Mourningcloud

doing some thread necromancy here; the next time you do this kind of conversion where you are doing sword hilts or other metal parts, use brown stuff instead os green stuff. I sculpt small parts decently well, but I could not have avoided the lumpyness that you got. However, if you used brown stuff, you could just sand it smooth with a jewelers file/emery board, thereby removing all the lumps and giving it the exact shape you want. Green stuff is not nearly so easy to sand as is brown stuff.

You realize this is the doom all of us as mini painters face. There was an old dragonmirth cartoon from a Dragon Mag back in the late 80's where an exhausted guy stumbles out of a game store and gasps, "I Finished! I finally painted all my lead miniatures! I stopped collecting years ago, and it has taken me this long, but I finally painted every lasT miniature in my collection!" And then he falls over dead. The guy he was talking says to the girl next to him, "I always suspected that would happen..."

Clerics and / or fighters in plate with spears or long spears (which will of course be used to represent clerics with longspears). It is a brave new world. Clerics use piercing and slashing weapons now. Please adjust accordingly (or at least pose a cleric with no shield, holding his mace at such an angle so my spear-for-mace weapon swap doesn't look ridiculous) Also, fewer paladins with hand crossbows. Really, just silly. It killed the best paladin mini I have ever seen.

Also, Ebay is a good place to get some WOTC plastics in bulk. I fleshed out the ranks of my elf, dwarf, wolf, worg, ogre, dragon, orc, sahuagin (great mini!!), hobgoblin, kobold (lots of good ones), and bugbear (several great models) collections by buying 3-12 ar a time. For transportable minis, you can't beat em. Er, actually you can beat 'em- beat 'em, whack 'em, flick 'em across the gaming table at annoying players/DMs, drop 'em out the third story window of the hotel you're con is at; they can take it. Though I don't recommend the out-the-window part; some of the heavier ones can do some serious damage to a car or a pedestrian or a wandering rickshaw boy. Most on this board poo-poo the plastics, but their kobolds are as good as anything Reaper or anyone else has made (there is even one with a pick!), and where else can you get transparent fire/water/ice elementals? They come pre-painted if you are in a hurry, but are easy to paint over if not up to your standards (and many are really not that bad). One last thing I recently learned-the paint they are painted with is a plastic based paint, and sticks to the base plastic of the minis better than paint sticks to metal or even primered minis (I tried rubbing it off-it doesn;t work so well.....) However, this also means that plastic based paints you paint over them (such as reaper or GW) will stick just as well; better than to primered metal. I know this from experience, as the well-layered blonde hair I painted (and never sealed!) on my gnome rogue has never chipped or flaked, and it lies squished with a bunch of other gnomes and dwarves in a compartment of a plastic case.

Funny you should say that. Last night my paladin witnessed Lord Robilar and Rary the Traitor square off against Lady Karistayne (paladin 17 of Heironeous) and Tenser the archmage in the Darkbridge temple (which turns out has a connection with the imprisonment of Tharizdun) in the middle of the Bright Desert, at the conclusion of the Blight on the Bright Sands story arc of the RPGA's living greyhawk camplaign. SHame I didn;t encounter you earlier on the reaper board; I would have sucked you into the best ongoing campaig currently in existence. Greyhawk is alive and kicking in 3.5, it has been since 2000. There are currently 20,000+ people worldwide playing in Gygax's beloved Flanaess, all using the exact same rules. I have gamed with excellent players (both roll- and role-) from Canada, Britain, Australia, and all over the US. The best part is I can take my character, walk up to a living greyhawk table anywhere in the world, and be ready to play at a moments notice without having to make any changes. No ridiculous home game quirks to deal with such as "oh, we play a modified 3.5 where we still use the thaco method for attacks, and we allow the demi-human multiclasses from 1st edition, which our DM has lovingly converted to 3.5; let me spend the next hour and a half describing to you how it works (sounds of me gagging heard in the background)", or even better, "sorry-we dont allow half orcs into our game, but you couldnt play him anyway because paladins are not allowed to start with a level of monk, just because our DM said so". As I said, A shame because it was announced they are ending the current living greyhawk campaign at the end of 2008, and starting a new living forgotten realms game using the new 4ed rules. In fact, most of us who play Living Greyhawk are still in shock. We expected this campaign to go until around 2010. Anyhoo, nice to meet a fellow 'Hawker. Gary, who's characters first terrorized the Flanaess in 1985.

