Belched from the Depths

Let's connect on Instagram

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sun, 17 Nov 2019 16:54:00 +0000

I have been unhappy with the Blogger platform for many years, and am always searching for better ways for hobbyists to engage with one another. Instagram is far, far from ideal, but it and FB seem to be where the critical mass of us are, and so I'm giving Instagram an honest effort.

Been sharing a lot last few weeks and lots more where that game from. I'm username warlockofleadmountain. Let's connect!

Plan to keep this blog up and may occasionally post something that can't be said in the short form Instagram format.

Wars of the Roses

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Tue, 26 Feb 2019 13:00:00 +0000

Sharing another WIP project here. When my local historical club embarked on a group Wars of the Roses project last summer, I threw in. I'd already had figures for it and I'd never done a big group project before.

Just time for an off-the-cuff post here.

Here's a force I played recently.

And here they are in the field. This may not have been the same night.

This week I'm finally finishing off the foliage on all the figures, so they'll be ready for their glamor shots. In the meantime, here are some WIP shots from a bit earlier than the above.

Front Rank archers in blue and murray and Old Glory gallowglass.

Did a bunch of head swaps on the gallowglass (there are five sculpts). Does it show?

Dungeon Degenerates WIP

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sun, 17 Feb 2019 19:35:00 +0000

Here's what I'm up to at the moment. Dungeon Degenerates!

I am working to have them literally glow under black light.

Here are some of the paints I'm using. The fluorescent Vallejo colors can be airbrushed successfully (except the blue kind of sucked), and I paint them with a brush, but there they are much more of a glaze, and need to be on a solid, bright foundation.

Got out the airbrush for the first time in a long time:

Before that happened, and actually before the Vallejo colors had arrived, I had started the two that had appropriate paints for already:

I spared no expense to get the white base very white, and the colors to glow. No tricks on any of these photos. Here you can see what a difference in style from my usual:

Here's where I am as of yesterday. L-R in order of most complete:

Two shown are done, and after I took the pics I finished the corpse burner and the next two just need a few tweaks to the base. Another push or two!

And I'll leave you with:

Till next time!

Unknown Painter: Ral Partha AD&D Chimera

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 03 Nov 2018 17:05:00 +0000

I use the Unknown Painter tag on posts of figures in my collection I'd like to share with you, but didn't paint myself. I'm always on the lookout for offerings of figures that meet my standard and fit my style, figure needs, and budget, but they seem as rare as hens' teeth. I might come across one or a group from the same seller every three to five years. This chimera was one such I gladly plunked down for, though, even though I have one of my own to paint one day (that I've had since adolescence), as well as three more from Reaper. I wasn't disappointed.

Ral Partha AD&D 11-414 Chimera

I did take the liberty to make a few modifications. I replaced the base with an ellipse base to fit with the rest of my D&D collection. I would have preferred to do a dungeon style base rather than outdoors, but this figure has one foot resting on a bush and I didn't feel like going in with cutters and Dremel or modeling dungeon debris over it. I also modified the mane, which was the same color as the rest of the fur. I glazed it with richer honey tones and dark tones after some photos of lions found online.

Overall, I really admire the painting. Note the details such as the purple dots in the wings, the eyes and mouths, the treatment of the horns and the highlights on the blacks. Also the nice balance of the black top of the wing and goat head against the red underside of the wing and dragon head.

I was lucky enough to win a few more figures painted by this painter including a sabertooth cat, some cavemen and a group of fantasy pygmies with stone idol, all by Reaper. I'll aim to get pics of them to share as well.

Talisman: The Orc

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Tue, 30 Oct 2018 10:00:00 +0000

Got another orc done for Orctober.

Talisman Orc

I painted him in the bright style of my other Talisman figures, with bright yellow-green flesh and yellow gold. A shield from the nineties plastic orc boyz kit matched the illustration perfectly. At first I wasn't crazy with the shield design I chose or the execution, but I guess it's fine.I tried to match the fur of the illustration closely with mauve and light gray, and like the result.

Orctober: Avatars of War Orc Shaman

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 27 Oct 2018 19:12:00 +0000

I ♡ orcs, but this is the first year I've managed to sync up and get one painted to show before the month ran out. Look at me, I'm participating! 😆 Here's a bit of a departure from my usual figure preferences, an orc shaman by Felix Paniagua for his Avatars of War range.

Avatars of War Orc Shaman

It's funny to me that I consider this a "new school" figure, even though it was released circa 2004 (if memory serves)! If you can believe it, I bought the figure when it was newly released and started painting it right away, and it's another figure I finally finished after well over a decade of life on the workbench. 😮

What's to say about the paintjob? I used a variety of browns, some more yellow base and some more red-base. The flesh was painted straight dark to light and I don't think I used any glazes.

The OSL magic-effect is the obvious focal point, and something I think the figure demands (but surprisingly, when I did a Google image search nearly all I saw didn't go for it). Back in 2004, the OSL potential was the main reason I went for it to include in my portfolio, and one of only a few remaining items cover when I returned to it last week. It's a bit of a hasty job but does the trick.

I like the great variety of materials and items and downplayed most of them, but added a few key details like the treatment of the potion, and the wood grain on the staff-idol.

I bought the figure to create my initial portfolio back when I was starting commission painting, and was busy with actual commissions before I finished, and they pay a lot better than random figures put up on ebay. He doesn't fit well into any of my too-numerous fantasy milieus, another key reason he never got down.

This is a rare example of the style of orc Brian Nelson popularized done well. I tend to like this style of face but loathe the gorilla anatomy that usually goes with it (the plastic GW orcs from the late nineties being the most cringe-worthy, IMO). GW seems to be taking baby steps away from that anatomy with orc (and ork) releases in recent years, but IMO the whole orc range should be superceded the way the primaris marines did the old marines. Meanwhile, this guy here could be added to either an iron jaws AOS band or one made from Gamezone orcs.

Talisman: Rogue, Hobgoblin and Troll

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 20 Oct 2018 18:21:00 +0000

My Talisman project continues to coast along at an easy pace. In addition to what I show here I've got three more almost ready to show after these, just finished cleaning and basing another seven, and I just won a lot on ebay that completed my Timescape set, which will likely follow in 2019. Today, though, you get the Rogue, Hobgoblin and Troll.

