#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

#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.

#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