New Year 2025

Happy New Year!

A couple of quick updates.

First off, my goal for a vampiric Deadcember was a pretty big flop. But I did get this lovely couple and their pet bat painted.

Second, I've decided to get back to organizing pages of painted miniatures. I started this years ago. The links are at the top, with figures organized into categories. But a lot of the photos are old and piecemeal. The Dragon page was done recently, and the Half-Orc page is mostly newer photos. And the Five Parsecs faction page has been my big project for the past year and a half. But I'd like to work on revising some of the others with better photos & organization, and creating pages for some of the unrepresented factions (wood elves, trolls, etc.) 

I started today with a small one: the Shroomfolk!

Deadcember 2024 - The Plan

My plan for Deadcember 2024 is to paint these (mostly) old vampires. And the one dreg, because vampires need a minion. I also have a couple of newer "accessory" figures to go with them (not pictured,) a bat and a dire wolf.

Deadcember 2022

 

The last few months have been busy, so no updates and not much painting. But with the holidays came some much needed time off work, and December means Deadcember. So I've finally had some quality time at the painting table. 

Skeletons from Citadel & Marauder. Some of the last that were still unpainted!

Undead lord from Heartbreaker.

Me. Sculpted 20 years ago by me. Recently replaced the axe with a rusty scythe.

Skeleton command, champion from Heartbreaker, standard & musician from Satyr Art Studio. I'm still undecided about that to paint on the standard.

Zombies by Satyr.

Little skeleton familiar (or is it a dwarven liche...!) from Diehard

Race to the Finish Line 2021

It seems like I've got more painting in the past few weeks than all the rest of the second half of 2021. I'm continuing to enjoy painting figures for a Five Parsecs From Home campaign starting early in 2022. I've even started organizing the progress here. Take a look at the menu at the top of the page for the Five Parsecs painting progress and my crew's page. Both are works in progress.

My holiday progress consists of...

Weird little Spaven mutant/familiar.

Gangers from Grenadier and Bad Squiddo.

And another from Grenadier, plus the fourth Reaper (Bones) worm.

Two more worms painted & join in for a family photo.

Apparently I missed one more figure, another from Grenadier.

I've also painted a few fantasy figures. Like this old Ral Partha hydra that I received as a Christmas gift four years ago and finally painted!

Also a couple of minions for the envoy of Death I painted earlier this year. Suitable Deadcember fare, I suppose.

 

Deadceber Roll Call & End of 2020

I surprised myself and finished all 10 skeletal cavalry by 12/31! They're admittedly fairly simple to paint....

 

 

Rehashing the rest of Deadcember, the month's total is 10 cavalry & 8 infantry for the necromancer, Dellamorte, and an assortment of 6 old metal skeletons for the horde of the Ancient Dead. Plus a bonus Demogorgon, who's note undead but should still count for something -- right?

And with that, Deadcember is over. And so is 2020. Don't let the door hit you on they way out, oh year of the plague...

ME DEADCEMBER MORE!!!

As mentioned in my previous entry, I salvaged some second hand plastic skeletons and have now painted them up for Deadcember!

Wait, who's that in the background? A gift I received for Christmas 2017, finally painted! I wish I could get a better photo. There's some subtle colors on the Demogorgon that I'm pretty proud of.

 

 

 

I should really be prepping Space Elves for the OWAC, which starts in a few days...

Christmas in Deadcember

OK, so when else would it happen, right?

 

We woke up to just a little snow this morning. Since it's Covid Times, we didn't have any travel plans today, so I guess it's OK. Not looking forward to clearing the driveway in the next day or two though.

I snuck away to the basement to paint some oldschool skeletons for Deadcember. A mix of Citadel, Marauder, and Grenadier.

I hope you're all having a Merry Christmas, other holiday of choice, or just a good day if you've got nothing in particular to celebrate.

End of Year Cluster-F

Typically work slows down for me at the end of the year. But due to the Covid Times (as my daughter refers to the current situation) we had a big period of uncertainty and canceled projects earlier in the year, and now there's a year end rush to make up for some of that lost time.

So I've been working a lot, stressing a lot, and not painting much. Here's what I've got lately...

I painted a second test figure for my upcoming Eldar Old World Army Challenge project. Not as fond of the orange-ish on the yellow. Going to try something different next time. Of course, "next time" will probably be when the OWAC goes live and I'm trying to finish my monthly goal.

 

Also, I posted my intro post over at the Old World Army Challenge page, if you're interested.

December is traditionally Deadcember, and I've been looking forward to that. But unfortunately I'm not getting to enjoy it this year due to the above mentioned year and cluster-fuckery. But I'm not going to let this month go by without painting at least ONE undead. So here we go... a skeleton with a head that was sent in a package of surprise figures & bits a while ago. I think it's from a GW wood elf kit. Thought it would make a good beastman skeleton with a little bit of work.

 

Painted another robot a whil ago but forgot to share a pic.

 

Hey... on the topic of Eldar and my OWAC plans, if anyone reading this has the two bits indicated below -- the right FLAMER arm and the small pintle weapon mount, I'm looking for both in order to put together a complete Banshee dreadnought. Hell, I'd even pay the full £3.50 for teh complete kit in the ad below for just those two pieces. ;)

Huge Skeletal Dragon

Gravestone is on a magnetized 20mm base, and can be switched out with other figures... Like the Undead Lemmy I'm working on next.

O

Early Deadcember Progress Plus Others

Happy Birthday To Me!
(Born on Pearl Harbor Day)


I got a quick jump on Deadcember painting...

These four skeletal beasts plus one other all painted the first few days of the month.

