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?
Thursday, July 26, 2012
Saturday, July 7, 2012
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?
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!
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!
Friday, July 6, 2012
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.
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.
In terms of how tall he actually is?
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.
Friday, June 22, 2012
Shopping Review: Miniature Market
I recently received an order of various miniatures, both Star Wars for my pie in the sky Blasters and Bulkheads game, and some heavily discounted Ill Exis material from Miniature Market. The later were for the testing of my recent airbrush purchases. I figure why spend tons of money on limited edition resin figures to blast them with an airbrush I don't know how to use?
Anyway, the Miniature Market is one of the places I go to in order to check their various sales and discounted bits. I've ordered from them several times in the past. This includes Privateer Press miniatures and books, the entire run of the original Pathfinder Random miniatures, and well, Ill Exis miniatures prior to this. I'm hoping that the price comes down on a few more of those puppies so that I can place another order.
One of the nice things about Miniature Market, is that they have a 'low' threshold for free shipping. I know, $99.99 isn't free or anything, but seriously, when a battalion for Warhammer or 40K costs around that much, and there are numerous limited edition miniatures that cost that much, and the average price of a miniature is like $10, even from Reaper if it's not one of their special 'Bones' or 'Legendary Encounters', $99.99 isn't going to stop me from adding, say, some Star Wars random boosters to my order to quality for free shipping.
While I've had a few questions about the status of an order, they respond quickly to e-mail. I've never had an order lost. I can't recall any back orders. They do a good job of keeping what they have on stock on their web page. I'm not bashing Coolminiornot but man, when I first started ordering from them, it seemed every order was missing something that I'd been charged for. They were cool indeed in fixing the issue and not calling me a lying bastard or anything, but the missing bits in the first place, especially when some of those missing pieces were part of their limited edition range? Not a happy customer.
That's probably the only big 'weakness' if you will of Miniature Market. While Fantization and Coolminiornot both seem to have their own specialty bits, Fantization having their Rusted Heroes and a new game in the making, and Coolminiornot having their fingers in well, every other damn pie, Miniature Market is, as far as I know, just a good place on the internet to shop.
Check out their clearance seciton one of these days and tell them Kushner sent you.
Anyway, the Miniature Market is one of the places I go to in order to check their various sales and discounted bits. I've ordered from them several times in the past. This includes Privateer Press miniatures and books, the entire run of the original Pathfinder Random miniatures, and well, Ill Exis miniatures prior to this. I'm hoping that the price comes down on a few more of those puppies so that I can place another order.
One of the nice things about Miniature Market, is that they have a 'low' threshold for free shipping. I know, $99.99 isn't free or anything, but seriously, when a battalion for Warhammer or 40K costs around that much, and there are numerous limited edition miniatures that cost that much, and the average price of a miniature is like $10, even from Reaper if it's not one of their special 'Bones' or 'Legendary Encounters', $99.99 isn't going to stop me from adding, say, some Star Wars random boosters to my order to quality for free shipping.
While I've had a few questions about the status of an order, they respond quickly to e-mail. I've never had an order lost. I can't recall any back orders. They do a good job of keeping what they have on stock on their web page. I'm not bashing Coolminiornot but man, when I first started ordering from them, it seemed every order was missing something that I'd been charged for. They were cool indeed in fixing the issue and not calling me a lying bastard or anything, but the missing bits in the first place, especially when some of those missing pieces were part of their limited edition range? Not a happy customer.
That's probably the only big 'weakness' if you will of Miniature Market. While Fantization and Coolminiornot both seem to have their own specialty bits, Fantization having their Rusted Heroes and a new game in the making, and Coolminiornot having their fingers in well, every other damn pie, Miniature Market is, as far as I know, just a good place on the internet to shop.
Check out their clearance seciton one of these days and tell them Kushner sent you.
Monday, June 18, 2012
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.
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.
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
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.
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.
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