Stairway to ...

Hey, yes, I do live. I've done a little painting this year, not much to post though. So instead I'm going to post a WIP of a different sort. A bit of "terrain" for my D&D game. It is meant to become a spiral staircase and I have three more to build and paint. They are made from posterboard (for the stairs), with a Pringles can, some Elmer's glue and tape. The pieces are cut with an X-acto knife and a compass rotary cutter (which really cuts down on time. If folks are interested, I may take some shots and do a how to.

Latest and last round of Reaper Bones

Okay, I think I'm done with the Reaper Bones experiement. I either have or don't want any of the other bones that are currently available but will be watching the line as it matures.

I've used most styles of paint that I own here and a few mixes of things. The purple worm for example, Army Painter primer and paint. The Gnoll, Vallejo brush on primer and paint. The Troll, Reaper Heavy Gear paint, no primer. The ghost, Privateer Press Paint, no primer. The werewolf, Vallejo Primer with an army painter dip. Yeah, he was a quick one. The three orc archer, mostly old Games Workshop paint, no primer. I was lazy with them for the most part as it was pretty much just a test run.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with them. Some of them are direct tie in to the Warlord Game like the Ghost, who is a named character for Necropolis, and the Gnoll, who works for the Black Orcs. The others are good all purpose miniatures.

I think the best we can hope for now though, is that they get some compexity down. All of these are very simple miniatures. In some ways, they are perfect starter miniatures. That werewolf expecially is good for people who want to learn either drybrushing or dipping or using a wash. Same for the worm, ghost, or troll. Not a lot of different parts, not a lot of bags, pouches, belts, or other distractions. Allows you to get something painted quickly.

At their price point, I think they'll be a great seller for Reaper.

Bones Worm by Reaper

Okay, this is another one of the Bones figures from Reaper that's inexpensive plastic. I primed it with Alien Purple Army Painter. I then used the same paint name by the Army Painter to cover up a few spots that were missed in my initial spray. Good news? From the brushing on, there is very little difference between the paint and primer so that's a win for me. Another plus in the Army Painter side.

I mixed some flat matt white with the alien purple for the under belly and some demonic yellow for those pustles and some gray or another for the base. I then dipped it and let it sit. No drybrushing, layering, or other bits. I wanted to see how the Army Painter's dip would interact with the material. Worked out pretty good afaic. Total time spent actually painting? Not more than a half hour I'd say. The biggest part was waiting for the dip to dry.

I still have to try out my Privateer Press paints on one of these Bones and I do have a warewolf laying around here somewhere with a ghost...

Reaper Bones: Gnoll Warrior

Not going to break down the price points on this fellow.

This time the figure was washed with warm water and soap and given a primer of Vallejo German Green Brown. I then painted it with Vallejo Game Colors. While I'm tempted to try out all my different paints on it with no primer, since I normally USE a primer when I'm painting, especially to lay down a base tone, I see no reason why I'd stop outside of just for the sake of testing the qualities of the Bones miniatures themselves. If Reaper wants to send me a bunch of Bones for that purpose specifically, I'm all game but until then, most of these will be getting some type of primer. Who knows, maybe the Army Painter spray primer will do something terrible to them and I'll have that to post.

Reaper Bones: Cave Troll

Reaper has come out with a new line of figures called Bones. I've mentioned them before. These are white plastic figures that are very low in price compared to their other versions.

I say other versions, because take for example this figure here. As a Bones figure, he is $2.29.

As a prepainted from the Legendary Encounters line, he is $4.29

As a metal figure, $6.99.


The figure I painted? I used the Heavy Gear Blitz back with no primer. The initial coat of paint didn't want to take completely. These require very little diluting on the first level. It makes the paint streak a bit. A few base coats took care of that issue.

In terms of handling, its different. The figure is so much lighter than a normal figure of this size should be you'll find yourself overcompensating a little if you're like me.

The detail is good. Mind you, the talons on the toes tend to sink into the base, but I can't tell if that's because of how the figure originally is or just the Bones version.

