone (Its a redish brown)
Wash GW Nuln Oil

While that’s drying, lets look at the Blaines.  I’ve already glazed a few coats of P3 Turquoise Ink over their zenithal’ed trousers, so lets do their skin

Blaine Flesh

Base P3 Hammerfal Khaki
Wash P3 Rucksack Tan.  I really didn’t like this.  It didn’t look right.  Don’t do it.
Wash p3 Beast Hide
Drybrush GW Screaming Skull

Lets go back to Coach Fergus.  I did some airbrush work on his flesh a while back, but he needs finishing.

Base 50/50 Mr Paint MRP-F074 Purple Shadow with Mr Paint MRP-F039 Swamp Green, airbrushed all over
High 1 from sides and above only , 1:2 Purple Shadow : Swamp Green
High 3 Swamp Green from above only
Pin wash 1 Purple Shadow
Pin wash 2 Purple Shadow with a little black
Drybrush 1 Swamp green mixed with Mr paint MRP-F062 Undead Skin
Drybrush 2 Undead Skin
The mouth insides were given two coats of GW Carroburg Crimson after this pic was taken

I’ve only found one example of this guy painted online.  There’s not even some company artwork for him.  I wasn’t sure I wanted to copy this paint job as it looks like more work, and trickier work than I’m looking for in this project, but let’s go for it.  if I’d made this decision earlier I would have included him in with Weiss’s red.  Probably best I didn’t as that didn’t go too well.

Fergus’s Red Cloth

Base P3 Khador Red Base
Pin Wash Carroburg Crimson
Reclaim where needed
High 1 Khador Red Base mixed with some P3 Khador Red Highlight
High 2 add more Khador Red Highlight
High 3 just Khador Red Highlight on select spots

Next up, is his yellow jacket.  There’s also yellow on the scientist guy, Dr. Zarathusa Kain so lets grab him too.

Fergus’s Yellow Jacket

Base 50/50 Miniature Paints MP0088 Golden Brown and Miniature Paints MP0061 Canary Yellow
Targeted Shade with just thinned Golden Brown
High 1 with thinned Canary Yellow
High 2 add some Miniature Paints MP0064 Lemon yellow to above.  Then add some more
High 3 just Lemon yellow for glints and edges

I also painted the scientists collar, but forgot his belt.  This turned out to be for the best later, when I got to work on his white coat

Leather Collar Thing

Base P3 Beast Hide
Wash GW Agrax Earthshade
Brybrush P3 Jack Bone

At some point I also finished off the green Flesh tones I’d started a week or two ago on Blitz and Ardia Shi’Lek, and the Treebeasts vines

Green Flesh

Base Coat d’Arms Tank Drab
High 1 50/50 Tank Drab and Coat d’Arms Khaki
High 2 Khaki
High 3 50/50 Khaki and Coat d’Arms Putrid Green
High 4 Putrid Green
Wash with Instar Camo Green Wash

With her flesh done, I then painted Ardia’s dress and the dwarf’s tunic the same colour: Sanguine

The last thing I got done was to apply a base coat of white on Coaches Fergus  and Tracer, and Dr. Zarathusa Kain.  I’ve gone for two large brush fulls of P3 Morrow White mixed with one drop of VMC 70.992 Neutral Grey (The lightest pure grey I think I have).  I’ll look in to pin washing the shade next time I sit down to paint.

So here’s the update.  Here’s what I’ve got “completed” this weekend.  Two Wardens, Two Weiss’s, and Melisandre.

And here’s the state of play on all the remaining models.  I’m liking my progress. It feels a lot like I’ve been setting up dominoes for a few weeks and there’s only a few more in the box and I can then knock them all down and it’ll be super satisfying.

I want them all done before the end of spring, but my current ideal goal is before the 4 day Jubilee weekend.  I’d love those 4 days of without having this project weighing over me.  I’m hoping to teach myself Kingdom Death that weekend and get a few games in.  There’s other hobby projects that I want to give my attention to too.

