Introducing the Almost Complete Garbage Pile: Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel

I intend to fill this blog with all the detritus of the last decade+ or rather tumultuous living. Almost everything is incomplete, and if you ask my shadow, which I don't recommend, it's all garbage as well. Not to say that there is no aesthetic value or perhaps, wishing on a star, some form of entertainment in my struggles to reach the finish line of any project, but that ultimately everything we make with our hands will be consumed in the flames of time or supernova so attachment to ideas and feelings? is probably more lasting than sculptures of tiny dinosaurs or Warhammer armies. But what do I know? I've never painted an entire army. 

                                                                                    

Except of course the piles of random minis blue-tacked to medication bottles in the "nest" that is the

  Almost Complete Garbage Pile

You'll notice a good smattering of various scales 

and toy brands. No toy is painted well enough...

In any case I will detail the process of approaching completion, the materials used, where you can find them at reasonable prices. I might even throw in some unreasonably priced tools and such since Lord knows there are so many out there. 

I've done the vetting on these materials, and will include reviews and recommendations on the software, clay, paint, plastic, epoxy etc. that I used to begin, reach a discouraging midpoint, and ultimately abandon for the nex--SQUIRREL!          

The first thing I ever started painting that I didn't finish, a work that continues to this day, is Hero Quest. This modest dungeon-crawling, self-contained board game came with a small horde of hero and monster miniatures. All cast in one color and unpainted, of course, their incomplete feel always annoyed my obsessively compulsive ideations. Just kidding, before I somehow acquired Hero Quest (probably borrow-stole it) I took these Mutant Chronicles: Siege of the Citadel minis from my best friend Dustin. "Hey guy, how's about I paint these for ya?" 

These little dudes were my first introduction to Games Workshop and Warhammer and I didn't even know it. The sculpts aren't super detailed and I used Testors enamel paints, STRAIGHT OUT THE BOTTLE! You can see it on the red and blue armored fellas. 

Which brings me to a public service announcement

THIN YOUR PAINTS

I find myself silently yelling this to so many gifted painters on Youtube <cough> Moriah Elizabeth<cough> because I see the globbing and then hear the sobbing over unsatisfactorily smooth painted surfaces. Well duh DOY! Whether it's water or other chemical thinners, to assure a clean coat, 

KEEP IT THIN, KEEP IT SMOOTH

I can't tell you how much I hated these paint jobs👉 before. I stripped all these models to repaint them as a "Hey remember how I kept these for like 20+ years, I painted them again and...they're...better!"

But of course I couldn't leave well enough alone so I decided to customize them.

Game designers often make sculpts for board games that can actually fit on the board next to other miniatures. So dynamic poses are usually out. Take cyborg face in the picture above. I cut his sword hand off to only slightly turn it to point forward. NOW he's a leader! STAB STAB!

Didn't prime it the first time I painted it and didn't strip the paint appropriately (scratched it off instead cause it felt good to do so)

Added tiny sections to the gauntlet/glove and carved  out the armpit detail

You can see how I carved out the stock of this rifle. Used to be solid plastic

That is brown paint on my palm, not chocolate, or shit. (IT Crowd anybody?)

I mean I kind of cleaned the sculpting on the hand

The art for these figures made you think they could be painted to look pretty cool. Too bad teenager me was not equipped or skilled enough to do much with the provided pallet. For some OCD reason I insisted on painting them according to the 'box art.' The art was done by Paul Bonner and it's pretty badass.