Format Change

I'm changing the format of Blogsothoth. I'm not going to focus exclusively on games. Instead, I'm going to post about whatever the hell I want. Starting...Now!

So what I want to post about is the progress I've made in painting some models for the board game Invasion From Outer Space. So really, the blog is still about games.

Awkward box art!

 http://boardgamegeek.com/boardgame/42939/invasion-from-outer-space-the-martian-game

The game comes with a bunch of models that are exciting monochrome plastic! A friend of mine owns a similar game by the same company, but zombie themed, and he did such a good job painting his models I was inspired to do the same. It makes the game a lot more fun and interesting to look at.

After reading a bunch and watching videos on the internets I decided to paint using a "dip" method. That is a method where you paint your models normally then once you are finished you dip them (hence the name) into a polyurethane varnish for a nice looking finish without having to go to the trouble of painting the models with any real skill or precision. Perfect!

I've done a little bit of modeling in my day. The problem is when it comes to painting I've always been embarrassingly ham-fisted. Part of the problem is that until now I never once used any primer on the models. Mistake! So I started by priming all the models. I used grey primer found at ACO. Nothing special, just a basic indoor/outdoor paint primer. It made m models look something like this:

Boring!

Note the girl on the far right who is tilted at almost a 45 degree angle. Questionable design, Flying Frog, she stands on one thin little foot and is heavy on the right side. Oops.

The lesson I learned from priming is this: just mist the models with the primer. Don't try to coat them, because they'll get covered in a layer of primer that will obscure all the fine details that you want to smear paint on later.

I'm in the process of painting all these little dears now. I just got basic Testors paint, for about a buck fifty a bottle from Michaels, a local craft store. All of these can be found at your local hobby shop as well, and as much as I'd like to support local hobby shops, they usually have too great a markup for me to justify shopping there.

I started with some of the easier models with less detail and colors. This is the story of JoJo the dancing bear:

He's very brown

There's not much to tell here. I slapped on brown paint.

Aww, bear in a tutu

Now JoJo has a pink tutu, black eyes, and a tiny black nose. All that's left for JoJo is to color his base, a tiny final bit of touch-up, then a dip in the polyurethane I choose: Minwax PolyShades Antique Walnut Stain. I haven't done any dipping yet, so more info on that process will be forth coming.

Green!

Marvel at the imperfections!

Base coat on the "Yard Beast", then some detailing. He is ready for the dip, but I prefer to wait until some more models are ready to begin that process.

Today I did some painting on the hero models. They're in a state of about half done. Once full done they will need just minor touch ups, then dip.

I'm certain they'll look less a mess later

 As you can see, they look pretty rough right now, but finishing the paint job and doing minor touch ups will go along way. The game comes with about 12 martian models (shown in the first image). Since they're all pretty much identical I'm saving them for last so I can just run them like an assembly line. I'll be doing 1 or 2 more posts about this showing the models as they plod on to completion.