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Painting Draz is no drag

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As you would expect, I have some more progress on Drazhar to show off this week. I took a quick look at last week’s update to see how much progress I’ve made and while I initially thought I hadn’t done that much, I think I can proud of the progress I’ve made. Here’s a look at where he stands.

I worked almost exclusively on the front side of Drazhar to try and finish a lot of the things that I started and didn’t last week. I also refined and pushed some of the highlights further to increase the contrast and the glowing effect so I’m happy with how that is looking (though I do see some things that can be touched up as well thanks to this photo which is always handy). The gold really adds something to this mini as well and gives it some life. I’ve started to work on the back of Drazhar which is not the most exciting part, mostly because outside of painting competitions, people don’t get excited about the back of a mini generally but I’m hoping to continue working on it this next week and get most or all of it done. After that, the remaining parts should be fun to work on. I don’t know why but I’m feeling fairly patient with this project for once and I think that is increasing my enjoyment of it too.

I also managed to squeeze in some terrain work for Fallout and well, it did not go nearly so well. Please excuse the gaudy tablecloth I left as a background for this picture. I was especially tired last night and felt lazy as a result. I had this sneaking suspicion that it would be a problem to try and match what I had done on the previous piece of terrain and I was unfortunately right. I put too much paint in the resin and so now it looks too cartoonish to my liking. I need this terrain for the next Fallout scenario and will definitely use it in the short term but in the long term, I don’t know what I will do with it. Using resin/water effects is a risky business which is probably why I’ve largely stayed away from it and I should have done all of the resin work in one go so at least the terrain would have been consistent. Live and learn I suppose. Additionally, I have already found a crack in one of the resins which happens somewhat frequently from what I gather. I question how durable this terrain will prove to be but since I’m not that happy with the results, I guess I don’t need to worry too much about that!

The other big takeaway is that I will be ready for another Fallout battle report very soon. I ordered something special from Lithuania and it should arrive here next week so a report could be imminent. I have been feeling a bit burnt out at work this week so taking a random day off and having a battle report seems like a good remedy to me!

To close things out, let’s step into Card Corner! I made an acquisition a little while ago which I love but it also reveals something about the current card market which surprisingly is not unlike the miniature market currently. The card is this beautiful relic/costume card from The Mandalorian. The patch in the center is the cloth from the cuffs that Mando wears on the TV show. Now, there is always debate with these cards whether the actor actually wore this particular piece of fabric and I figure there is no way of knowing for sure so I don’t sweat that. It is just neat to own something that had something to do with your favorite TV shows and movies.

There are other variations of this card including one that is silver instead of bronze and one that is white. I had hoped to get one of each because I like the cards so much and The Mandalorian is pretty alright too but the market for a set that was released not that long ago has completely dried up. Why is that?

Well I think a couple things are happening. People are stuck at home and people are diving into hobbies to pass the time. I see this happening with miniatures where Games Workshop is struggling to keep things in stock or make enough product to fill demand. The same thing is happening with cards. There are new buyers in the hobby and the market is going crazy because the card collecting market is generally fairly stagnant. Its a relatively small community of collectors who stay in the hobby for years essentially. Boxes of The Mandalorian cards were $80-90 upon release which is way less than the retail price of $150 and that is fairly normal for non-sport cards like Marvel, DC, and Star Wars in my experience. By the time I asked for a box of cards for Christmas, they were going for $100-110. Now they’re going for $130-140. I’ve never seen anything like this happen in such a short time. The byproduct of this is that these Mandalorian relic/costume cards are nearly impossible to find on eBay because either people aren’t opening boxes or they’re not selling the cards from them. It is frustrating as a buyer but not much I can do. I keep waiting and watching for more and buying other things I want in the meantime. If nothing else, it is another small example of how the pandemic has us all waiting around to do the things we want to do.

23 thoughts on “Painting Draz is no drag”

  2. Regarding the resin and bubbles, do you tap the table or piece of terrain after you pour? Helps raise the bubbles up where you can pin prick them. What I learned when I experimented was paint makes the water effects/resin opaque vs if you swirl a little food coloring in it stays transparent.
    The gold is a nice contrast to the red, that is coming along nicely!

