Kimera Models – Liath – I

After working a couple weeks on the next display project, I finally have something to show. The process to get here has been pretty eventful too so I’ll discuss that too. Let’s take a look at the new miniature first.

Truthfully, the picture is a little underwhelming as the paint is so glossy that I think my camera is struggling to capture it as nicely as it looks in-hand. The orange is much brighter and impressive looking in-hand. When I’m confident that paint is done, I’ll get some ultra matte varnish on there and we’ll try and take some additional pictures to really show off the colors and careful blending. I probably need to get some new photo backdrops printed out to help my camera out too.

Truthfully, its been slow going on this project because Liath’s dress requires a lot of painstaking glazing to get it looking nice smooth. While I’ve slowly been base coating the skin, I’ve spent the vast majority of my time on the back. As you can see, there’s more cloak to go, including the front which is less surface area but just as important to paint well.

If you were curious, here’s how I ended up fixing the base. I happened to have a display base that I’ve owned for years from Model Display Products and never found a use for. In this case, sanded down Liath’s not so great base glued it on top of the MDP one and then added basing paste around the edges so that it looks like it was meant to be together. I’ll have to cover up the different ground textures later on but I’m reasonably confident that I can do that. Here’s a bit better look at the base and the other side of the dress so far.

Before we move onto other topics, I promised I’d describe things that haven’t gone well on this project thus far. In addition to the original base which I already mentioned, I managed to break off a piece of Liath’s “crown”. I didn’t even notice I’d done it and then I started comparing to the box art (which I’ll show eventually) and I realized that its broken on there too! I was able to reshape it to look intentional but obviously this is a really fragile mini. Liath’s staff seems like it is going to be really easy to break so I’m going to try and be extra careful when painting her to ensure that doesn’t happen. I also made a stupid gluing mistake and messed up a very small section on her back. You can’t really tell in the photos above and I have a sneaky strategy for making sure nobody will be able to tell in the end though more on that later when I’m further along in the project. So if nothing else, there is a lot of perseverance going on with this display miniature. Hopefully it will come out alright in the end.

Finally, I did want to mention that I got to play Hellboy 2.5 times in the last two weeks and I had a really good time doing so. There is a fair bit to keep track of in terms of individual hero abilities and its easy to forget an ability or two in the heat of the action but the game has a great flow to it. I love when you play a game that’s simple enough that its easy to keep the game moving from turn to turn and you can immerse yourself in the happenings without having to do much rule checking or strategic thinking. Don’t get me wrong, I like some “strategerie” too, which Fallout Wasteland Warfare definitely delivers, but there’s something to be said for the experience that Hellboy delivers too. Arkham Horror The Card Game gave me that same type of gaming experience so I’m glad that I have something in my collection to help scratch that itch. While I haven’t been painting any Hellboy stuff lately, I feel ready to get some more done in the nearish future whenever I need or want to take a break from Liath.

That’s all for me this week. I can’t promise that I’ll have a painting update next weekend as its slow going so far on Liath and I’m going to keep working on the dress which may not be exciting enough to warrant another update. Only time will tell!