52 Weeks, 52 Miniatures

A Look At Secret Weapon

2012-01-29T21:17:00.000-08:00

The video is pretty self explanatory. I ordered the washes because I like the ones I have from Vallejo, Reaper, and Games Workshop as a nice 'cheat' and Secret Weapon has a lot of variety.

Malifaux Sorrows and Mega-Mini Warrior Woman Testing

2012-01-29T20:24:00.000-08:00

Please let me know which one you think looks better. I'm testing out the different settings on the camera including macro and automatic in this case.

That is the macro.

That is the automatic.

I have the Neverborn Pandora set. My g/f hates miniatures, role playing and other assorted things for herself. She has no problem with me messing with it. However, she does love 'weird' figures like Baby Kade and Candy included in this set so I figure I'll get Pandora and the Sorrows and hell, maybe she'll even try it.

The Warrior Woman is another one from Mega-Mini's pack. She was done mostly with a base coat and a dip in Vallejo Sepia. The Sepia is pretty dark, probalby the equal to Army Painter Strong Tone, and like that Army Painter, does pool up, but not as bad. It also dries matt not shinny but doesn't protect so has to be sprayed down. The dip toned down the sword and leg piece so much I went back in with Mithril Silver to highlight it.

Both pictures were taken at the same time. Both had three lamps; an overhad and one on the left and one on the right.

Empire Rilfemen and Zombies For Sale

2012-01-29T18:22:00.000-08:00

Getting too crowded with all of the new bases and washes I've recently bought so if anyone can afford $30 for 16 Empire Riflemen done up in the Nordland Colors.

Well finally finished off these suckers with army painter drip and basing materials including the grass... but since I'm not playing and need space and money...

20 zombies flocked and sealed ready for tabletop use for $50 including shipping with shipping confirmation US address only.

If anyone wants both I'll throw 'em in for $70

Zombies with Army Painter Strong Tone

2012-01-26T15:17:00.000-08:00

After the dip dries I'll throw some basing material on there and spary it down with some matt spray.

Brains

2012-01-24T19:58:00.000-08:00

Fought off some lethargy to put down some base coats some on GW zombies.

I'm not too fond of these suckers but as I've painted them they've grown on me a little. Have to do a little more base coating then some touch ups then a dip then the basing and then the ant-shine then done.

and I'm missing one of the little bastards. 19 of 'em. I'll find the other one some day I'm sure. Ugh.

Khador and More

2012-01-22T16:46:00.000-08:00

Sorry for the bad lighting. I'm going to have to play with the camera.

Some Khador metal heavy war machines, a stone giant from reaper an an abomination from magnficient egos, who I believe is no longer in business.

The Khador figs were hit with army primer red primer and given a single coat of their base colors then dipped and touched up where the primer was showing through the base colors.

Painting The Night Away

2012-01-20T21:01:00.000-08:00

While I love the funds that working overtime can provide, I found that I put in hundreds of hours of overtime last year and it really didn't improve the quality of my life so this year, instead of going to bed at 9:00 PM every Friday on a regular weekend day or 7:00 PM because I started at 4:30 AM, I figure, I'm going to try to hold down the crazy spending (not all the spending, just the crazy spending) and try to work that overtime only when I have to.

The Khador soldiers in front still just have the basic red Army Painter Primer. The ones in back have got some of the shading I'm working on to try and follow the Khador Army book for getting that 'Khador' red. It's supposed to take something like 14 layers of inking so we'll see how long my patience puts up with that nonsense.

The ones in front will get a quick dip in the Army Painter Strong Tone soon and that will be that for them. Well, I'll throw some basing material on them too and touch up the base, etc... but I don't anticipate any big issues.

If you look to the right of the photo, you'll see I'm still working on that stone giant from my earlier updates this year. He's a pretty good figure and I'm pleased with the way he's turning out so far.

The rest of the stuff is a mismatch of various bits and pieces I'm working on, all at the same time. When it comes to painting I'm afraid I've got really bad ADD because I hate to waste paint and I like the 'shinny'.

As you may be able to tell from my desk, I don't have a single favorite paint but use a lot of varieites. Despite the awesome things I keep hearing about P3, I'll tell you this, I'm using Reaper Master Bronze because my P3 bonze, like the Pig Iron (boltgun metal) I had before it, turned to gunk. Sure, I could post on Privateer Press line and get some more, but it's already the second bottle I've had and to be hoenst, most of the P3 metallics, in my experience, are terrible. Maybe it's because I've gotten bad batches or its old or I need to periodically open them up and check them when I'm not using them all the time but I consider it a lesson learned.

The rest of their paint line is pretty good and for a 'fantasy' range, I like their mercenary colors for 'realistic' style painting.

Red Rum! (Red Primer?)

2012-01-18T15:05:00.000-08:00

A couple of quick shots from my new phone. These are some battle boxes for Khador from Privateer Press that have been hit up with the Army Painter red primer. These include the original metal and the new plastics as well as that demon from previous pics. The metal figures are smaller, but have larger heads and more detail. Still, I like the plastic ones because they have more sense of presence. At least for this boxed set.

That demon is from Heresy miniatures and I wanted to make him with the bone scythe but there were many gaps in assembling him and if not for Green Stuff, I would've broke him down into parts.

This batch... I'll probably do the old metals with Army Painter dip after I lay down the base colors and use the demon to test the red effect I'll be going for on the plastics.

No Miniatures but Related Purchases

2012-01-17T16:08:00.000-08:00

Had to see my doctor so figured I'd stop by games Plus again.

The Army Painter cans are barbarian flesh and matt black. I'm always running out of the latter as it is one of my default choices. The barbarian flesh is for some Avatar of War plastic slayers I haven't opened yet but intend to later on this year. The basing material is a simple one but I like the coloration.

On the 'second row' if you will is Vallejo's answer to Games Workshops liquid green stuff. That is pretty cool so I figured I'd see what the competition is doing.

The bases are 40mm armorcast slate. Its a very detailed set and I'll probably be buying more basing material from them.

Lastly, silver, old gold, and white gold vallejo metallic alcohol based paints. I've heard a few good things about them and figured I'd try them out. Alas Games Plus did not have the other gold colors I was looking for but I've heard it's not difficult to shade these with regular washes and inks so that's good news.

Anyone out there pick up anything cool or different?

Prepainted Madness!

2012-01-11T16:42:00.001-08:00

It's All In The Prep

2012-01-09T19:48:00.000-08:00

While I'm not a fan of the way Games Workshop is going overall, sometimes they make some products well worth the cost. Here, the boxed set innards of the Demon Prince, which goes for something like $33 a pop. Strangely enough, a resin Ogre character, with no extras, no sprue material, etc... goes for $38. Ugh. The stupdity. I can smell it through the internets.

Lots of pieces here. There are at least three distinct ways you can make this bad boy.

