Search the Community

I spent lunches last week on these two stands of Saxons for the Osprey Game Dux Bellorum, in which each stand is a unit on its own. All of the figures are home cast, mostly Prince August with a few spearmen from Dutkins Collectables. For the Saxon army, I'm doing it all with home cast figures, partly as an excuse for having the molds, partly as an artistic challenge. Practically speaking, there's probably more individualization and detail work than is actually necessary for a mass tabletop unit, but I like to err on the extra side...

I have actually been painting, sadly I'm no longer as fast as I used to be. I just wanted to post a photo of two Tom Meirer Elf's that I am currently painting. I have gotten a bit ambitious as to the guards, and also the basing project. So when it is done, I will post in the show off Forum. I have gotten rather fond of the plastic vise grippers to hold the miniatures.

Well; It has taken me a bit longer to get these mini's assembled and painted. It is such a joy to look at one completed. I went with the white horse because the color is so difficult. I used red just to experiment with the color on the surcoat, and gold for the emblems just because they are small and I wanted them to stand out. So here is Tom Meier's Sir Tristan (on Horse and On Foot). Hope you enjoy the efforts. Jay

Besides having never painted one of these, I found it primitively challenging. I messed around with clothing, texture, miniature details, blending, and finally the gemstones. That was a lot of challenge, six colors working to make a sparkle was a lot of fun. Think I pulled the larger ones off. On the head and chest. I thought I was almost done when I saw the tiny, tiny, ears showing up in the hair ! Dang, how am I gonna get them in ! I kept it simple, and didn't go nuts on the basing. I'm not to sure whom it is, and who made it. Feel free to identify it. I'm clueless. So here is the Wood Elf Band Archer: Comments and critiques are always appreciated and welcome. Jay

These are two Zygons, classic shape-shifting monsters from the British cult TV show "Doctor Who". They are genuine, licensed by the BBC, official, NOT knock-offs from Black Tree Designs: DW424 (Zygon Advancing) and DW405 (with raised hand). Zygons have appeared both in classic Who ("Terror of the Zygons", 1975) and in new Who ("The Day of the Doctor", 2013, and "The Zygon Invasion" / "The Zygon Inversion", 2015). Black Tree's sculpts are all old, dating to the '90s, and only cover the earlier period of the show pre-hiatus. These Zygons are based on the rather rubber-suity original series versions. First I primed them white, washed them with Burnt Umber, and mixed an unattractive flesh color for them, with a redder version over their suckers ... or whatever those are. IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT BLACK TREE DESIGNS: They have a line of 25mm "Doctor Who" minis covering the classic old years of the show, from the first through the eighth Doctors. They are not too bad -- except for the female companions -- and they have a lot of classic monsters. HOWEVER ... Every time I have ordered from them the order took ages to reach me and every order that arrived was botched. If you don't mind the risk of having to chase things down for several months, it is nice to be able to get genuine Daleks, Cybermen, etc.

I thought this mini was going to be a piece of cake. Surprise. We have spent twelve days fighting it out. NOTHING was going to be easy on this one. Shadows were a bear, highlighting took much longer than I thought it was. Even basing (which I thought was going to come together easy fought me. So, after saying that, I am quite happy with the way this miniature turned out. Here is Tywin Lannister as I thought he should look like (remember, I don't look at television). Oh.. If you want to see the miniature in more detail: Hold down the CTRL key, and press the + key to enlarge the photo. Then Press the CTRL key plus the - key to return to your normal viewing. As always, your comments and critiques are welcomed, and sought after. Jay

Yes - It IS a Reaper Mini ! and Not anthropomorphic. With all the events happening in the last several weeks, I barely was able to get much painting in. CC Numbers stolen, Bank being bought out and account changes, then finishing off the language course all threw me for a loop. Concentration became quite difficult. I am happy to report that the mini has finally been painted to my satisfaction. Thanks to our local Barbarian for tracking down one of his relatives for me. Tyden., Barbarian. She is really small, and I had a lot of fun painting her. As always your comments and critiques are greatly appreciated. Blonde hair, bronze "shield"... I almost painted her blue, not much to that female armor ! Here are a couple of photos.

