Weekly WIP: Dungeon Saga (II)
Here were go into our second week of frantically painting the contents of my Dungeon Saga Kickstarter. I really would like to get everything painted before I play. I wonder if people who are happy to play with unpainted miniatures have experienced the pure pleasure of fully painted miniatures on fully painted terrain. Then again, I’m not sure if I would refuse to play if I had the opportunity.
Monday: Dungeon Saga Zombies
I am not sure if I’ve talked about this in the current version of the site but when painting miniatures in groups it is important to not bit off more than you can chew. I made this mistake while painting the flesh on these zombies. First, I airbrushed the flesh colour I wanted to use and then was going to walk away do take a break from painting. I was about to dump my mixed painted when I realized that I would need it as the base for the shadows and highlights.
Dungeon Saga Zombies Flesh WIP
So began a grueling process of highlighting and shading six miniatures simultaneously. I was able to get into a groove by focusing on specific parts of the miniatures. For example, I would paint the left shoulder and bicep of each of the shirtless zombies before moving to another section. This allowed me to build an economy of motion and prevent me from forgetting a section.
At the end of the night I had six miniatures with very roughly highlights and blends. I realized that I would have been better off painting three at a time. Not only would I have likely finished the whole miniature instead of just the flesh, and it would give me the opportunity to vary the flesh tone between the miniatures, but I really had to scramble to get them finished in one sitting while fighting with the paint drying out on my palette.
I need to remember that three is probably my limit for mass-painting of miniatures, otherwise it takes too long to reach an endpoint.
Tuesday: More Dungeon Saga Zombies
Dungeon Saga Shirtless Zombies Finished
Deadzone Plague 3A
There is an interesting correspondence between how much work a person can do, and how much work they have to do. If I were to draw a chart my productivity would increase as the amount of work increases until a certain threshold is reached. At this point productivity would start to decrease. Last week I was painting three miniatures in an evening. We’re now in the second evening of painting these zombies and I’ve only just finished them, minus the bases of course. I knew that my momentum wouldn’t last but it is a little disheartening all the same. Fortunately I am around the half way point for all the miniatures required for the first campaign.
I could ease the pressure by not painting the expansion adventurers, and I’m definitely painting the basic set of 4 adventurers first, but I’m not sure how many runs I’ll get through the campaign and I want players to be able to pick the adventurer they want to use.
I almost forgot that I was leaving some washing and glazes on the flesh for when I finished the other three zombies. I want to add the same red and blue washes I used on my Deadzone Plague miniatures. It really helps break up the green flesh.
Golden Super Loaded Matte Medium
These are the first miniatures I’ve fully painted using the new jar of Super Loaded Matte Medium I just purchased. This is supposed to have the maximum matting agent they can fit into a medium but I’m finding it not as effective as I may like. It’ll probably take some experimenting with adding the medium in different quantities to get the effect I want. If this doesn’t work I may have to ditch my Golden High Flow Acrylics, at least when it comes to painting high quality miniatures.
Wednesday: Still Painting Dungeon Saga Zombies
These zombies just won’t stop. This is partially because I’ve had less time to paint each night, and partially because I’ve been struggling to mix a good brown. Actually, I’ve been struggling with my paints in general. I’m seriously considering moving back to Vallejo paints, although I hesitate because I like so much about the Golden paints I’ve been using.
Dungeon Saga Zombies
Thursday: Did someone say Dungeon Saga Zombies?
I’m finally reaching the end of these zombies. I’ll still have to paint the bases but I’m planning to do this en-mass to save time. I finished the clothes of the unarmed zombies and applied some red and blue glazes to vary the colour of the skin. I’m happy to be done and looking forward to the next miniature. What? Armoured Zombies! How about I paint the dungeon furniture next.
Dungeon Saga Zombies
Saturday: Dungeon Furniture
I don’t understand what you mean by furniture, surely you mean zombie furniture?
One of the problems I’ve been having with my limited palette is mixing brown. There’s a trick I’m missing but I’m trying. Here I’m going for the golden yellow brown of cut wood, like beech. I’m hoping a red glaze will help bring these from greenish to brown. This may actually be a good time to try airbrushing a filter. This is essentially a glaze sprayed through the airbrush. I’ve tried this technique in the past but unfortunately the thinned paint beaded up on the surface.
Sunday: More Dungeon Sage Furniture
Less green than before. Dungeon Saga furniture.
After some yellow drybrushed highlights and a hand-painted glaze of a warm brown the wood looked more realistic and far less green. It looks like what I was trying to achieve, which is good. I have a bit more furniture to paint which I plan to do using a reddish brown. I think it’ll make a good contrast.
It’s funny. This week I’ve only managed to paint 6 miniatures and mostly finished 9 pieces of furniture. This feels like a huge drop in productivity over the previous week. However, it’s still a huge increase in productivity over my normal pace so I should be happy.
Topic for the comments: What are the most miniatures you’ve painted in a week? You can also reach my on Twitter and Google+. Don’t forget to subscribe for more.