Okay, the guy on the left is a Reaper Stone Giant. The guy in the middle is the demon assembled. The green stuff is liquid green stuff. It's.... interesting. If you have large gaps, I think you're better off working with standard green stuff. You can't tell from this picture but that stone gian'ts left arm on the rear needed a huge chunk of green stuff. The little guy is a demonic champion from Heresy. Have to wait for the base material to dry, do some sanding on the green stuff, and then prime away! The stone giant should be a super quick finish while I suspect that the demon prince may take a little longer and the little guy I still have to put together. The bases are all done with Happy Suppuku by the way.

Anyone else doing any assembly of projects or other good stuff? I know that Dread Fleet by Games Workshop is consuming a lot of people's time.

First Miniatures of 2012

2012-01-07T17:29:00.000-08:00

Another year of crappy pictures. Lighting was good but maybe I need to work on my Macro understanding. Anyway, these are two figures I bought many moons ago when I was going to run some Freeport. They are true 25mm so like like some halfling version of serpent men when sized up to the new figs. I also don't remember the name of the company that makes them.

A skaven slave, I think from the Mordenheim range from Games Workshop. He was about 90% done. I finished off those few parts there were not and threw some basing material on him.

Ah, Red Box Games. They make some 'evil' barbarians that would fit in perfect with a Games Workshop Chaos Marauder army. The base is done with Happy Supukku Broken Earth or Ice base. I'm fairly happy with how this one came out despite the horrible, horrible picture.

Back side shot. Also terrible. Ugh. New Year I'll have to start doing more camera work.

So:

Red Box: 1
Games Workshop: 1
Unknown Company: 2

Off to a good start already.

First Miniature Based Purchases of 2012

2012-01-07T17:08:00.000-08:00

So I've already spent some money on the hobby at my 'local' hobby shop, Games Plus. On the left we have some 25mm cobblestone square bases by Micro Art Studio. They have a lot of great bases and conversion bits. I'm not going to use these for my initial plans though. I wanted something to match the Heresy bases I've used on the Black Legion but while these are good, they are too peebly for my needs.

I also picked up a resin cleaning kit from the evil empire. The price wasn't too bad. The brush is longer than the standard other tooth brush in terms of the bristles and the mold cleaning tool has a very solid feel making it easy to use.

Not pictured is the new No Quarter, #39 by Privateer Press as well as the 'Eavy Metal Masterclass book by the evil empire again. It's a compendium of material from White Dwarf magazine but it's all in one place and is an easy reference when you want to see how they did a particular figure.

I suspect with Secret Weapon having a Facebook coupon, I wll be buying their washes soon. I like to support smaller companies when possible.

Anyone else start the year off with some miniature goodness?

The Last of the Wine (2011 version)

2011-12-31T14:05:00.000-08:00

This year, in many aspects, I cut back on my miniature spending. This doesn't mean it came to a stop or anything like that. I just recently picked up the prepainted Dragons collector set from WoTC and I've had the Paizo prepaints on preorder for two months. I've also bought supplies like Army Painter primer, micro-files, green stuff, and other tools. However, miniature purchases have not been where they were in previous years. This has been a funds thing in minor aspect but the major aspect has been time. For the last two years, work has been beating my ass with a tire iron so I've taken to a lot of short cuts (hence Army Painter and Vallejo Dips) and not buying as much as I used to since the stuff I've bought in the past I still haven't even primed. While I won't say that in 2012 I vow to improve my painting skills, I will try to paint more. Anyway, onto the last pics I'll post for the year. I hope that next year sees more people posting here. We have some great talent on board here and I'd love to be inspired by more of it.

These may not be the last of my trinity figures that I've had since the game came out, but I ran across them and painted them up. Armor is the iron/silver Army Painter spray followed by Andrea inks; brown, ultra marine blue, black. Skin is Andrea skin tone pack. The base is done up with Happy Suppuku mold that does Hexes. Nifty stuff there.

Reven from Reaper's Warlord game. I didn't do the two beastmen (woodchoopers in Warlord) at the same time, but I like them anyway. The orc is something like an orc sargent but a pig faced one. The green on the orc's skin is Andrea's six pack of green. These guys are pretty standard in basing terms.

Some Menoth figures from Privateer Press. He was a dip. He is part of a pack I'm giving one of my friends for X-Mas. I know it's late as I haven't given it to him but screw him as he didn't get me anything.

Two of GW's figs. The elf is a wood elf from the command group. The pic is so clear I can see a spot I missed on his pants. The gunner is another one I found while cleaning up. And again I gave him the wrong dip. Should have been soft and I used strong. The base on the wood elf is cork. I tried to disguise it a little by clipping it at odd angles.

Two more mega-miniatures. The first is dipped in Vallejo's Sepia. The second in Army Painter Soft. I weep for the crimes I commited against that second figure's eyes but done is done!

Have I mentioned I love Superfigs? Another robot with some paste for the base. Andrea silver set on this one all the way.

I took all these pics at the same time with the same camera and lightning and this is the best of six pics I took of the Black Legion here. The guy on the left with the great sword was my old 4e character, Rus, a fighter from the core I played for a while under a solid GM. The rest I painted later on. The bases are Heresy or I should say, were Heresy. They are cobblestone tabbed that go into the standard 25mm bases. The price of metal has risen so much that Andy at Heresy doesn't even make them anymore and recommended I go to Fenris for some resin versions. I hope they are a good match as I want to buy a few more of these style figs for games like A Song of Blades and Heroes and Havok and others I've heard good things about, not to mention Warlord, by Reaper, itself. I like the simplicity of the figs. I like these guys much more than the halbred ones.

I've already got a lot of figures in various stages of painting right now including a Red Box figure that would go great with the Chaos Mauraders from the north from Warhammer as well as a set of Orcs from Chronpia I think the game was called, as well as many more figs to prep.

I hope 2012 treats everyone better than 2011 did and that the paint flows freely in the new year!

Unknown Dwarf and Mega-Miniature Warrior Women

2011-10-23T13:16:00.000-07:00

I don't even know the miniature company that makes this guy. Might be an old Grenadier or something. He was on a very small base so I used a larger base and some green stuff with a Happy Suppuku texture on it that I then through some winter grass ontop of to cover where the original base and the green stuff didn't quite mesh.

One of the great things about today's modern era is that between companies like the Army Painter, Vallejo, Reaper, and Games Workshop, no one appears to just be standing around waiting for the other guy to drop. The Army Painter has their dips and now Vallejo has their own version that thus far only includes two; black and sepia. The above, all three from Mega-Miniature, were dipped in Sepia.

The Vallejo dries much quicker and dries flat. Useful for those who don't want the shinny miniatures that Army Painter produces. However, you'll still probably need to hit with a coat of protection as the Army Painter does act as protection.

Lamenters Space Marine in Mk III Armor

2011-10-19T19:19:00.000-07:00

A Few More

2011-10-17T19:53:00.000-07:00

Starting with:

Reaper: Winter wolf.

Reaper: Female Pirate

Reaper: Rake

Games Workshop: Shadow Elf

Privater Press: Iron Kingdoms priest of Morrow

Renegade Psyker

2011-10-10T19:44:00.000-07:00

We don't need no steenking binding!

Not quite dead...yet.

2011-10-08T17:04:00.000-07:00

I have barely done any painting this year...but I have done some. I did some tonight, in fact. Nazis with lasers from Dust Tactics.

Eldar: Special Units

2011-10-06T13:59:00.000-07:00

I wanted the special units to be thematically similar but still stand out. The turquoise was done as an ink wash, and I really enjoyed the effect it gave, so I decided to keep working with inks for the main colors. The result is that so far, these are pretty bright colors, but I like em enough to keep em.

Eldar: The Turquoise Wave. :)

2011-10-06T13:55:00.001-07:00

2 units and then a collection of Farseers and Warlocks. I know nothing about Eldar, in general, as I don't play 40k and haven't for about 20 years, but I've always loved the Eldar sculpts.

Of note here is that the two odd colored Warlocks were done by me in roughly 1992-4. I think my skill has gone downhill considerably from then, but I don't obsess about the details anymore.

Eldar Army in Turquoise and Jewel tones

2011-10-06T13:51:00.000-07:00

This is the start of an Eldar army a friend gifted to me a few years ago. I was starting to want to paint something other then my usual Privateer Press stuff, and so I pulled these out and started in on em.

Shots of individual Units up in the next post or two.

Note the Fire Drakes and Dire Avengers in the top right of this photo will not be shown in closeup. They aren't my paintjob, but they were pretty good, so I decided to not strip and redo them.

Malifaux: Colette's Showgirls Crew

2011-10-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

I recently started into Malifaux and the first set I picked up was a Colette Crew. I did the paint here, but the bases are made by a guy local who started this project and then never finished it.

It's been ages!

2011-10-06T13:37:00.000-07:00

So, I haven't been around in ages. I've actually still been painting quite a bit, as you'll see, but I haven't been posting.

This isn't unusual for me to go in fits of productivity though. It's just how I work.

Anyway, pictures in the next post or two.

Another Batch of Miniatures

2011-09-04T09:33:00.000-07:00

Man, I see that there are followers on the old blog here, but am I the only one still actively posting these days? Sorry for the lack of white background or anything but with the way things are heading here, I figure fire and forget right? In the back row, we have the Reaper dragonmen set. I picked it up at Gen Con and got the freebie code. Good deal there. That guy in the back is on a small integral base and I threw him on a 25 x 25 and it's still too small.

Next row, from left to right: Plastic Empire guy with cannonball. He's from one of the old boxed sets from many moons ago. One Ral Partha, scarecrow. Two ladies from the Mega Mini line. Another Ral Partha Scarecrow and a Reaper spellcaster.

Next row, a Rafm skeleton, a reaper orc, who I painted dark green before decided that with the others I'd go black as I already posted, and a tiger of drizt from confrontation. I've had him since the figures were metal, before the plastic and before the collapse.

Last guy up front is one of the ringwraiths from the Lord of the Rings miniature wargame.

So enough about me, let's see some of the other figs out ther eh?

Games Workshop, Rattrap Miniatures, Reaper Miniatures

2011-07-17T10:00:00.000-07:00

To the left we have a member of the Overlord faction for Reaper's Warlord game. In the center, are two Mongolian Death Worms from Rattrap and to the right, one of the heroes from the Lord of the Rings miniature game from Games workshop.

The base on the Overlord member is done with Sepukku Models. Unlike some of the other bases I've made using their molds, this one didn't have a lot of air bubbles and took the impression fairly well I thought. The base on the elf was done with Army painter rubble, highlighted with an old Iron Winds leather, and then Iron Winds leather and white and give a tuft of swamp grass.

I love the idea of the Mongolian Death worms and even wrote a little about them in my own blog. anyone know if they have any game stats? Acid and electricity? Alright! The only thing that's a little sad about the whole thing is the price. Rattrap is selling them for $14 now. When they first went to Games Plus as new figures, they were $10 but I picked them up for $7.50 and it was buy three get one free. To see them at $14 now, almost a 50% increase tells me that material cost are way up and I wouldn't be surprised to start seeing these in resin or another material in the near future.

Anyway, that's enough blathering from one mad man. Let's start seeing what everyone else is up to eh?

Reaper Black Orcs

2011-07-07T15:22:00.000-07:00

Three Black Orcs from Reaper. I had to base them on the square bases because I intent to one day, perhaps mind you, use them for the Warlord game and it seems most of the black orcs for that army are actually from the Dark Haven line.

The update: Ral Partha, Games Workshop, White Wolf

2011-07-02T09:08:00.000-07:00

Ral Partha, or Iron Wind Metals, had this figure as a Mage Knight one that they turned into metal. Went together very well. I wanted to try out some rust techniques on him and used several of the MIG rust, oil, and lots of metallics. He was sparyed down with an initial Army Painter plate mail metallic color and then worked on.

by the way, you may not be able to tell in that initial photo, but he's huge. Here he is alongside a Games Workshop lizard man and a Trinity soldier.

Some White Wolf figures. These are some Trinity soldiers. Once again, an Army Painter primer and I picked out the flesh and a few ot her details and gave them a dip. Notice that the bases are different because I lost the original bases that came with them. They were more figures that were just so old and relatively simple, that I wanted them done.

I had a pack of lizard men. They were the old type. I assembled them, sprayed them with one of the blue Army Painter Primers, did the necessary touch ups on the various scales, teeth and eyes, did all the weapons and shields in bronze and gave them a dip in the Army Painter Strong batch. Another group that I was tired of looking at.

So it was four weapons and five of each type so that was twenty down.

Happy Seppuku has some molds where you can make various bases. The one I used here was the Wood Planks. Very bad for Wood Planks. First off, there are bubbles in the mold so you'll have to make sure to smooth those out. Second off, the 'planks' are so huge that you'd be better off using them as concrete streets or painting them up silver for science fiction use. The guys here were sprayed again with the Army Painter silver/steel bit and then touched up with a dip in the Strong tone. Another group of miniatures that I was just tired of seeing not painted.

Another Mage Knight figure, this one is actually plastic. I was testing out the differences between some grounding elements. Here I used some green stuff in front of the left leg to try and make some ground that might look like a cave and then used some spackle for the rest of it. This doesn't count the repainting of the actual figure itself which was relatively simple as I didn't go for a lot of detail on it.

This is another one from Ral Partha/Iron Wind Metals, but this time, from their Vor line. He's a Soviet Officer who did have a back pack but it didn't fit and I wasn't going to play with it. Once again the Army Painter to the rescue but here AI tried to add some more depth to the armor with several shades of blue, brown, and black and some highlights with silver as opposed to the Trinity group that I just sprayed and dipped. The differences are sublte in person but in the photos? Not too sure. the ground is liquidex sand and I used several layers this time and I am more pleased with the results.

Not keeping track anymore because the twenty lizard men, plus the six dark elves, plus the Trinity figus more than shoot past the old 52 we go for. The Army Painter colored primers and dips really made this batch go quick and they've been done for a while.

Reaper, Grenadier, Ral Partha

2011-05-11T12:42:00.000-07:00

First up is a four pack from Reaper miniatures featuring the Black Legion. I hate brocoli bases so trimmed them off. Huge pain in the ass here. I have a new product called Instant Mold that I snagged from Coolminornot. You can use it to make impressions of surface details pretty easily so I had a resin table from Dwarven Forged laying around and used that to make the floor that the Legion members stand on. It's still a new process for me so the thickness of the wood planking varies from figure to figure.

I painted these the super lazy way. An 'iron' spray from Army Painter. A medium black for the tunics and gloves. Some brown for the hafts and floor and a dip in Dark Toner. Shake 'em off and let 'em sit. While I was bumming I did do a few touch ups of GW Mithril Silver though. But seriously, outside of some pooling on the floor, super quick job that I'm okay with.

Next up... The minotaur is a Ral Partha. The two in front of it are old school Grenadier figures. I've had them for many years and like many other things lately, decided to just finish the damn things.

Alternative shot.

Next Round of Updates

2011-05-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Work has been very busy. And there has been bad things on the home life side of things too. I've still managed to get some painting in, but it's been pretty slow still.

Onto the finished works. My apologies on the lack of quality on the camera shots. Still can't take a photo to save my life.

I think the one on the left is a wood elf from Games Workshop. It's a metal figure. Had it laying around for a long long time. The one on the right is a steam golem from Mage Knight that I gave a repaint to. The main purpose there was to test some liquetext sand on the base. M'eh.

Okay... left side is a wood chooper from Reaper's Warlord for their first orc faction. Second one is a cultist from the Superfigs line. I had others and painted them up in red to represent monks from the Scarlet Brotherhood. The third figure is the Queen's Assassin from some company that's out of business I believe. The fourth is easter mouse for the g/f. He is on a wooden disk I bought from Michael's when I bought the liqutex.

Guy on the left is an Empire Plastic Gunner. I gave him a dip of Army Painter Strong tone. Don't know why as almost all the others I gave a Soft Tone due to the yellow. Ah well. The guy on the right is a metal armored archer, also for the Empire, but I don't think they've made any of him for a long time.

The classic lizard man pack from Reaper. I gave it a spray with some Flames of War color, some quick paint and slapped it into the Army Painter Strong tone. Base had some of that tuft Army Painter stuff on it. Simple but I think effective. I can see how people can quickly pump some armies out with fair detail with this method.

This is from Fantasy Flight Games. The base I think is Micro Art Studio. They do some good work. The tuffs are once again Army Painter.

This is an ogress. First done by Crocodile Games and then by Reaper. Given base tones and brush on with the Army Painter Strong Tone. I have two of 'em so I figured I'd paint one the quick way just so I can put it on the table.

13 figs this go around with the previous 29 bring's me on up to 42.

Hope to see some more postings from the other bloggers here. Some great talent out there I need to steal... I mean, be inspired by...

Hey look! He LIVES!

2011-03-02T09:36:00.000-08:00

Yeah, this is my first paint job in about 10 months, done for a figure exchange on the Reaper forums. I actually painted another skull marker as well, so this is really my second paint job, in 10 months. Now that I'm moved in to my new place, and the baby is arrived, hopefully I'll be painting more. Cheers.

Reaper Orc Reven and Mega Mini Cleric

2011-02-21T19:32:00.000-08:00

Another batch of Reaper Orc Reven. This time I tested out some Penzer Acer colors I recently got from Miniature Market. They had the whole line of 48 for $62.

The little guy on the left is another Mega Miniature. I painted him up in the colors of the Monks of War off the cover with the black and white going on.

Total: 29

Reaper Orcs and one Grenadier Pig

2011-02-16T17:30:00.000-08:00

The orcs are from Reaper's Warlord line for their Reven faction. The pigs are from some old Grenaider boxed set I have. The orcs were done up first in Army Painter green primer which you can see here:

http://farm6.static.flickr.com/5099/5452433816_0d3505a85b_b.jpg

So that brings me up to 23 minis. Now to find some more orcs or something else easy to keep the numbers going.

Reaper, Heresy, Rafm, Mega, Ral Partha, and WoTC

2011-02-12T20:04:00.000-08:00

Okay, the cyclops is from heresy.

The guy in purple is an old storm giant from Ral Partha.

The minotaur next to him is a Reaper.

The minotaur in front of the first row is from WoTC (I believe) from their 25th anniversery set.

The three ladies are from Mega Minis.

The two serpent people are from Rafm from the CoC line.

Alternative take here: http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4078/5440047725_329b19c935_b.jpg
Total: 18

Reaper and Rackham

2011-01-24T17:54:00.000-08:00

The fellow on the left is a fighter from Reaper miniatures with scale mail armor and a huge sword in one hand. The one on the right is the second of a three man knight set for Rackham Templars that I have. Still have one more to paint up. The Rackham dude is so old that they don't even make him anymore. Heck, they haven't made him in metal in a while and now the plastic versions are gone too.

While the knight may look slightly taller, note that he's on an actual base that gives him a height advantage eh?

Reaper: 1
Rackham: 1
Total: 9

Dream Pod 9: Blastfurnance Gardian Armor

2011-01-15T14:12:00.000-08:00

That should probably be Guardian but hey, DP9 misspelled it first on the blister.

Guy is like a 'giant' suit but scale doesnt' come across as he's not much larger than the previous mini. More of a 'theme' thing. Kindal ooks like a mecha Santa with that goofy beard. I could probably do some touch ups on him but done is done eh?

Dream Pod 9: 2

Total: 7

Dream Pod 9 Brute Coalsuit

2011-01-12T22:00:00.000-08:00

Another figure I've had for years and was just tired of looking at. The base is a Micro Studio base. The base paint is P3 line with some MIG stuff thrown on top of it.

Dream Pod 9: 1

Total: 6

Mega-Mini Minotaur, Iron Wind Efretti

2011-01-09T16:32:00.000-08:00

The minotaur to the left is from Mega-Minis. He comes in the beastman pack. the base is from Secret Weapon. The figure on the right I believe is some type of efretti and is from Ral-Partha (or at least that's what the stamping on the bottom of the original base says.).

The minotaur is quite large. Where his shouldplate begins is where the head of the last minotaur I phot'd stops. Goofy looking? Yes. Huge? Yup.

Mega-Minis: 1
Ral Partha: 1
Total: 5

I-Kore/Celtos Fomorian Shaman

2011-01-03T12:33:00.000-08:00

This is another sucker I figured I could bang out in a day. Despite the tons of gold rings, bracelets, anklets, facial piercings and other bits, he's really pretty simple. Body, familiar, skirt, backside has an animal hide, and the staff with goblin sacrifice on it.

Privateer Press: 1
I-Kore: 1
Crocodille Games: 1
Total: 3

Good start to the year but that's because of the holiday. That will be quickly ending I'm assuming real soon.

The Scribbler by Crocodille Miniatures

2011-01-02T14:22:00.000-08:00

This is the Scribbler, a villain in the first advneture path by Paizo, Rise of the Runelords. It was originally created by Crodille Games. I went with my own paint scheme based slightly off of the art. Looking at the official figure paint job, I can see I missed several things but oh well, ain't going back now. I have another one so I'll do that one up in the 'studio' colors.

Privateer Press: 1
Crocodile Games: 1
Total: 2

Privateer Press: general Gerlak Slaughterborn

2011-01-01T22:47:00.000-08:00

One of my friends plays Cyrix for the Warmachine game. I didn't get him anything for X-Mas.

or did I?

Below is his late present. I assembled it last night and started it today with ye old brush on primer and then a variety of paints.

2011: 1 Privateer Press.

Reaper, Games Workshop, Fantasy Flight Games

2010-12-31T21:27:00.000-08:00

The last of 2010's fully painted miniatures. I'm sure I have some more sitting around here but...

Starting from left to right:

Dwarf with Hammer: Reaper for the Warlord game. WIll be my Cleric of Kord in a 4e game.

Dwarf behind with bolt: Part of a bolt thrower for the dwarf army. Only missing the actually siege weapon.

Gold Night: Fantasy Flight Games. Bought him to act as a stand in for my character one night.

Minotaur in center: Reaper, mercenary in the Warlord game. Misceallaneous monster.

Librarian: Loved the post and finally painted him up. From Games Workshop for the 40K line.

Knights: Two dudes from the Lord of the Rings game. Saw them out and decided to see how the paint pattern went.

Lets see some more posters and more painting in 2011!

Crocodile, Reaper and Mega

2010-12-25T10:43:00.000-08:00

I know, some people are thinking; doesn't this guy have anything better to do. Honestly though, I'm innocent. These were in the way on the table and we've got Christmas company coming over so the table must be cleaned anew! One day perhaps I'll have a more realistic painting spot but until then, the dinning room table will continue to suffer my painting wraith.

Up first is a lizard man I've owned for years. He's supposed to be whipping two mini-raptors into action. I've long since lost the little bastiches.

The Nativity by Reaper. I did a few touch ups on it already but didn't have time to take any more pics of it. A nice scene that goes to my g/f.

This is a Crocodile Miniature figures for Pathfinder that wound up going to Reaper games. It's a huge figure and could easily double as a hill giant or something larger. Part of my pet peeve with monsters and the near complete lack of standards for the miniatures. Huge problem with WoTC little plastic crack fiends.

And last but not least, two more of the Mega-Minis. Ugh. I really, really, really have to stay away from trying to provide lipstick to the women and have to cut down on the size of the eyes more.

Minis 63 & 64: Interrogator and a CC Servitor

2010-12-15T19:02:00.000-08:00

An Interrogator and a Close Combat Servitor.

Mega Minis Again

2010-12-09T19:14:00.000-08:00

Another batch of Mega-Minis. The first two I tried a little something different with the snow. Think I'll skip the red lips in the future. Or practice a lot more on it. Figure one and three look hideous with it. The first figure I was messing around with the various ahdes of black. The other three are 'dipped' The third I tried messing with some snow and the last is another sand style base.

Mega Minis

2010-12-08T19:47:00.000-08:00

Another batch of Mega-Minis down. I've got some more that I'm just waiting for the 'dip' to dry before doing the bases.

The one on the far left is done in 'sand' style base because I've got a few I'm setting up in 'gladiator' style themes. Maybe I'll add some dried blood to the base? Probably not because you see she done! They're already packed away.

The third and foruth mini I went to make as similiar as possible in terms of clothing and hair color because I thought they'd make a good brother/sister duo for the players to meet if I ever run another campaign.

Hope you enjoy!

Privateer Press Three Shot!

2010-11-30T20:34:00.000-08:00

I like the Circle in Hordes. The idea of using stone constructs alongside some savages and primal magics strikes me as awesome.

The guy in the middle is one of two I have of the fig and I went with a test run here. The next time I paint him I'll do the 'stuido' colors. He's from the RPG line.

The third one on the right is a bridge troll. I've owned him for many a moon and figured it was time to knock it out.

Reaper, Superfigs,Crocodile

2010-11-26T19:01:00.000-08:00

Ah Reaper, how I love some of your figs. The first two though, had such damn small integrated bases, that I either needed to saw them off or glue them onto another base. I went with the later option and then used some green stuff to try and mimicik the stone work on the floor. The last one had a standard brocoloi base so I didn't mess with that.

I won an auction on good old e-Bay that came with three of these sinspawn by Crocodille Games for the Pathfinder RPG. They were from the first series, Rise of the Runelords, but make great ghouls as well.

More Superfigs. The two in front are a Flesh Golem and Werewolf. I went with a 'teenage' look on the wolf man with white tee shirt, black belt and blue jeans. The guy in back is mounted on a 2 by 2 base and is some sort of strange sloth alien overlord master. I figure I can use him as some goofy body guard for the Mind Flayers. A mutated quaggoth or something.

Once again, my apologies for the terrible photos. Maybe by the end of the year I'll have things actually set up, but as noted, I've had to start moving a ton of stuff around to make room for the guests the other day and can't just put it back so away it must go.

Grendel and Otherworld Miniatures

2010-11-26T16:51:00.000-08:00

This is a Grendel figure. He's huge. He's also made of resin. He's also got a lot of gaps that I had to green stuff. In the old days I wouldn't have bothered.

This is a set of Grendel Black Orcs. Back when they were first released they were probably huge compared to Grenadier and Rafm and Ral Partha. Now they look like scrunt orcs. Still, one can never have enough orcs... Their gear reminds me of some type of desert bad land bit and the ones in the third row with the iron masks make some great bandits.

Two giants by Otherworld miniatures. The hill giant was a huge pain to get the hands just right. A common problem when a figure has one weapon spreading across both arms. The feet on both figures did not match the bases and required a LOT of fiddling around. The arms on the stone giant required some green stuff. Still, some great figures and poses and I'd be curious to see what they were like in resin, as the ones I bought were the metal ones.

There are some more shots on the way as I HAVE to clean up. Way too much stuff starting to bump and bungle into each other and there is no more space for it since the table clean up yesterday.

As usual, my apologies for the poor shots. My camera is trashed and I'm using my cell phone in a place with bad lighting. For some reason all of the lights in this place are terrible and there are so few outlets that I've been too lazy to get the natural daylight shots set up again.

