Strakhov: My First Fully Painted Privateer Press Mini... and it's Not a Trollblood *facepalm*

Good news and bad news post... The bad news is that I've been very busy with work and have very little time to finish any of the miniatures I've started (as a result no updates); the good news is that I finally finished my first Privateer Press mini. The bad news is that it is not Trollblood, the good news is that I really enjoyed painting Strakhov. The bad news is that I don't own any more Khador outside this lone warcaster, the good news... well I don't have any good news to correspond to this bad news LOL...

This is my first fully painted mini after taking a 4-5 year hiatus from mini-gaming and mini-painting. I really wanted to finish painting this mini in order to move on to the next (and with Hordes MK II coming out in July, the goal is to have a fully painted 35-50 point Trollblood army before that book is releaed), as a result I cut a lot of corners when it came to the metallics and the base. I have to say I really am not comfortable painting true metallics, it is very hard to get right (not that I am very good with NMM either). I suppose I just need to practice more, but given how slow of a mini painter I am, this is going to be a major challenge. The mini seems really shiny under the light of my makeshift miniature "photo studio". I coated it with two passes of Testor's Glosscoat and one pass of Testor's Dullcoate. I'm tempted to use one more pass of Dullcoat but am afraid that the highlights will be washed out (a lot of it already has). I've never been good at sealing minis (again it's one of those things that comes down to practice and repetition to get right).

You'll find more pictures of Strakhov after the break...

Some of the things I really enjoyed was painting Khador Red. Most of the minis I've painted in the past have had really dark and subdued themes (Confrontation Mid-Nor and Dirz and earthy Trollbloods), so painting something relatively bright was a delight! I also tried to give Strakhov a 5 o'clock shadow, but it appears like I caught him two to three hours a little too early hehe. I intentionally did not paint any pupils, I always envisioned that warcasters' eyeballs go white when manipulating Focus like Storm of the X-Men when she starts manipulating the weather (also I really suck at the "painting eyes" department so it is quite convenient LOL). This is also the first time I used pigment, and for this mini, I used soil and clay pigment to paint the base (the box and sacks were painted with acrylics). I really wanted a muddy base. The static grass was an afterthought and poorly executed *sigh*.

Like I said I don't own any more Khador minis other than Strakhov. So I am not sure what to do with him, build a small army around him or deploy him over at eBay. I really can't afford... or rather I really can't start another army because I have way too many unpainted Trollblood (over 50 points), Searforge (over 50 points) and Retribution (over 50 points) minis. I failed in keeping my collection tight and small like I promised I would in an earlier post. One of those two Warmachine armies have to go if I were to start getting into Khador, specially when I've only played 10 times!

Let me know what you think and what I can do to improve on painting- and basing-wise! Thanks! :)