Harlequin Miniatures Skeletons... My first airbrushed.

Well I splurged and I got myself an airbrush for Christmas.  Since I ordered it from eBay and my hose never showed it wasn't able to start using it until mid January.  I decided I wanted to try something simple for my first figures with it.  These 3 Skeletons I got off of Kijiji, which if you don't know its a better version of craigslist that people tend to use more in Canada.  They are by Harlequin Miniatures and they were stamped 96', so they are coming close to 20 years old.  They are nice sculpts though and are available here.  I layered them with 3 colors and then gave them a burnt umber oil wash.  The colors go from ocher brown -> bleached bone or bone white -> 50/50 bleached bone/ white.  I thought they turned out pretty well.  I hope to use these with my new pathfinder rule book I picked up.

I know the picture isnt great.  But I think they look good even with bad lighting. 

#15 Its a Purple Worm!

Here it is, a Purple Worm.  Not a very exciting miniature.  It was an expensive one though.  I ended up getting a speeding ticket in the mail that I got on the way home from picking this guy up.  From what I could find on the internet this is a 1982 Giant Worm miniature released by Citadel.  I guess I can add the Games Workshop tag to my post now right? Any ways what can I say about this other than its a terrible sculpt.  I only say this because I know I can do better than this, and I have.  It wasn't fun to paint, just layering purple, then purple with black wash, then layers of more purple.  The base I made out of Hirst Arts Castle Molds. It looks like the base is 3''x 3'' but its actually about 1/3 smaller than that.  I thought it would look weird if I based him on to large of a base since the mini isn't as huge as it is supposed to be.

The Hideous Maw of the Worm

#14 Granadier 1984 Vampire

I know I said in the past that I have painted to many vampires but here is another. I think this one might be my favorite. Also, I know I am far behind my goal, but I have another couple minis I have painted that I will be posting soon. I think sometimes the pressure of putting together blog posts scares me off of finishing projects. I have about 13 different minis on the go, but I think I have gotten a little bit of a second wind. I feel I can catch up and finish my goal by next feb. They say us Albertans are getting an early winter this year, sounds like a good excuse to spend time inside painting. Any ways here's the figure. Let me know what you think. 

#13 Bones Ogre Chieftain

This week is a pretty simple post.  I finished this bones figure of an Ogre Chieftain sculpted by Jason Wiebe.  I have mentioned before that I did back the Bones Kickstarter I picked this guy up before the kickstarter (still haven't received my minis).  I had based this guy for painting before I started my skeleton archers that I posted about 2 weeks ago.  I am still on track with my goal, although only 1 week ahead now instead of 2. I have a bunch of projects on the go right now.  I bought myself a copy of A Song of Blades and Heroes rules and I am hoping my D&D friends will want to give it a try.  I am trying to get a warband of minis together for that to paint.  I have a bunch of GW lizardmen that I am currently modeling and basing.  I might start painting those after this next week if I can get the bases done.  I also picked up a bunch of old Granadier and Ral Partha miniatures off of my local kijiji classifieds and I am really excited to paint those minis up as well. Ok the thing I really liked about this paint job was how the hair on the legs came out.  I found it looked really natural and blended well with his skin.  Something that I think I could have done better was the wood club.  I kept it kinda dark because of all the other brown tones on this miniature, but I think I could have done a better job highlighting. One thing I will say about the bones minis is although they are cheap (this figure was $2.50 while the pewter was $11.49), the mold lines on them can be terrible and really hard to spot. Thanks for checking out the blog again and feel free to leave comments below.  

Sci-Fi to Fantasy: Space Marines Journy

I did this top conversion about 2 years ago where I shaved off the back pack spot of the emperors champion model to turn him into a knight and I found that it worked pretty good.  No putty was added just some patient shaving with a hobby knife and filing.  

