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Kimera Models – Liath – III

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As you probably guessed, there was no update last week because I didn’t have enough progress to make for an interesting update. I will try and make up for that by showing off three different things I’ve worked on recently. The first one is pretty modest but it is a sign of exciting things to come. I’ve been chipping away at the Fallout terrain I started weeks ago and managed to figure out how I wanted to paint the interior walls. I tried freehanding a couple different patterns and ultimately, they were too difficult and time consuming. Having white and yellow diamonds for instance, just was more trouble than it was worth even though it would probably look really cool. Fortunately, I found a decent compromise and something to give this once decent house some personality. It might be an ugly wallpaper to our modern tastes but I think it fits the setting of Fallout pretty well.

It will take a while until I can share more of this project but I’ll chip keep chipping away at it to keep it from getting tedious, especially since I have other projects that need to take precedence but more on that later.

Next up, we have something appropriate to the season. No, its not Liath in her autumn attire, its a bonafide witch! Unfortunately, this is another miniature that shouldn’t have passed QC over at Mantic. Her face has some real casting issues because her mouth is basically gone and so is a decent chunk of her nose. I didn’t notice it until I started actually painting the face so I guess it could be worse but its still a bit disappointing to see a damaged miniature make it into the Hellboy: The Board Game box. Fortunately, I’ve got five witches in total so I can avoid using this one in-game in most cases. I wouldn’t be shocked to see more witches as they’re quick to paint and it was a nice palette cleanser from display painting.

And finally, we have an update on Liath. Its less than I expected and it proved to be a lot harder to work on than I thought. When it comes to painting shapes, I think the hardest and the most annoying are circular rods. For example, the legs and arms on a space marine. They are pretty exacting to paint and its not easy to get them looking smooth compared to a flat surface. That proved to be the case here as her leg took probably a week and a half of work, plus a lot of grumbling, soul-searching, and persistence to get looking this good. I’m still not entirely happy with it but I’m moving on to other parts for now and I may revisit once the rest of the skin is done so that I can make adjustments as needed and make sure everything looks as uniform as possible. I’m going to work on some of the other important parts of skin including her stomach next so hopefully we’ll start to see Liath coming together soon.

As I write this, we are officially one month away from MMSI. I’m looking forward to showcasing my work again this upcoming year and maybe even doing a bit more shopping this time since there is quite a lot of large scale miniatures for sale there too. I am a bit bummed that Minerva is the only new thing I have to show off but at least she came out well and will impress people hopefully. I mention this because it has become clear that there’s no way I’ll get Liath done in a month’s time. Her skin and dress are taking a lot longer than expected and there’s more to do after that so there’s just no way without sacrificing the quality of the paint job, which I’m not going to do for obvious reasons.

To complicate matters further, there is a bit of a collaboration between Dastardly Dave Stone and I to work on and I’ve got a strict deadline in November because it is a gift for my Dad. I won’t say too much more about it but I have a feeling it will take a bit of time to work on so I’m going to try and balance getting that project going and keeping up the momentum on Liath as well. I won’t be able to truly be able to work on both at the same time, I don’t think, but hopefully I can make it work and then find some time to get some gaming stuff done afterwards too. Its going to be a busy couple months for me painting wise but hopefully I can hit my Nov. deadline and then the rest will take care of itself. That’s the plan anyway!

16 thoughts on “Kimera Models – Liath – III”

  1. Off to a cracking start on the Fallout terrain Jeff, the pattern is very reminiscent of the era, and I have been in houses that have still had that style through the 70’s.

    Shame about the casting on the witch, but you’ve recovered it well with the painting, as it is hard to see in the photo.

    Liath is one of those projects, that if you try rushing it, you run the risk of spoiling all your hard work, so take your time.

    Hoefully you’ve already got some paint on the surprise, to get it done in time ! LOL As it’s for your Dad, I’m sure you’ll get it done.

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    1. I’m glad to hear it! I did some research on 1950’s wallpaper and was surprised by the styles. It was a bit more somber and serious than I anticipated.

      Glad to hear that on the witch and I thought you’d agree with my reasoning on Liath. You can’t rush a display project or you’ll be disappointed in the end.

      I haven’t started it yet! I’m working on the base/groundworks and then I’ll get it basecoated this upcoming week because the weather is finally going to be good enough for that. I think I have time to get it done still but we’ll see how things go!

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    1. Dave has become Dastardly because he turned down a couple other potential adjectives! Haha, I’m not quite sure what your Conan name would be, John. You have the same problem as me in that your name starts with a J. We don’t have a huge number of adjectives to choose from. Joyful? Jaunty? Not nearly as good as Dastardly, I’m afraid!

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    1. Military Miniature Society of Illinois. While they are a model club too, their annual show is what they’re most famous for I’d say.

      I don’t think you’ll have to wait long to see what the collaboration is and hopefully it will be fun. Its definitely going to be a bit different than what I usually work on…

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  5. Liath is progressing nicely, and that wallpaper steals the show! Took me a while to realise it wasn’t a printed thing, nice regularity!

    Shame about the witch but board game casting can really bit hit and miss I find. Glad to hear the others are better. Regardless it looks very nice painted.

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    1. Thank you, Nic! There is definitely some irregularity (not all the dots are perfect circles, for example) but from a little bit of distance like when you’re playing a game, its just about impossible to see it which I’ll gladly accept.

      The only good news about the witch is that its pretty easy to “hide” it in my collection and only use it in the extremely rare situation where you need every single miniature of a certain type on the board. That has almost never happened to me so far while playing Hellboy.

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  6. Will be interested to see how your wall progresses, not necessarily wallpaper as it is too straightly cut along the broken areas, it would be more peeling if it was wallpaper vs paint. Maybe use some wet tissue to add some curl? I know when we redid our dining room we had at least three layers of wallpaper, what fun!

    I know you will weather more the paint/’wallpaper so no comment there necessary.

    I wouldn’t worry too much about the witch, after all, she is a witch.

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    1. Those are some good points! I’m kind of at the mercy of the MDF “sculpts” for this terrain. I’ll have to do some research into how weathered wallpaper looks and see if there’s anything I can do with it. Thank you for mentioning this as I’m always looking for ways to improve and up the realism!

      And yes, this witch is especially ugly but I suppose that isn’t frowned upon amongst her kind 🙂

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