Mourningcloud
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Posts posted by Mourningcloud
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good choice enchantra.
d&d 2.0 was the worst edition by far. new rules would often conflict with older rules; between players option and older "the complete book of" series, there were rules overlaps that were never clearly explained, 2.0 is one of the primary reasons for the decline and eventual downfall of TSR (i love wizards for saving it, and making it a better game than it ever was before, but i wish they could have kept the TSR name!!) and lets not forget the final insult: arguably the main impetus for even producing 2.0 was the new CEO wanted to get Gary Gygax's name out of the books completely (if you look at the fineprint of the original 2.0 players handbook, it does not even say "based on the original D&D by gygax and arneson", or even anything resembling that).
now, if you get a chance at some of the campaign specific stuff, like the waterdeep boxed set, or menzoberranzan, or some of the greyhawk books ie. the marklands, and if they are something that would enhance your campaing, jump on them!
other than that, use your $95 to buy some reaper master series or VGC paints, and slowly wean yourself off of that folkart stuff. great for terrain, less than great for minis.
this has been another mourningcloud dissertation, wherein i have said, as usual, too much.
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dude, my mom, who helps support my miniature habit (though i am 30 and unlike many gamer i know moved out long ago) gets all KINDS of display cases at the thrift store-mostly wooden ones with hinged wood & glass doors that swing up to open. they can range in size from my small one : around 7" wide by 9" tall, to several larger ones that are around 20" by 24".
these are rather shallow cases, so they are not sufficient for holding dragons/large minis, but they are perfect for holding the smaller minis that make up most of our collections. this will save you room so you will only need one large type case, like those people have shown above, for your bigger minis.
the small case I mentioned above holds around 25 minis, the larger can easily take 40-50.
keep im mind the small one cost around $.99-yes thats 99 cents, and the most expensive was like $5.00.
the moral of the story is : check your local thrift and junk stores!!
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The current line is great. Many, many of the miniatures look like they've leapt off the pages of 1e AD&D books and that's a good thing in this grognard's mind. The only request I have is:
Less dungeonpunk, more Dungeons & Dragons. Funky curved swords along with spiky and impractical armor do not impress. More stuff like backpack wearing and lantern-carrying adventurers, please!
Also, a set of "tavern patrons" would be great. Even "adventurers at the tavern". Brom on a barstool, as it were.
im not sure what you mean by dungeonpunk.
personally i really like the way alot of the new minis have come to look.
it shows that reaper is evolving, they're moving in new, different directions and they are not afraid to try new things.
if you want more of the same thing over and over again, they are plenty of old Garrity minis in the 2000-2500 range that should fit the bill. they all have the same faces and some pretty static poses.
me, ill take the fresh stuff that edgy artists (like trav) and sculptors (gene van horn, and bobby jackson, of course werner klocke, and even sandy garrity's new stuff-go sandy!) are coming up with.
the art of miniatures, like everything else, must evolve. if it does not, then it stagnates. i loved my ral partha and grenadier too, but they are gone (though ironwind metals still produces the old stuff, and some decent new stuff too)
on that note, it like to cast a vote for more gnolls and kobolds. Mr seins, how much do we have to bribe you? i want to see character types as well as basic monsters-gnoll druids, rangers, kobold sorcerors and fighters in armor.
oh yeah, and a decent dwarf thief.
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Specifically a female elf druid but nothing too crazy with helms or headresses on the mini and maybe scantily clad in animale skins.
check out the new dennis mize green- barbarian, on the 05/9/05 greens. She is actually the mini for the female elf druid concept art, courtesy of Travis.
Notice the scimitar she is holding? and that looks like hide armor to me.
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i make stalactites/stalacmites with mine, in sizes ranging from really tiny-what would be on 28 mm scale about 8 inches, to 4-5 feet tall, to a full column made from a stalactite and a stalactite meeting (just like they are made in RL) that stands about 8 feet high on 28 mm scale.
what im going to do with them, i have no idea, but they sure do look cool!
