A Couple Painted Baddies

Sticking with the "A Couple" string of posts, here are "A Couple" of bad guys from my Christmas acquisitions. These were the first figures I had painted since my Orc Blood Bowl team, so my hand was a little shaky. I worked quickly, focusing on having fun and experimenting rather than agonizing over every little detail.

These figures mark a lot of "firsts" for me. They are the first true fantasy dedicated figures I've painted since I was 15. They are also the first figures to go in a warband for Song of Blades and Heroes or Skulldred. So sentimental value, for sure.

More interestingly, these were the first figures which I tried basing on washers, the first where I tried puddle effects on the bases, and the first where I tried superglue instead of PVA to adhere the sand. They were also the first figures on which I tried using Liquitex matte medium for blending, and the first figures on which I tried Non-Metallic Metal and Object Source Lighting techniques.

So these are very important figures for me. Even if they don't look that good.

What's fun is tracking the improvement across the two pieces. I painted the skeleton on the left first, and you can see how sloppy the OSL is compared to the hand on the Sorcerer. Likewise, the NMM is pretty odd looking on the skeleton, partly because I was working from a midnight blue base, and partly because I did not take enough time in the blending details. The NMM on the Sorcerer has a more believable color, but does not look very metallic. Which I'm fine with. I think it conveys a nice, grubby metal.

I am really liking the washer bases. The low profile with the black rim really appeals to me. I need to work on the puddle effect, though. The idea here is to make a blanche-style soggy base with puddles reflecting a luridly colored sky. It did not work at all on the skeleton because I tried it as an afterthought, on top of the sand. It worked much better for the sorcerer because I left blank spots on the washer when I glued on the texture (gel formula super glue is perfect for this kind of control). I still need to work on the illusion of depth, though.

Finally, while I had the paints out, I figured I'd whip out a measuring stick for SoBH/ Skulldred. (If you aren't familiar with these systems, they both deal with movement in fixed increments, rather than measurements.) So I cut down a length of sprue and painted bands for short, medium, and long movement. Since Skulldred uses base-widths rather than the odd increments of millimeters in SoBH, I decided to just go with that. I don't understand why SoBH is different, but I don't think it will break the game and this way I only have to paint one.

Look out for more painted figs, and maybe someday even a batrep. Any tips, criticisms, advice, questions, &c are always welcome. Just drop a card in the box below: