Well, with Adepticon just a few weeks away, I figured I should probably get an army around for the doubles event I am playing there. So for the last week, my 3D printer has been cranking out my 1000 point list for Forces of Nature. This will be a project log to help keep me motivated for the coming grind. Thankfully, I am not trying to do a 2000 point army in a month like I did last time. That was dumb.
So here we have the pile of models.
60 Salamanders
2 Water Elementals
1 Salamander Veteran
1 Unicorn
1 Hydra
Day 1 was a mixed bag. Got everything assembled and tried a new batch painting system using clothes pegs, hot glue, and a cardboard box. Also spent several hours painting a scheme that I ultimately abandoned. It was kind of a pain and the end product didn’t look very good so those models are getting reprimed. Good news is that I did come up with a scheme that will paint very fast and looks infinitely better than the original. Based on the new speed, I am thinking I might challenge myself to paint all of the minis in a week and then move on to multi bases next week. We’ll see.
I must compliment you on your ambition! Moreover, ambitions are nice, but your previous project shows that you can actually finish this.
I, for the love of God, could not even think to finish such a project in a few weeks’time as my hobby time is more about taking me-time to paint stuff relaxed (and frankly, I own enough already to paint/store another army every few weeks)
That said, looking forwards to your reports again!
Thanks for your vote of confidence! I would love to paint more casually but without a looming deadline it seems that I am unfocused and split between my other projects and hobbies.
This Nature army is going to be all 3D printed so I will get to add a unit or two a month over time. I say that but if the past is any guide, I will probably just wait to the last minute and power through a new list, LoL.
Day 2 saw good progress. Got all 30 of this batch and the Vet primed or reprimed and got most of the base skin work done. Tomorrow I need to sharpen some of the lines and add the stripes and such. Once that is done, on to mouths and teeth.
They do have good sculpts. My main criticism of their STL files is that they have a lot of islands and require a fair bit of time to prepare for printing.
I’m running an Elegoo Mars which has been a good machine so far.
I would have to see how skillfully they supported them… I’m pretty particular about my supports.
Edit, nevermind. They got Greg from 3DPrintingPro to do the supports. He’s the one I based my whole support placement technique off of so I have no reservations about the quality of the supported files.
Day 3 saw continued progress. Finished the skin, sharpened edges, and got the oil wash step processed. It seems that mineral spirits caused some of the hot glue to fail on the a few of the clothes pegs though, so I will seal them prior to the next batch. Moving on to details tomorrow.
Found some 40K Tyranid terrain files that I scaled way down to make basing elements. They are fully cured now and will await basing week. GCPS trooper in there for scale.
Day 4 was productive, got the the fins, eyes, mouths, and teeth done on this horde of 30. Still haven’t decided what colors I am making the weapons and crotch banners yet. Hopefully I am blessed with inspiration tomorrow before I come home to paint. At least the 2nd horde will go faster because all the decisions have been made and the workflow established.
Getting the teeth and eyes done is always my favorite part. Really makes the minis start to come alive for me.
Love those sculpts, great paint going on! So much character and lizardy goodness. Good luck on the deadline!
Seeing more and more 3D sculpts out there that are far more interesting than commercially produced casts, I’m afraid a resin printer is in my future too …
Day 5 seemed like a bit of a tar pit. Had reduced time to paint today and starting the weapons and shields ended up being a slow process. Still have a lot of work to do on them but the foundational colors and shading are in. Hopefully tomorrow I can get all of the highlighting and the claws done. Then it’s just their jewelry and crotch banners.
Day 6 and I was totally wiped out from work so it took a lot of effort to press on with the project rather than spend my time doing something less mentally intensive and I know my efficiency was certainly down. That being said, I was a little scattered but got the crotch banners done, put some detailing on the weapons, painted a few claws, got the skulls based, prehighlighted the feathers, and played around with colors so I had a clear path going forward tomorrow which I expect to see this horde complete. I would like to take a break from painting and get the bases sculpted so they have plenty of time to dry before I get around to painting them next week. But for now, I need sleep really badly.
