Aard_Rinn

Ah, Ice Toads, the cause, and cause, of all life's problems. These guys are... interesting. I'll be real - I have *never* in my *life* actually decided to use an ice toad in combat. They're not terrible - they've got a decent perception, amphibious, so they could in theory be part of a frozen underwater encounter, and an aura of cold that leaves some interesting potential for use in, say, a magically-powered freezer - but they lack the easy versatility of something like a bear or yeti, and at 3cr, they're in kind of a weird spot balancing-encounters-wise, since they've got some pretty mediocre combat stats. Plus, 5e made them large-sized, which I think was a mistake - it opens up the tantalizing prospect of them eating party members, but, really, am I ever going to have a toad try to eat a non-halfling or gnome? Probably not. It's not as funny. Meanwhile it limits their usefulness right where I'd want to use them - in relatively tight caves where the ability to jump and climb along the ceilings let them harry players, which their intelligence of 8 makes reasonable. So I recognize that the council has made a decision, but... well, I'm sticking with medium, if I ever do use them. Which, again, I haven't. That said, I... did get a whole set of them at Reapercon. I really like this sculpt! And they struck me as easy to paint - lots of drybrushing and such, without needing to commit a ton of time. Plus I was already getting a fat stack of yetis anyways, sooo... might as well? That was the right idea, because... it really is a great sculpt! So much so that I'm currently resisting the urge to buy another half-dozen to do as rock toads. Gah. I didn't want to spend more than an hour or two on them, so I kept it simple - a layer of light blue, a wash of dark, and white drybrushed for highlights. I could have kept them lighter, but I didn't want them to go too white. I figured they'd be camoflaging inside frozen caves, for the most part, so I took my inspiration from images like this: Beyond the blue, I decided to give them big red eyes mostly so it wouldn't look like I had *just* drybrushed them... I figure they mostly hang out in ice caves napping, then, when they detect a potential meal, they jump around the cave, using the weird lighting and such to disorient their prey and keep it from being able to target it in melee, thus stretching their hitpoints a bit further.

So this is one I started working on a dog's age ago, and don't think I've ever actually shared - six of the metal Tombstones of Protection, done up as caryatid columns. I *really* like this sculpt - more than the weeping-angels-esque named caryatid columns, or the spartan version, which are great but don't really fit with my campaign settings... This one has just the right balance of warrior-like but still statueque, if that makes sense? And it has a great chess-piece like quality to it, as well - it feels really good to pick up and clink around. I really like statue-type enemies, myself - either animated by a current enemy also on the battlefield, or by ancient magics for the defense of a current objective. There are some other interesting ways to use them, too - maybe a bar-owner who has one in the corner to break up fights, or a dracolisk animating it's former victims to force the players out into open combat, or the tools of a (*friendly?*) earth elemental who needs to interact with mortals... Or, hell, to use as non-animated tokens for something like a basilisk or medusa fight. The statues themselves were pretty simply done - I started dark grey, layered up to white, hit the whole thing with a dark wash, and layered up again. If I had wanted, I'm sure I could have picked out some details to do in gold, but I've had mixed results with that on stone in the past, and for maximum versatility, I think the grey is fine. Once I did that, I broke them off the bases, added greenstuff, and just stippled it with some sandpaper before squishing them back into place - nothing complicated at all. As is tradition, I forgot to re-black the edge of the base before taking pictures - I'll do that eventually. Or I'll forget - I've... forgotten a couple of times... As basing materials, I can't recommend flock from Tajima1 enough. Here's a bit of a better/truer-to-life picture of the base... I disassembled some of their 'moorland' tufts for these - they're basically wonderful, layered basing materials, like a little lump of marsh. They'd be good on a larger base, but for 1" bases, I tend to tear them up - they have 4-5 different tufts of grass and shrub, all on a base of super-short grass. It's all self-adhesive, and honestly I just stick it on, it's pretty great. For this I added some of their lupines, and marsh grass - the red and dark-purple taller tufts. These are so impossibly delicate - single long bits of flock with velvetty dust applied so delicately. I have no idea how they do it - but it's a wonderful variation on their other flowers and it pops amazingly on these, like flowers in a graveyard.

Reptile-people... I use a *lot* of reptile-people in games. Not my games, necessarily - but there's a couple published books that are heavy on Yuan-ti, and a years-long campaign I was in had whole tribes of lizardfolk. With that said, this isn't the first time I've tried painting up a good-sized unit of lizardfolk warriors for one of my games. The first time, I used Reptus - but, I'll be honest, the pinning and gluing on them was a ton of work, and while I love some of the sculpts, they're pretty big for lizardfolk. Then I tried the Van Horne lizardfolk, the metal ones from KS1, but... honestly, there just aren't enough of them. Two sculpts, a ranged and melee fighter, does not a raiding party make, which is a shame, because they're probably my favorite interpretation of lizardfolk. So, round three. This time, I really put in the research! I love how Julie Gunthrie does reptiles, and so I started looking at her offerings with Reaper. The Serpentfolk Evoker from Pathfinder is an old favorite, and poking around, I eventually found three more options by her - the Degenerate Serpentfolk, Serpentfolk Warrior, and Lizardman Shaman. So, with something adjacent a plan in mind, I bungled off to Reapercon last year to pick up my latest attempt at lizardy goodness - four each of the warriors, and three of the evoker, for 15 yuan-ti minis or 12 lizardfolk. Fortunately, figures-in-hand, I knew I had made the right choice. These minis are *very* close in size, and around the same as or slightly smaller than a large PC figure. They've got tails - a big plus, I'm sorry, both yuan-ti and lizardfolk deserve tails IMO - and generally look like they were sculpted to go together. I wish there were one or two more in this set - maybe an archer and another swordsman - but it's a good looking group! My goal is to paint them up in such a way that they can serve as either yuan-ti OR lizardmen without much issue, since I'd rather not have to paint two groups. Therefore, I'm going old-school - green skin with lots of browns and reds in the armor and on the clothing, red or yellow eyes, and so on. The one exception will be the Serpentfolk Evoker - I want to do two of him in green, but also make an albino cobra version of him so that I can use it as a commander. So far, they're cleaned and glued to bases. I've also got a new cell phone arriving today, so part of my goal is to get some better pics.... we'll see how it goes!