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    1. This time around, I used a popsicle stick to mix the paint in resin and that helped cut down on the bigger bubbles. As you can see, there were still smaller ones. I did not pin prick any bubbles which would have been a really smart thing to do. Truthfully, I think I got less than optimal results because I didn’t research this enough to know what the best techniques were. I just tried to experiment and learn from it. I will try and do better about that next time as I have nobody to blame to myself. Thanks for the kind words on the painting too. Its always good to know that something looks good to others 🙂

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    1. Thanks mate and yes, you absolutely should share some of your toys. I used to collect Star Wars figures quite a bit. I still have my Special Edition and Episode One era figures in the house I grew up in because I loved collecting them 🙂

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      2. That is a bummer. I’d imagine they’re still pretty affordable if you ever decided to pick some up again. Having said that, there’s always new Star Wars figures coming out for better and worse…

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    1. Thanks for the kind words as always, mate. Maybe with age comes a bit of patience. I used to be quite “The Impatient Painter” not so long ago and I might have finally turned a new leaf 🙂

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  5. Oh my gosh that table cloth is so bright! You just like, have that in your house??? Doesn’t it glow at night and keep you awake? 😀
    But seriously, I think the terrain looks good and don’t really see any faults in it. Utterly suitable for gaming and your probably being overly picky.
    And the miniature it coming along VERY nicely. I didn’t notice before but now that you’ve painted it so well, this guy has a super suggestive crotch armor piece. Now it’s ALL I can see. 😀

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    1. The tablecloth was made in Peru and it has tropical sensibilities as a result. I’ve never been a massive fan of it and I don’t know the tablecloth will survive the move this summer 🙂

      Overly picky is the calling card of this website as you know! I’m thankful that at least the Dark Eldar is coming along so I can’t complain about that too 🙂 I hadn’t thought about it but I wonder why they made it that shape. The other armor pieces that hang from the waist are more triangular and less suggestive. I’ve been too lazy to look it up but Drazhar might actually be female and not male so that might just confuse things even further!

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  6. Pass me my sunglasses mate, I need to look at your tablecloth and it’s hurting my poor retinas! 😉 (I jest, I’m actually all in favour of bright table cloths and throws etc, you should see the inside of my house). Anyway, Drazhar is looking great. I really like the way you’ve done the stonework/marble on the base, very realistic, and the gold is exquisite of course. Tell me, what’s going on with the upper half of his body? Is that bare plastic or a grey undercoat? Do you really paint one area of the model to such a high level whilst another area is completely untouched? (Well, I can see with my own eyes that you do, I guess what I’m asking is why. It’s the complete opposite of the way I paint but obviously produces some very fine results so I’m curious).

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    1. The table cloth is my fiancée’s so I have to tolerate it which I just barely manage to do 🙂 It is not my style but it definitely catches your eye!

      Glad to hear that Draz is looking good. It is bare plastic you’re seeing. My friend calls me a maniac but I don’t think you need to prime GW’s plastic with a rattle can or airbrush if you don’t want to. I just base coat them in a color similar to what I’m going to paint them and go from there. It is an odd way of painting most likely but I’ve never really had any issues doing it. Now for finecast, resin, or metal, you need to prime because of how finicky those surfaces can be with accepting paint so the method I am using is really reserved for for GW plastic and that’s it.

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      1. Ah that makes perfect sense, you are a maniac! 😉 Seriously I know it’s supposed to be a terrible sin to work without an undercoat but I do it all the time too, not deliberately or over whole panels but as I’m working I’ll spot a little crack or crevice where the bare plastic shows and just dab a bit of whatever colour it’s going to be straight over the top. I know nowadays people use all kinds of colours as undercoats, I’m just old fashioned so I only know how to work over an all-over coat of black. I brush it on too, I would use a rattlecan to save time – and I always did in the past – but living in a small flat with no garden doesn’t make that easy so I save it for the biggest models only.
        Anyway, thanks for the explanation – the quality of the results shows it’s certainly working!

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      2. I think black has been a good undercoat for many years because if you miss spots in the crevices of the model, they’ll be black like they probably would be even if you had deliberately painted them. However, I would say that you should try undercoating in a grey sometime, especially for something brighter or more colorful. Something with a lot of skin tone would work or brighter colors like your horrors and see if you like the results. I think black can sometimes dull down your colors a bit and for many models, that is no problem but it is something to consider when you do go for something bright or colorful 🙂

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      3. Wise words, I’ll try out using a grey undercoat at some point and see how I get on. When I started out the only colours used for undercoating were black and white and I’ve always found white to be too stark (in fact I can honestly say I’ve never painted over white and got a result I liked). I’ll try anything once though and grey might work as a nice midway point between the two.

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  8. I read this post when it was posted, but being at work and on my mobile, there’s no time to reply. (Another issue with keeping up on the blogs!) The terrain looks good here, and I do like your Mando swatch. I should post up some of my SW and general geek collectables at some stage. 🙂

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