ZPS - December 2017

2017: The Year of the Monster

Another month, and another year is at an end.  Welcome to the period that I call the Holidaze.  I'll add a bonus section up front for the year-end review.

0. 2017

• Some years are better than others.  This was a year of changes, but a good year overall.  
• A year ago at this time, the KDM campaign still had several days to go.  I went a little crazy, but being involved in that campaign has been a bright spot in my hobby career.  I still go back and reread the KS updates and watch the videos.
• Meeting Poots and a gaggle of other game designers at GenCon (part II, part III, part IV, and part V) this year really changed the complexion of that event for me.  Next year's GenCon has some high expectations to live up to.
• PAX Unplugged served as a bonus event, allowed us to get to know the folks at Dog Might Games in a quieter (compared to GenCon) setting, and the time we spent raiding the Reaper booth for paints has paid off in my KDM work.
• Understanding.  If I could summarize my 2017 in terms of hobby know-how, it would be the "year of skills."  I've been painting minis off and on for about 2 1/2 years, but 2017 was the year that things clicked.
• Learning to airbrush has actually made me understand lighting a lot better
• We've leaned heavily on ArmyPainter products, with only a few pots of Citadel and P3 on the shelf, but in late 2017 we added Reaper, Vallejo, and some higher end brushes into our kit, which as led to a better understanding of how the paints behave and interact.
• Miniature Monthly has been a great investment for basic skills - especially model prep and filling.
• I have very few predictions for 2018, and I don't believe in new years' resolutions.  But I'll say this:  I need to lose some weight and do more outside.  I need to get KDM, Brimstone, and DropFleet done or I'll drown in boxes of sprues.  I'd like to actually play more tabletop.  Work is not going to slow down.  Family will continue to demand attention.  All of those vectors will continue to pull me away from my own center.  In the end, it's all going to be fine, but before this time next year I'll need to remind myself of that.

1. On the Table:

• Kingdom Death: Monster.  This is mostly a repeat of the November post in terms of projects, because Monster lived up to its name and swamped everything else.  Although I paint more slowly than many people, I'm happy with where I'm at.  
• I'm in a good position to wrap up the parts of KDM that I intend to assemble now before the Wave 2 fulfillment (legacy expansions) hits in Feb/Mar.
• I added a summary page for the KDM Builds up at the top. *points*  
• At the time I'm writing this, the demon chicken (Phoenix) is assembled, filled, and ready for priming (probably tomorrow) and as soon as I post this I'm going to go find the Watcher sprues and grab the clippers.

2. Gaining Momentum:

• Arcadia Quest.  Santa brought Mrs. Zoxe a copy of the core game and AQ: Pets.  Impressed so far, but will play better with a group of 4.  Pevil, if you're reading this - this is as close to how I pictured CLEGO as I've found so far.
• Taking decent cell phone pictures.  I'm no expert, but I'm learning.  Mrs. Zoxe got me the light box that you see in use in the latest round of pictures, including the one at the top.  

3. Losing Traction:

• Gloomhaven and DropFleet Commander.  Sigh.  I always say I'm "almost ready" to crack the seal on the DFC box, gotta call this one like it is.

4. Going, going, gone.

• Downgrading the main 2 PC games this month; I've been far less active than is typical.
• PC Game: Guild Wars 2
• PC Game: Heroes of the Storm

Hot off the Desk: KDM Gold Smoke Knight

KDM GSK looking fierce in a sea of black.

I've already talked about the build woes with the Gold Smoke Knight (GSK), but here is the finished HotD post.

Quick recap:  GSK should have been easy to assemble but resulted in some ugly gaps.  I paused assembly while I acquired some Milliput to use instead of my normal filling methods.

Even with excessive work on his left shoulder, there were still some gaps at both shoulders and neck.  I was actually relieved to get it this close.

Adventures in Milliput.

Painting:

Once the build was done, painting put me back into familiar territory.  The overall process and color choices are the same as the Butcher, and King's Man, and the Hand.  There were a few adjustments, and although the GSK isn't much more complicated than the other pieces, there's a LOT of subtle things going on thanks to the different textures on him.