This is actually great news for those of us who travel to game. Its a pain to lug around metal minis; they are heavy, and heaven FORBID you drop your box. And let's not even mention how your carefully painted metal mini gets treated by the meaty paws of those hamfisted lackwits at a gaming table. But just TRY to damage the paint on a prepainted plastic. It takes some doing. Also, I learned a secret: plastic minis (at least Wizard's D&D minis) hold paint YOU paint onto them really, really well. It was explained to me that its because the paint they use has alot of plastic in the filler, so it naturally adheres well to the plastic minis. And the paint most of us use also has plastic in the filler so it adheres equally well to the paint already on them-much better than paint (or primer) adheres to bare metal. And Voila, a very durable paint job. The plastic minis I have painted on are thrown casually into a box with dozens of others, which I carry to games all over Southern California, and I have yet to see one lose a chip of paint. I love my metal, but I leave it at home. Viva la plastic! Viva Reaper!

You must be playing a different game than I am. In d&d, with 4-6 player characters (not counting summoned creatures, pets, mounts, etc), X number of monsters, NPC's, terrain, etc; I absolutely want to know exactly where I am. There's no way I am going to let the DM fireball the entire party and just say "....uh, yeah sure, it will get all of you" when I know I am more than 50' away from the guy at the other end of the party. And if your characters are ugly, stop shopping Werner Klock's minis and check out some of Bobby Jackson's faces, which only a mother could love.

Yet you show as "godlike" on a messageboard dedicated to miniatures Yeah, I get it; you are one of those mini-ophiles who also roleplay, but don't mix the two. I shall attempt to enlighten you (with tongue firmly inserted into cheek, mind you). First of all, for many of us, the game was presented to us this way (myself included). This is because the game was originally intended to be played with miniatures. That's how Gygax and Arneson and the others did it. That's how they wrote it, in fact. And the rules to version 3.5 (the newest and by far best version of the game ever) include the use of miniatures as an integral part of the game. And for myself, having that great mini that truly represents your character is one of the best parts of the game. Its like reeses dude-two great tastes that taste great together.

Once again I get into a really good thread a few days late, but like all gamers I couldn't resist putting in my two cents. In my campaign, the RPGA run Living Greyhawk, there around 30,000 players, many of whom belong to a messageboard dedicated to sharing ideas for character creation (both interesting roleplaying concepts and cheese-weasel, killer class/ feat combos). Here are some that I like: Barbarian at first level, and cleric for the rest of the career. One of the most common and best multiclasses out there. Get mithral full plate and you move 30' (barbarian fast movement works in medium armor). Buff yourself for combat, heal yourself (and others!), take power attack and the destruction domain, cast divine power or righteous might and make all the straight fighters and barbarians eat their little hearts out. "Reformed" half-orcs work well here for fun roleplay. Ranger/rogue two weapon fighter. Dwarf for a nice departure from the norm. Hobgoblin would be downright creepy, especially with human as favored opponent. Monk/ranger archer. My own idea; jack your wisdom up for spot/listen and spells, then take Zen Archery (lets you use Wis instead of Dex for ranged attacks). Monk lets you use wisdom for AC, unarmed strikes give a nasty surprise to anyone who gets too close and thinks you can't get any attacks of opportunity with a bow in hand. Evasion and great saving throws give you lots of staying power. Tattoed monk gives further cool points. Rogue/wizard Arcane Trickster (DMG Prestige class-no other zany books needed). Go Invis, hit the baddies with ray/orb spells o(rbs are in Spell compendium) and add sneak damage to it. Wicked! Gnomes/halflings/ (even kobolds!) work well here, as they have good dex and decent ac bonuses to make them hard as a dickens to hit. Paladin/rogue. Lots of cool stuff here-there is a feat in Complete Adventurer that lets you take rogue levels and still advance as a paladin, plus combines your smite with your sneak attack to stun opponents. There is even a prestige class (shadowbane inquisitor) that combines the two. Bard/marshall. The ultimate party booster. Any fighting class with Dodge/Mobility and Elusive Target (from Complete Warrior). Fighter/wizard, then spellsword (from Complete Warrior). Basically makes you a walking spellstoring weapon. Lets you cast spells in armor too. Hexblade. No one expects a de-buffer in D&D. works well with a cleric in the party also casting debuffs-hexblade curse stacks with wave of grief, curse of ill fortune, doom, etc. And there is something cool about your party face being non-good and relying on intimidate rather than diplomacy. With druids, either go pet route (beastmaster works really well for this-uber pet!) or wildshape route, in which case a big cat and the feat that allows you to pounce will shred most bad guys. maybe a cat-eyed half elf character. Have a big cat pet too, and voila-you have a theme. Hope this helps-it seemed most other posters were a little more vague; not sure if that was what you wanted.