Proto Shoggoth by Rafm

2010-11-25T09:25:00.000-08:00

Well, Thanksgiving guests are coming over which means my painting area, aka the dinining room table, has to be cleaned off. Finished off this sucker before cleaning if though so one more post for the holidays; the proto shoggoth by Rafm.

Bot by Superfigs

2010-11-18T13:53:00.000-08:00

I mentioned what I like about this fig at my other blog. It's 'bot, one of the bricks from the Superfigs line. Most of their figures are realtively simple in design, making them a breeze to paint. The only negative I have about them is that the bases are terrible. Reaper and a few others suffer that so not a huge deal.

I went with a P3 Cold Steel base, then used MIG Light Rust and Dark Rust with Oil and Grease with a few highlights of Quicksilver. The base is a 2 inch piece of wood with spackle painted various shades of white.

I like the rust effect and think that I'll get another one to try out some more weathering before applying the rust.

One Reaper

2010-11-12T16:29:00.000-08:00

I have a ton of figs done but no camera and no lighting. The only reason I took this one is because it's for a friend and it's going out tonight.

#62 - Adeptus Mechanicus Close Combat Servitor

2010-10-04T17:19:00.000-07:00

Mini #61 - Mono-wheel Ork!

2010-08-30T14:24:00.001-07:00

Mini #60 - Chronopia Dwarf

2010-08-29T12:05:00.001-07:00

Mini #59: Chaos Renegade with Conversion Beam Projector

2010-08-25T16:32:00.001-07:00

Minis #48-58 - Dark Eldar Raiders

2010-08-21T14:00:00.000-07:00

And I'm done for the year! Or at least, I have reached my goal of 52 minis. :)

The Great Catch Up

2010-08-15T19:02:00.000-07:00

I moved in May. Many figures broken, many lost, many found, many repaired, some destroyed by accident once I was settled. My mother in particular destroyed one of my Eldar vehicles by placing a large box of books ontop of a flimsy box that contained said vehicle. Crunch. I could probably salvage it but...

Anyway, I apologize in advance for the quality of the photos. In the move my old camera gave up the ghost and the place I'm painting now has zero light source. Makes things ugly. The below are the miniatures I've finished since I've moved back to Chicago proper and don't include a lot of the material I'd painted before moving.

One of the drow I picked up when the Chainmail line went on sale.

I stink at putting pics up. If there is a guy to the right of the screen, that's a Black Legionaire from Reaper. Normally on a brocoli base, I had to snip him because he kept getting knocked over. Went onto a square base in case I start playing their tabletop game Warlord.

Another drow.

To be honest, I didn't like the way either one turned out. The clothing and skin is too close in coloration and the eyes were all buggy but I'm in the "f it, it's done" mode.

Before there was the Rusty Heroes from Fantization, there was a limited edition miniature! I finally knocked him out.

Old GW archer for the Empire. He's actully metal!

IK miniature.

A Cygnar Gobbo repairman. I've owned him since Warmachine first game out at Gen Con before the book was even printed. Finally got him done.

This is one of the adventurers from one of the Mega Mini packs.

I've owned this guy a few times. He's from the old Ral Partha boxed set of Warlords. Some fantastic miniatures for this time with a lot of character.

Another IK miniature, this time a gobbo assassin.

A skaven pack master.

Another Mega Miniature. Kept it simple and painted on a double cross.

And last but not least, a dwarf sighter for a cannon I don't even think I own anymore. I love all the metal mead flagons on his back. great figure with a lot of character.

Mini #47 - Repulsar Knight

2010-08-10T16:42:00.000-07:00

Minis #41-46: Eldar Dire Avengers and an Exarch

2010-08-07T15:09:00.001-07:00

Mini #40: Space Elf Chick

2010-08-06T14:22:00.001-07:00

Minis #38 and #39: Two Lictors!

2010-08-06T14:20:00.001-07:00

Minis #36 and #37: Two More Deathwatch Marines

2010-08-06T14:18:00.001-07:00

Minis 34 and 35 - More Deathwatch

2010-06-30T18:19:00.000-07:00

An Apothecary and a Devastator marine. let the Chinese spam begin!

Minis #22-33: a dozen Necron!

2010-05-23T11:37:00.001-07:00

Minis # 20 and 21 - K'tharen Warriors

2010-05-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

Minis #16-19...Bomb Squigs!

2010-05-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

Here comes da boom! Hur! Hur! Hur!

Mini #15 - Another Deathwatch Space Wolf

2010-04-25T09:16:00.000-07:00

You know you're doing your job as a GM when one of your Players looks at your mini and says "I want to be THAT guy!"

Mini #14 - Angela

2010-04-25T09:14:00.001-07:00

A PC from our Necessary Evil game, Angela the former Yakuza Assassin.

Lucky #13 - Deathwatch Space Wolf

2010-04-19T18:30:00.000-07:00

"Welcome to the Deathwatch. You have to wear black armor, but you can keep your pelts and wolf teeth."

#9 and 10

2010-04-18T16:43:00.001-07:00

The first I painted to enter into a contest held by Cipher Studios to find a painted piece for their Empire Agent. The second is a quick paint of a Reaper fig (Kale Nolan) I was working on in parallel. I finished him yesterday. The color palettes are similar though I'm sure you all can see differences.

In other news I'm anxiously awaiting the arrival of some starship minis from Ravenstar studios. I can't wait to try my hand on those.

Mini #12 - Deathwatch Marine (Ultramarines)

2010-04-03T14:31:00.001-07:00

The Deathwatch RPG releases in June. We will be ready...

Mini #11 - Another Chaos Renegade

2010-03-29T18:13:00.001-07:00

Another mini of a Chaos Renegade from back in the day. The late 80's, when men were men and Marines were mutated.

#8: Updated pics

2010-03-21T08:44:00.000-07:00

Here's the more detailed pics on Baldorf.

These are my first attempts at purple and black NMM and they came out rather well, I think. I may need to change his grin though.

#5 - #8: A mix ...

2010-03-16T20:47:00.000-07:00

Thanks to gospog's party this weekend, I was able to add to my roster for the year. He let me paint the trooper in the middle during a quick paint and take at his place. The two skull piles are set pieces that have been on my shelf for a bit and I decided to get them ready to serve as decor later.

The last one, the halfling on the left, is Baldorf the Brave, a Magnificent Egos figure. I'll have better pics of him later since he's much more than a quick paint job, but right now my camera is having issues with the color scheme.

Mini #10 - Renegade Space Marine of Tzeentch

2010-03-05T18:15:00.000-08:00

Back in the day, before the Thousand Sons royally got the shaft, a Space Marine turning to the worship of Tzeentch became one seriously mutated son of a bitch.

This is a miniatures from those simpler, happier days (I think I picked him up circa 1989). Finally got around to painting him.

