Resting Panda

After spending so much time at Adepticon learning from some awesome painters, I decided that I wanted to start doing a few pieces solely for display and the sheer enjoyment of painting. I have no illusions about my skill level, nor do I have any desire for competing. I am interested, however, in taking the occasional break from army painting to try out different things and just have fun. This feels very liberating for me as I had become quite narrowly focused over the years on painting only for the purpose of gaming. I appreciate the almost limitless range of possibilities offered by this other aspect of the hobby and I'm grateful to have an excuse to check out the quirky, more obscure manufacturers' lines of models. When I first started painting miniatures they were all just random figures that I had picked out simply because they looked cool. I think it is a welcome return for me to this earlier approach to painting.

So after four terrible days spent in Fayetteville, NC for a wedding I was going to freak out if I didn't paint something soon. I had anticipated this and primed Sad Panda by Dark Sword Miniatures before leaving town, but was then too exhausted to work on him the night we got back home. I did most of the painting on him the next night and just had to do the bedroll, hat, and flocking the following evening. Overall I'm happy with how he turned out but I am not satisfied with the snow flocking. It looks alright but still rather fake and I now understand why so many people mix up their own concoctions of the stuff. I just used Woodland Scenics snow flock glued directly onto greenstuff painted white and it reminds me of those cheap Christmas displays you see in department stores. Oh well, I'm not planning on doing anything with snow anytime soon so no big deal.

I do like the way the water turned out, especially as that was the first time I've poured resin in probably six or more years. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be frozen or just chilly but I like it nonetheless. Also the bamboo staff was fun but researching it was frustrating. No matter how many pictures I looked at I still had no idea how to paint that effect, so I winged it and just made something up. I like the result even if it doesn't make sense. So long as I avoid any botanists I should be in the clear. The absolute best part of this quick project though had to have been the google image search for panda bears.... Awwwww. That in itself was enough justification for me.

Sorry about the shadows and crappy photos. I hope to get a light box thingy set up sometime after the remodeling turmoil has quieted a bit. I've renamed this one Resting Panda at the request of my wife, who was happy I finally painted something that isn't scary, mean or gross. I've accumulated a bunch of random and odd minis so there's plenty more to work on in the future when I need a short break. Maybe I'll have learned how to take a decent photo by the time I paint another.

Okay, I feel refreshed... time now for some marines!