How To Paint Citadel Miniatures

I'm a sucker for painting guides. I figure at the very least, I will have some nice photographs that I can use as inspiration for my own painting, or in the case of miniatures I'm painting just to fill out hordes, a paint by numbers guide so to speak.

Games Workshop, perhaps the largest hobby entity for fantasy and science fiction wargaming, often gets berated for a variety of reasons.

One of those reasons should not be making things too difficult to enter the hobby.

Now too expensive on the other hand...

The How To Pain Citadel Miniatures is a spiral bound book with the ability toe sit the book directly standing so that you can keep the book open directly while painting. This is an innovation that no other painting book has.

The book is loaded with numerous photographs of the different ranges that Games Workshop is known for: Warhammer, Warhammer 40K, and Lord of the Rings.

The art is clear and easy to follow along.

The information is easy to read and easy to follow along.

The book includes a DVD that repeats the information in the book, but with narration and someone actually performing the activity.

The use of this book is clear for individuals who are interested in the Games Workshop version of the hobby.

This isn't to say that someone new to painting miniatures won't learn.

The start of the book starts before even touching a model. This includes having the right tools and a good place to work that is both comfortable and well lit.

In terms of the models, it covers preparing the models. This includes removing product from frames, cleaning them with blades, repair work if necessary with liquid green stuff, as well as assembly with glue. Very simple, standard stuff that is good to have said regardless of who says it.

One of my favorite bits, is using a 'painting stick' with double sided tape used to hold miniatures that are then spray primed. A quick easy way to handle the priming method.

It includes a detailed breakdown of what the different pants, at the time of the writing, are.

Base Paints: High concentration of pigment allows a good base coverage. The base paint provides a foundation for future work. Not that long ago, these would have been part of the Foundation Line, a game line of paint in direct response to the excellent Privateer Press Paints.

Layer: Paint stacked atop the base paints that are meant to bring out the color of a model.

Drybrush: A new paint that I'm not aware of any other company using yet. It is thick paint that is easy to prepare for drybrushing and is easy to use.

Many of the standards for painting miniatures are here. This includes thinning you pant and using multiple thin coats to get a thicker, richer color, then just using one thick layer which may obscure details. These bits are good advice for almost any pant set from any company for any painter.

Shades: The shades are washes that darken the color they are put on. You can achieve some interesting effects by using colors that might not normally go together. One example is Reikland Fleshshade over Steel Legion Drab followed by Tallarn Sand and Karak Stone and Terminous Stone to achieve a Kahaki color.

Glazes: Different than shades, the glazes are thin color that generally have two purposes. One is to cut down 'glare' from highlights taken too far. The  second is to tint the color to whatever you're glazing it to. One of the examples is using the different glazes over silver painted chaos warriors to show their particular devotion to one of the four ruinous powers. For example, green for Nurgle or Red for Khorne.

Texture: Mud in a bottle! You slop this onto the base and it has enough material in it to present some  texture that can be washed and drybrushed for a quick nice looking base without too much work.


After discussing the different types of paint, and how to use them, the book breaks into the basics of painting, layering, drybrushing, washing, and using those techniques together. Since many of the paints are designed specifically to do one of the things, it works well.

To provide further examples, the book includes eight different groups of characters painted using the methods provided: Tyranids, Harad, Space Marines, Gondor, Orcs & Goblins, The Empire, Tomb Kings and Dark Eldar.

This is an excellent visual reference for anyone wondering how to paint one of those particular figures. For example, the Tomb Kings are given a rich coloration in gold and purple. The men on Gondor painted in this example, could be useful for Wood Elf Waywatchers.

The book closes out with a color guide taking different types of colors through the range. Perfect for sticking with an established pattern throughout an army. For example, if you want to do Space Wolves, you follow the guide for the following.

Basecoat: The Fang
Wash: Nuln Oil
Layer: Russ Grey
Layer: Fernisian Grey
Drybrush: Etherium Blue.

In some gases there are up to six steps as the final step is a glaze to mute an edge highlight.

Not covered in this volume, are the technical paints that came out after the book was done, nor the edge highlighting paints, which are based in color, on the drybrush paints, which are meant for a final highlight.

In addition to the book, the DVD covers almost everything the book does. This allows you to follow along in terms of cleaning, assembly, and painting of miniatures. The DVD clocks in at just slightly over 130 minutes.

Let me be clear. After reading the book and watching the  video, you will probably not be winning any Golden Demon awards.

You will know how to assemble miniatures.

You will know how to base coat.

You will know how to layer.

You will know how to base.

You will know what the specific Citadel Paints are and how they work: Wash, Glaze, Drybrush, Texture.

You will have an idea of how to place highlighting specific to the Games Workshop paint range and have a lot of options for how to do that.