The Rogue

Talisman Rogue

Talisman Rogue Illustration

The rogue here is one of my favorites. The illustrated figure has a malign, liquor-infused expression, enhanced by the shadowy rendering and mangy head. The miniature is one of the most faithful to the art.

An obvious personal touch I made was to add hair and beard made from static grass. I took a risk and did this with super glue and tweezers. Would not have been hard to go overboard or slip and get glue where it didn't belong.

I happy with the rendering of the browns, which were built up with scratchy, transparent highlights, dotted with black show wear and lend the pen-and-ink quality, and washed and glazed to bring the right saturation. Love me some Windsor & Newton inks, especially Peat Brown and Sunshine Yellow. Also, glazes made from the classic GW Snakebite Leather.

The Hobgoblin

Talisman Hobgoblin

Talisman Hobgoblin Illustration

The hobgoblin is another favorite illustration of mine, coming at you like an enraged muppet. I like the green and orange palette the texture in the green.

Everything is just right about the miniature, except the face, while fine in its own right, is a significant departure. I resisted the urge to re-sculpt it.

Top objectives in the painting were to get the texture of the green cloth and brown pteruges right, the horns right, the sunny orange skin color right, and add a touch of interest with a a gloss coat on the black of the helmet.

The Troll

Talisman Troll

Talisman Troll Illustration

The illustration of the troll shows a hunched, hulking creature with a huge club that has survived many a beat-down, while the figure has more of a lanky quality, and the club is a tree branch with the bark still on it, so comes off as an improvised weapon. I accepted the difference in body-shape but took action on the club. A good club is made of heartwood. I drilled the end and put a wire sticking out of it, and then enlarged the club with green stuff and worked in many knobs.

The rocks are ceramic. Long ago I had access to a kiln, and made these rocks by rolling out a sheet of bisk with a rolling pin, breaking it up when dried, before firing.

Many green paint and ink pots were opened by the time I was done, and not a few yellows. A little black lining under the warts was a good move on my part.

D&D Werebears, Satyr and Unicorn

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sun, 02 Sep 2018 17:57:00 +0000

Ral Partha 01-118 Giant Werebear

Back-view of the Werebear

A second copy of the same figure

First up today are a pair of werebears or great grizzly bears sculpted by Tom Meier for Ral Partha in 1979 for their first fantasy line. I first painted the one on the left, and since my girlfriend liked it so much, and I had one to spare, I painted her the one on the right. That's why they have different basing, mine to go with my D&D collection and hers with more of a display base. On the surface the painting looks very similar, and that's what I intended, but if you look closely at the high-res pics you may notice the underlying technique is substantially different, with mine being done almost entirely with thin washes over a great-then-white-primed figure (the way I painted the stone giant shown awhile back), and her with something much closer to my usual technique. There was no particular reason for the difference, just different approaches I took on the particular days, months apart, probably entirely unconsciously. Goes to show you can arrive at the same place taking different routes, I suppose.

I believe the figure is still in production at Iron Wind Metals and Ral Partha Europe.

Two Ral Partha werebears

Provoking these bears is ill-advised

McEwan Miniatures MO-9 Unicorn

When collecting D&D figures, I try to limit myself to no more figures of each monster type than the max number appearing listed in the Monster Manual entries, and to have the figures be similar enough to be compatible with one another on the tabletop. Owlbears and goblins are my most notable exceptions to the rule but unicorns are perhaps third-most notable. I'm not sure if this Ewan Miniatures casting is the oldest in my collection, but it is the most naively sculpted. I like the silhouette quite a bit and especially the treatment and placement of the hair, which lends it a dynamism, but less-so the face, the eyes in particular.

Some further random notes on it...

It saw use in a game for the first time a few months ago in a game of Talisman.
I painted it with the P3 Everblight colors, Underbelly Blue and Frostbite (and lots of White, of course, pure White in this case).
My casting was missing the horn and I sculpted the replacement from greenstuff. I hadn't identified the figure at the time or I would have sculpted it more like the original.
The figure is still in production at Tin-Soldier.com, where you can see the original (or see it at the Lost Minis Wiki.

McEwan Unicorn and Ral Partha Satyr

Ral Partha 01-033 Satyr (Pan)

Last up is a Ral Partha satyr, also by Tom Meier, released 1979. The Lost Minis Wiki identifies this as a second version of the figure.

I want a full encounter group of satyrs very much, but finding 25mm satyrs in numbers is difficult. I also want them to be cavorting and adhering to the classical descriptions rather than neutered and ready to fight, as most satyrs are these days. This Ral Partha one is probably by favorite, but is small and scarce, and would look awkward having duplicates of the same pose, but neither would it lend itself to conversion. In hindsight, I wish I would have picked up a handful of the Metal Magic one from Mega Miniatures when they had it in production, and used that single sculpt as a basis for conversions. Eureka make some in 28mm and I wonder how they would fit with 25mm figures. They might do. They have weapons, but you can buy the individual poses, of which there are many, and I could convert them.

Certain illustrations of yesteryear, and notions I have of the early days of tabletop wargaming, compelled me to paint the base in this new green-hued style. If I hadn't painted the unicorn already I would have done it in this style also. I like it, and will probably keep going with it for woodland figures. But let me know if you think this is a mistake.

Ral Partha 01-033 Satyr (Pan)

Satyr and adventurers for size-comparison

Pig-face Orc Shaman

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Thu, 23 Aug 2018 03:36:00 +0000

Another long-WIP figure finished and exposed to the light of day. I started this orc shaman back when I was painting the rest of the orcs but got momentarily hung up on freehand pattern designs I wanted to add to his jewelry and put him aside...for 8+ years. Now that I'm playing D&D again it was as good a time as any to get back to it.

I'm pretty pleased with how he turned out, and it was especially satisfying finishing him off by slapping on some Tamiya Red Clear over the bloody heart and making blood spots, and giving his lapis lazuli diadem a glossy gleam with Future. Also satisfying that I added an orc from the Grenadier Dragon Lords Orcs of the Severed hand box set to the band, as now I've got no fewer than five generations of Grenadier orcs represented!