Me? I'm working on a gnoll right now from the same line and have a few more of the figures on Order directly from Reaper as my FLSG, Games Plus, has sold out of several of the packs and even some of the online vendors like The Miniature Giant have sold out as well.

If they can keep some new figures coming down the pipe, and the new Reaper catalog mentions that they have thirty already even though there are only previews for the two wizards (one male, one female), I'm hoping to see a few more of the Legendary Encounters make their way to Bones including Vampire, Young Dragon, Giant Spider, Bugbear, Female Ranger, and Minotaur of the Maze, all save the Vampire, I don't own in any form from Reaper.

Anyone else using them? Any opinions?

Red Box Dverg Warrior

Red Box Games is the specialty shop of Tre Manor, a sculptor for Reaper. These are his own line and while there is some mix and match compatibility, especially among some of the goblins and barbarians, his style really peaks out in his own line.

For example, this guy? His beard has multiple bands, each one with a stud. He has a horn and I'm assuming a scroll case. His cloak is clasped by symbol etched disks. The back of his hand has runes on it.  He's a very busy dwarf. The base is I think a Scribor or perhaps Micro Art studio.

Anway, he's another one I've had out and messed with for a long long time. Got tired of it and finished him off today. I tried something different with the face. The whole red nose and checks thing isn't my usual bit so let me know if it works out here eh?

Griffen Templar Knights

On the bench, I've been working on miniature that have been in various states for many a moon. In this case, I lost my motivation when Confrontation went from a skrimish sized game with metal figures to a plastic set with dubious quality. Still, as I'm putting stuff away, organizing stuff, that I figured it was time to finish off this bad boy. I then lined him up with the other two so I could put them all away at one time.

Ral Partha Drow and Games Workshop Skaven

That's an old drow from Ral Partha on a Gale Force 9 25mm square base with some Vallejo paste textured down on it.

The skaven is a slave I believe with some Army Painted Battlefield Black on the ground. I may do a few drybrushed over it later when I'm sure the glue is dry. I had another pic but it was so dark I figured to hell with that one.

The Undying by Games Workshop

Well, apparently some rumor mill flying around that Games Workshop is doing some price increases for Finecast while doing some price reductions or something along those lines.

Me? This is an old metal figure. While I too think that some of What Games Workshop produces is overpriced, I love a lot of their Lord of the Rings figures, especially their Wraiths. I have a few of them and would like to purchase more in the future.

These guys were done up for the most part with Andrea's black mix set. It's six black variants. Good stuff.

The base on the horse is an old Secret Weapon. It's way too tall. It's like 3mm when most are like 2mm. Now I now that doesn't sound like a lot but on this scale, it's enormous. But since I'm not actually palying with them in tournaments or anything and its for RPG purposes only...

A few Bones from Reaper on order along with the Heavy Gear paint set from The Miniature Giant as well as some new molds from Happy Suppuku. Next week should be good times for painting! Still looking forward to seeing the Army Painter's boxed set but think I'll have to pass on the Games Workshop one unless someone wants to donate the cash for it.

Bueller? Bueller?

Latest Purchases?

My favorite FLSG, Games Plus, just had its thirty year anniversary. I stopped by for a few moments after a very busy day. I wanted to pick up the Vallejo Brush on primer and some brushes. I'm always messing with a lot of different mediums so keep some brushes to the side deliberately for them. The Okko miniatures were on sale. If you don't know Okko, you're missing out on a great graphic novel. I've mentioned the current graphic novel collectioms from Archaia Entertainment on my blog a few times. Good art, good story. The sale was a few bones off on the miniatures plus buy three get the fourth free. There were some others but I didn't want to go all out as I'm waiting to buy some of the Bones miniatures from Reaper and see what their new paint set looks like. The trick on those bones is only getting miniatures I've never bought before so there were a few and we'll see how that goes.

Anyone else buy anything good lately? Any purchases people waiting to make?

Picture Preference?

While I'm messing around with photos, does anyone have a preference for how I post them? Multiple posts? One post showing the different stages? One post period with just the finished product? Bueller?