While Games Workshop may be hated in many circles, this is a great product for someone fresh to the hobby who wants an all in one introduction.



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Review: 77239: Skeleton Guardian Spearman from Reaper Miniatures

I was briefly at AdeptiCon this year. I went to check out the vendor hall. Several companies, including Scale 75 and Games and Gear, were there. , I wanted to save myself shipping and handling charges as I order their products through +RK Berry .

Reaper Miniatures was also in presence. I backed their Bones 2 Kickstarter and received my figures. I noticed that I made a mistake on my order, and have been trying to work with Reaper to correct that issue.

Because of that error, I did not have all of the new figures produced for the Kickstarter. So while at AdeptiCon, I picked up several packs of the skeletons.

Skeletons are one of those miniatures where I can always use them. You can paint them up in different styles to represent different fallen Empires or paint the bones themselves different colors to represent different types of monsters.

This guy comes in a nice three pack. That's a link to the Reaper image itself.

The figures are tall, long boned. There are some mold lines and the Bones material is a little more difficult to remove if you're not careful. I say this because there isn't a lot of resistance to the material. Push to hard and you'll cut right through it.

I didn't bother. They were for table top play so my worry was minimized.

The details are a little soft. This is most noticeable on the edges of the spear and around the shield itself.

The figures are also 'bendy'. In pictures to follow, you'll note that it's the same figure, but the stance is slightly off on each. I used a lot of hot water to get the spears into something resembling 'normal' and could probably have done more work on that later.

The good news is that the material is soft. If you want to do conversions with bits, especially Games Workshop, that tends to provide overage of such? You won't have any problems. I wouldn't recommend anything metal though unless you're going to have that weapon in a downward position.

For me, the good news is that they have what I'll call 'Old School' aesthetic. A belt, but not dozens of belt pouches. A buckle, but not dozens of bands. A weapon, but not covered in chains or other miscellany.

I primed it with Games Workshop Imperial Brush on Primer. Did not have great results. The bottle wasn't mixed enough despite much shaking. I glued them onto the round bases that I received with the Reaper Kickstarter.

Not too sure about that. These figures are 'tall' and the bases added a lot of height. In addition, I have this far away dream of one day using my figures in Reaper's skirmish game Warlord, and they use square bases. Still, the price was so inexpensive if I want more I should be able to afford it.

I then mounted them on some blocks with blue tack. I don't have to touch them that way and there is less chance of rub off. Because I have the Games Workshop complete miniature paint case (or at least the last one before the Technical Paints and the Hard Edging Paints came out) and bending is a problem due to back issues, I find the Games Workshop case easy to access so used them with one exception, an Army Painter shader.

For these I tend to go with 'layering'.
1. Mid Tone: Something that isn't the brightest or darkest color I'll be using for the part in question.
2. Shade:Often I'll use a wash to darken parts of the figure.
3. Layer: One or more layers that are progressively lighter and occupy less space on the miniature.

Bone: Zandri Dust
Clothes: Steel Legion Drab
Spear: Dryad Bark.
Metals: Boltgun metal. (For some reason I have a lot of the old metallic range.)
Leather: Mournfang Brown
Base: Charadon Granite (this bottle will soon fade from the world, one of my few remaining Foundation GW paints)

Bones: Army Painter Soft wash.
Clothes: Reikland Fleshshade
Spears: Agrax Earthshade
Metals: Nuln Oil
Leather: Agrax Earthshade
Base: None

Bones: Highlight 1 Ushabti Bone, Highlight 2 Screaming Skull
Clothes: Highlight 1 Tallarn Sand, Highlight 2 Kraak Stone
Spears: Highlight 1 Gorthor Brown, Highlight 2 Baneblade Brown
Metals: Highlight 1 Ironbreaker. Highlight 2 Runefang Steel.
Leather: Highlight 1 Skrag Brown, Highlight 2 Deathclaw Brown
Base:Highlight 1 Dawnstone, , Highlight 2 Terminus Stone

Due to their 'clean' nature and lack of various pieces of bric-abrac, these were a quick paint job. If I wasn't having some health related problems, I could probably have knocked this out in under an hour. I might also have went with some more highlights and might have tried to age the metals a bit more.

The Skeleton Guardians weren't available from the Reaper's webstore last I looked, but was available to view here.

Is there something else you'd like to see mentioned in future reviews? A scale shot with the figure next to other figures? More WIP?  Different style of paint jobs? I know the camera work leaves much to be desired so if you have a site with some good tutorials, lay it on me.

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Throbin Death-Eye and Bailey Silverbell

I am the proud owner of an incomplete Dwarf Lords of Legend. I LOVE the character that these old GW dwarves have. They have a very strong influence on how I think when I think of dwarves. It's one of the reasons I enjoyed Stoneheaven's first Kickstarter to produce dwarves. I thought those dwarves had a fairly good... 'nod' to the old style of Games Workshop.