"Foremost among the orcs is a leering shaman-type garbed in fur and finery, a blue diadem shining from his forehead, a bloody fork in one hand and proffering in the other a bloody, throbbing heart!"

"Roll for Surprise!"

Like the other orcs, this one has a pig snout added, made from green stuff/brown stuff, but is otherwise stock. It's a great sculpt by John Dennett that strikes an imposing figure beside the other orcs. The painting of the blue and gold bands was inspired by photos of real-life shamans and is meant to represent cords made from cloth and gold thread. The cloth of his garment is meant to be something he took from a royal or at least noble personage and conveys his charisma, showmanship and sense of self-worth. Lastly, you've got to love his heart-extraction fork.

Pig-face Orc Shaman from the Grenadier Dragon Lords Orcs of the Severed Hand Box Set

Pig-face Orc Shaman, rear view

Unknown Painter: Malifaux Lilith and Collodi Crews

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 11 Aug 2018 22:03:00 +0000

I did not paint the figures in this post but thought readers might be interested. I don't play with unpainted figures and didn't want to rush my own, so bought some painted figures to play with in the meantime.

Malifaux Mother of Monsters Set (Lilith Crew)

Malifaux Master of Puppets Set (Collodi Crew)

I got the two sets in the same eBay lot and the as I set my bid just for the Lilith lot, the Collodi crew was a free bonus. The Collodi figures are the older, metal figures, which are fine and good, but it was the characteristics of the plastic 2E figures which got me on board with the game.

I all but expected breakage even had the seller been careful, but they were badly packed along with another heavy metal figure, and the damage was considerable. Didn't seem to value their own work. A number of hours went into repairing what should have been ready to play with. The cherub and young nephilim are now a lot more sturdy than before, with metal pins holding them together. The young nephilim in particular are so fragile I would have been more surprised if they had shown up in one piece, and it was the other figures I was unhappy about. Oh well, in the end a nice group of figures and I can loan them out for demos once I have my own painted up.

Malifaux Lilith, Mother of Monsters

Malifaux Barbaros

Malifaux Terror Tots and Cherub

Malifaux Mature Nephilim

Malifaux Young Nephilim

Malifaux WIP on the Workbench

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 04 Aug 2018 15:51:00 +0000

Here are some Malifaux works in progress. More unfinished projects exposed to the light of day!

Malifaux Tooth and Claw Box Set (Marcus Crew)

Malifaux Vengeful Spirits Box Set (Kirai Crew)

Malifaux The Plague Cometh Box Set (Hamelin Crew)

Malifaux Molemen

Malifaux The Drowned

Malifaux Black Blood Shamans

Notes

I said it before but I love these figures! Yes, the bits are fiddly and skill is required, but I love the experience of putting Malifaux figures together and the finished figures are so satisfying as you see zero-undercut parts transformed into a dynamic figure seeming to have as many undercuts the design requires.
I prefer Proxie Models bases to those they come with. I glue the figures with plastic cement to bits of .01" plasticard because the base lip leaves a depression and because I fill the depression, I need the figure's feet to be at least as high as the top of the lip. It may also give a bit better purchase for figures with a small amount of feet surface area.(And the Shaman's don't have white plastic bits as they aren't glued yet.)
It was hard to commit to putting the smaller figures on 30mm bases and these were held up because of it. I prefer figures on the smallest base they look comfortable on, but using a different base size is a sure way to test your opponents patience if you are playing with the rules the game was intended for. In my cases, I wanted them to be ready for my own games but also ready to play with the Malifaux community. You can see I still haven't based the rats and still may go with bases that fit within larger bases for these, though the spindly legs put them at risk of breakage the more you need to fiddle with them before a game.
I'm going with an "empty lot" theme with the bases. Generally speaking I like my bases minimal and unobtrusive, and depicting one of the most common environments the figures would find themselves in. A quick look at the Malifaux map confirms empty dirt would likely cover the most area of various terrain types in places where encounters would take place. The empty lot theme also gives room to be less minimal when I choose, and you can see I've chosen that way for some figures above
Bricks were an element I thought was important to sell the empty lot scene. I made a bunch out of Sculpey clay pushed through a clay extruder tool and chopped with a razor blade. I'm using these sparingly and it's actually hard to spot them in the pics above.

D&D Clubneks

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 21 Jul 2018 16:26:00 +0000

Another D&D encounter group to add to the monster roster.

Rustic borderlanders provoke a group of clubneks

Clubneks are a monster found in the Fiend Folio, described as a mutated form of ostrich in varying shades of green with yellow beaks. I'm using Splintered Light 15mm "Terror Birds," sculpted by Sandra Garrity, to represent them. I get excited whenever I see figures available that are a match for a D&D monster not commonly represented in miniature and such was the case here. The figures match in every way to the Fiend Folio entry (save for the illustration erroneously depicts the creature as too large for the 2HD and "medium" size listed in the stat line), and as you can see, work very well in 25mm, towering over a man with neck extended to full height.

Clubnek illustration from the Fiend Folio

They are a common sight on the borderlands in my campaign and the thief and magic user in the party were reluctantly pulled into an encounter with a few of these as they were serving as guards for a merchant in exchange for river passage. Seeing several of these bright creatures hunting among reeds in a marshy passage of the river, the regular guards got permission to detour for some sport. One died and another was mortally wounded and rescued by the adventurers, who also recovered a slain bird or two and drove off the rest, and later sold the plumage and meat for a fair profit to the trader at the keep on the borderlands.

D&D Clubnek Miniatures

As usual, I collected photo reference of green birds as well as ugly, big-beaked birds. The resulting scheme was inspired by collected picture on the whole, but the brown-headed barbet in the former category and the yellow hornbill in the latter were foremost. I took a bit of artistic liberty with the creature's description to add the purplish contrasting touches and was pleased with the result; it seemed like just what the figures needed.

D&D Clubnek, Splintered Light Miniatures, Sculpted by Sandra Garrity

D&D Stirges and Giant Fire Beetles

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 14 Jul 2018 20:44:00 +0000

More finished encounter groups for D&D! Up today are scratch-sculpted and press-cast stirges and giant fire beetles.

