Quarter 4 & Year End Painting Review 2014

Quarter 4 2014

An up and down year to be sure on the painting front. I knew at the outset that other commitments would curtail my painting opportunities, but what surprised me was to what degree that would happen, and late, how I would be able to get a significant amount more painting done by comparison once those commitments were out of the way.

I initially started with an objective for 50 minis, but that quickly changed when I knew it wasn't realistic based on the first few months, especially when I did not paint anything at all in February. The target was revised to 40 and at least I managed to achieve that. Quite a drop from 2013 when I painted 63 minis, but still better than I thought early this year.

Quarter 1: 10 minis (-3 from Q1 2013)
Anima Tactics: 7 minis
Pulp City: 2 minis
Supers: 1 mini

Quarter 2: 10 minis (-3 from Q2 2013)
Anima Tactics: 8 minis
Pulp City: 1 mini
Batman Miniatures Game: 1 mini

Quarter 3: 8 minis (-9 from Q3 2013)
Anima Tactics: 7 minis (well 7 units, technically 11 minis as 1 of the units comprises 5 models, but I count it as 7 based on units)
Batman Miniatures Game: 1 mini

Quarter 4: 17 minis (-3 from Q4 2013)
Anima Tactics: 7 minis
Zombies: 5 minis
SDZA: 2 minis
Pulp City: 1 mini
Batman Miniatures Game: 1 mini
Freebooter's Fate: 1 mini

My 2014 minis - 45 units/49 minis

2014 totals - 45 minis/units
Anima Tactics: 29 units
Pulp City: 4 minis
Freebooter's Fate: 1 mini
Batman Miniatures Game: 3 minis
Supers: 1 mini
Zombies: 5 minis
SDZA: 2 minis

October, November and December gave me a strong finish to the year, and February was a write-off (the Pulp City Kickstarter ran then, and so occupied a lot of time). I had hoped to finish one or two more in December, but was laid low with a heavy cold for a couple of days when I had time set aside for painting, and just didn't feel up to slapping the hairy sticks around.

As for next year, right now I think a target of 50 is do-able, but only time will tell.

In the year ahead I want to try and paint at least 30 Anima Tactics units, and get into a good chunk of Pulp City Supremes that I have not yet painted. I would like to paint to some more BMG/Knight Models stuff, maybe to play in a tournament if I get the chance. In fact, I have set myself some targets for specific minis ranges, and if I met all of those, then that would be more than 50 minis next year, closer to 60, so who knows how things will end up!

Next year I also plan to start Warmachine/Hordes; I have been interested and considering the game(s) for years without pursuing them, and recently thought I may take the plunge. Which has meant getting some new bits and pieces as well as digging out some minis I already had from the previous edition. I have been prepping a few minis for both in the last few days.

Rob and I also want to finally play Freebooter's Fate as we both have playable Crews, and have both started acquiring potential terrain options.

And as for everything else, I assume 2015 will see my usual ad hoc approach to getting stuff done, although Zomtober 2015 is already pencilled in.

Oculus (SHOC Force)

Oculus is the name I have given this model, which is another from Nexus Miniatures (click for link to the Nexus site), from their SDZA (Super Dinosaur Zombie Apocalypse) range.

Like Razorclaw, Oculus is a member of SHOC Force, and often acts as de-facto field leader for the team. His powers allow him to see across the range of the electro-magnetic spectrum as well allowing him to project devastating short range line-of-sight electro-magnetic blasts using specially developed goggles. There is friction between the straight-laced Oculus and the abrasive wild-man Razorclaw, which causes tension in the team.

I started painting this mini at the same time as the first one, painting the bulk of each in tandem, although focusing on one at a time when it came to the finishing details of each. I struggled with painting the face, but I am leaving it as it is so I can keep momentum for other minis.

Having painted these two, I am looking forward to more SDZA releases using the same uniform motifs so I can add to the ranks of SHOC Force. More generally, I am really happy to have painted a couple more minis, my first two this month, especially after struggling to get stuff painted for so much of the year.

Razorclaw (SHOC Force)

While on my recent painting roll (a pretty unprecedented-for-me 14 minis in two months - not the kind of output I have managed since giving up bulk painting GW stuff), I decided to get some work done on a few minis that would all include a lot of red.

This is the first mini finished of a small handful of minis that I started in the past week. The model is from a new company by the name of Nexus Miniatures (click for link to the Nexus site), from their SDZA (Super Dinosaur Zombie Apocalypse) range. Nexus and SDZA is the brainchild of my friend Drew, aka Doctor Warlock.

As soon as I saw the FON (Freaks Of Nature) Agents for the SDZA range I knew I wanted them, what I wanted them for, and how I wanted to paint them. So I bought the first two, which will be joined by others as soon they are released, and which I will be using for a secret project over the next year or so, and with all to be painted in a matching colour scheme.

For my secret project the mini will become Razorclaw, a scrappy bad-ass feral superhuman who has been recruited as part of a clandestine team code-named SHOC Force (Super Human Operations Covert Force) in homage to 90's comic book super teams with names such as WildC.A.T.s and H.A.R.D. Corps. Razorclaw is fast, strong and tough, and since his recruitment into the ranks of SHOC Force is just beginning to learn of his true heritage as an Unhuman, a secret race of super-powered beings.