Ogre Maneater Arabian Final Paint Layer

Alright, he's not quite done in that I'm going to touch up the base and where ever I see some white poking through the paint but for the most part, he's done. Still took way too long. Hard to say what the final painting time on him was because of waiting for the inks on the various weapons to dry.

Now onto the next one!

Maneater Layer three

Okay, the third layer done. Next time it'll be the final. I'll probably pop a layer or two more on the red and black boots and start with the inks and washes. Bad thing about the inks thought is they take a lot longer to dry than the washes. Might to time to think of what the next figure is going to be.

Maneater Layer Two

Alrighty, this is layer two. Well, mostly layer two. On the boots I didn't do anything and the skin is actually like layer 1 and 1 half as I put down too much paint thanks to poor control and did a quick mix of layer 2 and layer 3.

Another layer and a few washes and inks and I'll consider him done.

For the curious, the inks will go onto the metallics, the washes over pretty much everything else.

Using Andrea Paints, Reaper HD Paints for the most part here.

Ogre Kingdoms Maneater

One of my favorite sites to look at for miniatures, both in terms of skill and speed, is Four Color Figures. It seems one of the ways he handles such a large volume is having a good idea of what colors and paints he's going to use ahead of time. So tonight I had this bad boy, another maneater for my Ogre Kingdoms army (that I've never played boo!) and threw on the first layer.

I have to go to bed or otherwise I'd pop a few more layers on him but first layering done in about 40 minutes. Not bad in that it took me probably as much time to find the paint I wanted to use as to actually pop it up on the sucker.

Red Box Berserk Dwarf

Man, cameras let you see everything including all the little bits of grass that kept moving around the figure every time I moved him. He's one of the dwarfs or dvergr from Red Box Games. While he is one of my favorites in that line, he's also out of print or discontinued. Shame as he's one of the more interesting ones in my opinion. He has a ton of stuff on his backside. Basing is simple Gale Force 9.

Ogre Kingdoms and a Few Reapers

Six grunts and four of the two handed weapon weilded along with that giant scorpion and a knight that I based on a square and painted up in Warlord Crusdader colors.

A Matter of Paint

So I just finished my latest batch of ogres. I'll take some pics of them and the giant scorpion that I was working on at the same time.

In between that, I tried to organize my painting area. That did not end well. I did not realize the huge amount of material I was keeping in the window. Probably not the best place for some of it, but the binds were always down.

Anyway, I bought a small shelf and took all of that stuff out of the window. As I organized other stuff that I wanted to move around, I couldn't help but notice that I have a lot of paint.

But... and here's the weird part, I'm still curious as to what's coming out from some of the companies. Reaper miniatures has a thing going on with Heavy Gear to produce a paint set specific to that miniature game. The Army Painter is coming out with their own line of paints. Well, that's not true. They already have one, but its getting a boxed set and they claim that they use different sources for the washes, metallics, and base colors to insure that its the highest possible quality.

And if you hadn't heard, Games Workshop is also redoing their paint line. This doesn't count minor changes to things like Privateer Press metals where they now have a black lid to indicate that its the new formula or brands that blogs like Four Color Figures use, Foundry, or Coat De Arms, which is the old Citadel range.

In terms of paint being used though, it goes something like, knocking over an open bottle, having paint dry up, having paint chunk up, and finally, all the way at the bottom, actually using the paint. I think Chaos Black and general Black are a few of the paints I regularly use up.

So that's me rambling about paint. What's everyone else's thoughts? Too much paint out there already? Not enough paint? Too much 'official' in the game or ?

Minis In Process

Haven't finished them yet and discovered something 'interesting'. The primer that I initially used was flaky and thirsty. It ate the first three layers of paint I put down. The metallics look like they've only had one layer as opposed to three of them (traditional bolt, chain and silver). Oh well, I'm hoping that after I hit them with the inks it will help flush it out some more.

