Painting Descent 2022

 It has been a while...

A long while since I took out a brush and put some paint to a plastic mini. So, I figured I'd better set a goal for the month of June. The goal? Finish a couple of figures which would complete a couple of the sets I've had for a while now. To this end, I started with some new paints. I ordered the mega set of Army Painter speed paints (which is the AP answer to Games Workshop's Contrast Paints). My hope is that I can quickly finish some of the monster sets without getting bored and yet still have them look ok. Well, they work about the same as contrast paints and they do look good (though I still can't take a decent picture to save my life...)

The first one I did was a skeleton archer. I had done all of them but one. Here are three of them - can you tell which one was the Speed Paint and which were the Contrast Paints (the red one is SP)? Sadly, I have lost one of the figures (there should be five, I have four). 

But, the point was to try the new paints out and shake off some rust. The fact that the most recent one looks almost exactly like the older ones was a good sign (I mean it has been a loooong time since I painted anything).  

Next up I decided to finish a crypt dragon that I started about two years ago (seriously). I had finished the first one back in February this year, but then we had a house fire and I hadn't gotten around to finishing the other. Until now. 

The picture itself is a little bluish tinted, but as you can see, I mostly just wanted to put some color on them and then detail them a little with some blood and bones.

BTW, the Citadel Technical Blood paint is awesome. I really love that stuff. It looks so good, especially in this kind of scenario. 

I could have spent more time on wing details, but honestly I think that the level of detail I have here is exactly right for a mini that is likely to be on the table for about 10 minutes. That was the point of the speed paints and contrast paints. Don't spend 4 hours per figure here, you'll never "payoff" that time. Speaking of payoffs...

The Crypt Dragons finished off the Guardians of Deephall Hero and Monster set, so here it is in all its glory. I wish I had the Speed Paints when I had done the rest of the monsters for this set. Oh well.

I also painted up ONE hero. 

At some point a couple years back, I found the Visions of Dawn Hero and Monster set for sale - 95% painted up (decently too). This was a set I wasn't particular interested in painting, but at the right price, I was happy to own it. The one lone figure unpainted in the set was Nara the Fang. So here is Nara done with Speed Paints. 

When I finished blocking the figure in, I actually wasn't happy with the color - it was far too bright, so I hit it with some Army Painter Strong Tone. I was fairly surprised how decently the figure ended up, because Strong Tone always looks really dark to me, but the highlights still show up decently. I touched up a couple of small things and changed the color of the stone blades and called it good.

Last thing I did was paint up one of two Demon Lords. This was a real test of the speed paints as this was a larger figure from scratch that I really didn't want to spend a lot of time on. The picture here shows a "before and after" (really just the other Demon Lord in its primed state). I did a zenethil prime to give the speed paint something to color (I originally just primed the figure in black). 

This figure was almost all done in speed paints, except for the horns and feet claws (I can't help but go back and dry brush horns). I may have also touched the sword and belt thing with a touch of metallic paint.

Although the color is pretty basic, the speed paints really did their job and the figure looks pretty good for such a low amount of effort.

My plan for the master version is more red/brown rather than straight brown, just not sure how well the color will work. Luckily, a little water after the figure dries will take the color right off. Some folks are calling this a flaw in the speed paints, but to me it makes it super forgiving and easy to fix mistakes. Like ridiculously easy to fix (and avoid). It does mean that layering with thinned paints isn't going to work well, but there are a couple ways to avoid accidentally removing colors - besides, I'm not using speed paints if I'm going to layer colors - the point is quick and easy.

Well, I did a count to see where I'm at. I counted all the figures I've done and all the ones I have left to do. 

Total number of painted figures:

• 88 monsters figures
• 34 hero figures
• 12 lieutenants

Unpainted figures remaining (currently owned):

• 79 monster figures
• 18 hero figures
• 2 lieutenant

Uggg. How do I still have about as many monsters left to paint as I have already completed? I'm never going to get these done. Dreams.

If you want to see the whole of everything I've done, check out my never ending geek list on BGG.