Stirges! Bloodsucking fiends swarm the party

A desperate struggle against the stirges

At least they saw them coming! A fight against giant fire beetles

Scratch-sculpted and press-molded stirges

The stirges from overhead

Stirges Making-of

See my previous post for more on the making of the stirges. Making the stirthe hardest part about making of the stirges. The hardest part came at the end, with the making of the flight stands. After experimenting with drilling a hole in the base and keeping a pin at 90 degrees with greenstuff, I decided soldering was the way to go. I cut squares from steel shingle and rigged up a jig using a "helping hands" tool, a mechanics square and a magnet, holding a pin to the helping hands with a magnet and lining it up with the mechanics square. Even after watching a number of how-to videos and buying recommended solder and flux, I'm nowhere close to getting solder to cooperate. When it melts it seems to run to the spot I want it least to go.

A surprise bonus to this basing method is that I can store the stirges on a metal plate with each stirge atop a rare earth magnet. The intervening .04" black plasticard base perfectly lessens the hold of the magnet to where they nicely stay put without holding so fast there's danger of breakage when I slide them off.

The hardest part was soldering these flight stands

Stirges in AD&D

Stirges are vicious in the AD&D game as they are deadly accurate (attack as a higher HD monster) and suck HP until they are bloated full of blood or are killed. I painted them in the canonical colors, rust-brown with yellowish eyes and feet, and a pink proboscis fading to gray at the base. The size is not specified but I made them scale with the illustrations in the game. These may be the only scale stirge miniatures around, though I seem to recall an offering some years back that was pretty close.

Giant Fire Beetles Making-of

Scratch-made giant fire beetle miniatures

The fire beetles are cast flat in greenstuff in a one-piece mold (insta-mold material) but when I glued them to the base, I first glued a block (of off-cut lead) to the base and mounted the beetle on top of this, and then folded his legs down to glue them to the base. This way they are off the ground at a believable height, and I added a dimensionality to them that a flat casing can't provide. I used blocks made of lead to give them a little extra weight as well. The mandibles being off the ground and separate adds a lot, as does having the thorax.

Giant fire beetles in AD&D

Giant fire beetles are the least of the giant beetles at 2.5' long, but well-protected by their exoskeleton and stronger in a fight than their size implies and can cut deep with their great mandibles. They are so-called for their three red-glowing glands, two above the eyes and one near the back of their abdomen. These models are to-scale (length measured from tip of mandible to tip of abdomen).

Heritage LotR Hobbits / D&D Halfings

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Wed, 04 Jul 2018 18:09:00 +0000

Heritage LotR and Ral Partha Hobbits/Halflings

Halflings for RPGs

A friend of mine and I have been noting an unplanned synchronicity in recent projects for our respective RPG campaigns, my D&D Borderlands campaign and his WFRP. In response to my last post he mentioned his "bartenders, beggars, and drunk halflings."

Well, the synchronicity continues unabated. My campaign starting local is Gygax's Keep on the Borderlands. Well, many years after the original publication, Kenzer and Company published a return to the keep/ send-up for Hackmaster in their usual style, creatively titled, "Little Keep on the Borderlands," wherein are many new ideas and twists to the original, which I'm borrowing as fancy strikes me. One of these is a camp of squatter halflings which adventurers must pass through to reach the camp. So, have my players also been accosted by drunk halflings? The answer is a resounding yes.

That said, my halflings figures are of a more placid, hobbity sort and are only doubling as vagbonds and rascals when the need calls for it. These are actually Heritage Lord of the Rings figures. If I ever do a 25mm classic Tolkien collection, these will be used for the purpose for which they were intended.

Heritage Lord of the Rings Hobbits

For the purist collectors out there here's a pic of just the Heritage ones.

Heritage Lord of the Rings Hobbits

I refer those wishing to know more about these figures to their entry in Lost Minis Wiki. They are taken from the following sets:

1750 The Fellowship
1755 Hobbit Sheriff Command Set
1752 Hobbit Townsfolk

Basing

Something about the figures inspired me to introduce yet another base effect to my repertoire. On the one hand, the oldest vein of retro old school miniatures, and on the other, the way outdoor nature scenes are often depicted in paintings and animation. The most representative example I have to hand are the paintings Eyvind Earle made for Disney's Sleeping Beauty.

Then I went and took the pics against a very yellow-green backdrop, making the intended effect an impossibility. I'll come back and take new pics, though, if/when I get a suitable backdrop, probably made of felt. I'm experimenting with simple, cloth ground coverings lately and having remarkable success. I have been shopping craft online shops and cataloging those I'm interested in for various purposes. I might make a post about this.

Not too much to say about the painting. I matched the colors of the Merry and Pippin figures with those used in the Bakshi films. The figures themselves are linked to the films and the designs from it. I like the scheme I came up with for the Ral Partha one, and am debating whether to continue it with other RP halflings I have.

Sculpting

I also can't go without comparing the sculpting of the Heritage figures with the lone Tom Meier Ral Partha one I also included. Both were made around the same time. I presume the Heritage ones were sculpted in Milliput, or something similar, and the comparatively rough, carved quality of the sculpts is indicative, as I think Meier himself has pointed out. The Meier figure, in contrast, is has a silky-smooth quality he achieved with the different sort of epoxy he pioneered, that became the ubiquitous green stuff we all know.

This is another good example to show all the people who buy into the myth of sculpting progress and the myth of casting progress. This figure sculpted in 1979 is a technical marvel, sculpted as well as anything since, and as well-cast as anything as well. The casting also puts 98% of figures cast today to shame, whether by large or small operations. I invite you to compare to the offerings you find in your local game store today. And this figure is 16mm to the eyes. It is literally 1/3 the mass or less of a halfling figure you might find today, if not 1/4 or 1/5.

Tom Meier Ral Partha Halfling, 1979

I thought I could bang out this hobbit/halfling post in no-time and that's why I chose to do this post over others, but it's taken me a good portion of the morning to make it. Such is blogging. After breakfast I hope to get back to painting peasants. Foundry Perry figures this time. I have 10+ here that need just 2-5 minutes each to polish off.

