Speed painting a cyber samourai

Tuise Crom, the last samourai (of his village)

As ever weak, I've decided to dive in the popular practice of speed painting... You can see many examples from the Oldhammer community HERE and I have to say that it really terrified me to think I could only have one hour to paint a model even without basing it...  (the fact my friend Crooks did it the very same day motivated me to have a go myself though).

Hearing most people had learnt something in the process, I decided I wasn't worse than anyone and could try it myself. Trying to think out of the box and painting out of the comfort zone is always a good way to progress.

The plan I set during the minutes before the attempt were those :

- I took out all the paints I would be using and placed them in groups for each part
- I plugged the hairdryer in the bathroom in case I'd need to speed drying times for washes or anything
- I went to the toilets before (you do not want to urinate yourself just because you're almost done with your last details

and then at 19:59 I took the photo of the primed model and started when the 20:00 signal appeared...

That's the point where you know the beginning but not the end...

 2 while minutes just to add 3 drybrushes for the basing ! I'm already getting late (I really thought this would only take 30 seconds...)

add another 19 minutes and I had all the base colours blocked (photo of both sides just to show I wasn't cheating !)

Then I started adding washes everywhere (mostly black but brown on the leathers and skin)...

That's when Hell began...

I went to the bathroom to help the washes dry with the hairdryer but it took AGES, like EONS !

I gave up taking any picture at that point because I felt every second was precious. From the (mostly) dry washed basecoat, I started building my highlights in a very stark way using big brushes only to keep enough paint in it (and to avoid being tempted to refine my highlights too much)...

I was kind of silly on some parts where I spent a lot of time I could have spent on more important ones... (I told you I would be learning something in the process). A minute before the end, I had forgotten to take my mithril silver pot out and it took me 20 SECONDS to find it !!!!! 

I almost snapped at that point but hopefully, I managed to apply some final highlights on the metallics to take the final shot at precisely 21:00...

Honestly this was a rough experience for me, I was under stress the whole time and every brush stroke wasn't what I would have wanted to do... not excatly what I'd call a pleasant moment.

This made me realise that unlike a few years back I do enjoy a lot painting now. I know my style is not the fastest nor the most efficient but it's just the way I like to paint. Like those musicians who play music they don't necessarily want to hear all the time but which they like to play.

I must have spent as much time on the logo in the back as on the highlights of the whole suit...

Now if you look closely at the picture you will probably see like I do the places where some more attention would have been needed (the metallics are catastrophic). 

So what did I learn about all this if I were to make it again (unlikely but who knows) :

- I like taking my time and enjoy the models I paint

- Preparing paints beforehand really helps to keep focus

- A deadline can realy make you knock models in no time

- A wet palette could be used best by preparing mixes in advances for the challenge (on the verge of cheating I know)

- The less colours, the easiest really

Oh yeah, nice idea, let's make a sort of reflexion on this piece instead of painting it in a plain colour...

You might wonder why I opted for this model for this challenge, well I already knew there would be few colours on this one (I should have painted the hands in blue or black to save time) but on top of that I had a bigger project for this one.
The model was kindly donated to me by the excellent Sho3box when he heard about this little project.

Why did you paint me this way JB-sama ?

 But what is that project ? I heard you, well, you probably know I have a soft spot for japanese culture and especially Kendo which I practice so any model related to it is a good thing in my book. From the moment I painted my sensei I knew I wanted more of his kin. And if I was to have many, how many would be a good number ?

Akira Kurosawa's 7 samourai

Of course 7 ! Just look at this excellent concept ! Such a good number !

Another way to see things :

The magnificent 7

It even inspired this great piece of the oldschool repertoire :

Picture from Solegend

So that means I have 2 of the 7 now... where should I look now? 

Well space is quite a vast thing when you think of it and Lucas Stern, our renowned sensei, has had the time in his long life to find others like him, men of good, men of honour...

In the town of Holloo Weed in a remote sector of the galaxy, Lucas has encountered a peculiar character : Tuise Crom.

Tuise is a hot blooded youth always eager to show off but with a good heart. Tuise was immediately subjugated by Lucas' aura and though he is not always along his sempai, he responds as quickly as he can when duty calls...

"- You and me sempai !
-Yes Tuise, you and me..."

By the way you can see how bad the sensei looks after having been frosted with varnish and salvaged with another layer of antishine varnish... (original picture HERE).

Back on tracks, from the 2 first models I get a good vibe of future samourai and all but I still see things that don't do it for me :

- The samourai on the left (Tuise) has a horrible way to hold his blade and his stance is desastrous (try to attack like this and you will hurt your left ankle in no time...) 

- The one on the right (Lucas) has a good armour but lacks a good helmet and the bolter is a little out of place (though you want to be a practical rather than an idealist when you're a sensei...).

But this is just snobbery from me here, I just want my model to look like this :

or like this :

And I'd like the pieces of equipment to be a bit better like my own Kendo helmet (called Men)

Good thing is, there's one model which has just the perfect helmet and chest armour (must have been copied from a real one or good photos at least because every detail is here). This is of course the Blood Bowl Starplayer Hoshi Komi, I think very little is needed to make him fit just right in amongst his other 2 companions...

he will still not be perfect but after all it's a good thing, this way they will all have their own style and attitude just like in Kurosawa's film.

Just need to find another 4 now (I have leads already but I'm welcoming any suggestion !)

To relax a little I'll get back on less nervous projects (damn I'm getting old...).