Cats & cats & cats

Still plugging away on the Catthulhu Kickstarter minis. I think I will forgo tiny animal minis for a while after this project. I'm about 2/3 done, so I figure 3-4 more sessions should do it. They don't take long to paint individually, but the strain on my eyes limits brush time for such small figures.

Looking ahead, I want to get back to the LOTR stuff. I figure I need to focus on the terrain a bit, as most of the minis I need are really done. There are plenty of odds & ends to fill in (Rohirrim, Smaug, Gondorians, etc.), but the Moria section is pretty well stocked with goblins and so forth.

I made a recent purchase that I am excited to try out. A bunch of my paints are getting dried out, so rather than making a careful inventory of what is good and what is gunk, I bought the Army Painter Mega Set. It's a good deal for all you get. I've not tried their Warpaints before, but they get good reviews. I'll post my impressions after I have a chance to use some of them.

Winter Woes

It was sunny and 73ºF here on Saturday. NOT typical December weather! My Reaper order was estimated to arrive Saturday, so I was stoked to get the figures prepped and primed while Mother Nature was cooperating. Sadly, the holiday shipping madness delayed the box and I didn't get it in time. (Insert sad trombone Wa-WAAA) Now it's raining and cold and the stuff will probably arrive today. Such is the life of a mini painter in winter on the East Coast of the US.

In different news, I have yet to receive the reference photos for the Catthulhu minis, so that's on hold (at least the kitties are paint-ready). In the meantime, getting ready for X-mas has eaten up a fair bit of weekend/evening time (NTM wasting time on Minecraft :-p ). I'm thinking the next thing for Moria is to finish the water terrain.

I've started the GW piece for Balin's sarcophagus too, so that's almost done. You can see the piece in the foreground here. I'll post a pic of my finished version once it's done.

Teaser: Smaug is coming down the pipeline, too! I've had this fig for a while, but I haven't really put paint to brush yet. I really want to make him nice. This is the biggest dragon mini I own. Check out this old bare metal pic I took for scale (the Reaper elf is on a 1" Hirst block base):

It's now assembled and I spray primed him "Dragon Red" with Army Painter primer, so I guess that counts as started. I also have a wooden display base I want to use for him on the shelf that he can come loose from to put on the table (probably on a CD base for SBH rules' purposes).