Stripping with Simple Green
I stopped by a local hardware store yesterday and decided to purchase some Simple Green so I could strip a few models. When I got home I used two dishes that I shouldn’t have used (ask Lady MacDeth) as painting palettes and such. I filled them with Simple Green and dropped in these two guys.
The black/green is a Reaper 2281 Crypt Wraith metal miniature and the gold/white one is a Games Workshop Stormcast Eternals Prosecutor which is plastic. The Crypt Wraith is one of the first miniatures I painted. I liked the green glow but the black didn’t have enough variation. The Prosecutor was painted in three hours with a fairly limited palette and I wasn’t really pleased with some of my color choices (or placing third in the contest). I allowed them to sit overnight. In the morning I took them out, gave them a nice brushing with an old toothbrush, and this is how the wraith looked.
The wraith could probably use another bath to get paint out of the deep crevices that I couldn’t pick out using a paper clip. I should probably remember to pick up some toothpicks…
The dish I used for the GW Prosecutor wasn’t quite deep enough to cover the whole miniature so I had to clean him and give him another bath. I suppose I’ll drop the wraith in with him.
This is after two overnight cycles and using the old toothbrush to clean them up. The metal miniature is easier to scrub since there is a small chance of breakage. The plastic though has a ton of very fine parts that I can’t really clean too roughly so there is still a bit of leftover primer.
Not bad for there being very little actual work involved. Both dishes are looking pretty nice now too.
Heroes in a half-shell!
It isn’t a miniature but it used to be Michelangelo’s belt.
Warhammer Age of Sigmar Event or Baby’s First Painting Contest
Emerald City Comics, my local game store, ran an Age of Sigmar kick off event on Sept. 19th where they had a small skirmish event with rules and minis provided. In addition, there was a painting contest which was $5 to enter. They also provided the miniatures, paints, and brushes for this. There were also free miniatures to paint which weren’t entered into the contest.
Lady MacDeth and I arrived at Emerald City just before the 2 p.m. start time. There was a table with a selection of miniatures to pick from for the contest. I picked my miniature which was a Stormcast Eternals Prosecutor. It was pre-assembled and already primed white. Lady MacDeth looked at a selection of Wood Elf Dryads picking the one with an alternate skull head because it wasn’t as scary looking (so, the skull isn’t scary). We then went to sit with several of our friends at a long table with Citadel paint pots scattered about and a few cups of water.
Going in I wasn’t sure what to expect so I proceeded to unpack my Emergency Mini Painting Kit: wet pallete, my 3/0 detail brush, matte medium/water mix, and a jar with lid for mixing. I think I’ll adapt my Kit for future painting events where I don’t know what will be provided.
This was my first time using Citadel paints. I absolutely loathe the paint pots. Could they have picked a worse manner to store them? Nevermind, don’t answer that, they don’t need any ideas. Is Ceramite White always that thick? I could seriously repair drywall with that stuff. Thankfully, I brought my mix and I didn’t have to use much white. The paints other than that aren’t that bad. Just the paint pots and the Drywall Repair White…
I spent about three hours working on my Prosecutor. There was a ton of gold armor to paint. The wings are pretty delicate so those took a little while to thoroughly cover. The color selection was pretty narrow too I had to mix some of my own. The color I used for the scroll work on the Prosecutor was too similar to the armor. In retrospect I’m not overly fond of that but you live and learn. Below are both of our finished miniatures:
Lady MacDeth started a second, free miniature because I was taking so long. She picked a Tyranid Termagant Brood. She only got the base coats down since I was ready to go eat at that point too. Several other people came in over the time I was there painting. I think about ten people in all entered the contest. There were several that also came in to do the free painting. I enjoyed seeing some of the younger kids in there painting. One guy came in and painted with his son.
When I finished we proceeded up front where we would leave our freshly painted miniatures for staff at Emerald City to judge on Sunday and Monday. Once they determined a winner they would call the winner to come pick up their prize and miniature.
Guess who took 1st? Not me… Lady MacDeth did with her creepy tree person! I managed to squeak by with 3rd place. She got to pick a sprue from the Age of Sigmar boxed set. The sprue she picked had Khorgos Khul and “The Gang”, Threx Skullbrand, and Vandus Hammerhand, Lord-Celestant riding his Dracoth! I received a Stormcast Eternals Retributor and a Chaos Warrior.
So my take-away from this first event: don’t teach your significant other the trade secrets of miniature painting. Seriously, she has painted a handful of minis. I think she has a better artistic eye than me though.
P.S. If anybody from Emerald City reads this: thanks for having this event and I look forward to more in the future.