Horned Devil One and Horned Devil Two from Center Stage Miniatures

 

A few days off means I get to torture your eyes with bad painting and bad photography! In this case, it's a few more models from the 28mm Demons and Devils Kickstarter by Center Stage Miniatures.

Horned Devil 1

Ah, my camera skills continue to, what is the word? Ah yes, suck. This happy little fellow is metal and comes in five parts. The left hand holding the fork is one piece, each wing is one separate piece, the main body, and the base.

Assembly is probably best done with a pin vice. The wings, at least on my model, did not have any plugs for the holes in the devil's back. This required some brass rod and some drilling. The hand was flat enough that it could benefit from pinning, but I did not go that route.

The base is a 40mm one I believe. I didn't size comparison it to the one from Moloch or any of the other big boys.

In terms of appearance, I know that most players from say, 3rd edition on are going to wonder what type of Horned Devil is this supposed to be? The answer, like some of the other bits of inspiration, comes from Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 1st edition. The pose here is very similar to the one in the Monster Manual although it doesn't have the scales.

Horned Devil 2

Now this one, despite my terrible camera skills, is probably what most people are expecting. The scaled version with the metal whip.

Each wing is a separate piece. Each wing, is in my opinion, too big. You might not notice it from the white background here, but those wings are touching the ground. I thought they would be too heavy to be in a mid air pose. They do come with slots and pins but could probably be further strengthened. I went the lazy route of course.

The head is another separate piece.

Each hand is a separate piece and the wrists are a little large for the hands. If you have the hands turned out like I do however, no one is going to know unless they look at it from the side.

The chain in each hand is attached to the hand proper and the links do not connect but each piece is thin enough that it should prove easy to quickly bend them into place. Gluing them might give them extra strength but I didn't see the need in this case.

The base is also separate here and again, I believe that it's a 40mm base.

I imagine that in resin, this guy would be a snap to put together. The winds weight wouldn't be an issue for example. The only negative I can think of would be how easy the chain was to bend into place.

The flash and mold lines were minimal on the figure. I could probably have done some more clean up on the wrists to blend the separate hands to the arms but again that whole I'm lazy thing hits. Details were well sculpted and someone with a lot of patience could really make the various scales pop.

On the Center Stage Miniatures website for example, is a very nicely painted version that's much darker then mine with a lava style base. This one is very modestly priced at $14.95. Good thing too as they are often encountered in groups!

In both instances I went with the Vallejo base and the Games Workshop multi-generational red paints.

Going through the red quite a bit with this Kickstarter!

Sculptor:

Federico Genovese whose responsible for many figures in the Center Stage Miniatures Kickstarter I believe did both of these.

Moloch from Center Stage Miniatures

Among the various Kickstarter projects that I have backed, the miniatures from Center Stage Miniatures 28mm Demons & Devils recently arrived. Among them was Moloch, one of the arch devils that has been in the Dungeons and Dragons pantheons for a long time.

The bad news for me was that I couldn't find anything that resembled this miniature in terms of design. Mind you, that isn't a knock against the miniature itself. When I first review a miniature, I tend to look it over in terms of what color I'm going to paint it. When say comparing this version of Moloch against Frog God Games and their version from the Complete Tome of Horrors, there is no match. When looking at Paizo and their version? Man, I WISH this looked like that version. That artist did a Moloch who is a gigantic armored tank.

Throwing a quick edit in here to note that thanks to a kind hearted soul, I've been informed that the look here is inspired by the Moloch from the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons Monster Manual II or yesteryear lore. Strangely enough, while I still have my Monster Manual I for AD&D, my II has long since passed this world. Maybe we'll get lucky and WoTC will do a premium reprint of that since they did Unearthed Arcana.

Mind you, there is nothing wrong with this version. Federico Genovese who I believe sculpted this puppy, did a great job of providing the buyer with a large resin miniature on a 50mm base. The muscle tone is well crafted and the lack of extraneous things like dozens of belt buckles, pouches, daggers, skulls, chains, and other bits that seem so common to some sculptors are thankfully missing here.

The miniature is three pieces. The main body contains head, torso, left arm and both legs. The base is a separate piece that you will need a knife to cut open to insert the tabbed figure into. The right hand holding the flaming whip, Moloch's signature weapon, is a separate piece. Because it is resin, it's a light weight piece and doesn't necessarily need to be pinned, but wouldn't be hurt by pinning.

Clean up on the miniature was minimal. I did clean the tab a bit to insure a proper fit and a few snips on the bracers but that was essentially it.