In the back is that giant scorpion. When I use the brown wash, he'll be getting hit with that, as well as some black in some small areas and then a little bit more of a build up. Also noticed that he's got a few broken spines on him. M'eh? Hated him anyway! Little bastard never fit on his base and was a PIA to put together.

Shadowsea Kickstarter

Just figured I'd pop in and mention the Shdaowsea Kickstarter.http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/524168246/deepwars-tabletop-combat-in-the-abyssal-depths/posts/188453

I went with the $175 level. Because it's passed so many of the benchmarkers you get four sets instead of three, terrain, music, and some other goods. Looks like there's one more to go.

Prepping the Next Batch

I have a lot of miniatures. I'm always buying more. Part of it is because I like the appearance of them or get a good sale or gifts. One of the things I've been trying to do, unsuccessfully to a point, is cut back on actual miniature purchases. While I'm still picking up brushes, paints, bases, textures, and other bits I'm trying to hold back on new minis.

This has been difficult for me. You see, I love a good looking miniature. While I don't play Vampire Counts, some of the new figures for the range have been fantastic. Really good stuff like the new Krell figure. It inspired me though to get out my old unpainted Liche Master and Nagosh and see if I can throw some paint on them. Avatars of War also has some great stuff up and coming and it requires a little will power to refrain from it.

But in the meanwhile, I still have a ton of unpainted plastic, resin, and lead around so I'm not suffering too much.

The ogres are part of a battle box I bought many moons ago. After I primed them, I noticed some mold lines so went back in. What's worse though is it is really bad primer. If they weren't plastic I might dip them.

The scorpion is for a Reaper miniatures Warlord faction. I hate it. It's not that it is a bad model, but the back legs are separate and the two sets in front of it, and the tail require a bit of patience and glue and as I've mentioned before, I am a bit of a clumsy oaf so glue on the fingers a few times tonight.

To the far right, you might notice a piece of cork with a shield in it. That's for my 3rd Griffin Knight that I've had almost finished for... I want to say three years? The drive to finish him off died when Confrontation went from an awesome skirmish game to some prepainted plastic crap but since I'm now trying to actually finish off some models....

The two red women are the same model from different time periods. One is the old metal model, the other the new plastic. Both hit up at the same time as the other Khador forces. I finished the others first because they were larger and I was able to hit large plates at a time. These two will require a bit more finesse and so take longer and don't hold my interest as much.

So what is everyone else working on? Anyone hold backing on purchases? Anyone wanting to pick up some limited edition goods but holding back? Everyone in overtime mode?

More Terrible Photographs!

That's a group shot. There are two 'true' 25 mm figures there. The snake man on the far left front row and the gladiator on the far right right row.

These three are 'lesser' orcs from the Reven faction in Warlord. Basing is done with Army Painter Black Battlefield with some flock and ash thrown ontop of it.

Reven lesser bulls spearmen. Did them at the same time as the sword wielder.

True 25 mm snakeman priest. Don't even remember the company. He was in a state of 'almost done' for well over a year. Finally finished him off.

Female gladiator from Mega-Minis. Another true 25mm figure. Some great detail on the shield.

Drow warrior from the very short lived Chain Mail line from WoTC. You gotta hand it to WoTC, when the going gets tough, they quit. ;-)

Type 1 demon aka the Vrock from Otherworld miniatures.

As I continue to read Bulkheads and Blasters, a d6 based game that uses # of successes to determine if you make a roll and if you beat opposition who also uses d6, I'm still painting up figures that may be useful for such a setting. Thankfully some of the Superfigs can pull double duty in being useful for Mutants and Masterminds or another, in this case, minis game. As you might be able to tell from the group shot, he's also a rather large bastich!

So still messing around with the camera. If one of these pictures is the least offensive, let me know!

More Miscellaneia: Grenadier, White Wolf, and Others

That's a Ral Partha Giant (Storm maybe) and a White Wolf figure. I didn't initially have the Trinity figure from White Wolf set up, but one of our regulars publishers a game called Blasters and Bulkheads, review here and I picked up the PDF and decided since I had a few sci-fi dudes sitting around anyway, might as well paint them up. I haven't gotten too far into the game, it seems like a good ole Space Opera with 'jedi' style characters as an option so I may be looking into that in the future more. Its main appeal to me is its skrimish level!