First and foremost, I'm breaking my warm/cold color rule in order to add some AP Greedy Gold highlights.  A Gold Smoke Knight needs some friggin' Gold (!!).  I've outlined a somewhat detailed process and misc notes below in bullet points (bullet points are cool).  See previous posts for more details on how I build shadows with the airbrush; for purposes of brevity (first time for everything! hah!) I'm going to focus on the detailing.

Priming and Base Color:

• (Airbrush) Vallejo Surface Primer Black
• One note about priming - GSK has a lot of deep recesses on the base, in the armor, and under his arms/cloak.  After I set the airbrush down, I touched up those places with thinned primer and a small hand brush and let cure overnight.
• (Airbrush) AP Necromancer Cloak
• (Airbrush) AP Uniform Gray
• (Airbrush) AP Gorgun Hide

AP Necromancer Cloak applied.

Building Shadows:  AP Uniform Gray applied.

Building Shadows:  AP Gorgun Hide, very light.

Building Shadows:  Gorgun Hide reverse view.  I tried to grab the folds in the cloak especially.

Wash and initial detailing:

• (Dry Brush) Reaper Gunmetal Blue on armor - fairly thorough on all armor surfaces
• I wanted the armor to appear a little darker and more like a well worn lacquered piece, so I applied the Reaper Gunmetal Blue BEFORE the wash to build some depth. I wish I'd done this with the other models.
• (Wash) Reaper Black Wash, entire model, 12 drops wash to 8 drops distilled water
• (Dry Brush) AP Gorgun Hide on fur, cloak, smoke, head, weapon
• (Dry Brush) AP Uniform Gray on shadows of cloak to ensure consistent contrast
• (Dry Brush) AP Crystal Blue on smoke, followed by a light pass of more Gorgun Hide to soften/deepen.  
• I've been finding the Crystal Blue to be a great translucent color that really "grabs" over the top of Gorgun Hide highlights, but it can come off a little too "neon" unless you lightly hit the high spots again with Gorgun Hide.

Reaper Gunmetal Blue on armor, and then Reaper Black Wash over entire model.  Here I'm just starting to apply AP Gorgun Hide highlights

Non-armor areas complete with initial detailing.  About to begin applying the AP Platemail Metal to the armor.

With the initial work done, I sat down and told Mrs. Zoxe, "This is either going to look awesome, or in the next few minutes I'm going to wreck the whole thing...."

Armor:

• (Dry Brush) AP Chainmail Metal on armor - highlighting the "upper" surfaces, primarily on the chest plate but also the hands and knee/elbow plates, careful to give the most highlight where light would fall naturally, all while trying not to wipe out the Gunmetal Blue entirely.
• This step not only accented the highlights/shadows I built during priming, but was also an intentional backing to make the Gold nice and bright in the next step.
• I intentionally omitted the Chainmail Metal from the weapon; the Gold instead went over the Gorgun Hide applied earlier and gives a much more muted/worn result that's distinct from the armor.
• (Dry Brush) AP Greedy Gold - very light - on armor, weapon, and parts of the smoke coming from head
• The intent with the Gold wasn't to fully cover all the silver. A little goes a long way and I wanted to see both colors in the finished result.
• I was originally going to do more Gold on the smoke but kept this really minimal as I was afraid that it would all blend together with the armor and I wanted the smoke to pop a little.

Final adjustments:

• (Dry Brush) AP Matt White on head, shoulder fur, and folds of cloak to make them pop a bit more.
• I wanted the head to be more distinct from the smoke and shoulders, so I ended up re-glazing the top of his head in Matt White (glaze = very thin paint) and then applying a very thin wash (Reaper Black) to re-grab the details, followed by another light dry brushing with Matt White.

