It's been 6 months so I guess it's time for another blog about painting stuff!

​I've managed to varnish a few figures.

Trolls ahoy! The troll on the left is from Reaper Bones while my memory about the dude on the right is a little fuzzy, he's definitely a lead figure though, possibly from Reaper too?

Both the ogres below are from Reaper Bones​.
The guy on the left is a fairly big figure and the bigger Reaper Bones figures are always good, I like how he turned out.

This giant croc is yet another Reaper Bones miniature.

These 2 dwarves come from the Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures range.
It looks like these 2 dwarves might be 3d printed and designed on computer. They're a little fiddly but I like the poses although it makes them tricky to store.
I'm also happy with the outcome, even though in the photo they don't look great.

Another slightly fiddlyplastic figure is this female assassin wielding twin daggers from the Pathfinder Battles Deep Cuts Unpainted range from Wizkids.

Run to the hills.
Metal iron maiden figures from Bad Squiddo Games.
Not a millimetre of visible skin on these figures which made them about the easiest figures to paint!

3 Beggars from Midlam Miniatures​.
​Not sure if they're originals from Midlam or from a older range.

4 WWII era Soviet soldiers from Artizan Designs.
I actually painted the vast bulk of these several years ago but at the time ran out of bases for the last 4! They've lingered in a drawer... until now.

These are male and female cultist from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures range.

I can't remember where these cam from, they were put on bases ages ago!
My gut is telling their vampire hunters from West Wind range but I can't be sure?
Despite being vampire hunters (I think!), they look pretty good as more cultists to join the Bob Murch figures.

Right. That's it for now.
​I'll post another blog in 6 months!

Some more varnishing has been done!
Other than the last 2 figures, everything was painted by mid-February but a mixture of being busy and bad weather meant that I didn't get a chance to varnish anything until Thursday past.

The 12 skeletons below are all lead figures from Midlam Miniatures. They're pretty standard designs but there's nothing wrong with that, I thought they were perfectly acceptable and the sculpts were good, especially since I was looking to bulk up my skeleton count and they were reasonably priced.
They were undercoated with a Army Painter bone coloured spray to make the painting quicker. The simpler figures such as archer and two-handed sword skeleton were quick to paint but some had a lot more detailing that needed quite a bit of re-undercoating before painting. So in terms of quick painting turn around. it was a bit of a mixed bag.
Overall though, I'm happy with the results.

EDIT: So whilst looking for something completely different I discovered that these skeletons were originally produced by the now defunct Metal Magic Fantasy back in the 90's when I was starting out painting!

The next 4 figures are cavemen from the Reaper Bones Black range.
Since they're plastic, the sculpting for their fur clothing can be quite thick, luckily though, that isn't readily apparent and overall they look pretty good. I like how burly they are.

Finally, the last 2 figures are definitely not Lara Croft and Alice from Resident Evil - specifically not Alice from the Resident Evil: Extinction movie.
Both done for a friend, Tim.

They're both lead models, now produced by Hayland Terrain.
Initially from the now defunct Studio Miniatures, they're both good sculpts though.

However, they were triply stressful to paint.
Originally I thought they were out of production and if somehow damaged would be very hard to replace.
They were painted for 'somebody else' which is something I'm not used to doing.
They were referencing 'real' sources which I needed to replicate.

Having said that, I still enjoyed doing it and am happy with the outcome.

So, I've finally gotten round to varnishing some of the ground vehicles that I painted for use in pulp/WWII settings. Some were painted over 18 months ago!
I didn't choose the best day for it - it could have done with being a few degrees cooler!

Still got the water vehicles to varnish.

Looking at the results, it would have been better to have used an airbrush but I don't have the money/space/experience for one. So it is what it is.

All models are 1/56 resin and come from Anyscale Models.

These scenery pieces all come from Iron Gate Scenery and a little unusually, I painted them for someone else, namely Tim. As I rule I don't paint for other people, all minifig painters know it can get a little stressful.

The varnish has dulled-down the colours a little - especially the metallics on the treasure pile. They are intended for use as additional scenery for HeroQuest though and will be handled a lot so varnishing seems prudent.

The scenery seems to be made from fairly high definition 3d printing, look closely however and the 'grain' is visible but it's not really an issue though, the quality is good enough, especially for scenery.
Design wise they're a little unremarkable but again, it's scenery - for use in a game which is good enough.

Been nearly a year since I posted on this blog, I haven't forgotten about it, promise!
I also haven't touched a paintbrush since February this year.

Got some undercoating done. This is going to be the first time I've painted fantasy figures for at least a couple of years.
Just done the undercoating on these, they're all Reaperminis.

Hopefully I'm going to varnish some of the stuff I've actually painted in the last year!

The morning's heat tired me.
Lunchtime's spotty rain dissuaded me.
Finally, this afternoon's muggy climate irritated me.

Despite this horribly changeable weather, I managed to do some undercoating.
These are the last of my pulp vehicles - unless has some forgotten stuff lying around, which is entirely possible!

2 boats are MDF kits that come from Warbases.
The other is resin from Ainsty Castings.

All vehicles are 1/56 resin and come from Anyscale Models.

Again all vehicles are 1/56th scale from ​Anyscale Models.

That's plenty of stuff to be getting on with for now.

Easter gave me the opportunity to construct another level of Hobbyzone modular paint racks.

The open spaces beneath the drawers allows me to 'hide' the paint pot clutter a lot better now. Although, to be honest; a number of those pots are probably 'dead' and need removing.

Part of the problem with last year's level up was while it gave a lot of storage, paints had to be moved away from the drawers to open them, now they drawers are a level higher, the paints won't interfere with the opening.

I think that I'm done with levelling up, I don't think there's any more practical reason to add more levels.

2 posts in 2 days!
What's the world coming to?

Despite being cold, today was sunny and good opportunity to do some varnishing.

That's all 30 of my Pulp Figures Melanesian figures now finished and varnished.

From Midlam Miniatures are 3 Red Hook Horrors, only one of which I painted red! However, I find the idea of flesh and poo coloured monsters appealing. These were painted earlier in the year and are now varnished.

10 boats undercoated and ready to paint now that Melanesians figures are finished and just awaiting varnishing.

All are 28mm resin models from Anyscale Models.
Looking forward to this, not painted many boats in the past.

A year ago I bought and constructed some modular paint racks from Hobbyzone. This year I bought some storage units to go underneath the paint racks, painting area is levelled up!

Can you spot the difference?

It may look like the clutter hasn't changed but on the extra level, the drawers on the left allow me to store up about 100 25x25mm based figures.

Little bits of other storage that put things out of the way.

Maybe next year I'll give it another level up and get more storage space.

It occurred to me that I haven't posted anything on this blog since Christmas, which was nearly 5 months ago!
I've been doing some painting since then, I swear! It just seems so little!
Instead here are some figures I based and undercoated, including 10 that I missed during the undercoating.
The WW2 Germans, Afrika Korps & WW2 Soviets are from Artizan Designs.
The Melanesian warriors are from Pulp Figures Savage Seas range.
The rock monsters are Stalagbites by Midlam Miniatures.
Are you happy now Paul!?!