Angie is featured here this time.  She is an 80mm white metal kit that I painted for an online challenge of using only nine pots/colors of paint.  I wanted to keep the look and feel of this model dark, reflecting depression and cold, which is a bit contrary to the box and website art for this model. It was a treat to paint a larger model that I didn’t have to stick with historical colors or the box art for a client. This is for me.

These are a few rough pictures of where I’m going with this one. I tried to make the pictures as true to color as possible with out running them through photoshop. I still have a bit to go on her as well as my other projects, but I’m getting there.

While those are finished, for April’s fun competition, I’ve decided to paint Pegaso Model’s Angie. I’m not sure what colors I’m going to use yet. The challenge of the competition is that we have to choose nine paints, including primer, and stick to those. I chose this model because I’ve been wanting to get to it for quite some time, and because it can be done with a limited color palette.  Here’s the primed model:

On the desk is also a sea of orcs. I have the Gore Riders going along quickly along with the Hero and his guys.

The Mongol has also gotten some work done on it. I spent a few hours painting the leather on the armor.

Finally, the finished pictures of the sparkly alien.

As usual, I’m finding myself busy. I also have a small model I’m making for a friend that features two dragon, some crystals and I’m not sure what else. I will post on that as I figure it out. Back to work!

The Trigger:

I had just received my full set of Reaper Master Series paints in the mail and was starting to sort them. I had my paints stored in a light weight cart that is supposed to be for holding paper for scrapbooking but held my small amount of paints nicely.

As I loaded all 216 new paints with my existing collection, this little cart began to collapse. Every time I opened a drawer, they would fall out and collide with the drawer below. After all, it is meant for paper, not paint. As I looked around for storage solutions, I spotted my giant trunk that I’ve been hauling around for years. The top opens up like a treasure chest and there are three deep drawers below. The problem with that solution is that the trunk was full of metal, plastic, and resin miniatures and models and bits and bobs of all sorts. There are a few models that I really would like to get to, including a couple of mounted Imerie Risely figures, but the majority of it was Warhammer minis that I bought years ago and lost interest in. I have this small voice in my head (it pulls that crazy trigger) that tells me that I can buy miniatures if I find a great deal, paint them and sell them quickly. In theory, that’s great.  In practice my Aries side starts these projects and then I leave them to sit as I get distracted by fun competitions or commissions.

With the trigger now fully pulled, I dumped all of the minis out of the trunk and onto the floor. I put a notice in one of the small painting groups I belong to for “free minis all around” as long as they end up in a good home. I managed to send out four boxes of random squads and bits and have one left to ship.

I then grabbed a garbage bag and proceeded to go through my storage drawers and throw away anything that I haven’t used in the last couple of years and chucked some old paint as well. This was a three evening purge. The trunk is now clear for paint.

Now that I’ve gotten rid of over three quarters of my mini horde and reorganized things, my mind is clear. The trigger is reset for another time. I can move on to current projects without the tiny cry of neglected minis tugging at my ear.

My room went from this:

To something a bit more useful:

It may not look like a huge difference, but trust the person that spends 90% of her free time in this lair, it’s way better.

Now that I’ve failed on actually painting this week, I had better get back to it.

My Orcs from Mantic Games came in and I have them started.

While all of this is going on, I’ve gained a little on the Mongol General.

I have also subscribed to Miniature Mentor, a website that is full of tutorials from the best painters and sculptors of modern miniatures (mostly gaming) from all over the world. I will  cover some of these tutorials as I watch them in other posts.

These are the Orc Gore Riders and heros for the challenge

The first is an alien theme so I ordered Empress Messalina IV of the Andromedans from Reaper Miniatures. Here is a primed picture. Details are difficult to see at this point.

To add to the challenge, I’m going to try and paint her in pigments…. hopefully in entirety but I’m not sure about that one yet.

The next fun contest is to paint a comical miniature. Anything goes. I found this Frog Wizard by Dark Sword Miniatures in a drawer and decided he was funny enough for this.

I’m hoping to make a neat base, perhaps with water, but it’s too early to tell on this one.

The last competition is a Tale of 4 Gamers style. I admit that I had no idea what that was until I looked it up and it seems like fun. The March challenge is to paint a Hero and one Squad of any type from any game system. I chose to go with the Orcs from Mantic Games. I ordered Krudger’s Gang for my hero and Gore Riders for my squad. They should be here by Monday and I’m really excited to paint a whole army over the course of six months.

On top of everything, I’ve started a Mongol General from Andrea Miniatures for a friend. I’m trying to test my patience and up my painting game and this miniature will put me to the test.

So these are the challenges for the month. I expect the Mongol General will take a few months  as I want to go slow with it. I will update these as I finish or progress on them.

I’m planning on keeping track of the contest with the Orc Army as I get the challenges. This should get interesting.