I included the White Wolf guy just for size reference in these pics. The musician orc here is from an old 3rd party company that was doing unofficial Warhammer fantasy style figures. I have a few of 'em around. The horn on this sucker was NEVER going to fit properly so I figure the orc is just getting his breath for another round.

The orc is not necessarily that tall, but damn is he beefy!

This is the dragon from the Dragons of the Emerald Idol Fantasy Lords set by Grenadier. I threw him on the other base that came with the daemon prince. I added the surface effects on his, and the Trinity figure, with a Happy Suppuku mold. I also threw on a few more skulls, a shield, and that big old cross.

The dragon didn't turn out too bad. I hated painting him though and probably will NOT be using him in a game. His wings are super heavy and I hate to green stuff them with a lot of material.

Opinions on D&D Next and Miniatures?

If I'm way off topic here let me know but as a fan of miniatures and someone whose done repaints on the prepaints I had the following thoughts:


1. No core races that are rare or very rare. Yeah, I'm looking at the Dragonborn here. The only way to get a 'common' one, was to buy the resculpt in the visible packages that was overpriced compared to what had come previously. Why WoTC decided to make a brand new core race and not have a ton of figures out for it right away I'll never know. If there were sculpting problems, get better sculptors. They're out there. I don't need to post to dozens of sites to prove it. What's worse was at the same time we were still getting dwarves and elves that absolutely no one needed.

2. Adventure Support: Call me crazy but having a miniature of some of the big bads come out a year or later after the adventure has been out doesn't strike me as good marketing. Having an adventure come out that has immediate support with miniatures on the other hand? Especially if they are well done and can be used in other venues? Win.

3. Dreamblade. What the hell? Miniatures of a similiar size but with prize money that blew anything the D&D miniatures were hosting out of the water? Well, we all know how that ended but man, talk about trying to have your cake and eat it too. If you're going to make another minaiture game, make sure it either doesn't compete with your other one, or make sure that it it extremely useful to the other miniature game and doesn't require people to clip the miniatures off these massive oversized bases.

4. The China problem. Some people hate the idea of anything being made in China due to the various human rights issues. Some people look at current events and see that American workers appear to be more productive, that there are real savings to be had on transportation costs and that the lead time is cut down by months thanks to that improved transportation time. Might be time to you know, start making things in the US again as labor costs on the overseas markets increase. Be a good PR move as well.

5. Bags of miniatures. There has been a Zombie game out for years that allows you to buy a bag of zombies. They have a few other bits as well. These zombies are cheap. Well, relatively cheap. Why WoTC hasn't been able to make something like this is once again, beyond me.

Anyway, that's some things I'd like to see as there has been some talk of miniatures coming out 'soon'.

Priming The Night Away

The top one is the dragon with some green primer thrown over the black primer from below. I'm still messing with underpriming as a paint type. We'll see how it goes.

Latest Batch and Prep Work

Finished off some miniatures and prepping some more.

The gnoll is a touch up from Wizards of the Coast. The thing was initially almsot all black so while I was painting other figures I would throw some paint on it.

The demon next to him is the Heresy one. I had the red on him done for a while as he was my test figure.

The little dragon didn't initially come with a base but if I wanted to prevent it from chipping and tipping over... that's a creature from the Dragons of the Emerald Idol set in the Fantasy Lords box by Grenadier. The last one is a Games Workshop Armored Archer for the Empire done up in Nordland colors.

Same batch just from a different angle with the camera.

These are the guys I was waiting for the inks to dry on. Lots of inks involved with these Chronopia Black Orcs. They have kind of a middle east thing going on. I made the leader stand out a little by changing his base. The figures are some interesting sculpts but I thought these were bad casts. The bases on the 'grunts' are done using Happy Suppuku and green stuff. The leader's base is done up with some army painter flock and gale force 9 dried grass.