Oh, and last note, last night I just finished two Custom Cast hobbits/halfings that predate these, but haven't varnished or photographed them yet, so they will have to wait for another post.

D&D NPC Borderlanders

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 30 Jun 2018 19:25:00 +0000

Here are some rustic folk of the sort the players in my D&D campaign are encountering in the borderlands. They'd also work for historical or even Oldhammer, in a pinch.

Denizens of the Borderlands

The children are Citadel sculpted by the Perry brothers, and I think the rest are Soldiers & Swords, but I didn't see them listed in the Lost Minis Wiki. Any help tracking them down?

Peasant Laborers

Slow-witted Villagers

No village is complete without a halfwit or three. Perhaps the guy on the right is merely eccentric, his habits including carrying around rats by the tail.

Perry Citadel Girl and Boy

When the party was mobbed by unkempt children outside Fort Aderath, the party won initiative and the thief snatched away the slingshot as the ranger, no doubt recalling past experience as wilderness camp counselor, clipped off firm, authoritative instructions that had them lined up and marching ahead back to the fort before they could regather their wits.

I'm trying out a new picture setting and a new base style. The bases are meant be as neutral as possible and work inside or outside a village or town setting, or anywhere. I guess I could have made up a town setting for the pics, but already had this one to hand for some other pics I was taking. These figures a good demonstration of why I wouldn't consider any scale but 25mm for D&D. In what other scale can you bring your games to life with ordinary-yet-individual figures like these suitable for any situation, had for a buck each or so?

Old Glory Peasants Carrying Boar

The first of a hundred or more Old Glory peasants. I no longer save the best for last. This duo perhaps best represents the character of my borderlands folk. This is from a wonderful set in the Wars of the Roses range, WOR-24 Civilians with Ox Cart.

Here are the other figures in the set. Ox-carts not shown. I've moved these forward a bit since this pic was taken, and most now have some paint on them.

Old Glory WOR-24 Civilians with Ox Carts (carts not shown)

Also slipping in a few Grenadier AD&D Solid Gold Line adventurers as they seemed to fit the setting. I'm going to rebase the thief here, and I decided not to use static grass or turf on the old figures going forward, I just don't like the look (and the reason there is foliage on the base and it's not painted in the dungeon green-gray like the rest of the adventurers is it had sculpted foliage I didn't feel like carving off or explaining away as dungeon debris). I replaced the bow on the ranger with a plastic one from Eccentric Miniatures.

Grenadier Thief from the 2007 Females Box Set

Grenadier Ranger, also from the 2007 Females Set

And lastly, here are a few more pics with the cavern backdrop for comparison. I realized afterward I had forgotten to include the old guy with the rat. The second pic includes some other NPC types I painted earlier that also seem like borderlands denizens, along with a newly painted blacksmith. I'm particularly fond of the Perry Citadel citizen in the light blue tunic for being brilliantly non-descript, a true any-man with a in-game utility value outweighing all the rest by an easy margin. what scene of town or country folk would this guy not be at home in, and how many different NPCs could he represent in the course of a campaign? We need more figures like this, please.

Denizens of the Borderlands

Otherworld D&D Stone Giant

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 23 Jun 2018 17:22:00 +0000

Here is one of my favorite figures in my D&D collection, an Otherworld stone giant sculpted by Paul Muller. I'm also introducing a new style of photos for the D&D figures, with more like these to come.

In Strides the Stone Giant

Otherworld D&D Stone Giant

After basing, I primed the figure with black, gray and white Dupli-Color, then painted the figure with many washes before finishing with highlights and black lining. A stone giant should be camouflaged in his native surrounding, and so I used a strictly minimal palette. I let the white of the primer show through. I think you can see the texture of the primer and washes in the high-res pics and it strengthens the stone effect. The result is a good example of a figure that please me more than most in my collection, but that is unlikely to win a prize.

Otherworld D&D Stone Giant

This iconic sculpt is among my favorite of all time done in the D&D vein. Any who have thumbed the original Monster Manual will recognize this as being done after Dave Trampier's stone giant piece in that book.

Mordheim Undead Gang

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 16 Jun 2018 09:00:00 +0000

To all you with projects languishing for years on your workbench, I offer hope, for if I can finish my projects, so can you! I'm one of the worst offenders when it comes to open projects, and here's more proof of both my failings and how I'm overcoming them. I started my Mordheim undead gang so long ago I can't remember exactly, but it was some time between 2005 and 2007, well over a decade ago!

Mordheim Undead Gang

I played my first game with these at Kublacon 2018 and Sean over at Sean's Wargames Corner made a great after action report.

As I was making up the gang I was mildly surprised that while the vampire has four special rules (not counting the standard "leader" rules) but his real supernatural abilities were expressed more in his raw stat numbers. In the game I played he was, in truth, a terror, and people around me with more Mordheim experience than I have confirmed a fearsome reputation precedes him. His minions were taken out in the course of the game but I found myself unconcerned, and as they dropped I had the Vampire charge straight into the fray and assault the opposing leader, shrugging off an assault to his rear and executing his agenda, winning in the end. Not alone, though, but with some strong flanking help from the neighbor possessed gang in this multi-player game.

Reaper Matthias the Twisted, Vampire

I shared the vampire in an earlier post. I realize I probably should have painted his base edge brown for consistency, but for the figure on his own black is more appropriate, and that's the call I made. All I would add is that I have several other vampires yet-to-be-painted that that would also work well in Mordheim, including a standard Mordheim one, a Mordheim courtesan one, and a Warhammer Lamia. Given all the undead figures I have yet to paint, it's not unlikely I'll have enough to make a second gang, should friends and I want to play them against each other.

Mordheim Necromancer

This is a stock Mordheim necromancer. All of these figures were painted over white primer, which is one reason I know they were started in 2007 or before, because in 2007 I joined the cult of black Dupli-Color. While the white probably hindered more than it helped, especially with a gritty undead gang, it did let me experiment with building the leather clothing of the necromancer and gravedigger mostly with washes, glazes and weathering. On the necromancer, the wear on the edges of the leather are actual wear, and rubbed the washes off a little to expose the white. I did an iridescent effect on the skulls, like mother of pearl.

