Miniatures: Samurai Duo

While I was experimenting painting up the Space Elves, the printer was keeping busy working on a couple of Samurai miniatures. Sadly we had some hiccups along the way..

I don't remember it being particularly cold at the time of printing but both these poor bastards look like they've come out of the bad side of a blizzard. Nothing my small file collection can't correct.

As for the cord tangle this guy's holding, well amazingly that was supposed to be a sword. I'd set the print to include a raft (and boy did it provide a thick one as you can see:)

How do you like your printed eggs?

 

This lattice work peeled off nicely for one and not the other. Of course it got stuck on one of them, why wouldn't it?

However I soon realized I forgot to include supports for the sword and ended up with spaghetti instead. Not a big concern really as I cut away the mess while filing down everything else.

And with a bit of superglue, gave him a toothpick weapon instead. Painted up, this will look like some kind of spear anyway which is miles better that a cat of far more than nine tails.

The rusty lawnmower bolt is purely there for the drying spread to rest on. 

PAINTING TIME

Originally I was hoping to have my airbrush back up and running by now so I could hit a small batch of models with both primer and black base coat in quick succession. But sadly even after a bath in turpentine, there's still some old enamel gumming up the works somewhere along the line so it's out of action for now. So until I get some thinners, it's base coat by brush time.

 

Thankfully when there's something enjoyable on in the background to work/paint with (currently working our way through the hilarious clever Clarkson's Farm) this is quite therapeutic and a quick coat of Abaddon Black later, our 3d Samurai pair are ready for painting. 

Because I've been using a clear primer (I had no idea it was clear when I bought it) I've found a base coat of black works a lot better than just painting over the primer. Plus you can see greater detail in black which is handy.

I'm a big fan of Italeri's Flat guard red but it seems more suited for airbrushing as its pretty thin already as it pours when brushing by hand. A couple more coats should have their garb nice and bright red.

Basic paint up makes them look semi decent but also starts to show up any bits I missed filing. I'm missing a few key colors in my paint collection (namely flesh and greens) so I've been experimenting with mixes with varying results.

WHERE TO GET THEM

Samurai one: Thingiverse (Free)

Samurai two: Cults 3d (Free)

Comedy option - Samurai Card Holder: Cults 3d

Toothpick: Your local supermarket