I had a weird stomach bug this weekend which wrecked my Friday evening, and ruined my plans to see Dr Strange over the weekend.  Someone pointed out the list of Covid symptoms had expanded and I’d experienced 5 of the symptoms, but none of the classic ones.  I eventually got a test Monday evening and got an all clear.  I ended up going to work on Monday and regretted it.  I was more than well enough to work, but not well enough to leave the house.  I took Tuesday off, but by Wednesday I was symptom free and back in the office.  This means I got a 3rd day off to paint to make up for my lost Friday evening.

Anyway, on to the painting chat.

First up, lets finish what’s already on my tray.  The Doc had the remaining leathers painted the same as before, and everyone had their metals painted

Iron/Silver Jewelry etc

Base VGC 72.063 Chainmail Silver
Wash Jan’s Magimix
High VGA 72.752 Silver

Red/Orange Lenses
Base VGC 72.063 Chainmail Silver
Glaize undiluted Ammo Mig Crystal A.Mig-097 Crystal Orange

I then painted their boots, and perhaps some other models boots too.

Dark Brown Boots

Base P3 Umbral Umber
Drybrush P3 Beast Hide
Wash GW Nuln Oil

Coach Fergus’s gem then got a glaze or two of slightly thinned P3 Blue Ink.  All tablets and screens on remaining models were painted true black, and would get a final coat of gloss varnish, once all other varnishing was done, as would all lenses and gems.

Dr’s Grey Hair

Base P3 Iron Hull Grey
High P3 Cryx Bane Highlight

And that finished off those three models

I looked over at my WIPS and decided I wanted to try Blitz.  All he had left to go was his armour.  It’s a reddish leather in the studio scheme and I had some ideas how to try that that I was curious to attempt.  I think they worked out quite well.

Red/brown leather

Base P3 Bloodstone
Drybrush 1 P3 Bogrin Brown
Lighter Drybrush 2, favouring higher and sharper areas P3 Rucksack tan
Pinwash Only GW Agrax Earthshade

And that’s him done too, and it’s only lunch time.

So what next?  Looking at my tray, I see three versions of Blaine needing more work than everything else, but it’s three models so a little work can go a long way.  First up was the messiest part: The Fur.

Fur

Base p3 Cryx Bane Highlight
Wash 50/50 P3 Beast Hide / P3 Thornwood Green
Drybrush P3 Jack Bone
Drybrush Lighter with P3 Menoth White Highlight

Grey Shirt
Base P3 Greatcoat Grey
Drybrush gently with GW Screaming Skull
Pin wash only with GW Nuln Oil

Dark Brown Coats

Base VMC 70.939 Smoke.  This usually acts like a contrast and I was hoping one coat of this would be all that’s needed.  I didn’t thin it though and I assume I usually do, so it didn’t work as expected and I had to paint it properly.  it still did a little natural shading though, adding darkness and depth, of not highlights
Drybrush Scale75 SC27 Iroko

This just left the metal, so I returned him to the WIP tray until I was ready to do the irons on everybody at once.

On to the last model without any paint on it.  The one model I really don’t like.  the Azure Forest trophy.  A completely pointless model, and one I feel lacks the detail needed to make it work.  it’s like the sculptor never got time to do anything with the shield, beyond whack on the basic shape.  Anyway, I need it out of my pile of shame, so it’s getting a basic I-don’t-care paint job

Stone Base

Base P3 Trollblood Highlight
Drybrush 1 GW Karak Stone
Drybrush 2 GW Screaming Skull
Drybrush 3 P3 Menoth White Highlight

Shield Leathers
Base VMC 70.884 Stone Grey
High 1 VMC 70.986 Deck tan
High 2 VMC 70.918 Ivory mixed with Deck tan
High 3 VMC 70.918 Ivory

I then went on to paint the brown leather laces and straps, which I also painted on the cheerleaders skirt and on Blaines’ boots.

Basic Brown leather

Base P3 Bootstrap Leather
Drybrush P3 Trollblood Highlight
Wash GW Agrax Earthshade

This just leaves the leaves, my first job for Sunday morning.