Don't be so quick to say this, as I said before, sometimes 'twink' builds aren't as powerful than you think. The +2 Level Adjustment for Drow is a BIG drawback. I haven't seen a whiff of a Drow since they made them that +2 LA (origionally they were only a +1 LA). Other than some fanboys, most people will know better (I've seen regular Elves that looks suspiciously like a certain Drow). Sounds like you have a good game going Dragon. 32 point-buy makes some pretty tough characters, but nothing too ridiculous-they still have weaknesses as well as strengths, and generalists can be decent in all regards without totaly dumping at least one stat. I like a 30 point-buy myself; that 28 point-buy reeeeally makes you carefully consider where those points go. As far as the drow thing goes, in a campaign like living greyhawk the +2 level adjustment is meaningless. Tables are organized by average party level (APL). So you take your drow rogue3/ fighter3 (who according to the level adjustment is really 8th level) and sit at an apl 6 table. The only consequence is that you take a while to get to second level.

I am getting into this post a little after the fact, but I wanted to mention something for everyone who is in that boat of "I miss that old group; I haven;t been able to find a decent group since" or "I cant stand the way my currect powergaming group all have 22 strength and the dm makes all the good magic items for his girlfriend's gnome ...." I started playing in the RPGA's Living Greyhawk campaign July of 2005, and I have never looked back. Sure there are powergamers and such there, as everywhere, but the scope of what they are allowed to do is severely hindered by the mechanics of the campaign. Here is a short list: All stats: point buy-28 points. no cheating possible. Same with hit points; Full HP at first level, every level thereafter you take the max of whatever your appropriate hit die is (so 10 for a fighter), cut it in half (so 5) then add 1 (total is six) and add your Con modifier. No cheating, no fuss, no muss; I have almost forgotten what a hit point roll is. Everyone is an absolutely level playing field. Only standard races, with addition of wood elves and gray elves (yes drizzt fans, no drow) Yes, I said no drow. What's that? Yes, you heard me right, no drow (at least, not as characters). You may be gasping in horror, but the campaign has 20,000 players or so worldwide. If drow were allowed there would be 20,000 drow runnign around, as EVERYONE would make at least one drow character, guaranteed. Living greyhawk is played around the world-in virtually every major city in the continental US you can guarantee there will be a group somewhere nearby. Want to go to a geeky Sci-Fi con-there is probably a game there. Going to comic-con; I KNOW there is a large organized game there (that is where I got my start). And no matter where you go, if you walk up to a table and throw down your character sheet, you know that everyone there will be playing the same gameyou are, with the same rules interpretations, options, books allowed; same classes, feats, spells, everything. There is no "the dm wont let you bring that character to the table-he doesn't want any elves in his game", or "wow, your 6th level fighter will NEVER survive in our game with only 52 hit points-my barbarian1/fighter5 has 70 HP, 82 when he rages. And he ALWAYS rages." There might be those who prefer combat or roleplaying more, but the core of the game remains the same. Same with magic items-there is a strict allowance of how much cash is gotten by characters in a game, and access to uber stuff is few and far between. I have meet alot of really great players all aroung my local area; some of which I have even had over my house for games (and I am VERY picky about who I will invite over my house). I know alot of people are turned off by what they might have heard about the RPGA, but I can honestly say that I have met far more interesting and cool people/players in this campaign than I have the kind of gamer that when you see/hear/smell them at a local game store you try to back away slowly without making eye contact (for the love of Bob, PLEASE don't let him tell me about his character....). I was sceptical when I started, but I LOVED old Greyhawk from the first edition days, so I was determined to give it a try. And as I said, I have never looked back. Now, that applpies to this thread in that there are good ways to limit munchkining without sticking to the Core 3 books: Point buys on stats, witnesses for hit point rolls, circumstance modifiers (bonuses AND penalties) for good or bad/lack of roleplaying (although good/bad roleplay circumstance modifiers should as a rule be limited to +2 or -2, and Not Everallowed on attack/damage rolls.)

I would like to second everything King Tiger said, and add two little words: Ghost Rider.

1. Clerics/heavy armored types with long spears. 2. Barbarians with mail hauberks /breastplates. There is a surprising shortage of spear-wielders in the reaper line, and virtually no long spear/pike types. Yet in the D&D 3.5, virtually every standard cleric uses a longspear. I know clerics with longspears doesn't exactly conform to any historical OR fantasy archetype, but it is the most common cleric weapon in the game. Yes I know reaper doesnt make stuff specific for the game, but they sure do dance around it awwww-ful close. Its like refusing to make Gnome minis, because the world/setting Reaper minis are supposed to represent (Taltos) for whatever reason doesn't have gnomes. Same for barbarians-most wear chainmail or breastplates (mithril breastplates being the holy grail of barbarian armor). Some like my half-orc barbarian/cleric wear full plate. A barbarian in full plate (with requisite wild hair, furs, and wolf's-head hilted greatsword) would rock. While I am at it: 3. Tusk-less half orc; in full plate-under-(Werner Klock bathalian pirate style)-sleeveless overcoat (cleric's adventuring vestments), and a wolf-skull pommeled greatsword in his right hand , pointing his finger (his left hand) as if rebuking, wearing a war-hat style helm, with a big rapper-type double-finger ring as his holy symbol (sun god please). Hey, it could happen. But Dang wouldn't it make a great looking mini!