Mind you I think that the dwarves that GW produce now still include a lot of fantastic characters. The thing I don't like about a lot of the modern figures though is they are over complex. Throbin Death-Eye for example? He doesn't have a whole lot going on. He is on a Micro Art Studio base.

On the other hand, the female dwarf is a Bones figure, one Bailey Silverbell. Her base is a Happy Seppuku base that I started off with the 'dirt' mound and then after that dried out, added some random steel plating that I chopped up and messed with. The lack of detail on her compared to a standard metal figure is telling when painting. It took me a while to figure out that was a crossbow she was holding for example. Still, the cost was right and she's done!

So for 2014, I'm off to a good start. Death-Eye I had started prior to 2014 but Silverbell? Primed her this morning with brush on black primer and finished her this evening. Most of it three layer with a wash.

For the other painters out there, what do you count as completed? Stuff that you just assembled in 2014? Stuff that was in various stages of completion? Something else?

Center Stage Miniatures: Fog Giant, Mountain Giant, Friblog Giant Reviews

The above represent three figures I received from Center Stage Miniatures for their 28mm Demons and Devil Kickstarter. But Joe I hear you say, those aren't demons, their giants! Yes, I ordered some of the existing stock. I have a fondness for giants but due to their size, their often very expensive. The Kickstarter had them for a nice sale price. Note the Fog Giant is missing but from left to right we have the mountain giant and two friblogs. The friblogs are a little tall for my taste as my recollection of them is kind of like 'noble hill giants' but not quite so stupid. The mountain giant on the other hand is a nice side.

My problem if you will in the sculpts is the wide leg stance on the mountain giant and the middle friblog. The fog giant has the same 'issue'. Mind you, this isn't a problem in terms of the pose. I find them all in good stance. The problem is that the width of the leg stance forces them to go on larger and ever larger bases which I could hold off on when possible.

The figures are light on detail. This means that their quick to paint. I got the set Monday and finished these four off today. I love some figures from Werne and Tre but man, belt buckles, skulls, ropes, straps, bones, and lord knows what else are hanging from them. These have a few pouches and belt but nothing crazy.

In terms of figure preparation, they were 'dirty'. It wasn't lead rot, they weren't crumbling or anything like that, but there was a lot of mold release agent or something on them. I would recommend some fine sandpaper, some files for the easily reached areas and a nice wash of warm water and soap. I probably could have did a better job on these guys in terms of cleaning but

For assembly, each figure had one connection point except the fog giant. For the fog giant, it was the hands to the two handed sword. The body and legs, up to the pelvis, are also separate. Pinning that would make for a good strong connection. For the mountain giant, it was the arm with the club. The shoulder attaches to the body. For a good attachment, you might want to pin it. I brushed it down with sandpaper on both contact sides and just used the old superglue. The club runs along the shoulder so I popped some glue there as well. In all cases the fit was fine and didn't require any massive playing with or chopping or green stuff. For a lazy person like me, that's vital. I want to assemble and paint not assemble assemble assemble.

The middle friblog is similar with a join in the hand and leaning against the shoulder. The third one has two contact points, one for the hand to the wrist and one for the sword point to a point in the base itself.

Here we see the same figures, again minus the fog giant. The reason these three are together? Army Painter Barbarian Flesh primer. It's a great thing that you can just spray over the whole figure. Perfect for when the majority of the figure is one color, as in the case a lot of these figures were.

And as we see, I still can't take a picture to save my life. The flesh is mainly a few washes of Ogryn Flesh and Delvan Mud from GW with a few touch ups of the medium flesh color.

Regretably, more dark photos. It's like the three lights I have on top of them are not shedding normal light or something.

The fog giant is the largest of the bunch. He's also the one I used the least amount of actual paint on. His flesh is a light blue primer from Vallejo, followed up with some white primer. The armor is the old GW blue wash a few times with the studs picked out. The hair has nuln black wash thinned down while the belt is nuln black wash without being thinned down. The flesh was washed with the same blue wash but thinned down again to make it less blue.

With the right primer, you can cut out quite a few steps. The only thing? If using washes like I did to 'paint' the figure, be sure to put some protection on it between painting. I knocked the fog giant down once and rubbed off a whole bunch of ink causing me to have to repeat the layering process on those parts.

Tools of the Trade

Happy Seppuku delivered their Kickstarter on time. This is a solid thing in my opinion. There are other Kickstarters I've backed that have not only failed to provide the material on time, but have been completely wrong in terms of when their product would deliver. In some instances this has been almost insulting because the people doing it  are either stupid, which I don't believe, or they simply have no idea that their ability to communicate through text is only well, through text. There is no visual cue, there is no method of seeing the physical expression or other methods that make up the majority of communication, so they come across as crass or stupid.

