The Results are In

Ok, so I know it's not Thursday yet, but I'm posting a day early:

After some encouragement from a new painting friend, I jumped into the Reaper Miniature Forum's Works In Progress thread. Basically, I needed help. I had more minis that I started painting than minis that I had actually completed. Two weeks went by and I'd been going back & forth between painting 6+ miniatures, with no apparent focus-- only adding miniatures as I got stumped by another. Coincidentally, this mirrors my former WoW play style: Bored? In the Outlands? Not enough time for a full dungeon crawl? Make another alt character!

With the helpful votes of my fellow forumites, the next miniature I will complete is Reaper Miniature #14028 - Gargoyle (or as I now call him, Scruffy):

He's missing a weapon & has suffered some chips. I'll be patching him up and his projected completion date is May 31st. While I wanted to complete it within one week, I failed to consider that within that time frame, my husband graduates from dental school, we'll have friends & family in town this weekend, I work on Memorial Day, and I have an out-of-state work day trip planned next Tuesday. It's the worst week to try and finish a mini but no need to start making excuses now :) Let the painting begin!

Works in Progress · May 2014

This weekend I realized that I have an increasing amount of Works-in-Progress and haven't completed a miniature lately. I find I'll paint the parts of the mini that I find both challenging & fun and leave the rest for later. I'll often complete faces, hair, skin, and the first part of the overall color scheme before "temporarily" setting them aside to start on another. I want to challenge myself to complete a Work-in-Progress miniature within one week from Thursday. So far I've narrowed it down to these four Reaper miniatures, though I may need some help deciding:

2. Arnise - Reaper MIniature #14098

4. Ursula - Reaper Miniature #13293

1. Taldalise - Reaper Miniature #13466

3. Gargoyle - Reaper Miniature #14028

My Very First Mini · October. 2011

One of my biggest challenges is making sure I'm not psyching myself out before I even get started painting. I mentioned things to avoid in my "How Not To Paint" post earlier this week, but I'll be honest-- I still feel a bit of self-doubt each time I size-up a miniature.

In fact, when my very first order of 28mm Reaper miniatures came in the mail back in October 2011, I panicked. "What the... hold up, these are HALF the size I thought they were! How in the world am I supposed to paint something this small-- it's impossible!!" and I about burst into tears and considered going back to my original, imaginative player character markers (a.k.a. pieces of crumpled paper). After I calmed down, I left my favorite sculpt of the group to stand alone on the coffee table. I'd glare at her each time I passed by, curl my lip in resentment, and mutter to myself. Several days later, I'd given her enough of The Stink Eye to let her know who's boss. That next weekend, I sucked it up and painted this: 

Anwyn - Reaper Miniatures - my first painted mini - October 2011

How I remember it, I painted her in that stereotypical cartoon artist pose with the elbow at an awkward angle, my tongue sticking out to the side, mouth thin & pressed tight, eyes squinting intensely-- let's just say it wasn't pretty. But after all that, I felt downright proud I was able to get the paint (mostly) inside the lines. When I was finished, I held her up to the light, grinned, and placed her gently on the mantle above the fireplace... when she promptly fell 5 feet to the hard tile below, chipping off a good portion of dried paint from her boots, flute, and crown of her head. I'm fairly certain the neighbors considered calling the police after hearing my wail of despair. Lessons learned that day: Prime your mini. Don't display them in high places where they could fall to their tiny demise (that should go without saying, but well... yeah). 

Once I patched her up, I decided she would never again go through the trauma of reconstructive-paint-surgery, so I sealed her-- I sealed the crap out of her. In fact, I still need to go back and knock that shine back with anti-shine sealant or dullcote, but I figure this little lady's been through enough. That'll do, Anwyn. That'll do.