This actually started as a speed painting project, in which I expected to paint all that in just two weeks, thanks to the fact that I was on holidays. But just prepping the damn minis took me the first week (many noticeable mold lines, and being made of soft plastic sanding must be done very carefully). So I've been forced to accept there's no way I can reach my original goal. And instead of just getting demoralized and giving up, this time I've done something intelligent and set a new goal, that should be reachable according to the facts I've gathered about painting times, etc.
The project, then, is to paint the 96 miniatures of DOOM monsters during December, January and February. They will be painted to a tabletop standard using a speed painting technique I'm experimenting with them right now. The six marine miniatures are not included in the challenge because I want to paint them to a higher standard, with more advanced techniques; but if I finish the winter challenge with some time left I may paint them too.
The technique I've just mentioned above is based on the fact that now I paint with the Master Series Paints from Reaper Miniatures (link in sidebar), that come in triads of three shades per colour: dark, medium and bright; and the new Citadel washes. The technique thus consists basically of five steps:
1) Basecoat with dark shade.
2) Paintbrush with medium shade, all over the mini except deep recesses.
3) Paintbrush with bright shade, concentrating in smaller defined areas.
4) Wash with thinned Citadel washes.
5) Finish painting details.
This is just a variation of the typical GW's tabletop procedure of basecoating, inking and drybrushing. The reason I save the washing for the final step is that I expected it to act slightly like a glaze does, and diminish the chalky effect drybrushing causes. And it has actually worked fine in the first lot of painted minis, so I'm a happy bunny. The exception to this will be metallic parts, in which I'll follow the more traditional order of steps, because there's no chalkiness problem with metallic paints.
I will keep you updated of the progress of this winter challenge posting pics of the painted minis everytime I finish a group of them. To begin with, here you have the 12 imps. It has taken me approximately six hours to finish them, so that's half hour per mini on average; not a bad time for me, that I'm a rather slow painter.
As you can see, I have not gone for the Doom 3 colour scheme. The boardgame is based in that version of the game, but I don't really like that all demons are basically grey; I "grew up" with the classics Doom and Doom 2, which had vividly coloured monsters. Now I understand that such bright colours wouldn't really suit a host of demons; but I'm aiming at a compromise in between, of varied yet similar colours, with little saturation and a gloomy feel.
Finally, if this challenge goes well, it can become a seasonal event. Next year I expect to have four holiday periods of three weeks, each one at the beginning of a season (March, June, September and December). I will use those periods to start projects similar to this one, still having a couple more months to finish them. And I have already decided what the spring challenge will be: painting all the minis from the Descent boardgame (60 monsters plus 20 characters). For the summer challenge I may paint the minis of medieval townsfolk from Reaper and villagers from Hasslefree (that's 22 figures, including children... plus two chickens!).
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