I'd be very into hopping in the next one ASAP! If I might suggest - it'd be a bit more work setting up, but maybe have people who are thinking of putting in 3d print stuff say so at the outset, so they can be staggered through the list? That way there's no risk of hitting a run of 2-3 people w/ printers and getting a huge buildup, and they're likely to have a better mix. I'll also second being more interested in terrain than character minis.

If you wanted to cut out a step, I wonder if you could use magazine adverts rather than printing out the picture? This looks amazing!

From what I understand talking to him he was a last-minute booking to replace someone who had cancelled. He said he does a lot of gaming 'cons b/c he's into them personally and I guess the tables are cheap compared to other stuff? I would have loved to play more games but the signups this year were impossible - I couldn't figure it out at all... Hopefully next year we could go back to paper signups at the 'con - like sign up on line, and then day of they print a list of who's signed up with open lines for empty slots and a line or two for substitutes to leave their phone numbers... That way people can go cross out if they need to skip a game, or make sure they have players if they don't have enough. Having the stage there made it a little weird - there was just the small opening and the curtains. Not that it physically blocked it, but it made it feel weird going over there, like I was going into a back area. If it was swapped with that front set of tables where the board games were, and that area opened up and made into more seating, I think it would've been easier to go visit you guys....

If I can get all of these minis I got at Reapercon sorted, bagged, and tagged, I'll consider that a huge win. If I can finish the insurance spreadsheet, I'll consider that one better.

I'm storing metal minis, so it's a bit different - heavier with sharper edges - but I use a combination of crayon boxes (plastic ones, like you get at walmart for storing crayons, not the cardboard ones) and mini sandwich bags. In around November a few years back, I got about 100 of the crayon boxes for 50c each, and I buy the bags at the dollar tree. Minis go in something based a bit on size & a bit on convinience - multi-part minis and familiar-sized ones go in boxes, single-piece minis and minis with only large parts like dragons go in sandwich bags. I label the bags with handwritten white labels with SKU and unit name, & track what I have, quantities & the MSRP on a searchable google spreadsheet (so that, if I ever have to do an insurance claim on the collection in the event of a housefire, I can provide my renter's insurance with a complete accounting rather than having to get a rough appraisal.) I have to redo it b/c I traded most of my old metal for new metal at Reapercon, but when I'm done I was going to post pics...

I doubt I'll be coming - I'll be about a week into my first school year as a full teacher! I guess I'll have to find someone to spend my (admittedly much reduced) melt metal for me :D

I think I will do the cat from 30001: Queen of the Jungle as one of her charming jaguars. It's 54mm so plenty of space to play with - should make a fun celestial jaguar...

I know it exists already in metal but: The gargoyle from this set - just him. Maybe in a 3-pack? I have about 20 of him - I get more every Reapercon, and I cherish them all deeply. I love the many metal gargoyles that Reaper makes - but the reality is, they're all MASSIVE compared to the size I want for my games. Gargoyles are only medium-sized, and, more than that - they're not infrequently fought in groups of 10-20! So having a tall, broad-winged figure that towers over the party makes it tricky to use them in-game. Meanwhile this guy fits neatly on a 25mm base, doesn't overhang it or tip over, and is a one-piece that's super easy to paint... Basically the perfect mini. Plus it makes a great imp, too... If we could get, say, a 3-pack for 10.99, I'd be thrilled to be able to recommend it to people...

There are four days left for this, and they're sitting at 5800/6500! Please swing by and take a look - it's gonna be really cool!

One of my fellow party members is publishing their first adventure path on KS! "Lament of The Widow is a tale of thrilling mystery and cosmic horror, spanning over 20 elegantly appointed and thoroughly haunted rooms in the labyrinthine world of Moorehouse, each of which contains the potential for rich rewards, powerful magical items, or painful, agonizing failure. Behind our beautifully illustrated cover, players and Game Masters alike will be thrilled to find over 100 pages of carefully crafted maps, incredible illustrations, and detailed descriptions, as well as a new setting-appropriate background option, brand new magic items, an update to a classic tabletop monster, and an array of original creatures created just for this setting, all brought to life by our passionate, talented team of artists. Will you brave the perils of the Infinite Manor, unravel its secrets and escape with your lives? Or will you remain forevermore within its halls, trapped in a cycle of suffering and torment without end? The choice is yours...if you have the strength to make it." It's got some really great art and cool monster concepts! Dalimar is pretty amazingly creative, too - I have 0 doubts it's going to be an awesome adventure. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/blackpineac/lament-of-the-widow-an-adventure-in-the-infinite-manor

"SHOTS! SHOTS! SHOTS!" I like the House one myself. Have each of them framed by two needles, except JnJ, who get one.

Anyone looking to fill a bed Thursday to Sunday or Monday?