Reaper Gravedigger

Reaper humans are too tall, IMO, to mix in generally with Mordheim figures, but the vampire and gravedigger are conscious exceptions as they fit right in towering over their fellows. The gravedigger in particular is better off for being very tall and slender. Did some OSL here per the demands of the figure, but was restrained about it to suit my own preference for how I want him to look on the tabletop.

Mordheim Dregs: L-R Reaper Monkey, Metal Magic Hunchback, Mordheim Dreg, Reaper Gravedigger

The stock Mordheim dregs are great. Here's one of them, second from the right, and the other is still to go. Can you confirm these are Perry figures? All these years I thought they were, and with older figures, I can spot the Perry style anywhere but the Mordheim figures are their most naturalistic, and show fewer of the signature Perry idiosyncrasies. The Mordheim figures such as the mercenary gangs were the best they ever did for the Warhammer side of things, sort of their swan song. Why I can't recall or tell for sure, though, was there were other great sculptors working at the time such as Juan Diaz.

Along with those I found several other figures from other manufacturers I had to say yes to, and wound up with more than rules allow in a single gang. The monkey is from a Reaper familiars pack, and putting him in this gang fulfills its purpose of existence. It and Mordheim were inexorably brought together. A friend pointed out my Mordheim building needed more fish. I hope I've delivered the fish here! The second from the left is by Metal Magic, purchased from Mega Miniatures when they held the license. He has a minor conversion so he's holding a scratch-made cleaver. Later I got a second copy of this figure to use in D&D, and I thought I had shared him on this blog many years ago, but a quick search hasn't turned him up. Took new pictures of him in a recent photo shoot, though, and have a lot of D&D to share coming up.

Mordheim Zombies: L-R Dwarf, Sister of Sigmar, Marienburg Mercenary

These Mordheim zombies are great, aren't they? These were a later mail-order addition to the range, and I might have got them around the time Games Workshop were making a round of their signature bad decisions, and closing the doors on Mordheim. I recall at the time I was thinking these are Juan Diaz figures, but can't find immediate confirmation here on the web and can't recall if I read that or was guessing. As with the dregs I'd be grateful if you know and could confirm. In addition to these two I have the witchhunter and the dog still to go, and for whatever reasons I passed over the elf and the guy with the wide-brimmed hat. I found a blog post by a fellow painter if you're interested in seeing them all.

Self-consciously, I added a wink to my boyhood self with these zombies. In a post showing some of my early figures I talked of the pressure I felt as a young painter to use all three primaries plus green. Well... here you are, all three primaries plus green! :D This was funny to me because the scheme overall is so heavy with browns and neutrals, and I wasn't trying to add contrast as seeing what I could get away with in weathering the strong colors down to where they would blend and not break the overall scheme. The figures themselves all but demanded I do this, though, because Sisters of Sigmar and Marienburgers have defined colors, in this case red, yellow blue (and I'm follow cannon except where there is a good reason to break with it). Once I'd committed there it wasn't a stretch for me to decide to go all out and give the dwarf a strong green.

The dwarf has a great hanging eyeball effect I liked so much I later duplicated it with greenstuff on a D&D zombie. For the sister, I used some Walking Dead stills as reference, and that made all the difference in me getting the Sister just right. An awesome sculpt like this demanded some extra investment, and the colors I found using the Photoshop eyedropper were more mauve/murray base than what one might typically think of as zombie flesh colors, and then blue touches to add a death-like cold cast. The eyes have an orange cast.

Reaper Ghouls and Ghast

At the time I suppose I was choosing between these, the Morley 1990s ghouls, the later Paul Muller ones and the official Mordheim ones. I think these may have been new or newish at the time, they were released in '05, and they're by Ben Siens. I don't remember if I had feelings about the official Mordheim ones but for whatever reason, I passed over them. I found a good picture of some painted ones here, if you're interested: http://warhammerfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:Crypt_Ghouls_Vampire_Counts_Mordheim_Miniatures.jpg. I'm pretty happy with mine, though. The hair, hunched poses and gruesome visages full of teeth helped clinch the win for these. Ghouls can't earn experience points, so no chance of one of the standard ghouls having "talent" and becoming a hero, which would have been a cool possible entry path to use the larger ghast model. Maybe I'll make a special character for him, and of course I'll use him as a ghoul if I need a third one. Using Tamiya Gloss Red for blood on the snacking one was the final step I did before taking the pictures, and it was satisfying in a cherry-on-top way. Also, did you notice the one minor modification I made to the stock models?

Reaper Hellhounds

Last up are these Reaper hellhounds, or dire wolves, in Mordheim game terms. I was and am thinking of them as black dogs of yore like the barghest rather than wolves. these are by Jason Wiebe and the release date isn't mentioned on the site. For these and all the Reaper figs I followed a laborious basing procedure, cutting the top surface out of the base, trimming the sides of the thick Reaper bases, and embedding the one in the other. In summary, it feels great to polish these off and put them in the case, and be fully prepared for classic games of Mordheim, with figures if not with terrain. Between now and when I'm ready to host games here in San Diego I'll probably have a few opportunities to play with friends up north, as I did at Kublacon this year, and best of all this is one more project crossed off my unfinished list of shame!

Malifaux: Sabertooth Cerebus

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Tue, 12 Jun 2018 00:24:00 +0000

Given my old school bent it may surprise you learn I'm nuts about the plastic Malifaux figures. I like everything about them and they scratch an itch other figures don't.

This is the first one I painted but there will be more. This is from the Claw and Fang box for the Arcanists faction, lead by a guy named Marcus.

Malifaux Sabertooth Cerebus

My plan for these was to have a muted, controlled, horror-vibe pallet after the painter Beksinski and games like Bloodborne. Following the artwork on the box, they will also have blue-green in the shadows or under-lighting. I haven't adhered to the plan entirely and getting them right has also contributed to the project going on to long.

In the meantime, I bought a set painted by someone else on ebay to play with, as I wanted to try the game and life is too short to play with unpainted figures, and I've noticed that bright, vibrant colors are the norm. The dark, horror aspect of the line tends to be downplayed. I'll share those figures in a future post.

