Just In Time For Halloween

Earlier this year, I ordered up a set of SAGA Revenants. I enjoy SAGA, and the thought of a bit of a fantasy expansion to that Dark Ages game seemed pretty compelling. Well, the figures are by Gripping Beast. Now, I'm not a fan of Gripping Beast sculpts, but I was willing to give them another try. 

The set came with 2 groups of 24 zombies (each group a unique set of sculpts), 2 spawning points and a Necromancer figure. Well, I still don't like Gripping Beast (sloppy sculpts), but having painted half a full set, I do now have A LOT of zombie figures. And the Necromancer figure is actually pretty good. Might use it in Frostgrave. Certainly everything is usable in D&D.

I also painted up a Gale Force 9 limited run figure from their Princes of the Apocalypse line.

This is a really nice miniature, which I'm using as an angel NPC.

We had our Halloween D&D game this past week, and happily, the girls came in costume. Come on, guys, you gotta pick up your game!

Possibly the best photo ever taken. Seana plays a male Dwarf cleric, and nailed her costume with a custom-painted war hammer.

'Til next time.

Two Reaper Minis

I've recently painted up two Reaper monster miniatures. The first one...a small metal Dragonette (which we're using as a newly hatched Wyvern in our D&D game), I quite like. Nice simple one-piece mini. Easy to paint. Quick to get on the table.

An attractive and useful model.

Next, we have Rauthuros, a very large demon figure...and my first encounter with a Reaper Bones soft plastic miniature. This is the pic of the figure posted on the Reaper site.

I've got to say that I admire Reaper for launching the Bones line. The miniatures are CHEAP! But, as you might suspect, the end product also feels CHEAP! That soft plastic does't take detail as well as a metal sculpt...and this figure is so large, the wings flop around and the soft plastic just makes you feel like you're dealing with a throw-away toy.

From the start, I didn't like the figure. But I was determined to get as far with it as I could. I chopped up the moulded-on base to get the figure re-positioned onto a metal base with some weight, so the thing wouldn't constantly tip over on the table.

Then I started spray painting the large surfaces. OK, I'll give Reaper this...for some reason, paint sticks to this weird plastic like nothing else. I primed the figure and sprayed on acrylics, and for the life of me, no matter what I tried (including bending the figure severely), the paint would not crack or chip off.

OK, that's good. Score 1 for Bones.

However, I really couldn't stand anything else about the mini. My pro-metal bias really grates against the Bones philosophy.

So much so, that I could not bring myself to finish painting the figure. I'd say it's about 70% of the way there...but I'm not putting any more effort into it.

I've used it in a game, and it served it's purpose. But as a display piece I'm proud to show, it just doesn't cut it. I really can't finish the damn thing.

I've wound up buying one more REALLY BIG Bones miniature...on this new one, the plastic is stiffer, and the detail is sharper...so I'll give Bones one more try. But currently, I'm not a believer.

'Til next time.

Three Warmachine Figures

I recently finished up three Warmachine figures. One Mercenary and two 'casters for Menoth.

First we have the new Steelhead solo, Sgt. Nicolas Verendrye. I've actually been waiting for a 2-point  Steelhead solo for some time, to fill out my Damiano theme list. He fits in perfectly. And he was a lot easier to build than those blasted Steelhead Halberdiers.

Then we have one of the "new" journeymen 'casters. This one for Menoth: Tristan. Cool figure...I like him.

Finally, there's the latest Menoth 'caster, Durst. I've played him several times and really enjoy his tanky ways.

'Til next time.

Witchfate Tor

Hmmm, been a while since I posted. Was pretty busy this summer and got diverted by other interests, Nevermind...back in the saddle. First new model is this large terrain piece from Games Workshop, Witchfate Tor, the Tower of Sorcery.

I had built the smaller, ruined version of this model earlier in the year. Armed with the experience from that project, this one went a lot smoother.

I busted out the box last Saturday morning, and by the late afternoon, the tower was built and primed.

And then the painting was finished up on Monday by about noon (it was Canadian Thanksgiving weekend...so got Monday off...good for painting projects!).

Here is the top platform of the tower. Hey, it's GW...skulls are everywhere!

Taking off the various levels in order, here's the top floor.

And the middle floor. This kit comes with no floor attachment mechanism, which kind of sucks. Without pins or magnets, the whole thing would fall over the first time you used it in a game. I added two brass pins per floor to keep it all together.

Here is the bottom floor, glued onto the base foundation.

The airbrush really sped up the painting of this kit. I wouldn't try it with just a brush...it would take forever. Anyway, gave the main stonework a bluish hue, and then used the old standby, Deneb Stone, for the detail stonework.

All in all, the kit tuned out better than I was expecting, but I attribute this to knowing how to thin down the connection blocks in each level's four wall sections to make a clean assembly (learned the hard way from the associated ruins kit).

Happy with the result. A good piece of RPG terrain!

'Til next time.