The other day I did the same thing with a chaplain, I am thinking about turning him into some sort of dark cleric.  I shaved his back pack spot off as well as added an old chaos marauders arm for his right hand.  I had to take out a section of the arm because it looks to big for his body.  It looks better now with about 2mm taken out but I think we can all be completely honest and say that GW sculpts often times have strange proportions. I am thinking either a shield or a chain for his right hand but dont have any good ideas for what type at the moment. I mostly just wanted to show some possibilities for your old space marines.

#6 Eldessa, The Necromancer

Six weeks in and still going strong.  This week I chose a miniature that I had started over a year ago but never finished painting. Although she was partially painted before I redid most of the figure except for the metallic shoulder pad.  It was an interesting mini to paint, lots of skin and robes.  To be honest I think I need to get my eyes checked because I see a lot of details in my photos that I don't think I can pick out while I am painting.  I'm sure it is time anyway since I haven't had my eyes checked in over 10 yrs.

The part I liked most about how this paint job came out had to be the purple robes.  My biggest dislike was the sword.  I probably rushed it a little.  Some of you may be wondering why my bases always seem to be a little glossy.  I use Vallejo Glossy Black on the edges of my bases to give it a finished look.  This mini had a base sculpted to it but I thought she would tip over to easily so I pinned her to a simple square base.



Links:
Eldessa, Necromancer Reaper Mini
P.S. TGFRFF (Thank Goodness for Reaper Figure Finder) I couldn't remember what this one was called it was so long ago I bought and opened it.

Woodland Base Inserts (WIP)

I have been looking at some basing ideas for upcoming projects, and came across one on a blog for some woodland basses.  I have a couple of half-lings and wood elves that I thought would look good on a base themed that way.  I pulled out my putty turned on Jurassic Park and started sculpting a couple of logs and stumps.

I sculpted the stumps on little plastic discs I made that slip into the lipped style bases.  Its just a nice way of doing it to make sure that the material is flush the with disc.  The way I made them is just old plastic packaging.  I apologize now for the poor photos, it was late at night when I did these and didn't feel like setting up to take good pics.

#5 Daring Dwarf

This week I thought I would do another little dwarf.  This mostly because I based him the same time as the other dwarf that I did.  I was also excited to do this dwarf because of his fiery beard.  I don't think a lot of miniatures out there pull off red hair very well, but with dwarves it just seems to fit them.   This little guy was fun to paint. Someone commented on one of my earlier posts that they liked their dwarves in blue, so I thought this would be a good color for him. One thing about this figure I didn't like to much was the was the way his cape was sculpted.  It has a weird flow to it. I thought the helmet came out particularly well on this figure, and something I could do better was the boots.  I need to learn how to paint black leather better.  Thanks for checking this figure out +1 it if you like it.

Links: 

Dwarf Crossbowmen

#4 Another Blood Sucking Vampire

I know I did a vampire miniature last week, but wanted to do the other one I had for this week.  I think it turned out better than the last one did anyway. This miniature was a real challenge for me.  There is a lot of detail on the figure that I wanted to capture and really express with different colors, one was the imp. I had completely finished the vampire but hadn't painted that little devil gripping his leg.  I thought that a fire imp theme would look really cool and cause him to pop out in the figure. It almost makes you wonder why they are together when clearly the two are so different.  This figure is again done by Reaper Miniatures and I will include the link for him below.  There are two sculpts for this guy, and honestly if I had seen the other figure first I would have bought it instead. Something I liked about this pant job besides the imp was his robe.  It came out really nicely and contrasts well with the red shirt.  I think I could have done better work on the writing of the book.  I touched up a place where t     he black lines were pretty thick, but I could have spent more time in the area doing some really cool detail.  

 One last thing.  I am using a Cannon Rebel t3 12mp camera to take my photos, but I was wondering if anyone had some tips for helping me improve my photos.  I know lighting is a big issue for me because I am taking my photos in the basement where I paint, but I was wondering if someone out there has seen tutorials for photographing miniatures that have worked for them? Again thanks for checking out my blog, and post your comments below.

