From StuartL - (Please don't) send in the clowns - 65 Points

Hi all,

    Have you ever had a set of mins that you thought looked really cool, but then painting them turned out to be really un-fun? Because I have.

    A while back, I was browsing My Mini Factory, (which is a foolish thing to do for a person who doesn't actually own a 3D printer), and ran across some cool looking figures on the Titan Forge store. In this case, a collection of plague carrying clowns. Lacking any sense of self-control, I subscribed to the Titan Forge Tribe (a monthly membership that gives you access to all the files released at a massive discount compared to buying the files later, an even more foolish thing to do given the aforementioned lack of printer), and got the files and several more cool looking minis. 

    Luckily, I have a friend who will print some figures for me from time to time, and he ran me off a set of these disease-ridden circus freaks.

Acrobats

    I decided to paint them with sickly looking skin, and bright, yet odd-looking colours for their clothing. I wanted them to be bright, vivid and disturbing. Having settled on an off-looking green and a deep purple to contrast it, along with porcelain coloured masks, I set about painting these weirdos. 

Sideshow Freaks

    For whatever reason, I found the process extremely unpleasant. Maybe it was my choice of colours, I'm not sure. But, for whatever reason, I didn't enjoy painting these minis one bit. I am very happy that they are done, but it took a lot of perseverance on my part to get through them. The details were crisp and clear, there was no fancy trim or excessive detail like you'd find on some minis. I didn't use any special techniques or new methods. I just found the process a slog from the minute my brush touched a figure until the last tufts were glued down, and I don't know why.

Strongman, Ringmaster & Assistants

    So, having bought the files, paid to have them printed and then ground my teeth throughout the chore of painting them, what next? I have no idea. I picked these up because I thought they looked cool, but I never made a plan about how I would use them. (See my previous comments about doing foolish things.) I'll probably use them in a skirmish game sometime, one of my friends is always keen for Mordheim and the like, so I'm sure I can do something with them. For now, they will go into a box, as I really don't want to look at them for a while. Perhaps this is fitting given that I wanted them to look 'wrong'. Who knows?

    So, there are 13x 28mm minis in this pile, which will add 65 points to my tally. This will also add 1 Squirrel point for that side duel.

My ongoing duels information:

Skulls - 139 (no change)

BSRoD - 0 (no change)

Squirrels - 3 (+1) - D&D Animals, 30K Militia, Plague Clowns.

    I should have one more post, and a lot more positive in tone to come. Thanks for reading.

_______________________________

Yep, been there, done that, have the minis in the display case.

I feel your pain, Stuart. I've had numerous runs like this. Funny thing is, if you return to them after a while you'll probably find that they're actually not that bad, maybe even good to your 'refreshed' eye? Funny how the noggin works. 

Anyway, even though you didn't like them, I think they look very cool. I like the colours of their garish costumes, their ghoulish flesh and the vaudeville/circus poses. I particularly like the Ringmaster. Actually, I think they would look spot-on as background figures for Carnevale or Moonstone. Well done, and great job on sticking through them to completion.

- Curt