First PanO Model - WIP Kamau

Working through my ALEPH army made me realize how enjoyable painting could be, and I decided that rather than attempt to build a really complete force I’d prefer to move on and paint the figures I found most appealing in other factions. I’ve always adored the Cutter model from PanOceania so I went ahead and bought one, along with some appropriately thematic Kamau soldiers to accompany it. Here is my first painted PanO figure, a WIP Kamau model with just the basecoat done that will give you an idea of my color scheme.

My girlfriend is visiting at the moment and decided to name this lucky trooper "Gargazone". The writing will be painted over, but the name shall remain forever.

I’m really pleased with how my color combinations came out and love the mint tone, although the dark blue accents on the hoses/pants will definitely be changed for something else. I’ll post pictures when he’s finished!

Infinity Aleph Army - Spring 2014

This army represents both my current painting ability, and the single most focussed expression of my interest in the miniature hobby so far. These were all purchased and painted over the span of 5-6 months with some divergences made for painting Kraye and building some other figures. I’ve been playing with these guys frequently throughout the painting process, and Infinity is easily my favourite game by far. I love the sculpts and while there was a bit of a learning curve getting the hang of the very small, yet detailed, models, I’m very happy with the overall result.

I based my color-scheme off of Evangelion Unit 01 from one of my favourite anime's. As soon as I saw the Dakini tacbot models I knew I had to use this as my scheme and I'm quite happy with the look of the green/purple/black. The Dakini's were consequently some of the first units I painted.

Admittedly I regret incorporating gold into the scheme on some of the earlier models like Diomedes and the Asura. But i'm not bothered enough to go back and change it at the moment.

Here's a close up of the "black marble" bases I ended up painting. I'm actually quite pleased with how they turned out even though they're a little wacky, and i've had some people think its supposed to be lightning.The later bases have a ridged texture in a single direction that I think makes it more obvious.

These were some of the last units I did, and I think its clear that my brush control had gotten a lot better by that point. I'm very aware that this is only table-top quality painting, and to a degree this is what I was shooting for, as my goal was to get the army finished rather than "perfect". However I think just painting a lot of figures to a decent quality, rather than agonizing over each one, has done a lot more to help my confidence and ability. Each figure here took me no more than five hours to paint, but I think there's a marked improvement in the later ones like Achilles.

Warmachine Cygnar Army 2011-2013

This Cygnar army marks what I’d consider my first real commitment to the miniature hobby, in that I was actively playing Warmachine games as I worked my way through these models and painted them. That said, the span of time it took them to reach this state was positively glacial. I recall painting my starter box immediately after finishing the empire army three years ago.

These were initial color scheme tests that I later went back and repainted over to bring them in line with the rest of the force. I also added highlights to the jacks.

My brother also bought an old Menoth starter so we could play games together. I painted these fairly quickly and didn’t get too bothered about the final result. Pretty basic stuff but I can’t bring myself to sell it off and its worth next to nothing now anyways.

pNemo has a special place in my heart for being the first miniature I felt I’d painted to a high standard and was very satisfied with. Unfortunately he’s an extremely fragile warcaster on the table and not very competitive, and I’d posit my frequent use of him (at least partially) contributed to my huge losing streak with Warmachine. More generally I think I only very recently started to grasp the mechanics of the game properly and be a truly competitive player, but unfortunately this happened right after I’d come to grips with Infinity, which I’d now consider my primary game.

This gunmage UA represents the first time I was really happy with my highlighting, having just discovered glazing. (wet blending remains a bit beyond me at the moment)

Siege was one of the first figures I painted after moving to England in fall of 2013, and came after a several-month break in painting. For all that I think he turned out alright and is a lot more fun on the table than pNemo.

Kraye was painted very recently and I think he effectively represents my current ability to paint warmachine figures. He’s such a large and detailed figured that it took me far longer than my usual “5 hours per figure” rule but I’m relatively happy with the result.

There are still a small handful of pieces I need to get around to painting. In particular there is a stormclad that I undercoated two years ago which is still guilting me about not being painted yet! I also recently built an eCaine blister which I’d had lying around for ages, and between eCaine, Siege, and Kraye I’m hoping to have my three primary casters.

Empire Army from Spring 2011

For my initial post I thought i'd showcase the very first army I every successfully completed. The bulk of this was painted three years ago, and represents my most concentrated effort in miniature painting after almost six years of flip-flopping with Fantasy and 40k armies. 

Previously I would buy massive amounts of second-hand miniatures, assemble them as needed, and never paint them or game with them. After they sat around for a requisite 6-8 months I’d sell them off, cursing myself for a fool and vowing not to buy any more. Despite being completed, this particular army never saw action up until fall of last year, and even then only 3-4 games.

You can clearly see I’m uncomfortable with color consistency and highlighting. The yellow is particularly variable among the different models.

One issue I have with Warhammer and army-scale games more generally is having to paint scads of bog-standard line troops (who happen to be annoyingly detailed in empire armies, especially under a white basecoat) and only getting one or two really spectacular models to paint. All things considered I think this hero turned out quite well considering the level of my painting, although it feels like he lacks highlights.

I’m actually still really happy with the way this base on the cannon turned out, although the crew leaves much to be desired.

As it stands I’ll be returning to this army after many years apart from it to add a new regiment of halberdiers, some more handgunners, and some knights. I imagine I’ll soon have some pretty good comparison shots between the different levels of my painting!