Repainted Barbarian Warrior

During the early phase of my painting journey, I painted a set of miniatures that came with the special edition of Civilization V. Some turned out better than others, but the worst was this barbarian warrior. When I looked at the figure more closely, I realized that my choices back then made no sense--I'd painted a fur green, I mistook some exposed musculature for clothing, and so on. I fixed those mistakes and added some drybrushing to give the figure more definition. 

I'm most pleased by the beard and mustache. With agonizing patience, I used my tiniest brush to paint in those details by hand, rather than attempting to drybrush them on. This way, you can actually see his lips between the mustache and beard, an effect I've never accomplished before this. Now that I know I can do it if I'm patient and careful enough, I'm going to attempt this technique more often. 
 

Civilization? I'll Stay Right Here

After just 5,454.9 hours of play, I have unlocked half of Civilization V's achievements. This amazing milestone comes just 11 and a half years after I bought the game back in September 2010. 
 

Warriors Three

A rifleman, a barbarian, and a legionnaire went into a computer lab...there is no punchline. The legionnaire isn't quite finished, but I think the rifleman and barbarian look okay. In the background are two retro computer terminals; I spent a little extra time on them to make the display screens look like they might actually be showing some data, at least at table scale. 

These are the last three of five metal 28mm miniatures that came with the special edition of Civilization V. Technically, they are an infantry, a brute, and a swordsman, according to the lexicon of the game. 

Nooooooo

I just finished an epic game of Civilization, in which I finally accomplished a feat I'd been pursuing for decades, but never had the patience, until now, to finish: build the Cape to Cairo railroad on a huge map. I did just that a couple of turns ago, but at the same time, far away in eastern Asia, my Giant Death Robots were mauling cities. I accidentally won a domination victory, and I was so stunned I forgot to take a screenshot of my lovely railroad (which actually encircled the entire continent!) and my almost fully-coloured-in African continent.

Sob. 

Works in Progress

These three metal miniatures came from the special edition of Civilization V. I decided to paint them for use in roleplaying games. For these figures, I abandoned my usual technique and decided to paint the most difficult (to me) sections first, the small bits like flesh, boots, and weapons. It's really an exercise in colouring between the lines at a very small scale. I'm reasonably happy with how these are going so far, but will I ruin them in my attempt to complete them? 

Painted Deathbot

Here's another painted miniature from Civilization V, a killer death robot available only in the late stage of the game. This one turned out a bit better than the longbowman. 

Resting Longbowman

Here's an out-of-focus English longbowman, shoddily painted. Oof. Painting things is so hard at this small scale. Look at all those missed spots.

This miniature came with the special edition of Civilization V; it's metal, and quite hefty. 

Aluminum Conundrum

I've played Civilization V for years, but only now did I suddenly notice a logic problem within the game. Aluminum is a strategic resource that you need to build certain units. If you fail to mine aluminum, you won't be able to build those units. However, you can build up to five Recycling Centers in your civilization, and each Recycling Center produces a bit of aluminum. If your civilization hasn't mined aluminum, where is this recycled aluminum coming from? Hmmm...