I actually made a little bit of progress this weekend! There's plenty of stuff in a just-started or half-finished state, which I'm trying to whittle down, but I'm pleased to say I've finished Kapitan Ivanka from Raging Heroes. The gun sword thing is more than a little ridiculous, and feels like it's been ripped straight out of one of the Final Fantasy games I played in the late 90s (Lord knows which one). I would like to have used the alternative sword, but with it the balance of the model was screwed up, and it didn't fit with the very large scabbard on the model. Having painted it I like it a whole lot more now, so I'm pretty pleased I went "all-out" ridiculous in the end...
I'm not overly happy with the finished paint job to be honest, and she wasn't actually a huge amount of fun to paint. I had originally intended to paint her up as a Commissar, but after recently finishing Yarrick, I didn't want to do another black and red colour scheme. So I went for a World War 2 Russian Army uniform, with some red chucked in, and plenty of gold. The green was a base of P3 Cryx Base, washed with Army Painter Strong Tone, then highlighted with Castellan Green, Death World Forest, and then a little Ogryn Camo mixed in for the final highlight. The skin was Rakarth Flesh washed with Seraphim Sepia, then highlighted with the base plus more and more white. I've since bought Pallid Wych Flesh which I'll be using in the future for pale skin tones.
The gold (this is for GrimKlaw) is started with a base coat of Dryad Bark, then to highlight I mix in more and more Auric Armour Gold, and blend it in until I get to pure gold. I haven't been at all impressed with the new range of GW metallics so far, and Auric Armour Gold feels like I've been transported back to the bad old days of the late 80s and Brazen Brass, with its inconsistent texture and naff coverage. Mixing in the Dryad Bark helps with a more solid colour, and once I got to pure gold, I then mixed in some Mithril Silver, which does the same job as the Dryad Bark.
The steel is a base of Army Painter Gun Metal, shaded with Nuln Oil initially, then highlighted up by mixing in increasing amounts of Mithril Silver. In amongst the highlight stages I blended in a little more shading where required. My attempt as heat discolouration (I should have done some research first, but I got impatient to finish the model) was a Guilliman Blue glaze followed Seraphim Sepia and Agrax Earthshade. It kind of works...
With the good Kapitan finished, I'm on to Goblins from the Hobbit boxed set, some more Dark Vengeance good(evil)ness, and getting started on my Kingdom of Britannia army for Dystopian Legions. Plus a load of other stuff.
As always, comments and criticism welcome!