Double Post! I Realised I Never Actually Made A Post About This Halfling Smith I Painted Last Week, Which

Double post! I realised I never actually made a post about this halfling smith I painted last week, which is a travesty, because she's cool as heck! Also, she's a four fingered smith now, because I'm a clutz and dropped her while carrying her over to take pictures ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

One of the great things about 3d printing, is that when I want to paint a mini like this to display on a shelf rather than use on a table, I can just scale it up a bit before printing, rather than having an oddly sized mini on a shelf next to a bunch of larger figurines!

I really like how all the different colours and materials came together on this paint job, I think I managed to keep everything cohesive but distinct.

I'm also pretty happy with how the skin tone came out. I tried something a bit different to what I usually do, by mixing my favourite light skin tone paint with a little bit of reddish brown paint to get a slightly more tan colour as a base I could work up from. I think it turned out great, and really suits this halfling smith!

This print is Helen, the Blacksmith Halfling by Bite The Bullet

I was playing with a cheap necklace I got off wish a while back, and managed to break this starry cabachon off it (I threw it into a fan on accident, no further questions).

I thought it was a cool little piece, so I went ahead and put together a wizardy table for it in fusion360, printed it out, slapped some paint on it, and here it is! Just a quick little scatter piece. I guess the ruined portal from my last post has me in a wizardy mood.

I like using fusion360, I'm still fairly inexperienced with it, but that just means I can learn new things each time! This time I figured out how to use the sweep tool to create the swoopy tubes running up the sides of the table.

Also pictured, Edwin, my sorcerer PC from a Curse of Strahd game I'm in! He was the most wizardly character I had on my shelf. I should fix that at some point.

If you want to get the file for this, you can find it here.

So I got a resin printer this weekend (Elegoo Mars 2 Pro), and the upgrade in quality just has me gobsmacked.

I reprinted Mars, my Elf barbarian in the game I'm playing in at the moment. Which is fortunate because she recently grew Antlers due to the somewhat questionable decision to eat some Fae moss found in a wizards basement.

Here are some comparisons between my new mars, and the original printed in FDM:

It was actually because of the resin I noticed that what I'd originally painted as shorts was actually her leg and the top of her boot.

I used to think I wasn't missing out on too much with just an my FDM printer, aside from having to steer away from some minis with lots of thin details, but even sections where I thought my FDM machine was handling quite well are just so much nicer in the Resin print.

I still think you can get decent table ready minis with just an FDM machine, but my new preference is definitely for Resin minis.

I keep just spending time turning this model around looking closely, because the quality is such an improvement. I'd never manage to get the antlers so crisp and clean with an FDM print. I also don't have to struggle with thin paint wikking away into layer lines, which makes the painting process much easier.

My Mars mini is Sony Jona from Artisan Guild, with some edits made in Blender to turn her from a Sorceress into a Barbarian. My limited Blender skill means I decided she just really likes apples, since I needed to put something round in that hand.

Another Figurine!

I really love this one, it's just got such a dynamic pose, and it's pretty different to what I normally paint. It's good to shake things up now and then. I probably could've done a bit more work on the details of this one, but I was working on a time limit to get it done, and I'm pretty happy with where I got it all things considered.

I wasn't sure at first what sort of detailing I should do on the metal armour parts. I was considering just leaving it all silver at one point, but I thought it'd be just a bit too boring like that. I think the few gold details really help keep it all interesting, without being gaudy or overwhelming.

The panel lining isn't quite as crisp as I'd like, but it's not something I normally have to do on a lot of what I paint, so I'm ok with that. It really helps make things pop having that separation between panels. It was kind of hard getting wash into just the cracks though, since I wanted to avoid toning down the silver and gold. It's got me thinking that I should try oil washes though. Being able to put wash all over something, then clean it up off anything you don't want to be toned down seems pretty cool. I've just got to get over that anxiety of trying out something new without knowing how it'll turn out.

This figure is Mecha Knight Odessa by Dinamuuu3D.

Yarrr!

I've been painting this awesome pirate figure over the past week. I've been trying to get myself back into the habit of painting consistently over the week, rather than waiting for 'the perfect time' (which never comes), because my pile of shame is growing at a concerning rate.

This was a really fun model to paint, with some great details. Though I did get slowed down a bit trying to figure out how to navigate the tip of my brush into some areas. Theres a lot of semi enclosed spaces with awkward positioning, and in the end I left a few spots unpainted. You can't see them without turning the model upside down and at odd angles anyway, so I've decided to just not care, and save myself the hand cramps.

Besides just being a fun model to paint, it was also a chance to play around with how I paint metalics a bit. Theres so much dark metal involved in the cannon that I didn't want to just paint it all with a solid metal colour. And while I do want to try my hand at painting non-metalic metal at some point, I don't quite have the confidence and patience for it just yet. So instead I tried out painting the bits I wanted in a dark-steel/iron colour with straight black paint, and then just drybrushing dark silver metalic paint over it, and it worked beautifully. It really helps the metal look a bit more beaten and dull, its only shining on the edges and ridges, where its maybe been polished a bit by rubbing against its environment. This is a technique I'm going to try and remember in the future.

For all the other metals on this piece I just did straight metalic paint, and I just love how the gold contrasts with the reds and browns its up against!

I'm also really happy with the skin. It wasn't that long ago that I dreaded painting skin and always hated how I made it look, but now its one of my favourite things to paint! Getting to play with skin tones and highlighting them is just fun! I've still got room for improvement with where I place my highlights, but I can see progress in every mini I paint, which is really rewarding!

This figure is Miss V. Gomez , by Cast n Play.

Just finished up painting this mini for @yoshikagequeen's character, Sunlil! She's an Air Genasi storm sorcerer, in a game we're both in. My character in that game is the Barbarian Mars, which you can check out here.

This is actually the second time I've painted this mini, the first one was done on my FDM printer, so I couldn't do the swirling air currents around the body, and it ended up being too fragile and breaking apart. (I glued the foot to the base paint on paint, which sure didn't help).

Now that I have a resin printer though, I can do cool minis like this. I printed the air currents and base in transparent resin, and tinted it with a little alchohol ink, which is an effect I'm in love with, and will definitly play with for any future spell effects I need.

I've also pinned sunlil to the base with a piece of wire into the foot, so it should be a lot stronger of a bond.

In terms of painting, I'm pretty happy with how this mini turned out. I like the colours on her outfit and the gradient in the hair. Skin continues to be a bit difficult for me, particularly a tone I'm not particularly used too, but I think it turned out ok. This is also the favourite eye I've done yet, I tend to lean towards painting the pupil/iris too small, and having it look a bit derpy. It sure helps that the other eye is hidden by hair, so I don't have to worry about matching the direction the eyes are looking in.

Overall, I'm looking forward to seeing this mini in play on the table :)

This mini is Ellie the Genasi Mage (Air), by Twin Goddess Miniatures.