Milliput part deux

2010-03-01T12:05:00.000-08:00

So, I acquired some Milliput (the fine white) epoxy to test it out and found that it isn't nearly as sticky as say, Green Stuff. I was wondering if that was 1) normal and 2) whether I should have bought some of the other grades of Milliput. It also leaves a lot of white powder everywhere. Again, normal?

Thoughts from those that use it?

Minis 1 & 2

2010-02-21T15:20:00.000-08:00

I decided to play this year. :) I started off with a "speed paint" of a pirate I have always liked. He was undercoated white, washed all over with Devlan Mud and then I brushed on layers of thinned color as needed. Sorry the pictures are kind of crappy:

My second mini was one I started over ten years ago, a Necromunda Ratskin. I had done the skin tones and pelt, but never finished him. It killed me to not repaint it, as the skin tones looked pretty awful, but I figured it wasn't worth the time. I was playing around with some new techniques, so it's very muted overall. Mostly it's just done!

I'm working on a dragon tortoise right now, but he may take awhile...

Minis 7, 8 and 9.

2010-02-21T14:44:00.001-08:00

This is the Necromagus from the old, defunct wargame, Warzone. He's been on the shelf for a loooong time. I decided to just grab some random minis off the shelf and paint them, just for the heck of it.

Two more random picks...

A couple in-between minis (9-11)

2010-02-17T18:13:00.000-08:00

My Pathfinder game wrapped up for the season, and one of my players is taking a run behind the GM Screen to give me a break. So that means new characters that need representation! Put these two in front of the batch I was working on in the meantime for the game this past Saturday; I should have around 8 more done soon-ish.

Rogar, my Dwarven Paladin of Torag.

Slayer of all winged beasts!

Elana - Elven Ranger

Mini will pull double duty as an NPC in my PF game as Shalelu.

Farmer Grump!

An NPC for fun. I got a bunch of common-folk that are going to work as my "warm up" minis.

Playing with making stains and the like on this one. Gave him pit stains, too. Using a hoe is hard work! OH!

*rimshot*

Crowtales 15-28 of 52: Privateer Press Cygnar - Dipped

2010-02-16T06:00:00.000-08:00

Like I said - I've been busy. I have a game day coming up this weekend and I decided I wanted to gather up some of the other forces I have and prep them all for this. I also wanted to test a few techniques in more concerted ways. Thus, the Legion of Everblight stuff is all in a stark mode with Drybrushing as the featured technique.

These Cygnar are using something that I've seen for years but hadn't ever seen done in a way I liked - until a few months ago someone posted a tutorial that looked fantastic. So I decided to try it. I went with The Army Painter's Quickshade (Dark Tone), which is more expensive than traditional dipping using Minwax, but I really was wanting something for mini's especially.

It works easy enough, simply primer and apply the base colors you want - then dip it in the Quickshade. Shake off as much of the Quickshade as you can, and then let it dry. I think the results look pretty damn good for very quickly painted mini's.

10-14 of 52: Assorted Privateer Press

2010-02-16T05:53:00.000-08:00

I've been busy.

Here we see a single Forsaken from the teal/white drybrushed Legion of Everblight I'm doing. Not the best work, but I really wasn't inspired by this mini. At all.

There's two Cryx mini's, a Necrotech and Mechanothrall, done in my usual schema of simple paint and sculpted base.

Lastly, there's two Menoth Warjacks that I had laying around. These two are special only in that they are my first attempts at a technique using Dipping. I'll have more to say on that in the next batch, which features Dipping as the principle method used.

Finished a scenery piece - The Mechanicus Gate

2010-02-10T17:31:00.001-08:00

The picture below gives you a close-up of the gate area. The guards are just for scale.
Below is the Mechanicus symbol that I sculpted for the seal. It was a lot easier than I was expecting.

Minis 1-5: Pre-Heresy World Eaters Devastators

2010-02-07T11:59:00.000-08:00

A whole Devastator squad for my Pre-Heresy World Eaters. I love the conversions (they're all conversions) but I am not thrilled by the paint jobs.

That being said, I am so glad they are done. I look forward to painting something besides white!!!

Crowtales 2010: 4-9 of 52 - Legion of Everblight

2010-02-06T09:04:00.000-08:00

Privateer Press: Legion of Everblight Battlebox

Decided to try a different approach on these. I'm doing them in a quick style so as to be able to just knock them out fast. I'd seen some pics of a few drybrushed models that were just fantastic, and it had notes on how he'd done them. I decided to try it out as the principle painting technique on these. Thus, they are primered with Duplicolor white, given a single basecoat, the teal portions are then washed with a teal ink. Then I drybrushed up from teal to white.

Turned out to be slightly more work than I thought, and I originally didn't think I'd use any washes, but that quickly got changed. Overall though, I like them and they are different from all my other stuff.

Crowtales 2010: 2, 3 of 52 - Cryx

2010-02-06T09:00:00.000-08:00

Privateer Press - Cryx Dragoon.

This is a two model character for Cryx. Pretty fun to work up, except that it was a real pain to construct the unmounted guy. Both of his arms come seperate from the body and from the Scythe, so you end up haveing to balance all the parts carefully while gluing them together. Pain in the ass.

Crowtales 2010: 1 of 52

2010-02-06T08:55:00.000-08:00

Lots planned for this year. I have several army groups I'm working on currently in some new techniques. This first one is actually half terrain. I needed some wreck markers for Warmachine, so I took a stroll through my parts bin and pieced together these four markers. I'm only counting them as 1 model, cause they aren't really a model in the real sense, but then they did take some time to work up.

#4: Daughter of the Flame redux

2010-01-31T20:18:00.000-08:00

This is a new version of the figure I did here. We use some of these for D&D and the fact that I'd put the original one on a circular 30mm base was an issue. The pose was also not great because it would get tangled up in other minis. So I took another figure from the same set and went at it again. Similar color scheme as you can see, but I went for much brigher versions of the colors.

#3: Lorielle

2010-01-23T20:21:00.000-08:00

I wanted to do a quick mini after the last one and whipped this one out in a week. She'd had a bit of paint on her before this week, mostly a base coat and I only spent another few hours on her this week. Don't really know what I'll use her for, probably a character mini. The base is a cork stopper that's been cut down.

Tutorials: Milliput?

2010-01-22T10:52:00.000-08:00

So, I know how to use green stuff but how does milliput work? And what do you use it for? The same stuff? Different problems?

#2: Turanil

2010-01-17T16:39:00.000-08:00

The story on this one is that round about last spring, a friend of mine gave me a bunch of lead he wasn't going to paint. It was a grab bag of lots of stuff, and included in it was this figure.

Fast forward to this month. His wife invites us all to a birthday party for him. Well, I looked over at my painting shelf, saw Turanil sitting there primed and waiting for paint and put the thoughts "birthday" and "unpainted figure" together and got "birthday present".

A week long sprint of painting later and we have the above.