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Yaaay
we finally see the real green for trav's high elf adventuring mage, and i looks great! you gotta love klock's elves, but in truth i would have rather seen this one done by bobby jackson. i think his recent work with trav's concept art is the best of his career, and i look foreward to much more collaboration between the two.
(trav, if you read this, i do think this one does your concept art excellent justice, though i do think bobby would have stayed more true)
the sorceress is just as good-ill be buying these both in the next few months.
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yesssss my son, dullcote is the evil that stains our beautiful world of miniaturessss.
seriously, it does ruin subtle highlights, and dulls the life out of bright colors. reason-it is not clear, but rather a nasty amber color that will yellow the most titanium of titanium whites. if you want to know the truth, next time you prime some minis white, spray some dullcote on whatever surface you used to prime on (or alternately, just paint a surface white, or even use white paper). you will see a definite yellowing from the dullcote, and the heavier the coat the yellower it gets.
and then you realize that this is what you are spraying on your carefully painted minis...
I recommend floquil figure flat, if you can get it. also the guys at my local hobby store tell me that the testors model master sealer is much clearer than the cheaper dullcote. they offered to let me see the above demonstration on a white surface, but i declined, so i only have their word to go on.
ps. I have also experienced the nightmare of the (what appeared to be-)brush on testors dullcote removing paint -i was told this is because the stuff in the glass bottle is not brush on at all, it is in fact intended for use in air brushes (unless yours specifically says "brush on"), and meant to be diluted accordingly (d'oh!)
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Given the breadth of Reaper's lines, however, I think it would be reasonable to do a few multi-piece packs as described. I will admit that one thing I envy GW users for is the way they can build up such cool bitz boxes.
Hallelujah!
thats the point ive been trying to make all along-
I do not want more multipart miniatures made so by the complexity of the sculpt not lending itself to being easily cast as one unit.
sorry bout that, but at least half this discussion has been from people mis-understanding what i was talking about. if this doesnt clear it up, nothing short of lobotomy will.
but id like to see maybe one or two multipart sets for the more popular monster types, such as the ubiquitous orc, and maybe goblins, bugbears, and gnolls, or even an ogre!
and not because the pose is complex, but rather
because it want the miniature to have a certain "range of motion" if you will, where i can pick the weapons, and the position of the arms.
i know alot of people would be interested in this-all you who have said you envy GW because of the options available, but who dislike the company, the minis, or just prefer the quality and range at here at reaper (like I do!)
P.S. i see where you were coming from IXMINIS, Iris's helm kinda does look like a stylized lions head. and if they had sculpted it on her head, where it belongs, it would have made it an exceptional miniature, instead of an unremarkable mini with another generic Garrity face. I even thought about decapitating poor Iris, removing the helmet and putting it up where it belongs; alas it is too well attached to her hip to make removing it possible. bummer. and alas i am too poor of a sculptor to attempt to recreate it.
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Amen brother. if there ever was the possibility of a repose (i wont call it a resculpt, as it would essentially be the same character concept, just in a different pose), id like to see many of the more "character" type minis, who are always invariably unhelmed, with their helmets on in a more battle ready pose.
From warlord, Tariq dune ranger, from DHL 2725 Alaine female paladin and 2772 Iris female gnome come to mind, due to the really cool helms they are all holding (if you've never seen it, Iris the gnome, an fairly unremarkable miniature, is holding a beautifully articulated, rodent -think badger or squirrel- themed helmet dangling from her belt in the back, where no one can see it-its the best part of the whole mini!!)
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two words:
zombie monsters!
I want to run some All Flesh games and I'd like more zombies as well. Starting with zombie animals ... dogs, horses, etc ... and then some zombie dwarves, elves, ... Especially for the latter race zombies, I'd like to see 3 packs.