I primed the figure with Vallejo German Red-Brown and followed up with three generations of Citadel paint. I provided a almost complete basecoast of Mechrite Red, one of the 'new' Foundation paints. I then used in lesser degree, Mephiston red, the new paint. The final layer was Blood Red, one of the oldest paints by Games Workshop that I still own but still in the small bottles. The gold was done with Vallejo Alcohol gold with a wash of GW's Sepia and more GW pain for the talons and teeth and whip. I made the eyes a dark blue because I read either in the Tome of Horrors or the Paizo book of the Hells that his eyes were blue.

While I could have thrown a few washes on him to darken the red or a few coats of red ink to enhance the red tone overall, since I don't have any planes for Moloch to be a power players in any games any time soon and I just wanted a 'win' in the complete column, I was happy to finish him off at this stage.

The base is Army Painter flock with army painter tufts. I do have the Games Workshop ones, but for some reason the glue on the bottom of those continues to stick out like a sore thumb after their put down and unless their put down first, it is really a sorry site to see. I gave the dark gravel a few drybrushes of progressively lighter grays to give it some contrast.

While I may not use this figure as Moloch proper, depending on what setting I run next, if ever, I would have no problem using this figure, which fits snuggly on its 50mm base as a chaos giant say, one of the variants from Mayfair's old Role Aid line that were corrupted titans, or a fire giant wizard or even a effereti or some other type of otherworldly servant. While it doesn't scream Moloch to me, it does scream big friggin miniature.

I'm working on a few others now including the two Horned Devils and others. Has anyone else started working on their Center Stage Miniatures backlog? Any favorites thus far? Any avoid at all costs? Any assembly problems?

Tome of Horrors Miniatures I'd Like To See for next Kickstarter

Well, the Center Stage Miniatures company seems to be on the right track. A lot of people, including myself, have received their goods from the first Kickstarter as well as other things, like the gigantic frog demon that was up for preorder.

But they've already given the backers of the Tome of Horrors a quick heads up that it's going to be late AFTER they asked everyone to finalize their orders and collected funds for shipping and handling.

That part there pisses me off. It means their sitting on money that they know they're not going to use for months. Don't misunderstand me, it's not just Center Stage Miniatures that's done that particular bit. "Well, you know, we want to make sure that we have everything in place" is a perfectly valid thing if you know, you're shipping out on time or soon after that. It's not quite so useful if you're shipping out months and months after that.

Anyway, enough belly aching. I was looking at Moloch from the Center Stage 28mm Demons and Devil's Kickstarter. Yeah, probably won't be using him as Moloch as it doesn't match the version from the Tome of Horrors nor the one from Pathfinder. The one from Pathfinder by the way, is visually very kick ass.

But as I wandered through the Tome of Horrors Complete, I thought, man, there are still a lot of monsters I want to see.

Adherer: I know, you can always use a mummy for this, but hey, the reverse is also true. You can use an adherer for a mummy!

Cat Lord: Human and Panther Form.

Bat: Mobat or doombat. I need more giant bats damn it.

Colossus Jade: Man, that lord of demons they did for the 28mm thing in resin is fantastic. If they can get the same guy to do the Jade Colossus as they did that sucker it would be fantastic but a hell of an add on. A center piece for sure.

Demonic Knight: aka the Death Knight. The one in the book has a great look and if the picture is captured in metal, it would make a great leader type in Warhammer and other fantasy games.

I would go into devils, but the Unique Devils section of Tome of Horrors deserves its own Kick Starter as there are so many great illustrations and personalities there.

Elemental Dragon Water and Air not because they look awesome or fill out some unique niche in the game, but seeing the glass drake that Center Stage Miniatures did for their Tome of Horrors Kickstarter, I can easily see a blue resin and another clear resin miniature that would both bee awesome.

Flind: Hey, we need a leader for the gnolls that Center Stage Miniature first put out exclusively through Facebook right?

Giant: All. Hey, I'm a fan of the old Grenadier Giant of the Month and wish I managed to keep those from when I was a young man. Wood Giant? Awesome. Make it so.

Golem: There are a few I like. For example, the Mummy Golem. With some ancient Egyptian styling, I can see this going to a Tomb Lords game for example.

Half-Ogre: If they could capture the picture, I'd be down for that one. He looks like a trouble maker I say!

Huggermugger: A small humanoid with swords? Yeah. Could be used for quite a few things like halflings, gnomes, and other small races.

Ronus: These are egale headed hounds You would need a pack of them though. Great combination and reminds me of some of the monsters from Michael Moorcock's Elric saga via the Dharzi Hunting dogs.

Skeleton Warrior: A classic and easy to use for other purposes.

The N'gathau: Really these guys deserve their own Kickstarter. Some very Hellraiser inspired bits here.

Mind you, I haven't picked up the new Tome of Horrors and there are a lot of things I left out of here that would be a PIA to make due to their size or simply because I'll probably revise the subject yet again when/if another Kickstarter comes around.