Your minis have a "dirty" feel to them which I really like. Work on more color contrasts. Start with a darker undertone and work up to a lighter highlight (but not too bright-keep that dirty thing going my friend!), rather than relying on old skewl "ink washes" for your contrast. However, those work really well, whether after your final highlight, or sometime before, for color unification, as well as keeping things nice and dark for that "dirty" look. Fewer coats of glossy sealer, and top off with a few coats of Floquil Figure Flat; that will even it out (stay away from dreaded dullcoat; avoid the yellow tinge that ruins good blending and kills your carefully rendered shades. By the way, nice use of an old pipe for the catapult Arm!

I keep hearing how different MSPs are to paint with. What is the difference in the properties as far as painting with them. I have read the posts about the difference in their actual makeup (they have flo-improver already in them, and the pigment is ground finer), as well as how they are more opaque then GW crap er; paints. But what is so different about them as far as applying paint to metal. Do they require less flo improver than other paints? I usually go with something close to Jen Haleys mix-around two parts flow improver, one and a half part slow dry, and two to three parts water. Also since there are both a MSP Flo improver and Slo dry, should I use these rather than the Liquitex I currently use? Gary -Still confused by this whole putting of pigments suspended in a liquid medium onto small non-ferrous metal castings of anthropomorphic fantasy caricatures (what on this planet you call painting miniatures).

Hey, nice for your fifth! What did you use for the metal of the axe head-both the blade and the shank, which I noticed are slighty different shades (nice touch by the way), as well as the shoulder piece (which looks to be the same as the shank of the axe head). -Gary

Yep. I don't know about heresy miniatures, but he has ended spyglass and was going to stop sculpting for a while. then he came out with a new mini, under a new name (SJB miniatures) that you can buy in the coolmini shop. I would like to see his interpretation of some reaper concept art.

Yeah, Sandra newer stuff is alot better; in another thread I recently advised Enchantra to stop painting old garrity's (many of them discontinued) if she really wanted to improve as a painter, especially in a contest; your painting will only be as good as the canvas you paint on (small faces and such). I really like Bobby Jackson's stuff; it has a life all its own. Werner's stuff is very well executed, though I give oodles of credit to Tal's artwork there. I find some of Werner's freebooter stuff far less-well executed conceptually; too Goth-Industrial/Bondage scene for me; (The professional ballet/modern dancers I know couldn't even get into those poses, let alone hold them long enough for a snapshot that is frozen in time as a sculpt!) I have to give cradit to his goblin's though-they are awesome. Mat Gubser is really coming along as well; I expect great things from him in the future. I like Gael's work, if I could increase the size of his sculpts by 5-10% I would buy them all. Now if we could only get Steve J Buddle from Coolminiornot to sculpt for Reaper. His clean lines would make a nice contrast to alot of what reaper does now; he would make a great addition to the crew.

Haven't read Eragon, but I know that Star Wars was actually loosly based on Kurosawa's The Fortress (AKA the Invincible Fortress, if I am not mistaken); A samurai epic (samurai, among other mystic oriental monastic warrior-types, being what jedi were based on). Lucas confirmed it as a definite influence, although to his credit Empire and Jedi were much more his own.

Guys, There are alternatives to Dullcoat. And I am not talking about cheapo Krylon crap. Floquil Figure Flat will not mute your colors, though it will definitely take some sparkle out of your metallics. Also the guys at my flgs told me that Testors Model Master flat sealer is vastly superior to the cheaper dullcoat. Remember that dullcoat comes out yellow when sprayed on a white surface; this will kill your careful blends. The Model Master flat sealer is far less yellow (they offered to get open cans they had of both, and to a test by spraying them side by side on white paper to show me the difference, but my three year-old was antsy so I had to decline.) When I spray seal minis with Floquil Figure Flat, I use the same old cutting board I use to primer them in white, and the floquil figure flat leaves NO yellow tinge over the white at all. However, it is only available via the internet. But your whites will stay white. P.S. I may not be able to paint even close to how you can Eric, but I have been spray sealing minis since 1986 (used to use Ral Partha spray sealer; Man that stuff was glossy!)

I hope you are still around to answer questions stern, such as what formula did you use for the skin on that mini?

looks realy good. the only thing is the green plants/lichen growing on the rocks between the laval flows is pretty unrealistic, as it would have burned off. but other than that, it looks great!

I wanna play at Frosche's house.....

actually I really like the "dirty" look that the wash gave it. ESPECIALLY on the decal; gives it that 40K dirty battle-tank kinda look. You can definitely tell this is a working flyer; no parade ground vehicle here.