Iain.
ooh yeah, i can see it now:
zombie animals pack 1: dog, horse, wolf
zombie animals pack 2: Lion, Bear (why not-ive encountered one), Moose (killing two board requests with one stone -a moose and a zombie!!)
Knight of the Living Dead: fighters, etc
Knight of the Living Dead II, the Demi-s: Elf zombie, dwarf zombie, gnome zombie
Knight of the Living Dead III, the monsters: Orcs (3)
Knight of the Living Dead IV, the monsters: Bugbears (2)
Knight of the Living Dead V, the monsters: goblins (3)
Knight of the living Dead VI, the monsters: Gnoll, Bugbear
Knight of the living Dead VII, the monsters: Ogre!!
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all i have to say is wow....
you take a sculptor like Mr Mize who is darn near a legend in the miniature sculpting world, yet who in recent years has somewhat stagnated as an artist, pigeonholing himself into a certain style of pose, figure, and face,
and then you give him awesome concept art like trav's (not that your not awesome too talin!) and low and behold, he created something extraordinary.
the models are awesome. i daresay travis will be pleased with how they came out.
btw again if you guys missed it before, the awesome sculpts by dennis mize (and bobby jackson) in this bunch are courtesy of amazing concept by one Travis Salonka.
heres a link: art ot trav
good stuff guys at reaper. there goes my money again.
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two words:
zombie monsters!
and i dont mean another werewolf (i wont even go into the "it would have returned to human form when it died so how the heck did we get this zombie" discussion)
i want a zombie ogre, zombie orcs, bugbears, gnolls, goblins. maybe a zombie manticore. i hear zombie dragons are all the rage this year.
not to mention the horrorist of horrors, zombie elves, dwarves, 1/2lings and gnomes.
i wanna run a Dawn of the Dead campaign. Give me some ammo here please.
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at this point also let me clarify-
you all are referring to the necessity of multipart castings for dynamic miniature poses. that's all well and good, and reaper does this very thing when necessary (usually within 2-3 peices).
what im talking about is miniatures with seperate arms, heads, and maybe weapons and torsos so you can make them the way you want. or even choose weapons/weapon arms. do you want orc with spear, orc with sword, orc with axe & shield?
for example, take the curent green-the lesser orc spearman. you can see how his legs were precast (standard for warlord orcs), now imagine the arms cast seperate, with maybe one holding another weapon, and a left arm holding a shield. and the head seperate so you can decide how to position that too.
im not referring to poses so dynamic they need multipart minis,
i mean minis with more options due to their poseable nature.
The multipart Marines mentioned earlier only have a certain amount of give and so still only really have three poses ...P.S. my first squad of marines had no two alike, with no major conversion on any and only minor cut-and-reposition and glue on four.
dont get me wrong-im not trying to reinvent the wheel-im not looking to change the dha line, i just want maybe 1 set of multipart orcs, one set of hobgoblins (yes, i said hobgoblins!) 1 set of dwarves, etc.
reaper wouldnt have to worry about sales if they just produced 1 set of each, as even if those do not like multipart minis didnt buy a single set, enough would sell (and indeed this kind of miniature people buy multiple sets of-GW has proven that time and again) to make an appreciable profit.
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I don't want multipart models. I'm about ready to kill Privateer. And I'm guessing most DHA buyer probably don't want to see them either.
I'll be the first to say this is exactly the opposite of what I want. I want dynamic and vivid sculpts, and if that requires multiple pieces then so be it.
I'll never understand how people can have a problem with a two or three part piece that might take an extra 10 minutes to put together.
Well, for me, I'm in the middle of the road. Freebooter, I think, makes some great figures but they're all like five or six pieces.
Assuming you go with for display only, that's some glueing involved there. Of course most should go with pinning. Extra supplies and far more than 10 minutes for anything beyond a small piece. Also greater chance of needing green stuff for gaps and holes when assembling such figures no?
