My Little Scythe #5 – Bears (Oh my!)

Painting of this pair was fairly basic. I picked colours close to those in the painting guide and steadily worked on them over the weekend.

The guide shows the lighter furred bear as being almost white – I’ve started with a very light brown, and then lighter again on the face. Both caps wear pictured as a dark grey, but I wanted more colour, so the caps became a similar colour as their pants.

 

I actually played ‘My Little Scythe’ on Saturday afternoon, for the first time. It’s a fun game, simple, but not basic or boring. You choose an action each turn – to move, look for diamonds/apples, or make something from the diamonds/apples already collected. To win the game you need to get four trophies, from eight possible categories. [Collect apples, collect diamonds, gain friendship points, win a pie fight, etc.] I only got two. My mate and my wife each achieved four trophies in the same turn, and she narrowly won by having more resources.

It was great seeing nearly all the figures in full colour, rather than the white and beige plastic they started with. We didn’t get to use the bears – or I’d have taken a group photo. (Maybe next week.)  The weather hasn’t been as good as other weekends, so while they were nearly done, I wasn’t rushing to finish them on Sat. I didn’t expect to get good weather to sit them outside, varnish and let them dry. I was asked to paint a white eye spot – which is meant to be a “light reflection”, not a pupil, based on the guide. This is the first figures that I’ve actually done that for. I could update the others if required at a later time.

I think I’ll touch up that yellow ear before they get varnished.

My Little Scythe #4 – Wolves

This pair I expected to be fairly easy to do, since at first glance, most of the figure is armour.

A closer look suggested they weren’t going to be quite so straight-forward. What they wear makes no sense (or is impossible) but it is a kids game, so whatever! Each wears a visor, but no helmet – it looks like it bolts straight into their head. They have elbow guards with no straps. The shoulder guards could join to the armour at the neck. The head plume would make sense if it was actually hair (or on a helmet), but it’s meant to be coloured and has a metal (?) ring that sticks on top of their heads.

 

The armour bits were pretty easy to paint, with a couple of careful bits of fur in between parts of it. Their pants were the hardest bit, with narrow gaps and awkward angles for a paint brush between shirt and boots, especially underneath. The painting guide had the armour in a dull grey, and a slightly orange-tinged yellow. I thought actual metallics would be much better and I think the silver and bronze came out well.

 

Only two bears to go… although they look rather more like mice to me.

My Little Scythe #3 – Tiger, Tiger, burning bright

“Tiger Seekers are not only master bakers, but excellent marksmen in the kingdom’s official sport of pie throwing.”

Two more figures painted for the board game “My Little Scythe”, and the last four (bears and wolves) are ready to start.

The paint guide showed greys and white for their clothes, which I started with, but quickly gave up as boring and decided on a much more colourful palette. I think this has worked out much better. (Aside: Also, my wife doesn’t like me painting these figures with white, she thinks it looks like I didn’t paint that part.)

The paint guide shows a few horizontal lines on the side of their faces and arms. Looking at the figures, particularly the “mane of hair”, I would suggest they should be lions. I looked at some tiger photos, and went with lots of thinner markings on arms and their back. I considered painted their faces too, but it would be a bit too much detail. I did paint whiskers, sat back and then cleaned them off again. Their noses were originally pink, like a real tiger, but it didn’t stand out against the yellow and ornage, so a bit of ink to darken that. The white around the mouth is also based on real tigers.

The only thing I’ve decided (after spray varnish of course) is that the stripes should have been a bit darker. Reflection in the images makes the lines seem a bit lighter than they actually are, but I’m not completely satisfied, particularly with the guy on the right.

 

Coming out of Lockdown

With lock-down rules relaxing here, my wife and I were able to visit a friend’s home for an evening of catching up in person yesterday. We also managed a fairly long five-player game of Ticket to Ride. While I’ve heard a lot about the game, we had never played it before. We had a lot of fun learning strategy, building train lines and upsetting other players plans. It was nice being out and while I didn’t win, I had a lot of fun. My wife came second and received a certificate and a bracelet as a price from the 8 year old who came last. (Who might have done better if she’d paid more attention to the game, instead of than talking to everyone, making prizes and looking at her iPad. She’d wanted to play Alhahambra, but her father thought that we’d learn TtR faster.)

Painting has been mostly Space marines over the last two weeks. I have two squads almost done, with the main exception being their special weapons. I have now added the last 6 figures from ‘My Little Scythe’ to the tray, so that’s something more interesting to do interspersed between working on the Ultramarines.

The Space marines haven’t been as much fun to paint as the Chaos Marines were. Overall, I feel these are slightly simpler sculpts. The detail is “softer” – armor plates not so individually defined, detail like the chest eagle mostly hidden behind the bolters, etc. My freehand isn’t up to painting chapter symbols on shoulder pads either, which is a pity. These figures will go without. (It could happen if I turned up some decals on the ‘net at a really low price.) In any case they do stand out a lot more compared to the single colour plastic that they started as.

I hope you are all coping well with life and Covid-19 where you are. Best wishes!

 

My Little Scythe #2 – Painting board game figures

Another four figures painted for the board game “My Little Scythe”. My mate and I managed to workout a way to exchange figures during stage 4 restrictions. (It helps when someone is a nurse working at a hospital very close by.) A pair of monkeys and muskoxen. The monkeys were fairly simple to paint. The muskoxen are carrying a lot, so there was a bit more to do with them.

The only tricky part with any of these figures has been getting to the lower bits of the figures – like behind robes/cloaks, and the bottom side of jackets or pants. The figures are standing low on the base, and there’s not much room to get a brush in underneath. The only complaint raised with my painting (from by the young lady receiving these) has been that the “girls” should have eyelashes. Otherwise they are “so pretty!” I did consider eyelashes, but even on figures this size, that a stretch for my skill and brushes.

Eight painted and six to go: wolves, tigers and bears… oh my!

“If only I knew someone who could paint…”

I’ve just finished four figures for a board game that I don’t own, and have never played! “My Little Scythe” is essentially a children’s version of the 2016 adult board game “Scythe” – both of which have nice figures to use. A mate recently stocked up on some board games to play with his daughter and this was one of them. Soon after getting the games, he told me about them, and figures, etc. His email ends with “PS Scythe has some nice miniatures, and a painting guide for them. If only I knew someone who could paint…”

There are seven pairs of figures – each representing a humanoid animal in the game. He was able to drop two pairs in to me to paint just before our stage 4 Covid-19 lock-down began.

Each figure is about 45mm high, which makes them a nice size to paint. The game also comes with a “Painting Guide” which has coloured images of each figure. I found quite a number of people have painted these and posted pictures on-line, so there were a number of variations to compare. I’ve used the guide as exactly that, not a template. I found (after starting painting and looking at online examples) that using lighter and brighter colours than the guide suggests give a better looking effect. It’s a family board game – why use dark colours, or worry about texture and shadows?

They have been fun to paint and look great. I just don’t know when I’ll have a chance to swap them over and paint some more!

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