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...

Here is a WIP of the Dire Troll Mauler. The only thing done is the loincloth and the belly (I think I need to bring up the highlights a little bit more on the belly) and the base LOL. Everything else is basecoat plus wash. It sits on a Peet's small-sized coffee cup. I am trying to two-tone the mauler with a lighter underbelly and chest and lower jaw (using P3 Trollblood underbelly as the base and shaded with Underbelly + VMC Dark Sea Blue and highlighted with Underbelly + Trollblood highlight) but I am not sure if it is successful....

This Trollblood Axer is my first attempt at painting again after not picking up the brush in 4 years. Things I've learned, (1) Vallejo Model Color is still pretty good after 4 years of accumulating pigment at the bottom of the bottle (I'm glad I invested in a Robart Paint Shaker back then LOL), (2) painting minis is hard work, (3) I'm still a slow painter, and (4) I'm still not very good at this. I am actually stumped, I don't know where to go from here, so hopefully your comments and suggestions can kick my butt into action. I've actually begun working on other minis since I can't seem to finish this, and all I've managed to do is get a bunch of half-painted minis on the painting deck LOL ... not a single one completed *ugh*. You can find those on the Work in Progress page.

Anyway, here is the Axer in it's unfinished-I-do-not-know-what-to-do-with-it-anymore state. Comments and suggestions most welcome....

In hindsight, I suppose winter was a bad time to get back into miniature gaming, and subsequently, miniature painting because of the challenges wet and cold weather presents to one of the main steps in painting process: priming. This is only a problem though when you use spray primer on your minis. I guess there is some sort of science involved in (ideally) only using spray primer when it is not too hot or not too cold or not to wet; I don't know what the science is, I just don't argue anymore after once priming my minis in less that ideal conditions and finding rough and unpaintable minis in my hands. I'm glad I found an alternative to spray primers for cold and wet San Fran Bay Area weather...