Pillars, and Some Treasure Piles

A few weeks back I was in the LGS, sifting through their Reaper stock. I found a couple of interesting pieces. One was called the Pillar of Good; the other, the Pillar of Evil. I go in for odd accessory models like this, so I bought them. 

I painted up the evil one in a "gleaming black marble." Only semi-successful execution on that one. For the good one I wanted to try marble...and failed miserably. Never mind...both still useful as objective markers or as dungeon props.

I also recently picked up a number of Reaper treasure piles, which I'll use as game objectives, and for RPGs. I like the way these little guys turned out...and fun to paint too.

'Til next time.

A Few More RPG Figures

A painted up a few more RPG models this week. This first one is a henchman that came from one of the Reaper Townsfolk packs.

Great sculpt. Easy to paint because of the deep relief on the figure.

Then there was this weird pack of "hobgoblins," which must be Reaper code for "big figures in lots of armor." I didn't put much detail into these monster figures...they shouldn't ever be sticking around on the table for very long.

This is an old RAFM Cthulhu monster fig. Painted it (by just staining with wash and highlighting with some green paint) in half an hour. Not too much effort and it shows! Who cares!

'Til next time.

28mm Wolves

I recently ordered up a 3-pack of wolves from Reaper. Nice models...really like these guys.

I haven't painted dogs/wolves before, so I went straight to the internet and found some good source images. Here were the steps I used to paint a miniature inspired by this image:

The castings were really clean, so very little clean up. I mounted the wolf on a base and glued some sand down. After that dried, the figure got primed white, and then it got the usual dark wash treatment.

I painted up the base before moving onto the figure.

I started with a light golden brown.

Then added in the black patches.

I added a sepia wash, off-white dry brush, and finished the face/nose/mouth area.

And here was the finished wolf with the base flocked.

I then used this photo as a guideline for my second wolf...

...which is here.

And finally, I worked up a black wolf based on this image.

And here he is.

 

I liked each of these sculpts...good work, Reaper.

'Til next time.

D&D Player Characters

I'm running a couple of 5th edition D&D demos over the next month, so I wanted to get some RPG figures finished up and ready to go. I ordered up some Reaper figures from their various fantasy lines.  Started with seven minis, cleaned up, based and ready for priming,

Primed.

Added a dark wash, then worked up the skin first.

After working on them on-and-off for about two weeks, I settled on the five I was going to finish off this weekend. And here they are...

A Dwarven cleric.

A human fighter.

A Halfling rogue.

An Elven wizard.

And a light fighter.

Really love the Reaper figures. Nice detail and castings are great. These five figures correspond to the pre-generated characters provided in the D&D 5th edition basic set. Well...close enough, anyway.

'Til next time.

Mule Cart and Drovers

This week, I continued my work on an RPG project (intended for use with the new 5th edition D&D). To wit...a mule cart and three drovers.

This cart, along with the accompanying figures, all came from Gripping Beast. The cart came with a good selection of baggage...just haven't painted it up yet.

The models are pretty good, with just enough detail to make them table-worthy. And it's nice to have some peasants in the miniature collection. It's remarkable how many times you just want a few civilians on the game table and can't find anything appropriate. Anyway, these guys will do nicely.

Well, this model was fun, but it's time to get some good old-fashioned player character models off the painting table...

'Til next time.

Two Dead Horses

Hi all. Just a short update this week. I have a pretty big RPG painting project underway, but did manage to finish off two pieces this week...two dead/dying horses. Morbid, yes...but you need this sort of thing handy from time to time. I believe the sculpts are from Gripping Beast, but can't be sure...found them in the parts bin. 

They also make great cavalry casualty markers for some game systems.

'Til next time.

D&D 5th Edition and Some Ratmen

I got the role playing bug again. So as game ideas were swirling around in my head, I heard that Wizards was putting out yet another edition of Dungeons & Dragons (called D&D Next for some reason). Actually, getting a new edition of D&D out, after the twin disasters of 4th Ed and the rocketing popularity of Pathfinder, makes perfect sense. D&D was hemorrhaging market share. Better to admit your mistake and get a better version of the game out ASAP.

