Widow Weaver, Stitched, and a surprise Bayou guest

Those will likely be my last minis painted in 2020. With Stitched Tigether and Widow Weaver, my Nightmare keyword is almost complete - only Madnesses left. Don't think I will be painting Teddy as there seem to be better alternatives to him in the keyword.

 

Somer - Avatar of Opulence, eating his life away on the back of Peaches. What a fun mini to paint, although assembling it was a bit complicated...

Three little Gupps - old metal versions back from M1E just to add some variety to my collection.

And an odd model from the Ressurectionists faction, painted for a buddy.

Expanding the Nightmare keyword

 

Getting slowly into full Nightmare keyword with these recent additions. Old Chompy Bits - metal model from the first edition + my take on Dreamer using arm from new Chubby bits (M3E) and Dreamer avatar model.

More Nightmares

 Finally working on my own stuff, some minis from the Nightmare keyword, more to follow soon.

Nightmarish WIP

 

My hobby plans for 2020 remain ambitious - the picture above shows what I plan to paint before the end of year. This is actually the 8th Dreamer crew I will be painting. I plan to stick to my swamp theme I have in the Neverborn but to make this keyword stand out a bit more I will be using resin skull bases from Micro Art Studio for the most part.

I will start with Alps as I really like the new plastic sculpts and plan to use dark purple + worn out red on the robes to make them pop more.

I've been into watching some Vassal reports and can give a big shoutout to James Dyson who regularly provides quality content on youtube. As they are not too dynamic, they can work well as background video while I paint minis - can't really do that with bat reps that show actual minis and have different camera angles.

And speaking of youtube, here's a new video from one of my favorite bands.

Colorul Ladies and new approach to taking pictures

A few weeks ago some cables in my old trusty Foldio lightbox snapped and I was no longer able to take decent pictures. I bought a new , smaller one from Green Stuff World and started experimenting with different backgrounds. My initial goal was to start taking pictures with black background but... well, that will take some time to master. I have, however learnt that you can easily adjust exposure while taking pics with iphone (duh! should have started doing that long time ago!). 

What it means in a nutshell is that I can adjust the focus on miniature(s) so that the background becomes pure, bright white. A good friend who is a professional photographer has once told me that the less work you do with editing pictures, the better. In the samples below there is no edition and no filters needed to be used.

Let's start with Cassandra and Arcane Effigy.

Followed by Baritone Lola - really great sculpt and I had some fun working on the skin tone with oil paints.

The last one is the most interesting example. Hinamatsuri, also called Doll's Day or Girls' Day, is an annual festival in Japan. Celebrated on 3 March of each year, platforms covered with a red carpet-material are used to display a set of ornamental dolls representing the Emperor, Empress, attendants, and musicians in traditional court dress of the Heian period (info from Wiki). Hinamatsu is a Doll that made it to the world of Malifaux. It took some considerable effort to buy it as it's been unavailable in pretty much all stores worldwide for months. I managed to get it on eBay from the US with a bundle of other M2E boxes.

In game it is one of the most efficient pieces. Armored, can deal damage that ignores armor, has a lure and good mobility. I can't wait to try it in game!

Long-overdue update

It's been almost three months since my previous post. It doesn't mean that I haven't painted anything during that time. On the contrary, these last three months have been pretty good hobby-wise, but let's start from the beginning. 

August and part of September were a bit challenging due to lat renovation. We initially wanted only to repaint the walls but ended up doing much more. I used this opportunity to prepare a new hobby corner. One of the main goals was to make sure both of my daughters have their own room, which meant that I had to move my workspace to bedroom. I wanted to have plenty of storage options so I chose modular workspace from hobbyzone.pl I also bought desk with adjustable height from @easydesk_biurka_gamingowe Solid and heavy with some additional options (such as led lighting or media port). Now that I work from home most of the time I wanted to have plenty of space to combine work section with hobby part. Overall, I’m pretty happy with the result as it uses the space to the fullest, combining high functionality with very good quality of all the elements. Below you can see the space before renovation and pictures "after".

I also finally played some games of third edition of Malifaux and even took part in two tournaments. My results were rather poor but I did enjoy several games I played. M3E does eel much faster and more streamlined and the keyword system means that I got to use miniatures I had painted for years but never used them beore (such as Gorar, Adze). I played a ew games with Eurypides, Titania, but in the end settled or Zoraida as my main master - still the aesthetics appeal the most to me and the way this crew plays is fun too.

And as for painting - more pictures can be found on my Instagram account here but below you can see an overview.

Fire Brigade

 It felt a bit odd painting these fiery minis while the temperatures outside reach their annual peak. The new sculpts for Arcanist minis are pretty well designed and the flames are places in a way that adds a lot of dynamism.The Fire Golem is a believe a third version I've painted so far. No airbrush was used - I initially planned to do so but became frustrated after it got clogged again and ended up using brush only. I've used more flue colors this time. While their pigment is a bit weaker, adding a few layers affects how the overall brightness is perceived and adds a nice touch.

#12/2020 The Second Sleep

The idea is quite interesting - the middle-ages setting gains more depth as some "artifacts" of the ancients are discussed. Those artifacts are items of everyday use such as fragments of glass and an iPhone...

The main character, a priest, arrives at a remote village to conduct burial ceremonies but quickly learns that there are more layers to what apparently seems like a natural death. 

This novel had huge potential. Setting that initially reminded me of "The Name of the Rose", mysterious catastrophe in the  but despite that I never felt too involved in the story while I was following it.

#13/2020 The Book of Basketball

I've been an avid fan of basketball for years so this book felt like an obligatory choice. What I value most from it was the fascinating account of Wilt Chamberlain - Bill Russell rivalry and a pretty obvious conclusion as to why Bill should be ranked as the best ever. Apart from it there is the famous "pyramid", a ranking of 50 top players in the NBA history. Language at times feels a bit blunt and a bit too colloquial but overall a very good read that I'd recommend especially to those who value some of today's players who excel only at one end of the floor ;)

Averon Stormsire

My first ever attempt at NMM on armor, followed by tutorial published by Age of Squidmar on his youtube channel. Still more yellow than gold but there are sections that don't look too bad I think. Completely different than my typical style but it was an interesting exercise for sure. If anything, it has caused me to have more respect for those who have really mastered this technique.