Resurfacing

I've been in quite the painting funk lately. After burning my candle on both ends to finish two infantry commissions, my head was ready to explode. I like painting fine details, but infantry often has a lot of small, inconsequential details that no one but me may notice, and yet I must paint them. Then I moved on to my charity project, which you may recall has not been going well. I've been painting slower, I've spent a lot of time correcting mistakes, and overall it's just been a long process.

Today, everything was better. I sat down to paint and finally finished the basecoats of the first half of the project. I hate painting base coats - it's the whole reason I bought an airbrush in the first place. As I sat and looked at them, I just breathed a sigh of relief. It felt like I dove too deep in a pool, and my lungs were getting annoyed with my lack of air as I swam my way to the surface - there was no immediate panic, but I definitely needed to get my head above water - I needed to finish these base coats.

And when I did, everything was better. I didn't want to jump out of the pool and move to the desert - I wanted to keep swimming and doing the stuff I enjoyed. I got to add shadows and highlights, I got to paint jewels and eyes... I finally got to bring the figures to life! They aren't done yet, but I'm really excited to be back in my groove and I wanted to show you guys where I'm at.


First is the Choir of Menoth. I didn't get ambitious with the staffs like I'd originally planned, and in hindsight that's probably a very good thing. The leader has been a blast to paint - lots of jewels and dramatic folds in his robes.

Then the Fire of Salvation. I was hesitant when I saw the flame on his mace, especially since I'm not a fan of things like fire that looks very odd frozen in time. However, I was really excited when I saw how well the coloring came out.

The Reckoner is without a doubt my least favorite model in all of Menoth. The original sculpt (seen below) has him bending at the knees with his feet close together. When you have a giant wacker-stick and a gun the size of a horse, you look ridiculous just standing still. Walk forward, brace yourself for the cannon's recoil - something! On the plus side, his giant dome really let me practice shadows and highlights using only an airbrush!

And Kreoss, the man himself. I love this model, but I did him first because I knew he'd be a nightmare to paint. He does everything right - he looks like a knight clad in white armor, charging forward with a lance and shield. For added flair, he even has a pair of streamers behind him! He hasn't been totally awful - he has a lot of little detail, but I actually enjoyed the filegree on his horse armor and banners.

That's where I'm at right now. The goal is to get them ready to seal tonight, but with only about an hour left to work we'll see if I make it. And if I don't, I'm excited to wake up early and keep going!


See you tomorrow!

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