Base:

• The GSK comes with a special base. I kept it pretty simple. 
• (Airbrush) whatever overspray landed on the base during base color application was fine
• I generally wanted a brighter glow towards the center with whatever natural shadows resulted
• I did splash the flames with a little AP Gorgun Hide.
• (Wash) same as above
• (Dry Brush) AP Uniform Gray 
• Generally all over and reasonably sloppy/heavy
• Tried to preserve the shadows created by the weapon
• Tried to preserve the dark outer ring
• Let the Gorgun Hide near the flames stay lighter
• (Dry Brush) AP Gorgun Hide - very lightly applied
• (Dry Brush) Same flame technique as above w/ AP Crystal Blue and Gorgun Hide

Finished Product, front.

Finished product, rear.  I highlighted the folds in the cloak with AP Matt White to make them pop a bit more. 

Top view.  Softening the AP Crystal Blue highlights with more Gorgun Hide helps sell the effect.

Group shot to show relative scale.

Group shot, hanging out on the board, natural light on an overcast day.

Merry Christmas

TK421, why aren't you at your post?

Merry Christmas!

Or Happy Holidays, or whatever your prefer.  All the best to you and yours this holiday season.  To paraphrase Bill and Ted: eat, drink, and be Excellent to one another. 

I have high aspirations for finishing the remainder of the basic KDM core box* while enjoying just a scrap of time off.  But enough for now - I'll save the rest for the ZPS December post.

*(all Monsters, 4 starting survivors, 2 intimacy survivors, and young/old survivors)

Hot off the Desk: KDM King's Man and the Hand

Finished product.

Confession time.  I've had these models completed for the better part of two weeks.  I wasn't happy with the initial volley of pictures that I took, and hesitated to complete this entry.

So I guess this is more of a "lukewarm off the desk."

Anyway, here are the King's Man and the Hand from Kingdom Death: Monster.  Two of my favorite models to assemble, and pretty straightfward to paint.

In fact, I painted them a the same time as the Butcher, so I'll refer you to that ramble for the details and colors.  And as of a few minutes ago, I have updated that post with a few additional pictures.

Build Notes:

• Nothing specific.  Usual guidance to take your time and dry fit everything, pay attention to mold lines and trim mating surfaces carefully always applies.

Color Choices:

• Same as the Butcher, but in general:
• I'm building shadows with an airbrush with progressively lighter layers of grays.
• With each color, I'm spraying from a more and more narrow angle, with the brightest color applied almost vertically.
• With the lack of bone armor on these two, I wanted a little more of a metallic feel, so I hit them a little harder with the AP Platemail Metal while dry brushing.

And with that, we'll get on with the pictures!

Assembled but naked models, ready for priming.

Vallejo Surface Primer done.

Building Shadows:  AP Necromancer Cloak. Sweep from vertical to parallel with the table.

Building Shadows:  AP Uniform Gray.  Sweep from vertical to about 45 degrees to the table.

Building Shadows:  AP Gorgun Hide applied.  Shoot almost vertically.

Reaper Black Wash applied on the right vs. no wash on the left.

Beginning to dry brush.  Here I've applied the Reaper Gunmetal Blue and am doing a light test.

Mostly complete. I went back and forth several times balancing the right amount of silver, gray, and Gorgun Hide.

The Hand:  rear view. 

The Hand:  right side view.

The Hand:  front view.

King;s Man:  front left view.

King's Man:  rear view.

Work in Progress: KDM Gold Smoke Knight

GSK - First pass at filling the crummy neck gaps.

I still haven't taken new pictures for the King's Man or the Hand (completed this weekend with the Butcher), so I don't have a HotD post to share.  But here's a WIP progress about the KDM figure after them - the Gold Smoke Knight (GSK).

Assembly of the GSK wasn't particularly challenging from a "what do I do next?" standpoint (all the pieces fit in obvious ways), but has absolutely been the MOST challenging KDM model from a "oh crap, this really looks like ass" standpoint.

He's pretty straightforward.  In theory.  Leg/torso pieces glue to the back.  Neck inserts into torso.  Chest/belly glues to all of that.  Then arms and a few trim pieces.  The parts count is low (compared to say - the young survivor) and as a larger figure the parts are nicely scaled up compared to the other bosses.

But, something about my assembly went terribly wrong.  Dry fitting the neck/chest/arms, I realized that if I just plowed ahead I'd have some nasty gaps basically at every mating surface from the waist up.

