Dwarf Purchasing: indiegogo versus Kickstarter

Avatars of War recently did a funding campaign for their dwarf army faction. It's initial goal was $20,000 and it raised almost double that.

Despite owning many dwarf heroes from that line, and even the dwarf troll slayer boxed set, I did not support it.

Stonehaven Miniatures, a company I'd never heard of before, recently did a Kickstarter for Dwarven Adventurers. I went in for the level that could provide me with each dwarf and even two resin trolls.

Why one and not the other? Especially if I'm already buying figures from the one line?

The Avatars of War figures look like they are meant to be army figures and more specifically for say, Warhammer. Nothing wrong with that. I have a ton of such dwarves especially from the old Warhammer boxed set.

But it wasn't what I was looking for.

In addition, I'm not crazy about indiegogo. You can't change your pledge levels or manage your pledge as easily as you can on kickstarter.

In addition, you had to pay shipping. I'm not saying shipping should universally be free but in many instances, it is. Why am I going to cough up $5-$15 or more for shipping when I can buy somewhere else and not pay it?

I'll probably be looking at the Avatars of War material once it comes out but in the meantime, check out those Stonehaven Miniatures eh? Eh?

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?

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.