Returned!

Whew! Time flies!

Roughly half a year since my last update, and well over a year since I showed any pictures of painted miniatures. But now I'm back; I started painting again this summer, loaned a finecast Orion model from a friend to test out and rediscover long-forgotten techniques and the joy of painting, and have done a little painting here and there since then.

Sadly I do not have any paictures of Orion at this point; I did the painting at the owner's place in Norway, and it wasn't finished when it was time for me to return to Denmark again after the holidays. But I do hope to finish him during the christmas-vacation, and I'll make sure I get some photos in return for painting up the model.
I have to say, though, that although finecast is lighter and the models don't fall over as easily or break apart like the old (unpinned) metal models did, it is simply not of high enough quality at this point. I very nearly went mad from all the air-bubbles as I worked on the model; while the old metal models might have needed some greenstuff gap-filling here and there, the resin finecast require sculpting! In no way is it more user friendly. Luckily I have some experience with greenstuff, so I managed to patch him together reasonably well, but yea.. I think GW should have tested and perfected finecast more, before releasing it.

But enough whining about finecast... Just damn shame about them bubbles!

So, what else have I been painting?
Well, the local GW has started (or have had for some time, although without me knowing) a monthly painting competition, Knight of the Brush, where all the contestants gets a month to paint the same model, chosen by the winner of last month's competition. So I dusted off my brushes and paintpots (actually had to replace a couple of colours, as they had dried up...), and bought myself a Wood Elf Highborn for september's competition.
Sadly I didn't make it to the top, quite high standard of the local painters - which is very nice in my eyes. I did score some extra points for "daring to be different", as my model was the only one not painted with green as the dominating colour. At the moment, the model's on display in the cabinet at GW here in Copenhagen, and I have no pictures myself, but the staff has promised that they'll get some pictures taken and publish them on their facebook profile, like they have done for the previous competitions - although they are taking their time!
Either way, I'll take some pictures myself when the model is returned to me at the end of the month.

Speaking of the local GW, their 14th birthday coincided with the Dreadfleet release last saturday, and the whole day was filled with events and competitions. The staff and several regular gamers had baked cakes for the occation; and also dressed up as Zombie Pirates - awesome! I got my ass handed to me in the "Ogre Olympics" (I'll do my best to get ahold of the rules; although rather unbalanced and mostly down to pure luck, it was tons of fun) and of course I participated in the speed-painting competition!

5 minutes: Go!
Alright, the poor Space Marine may not look like much, but I think I started out pretty well, lining the shoulderpads, painted the helmet white wihtout drowning all the details, had changed colour and done one eye lense, when the judge yelled: "First minute's up! Time to change hands!" ...and it sort of went downhill from that point on.. First of all, I'm NOT ambidexteritous, not the least. A minute later, we were told to hold the brush in our mouths; next minute between neck and shoulder (I can tell you, it is hard to dip the brush in a pot of paint, when held in that position!); then back in our off-hand. Owh, let's make this fun, throw in 10 seconds with eyes closed!

.. Well, it was fun, and it's a fine start on my return to the hobby - I think!
Next month's model for Knights of the Brush is the Empire Battle Wizard - no conversion, no greenstuff, only bits from the box. I'll pick up my box tomorrow, and we'll just have to see then how I'm going to model and later paint it.