2023 Challenge - February

 

To sum up February, there was...

. 

A Very Large Pumpkin 

This friendly fellow was a Halloween decoration I found in a local craft store last year. Sometime between now and then I found a plastic disk big enough to be it's base. This February, I finally stuck one to the other and went to town with the dirt and the grass and the acrylics. I think the important part of painting this guy was not over-thinking the task, and keeping the brushstrokes bigger and looser. I don't paint large models very often, but I know it would have to be executed flawlessly if I wanted to make the pumpkins surface super detailed. Keep it simple, stupid 😘

This is likely a Turnip28 pal for an uprising of the louse army. They have only toffs and toadies and then a giant effigy that they sacrifice their foes to. 

Twenty Cultists

Sometimes, you need a pile of dudes, and sometimes those dudes need to be painted bright yellow. These are hodge podge between Wargames Atlantic's Cannon Fodder 1 & 2, Genestealer Cults Neophyte Hybrids, and a handful of Cadian bits. While not optimized for 40k (9th edition kinda passed me by,) I'll run them as a blob of 20 with a flamer and a hero. I figure they're escaping a penal colony, so optimizing their kit wasn't as important as fleeing a prison planet. 

My bits box is now full of these jumpsuits, which is kinda neat. I don't know how soon I'll revisit the Cult, but I do enjoy how so far its units seem like they're pulled from many different walks of life, which demonstrates how much of the planet the cult has infiltrated. Sure, there are blobs of people from the same industries and communities, but there's still a range represented in the horde. Also, i like to be able to tell units apart, and this all yellow unit will be really easy to refer to when playing against someone. 

Some things I might add to the unit? Another leader (see person with a sword and pistol) and maybe a heavy weapon like a seismic mining drill or a super rockbreaker laser. I could see myself chopping into a model's limbs to enlongate them, and split their torso to widen their breast. Sometimes you have to cut a few eggs to make an omlette, no?

It might be fun to also make a primus or a magos from the prison faction, or a unit of abberants so that I can make a biologus as well... I don't love how glass cannon those monsters are in-game, but it could be a fun to convert for it. Takeaway: maybe I should netdeck/weblist? Or maybe I should get my new codex... or the new new codex due out sometime next year...

A Denizen of Lobsterpot

I've had her hands in my collection since I was 14.

MONTH'S TOTAL

+22

YEAR SO FAR TOTAL

27/52

REFLECTION

I think it was a pretty good month, yield-wise. 

I also managed to crank out a few commissions, some of which are pictured below.

The client got some minis printed to accompany their Spirit Island, and we're both really pleased with how they turned out. I learned two things in the process of it.

1. Feathers are hard

2. I was right to buy a tube of magenta back in December. Hecking love that tube.

'

In other news, I'm painting with watercolors again. Its been years, but I found a tube of lamp black and my pencil case is metal, so its been really easy just to dig an ice cube out of my coffee and turn my case into a palette literally anywhere I like. 

The goal right now is to sharpen up my craft while practicing small format images. Its a challenge making art that is meant to be viewed at such a small size, and I've tried to keep composition and contrast in mind while developing them. Suffice to say, its a learning experience, and I think I'm learning a lot.

Also, I think it'd be fun and spooky to be on a game card. I've been listening to Mark Rosewater's podcast Drive to Work and its been really fun hearing about vanity cards of old and MTG invitationals prizes, where players and designers are immortalized via portraits and anagrams.

I dunno, I just think they're neat.

March is coming up tomorrow, and I'm not sure what my goals are. I'll likely be going home for my brother's birthday, so chances are we'll play something while I'm there. Also, I said I wanted to finish projects this year and I meant it. I'd like to find more time to do editing/polishing, and hopefully I can use some executive function techniques to help me get there. With some luck and some discipline, I'll be able to post more than once a month and with some good news even.

So with that in mind, good luck and stay safe. I'll see you in the next one!