But in the meanwhile, the Happy Seppuku material is here. I haven't given the molds a go through yet. I'm looking for some new figures to base prior to that and it shouldn't be too hard to do so.

In another corner of the hobby, Games Workshop has come out with some new technical paints. There are numerous reviews on them. A lot of them boil down to "it's good stuff" which essentially means that if you, like me, are lazy and want a quick solution to what the technical paints do, they are perfect, if expensive, for what they do.

All in all, it's a good time to have miniatures to paint and bases to work on.

Waystone by Tectonic Craft Studio

One of the easier to punch out and assemble pieces from Tectonic Craft Studio is the Waystone. I picked this up because while I haven't actually played any Hordes, I do love the Druid Faction in that setting and figure, "Hey, one day man! One day!"

The only thing I'd tell you do to is be careful if you have multiple kits because some of the small pointy pieces can easily be mixed up for actual debris if you're not paying attention. I didn't have that problem as I'd already put together almost everything. Only the crane at this point is really making me scratch my head as I've got the two different pieces of it assembled, I just for the life of me can't figure out how those two pieces go together. Glad to hear that he'll be putting some instructions and other bits together soon.

I used some of my old Games Workshop foundation paints on this. Trying to get rid of them and test out the new ones that I bought for Thanksgiving with a good deal from my local FLSG, Games Plus.

 

I was thinking about putting some blood splatters on the center of it as the druids in the Hordes setting are not kindly individuals. You might also be able to see those limitations I've spoken of before with the methodology used here where the cutting of the non-straight parts is fairly grid or step like between movements. The other limitation is the flat surface. Mind you, it cuts a perfect symbol into the stone but no variation on the surface of the stone itself.

 

 

And another shot with a Games Workshop dwarf just for some so you can get an idea of the scope of the thing. This one isn't necessarily that large a piece but it makes a nice addition to the table.

Chaos Portal by Tectonic Craft Studios

 

Another one of the Tectonic Craft Studios pieces, the Chaos Portal. I decided to paint it purple because I wanted to see what it would look like. Were I do to it again, I might instead go with a rusted metal look.

Assembly wasn't bad. There's the one center piece, two identical middle pieces and two identical outer pieces that all go into slots in the main base.

I used Army Painter's Alien Purple spray primer and then the old GW purple foundation paint with some of the old GW Purple wash with a few quick stabbing dry brushes over it.

There are a few limitations inherent in the Tectonic Craft Studio miniatures. The first, is that unless its a straight cut, the edges are not smooth. The second, is that there is no variation in the detail. Those pieces are all even pieces so if you're relying just on drybrushing a broad flat surface your results may not come out as you are used to. Think of it like painting a big flat plane vehicle and plan accordingly.

The base is just some of that basing material from Vallejo. When using it on larger projects like this its much less expensive than the Games Workshop stuff.

Reaper: Barbarian and Hill Giant plus Heresy: Stone Golem

Still painting away on figures I've had for way too long while waiting for more Kickstarter figures. Ugh. Ugh again I say. I hate that I get so caught up in something that even though I have absolutely no need for it I find myself buying it. One example is the current Otherworld miniatures campaign going on right now. I have zero need for adventurers but I'm still finding myself checking it out every now and again. Same thing with Freeporter's Fate, another one on a fundraiser that looks cool.

Ah well. Anyway...

This guy is from the Heresy range and is a 'Colossus' and is listed as being either an earth elemental or stone golem. The page has a few different jobs on it. Note that when you get it, it comes with the base and the figure, nothing special about the base as some of those great paint jobs have. As I have no problem using figures from a variety of ranges, I'm pretty happy with this one. He was easy to put together. I get nervous when a figure comes in multiple parts not because its necessarily 'hard' to do for the average person, but I am clumsy.

Outside of the black on the base, there is no paint on him. I was playing with my airbrush and zeinth highlighting. I started with black, then a shorter angel with grey, then a spray down from the top with white. I then used Secret Weapon's Concrete Wash over him a few times and that was it. If you don't have an airbrush you could do the same thing with spray primer.  My best paint job ever? Not really but a damn easy one? Yup. The base is done with Happy Suppuku Broken Earth.

Since my cleric didn't do too well in the Pathfinder game I'm in, it's time for a barbarian. Initially I was just going to use the barbarian from the 25th anniversary of D&D with the axe overhead and the while and crazy beard but I have enough unpainted figures that I thought, "Screw this" and painted him up.