Next up was the leaves on that dumb trophy

Plants
Base Ammo Mig A.Mig-052 Deep Green
High A.Mig-124 Lime Green
Wash Army Painter Green Tone Quickshade dropper wash

I didn’t really know what to do about the torch at this point, so I left it on my tray and grabbed something else to paint.  I went for the wood/bone horns/protrusions on the treebeast and the teraton.

Weed Core / Bone / Horns

Base Mr paint MrP-F059 Brown-Grey
High 1 Brown Grey mixed with Mr Paint MRP-F060 Dust Grey
High 2 Dust grey
High 3 Dust grey Mixed with Mr Paint MRP-F063 Bone White
High 4 Bone White on just the tips
Glaze/wash around the bases only with Dust Grey thinned and mixed with just a dot of Black.

I applied the base coat to the Torch of the trophy too, and applied the final wash patchily over it, to give it an uneven dirt.  30 seconds before varnish this, it would get heavy amounts of Kromlech Soot Black pigment rubbed in to it, getting lighter as I went down.

On to a new colour on new models.  Two of the models have beasts with blue flesh on them.  lets get that done

Blue Beast Flesh

Base P3 Trollblood base
Wash 50/50 Trollblood Base and P3 Sanguine Base
Wash eyes and mouths with 50/50 Trollblood Base and P3 Murderous Magenta
High 1 Troolblood Base
High 2 Trollblood Base mixed with Trollblood Highlight

I drybrushed the highlights on, but it was tricky to get where I needed to without ruining existing paintwork

So… I’m pretty much done on unique colours.  It’s time to do the colours that appear across multiple models and finish stuff off.

Blacks

Base VMC 07.994 Dark Grey
(Base the teratons cloth “webbing” P3 Greatcoat Grey.  I also painted the cheerleaders boots, and Adera’s hair like this)
If Cloth, Drybrush with GW Karak Stone
If metal, Drybrush with P3 Pig Iron
Wash with GW Nuln Oil

I seem to have missed a leather strap or two earlier, so I did them at the same time.

A little bit of spot gold was needed, along with the Cheerleaders hair.

Gold Cloth Trim
Base Darkstar polished Copper
Wash GW Seraphim Sepia
Reclaim with base
High Darkstar Pale Gold

Gold Rings

GW Retributor Gold
Wash Seraphim Sepia
High Darkstar Polished Copper

Pink Hair

Base Warcolours Pink 3
Highlight Drybrush Warcolours Pink 1
Wash Pink 3
Gentle Drybrush Pink 1
Gentle targeted drybrush Pink 1 mixed with White

It was about time to pack up for the weekend so I took some State of Play shots of everything left.  I wasn’t expecting to get much more done until next weekend.

So it’s Tuesday, and I’m having a sick day, although I’m mostly functional.  Time to get the paints out and finish this off!  The only real colour left to go is the irons.  At some point along the way I seem to have already painted the bases while waiting for washes to dry.

Iron

Base P3 Pig Iron
Wash Jan’s Magimix
(Load lifter Not-Ripley got some rust added to her pounder fist thing
Wash P3 Bloodstone
Wash thinned P3 Brown Ink)
Drybrush P3 Cold Steel

And that’s everybody basically done.  There were a few wires or lenses or spot details that needed some colour, but they just got a base coat with whatever paint my hand fell on first.  Nothing worth documenting.  Then it was just eyes for everyone, and varnish.

So lets see all 25 final pieces.  This’ll have to be spread over a few entries, as we can’t label pics in projects within “galleries”, only as “Single Images” (I think we’d all love to see this get a tweak).

There we go.  That’s 70 Dreadbal models done in under 8 weeks.  There’s 12 models not painted and they don’t count.  I’ve 10 more prisoner models I have no use for so I’ll give away at some point, and two more Zee guards.  I’m already at max allowance so they’re going in my bits box.  perhaps one day they’ll get used as base decorations for something big, or turned in to Stargrave monsters?

Project over.  I’ll have to see if I can get some games in now.

I’ve only gone and won Best Tutorial for this!  Thanks guys.  I wasn’t expecting to win anything.  I was just using this competition for motivation to do a project I’d been avoiding for years.

My bit is from 1hr 46min 50s to 1hr 53min 5 sec.  I think the video below will skip to that part.