Umber Hulk!

Time for some word association. When I pair up "1970s" and "D&D Monster," some classics immediately spring to my mind. Gelatinous Cube...Carrion Crawler...and Umber Hulk.

Well, it was a trip down memory lane when I busted open another of Gale Force 9's limited run D&D resin models. Time for the Umber Hulk.

This kit was a real treat. Very interesting subject. Totally off the beaten path. And a dream to put together. So easy, and a clean cast as well.

I've really become a fan of the Gale Force 9 models. Can't recommend them enough to the hobbiest, painter and/or D&D player.  Paint-wise, I gave this guy the lobster treatment.

I've got a couple more of these Gale Force 9 models in the pile. I've loved each and every one I've assembled and painted. Can't wait for the next one.

'Til next time.

10mm Sci-Fi from Hawk Miniatures

I ordered some of the very fine 10mm vehicles from Hawk Games for Dropzone Commander. Love the detail in the models. Nice designs too.

The camo was very straightforward to apply (if just a little time consuming). First, I sprayed down a few tones of the base color.

Then, I applied a liberal amount of putty and sprayed a few green tones.

Remove putty, and presto!

After that, I gloss-coated, applied a weathering wash, dull-coated, drybrushed on some dust and brush-painted in the final details. Textured and painted the bases, and that was that.

Six new 10mm vehicles, which include some pretty sweet mobile missile launchers.

'Til next time.

Happy 2016: Calth Ultramarines Done

Happy New Year, everyone. I've celebrated the arrival of 2016 by completing the last four figures required to finish the Calth boxed set Ultramarines force.

Again, these figures take an extraordinarily long time to paint. But happily, they're now done.

And here is the force, all together now. Fortunately, the effort pays off...it's a fine-looking force that I'll be happy to play Calth with.

Now, time to start into something new...

'Til next time.

Some 10mm Sci-Fi

I'm back on the 1/144 scale sci-fi bandwagon. So, I ordered a few packs of Reaper CAV vehicles to paint up.

The models are nice, and painting was very straightforward. Masks were done with putty.

Here are the finished vehicles. Looking forward to doing some more of these.

'Til next time.

Dragon Turtle

Another unique monster miniature from Reaper. This one is the "Tortoise Dragon," which in reality is just Reaper's way of saying Dragon Turtle...a high-level D&D aquatic staple.

The challenge for this figure was trying to find a base that accommodated its sprawling gait. I wound up using a War of the Ring cavalry base with the depressions filled in with cork.

When all was done, I was really happy with the base (I wanted a sandy beach), and the figure painted up really nice.

I used a little Painted Turtle inspiration for the shell painting.

Holidays are coming up fast...time to get a few more projects underway!

'Til next time.

30K Terminators

The Betrayal At Calth project continues. This time around, I've finished off the five Terminators and Leader figure for the Ultramarines force.

Holy crap...these guys took a lot of effort...and more than the end result would suggest. All the figures are OK, except that I really struggled with the white leather dangly bits. Got to figure out a better way of doing those for next time around.

'Til next time.

First Batch of 30K Space Marines

Well, after last week's test figure, it was time to dive into the Calth 30K project. These models are time-intensive. I'm spending over 2 hours per figure, when you factor in parts cleaning, assembly, and the many stages of painting. Is it worth it? Well, after having played several games of Betrayal at Calth, I'd have to honestly say, yes. The game is very fun, and it's certainly enhanced with a good set of figures.

So, here are the steps I took to get game-ready.

1) Parts cleaning and assembly. A few of the sprues in the box have mould lines, but the pieces clean up pretty quick. Assembly is easy enough as well, however, each figure comes in a LOT of parts (10+). So this does get tedious. After the figures are cemented, they're tacked onto the infamous painting stick.

2) Priming. I prime white to get brighter end colors.

3) Pre-shading. I don't think this is necessary...but habit forces my hand here. I'm using Model Air Dark Sea Blue.

4) Base color. I lay down an even coat of Game Air Ultramarine, and then highlight spray some Model Air Light Sea Blue.

5) Block out the black. All equipment, hoses, and metal areas get an even coat of black.

6) Silver. For the metal areas, I've used Vallejo airbrush metal surface primer.

7) Gloss coat and black wash/black lining. Black lining is a big part of the GW painting style. To facilitate putting this down, I gloss coated each figure and then used a black wash to hit the panel lines and do all the shading. I also hit all the metal areas with the black wash as well to shade them.

8) Shoulder pads. Shoulder pads are to space marines as shields are to ancients. They get their own special treatment. I painted the pads on the sprue, since they are small and fussy. After the base coats were down, they got a gloss spray and decals. The gold trim was also picked out at this time, then given that black wash.

9) Finishing passes. The gloss figures were then sprayed flat with Dullcoat. Details and final painting came next. This was a very time consuming step...about 40 minutes per figure. Black equipment got a highlighting drybrush of grey, and the bolted gun cases were given specular highlights. All the panel lines on the armor got highlighted with mixes of Ultramarine and Light Sea Blue. The red-yellow eyes were painted in. The metal was given a highlighting drybrush with GW Chainmail. Finally, specular highlights of White/Light Sea Blue were added to the armor, and the finished shoulder pads were glued on.

As a final touch, the gold rims of the shoulder pads were highlighted with P3 Radiant Platinum, and light blue highlights were drawn into the inner upward-pointing curves of the pads.

I've ordered in some custom bases for the entire Calth set...just waiting for them to come in before gluing these figures to their final bases.

Update: Now with bases from CoolMiniOrNot.

I'm going to move over to the Terminators next. Got a game on Tuesday, and want to get them at least partially painted first!

'Til next time.