This picture has no flash.

Links:

Reaper Miniature: Morrdha Vampire Lord

Epic Morrdha Vampire Lord Sculpt

#3 Damien Mundo

The Vampire Lord Damien Mundo

One of my favorite creatures to throw at my friends when playing dungeons and dragons is a vampire. I think they are one of the best villains you can put in a campaign. They allow your cleric characters feel powerful when they hold them at bay with their religious symbol. They cause your fighter absolute horror when they become dominated. But my favorite thing is when your PC's are just about to finish the fight, they turn into a gaseous form allowing them to escape only to turn up later for revenge. The main vampire we have used in our adventures I named Damien Mundo. I bought this miniature specifically for this character, and every time I put him on the table for game night it has always been a memorable experience. That being said, the thing I liked about this mini was how his armor turned out. I haven't done a lot of non metal colored armor and I should try to do it more. Something that could have been better was his cape, I feel like I kinda rushed it and maybe I will go back and fix it a bit. Overall this was a good mini except for a bad mold line that ran right though the left side of his face. All in all I am glad I finally put some color on this figure.

Links:
Reaper Miniature Vampire Gabriel Darkblood

Cauldron Conversion

Art Ross (left) Stanley Cup (Center)

A few years ago McDonald's put out a line of hockey trophies to sell more hamburgers in Canada, as a result today these babies can be found at most Canadian thrift stores from time to time (not sure if they had this promotion anywhere else).  I was able to round up 3 of them, to convert into dungeon pieces. 2 Art Ross trophies and 1 Stanley Cup.  All I had to do was pull off the cup by twisting until the bottom part snapped off the large base. Once I had them off there was a plastic lip left on the bottem wich was shaved with a hobby knife, and then the base was sanded level. I then primed them black, and base coated with chaos black. I dry brushed the raised detail with Vallejo model color old gold, and then highlighted with a brass. Overall a pretty fast paint job and easy conversion. Even though they are plastic I definitely recommend hitting them with a matte coat sealer just to help them hold up against heavy handling since I just primed right over the glossy silver paint job they had before.  Thanks for checking out this post, and feel free to leave any comments you might have below. 

#2 J27-F2 RAFM Dwarf

The miniature I chose for this week was one that I've had for a while now.  This is a dwarf from RAFM Miniatures fantasy line.  He came in a pack of 3 called the trench pounders (see down below for a link). I have to say they are decent little sculpts, but that I didn't much care for the little base that he came on and I wanted to change that. There is a video done by Doctor Faust's Painting Clinic that teaches his technique for making stone bases (link below). I think the results speak for itself, I definitely will be basing other figures this same way in future posts. I would like to give a shout out to secret weapon washes, I used the stone wash for this base and was really happy with out how it turned out. Something that I really liked about this miniature was the way that his studded leather armor turned out. I mixed a red wash with scorched brown paint to get the color the way I wanted. Something to work on for next time was the shield. I think the red looks good, but it doesn't have a lot of depth to the color. I also could have sculpted something onto the shield to add some flare to it.

You can see how nice the wash worked on the base.

Links:

RAFM Miniatures Trench Pounders

How to Make Stone, Rock, & Tile Miniature Bases

Secret Weapon Washes

#1 January 20-26 Cave Troll

First miniature on the board, and its a good one.  This is a Cave Troll Reaper Miniature code: 77004 from the Bones line. I picked this as my first miniature because I wanted to see if you could skip the primer step with the new Bones miniatures.  Turns out that you can, but it took an extra base coat just to make sure that you couldn't see any of the white plastic that the miniature is cast in. Overall the paint looks good, I think the purple lower lip really added a lot of character to the face of this little guy.  Something I will work on for next time is skin tone highlights. I haven't been very good about painting flesh in the past and tend to get lazy with it. Let me know what you think of this little guy, and give me some suggestions of adventures where a group of PCs might encounter this fellow. 

Link to the miniature:

http://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/troll/latest/77004