Painting stalled for a few days, mostly due to work. But I've managed to finish prepping stuff for an optimistic rest of the month. Skeletal and zombie dragons, 25 armored skeletal spearmen, 6 wraiths, 1 undead Lemmy Kilmister, and and if I get through that, I'll try to paint as many of the (unknown total) skeleton cavalry as possible.

I'm going to make a magnetized spot on the skeleton dragon base for Lemmy. Because they look so good together. I'll make an alternate filler for the spot for case where he's not present on the base, too -- because I may want to use him as an undead hero in regiments. \m/


December er, Deadcember is a bit of a clusterfuck for me. I'm trying to finish some custom vinyl/art toy stuff for holiday gallery shows. The first two (below) have been sent to Clutter Gallery for their Gift Wrapped show. I've got a couple more due for another east cost gallery... but more on that later.

In the meantime, I've also been prepping (stripping, mostly) figures for the 2020 Old World Army Challenge aka OWAC3. This year, I plan on painting a bunch of wood elves, mostly late 80s vintage Citadel lead (Jes Goodwin sculpts) plus a few from Ral Partha & Grenadier. I'm still after a few of the Goodwin elves, if anyone has some to spare. Archers/scouts and a few specific comment figures in particular.

Dead Not Dead

Not done yet. Stayed up to stupid o'clock Saturday night drunkenly painting these last two. At least now I have the satisfaction of having the full set of minis from the Skeleton War Machines box painted now that I've completed Morbius (on the right.)

Happy, healthy, and safe New Year to all!

Goodbye Deadcember, Hello OWAC2

Goodbye Deadcember, Hello OWAC.... maybe.

Deadcember

I've painted more for Deadcember than I had planned or expected to. I think that's partially owing to the simplicity of the figures and the rapid speed at which I can paint all of that bone.

The tally:

• Citadel Skeleton War Machines boxed set (mostly):
• 1 Chariotw/ 2 crew
• 3 Skeletal champions
• Screaming Skull catapult w/3 crew
• Additional Screaming Skull catapult w/3 crew
• 3 Grenadier skeleton ballistae, each w/2 crew
• 1 Skeletal Champion (old Citadel mini) for the artillery
• 1 Skeletal hero (Reaper mini)
• 8 plastic Citadel skeletons (for Mo' Death)
• 7 non-human skeletons of mixed manufacture (Citadel, Diehard, and whoever made the 40mm skeletons)

With just a few days left, and plans to continue prepping for the OWAC starting in January, I'm not sure there will be anymore undead forthcoming. But for an additional challenge, I've cleaned up a few more and will prime them as soon as I publish this blog post.

3 skeletons, 1 wight, and Morbius the liche (the last unpainted mini from the Skeleton War Machines box, above.)

Morbius has been a beast to strip the old paint from. This is him after vigorous scubbing and two baths in Simple Green, and two baths in Dawn Power Dissolver, which should be more than enough for most paint! I'm done, nothing came off after the last bath so he's going to get painted and I'll just hope that no detail is obscured.

OWAC2

I've already prepped the first month's worth of miniatures for the Old World Army Challenge, but have wanted to get started on the rest so all I have to do is paint when each round comes up. For the second month I plan on painting some war machines -- a bolter and chariot.

The chariot is one of the primary reasons I chose to paint the Sea Elves for the challenge (wood elves was another contender, but I don't think the chariot fits them as well even if it is in the Armies list.) I inherited the chariot from a friend back when we played 3rd ed. It was assembled but never painted. I'm not sure it was used much. I recall most chariots being a bit crappy in 3rd, and I think he had better options for his wood elf army. So there was a lot of cleaning of old glue, flash, and mould lines to be done. Oh the cleaning...

Is it heretical to use old minis as a writing instrument? Ah, lead... the tastiest of all miniatures casting materials. Between this chariot and the second Screaming Skull catapult painted this month I've been reminded, once again, of how crappy the casting quality could be in the "good ol' days." Some of the horses and chariot parts were horrible, massive mould lines and protruding chunks of lead in inconvenient spots (like the strange growth on a horse muzzle.) I'm not crazy about the mountain of lead filings in the house, either. (Don't worry, I take great care to contain and dispose of it.)

So after a tedious amount of work, the sea elf bolter is ready, and the chariot & horses are cleaned but not assembled/primed yet. I haven't even started on the chariot crew.

Dead Wheels

Expanding Deadcember '18

After hitting Deadcember '18 pretty strong in the first week and a half, painting slowed down a bit for various reasons. But I did just wrap up a few more minis...

A second screaming skull catapult (the last artillery piece in the foreseeable future) and two non-human skeletons. I'm not going to get to particular about their heritage. Maybe they're ogres, maybe... who knows. 40mm minis from the (former?) "Heroes of Myth and Legend" range.

Spent half of this week in San Antonio for work. Texas is becoming my second home...

Welcomed by a Curtiss Jenny in the airport when I arrived around midnight.

Had a couple hours before flying out, got to visit the Alamo!

Flying over Chicago at night was pretty cool. Have only seen if by day before.

Non-Human Skeletons

Non-human skeletons are not as common, but I've been collecting a few. I've got a small regiment and have just painted these five for Deadcember '18.

The skeledwarf with the round shield is from Citadel's Cursed Company, the remaining four are from Diehard Miniatures.




Here's everything from Deadcember so far.

Undead Hero, Etc.

Next up for Deadcember is an undead hero...

I really love this mini from Reaper. Sculpted by Tim Prow, according to the web site. Didn't know that until I just looked up the link. He's got some great sculpts across many ranges!

It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year

When I hear the song*, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," I think of painting the undead in Deadcember.

Old Grenadier and Citadel miniatures make up my artillery battery.




*My Christmas jams are really more along the lines of...

(Phil the Spectre approves)

...or...