While I love Reaper figures, I hate their bases. They either fall into the brocoli base or the too small base. This one has some nice sculpting to it though so I didn't cut it off but did glue it to a larger 25mm square base and used Games Workshop textured snow effect. I gave it a wash with a gray blue color and drybrushed it back up to white. Not bad for snow. Usually when I'm doing snow I never like the way it turns out but this isn't too bad.

This is another Reaper figure. The stance made me put him on a 'huge' base but he is a pretty large figure. Still not anywhere near as big as the Warlord version or the Games Workshop giant but pretty good nontheless. No assembly on him outside of gluing him to the base. I did pin his feet to the base but wasn't used to the dremell so actually punched through his leg and had to green stuff it. I could have went a lot further with this figure in terms of bringing out the details but... he's not a display piece, I'm not running anything right now, and I'm at the point where good enough is good enough.

Still have a bunch of stuff on the table that I'm working on including some Retribution for Warmachine as well as some skeletons from Mantic's range so hopefully I'll be posting more soon.

Reaper Reven (Orc) Warlord Archers

I honestly have no idea how I wound up with so many figures for a game I don't play. I've had these guys for quite a while. I went with a fairly simple paint scheme so that I could finish them relatively quickly. A few washes and some Army Painter basing materials and while they could get a few more treatments, I already had to go back in and glue the flock down as it became one mass and was starting to lift. Ugh.

Still, when I run fantasy RPGs I'll have many an orc or goblin to throw at the players.

On the bench...

I know GW gets a lot of flack for their Finecast and pricing but the Giant is an exception of value. Lots of possible variations and he is huge.

An Actual Painting Update!

Games Workshop High Elves. I've had these guys for a while. I bought them on clearance at Dice Dojo and will add them to my horde of unplayed High Elves. For some reason I've got a ton of the bastards.

Just for S&G, here are some of my 'old' High Elves. I can tell their old not because my painting style has evolved that much or anything, but because the bases are Goblin Green.

Reaper Miniatures has an undead faction for their Warlord game and this charging ghoul is one of the figures. It's hard to tell but outside of the stonework on the base there's a sewer lid on the back. Both made using Happy Suppuku molds.

That might be a little more revealing. Should have made the colors a lot more distinct between the street and the sewer. The molds allow you to press down some green stuff and then slap the mold on top of it and bam, instant base. I like the sewer base because how many things are always coming out of those things eh? I'll probably play with that one a little more because it has a ton of different designs on it. Might be good for Skaven or something as well.

Ack! My poor cleric. I went with a real simple paint job on him because I was needed to have him for a game a few days right after I bought him. And this Reaper cleric wound up going the route of dominated slave to a bugbear vampire. Boo!

Ah well, at least it wasn't a complete loss. Now I've got a big ole fat priest whenever I need that type of character.

Still have a ton of stuff that I'm messing with. My airbrushing has been at a virtual standstill because I've been working on small miniatures or units with some character to them. I hope to get back to that soon.

Good painting everyone!

Reaper, Black Orc, Games Workshop, Kickstarter and More!

I have been painting! I just haven't had a lot of free time between overtime and then Gen Con 2012 and then more overtime.  I haven't been using the airbrush that much though. I'm still working on the stuff I base coated with it from the last time I used it.

In terms of Kickstarters, I received Zombicide. I didn't go in for all the extras on this one because while I like Zombies, I don't play a lot of modern RPGs. I also backed the Reaper Kickstarter but the apperance of minis will be well and away a while. Another two I backed, 1650 and Pirate Goblins, along with Red Box Games, only recently ended. The biggest problem with the Pirate Goblins in my opinion, too many characters and not enough grunts. Made getting more then one set, despite the awesome costs, seem counter productive.

In terms of miniatures other people might be interested in that are still going on, Rafm , an old school miniature company, has some 1889 going on. There are others dealing with sports but I don't do that but wish Mantic and the others the best of luck with them.

That's one of the big boys from Black Orc Games. He's huge. Like Ogre size. And Metal. And comes with two different sets of arm. And the tail armor is optional. And he has a dino-skull head piece that is also optional.

Gnoblars from Games Workshop. Using the new texture paints for the base. I have a ton of these little guys. They make good subs for Paizo's weird goblins if you can't find those suckers not necessarily in exact terms of apperance but in 'goofy' factor.

This is a plague demon from a third party. Something like Ultra Forge I want to say? There was so much potential there but the right arm had a HUGE gap that took a lot of green stuff and of course as I was working on it I kept finding more and more mold lines that due to the nature of the model being highly detailed, I didn't both to remove since I feared destroying the detail in it. Still, an interesting piece but more at home in 40K I believe than fantasy.

A Reaper Djini. I used Happy Suppuku to do the base, using their... I want to say Sand mold. Pretty happy with it. It blended well with the base that came with the figure.

