Articuno I choose you!

It is month two for the great year of painting competitions and for this one I have chosen a model that has caught my eye since it's release and have been looking for an excuse to paint for a long while.

It's the Frostheart Phoenix. It's a thing of beauty and something that is very attractive to put on the table top.

Also, being a fantasy miniature, it is a natural being as opposed to the technological universe of 40K. This brought it's first challenge as the hard edge highlighting that I normally paint with wouldn't look in place on a creature such as a legendary bird. Because of this, I chose to drybrush the model. I have always found drybrushing gives a more natural gradient to the highlights, and with this one, I have gone from Macragge Blue up to Praxati White using

about five or six different shades in between to try and make the steps look as natural as possible. Each snow crystal was then individually painted, which was pretty time consuming in itself.

For the base, I stuck to my standard scheme, but added some snow to it to suggest that the Phoenix is leaving a freezing wake as it passes over the ground.

The challenging thing for this model is that really, it was more bereft of details than I thought, there are little bits here and there, but there isn't really any area of detail that you can work on to give it that depth that a centrepiece model like this deserves.

The stand was also a big issue. The ball and socket joint is not on a balance point so it naturally wants to tip forward. The joint is also not strong, there is no snap or click to indicate that the joint is held. In the end, a pin had to be put into the top of the stand and a hole in the socket to give it something to rest against.

Overall, I am moderately happy with this model. I don't think that it will take this months honors by any stretch. There are a few untidy parts of the paintwork and I just feel it lacks something standout about it. Needless to say, it was a good learning experience, and that was the whole point of me attempting to enter each monthly painting competition this year.

*****

You may also notice that I haven't mentioned the final Tale of Many Gamers check in for this year. The reason for that is because I haven't completed it and sadly won't be completing the competition, effectively ending my hopes of taking victory home.

As it stands, no results have been announced for the previous two check ins, which was six weeks ago. Also, my working life has gotten, lets say, interesting at the moment (and not in the good way) which has taken my eye off the ball. This last check in was for an Apocalypse formation, and painting many Farseers was something I wasn't going to rush, so they will get painted but just not to this deadline.