How about other people Any particular monsters you want to see sculpted from the old Tome?

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.

Kickstarter Tempations and Idle Musings

As of this writing, Bones 2, a Reaper Kickstarter to make more miniatures in their special plastic, is on it's last day. It's doing fantastic. It remains to be seen if it does better than the previous one, but by almost any measure outside of that, it's doing great.

I myself am not THAT impressed with Reaper though. Mind you, it's not that they didn't deliver, but they had a lot of the same problems other companies did with their KS.

1. Poor communication when things weren't going perfectly. At one point they told the backers outside US that they didn't have to ship them their products. WTF Reaper.

2. Metal miniatures have died. In my gut, I knew this was going to happen. I paid for the Metal for a Year after specifically asking, "So with all the Bones Plastic stuff coming out, are you going to be able to handle making metal miniatures still? "Oh yeah, no problem. 12-15 a month per normal." Nada for many months. I'm hopeful that metal miniatures will make a comeback during the "China is working on this part of it" phase but now that Reaper has at least one machine in their own factory, someone's got to man that sucker too right?

3. Bones are not for everyone. Reaper oversold a few of the points of Bones like the detail. Several figures were pulled for Q&A issues. Many more simply don't have the details in them that the metal versions do. There is also the bendy weapon or part issue. There is also the "hey, my paint isn't adhering to the miniature" or "my primer is wet and sticky three days later." Minor issues but when you're selling something that's supposed to be paint and play right outside the box with no primer and with the same detail as metal for a fraction of the cost? Yeah, potential problems.

4. The cases had problems. I didn't have the glue issue that a lot of people had, but they were way too damn small. It's like Reaper said, "Hey, miniatures are still true 25mm right?" Thankfully I have a lot of miniatures that are either old or small, like bugs, goblins, and giant rats, so they went into those boxes.

5. Miscellaneous. People may not be happy with the selection, people may not think they're getting as good a deal as last year, people may still have figures from last KS that they haven't even looked at, etc... etc... etc...

Now, having said all of that, I'm down with it. The figures are very affordable and provide you a chance to dabble in genres you might not normally do so. In addition, there are a lot of NEW figures and until Reaper picks up their metal again, if they ever do, well, this is a quick way to get them.

Now supporting this KS? That in and of itself is a problem.

You see, there are other Kickstarters I'd like to be down with as well. And honestly, a lot of people told the companies, "Hey, Reaper is doing Bones 2 about now. You should wait." and for the most part, the response was something like, "Well, there's always going to be another Kickstarter around the corner."

And to be fair, there is a certain amount of truth in that statement. For example, Darklands by Mierce Miniatures just finished up. That took in over $100K, more like $150K with conversion in there. Mars Attacks is another one out there right now. 

Another one, Jounrey:Wrath of Demons, is a board game with some awesome looking figures. It's doing fantastic.

But having said that, NONE of them are sucking the air out of the room like Reaper is. If you're a smaller fringe company whose figures are going to be competing with Reaper for say, Fantasy stylings, you wait. End of discussion. Well, end of discussion if you're really on the fringe and haven't blown past your previous Kickstarters with huge strides eh?

For those I'd like to support...I'd love to support ShadowSea. It's based on the Song of Blades and Heroes engine and I've had previous editions and a lot of the miniatures. I've supported previous Kickstarters and unlike some companies, the guys here are pretty clear in the communications and get things done in a fairly timely manner. But... ah, the dreaded but... It's no huge bargain at the base prices. It's not that the prices are terrible. This is especially true considering the great detail and high quality of the sculpts. It's that well, it's expensive. This is where doing it later would have benefited them. I can't say that the totals have been directly effected by Reaper's KS but I'd be willing to bet money on it.

Another one, Elven Adventurers, is by a company that did two previous KickStarters and did a fantastic job with them. I'd like to support them but... well, I'm not 'feeling' it. The elves are a little goofy and they've throw in all sorts of weird mini-stretch goals that are popular, but aren't necessarily my cup of tea. They're funded too so I don't feel too bad about it.

The other problem in terms of money, is well, the real world sometimes has stuff on sale!  For example, Fantization is one of my "to go to" shops when I need something. They are carrying Scale 75 paint. I like the paint line. They are having a 20% sale. Well, bam, there goes some money. Money that could have went to another Kickstarter.

It's why I'm amused when people talk about not budgeting for Kickstarters. Yeah, you can not budget to pay the rent either. See how far that gets you. I'm not saying you have to spend X amount or Y amount, but if you don't know how much you're spending and aren't keeping track of things, it's an easy way to get into trouble.


Me? It looks like Reaper is allowing you to add to your pledge up to December 20th so I may go with just the Vampire level and try to support Shadowsea, but even so, it's going to be a close one.