And on the workbench...

Yeah, I still haven't hit the daemon prince yet. The dragon in the middle is the large dragon from the Dragons of the Emerald Idol set. I threw him on the round base that the daemon came with if you use it for 40K. Fits well. Threw some skulls and other debris on the base. The last guy is I believe a Mountain Giant from Ral Partha. The original date on the base is 1977. We've come a long way. Have to at least let these set overnight. There's a ton of green stuff on the dragon and a ton of glue. Messing with it, especially it being all metal and only two pieces, wings and body, made me remember that despite my love of these old figures, they could be a huge pain in the ass if things didn't fit and man, those wings did not fit.

Washes, Inks, Glazes or ?

When painting up your miniatures, what does everyone use in terms of washes, inks, glazes and other additives?

I started off with inks for the most part. I bought the really small Citadel pots that were drop squeezer bottles. They were fun stuff. I've never really 'mastered' that process but I still pop inks out to add some 'depth' to a color, to intensify it I guess.

With washes, they seem to do a lot of the work. Games Workshop dropped their inks and went to washes. I remember hearing the collective sigh of the internets that chestnut ink, long a favorite of gamers everwhere for flesh, fur, leather and other bits, was no longer available, but a sigh of relief that the washes, especially sepia and mud seemed to work pretty well.

I have some Andrea paints. Two of the sets I have, silver and gold, come with inks. These are old school and have to be thinned down tremendously. I've been using them a bit with these black blood orcs from Chronopia that I'm trying to finish off. That won't happen tonight as I'm up way past my bed time and waiting for the last round of black ink to dry off. For silver, there's brown, ultra-marine blue, and black inks. For gold, there's chestnut, black, and yellow. That yellow is the last touch I'm looking for but when I do it, I'll also touch up the yellow clothing on the orcs at the same time so it'll be a double purpose use.

And Privater Press has inks and washes. They have a flesh wash and an armor wash and all their other colors are inks. They recommend a lot of thinned down ink glazes over the red for the Khador forces and the thing that is terrible about that, is first, preventing the ink from pooling and creating splotches, and second, waiting for the ink to dry between layers.

Oh well, enough of my rambling. What's everyone else do?

Secret Weapon, Grenadier, Wizards of the Coast

Still messing around with the settings on the camera. Let me know if one of the pictures here strikes a particular balance of, you know, being visible and useful.

The top one is a Dream Blade miniature. That game crashed hard despite WoTC throwing money at people to play. I still have a few figures I'd like to touch up. Happy with the way this one came out. It's very 'Cthulhuisq'.

The second one is an idol from the Dragons of the Emerald Idol in the Fantasy Lords series by Grenadier. I'm working on the small green dragon in the set next. The large one I'm kinda puzzled by what to do with it. I'd need to find a base for it and some putty and pinning for the wings. It's in a kind of goofy standing straight 'what up' pose.

The last one is a nice big chunk of resin from Secret Weapon Games. The skull is actually pretty large. It had no fractures, cleaned up easily and took to the paint well. I used... what I think they call underpriming on it. First black, then ivory, then white. Then the bone triad of paints and then some washes. I only did the spines/horns black because I wanted some contrast with the rest of the skull and red dragons for instance, often have black horns.

Khador Warjacks and miscellaneous

The warjacks are the plastic/resin from the new set. These are not dipped. The 'interesting' thing is that the initial red primer pokes through here and there. It didn't wear out like some primers do which actually caused a bit of a problem as when handling the model you get 'wear' spots and the red keeps poking through. These figures were much easier to assemble and work with than the classics that I dipped but have some minor flaws of their own. The lack of the Khador symbol for one should've been an easy one for PP to put on the hull of the beast considering some of the details here.

These three... ugh. The first one is something something the White Axe from the Celtos line. The second and third are from Reaper. I'd go into more detail about them but the pics are so hideous I think I'm going to try to take some better ones later and see if I can salvage it. But hey, they're done so that's the important thing.