I can see both sides of it but prefer single piece figures.
well the idea would be for fairly easy to assemble minis- maybe 3-8 parts per mini. i know it sounds like alot, but consider what they are:
1. base
2. legs
note-possibly legs and base as one precast unit, for even less assembly required.
3. torso
note-possibly the legs and torso cast as one unit, so only the arms and head are poseable.
4-5. arms
6-7. hands/weapons.
note also possible to do arms with weapons pre-attached.
8. head
as far as arms, a well cast ball/shoulder socket arrangement makes for virtually limitless poses with only gluing needed for game-worthy strength. same for torso/legs attachment-ball/socket cast for decent range of variation in positioning.
And the most important point that you naysayers might be missing:
they idea isnt for reaper to begin making oodles and oodles of multipart miniatures, making them the standard a la freebooter or privateer. that niche in the market is happily filled by those smaller companies. But most of their multipart peices are for specific character miniatures (especially if you look at freebooter) with a specific pose in mind. thats why you often need green stuff to pose them the way you want.
Were not looking to start a new trend in casting at reaper, what were touting here is a few multipart minis for generic monsters/character types that can be easily set in a number of different poses; i.e. no green stuff needed to repose.
May your orc armies never all look the same again!!
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on the subject of multiples, and more, of everything that everyone seems to want more of (hobgoblins, kobolds, orcses, elves, dwarves, etc...)
why not multipart minis?
hear me out before you poo-poo this, you haters of anything involving sprue cutting and superglue out there...
you want different poses? so pose them! you want different weapons? so swap them! you want a dead kobold lying in the swamp with half his arm in the mouth of an otyugh and his legs sunken into the muck? so... um, anyanyway you get the point-all these are possible with multipart minis!!
Not to invoke the devil, but GW hit on something when they reissued multipart spacemarines at the begining of the last version of warhammer 40k, and realized its success when sales shot through the roof, so the folowed suit with virtually every new line of minis/army they introduced.
now i know as much as the next guy what a pain in the buttocks it is to assemble metal minis (more than most on fact-i do alot of converting), but take for example how they did some of the warlord greens, like the bull orcs and the elves. you can tell that the orcs are done on the same lower body arrangement, cause those parts are cast in metal even on the green and then the upper body stuff is added after. why not do multi part minis with the lower bodies precast-maybe two or three different poses, and then have the arms and upper bodies seperate, if the sockets are well shaped and properly cast, for most minis it wont take much more than a bit of superglue to attach them well enough for game play.
so give me some feedback-how many of you would buy multipart minis where all you had to assemble was the arms (in any pose you like!) and the weapons and maybe the head. would you people be willing to go the extrs step? heres the benefits:
1.lower cost for reaper, because instead of having to make multiple minis and hope they all sell they can just make one or two sets of multiparters and let people make their own.
2. lower cost for us, because minis always sell cheaper packaged in multiples.
3. need an elf barbarian with a dwarven waraxe in one hand and a trident in the other? well there you go!
4 make your own poses!
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heh
i just realized i called you tickles.
heh heh
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heya tickles i gotta concur with the others-i just looove that gold metallics. im an old skewl matellic painter myself (though ive had some decent success with nmm) -there isnt much you cant do with well shaded matallics -you can tint em any color, to any effect.
I too would like to know what colors you used for the gold -was it ral partha bronze, gold, copper, or some combination thereof?
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wow-
someone actually read my whole message!
(i really gotta learn to write briefer messages-maybe thats why its not called a dissertation-board)
nah talin-no replacing ya, although i do like the virtual breath of fresh air his heroic characters have brought to this hobby of ours. that is what pushes us (and the hobby) to grow, no?
and actually it wasnt the level (or rather lack of) of detail that i was disappointed in, it was the way the uber-cool, "I-may-be-an-elf-mage-but-i-damn-well-wear-pants-and-riding-boots-not-sissy-robes" character of the drawing was utterly lost in translation to greeny goodness. even the "I'm-confident-enough-to-square-up-and face-you-head-on-whilst-casting arcane-nastyness-in -your-general-direction" pose of the drawing was abandoned in favor of a more traditional 3/4 stance. oh well-we dont always gets what we wants, do we my precious.