This is a Bones Reaper figure. That means he's plastic. Seeing the kickstarter for Reaper I wanted to do another one in their line. I put him on a base not because he needs it, but because he's also a figure in one of the Reaper dwarf factions and their Warlord game uses square bases.

This one is metal. I sculpted the base on trying to make it cracked cobble stone like. I would have much rather cut the figure off the base, which is way too small, but because the figure has a cloak, that whole cloak is part of the base and I've done that before and it is a huge pain in the ass.

I have a ton of other figures in various stages of preperation and some that still need more work. Hope everyone else is having a better time of it then me!

Big Update: Ex Illis, Games Workshop, Hasslefree, Fenris and Confrontation

So when I started the blog, I was just getting started with my airbrush. I'm still in that phase. See, after basecoating, I still have to paint the damn things. However, it's been going fairly quick as with some of these figures I bought them mainly to test the airbrush and haven't done much more than a quick base coat of other colors and then a quick dip or wash.

Somewhere along the way I missed uploading a photo or two of this set but it's the Games Workshop Walls and Fences. It's actually a nice set with a lot of different pieces that can be painted up in a variety of ways. Sad when their scenery is actually more affordable then most of their miniatures.

During one of my shopping binges on Miniature Market, I picked up a pack of Hasslefree Zombie Hunters. It was a little over $10. For four modern figures? Even though modern RPGing and table top is my least favorite aspect of gaming, I can use them for super heroes or something.

As I work through my new minis, I also try to sneak in some of my older ones. I'm not real picky in terms of having to have company 'X' figures. In this case, it's a Fenris resin figure. It's a little off in proportions, you have to attach the sword, the base is 20mm but... clean up was a snap, it'd look much better if I could dot the eyes properly and it was a 'clean' figure. This figure is one of three warrior women. Fenris looks like they've changed quite a bit since I last bought anything from them with a larger e-bay presence and a lot of bases.

This looks weird, but it's on a huge base and is a nice chunk of metal. It's another one I picked up from Miniature Market on clearance for another like... $10. It's a Confrontation Cthonian Larva. I figure I can use it for some weird horrible monster in a variety of games. They still have a few of them.

Sixteen figures for $12 from Miniature Market. Mind you, the game Ex Illis looks pretty dead. The figures are of the 'skinny' type. Their weapons are also thin. They have a lot of glued components. The pikers especially since their arms are separate and you have to glue them to the hands and you're using plastic glue and it's a PIA to get that type of join right.

But if you're testing out some new paints? If you're testing out a new airbrush? If you need to fill out some town guards for your D&D or Warhammer game? Yeah, it's a solid deal.

On the top, I used Vallejo's basing material, grey earth or something, with a black wash and a highlight over that. I did a different color than the pikers because I wanted some variance, I wanted to show the difference between Vallejo and Games Workshop basing materials, and the brown probably would blend too much with the figures themselves. The top I used the last of my old Sepia Wash from Games Workshop. On the bottom, it was a dip in Army Painter strong. The problem with the bottom figures that you may or may not be able to see, is that when I hit them with the dull coat, it frosted several of them. I guess that's to be expected in Chicago.

Being plastic, they do have a lot of mold lines. Being plastic, those lines are very easy to remove if you're not as lazy as I am. There are actually a lot of details in the figures that I didn't bother to pick out so don't let my simple paint job fool you.

So there we go. While I still have some figures not painted from that first or second go round, my workspace is now clear enough that I can prep another batch and see how that works out in terms of getting more done. Wish me luck!

The Tall Man by Black Orc Games

At my FLGS, Games Plus, they have a bargin bin. In it, I found the Tall Man. No, not the guy from Phantasm, but rather, a Circus performer who has been tortured by magic so that his height exceeds that of any normal human.  It's a relatively simple figure with the arms snapping in fairly easily. Flash and clean up wasn't bad. Base is a regular round base.

So here he is with just base colors. I'm still playing with the new Games Workshop paints and the old ones. I have to say that their 'drab' color is a great one. It's like a washed out pale brown. I can see myself using this one a lot.  The Dryad Wood one is a good replacement for Scorched Brown. Some of the figure's skin almost blends in with what I thought were pants, but if I bothered to check the website, would have noted that they were bandages. I went with mostly brown based colors here because I gave him a sepia wash.

The hair in this instance is snakebite leather that after a wash, I hit with a drybrush of snakebite leather and again with snakebite leather and deneb stone, which is like a really pale white/grey color that's great for lightening any paint almost. The paints in this  case are... I want to say Cathan Brown? The old Foundation Paint mid range brown. Trying to use up some of that older paint.

The base is done up with the next 'texture' pain from Games Workshop and given a wash of sepia as well as a highlight of the drab I was talking about early.