Not Quite a Battlereport

I finally managed to drag my sorry ass out of the apartment to play a game of Warmachine at the dreaded Dice Dojo. Public parking wasn’t bad but I did forget to add money to the meter. I think Chicago is at the point where you have to keep feeding those bastards till midnight or something in exchange for them not slapping your face on Sunday. That may not have went through yet either though. The good news is that I didn’t get a ticket. That would have stunk.

I watched a game at first between a Cygnar force with a lot of mercenaries and a Retribution force. It was interesting to sit back and watch because I’ve played so few games. It’s also interesting to note that sometimes even a game between experienced people can become a grind.

Another thing I enjoy about watching games, is that you get to see how other people paint up their miniatures. I’m a lazy SOB when it comes to picking out the colors and will almost always go with the ‘standard’ colors. In the Retribution case that meant a lot of white. The guy I was watching? He went with a dark red kind of purple color with black. Worked fantastic. I thought he might have used an airbrush on it but nope, just a lot of glazes. Another reason it’s important to see these things so you can know what’s going on in terms of what people are doing.

Lastly, I noticed that the people playing were using cards with clear backs. That should be a no-brainer but alas, I am senile and didn’t think about that. Mind you that’s not really that important for me as I not only have the cards, but have the program for Android that keeps all the cards for me.

I then went into the actual store itself. I like to try and buy something when I’m doing some gaming in the store. I picked up a heavy warjack for my Retribution forces that I'll turn into a Hydra. I should be like some of the others and just do the whole magnet thing but in this case, the power progression list (from No Quarter 34, back in the day!) has two different models so it would be hard to swap out with a magnet regardless if I need them both on the table.

After going back into the room, John offered to play a game with me. I brought enough figures to hit 15, 25 or 35 points. Mind you my actual game experience is minimal so I’m always hoping to do some low point games just to get the feel of it. Not only that, but those low point games tend to run quicker as well. John wanted a 35 point game though so that he could practice. I figure what the heck, I brought it, might as well use it.

There's John during the set up calmly mocking my own quick set up of Retribution forces.

 

Taking out the mage hunter commander, a unit attachment for the mage hunters, I notice that while in storage, his crossbow arm has popped out. I have yet to fix him. Felix, a far greater master of these games than I, mentioned to me his dislike of that particular figure due to its wide stance. Takes up too much room and the connection point isn’t that deep. I’m going to agree with young man on that one.

The game was a good learning experience. John was running Circle and stomped me into the group. Part of that was my fault, but ironically enough, John messed up a few bits himself so the beating could have been much worse.

Let’s see if I can remember bits that I could have done better.

Well, first off, having a ‘standard’ list with Mage Hunters on it playing against someone using Hordes isn’t that greatest. You lose on of their special features, the extra die on damage against War Jacks. That taught me I should have an alternative prepared if I’m going to be playing people who have Hordes list.

Second off, I didn’t use the Mage Hunters enough. I had them essentially hiding in the mountains. It worked well in terms of providing some cover and what not, but since John had a unit attachment that allowed his forces to regroup after attacking, that was pretty useless overall.

Another aspect was not getting my War Caster in there enough. I was moving along the other side of the board from my two units and thought I could get John in a pincer type move. That failed horribly. Well, not horribly really. It just wasn’t effective.

My war Caster has stealth and I was camped on some serious focus when doing part of the crawl and managed to survive many an attack that way. But I just couldn’t get in range of the enemy enough to do them any serious harm.

Which gets to the other thing I learned. I had a Manticore up against Megalith or whatever that big Stone Walden is called. Massive defensive on that guy. My Manticore actually had a spell on it that would allow it to get to make another attack if it missed. I had three focus on it at the time and instead of say, boosting damage, I boosted my number of attacks. All three hit but all three bounced off of that big boy. Next time, spending focus on damage boost to get some potential damage going on there.

John won by War Caster kill, which was the ‘scenario’ we were going at. He wiped out my mage hunters and my Invictors but I still had all three war jacks as well as a House Shyeel Magister. If I had kept the group a little more together it may have been a slightly different game. I might have taken out a few more of his units . As it was I think I got most of one of his Tharn units. That whole stealth thing is a nice two way street where if the enemy and you have it, it becomes a bit of a hunt and hide.

I’ll be putting that other heavy jack together soon and thinking about some heavy hitters in terms of damage for the poor Retribution.

The good news though, is even though John stomped me into yesteryear, he didn’t it in a gloating fashion. After the game he provided a few bits of advice, such as when I should have popped my caster’s feat. His army was quite heavily into the magic. He also encouraged me to move things around if he thought it was going to be a complete catastrophe for me such as when he thought my War Caster was going to get snipped crossing the field.