First Batch, 2010

2010-01-13T18:40:00.001-08:00

My catharsis paid dividends! Opening out the first two weeks of progress with eight new minis. I picked some basic ones to get the engine going (critters and the ghoul lord) to make gains on some more intricate ones (skinsaw man and rogue). Pretty happy, overall. Even got better with my new camera.

All of these are for my Pathfinder game. The Rabbit surrounded by rats is a pet of the previously posted Gnome (Tig), who rescued it from Thistletop and named it thusly. Fans of the series will know why (don't wanna give no spoilers!).

The Skinsaw Man

Crocodile Games; now Reaper miniatures

Sed, Human Rogue

Reaper Miniatures

Ghoul Lord
Reaper Miniatures

RATS!

Reaper Miniatures

Lucky Pickles is surrounded... Poor Rats.

Reaper Miniatures

Tutorials: Prepping and Cleaning Minis

2010-01-13T09:08:00.000-08:00

I'm going to do a series of posts over the next bit asking for or presenting info on various topics on how to do miniatures painting etc. Partly I'm looking for more information because I am looking to improve but also I've found links that I think could be useful. No I'm not going to be giving tutorials, I'm not that good. ;-)

So, if you have an favorite links or articles on the topic of preparing a miniature for painting, let us know. For my part, I actually don't have any links on this topic, and the reason I'm looking for more info is that I know the basics, and am fairly decent at it but I've seen minis that are much better prepared than mine and I'd like to know what tools and tips folks have. My biggest problem is dealing with things like mold lines in tight places and rough surfaces on large expanses (like on cloaks). What tools, tips, tricks, or even special materials do you use?

Year in Reflection

2010-01-12T11:05:00.000-08:00

By November I had already resigned to not having a hope of making 52... from 3. I love painting, constantly call it one of my favorite hobbies, but started doing LESS after signing up here. It boggled my mind.

After some reflection, I've come to the conclusion that there was a layer here for me I had not considered appropriately; fear.

I wanted to show good work and in my head what meant "good" is WAY better than I can achieve yet. However, my brain would not take "not yet" for an answer and became OCD over the stupidest things. My technique and experience just couldn't support it, and so I failed at it constantly. The prospect of showing that work made it way worse. I was already cringing at the pics I posted, for instance.

I found myself spending so much time and effort trying to get things perfect on each mini in an OCD-rrific manner (and failing to do so anyway), that I ended up just frustrated and *didn't* paint at times I could have. That's not how I operate with anything else, so it was a surprise to me after I realized that was what I was doing.

That had to stop! This year, I embrace the suck! :)

Well, not really. I'm just focused on getting decently painted figures on the table now, and working on one technique at a time for every mini... blending, shadowing, outlining, etc. That way I can still practice the stuff that needs work without stalling everything. No one was going to rip me apart here anyway (I mean, it's not Cool Mini or Not, right?).

Since I made this new year's resolution, I've already busted out 8 new minis! Not mind blowing, but obviously far better than nothing at all. Pictures, of course, are forthcoming.

I mean, they aren't doing me any good in the blister packs, anyway.

Little of This.... Little of That

2010-01-05T18:20:00.000-08:00

First one here is two more of the gobbo command from the old Battle of Skull Pass. The dwarf is from some Dwarf Artillery set that I can't even find anymore. I just figured, once again, screw it. Get it done.
Reaper Half Orc with scalp filled and painted up as a goliath. The next two Mike painted last year. They are some weird type of flesh golems. Last up some mercenary cleric of Morrow I believe from the role playing side of Privateer Press. The way they're going through the figures thought I suspect it'll be for the table top version soon enough. Hand painted the yellow on there following the painted fig from the site.

#1: Wolf of Orboros the second

2010-01-05T08:04:00.000-08:00

Here's the other Wolf of Orboros I was working on. Similar to the first, but with red and grey. And a side by side shot for the brothers Tweedle.

And apparently I was mispelling the faction name for the Privateer Press minis ... damn their lack of classical spelling.

A HUGE Thanks!

2010-01-01T13:37:00.000-08:00

As we enter 2010, I wanted to give a big THANK YOU to everyone who posted and commented on this blog. I love painting minis, but all too often other stuff gets in the way. Everyone who contributed to this blog helped keep me motivated. There were definitely times when I was more on the ball with getting work and chores around the house done so I could do some painting. Without this blog, I think I would've let a hobby I really enjoy slip off the radar too often.

I'm already hard at work on a new batch of figures (some lizardmen and undead for D&D, along with an owlbear). I hope everyone keeps painting and posting. It's been great seeing what other folks do, and I'm looking forward to another 52 miniatures in 2010.

Thanks, everyone!

2009 - that's a wrap!

2010-01-01T09:36:00.000-08:00

Well, that was fun! As I look back on 2009 I see a lot of paint hitting minis and folks having fun doing it. There's been some sharing of info, lots of encouragement and lots of pics. Personally, I enjoyed almost painting more minis this year than I bought (17 vs 20) and I painted my second ever "commission".

I think for 2010 my resolution will be to try and double my output from this year (34!), though I may still keep the 52 minis target in the back of my head. I will also try to paint more minis than I buy (I -reaaaaaaally- have more than 52 minis in my unpainted lead pile already). Finally, I think I'm going to try and paint a few "units" and see if I can keep my attention on something long enough to do more than one of a particular paint.

Which brings me to the totals for 2009, we had a bunch of folks hit the 52 mark, congrats to all of them. Everyone else ... stop slacking off.

Kidding! :)

Have a great new year, have fun doing what you love and love what you're doing!

Totals for 2009:
joegkushner: lots more than 52 ...
mike mearls: 52
gospog: 52
crowtales: 52
joe: 17
Dom C: 3
Kuni: 2
microserf: 1

P.S. - I will no longer be doing "totals". The non-contest contest can be taken up by someone new if they desire, I won't mind at all. ;-)

Should old acquaintances be forgotten...

2009-12-31T20:09:00.001-08:00

Okay... the ogres, the last of my current batch of Ogre Kingdoms Bulls and Iron Guts from Games Workshop. The little guy on the far side of the Ogres is some nameless lacky from the Mordenheim tabletop game also by Games Workshop. For a buddy so it got one layer and a dip.

Elf with bow from megaminiatures.

Fighter with great sword and plate armor from Reaper miniatures.

Fighter with two blades is from Crocodile Games.

Weird looking machine skeleton is from Magnificent Egoes.

The guy with the big axe is from Privateer Press. Second time I've painted him.

The oozes are from Otherworld Miniatures.

The Hook Horror and Frog Demon are from Otherworld Miniatures as well.

And thus ends the painting of '09.

Or at least the finished painting of '09.

#17 - Wolf of Ouroboros

2009-12-31T16:15:00.000-08:00

I was trying to finish my "tweedle dee, tweedle dum" pair, but I really only had the time to get to one. And that's it for the year. At this rate I might hit 34 next year. ;-)

Happy New Year, folks!