On the positive side they are a great source of motivation. I picked up the Justice League Dark box for this challenge and it is now all painted. I had also picked up the Teen Titans box several months ago and they are still sitting on my shelf, primed but sad looking.
There is also a unison when you paint all the models in a given set in the same time period. You tend to use the same style, and techniques, and the quality stays the same.
On the flip side, you may get board with a project but still feel compelled to complete it. This in itself is not a bad thing, but you may not end up giving it your get effort if your heart is not in it. I also find that you don't progress your abilities or try new techniques as easily. If your time is limited, you may not be inclined to gamble this limited resource on a painting experiment. Instead you fall back on old patterns and styles. This was definitely what I found while working on Swamp Thing.
Instead of trying some glazing, or working up through some thin watered down layers I went back to my old style of 3 tone mixing; base > base + highlight colour > highlight. I grabbed a few different greens (the new wall mounted painted shelf made this part wonderful) and started picking out various parts of Swamp Things body. I added some wood/brown areas to break the green up. I really really hated the result. I felt it was a step back from what I had been working on over the last year.
However since I had progressed with the rest of the JLD fairly quickly, I actually had some extra time before the due date. I decided to gamble a bit and use a technique that I had been practicing. I took Scale 75 Inktense Chestnut and diluted it with a lot water . I then applied several glazes to some of the green areas (including the head). It really did mute the green and give it a brown hue. When it was dry I was much happier with the model. I picked out the red peddles and eyes and then called it a day.
In-game Swamp Thing is the Tank of the Justice League Dark. He has an abundance of health (22!), Regenerate/2 and Revival. Revival allows him to be placed in contact with a table edge if he is ever killed (he does come back hurt, and awards the opponent an additional VP though). It is almost impossible to keep him down.
His stats are good, with a high strength and a good Willpower (with a re-roll thanks to Scientific skill). He is a little slow with a move of 5/8. However he does have a Blue ability called The Green that cost 6 power that allows him to be placed anywhere on the table that his base fits. His defenses are good at 16, with a Supernatural of 18! Power 10 is also nice, but he is fairly pricey at 16 levels.
His attacks are solid too. His green Altered Limb physical attack cost 3, with a 2 damage but has a range of 3. His Magic Spikes with a power cost of 3, shooting range of 6 and dealing 3 supernatural damage is great. The once per game Roots attack can be amazing as well if set up right. A pulse attack with a range of 4 and Ensnare/5 (-5 movement) can really mess up someone plans. But that is a large area and you are going have to do some careful planning to make sure that you done have any friends near by.
I imagine that one of Swamp Things greatest abilities will be his Bodyguard special ability. With regeneration and being able to come back from the dead, Swamp Thing will be able to protect some of the more squishy people in his team (Zantana and Constantine I am thinking).
It is good to get the challenge done, I was worried there for a while. This has been the most painting and productive I have been in a while!
Kevin
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