However the figures turn out, I plan to go full bore for the Bloodborne pallet in a cemetery terrain set I'm making that is large enough to cover a board, be it for Malifaux, Mordheim or another game.

I decided that game-wise I had to concentrate on one thing if I was going to succeed and I made it my D&D campaign for now, and not sure if/when I'll play the actual Malifaux game again. The community in San Diego is great but the game is played very chess-like, whereas I need immersion to be wholly satisfied with the experience. "Someday" may try some RPG-like short scenarios linked as a campaign with backstory on the interactions between the masters involved and plots afoot in the streets.

Any readers collect and paint the Malifaux figures?

3 Necromunda Scavvies

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 09 Jun 2018 09:00:00 +0000

I continue to finish figures long languishing on the workbench. With the addition of these three, my scavvies could be put into action, though I'd like to have another scaly and some zombies first. WIP shots of two of these converted figs can be seen in my previous posts on scavvies.

Left to right these are a converted Marauder Miniatures scavvy (Aly Morrision), a converted Gorkamorka ork, and a lightly modified Grenadier Future Warriors figure (Mark Copplestone).

Seems I didn't get a pic of the figure with spiked mace before I primed him. At that point I had replaced his hands and weapons and added to his nose and chin to make it clear he was wearing a mask (I don't think that was the intent of the original sculpt). In this pic here I've cut him at the ankles and made him taller, and modified his raiment. After this picture was taken I also added a belt.

By now you know how I am about reference pics. Here's the reference I used for this figure's tabbard in case you're interested. His tabbard is a source of status and the envy of his peers, a relic from the world they're cut off from.

Talisman Swashbuckler, Sprite and Gipsy

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 02 Jun 2018 17:39:00 +0000

I continue the Talisman series with three new figures to share.

Talisman Swashbuckler

The Swashbuckler sculpt is spot on, except he has no mustache. I have to wonder if it was sculpted and fell off during the molding process. I'm pretty certain this has happened on other figures I have that have half a mustache, as the only way I can think this could have happened was that the other half fell off at some point. And it makes sense that it would fall off, being a tiny bit of greenstuff sitting atop a smooth surface, probably added after the rest of the face was cured.

I sculpted a new one from greenstuff and thought that letting it stick out away from the face would add a bit of dimensionality that a straight casting couldn't offer. Thin greenstuff is usually flexible and durable after curing. I've sculpted cords with it that are thin and remain flexible after painting. But the mustache here turned out brittle, broke, and had to be glued. End result looks good, though.

Another feature I worked to bring out in the figure is the arrogant way he is literally looking down his nose at his opponent.

Talisman Sprite

Talisman Gipsy

D&D Harpies

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 19 May 2018 19:21:00 +0000

I shared the harpies and the customizations I made previously while they were WIP. Today, here they are finished.

Grenadier and Ral Partha Harpies

I admire both sets of sculpts, the Grenadier ones by Sandra Garrity and the Ral Partha ones by Bob Olley, and what's better is how well they go together, even down to the exact same style base, with similar ground details sculpted on. I'm not sure which came first, but it's as if one sculptor had copies of the others work in hand while sculpting them.

I chose a straightforward color scheme. In my D&D campaign they guard a certain mountain pass and get a lot of sun. I could have got fancier with the wing coloration but kept it dark and minimal, and used vultures as reference.

Ral Partha Harpy

Grenadier Harpy

Ral Partha Harpy

Grenadier Harpy

From the time I put these on my wish list it took about five years of patiently sifting eBay listings before a promising lot of either the Grenadier or Ral Partha ones showed up. If you persist as a 25mm fantasy collector for very long you'll learn patience if you didn't have it to begin with. And then, as these things sometimes go, a lot of the other ones showed up, and then several more, and I wound up with at least six of the Grenadier and a dozen or more the Ral Partha ones, as well as several of the single Alternative Armies sculpt Olley sculpted for them in the exact scale and style as the Ral Partha ones. Enough for a good sized unit in a fantasy army. These are the first, but some day years from now I may get around to doing another round or two. In the meantime, five harpies are more than a match for any adventuring party likely to grace my dungeons.

D&D Scratch-built Ogre

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sun, 13 May 2018 04:08:00 +0000

I finally finished the first of an ogre encounter group I started in 2012!

Ogre

Here's how I made him (pardon the crappy picture taken from too close):

Ogre WIP

The body is from a HeroClix "Bi-Beast" figure, with the legs cut and extended either side of the knee. The arms are GW orc arms with green/brown stuff to soften the muscle definition. The orc hands were too big even for an ogre, so I switched them for goblin hands (it was the era of big hands, what can we say). The feet are press-molded from a HeroClix "White Martian" figure. The "warty bumps" are to Monster Manual spec and are just sand glued on with superglue. I imagined them as something like human keratosis pilaris and placed them in line with this. I sculpted the head and the rest of it.

HeroClix Bi-Beast

Back when I launched my D&D project I gave ogres a lot of consideration, but I had a particular vision of them with longer legs and a smaller head than the figures I was seeing. I don't like the long-running trend of making giant humanoids (except for fire giants) more dwarf like than human figures.

My first thought was to sculpt over Marx cavemen, which I think may have been used in the original games in Lake Geneva. I settled on this bi-beast "chassis," though, which I also used for a hook horror and umber hulks (still WIP).

The base was an experiment that took too long to be practical for other figures. I did a thin layer of concrete patch (which I do a part at time and then let dry or else the plywood base would warp), then green stuff stones as thin as I could make them. Looks great but takes too long. You can see I also changed my mind after initially going with an oval base. The round one is 33mm cut to order.

I like him a lot, especially how the face turned out, but would make a few changes if I did him again. I'd make the legs even longer, give him a paunch, change the ear design a little more in line with the Monster Manual illustration, and maybe do the neck a bit differently. I had put these choices into play in further ogres I'm working on, which I'll share in a future post, though I never made the legs fully as long as I would have liked. In a world of unlimited time and projects I would have a go at sculpting a range not using parts.