This has been another mourningcloud dissertation wherein i have said, as usual, too much.
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The female half-orc is really a great sculpt (and im so glad Van Shaik sculpted it-did not want another Janara look alike), and the gnome barbarian has me droolin' (and i dont even like gnomes
). Boris, Thora and the death priest are wicked!
If you guys like these, check out artoftrav.com-hes been updating his art, with some nice teasers on minis we'll be able to see soon (hopefully) from reaper. if you dont know who he is, he's the artist whose responsible for alot of the new, slightly heroic proportioned minis lately:
2898 half orc ranger, 2907 quint, 2915 vulthus oathcroak, 2916 ansel paladin, 2926 half orc monk, as well as the new Boris and Thora, and many more.
I absolutely love his stuff! his characters are so incredubly detailed, and positively loaded with gear. Ever wondered where the wizards keep their scrolls and wands? check out the art on vulthus oathcroak-i didnt realize he had a magic ring hanging from his belt, but i checked my mini after seeing it mentioned in the concept art, and there it is! A paladin with a scroll/potion case and prayer book? he11 yes!
I do have one question for Reaper Bryan if he reads this: please tell me that the new high elf adventuring wizard due out in may is not the sculpt of the concept drawing by Travis Salonka of the same name.
By itself, the mini looks decent-in fact i think it is a very nice elf wizard-one of the best ive seen, but compared to the concept art, it is nowhere even close to what it could have been. Wheres the spell component pouch, or the potions hanging from his belt, or the cool staff?
I like the concept art because it presents an elf mage who looks like he could just as soon smack you upside the head with that staff or run you through with that wicked dagger (which is obviously for more than just spellcasting rituals) as he could cast a nasty spell on you-this guy is toughalso the clothes he is wearing make him a unique character-hes got pants, riding boots, and a cloak-the very ideal of the adventuring wizard. he porbably does most of his spellcasting from the back of a light warhorse, with his staff just as much for head cracking as for spellweaving (a la gandalf on shadowfax)
But when you look at the mini, its another (elf this time...) wizard, wearing robes... with a crystal topped staff held in the traditional 25mm He-man holding-up-his-sword-and-chanting-"by-the-power-of-grayskull"-pose.
Dont get me wrong. its nice-its a good elf wizard. But i hope it is not the miniature based on the concept art, because if it is i will be sorely disappointed.
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PLEASE PLEASE tell me how the heck you painted that wood-yeah the waves are really cool but the wood is freaking amazing! you are not a bit pathetic, even next to the likes of the great eric j louchard and his awesome rendition.
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frosch,
ive said it before. ill say it again-yourr getting scary good.
now if only your photography skills would improve along with your painting skills, because you're now turning out some minis that we'd
like a better look at!
keep paintin' em!
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i too will add my compliments-ya lives and ya lurns, and this is one learning experience where you got much more than the experience, you got one damn fine painted mini. and i too will don the vulture mask and ask, what colors did you use for the headpeice/helmet? appears to be a different formula than the nmm gold on the sword hilts.
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you know dude, ive never been a fan of this mini; perhaps because ive never really liked any of the dozens of paint jobs ive seen on it: mostly either semi-expert nmm or (at the opposite end of the skill spectrum) strait out of the bottle metallics.
i can honestly say that you have given it the treatment it deserves, and all of a sudden the character came to life for me. bravo-your well shaded and weathered metallics are awesome. 10 times than any of the nmm ive seen on him (and it was really good nmm, but in my humble opinion that just detracts from the characterfulness of the mini.)
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actually you nimrods its "its all fun and games until someone loses an eye...
then its a scavenger hunt."
Two Dwarfs for you to view
in Show Off: Painting
Posted
dude these are sweet!
please post more!!