Family Painting: Arcadia Quest Pets

For Christmas, I bought for the family the final Arcadia Quest expansion (not counting Inferno) that we lacked: Pets! Honestly, I knew nothing else about it except that it was more AQ stuff and would be fun to paint together. Here's hoping the rules and campaign are good. 

In case you're looking for other posts in the series, you can check out how we painted Arcadia Quest, the Beyond the Grave expansion, and the Riders expansion.

I grouped the photos by painter this time, and they are presented here in age order. As usual, we did these in a fairly quick style, completing a mini per session. The elder four of us used our shared Vallejo Model Color paints and two Citadel washes, and the younger two used craft paint and the washes. All the minis were zenithal primed via airbrush. I did not spend a lot of time cleaning up mold lines.

My minis (front)

My minis (back)

I'm the oldest in the household, so I get to go first. I painted Bumble, Oak, Vexia, and Ace. Vexia was certainly the most challenging because of the high-contrast headband and face. Oak was an adventure in earth tones.

Mrs. G's minis (front)

Mrs. G's minis (back)

My wife joined us for most of the painting sessions, and she painted Puff, Greenhood, a Korilla, and Rawr. She did a bang-up job on Greenhood, bringing out some wonderful detail in the cloak. Also, if you look carefully, you can see she modified the figure to be a little more family-friendly: the sculpt actually has a bikini top over anime breasts, but my wife put Greenhood in a more combat-appropriate green shirt. (The card art, unfortunately, remains silly.) Again, to give kudos where they are deserved, the dotting she used to convey Puff's scales are amazing, and the fur on the Korilla looks great.

#1 Son's minis (front)

#1 Son's minis (back)

My eldest son (15) did a great job with these figures. They are Tickles, Newton, Padfeet (a "wolfie"), a Korilla, and a Hedgehornet. The most impressive one here is surely Newton, whose card art has him as a plain green chameleon. My son added all the details and coloration that really makes the miniture shine. For his Korilla, he explored Dr. Faust's stipple-and-ink technique. It looks great, although it's almost too furry for either a koala or a gorilla. Still, as an exploration of technique, it's amazing. The Hedgehornet merits some attention too as it's the first we've seen. This miniature features high contrast, hard-to-paint colors. My son here did a great job on a hard miniature, and as the eldest of the boys, one should expect his to be the sharpest of them.

#2 Son's minis (front)

#2 Son's mins (back)

My second son (12) painted Sheldon, Moonpie, Tallon, and a Hedgehornet. Sheldon was his first, and he did a great job adding texture and detail to the shell. He was concerned about Moonpie, but I think it looks great, especially knowing how white and pink are hard colors to paint. The details on Tallon are excellent, especially considering this was a one-session paint job. The hedgehornet is good too, and I'm mostly just glad I didn't have to paint one.

#3 Son's minis (front)

#3 Son's minis (back)

My third son (10) skipped one painting session to work on a model rocket, which is why he only has these three: Miau, a Hedgehornet, and a Korilla. He tends to come in fairly dark, so I will need to talk to him about finding better starting tones. He also paints flat, and when I asked him about it, he claimed to not know how to highlight or shade. I sat with him this morning and showed him how an overall wash on the Korilla and a spot wash on Miau could get a lot more dynamism without a whole lot more effort. Perhaps I will try switching up our seating order next time we do family painting so I can give him a few more tips.

#4 Son's minis (front)

#4 Son's minis (back)

My youngest son (7) cracks me up. He loves family painting, and he completed a Hedgehornet, Owlbunny, Barnaby, and a Korilla. He knows to get a good coat down, let it dry, and go for the magic of Nuln Oil or Agrax Earthshade. Once again, hedgehornets are hard, and I give him credit for even trying that yellow-black stripe pattern. Notice that he put the reflective white dots in the eyes and how well that draws attention to the face.

That's all for today's episode of Family Painting. Don't worry, I have another set of minis behind me, just waiting to be primed.