Talisman Timescape: Archeologist and Scientist

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 21 Apr 2018 11:00:00 +0000

Today I have the first two Timescape figures I've painted. I have a few more in the backlog but not all, and I think I might have ebayed the Astropath I had long ago. I know I have the Cyborg and Space Pirate and one that would do well as an alt-astronaut. Might have the Space Marine and the actual Astronaut.

One thing I learned while writing this post is that these were sculpted by Trish Carden (formerly Morrison). There's an attribution on a color catalog spread. Seeing this, I went back to find attributions for the rest of the range, and I found what I think shows the first 29 figures in the range attributed to Aly Morrison. I couldn't find attribution for later figures such as the Talisman Dungeon group, but I am interested in learning. Anyone know?

Talisman Archeologist

Very pleased with how the archeologist turned out and think I drew a good bead on the colors from the illustration. I like having good reference to work from and for someone to have already thought through the colors. Sometimes I'm held up on starting a figure as I decide on colors. It also makes a game of it. How close I can hit the mark with the paints I have. I painted the hat last and with a coat of GW Charadon Granite, it struck a chord with the other three main colors and I knew I had it. Citadel Spearstaff Brown, which is a dull yellow, not brown, is another favorite color that worked great here. As a base for yellows it can't be beat and I'll be seeking this out from Coat'd'Arms when I run out, but still have some left and going strong more than 25 years after purchase!

Talisman Scientist

I made two small modifications to the Scientist. First, I bulked out the back of his head as it lacked bulk along that axis. Next, I made temples for the glasses made from very thin wire (very, very thin wire). Not too much else to say. I followed all the colors of the illustration per usual.

Grenadier AD&D Gold Line WIP

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sun, 08 Apr 2018 16:24:00 +0000

A thread on the Lead Adventure Forum prompted me to gather all the Grenadier "Solid Gold" line stuff I had on the workbench, and this is what I came up with.

Fighting Men and Thieves

Fighting Men, Thieves and Hireling

Some of these are weapon-swaps and/or fixes, for example I fixed the mask the guy on the top second from the left which was skewed pretty badly in the molding process. The female thief was pretty delicate at the ankles and I have steel wires reinforcing her legs, so now she is rock solid. I resculpted the dagger over a wire so it can point out from the body in a natural way. The axe, mace, sword and shield are all from Eccentric Miniatures plastic weapon sprues. I love these and they are perfect for 25mm!

Mindflayer

Dwarves

I try to collect one and only one encounter group of each D&D "monster" type, but how would that be possible for dwarves? I don't have that kind of will power. Love these Chernak dwarves despite the ape arms, and they size well with others from Citadel and Old Glory's Ghost imprint (the Ghost one here is actually shortened by me having removed a bit of his legs and repinned him, but I did that before I mixed him in with these and you can see now he's shortest among them).

Gnomes

Somehow, over the years I've amassed this many gnomes, almost all from random assortment ebay lots. I thought about converting some, but decided life was too short, in this case. The king is the one-piece version. There's a Citadel gnome among them, too, a Perry sculpt I'm really fond of.

Goblins

Some Wizzards and Warriors line "kobolds" are mixed in. The main difference is the kobolds had tiny feet, so you can see I enlarged them (after I primed them). I love that I have mounted and foot versions of the leader-type. Most of the others are stock, except for the one axe converted to polearm, and the helmet of another axeman modified. Also, did you spot the converted Gold Line dwarf? It was a fun exercise matching the goblin faces with a sculpt of my own.

Aspis

Collecting this many aspis was also something of an endeavor that took a number of years of watching ebay. I think I even have one more somewhere. Also like with the gnomes, I wanted to do a conversion or two, but it would have been a real challenge. I did separate the antennas from the proboscis, though, and add back some details with green stuff. I left one stock, as one with this pose seems fine, but more than one seems odd.
Still to come, I've got one more group I have yet to photograph—gnolls.

1st Mordheim Building - Laser-cut "Terror Tower" by Flying Tricycle

noreply@blogger.com (Ryder) — Sat, 31 Mar 2018 11:00:00 +0000

A table's worth of Mordheim terrain has long been one of my "some-day" projects tucked in the back of my mind. Then recently there were two unconnected events—finishing painting a long-WIP undead Mordheim gang, and wanting to have a go at a laser-cut building—that let lead me to make one of my signature project detours. I actually finished this detour, though, which is less characteristic. And in less than a month, start to finish (mid-Dec to mid-Jan), which is even less-so.

I picked the OOP "Terror Tower" kit from Flying Tricycle (which was released when Mordheim was in print, I believe) and started right in. And after quite a journey, I finished it:

It's a nice kit, even though there are aspects that are hard to explain, for example too many windows without room for shutters, and what are those balconies for. The railings, if I was to make a railing from square dowel to go around, would also be too low, (plan to come back and do something about them if/when I think of a good solution—or can you think of one?).

There is more detail, or laser-time invested, than the average kit today, most notably the whole of the outside walls beside the visible timbers has been engraved to make the timbers raised. It's also cut from plywood, which is more expensive than the more common MDF. This is a mixed bag as it's great where the grain of the wood aligns with the grain of the engraved wood planks of pieces that represent wood, but less helpful when the grain cuts across the planks the other way, or is mean to represent daub, brick or stone.

WIP shots:

Seems like a unqualified success, right? The thing is, though, it took me 23 hours 40 minutes. 5 or 6 is closer to what I would have liked. Recording all the time you spend on your hobby has its perils, I warn you.

Part of it can be chalked up to learning something new and experimenting. I went to lengths few would think necessary, such as designing, cutting out and installing a sheet of window frames for the inside walls (no engraving on that side, I'm afraid), texturing the walls with acrylic paste (the kind made from powered marble), and texturing and rescribing all the stone and brickwork.

Love the result (do take a look at the high-res version) and I answered my question, can I make laser-cut brick look the way I think it should, but also confirmed that if there's a next time it will need to use a different method. A big part of the reason I went ahead with this is that I take a very long-term view and I want to get a sense of how much time a full-size Mordheim table would take. This experiment proves I need to go back to drawing board and come up with a faster means. I have a few other less-complex resin ruins in the works too, which so far are less demanding.