November Minis

A little bit of a shift going on in ZeroTwentythreeLand.

As much as I've looked forward to it every year for the past five or six years, I am going to pass on this year's Old World Army Challenge. There's just too much in flux, and although I have melodramatically struggled the past few years in my monthly entries, 2023 was honestly very difficult and a bit of a let down for me. The OWAC is meant to be a challenge, but also fun. I also feel like I didn't keep up with everyone else's projects very much, which is usually half the enjoyment. I also feel that my current interests diverge from the "Oldhammer" canon.

I've mentioned in some of my recent entries, I will instead be pursuing my own monthly challenge in order to help push me over the edge for some sci-fi solo gaming, hence the Five Months From Painted Factions challenge. I am actually off to a really good start.

Per previous entries, the goal is to start playing some Five Parsecs solo games in my own "Alt Trader" sci-fit setting. To help facilitate that, I will try to frantically paint figures for some of the many factions in Five Parsecs, as well as some terrain each month to provide me with a decent table to actually plat some games!

Thus... I now have the Soulless faction completed. I forget who originally started these sculpts/range, but Heresy Miniature picked up the ones that were previously available, added a couple to the set and started casting them a year or more ago. I had two of the ten and the figures were exactly what I wanted. So I bought a couple packs from Heresy and finally got them painted. My own concept in my Five Parsecs/Alt Trader setting is that they are a former security team who got sick of the corporate shit and have gone off on their own.

Speaking of going off on their own, I painted this chaos renegade-ish figure from Satyr Arts. I liked the idea of a renegade sister from the merc. company I have (barely) started, so tried to keep a similar color scheme. Such a cool, old-school figure. Drew Williams (sculptor) always seems right on target with his "Oldhammer" sculpts. This one is a great tribute to one of the original RT figures.

Speaking of Oldhammer, this little orange guy will serve as a... I don't know. Little space blob sidekick?

Each month I will attempt to figure out and prep/paint some sort of terrain so I can actualy start playing some games!! Here's the latest, some barely modified segments from a "mini brands" type sphere, plus a cap from some feminine shaving cream with some miscellaneous plastic bits added on. Hopefully looks like some sort of small scale radiation harvester set-up or equally vague sci-fi-B.S. ;) 

Big April '19

Mucklegeet the Giant, from Heresy Miniatures.

Troll by Artizan Designs from Northstar Military Figures.

Comparison w/ Satyr Art Studio & Marauder trolls.

Almost April - Something BIG on the Horizon

I'm currently wrapping up my OWAC2 entry for March. (No peeks until it's up on the OWAC site.) But I'm also looking ahead to April. Although I will continue to prep minis for the OWAC, I will probably take April as my month off for the challenge. (We get one Mulligan.) Why?

Well, after joining in on different monthly challenges (Deadcember, Orctober, etc.) I've been doing my own thing every April. Big April as I call it. No puns or wordplay. Just painting giants in April because I like giants and one year it was April and I wanted to paint a few giants, so the idea of doing it every year stuck. Last year I got off half-way through painting the Heresy Miniatures giant, Mucklegeet at the end of the month. An awesome and imposing miniature (and I have Shadespyre to thank for mine.) Here's where I left off...

I don't expect that it will take all of April to finish him. So the question currently in my head is what to do with the rest of the time? I have a coupe of ideas:

• Get a head start on some OWAC minis so I'm not stressed out trying to finish them the next few months. Bwahahahaa. (Not likely. Where's the fun in that?)
• Paint more trolls. While not giants, they are relatively big when compared to humans.
• Paint more giants. Makes sense, right? I've still got a few:
• Otherworld Giant
• Mantic Giant
• 3 Reaper Bones giants from the last Kickstarter
• Goremaw. Also from Reaper. It's big.
• Sculpt my own giant. I've really been wanting to sculpt more, and the idea of sculpting my own Big April giant has been in my mind for at least a couple of years.

I've got about a week before April, and obviously the above giant will be on my table while I sort it out.

End of April - Giant Progress

This is as far as I got by the end of Big April.

Slow Progress Giant

Next Giant...

Next up for Big April '18 is the big guy from Heresy Miniatures. Was a very quick cleanup & assembly. Clean casting and fit together well. Didn't even bother pinning, as everything seemed keyed and/or seated very securely.

A pic next to the Marauder giant and my usual handgunner scale reference...

Need to wait for better weather to prime him. I'll also be back in Texas (Houston, this time) for most of this week, so I won't get to work on this one until next weekend, at the earliest.

Marshing into April

No more marsh-y themed minis for March. I'm still working on stripping the paint from those old Marauder trolls, and looking for the remaining two that I still don't have.  In the meantime, I am soaking the other four in some Dawn Power Dissolver, at the recommendation of Blue. My usual go-to, Simple Green, just wasn't cutting it this time.

I did manage to strip, prime and start on the MM41 ogre that finally completes my collection.

While that's all going down, I also, miraculously quick, finished the Westfalia goat knights!

Although I do think I will be turning one of these into a standard bearer at some point. Or maybe I will try to get a few more to create a standard, champion, and musician...

So with Big April coming up, I'm looking forward to...

Giants! (And the above-mentioned ogre.) A bit ambitious, and slightly out of focus it seems. First will be finishing the paint on the Warploque giant. While that's going on, I will prep the other two -- from Heresy and Otherworld.

IF, by some miracle that all gets done, I have more in mind. I would still REALLY like to sculpt my own giant. Given the timing, that's been on my mind again and I think I've got a decent picture in my head of that I want to do. Also, I've got some more giants here, still waiting to be painted. I have several of the Reaper Bones giants from their last KS. These are a bit larger than the older sculpts, and in fact one is a resculpt of one I've previously painted.

I've also got the extra heads from the Otherworld giant. The web site says to select one, but they ended up sending all three. I could try to magnetize them so they're swapable. Or maybe I can work out a way to get an extra giant out of the deal...

...oooooor maybe not.

Stuff! In the Mail!

I love getting Stuff! In the Mail! (Who doesn't.)

I recently got a package from a serial benefactor, Shadespyre, who sent the following f'ing amazing surprise:

That would be the Heresy miniatures giant. A beautiful (can I describe a nasty giant with that term?) sculpt, and clean casting. He's now on the schedule for Big April. This year's April challenge is shaping up to be fewer in quantity, but larger in size than previous years. I'd like to finish the Warploque giant started last year, and paint this Heresy giant and the Otherworld giant.

Big plans.