The Kingdom Doth Protest

UGH why is it so hard to paint Kingdom Death models? Don't get me wrong-- they're great, but something about them psychs me out and it takes forever to paint them (among a bunch of other projects that I can't seem to get off the ground). I think it's the level of detail and I think, "they have to be perfect"! The total time I've put into it doesn't exactly translate into obvious visual progress. I can't attach the head until I attach the cape... I can't attach the cape until I finish the armor...  Currently, I'm practicing NMM on segmented armor and playing with warm/cool paint colors in the same model. I have a lot further to go! This model is the Twilight Knight pinup from the hard plastic Kingdom Death Pinups box. 

I'm trying to createhigh-contrast in her armor with bright white highlights and dark charcoal shadows. It's taking a lot of blending. I've reworked several parts since I'm not used to having such start highlights next to dark colors. However, I think I need to get out of my habit of trying to over-blend and just paint clean lines of varying values shown in these segmented armor examples. 

Based on the 35mm character concept art (above), she should be easy to paint with the dark colors in her armor and cape, but I'm going in a different direction. I'm mixing warm and cool tones on this mini and challenging myself to tie them all together in the end for a result that's much more colorful. I'm trying to avoid looking at their website so I make sure I'm painting something more original-- if you want, you're welcome to take a peek! Just click on the image below and it'll take you to KD's step-by-step painting guide:

Painted by Scott Hockley. Click the image to see his step-by-step process

Kickstarter Madness

I'm out of control. I blame Yeji (aka "Snickersnacks") for pretending my minor addition is "normal". I've been involved in too many Kickstarters in the last few weeks:

Reaper Bones III: The Search for Mr. Bones

The Art of Loish: A Look Behind the Scenes

...and the Ninja All-Stars I joined late:

I'm broke. But since I'm going without wine this month and I haven't bought clothes or shoes in the last year, I'm saving quite a bit? (Yeah, I'm just trying to rationalize at this point). I should probably mention at this point that I'm "pangry" since I haven't painted in awhile. I'm angry about not painting. Sure, I've painted an hour here or there, but I haven't had the satisfaction of the 3+ mini painting marathons I love so much. Every time I convince myself I have time to paint, I'm off to another project (world of podcasts, woot!) or traveling (family stuff!) or working after hours (ok there's no fun in this, let's be honest). Either that or I have to go to the grocery store or cook or go workout-- all the annoying things that I have to do since I'm adult. Boo. Oh, and I still need to choose my perks in the Kickstarters above. That takes ages for me. When I do sit down to paint, I'm grumpy and have painter's block. We actually talked about this on the most recent podcast you can listen to here:

 

Join Larry, Yeji, Clint and Mocha as they talk about painters block and some of the ways they have beat it!

Posted by Models Workshop on Monday, September 14, 2015
 

Now that my foot is mostly repaired and just bruised, I'm ready to paint-- though I'm fighting the urge to finish "The Martian" that I picked up this past weekend when traveling. It's excellent. I don't have much more to say about it than go read it. Even if you don't like space. Seriously. And if you do happen to like space, orbital engineering, or survivor-thrillers, you'll love it even more. 

 
 

Other than that, the rain's finally stopped, so I'm going to do some outdoor spray priming. Enough talking about painting, let's actually do some painting tonight! I'm so close to finishing Bailey, the only miniature I've ever painted two versions of (and the second miniature I ever painted). I only have her dagger to paint, arm to attach and after a few highlights-- she'll be done! I can't wait to put them side-by-side and see how far I've come since 2012.

Maxxing Out

On Wednesday, I planned to paint. Instead, I wound up in Urgent Care with glass in my foot.

At the beginning of September, I received the test results of some lab work they did after drawing 7+ vials of blood. Evidently I'm incredibly deficient in Vitamin D and my thyroid hormone levels are low (aka "hypothyroidism"). I'm still waiting on the results of a lab test that breaks down your body's adrenaline production levels (cortisol, norepinephrine) before I can go back in for my official diagnoses. Initially, my doctor suspected adrenal fatigue due to my symptoms. In either case, I'm tired of being tired and miserable and unable to get back to a healthy weight (notice I didn't say "skinny). 

 The week afterward, I made a promise to myself to get my act together. For 30 Days, I'm doing a Healthy Eating Challenge that involves 3 things:

  1. Workout EVERY. DAY. 
  2. Eat super-healthy & take Vitamin D supplements
  3. No alcohol

That last one sucks. I love my red wine. In any case, I can't remember the last time I went 3 days without a glass of wine. So I partied it up over labor day weekend as a last hurrah (Uh, you heard the Episode 17 MWAH podcast, right?) before I sat down and changed my routine for the better. 

For my daily workouts, I chose Insanity Max:30. It's... well, absolutely insane. You jump around with kicks and lunges and luckily I can do this in the privacy of my own home because I look like an idiot flailing about in my uncoordinated sweatiness. I huff & puff and gasp for air because I'm so out of shape but no matter-- I'm committed!  So there I am flailing about and jumping around like an idiot without my shoes (they were holding me back) and I'm doing this cross-jumping-jack-arm-punch with all my might and *OUCH* my leg buckles. What the... what did I just step... OH NO THAT'S A LOT OF BLOOD! I freaked out. I'm hobbling to the bathroom so I can wash my foot to see what the heck is in it and call Other Half who's on his way home from work like "I need your help! There's blood everywhere!" (By the way, don't do this to people. You may just give them a heart attack)

Fast forward 30 minutes: many tears have been shed, minor surgery has been performed (I was considering having him use my miniature tweezers) and this big-ass piece of glass comes out of my foot:

It's hard to tell the scale, but it's about half the size of my fingernail and it was DEEP in my foot. My foot won't stop bleeding and I'm worried there's still shards of glass in my foot that broke off from this piece. So we drive to Urgent Care and they clean the deep puncture wound and take X-Rays to make sure there aren't any more dangerous pieces of glass embedded in my foot. They think there may be some more really tiny pieces, but luckily, I'm told my foot should heal just fine and push them out eventually (say what?) with minor risk of infection. They also needed to give me a Tetanus Shot, just in case. Great. 

So here I am $300 later with my foot and pride wounded, and my arm super-sore from the shot. I requested them to put the shot in my non-dominant arm so I can still paint this weekend. I was planning on visiting some family since it's both my Dad & sister's birthday this weekend. However, the left half of my body is basically useless. I've even been trying to do some yoga that keeps me off of my heel so I can still get my daily workout in. I'm also proud that despite the minor trauma of the evening, I didn't give into the temptation of wine or junk food. Day 2 of my Healthy Eating Challenge was a success! I'm just telling my co-workers I'm training to be a ninja! Next week, I work out with caltrops!

I haven't decided if I'll be traveling this weekend, but I know I can hobble to my painting desk and get some painting done tonight. While I can't do much else, I know I can still do my part in recording a Models Workshop After Hours podcast tonight-- they usually post on Sundays. I think we'll be talking about "Who to Break out of Painter's Block" this week as well as highlighting a current Kickstarter that people may be interested in. Stay tuned!