Anyway, I found the idea of dipping my toes back into D&D a little intriguing. I haven't played D&D since 1st edition AD&D over 30 years ago. There have been so many superior role playing games published since then. I wondered what the state of the D&D game was 30 years on...and the price was right. I picked up the new introductory boxed set for just $20.

To be honest, I was impressed with what I found. The core of D&D hasn't changed, so there is an archaic feel to it. Six stats, D20 rolls, different sized dice for hit points and weapon damage...all that sort of thing. However, as I read the rules, I could see that they were very much more streamlined and logical than old D&D used to be. And, from what I heard about 4th edition, this one is much less "video gamey."

I had my rules and the intro adventure (which is pretty good...taking characters from 1st to 5th level in the Forgotten Realms setting) spiral bound and re-covered. The box also comes with 5 pre-generated characters (these are actually really well done and serve as a good entry point for the game) and a set of dice.

I plan on running a few intro games of the boxed set adventure with some people in August and September, just to try out the rules and see if i can cobble a regular RPG group back together.

To kick things off on the hobby front, I painted up a set of Ratmen (GW Skaven from the Island of Blood set). I'll be able to use these for role playing and skirmish gaming with Song of Blades and Heroes.

Now I need to get some Warmachine pieces finished off...this stuff never ends!

'Til next time.

Mirkwood Rangers

Last Christmas, I got a boxed set of Mirkwood Rangers (i.e. Wood Elves) from GW's Hobbit range. I was feeling a little OD'd on Warmachine, so I decided to knock these guys out this past week.

First of all, I know GW's Middle-earth range is in a smaller, more lifelike-proportioned "28mm" than their normal stuff...but these Elves seemed very small to me. Regardless, the sculpts were great, and the box of 10 figures contained no duplicates. Those two facts alone erased any misgivings I had about scale. 

Here are five of the figures assembled and based. Each figure was composed of two pieces...and the poses are very dynamic.

Some of the figures primed white.

Here, all the figures are primed, and each has been given a dark wash to pre-shade and pop out details to aid in the painting process.

Painting went backwards for me this time. I usually start with skin and work my way out on each figure. However, I wanted an overall green scheme on these Elves, and green...light green in particular...can be hard to brush paint. So I wanted to airbrush on the initial base coat. So...I masked off the faces, hair and hands with ticky-tac putty.

And then sprayed on a couple of shades of light green. I then removed the putty, which left the faces and hands ready for a good skin coat later in the process.

Before getting to the skin and hair (which I did last), I painted in the green cloth highlights, leather armor and some of the metal bits.

Finally, bows, arrows, knives, hands, faces and hair were completed...bases were finished off and the project was done.

'Til next time!

The Forgotten Men of Middle-earth

A few weeks ago, I got the urge to paint some more Middle-earth figures. GW's old metal minis are really nice. Great sculpts, nice animation, good proportions...on and on. Looking through the shelves of inventory, I decided to do some free men. 

And when you think of men in Middle-earth, Gondor and Rohan immediately come to mind. I have some Rohirrim ready to go...but I didn't feel like painting horses. So I dug into some of the more obscure models.

These are an assortment of models from the fiefdoms of Lamedon and Lossarnach, the Kingdom of Arnor, and men from Dunland.

After basing, priming and the first ink pass, skin and metal were the first things to paint.

Then, cloth. GW painted their clansmen from Lamedon with tartan kilts. Looked good. I tried it on mine as well.

Next up I worked on the leather items. There was a significant amount on the Dunland models...it's always a challenge to vary up the shades of leather.

Then it was time for cloaks. King Arvedui has the fanciest.

Finally, it was time to finish off details. The remainder of the wood bits, eyes, hair, and everything else missed in the previous steps. Bases were painted and flocked...and then, all done.

Clansmen of Lamedon.

Axemen of Lossarnach.

Men of Dunland.

And finally, an assortment of characters from Arnor.

This week I was also able to base the 10/12mm sci-fi vehicles I've built recently. First there's this flight stand for the 1/144 scale stealth fighter.

And then a mix of other vehicles and artillery pieces. I like how they mix with the Heavy Gear models.

Well, that's all for this week. Next up, I have a number of Warmachine models ready to be logged in.

'Til next time.