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?

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.

Dawnguard Assemble!

So here we have some of the Dawnguard Invictors from Privateer Press for their Retribution faction. At this point I've got probably around 35-50 points of figures. Most of them actually painted and assembled even. I have more that need to be done including the colossus that I bought just because it looked like it would be a fantastic end game monster for RPG terms.

In terms of assembly, the Dawnguard Invictors were much easier to put together than the other Dawnguard with the big swords. No shoulder pads for one. Mold lines were still pretty bad in a few places and some of them were so subtle that I didn't notice them until I put down a layer of white at which point I was like.... uh, no, I'm not scrapping that off and ruining the job so far.

One of the things I always worry about with figures like this, that need two points of contact, is that the casting will be warped and not fit. That was thankfully not the case here. One of the models did have a miscast for a connection point. The ball point fitting was not clear. Thankfully I was able to use a knife and hand drill and take care of that problem.

Lot of smooth areas on these guys so if that's not your deal, you'll probably want to steer clear of them. Some nice details though like the pouches. The bases I think are from Micro Art Studio? Ruined temple maybe?

In terms of painting, I used my airbrush for the initial priming and layering of paint with a few touch ups after ward. I'm trying to minimize my time painting while still getting a figure I'm not trying to hide when it comes time to use. I'm happy enough with the figures that I don't think it'll be a problem. I finished basing them and putting some find touches on them.

When I painted them, I decided to move away from some of the advice in the Retribution book. The use of 'aqua' is way too high. When looking at the actual art of the Retribution, most of them have very shinny weapons as opposed to that aqua saturation that the studio models have on their metallic parts.

One of the things I like about these guys, is when I was painting them, they reminded me of Storm Troopers from Star Wars fame. Sure, they don't have a lot of actual physical similarities outside the color scheme but it made me think these guys would be perfect troops for science fiction table top as well. Their weaponry and armor is so different from the steam punk fashion of the Iron Kingdoms that they easily fit in multiple settings.  The one in the middle on the front line in particular, looks like a soldier on the march.  I keep wanting to play Bulkheads and Blasters and these guys would be a good army for that. Still, I'vet never find the time. Heck, I still haven't got a game of War Machine in yet.

And here's my second Dawnguard Scyir. I didn't know I had two. That's okay though as I originally bought it because it makes a fantastic character with a two handed sword. Here I used some of my old GW purple wash with some P3 armor wash to get that 'dark metallic' purple look and I'm pretty happy with it. I'll be using that more often in the future when painting more figures.

One interesting aspect to taking shots of the figures after you're done is seeing the mistakes. As I didn't hold the guy up, I would've never seen that dash of metallic paint under his visor. Think I'll be hitting that up next with a touch of white.

The base here was done with Happy Seppuku and green stuff. The other one I did I put onto a ruined style base and it added some height. With his huge sword, I decided that no more height was needed on this soldier.

Center Stage Miniatures: Gnoll, Facebook Exclusive Review

The other day I received a package from Center Stage Miniatures. It was not one I had hopped for but... this is one of three gnolls I bought from Center Stage Miniatures. It was a 'Facebook' exclusive to test their new store, or at least their Facebook store. I bought three because that was the 'sweet' point.

I was also hoping that they would send the already existing miniatures from their 28mm Demons and Devils Kickstarter like the giants I ordered as add ons but alas, it was not to be. Probably too complex for their minds to keep it all straight. Mind you that's after I mentioned to them several times they could hold the order if that would make it easier for them to send out multiple bits as opposed to sending out one huge order but again, it was not to be.

In terms of the miniatures, they are small for gnolls. They stand about regular 'human' size for 28mm range. If you're using them in true 25mm scale though, they would be huge! Huge I say. Is it a problem? Not really. They're kind of hunched over and while the normal gnoll may be eight feet tall or so, that will probably only bother a certain type of painter/GM.

In terms of cleaning, they weren't bad. A lot of extra bits from vents I believe they call it. Little extra bits of metal that you could twist or clip off.  No 'flash' so to speak and mold lines were not visible. They clean up nicely.

The pose is a bit static but has one problem that I hate in a miniature from any company. The wide leg stance that won't fit into the base. In terms of fitting into the base, they are two piece miniatures. The body of the figure, including weapon, and the base. The base is a round lipped with a slot in it. The figures would not fit into that slot under any scenario outside of clipping off the tab.

In my example, I used Happy Seppuku to make a 'cracked' earth base and stuck the gnoll straight onto it. I figure if they pop off I'll then have to use some super glue or something but usually the green stuck works pretty well in terms of keeping the figures on the base. I don't know when I'll get to paint them but I'm thinking soon. The green stuff has to cure, and that's stuff I did today so it'll be at least till tomorrow. Then it'll be time to bust out at least two color primers... black and maybe vermin brown?

For the figure, one of the things I do like about the stance, is that if you're into converting, the close two handed grip on the short mace, looks like it would be very easy to do some conversion work and give a 'leader' type a great sword or another 'great' weapon. I didn't go that route on my three because I have a few Reaper gnolls  so I have no need for a leader type on these three and will just use them as standard fooder.

Looking over at the new Kickstarter Center Stage is doing, this puppy is going to have a slight modification and become a flind. I find that a little offsetting not because it's an 'exclusive figure'. I wouldn't weep to see 'exclusive' become 'exclusive' for six months or something along those lines. No, I find it odd because those bad boys are the often larger and stronger versions that use a flindbar and well, like I said, this guy isn't that big to start with. That's okay though, I'm sure the Center Stage guys know what they're doing and as I said, among the 25mm crowd it will be huge.

While not available in this format anymore, it will be available in another format soon and if you're looking for some extra muscle for your gnolls, this is a good figure to pick up.

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.

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!

Athak Reaper Warlord

Many moons ago I bought a Dexlue Reaper boxed set of undead that came with an alternative Athak Reaper figure for their Warlord skrimish game. I finally got around to painting it today. I've had it assembled for many moons but finally got tired of looking at it. The base is done with a Happy Seppuku mold and good old green stuff. I dug out a piece to make it look more worn. After I took the picture I then put in some 'wasteland' grass in the hole to give it a little more 'natural' feel.

The model isn't my favorite. He may not look it, but a lot of the details on him are tightly integrated to each other. For example, the tabbard criss crossing his chest under his shoulder plates. For example, the elaborate and tiny bandso f gold on his red armor on front and back. The tiny studs all over the place. But hey, he done right?