These are three different miniatures representing Jon Pertwee's Doctor from "Doctor Who". Pertwee played the third incarnation of the Doctor from 1970-1974, with a guest return in 1983. So there's a cute story here. My husband is playing a sort of an academic in a Shadowrun game, someone a little flamboyant but not into weaponry or the usual Shadowrun visual tropes. I mentioned that the Doctor would be a pretty good proxy for that sort of thing, and he found me Crooked Dice's unofficial (but a very good likeness of) Jon-Pertwee-as-the-Doctor figure (as well as a good number of other Crooked Dice figures as a gift). The character won't be painted up quite like the Doctor (although as it is turning out the resemblance is pretty strong). So to satisfy my slightly pedantic interest in having a figure of one of my earliest favorite Doctors to go with my Reaper Bones police box, and also to have a couple of figures to test things on, I pulled out two Black Tree Design miniatures of the third Doctor that I bought last year. So I have here three completely different miniatures of the third Doctor: a modern 28mm unofficial, fairly realistic and dynamic one, and two 25mm licensed and official but somewhat cartoony and more static Old School ones. Here they are based, primed, and washed with Burnt Umber to bring out the details. The faces are only roughed in, but I think this might be the only picture I took of them all together where you can see the wibbly-wobbly scales. I very quickly fixed up the faces. I think an argument could be made for the Doctor wearing gloves, but I prefer bare skin for his hands. I am trying to give the Shadowrun not-Doctor darker hair. I painted darker hair on the other two too, because I've found it makes a more realistic-looking undercoat for grey hair. I lightly brushed a little light brown over the Shadowrun not-Doctor's hair and mixed up a transparent cold not-quite-black from Ultramarine Blue and Burnt Sienna and washed it over the parts of his outfit which will be black. I find I prefer blacks to be made from multiple layers of dark transparent colors rather than solid opaque layers of a single color. So there will be more colors added to this clothing.

This is another honorary Old School mini, an Ironwind Metals casting of the old (dated 1982) Ral Partha "Female Thief With Dagger II", catalogue #DF-122 in both cases. She was one of the earliest minis I actually owned, so getting another copy of her meant something special to me. The original WIP thread is here, but I did most of the work on her during the Memorial Day Paint Binge last weekend.

I've been trying to make sure that I do Miniatures that teach me things at this stage of the game. Lots of Muscle on this one, and small details. Its challenging to get the balance right, and deal with all the details. I've enjoyed this one, especially mixing up the flesh tones, and the basing. As always, Comments and Criticism welcomed and desired. Here is my interpretation of the Jungle Lord:

This has been a learning mini. First it is SMALL. 25mm tall, 25mm long. There is no gluing to be done, but that mean its really tight to get into and around. Basing will also be a challenge, since it is the size of your 25mm base also. I removed the broccoli base it came with, and pinned it. Its a lot of fun to paint, and that face and needle/spiked fur of his is quite the challenge. So here is the Bard reclining in a meadow of rocks and flowers singing to himself.. "Prickly Love" which he is composing for himself. Note the bottle of wine, and I have NO idea what is in his little orange bag next to the vino. Let me know what you think of him please. Your comments/critiques are always welcome and solicited. Jay