Razorclaw is the first of several minis I want in the group, as the secret project I mentioned involves testing as many combinations of 'rules stuff' to destruction as possible, and I would like a selection of minis to help me focus on that, that are not too specifically tied in my on head to anything in particular.

The colour scheme was inspired by VALIANT Entertainment Inc.'s comic book anti-heroes known as HARDCorps (see image right for an example). While I have not copied the scheme wholly, I have used the predominant placement of red, black and white in the best-fit parts of the mini as I saw it, and I am pretty happy with the outcome, even if it isn't my best painting (I have not been painting much red lately so it was a struggle). The next ShOC Force mini should be posted in the next few days.

Meridian Miniatures Webstore Opens

I just wanted to draw attention to this, the launch of Meridian Miniatures new web-store (click for link), as I have backed two of Meridian Miniature's Kickstarter campaigns. It looks like Meridian will initially have 3 ranges:

Steam & Aether: 'Steampunk armies in post-apocalyptic Europe' - now available.

Tooth & Sword: 'Anthropomorphic adventurers of the Chibi kind' - coming early next year.

Terramortis: 'Grim battles in our darkest future' - coming soon.

I am really looking forward to painting my KS Tooth & Sword minis sometime soon, and just wanted to flag up the launch of the Meridian Miniatures store.

Trucco

Last year, my main gaming buddy Rob and me set out to paint up playable forces for Freebooter's Fate, While we have not yet contrived to play the game, we have been talking about what we want terrain wise to do so, and that in turn sparked some motivation from me to paint another addition to my Brotherhood Crew.

I started this mini a week ago and it continues a trend of some recent fairly quick (for me) turnarounds, which is quite pleasing. I don't really have a 'uniform' colour scheme for The Brotherhood, but all rely on a generally dark palette of colours, so I picked that up again with Trucco.

This mini adds another Specialist to my Crew and takes it up to exactly 400 doubloons if used in its entirety. It will probably be a next year before I finish another Freebooter's Fate model I guess, so my Crew will have to be made up from what I have available. Rules-wise the biggest difference between Trucco (100 doubloons) and Apagado (90 doubloons) is that Trucco has a ranged attack with his Throwing Knife.

I have also picked up a couple of 4Ground buildings recently, which we plan on featuring as terrain for our eventual games; I am going to a show next weekend so I will try and grab a couple more if they are available.

Solomon Grundy

Solomon Grundy, born on a Monday, but painted over many days over several weeks! Grundy has long been one of my favourite DC villains, since first seeing the character in the pages of All-Star Squadron in the early 80's.

The character is named after a 19th century nursery rhyme, and for me has always had a very cool history and visual until New 52 shenanigans from DC, which for me ruined both his look, and unnecessarily (in my opinion) changed his origin.

As a kind of super-Zombie, I had hoped to finish Grundy during Zomtober 2014, but that was not to be. He is done now, and adding to my slow-build collection of Knight Models minis. I am a while away from a playable force, but that is due to the force construction limits of the game. You have to include a 'Sidekick' or 'Leader' for your Band, and cannot only use 'Free Agents', despite the fact that Free Agents make up the bulk of the models in the Batman Miniatures Game range. A quibble, and one that probably bothers  me more than other fans of the range.

I am not sure what I will paint next for the BMG range, I will have to wait and see where the fleeting muse takes me I guess - this could be a very slow-burn project, especially considering it has taken me a year to paint four minis so far from the range!

The Watchmen characters should really be something I try and focus on, if only to create a playable force, but time will tell. I could create playable forces from lots of other options right now, but I feel turned off from those other options by the fact that the game seems optimised towards henchmen. That is not borne out by playing though, and I may be completely wrong in my assessment! There is finally a print version of the game coming, so maybe my concern will be addressed there, and Band selection will be freed up a little.

That said, I have and will have a few alternative options to play the Knight Models minis in games with Power Legion, likely picking up Supersystem 4th edition at some point, and also through the development of Pulp City's 'build your own Supremes' rules.

Zombie Groups (update)

In a recent Zomtober 2014 post I mentioned my approach of 'colour triads' for my Zombies; basically the upper body clothing of a set of 3 Zombie minis painted with a matching colour shade, or a set of thematically linked minis like Zombie cops. The idea being that it become a set of models that can be visually picked out easily if required. Basically the principle is ease of identification of sub-groups on the table. It could be used to identify special Zombies etc., depending on the type of game you are playing.

I initially started doing that for running the Zombies in previous edition Pulp City 'Invasion' scenarios, but as it has proven useful in finishing sets of 3 minis,

I have since carried the practice on, especially as it may aid in-game activations wherever they be used, as well as not looking unusual as the horde grows. Of course it is probably irrelevant for a lot of Zombie games, but it works for me, and it also makes choosing paint colours easier.

I have shown some previous Zombie Groups on the blog, and thought it was time for an update, with the 'green', 'orange' and 'black' triads.

I have started the 'white' group if you saw my Zomtober 2014 bonus post. I also plan to eventually paint up some Zombie religiously themed minis, and of course I need more Zombie Clowns for a set or two of those; note I said need there, not want - Zombie Clowns are the scariest of Zombies, hands down. So plenty of groups to tackle in the future!

Roll on Zomtober 2015!