Yuck.  YUCK!

So, after some trial and error to isolate the problem pieces, I modified the assembly order. I glued the chest piece FIRST, and then shaved the neck a bit to fit down into the resulting cavity.  This let me close the gaps at the chest piece and minimize the shoulder gaps on his right side.  This meant that alllllll of the gap transferred to his left shoulder - maybe 3/16" of nasty gaps.

At this point, my options were maybe to pin the arm and rebuild the gap with filler (which would have added complexity and looked weird), or get creative.  I spent an hour slowly shaving down the interior mating surfaces and removing almost of all of the "locating pin" geometry to get the gap down to maybe 1/64".  Visible, but fillable.

Aha, but what to fill him with?

I've had pretty mediocre results with Green Stuff and I've refused to use it on my models. (Heresy, I know!)  Lately I've been using Vallejo Plastic Putty and Vallejo Matt Varnish to blend in seams (or just choose to leave them unfilled).  This works, but takes multiple passes because the putty and varnish both shrink as they dry.  I've gotten pretty good about eliminating the ponding marks that can happen around the edges of the varnish, but this is still a fussy thing to deal with and every layer means some risk that I'll actually make things look worse.

Miniature Monthly just released a video on filling that featured Milliput, so I decided to try it.  It's still a 2-part putty (mixes like green stuff) but it thins with water so you can brush and blend the result.  I found it reasonably easy to work with, and some of the tools that MM showcased did make things a lot easier.

The picture is the "after" version that's currently curing.  I think the edges are blended smoothly, but I won't be able to tell for sure until I prime.  I can always further blend with Varnish before I airbrush colors.

I didn't take a picture of the seams in the back/cloak but think I filled them in one shot.

Hot of the Desk: KDM Butcher

Not this Butcher.  Hooray for Diablo 1.

I'm never sure if it's "the Butcher" or just "Butcher."  And I'm also forced to smirk as I recall the Butcher from the Diablo PC game series.  Long live the 1990s.

Anyway, let's get on with this!

Build Notes:

• Had my first panic attack with the Butcher.  I followed the build order from the official page but then had issues inserting his left leg.  
• The problem was that his cape was canted just a bit and interfered with the leg (the cape hit his calf). For about 10 minutes I thought I was going to have to pull apart / cut off the cape from the torso.  I got it to work, but my build is twisted slightly at the waist.
• If I ever build him again, I would install the legs first, then the cape.
• Other than that, the build has some small parts that require some finesse to get into place, but everything fits together well enough.  Just be sure to trim any sprues/gates that are on mating surfaces to reduce gaps and dry fit everything.

Colors:  
If you're just here for the airbrush pictures, please skip ahead.

If this is your first post in this series, let's get you caught up.

Here's the gist:  for my KDM set, I'm using an airbrush to provide shadows in a pseudo-statue, almost monochrome paint scheme.  I want a lot of high contrast from light to dark, with near-black in the shadows and near-whites in the light.  I'm using warm colors (creamy grays, buttery whites, and a bright mustard yellow) for the SURVIVORS and cool colors (blue-grays and a neon blue) for the MONSTERS.

Before I go on, I want to talk a little bit about color selection and PLANNING.  I'll use more bullet points.  Bullet points are cool.

• The painting process I'm using is dirt simple.  There's virtually no detail work involved and I'm living proof that it doesn't take a steady hand with the airbrush.
• That doesn't mean you can slop on any color in any order and get a wonderful result.  The trick to this method is some careful planning and color selection.  
• All of the colors have to work together perfectly.  It's just Airbrush, Shade, then Dry Brush.  There's not much opportunity to fix colors that are clashing, and there are so few colors that if one it out of place it will throw the whole effect.
• I also want the individual pieces to be consistent with another.  But I know that I may be painting these pieces weeks/months (and possibly several years) apart as the KDM KS waves ship.  Part of the reason for these blog posts is for my own notes and future reference.
• So I can't emphasize enough: Have a plan.  Test.  Try some colors together.  It might be enough to line the bottles up together on the table and squint, but if you're not sure then take the time to test.
• For the Antelope and Lion, I tested colors with dabs on a paper towel.
• For the Butcher, I grabbed a sprue from the trash and actually layered the colors up in my intended order.  It was sloppy, but it let me see the "stack" of colors actually working.