In terms of how tall he actually is?

Standing next to him is a figure I bought from the Miniature Market during their blow out of the figure line. While the figure is skinny, it is also tall. Probably something like 28mm. You can see that the tall man is indeed, 'tall' and his club could easily snap a normal man, even an armored one, like a twig.

Black Orc Games has some interesting figures in their range. With all of the figures I have left to paint I honestly don't know if they have enough to get me to buy any outside of those I've got on sale, but if you're looking for the weird of unusual figure, or a surprisngly good source of panther people or samuarai or King Arthur style knights, they've got you covered.

Arcane Ruins by Games Workshop

The Games Workshop Arcane Ruins should really be called the Skull Ruins. there are numerous skulls on the pillas and on the single large pillar and on the broken pillars. This doesn't count the tons of skulls you get that you can add to the various bits and pieces. I threw them in my bits box. I was midly tempted to actually cut the rest of the skulls off here because if you take them off, you have a nice ruined temple set. With all the crazy skulls Games Workshop is so known for though, you've got "Arcane Ruins".

Assembly of this is fairly easy. My only criticism is that the mold lines are pretty harsh. Even after some sandpaper attacks and trying to hide them with some of the liquid green stuff, they are still fairly visible at least on the pillars themselves.

One of the nice things is that if you check the Games Workshop website for this product over here, http://www.games-workshop.com/gws/catalog/productDetail.jsp?prodId=prod1095518 , you see that they have it assembled and painted in a few different manners. This allows you to purchase it more than once if you want to try up different colors or try up different painting techniques. As for me...

I wanted to keep testing my Badger 105 airbrush. I started off with Vallejo's black primer, then the following, all of which are from the Vallejo Air Model rangel, Grey Blue, then USA Gray, then Barley Grey.  after that it was a few hits with brown wash.

For the primer, it was pretty much hit it everywhere with black primer, then almost everywhere with the Grey Blue, then try to cut back on the angel with the USA Gray, and then try to just hit some high points with the Barley.

Let's put it this way, I've got a lot of practice to go to get some control over the thing. Mind you, I could have done much better with the after wash. I could have made sure that there wasn't as much pooling as has shown up. I could have made sure to eliminate the brush strokes that are rampant all over the place. I could have done some touch ups with a brush and added some grass to the crackled marble on the inside. But... it's a piece I specifically wanted to hit with the airbrush and wash and see how it turned out. If I buy another one, or decide to touch this one up? That's another story.

Warhammer Paint Set Thoughts

So Hobby Town had a sale where you could get a few bones off of a $40 purchase. I picked up the Warhammer Paint set. I was initially going to get the starter set but alas they did not have it. Prior to that I had bought some of the textured paints and messed around with some of the colors but not yet all of them.

So the set includes the following:

5 Plastic High Elves: I suspect these are the sames ones that come with the Isle of Blood starter boxed set. The five here in my box at least were no identical and had a lot of details in various small things that made them stand out from each other.

The main body is separate from the spear arm. the second one here I lost his spear while doing something else and found it later on embedded in my sock. Surprised it didn't break to be honest. The only thing I'd consider bad on these guys is the face. Their heads are very narrow and their eyes fairly close together so its a bit of a PIA to paint them.

1 Starter Brush: M'eh. It's okay but personally, I found it a little too small. In addition, there was one hair longer than the rest of the brush which was initially driving me nuts but I finally managed to get a hold of it and yank it out. Small out to pick out the various gem stones on these elves but I wouldn't recommend it for the eyes.

1 High Elf Painting Guide: Terrible. Well, not terrible, but basic? Very basic? With instructions on using a paint that doesn't come with the set?

1 pot of Mephiston Red: Not bad. I think it's darker than the old normal... Blood Red or whatever it was, and worked well between Blood Red as a highlight and the old Red Foundation as a base coast.

1 pot of Caledor Sky: Kind of an Ice Blue. Light but not that light.

1 pot of Nuln Oil: This worked well. Good flow control. Might even be a little too dark. I was tempted to go back over these guys after I did my initial shading with it but the point was to... you know, just test the stuff out and see how it worked overall not make some figs that would blend in with my previous efforts.

1 pot of Ironbreaker: Not bad as a metallic. Lighter than Boltgun Metal.

1 pot of Ulthuan Grey: If you've been looking for an off white, this is your color. It will probably make a great base for doing skull white highlights. I initially thought it was white until I hit it with the actual Pure White.

1 pot of Kabalite Green; Somewhat a muted Turqouise Green. Like an aqua green? I highlighted it a little using the Ulthuan Grey. Personally? Not seeing a lot of use out of this color.

1 pot of Cadian Fleshtone: M'eh? The instructions want you to paint the hair with this and then shade it with the Nuln Oil.

1 pot of Imperial Primer: Black Brush on Primer from Games Workshop? My how times have changed. I initially based some of my figures with my air brush with this and it worked pretty well. Glad to see GW offering it.'

On the base I used the Luthian or whatever the home place of the Lizardmen are, then gave it a green wash from Vallejo. That was a mistake that I've made in the past and will probably make again. Unless the Vallejo washes are extremely well shaken, I've noticed they tend to dry white in some spots. I then went over that with Goblin Green. Not bad for the time invested in it.

Could I do more with them? Yup. Some washes on the gloves for example. Heck, maybe paint the bows and spears brown or something. Highlight the metal parts with Mithril Silver! But they were a test run and I've got other figures to work on. The main thing? The GW paints remain, at least to me, another tool to use.

I still hate the bottle design. The paints are still over priced. But it looks like White Dwarf is actually putting some painting articles back in and the paints weren't bad and will be easy to find wherever I go so that's good at least.

Avion Archers from Black Orc Games

Black Orc Games does a miniature game called One Hundred Kingdoms. I've never played it, but some of the factions are great. The Roman Empire inspired gorillas for example? Classic. However, my FLSG, Games Plus, occassionally puts things on sale and in this case, that included these rather large reptillian archers who belong to the Outkast faction or as known in most other lines, lizard men. The interesting thing though, is that the figures have more dinosaur styling to them then traditional. These guys, avion archers,  I've painted up for example, would probably be around eight feet tall with their long necks. Humanoid? Yes. Humanoid to the point other races are? Probably not.

I also do some online shopping at places like Hobby Lobby.

Say hellow to my new clamp. Has a great weight and does a solid job of holding the figures. I can use it to hold stuff that's drying, hold figures so I don't have to get my grubby fingers on them and more!

I'm also in the process of testing out the 'starter' set of GW paints that comes with the High Elves. An... interesting choice not including a brown for things like the bow and spears instead relying on the Imperial Primer. I'll post more of those elves later.



Airbrushing The Night Away

Tried out my new airbrush. Fun stuff. Looking foward to doing it some more. Lays down a fantastic base coat. I have a long way to go before I get anywhere close to comfortable with it but that's okay. Assuming I don't croak in a few weeks, I've got some time.

One thing I didn't talk about is the difference between me priming with Vallejo and using Army Painter. First, Army Painter doesn't have all of the colors. Has most of them, but not all. Second... well, don't know if there is one. They both can go on even. I've had some problems with Army Painter, but that was my fault for not standing close enough so the primer was drying before it hit the miniatures. Both will save you time.

For me, the airbrush is to start things out. I do intend to do more with it. I'll also be curious to see how it compares to regular spray primer in terms of things like use. The primer was sucked up very quickly by the airbrush. If it does that with paint as well, whoa! I can see it being something do use only on those big pieces that I don't want to kill a brush on.

Awesome Paint Job and Les over there provided a lot of inspiration for me to take the plunge but there are a lot of resources on Youtube and the blogs for those who want more information. For example, The LeadHead has several great posts about the materials and use of the dreaded airbrush.

Latest Batch of Miniatures: Eolith, Reaper, Games Workshop

So all my airbrush stuff has arrived. I've test fitted everything and itl ooks like it will be a go as soon as I get some time off and I set up a place to, you know, actually start the process.

But in the meanwhile, I wanted to clean out the table of some figures I've had in half states of painting for many a moon as well as some Reven Orcs from Reaper that I just primed so that I coud.... yes, get them off the table.

Those are some gnoblars. The first two have a legless gnoblar on their back. The gnoblars in appearance remind me slightly of the Pathfinder goblins in that they are comical. The bases on the first two were done up with the landscape spakle style product Games Workshop is now making. I wanted to test it out some more. Not bad. If I could remember if while I was working, the third one would have had it as well. I initially bought the gnoblars to work with the ogres I bought for my Games Workshop Ogre Kingdom army that I still haven't finish.

Two 'regular' grunt Reven and a 'choppa' style Reven with a two handed battle axe. I don't know why I have so many of them. Probably for role playing purposes as I tend to use a lot of orcs and other bits in my games. Although I haven't run for a long time which is why I have so many unpainted figures...

This is a Spyglass miniature. It's the way I like to see a priest or cleric style figure. He's got the robes, he's got the mace, and in this case, a lantern. If I had any skill at that off light setting stuff he would rock for it. I'll probably touch up the base later. Sadly, Spyglass is now out of business but Hersey picked up quite a bit of their range.

I had some other miniatures done but they're so blurry that there's no point in posting links to them.

Anyway, it's a good time to be painting miniatures as there are still a ton of options out there and a ton of great manufacturers.

Keep painting!