Ok, back to the Butcher.  He's an important crossroads in painting the core set because he's the first Monster wearing armor and wielding weapons.  When I started with the build I just assumed I'd plow ahead and use exactly the same colors in nearly the same way as the Lion and Antelope.  Which would have looked fine.

But as I was building, I saw those two big, beautiful cleavers and thought, "Wow, those really need some accent. And look at that bone saw too.  Huh."

So I paused the painting process, built up the King's Man and the Hand, just to get my brain around them.  As a result of my color test mentioned above, I'm retiring AP Wolf Gray in favor of a more neutral AP Uniform Gray.  (Wolf Gray will return for the Phoenix and the Watcher).

I want to be careful not to get too detailed. I still want the result to have the same abstract feel.  I'm also cognizant of the amount of work and complexity I'm adding; I have a TON of models coming and would like to have them all painted before my 132nd birthday.

Butcher, assembled with the Young and Old Survivor

Painting Process:

• Vallejo Surface Primer - Black.  Thinned for easier shooting.
• ArmyPainter (AP) Necromancer Cloak - Sweep the airbrush from straight down to about parallel with the table. Do not shoot "up" into any of the underparts.
• AP Uniform Gray - Sweep from vertical to about 45 degrees to the table.
• AP Gorgun Hide - Mostly vertically, but highlighting the cloak mainly, leaving the armor a little darker.  I also hit the bone-helm and bone-armor (shoulder) a little harder with Gorgun Hide.
• Wash:  Reaper Black Wash, thinned 1:1 (Actually, I was more like 8 drops distilled water to 12 drops wash).  This was a little too thin but I went with it.
• Dry Brush:  Reaper Gunmetal Blue on all Armor and Blades (but not scabbards)
• Dry Brush:  AP Chainmail Metal on all Armor and Blades
• Note 1:  I started with AP Gunmetal but it didn't offer enough pop.  The Chainmail is just a TOUCH brighter
• Note 2: I did a little dance here trying to find the balance between the Gunmetal Blue (which is my very favorite new color!) and the silver, striking a balance between color and highlight.
• Dry Brush:  AP Gorgun Hide on cloak
• Dry Brush:  AP Crystal Blue on cloak, highlighting lanterns
• Note:  I went back over the Crystal Blue with more Gorgun Hide to soften it a bit.  
• Dry Brush:  AP Matt White on bone helm, bone shoulder, and skulls in the cloak for a little extra pop

Butcher, in Vallejo Surface Primer, and ready to hack on Old Joe next to him.

Butcher, in Necromancer Cloak. Looks lighter than it really is under the direct light of the booth.

Butcher and Friends, in Uniform Gray.

Uniform Gray, reverse view.

Gorgun Hide applied. 

Starting to dry brush the Reaper Gunmetal Blue. This was the first pass and a light test. I reworked this several times before I was happy. 

Initial Gunmetal Blue and Silver work done on all 3 figures.  I'm about to go start the Gorgun Hide.

Initial pass with Gorgun Hide and Crystal Blue.

More work on balancing. This is almost complete, under the harsh light of the airbrush booth.

Finished model, natural light on a fairly overcast day.

Alternate view.

Alternate view, with a Survivor for color reference.

Final notes:  It's super hard to get the glisten of the metallics to show via a crappy phone camera.  This scheme is very gray-on-gray-on-gray, so the silver highlights aren't as apparent in still shot as they are on the table.  I've got the Hand and King's Man done, but will retake those pictures to help convey the full effect.

-- EDIT 23 December --

Here are some additional pictures while I had the camera out.  I'm playing with a photo booth, alternate lighting, and a new cell camera app.

Top-front  view.

Face on.  Rawr!

Overhead view.  Have been happy with how the bone helm and shoulder pop.

Left quarter shot.

Right quarter.  This is probably the shot with the most accurate color representation compared to real life.