I've been working on this guy for a week now. He's 25mm tall, that is the size of a U. S. quarter. Now, I'm going to point out how difficult this Hedgehog is to paint. It doesn't mean I am unhappy, its teaching me tones, its the growing pains I'm complaining about ! LOL This is one tough to wrestle with mini. I thought, okay, little brushes and we are off.. Yeah.. Dream on kid. This mini has wrestled with me for every layer of Paint or liner I have put on. Getting the angles correct to apply a coat of paint is SOOO frustrating ! I finally have gotten to the point where I'll let you see what I am doing. I have removed the base that it came with, its pinned. Getting the spikes to not look like fur was complicated. The face has a lot of personality. I've started on the base already. so, now that I spoke about him, here is the Hedgehog bard in the painting stage. I'm ignoring everything that was done on the dsm site showing how they painted him. Photos retaken. These are a bit better. Hard to focus on this small mini. Jay

So here are my last in a series of umpteen dwarves. This last set I think I got a little lazy with as I gave them more or less the same colors of capes, but it's kind of a blue and red color scheme I've been trying to hold on to any way. Anyway, hope you enjoy them!

This is a fine little piece of Old School lead I got from the Box O' Goodwill project. It's a Ral Partha, looks like 2nd edition D&D vintage. The original set (so research tells me) had two magicians, a male and female dressed and posed similarly. I started him in March and finished him off quickly during the Memorial Day Weekend challenge. I can see little sloppy bits, but I think he's okay for tabletop use.

I've posted this before without any luck, but the recent demonstrations of miniature identification prowess give me some hope. What I know about this figure: he was one of two in a package, and I think the other was different. My brother bought them in a hobby shop in Massachusetts on a family vacation around 1976/7. The other one has gone missing, so we can't check for bottom markings. I painted and based this guy up in the early 90s, and I'm not so desperate yet as to break him off the base to see if there are any base markings. He looks a little like this Heritage mountain troll, but isn't: http://www.miniatures-workshop.com/lostminiswiki/index.php?title=Image:Heritage-Fantasy-1314a.jpg You'd think the limited number of manufacturers at the time would make this easy...

I finally picked up one of my Tom Meirer Sculpts that I so dearly love to paint. The are used by me as a teaching tool. Once you know how big they are, they give you a bit of pause to paint one. I'll include a beginning photo for scale. I was doing a lot of experimenting with the reds. On some of those reds there are 20 plus coats of paint, and probably 10 different shades of red mixed together to give me the final colors. None of those reds are out of a dropper. I've worked on this for about two weeks. While taking photos I noticed that I was peeling off the edge primer (?) this is a new one for me. Maybe it has to do with the cold temp in my painting room. I corrected the slight edging flash. So Here is King Pelinore by Thunderbolt Mtn. Your comments and criticism are desired and requested. Please leave me a note about this mini. Jay

I was given this mini as a gift, and decided it was something I hadn't a clue about painting. I've never seen this style before and I am totally unfamiliar with any story line about it. So, I decided to just paint her as I would imagine her to appear. I had a very ambitious base planned, but there is no way I will get it accomplished in the next three weeks, so I went with a bloodied slate walkway. Calling the troops to continue smashing the enemy. Here is my interpretation of Kaia Stormwitch ! Oh, it is marked CW1980. I was not able to take a standard face on photo, due to the flat casting that this piece is in, and all you see with a face on photo is "an Elbow".. Sawwy! Click on the photos; they do enlarge. edited to add ... Two more photos taken on a lower plane to show details. C and C are always welcomed and appreciated ! Jay

I've been working on Cersei for over two weeks. I decided to kick up my basing skills a notch, and so I selected this Tom Meirer Sculpt, and decided to give her a fitting base, and hone the painting skills a bit further. She is 25mm (one inch tall), and an incredible piece of art. I avoided the base she came with and dreamed up my own, and made it from scratch. I pulled out a couple of old skills, and built a balcony for her. I have totally enjoyed painting and basing her. As always your comments and criticism are welcome, and desired. Let me know what you think of Cersei Lannister. Jay

This is one of three figures from the Ral Partha (now Iron Wind Metals) set "Wolfram's Gang." The set has three trolls, a woman with a rifle and pistol, a cyborg-troll, and this fella. His clothing was a little more eccentric than the others', and all that bare skin inspired me to try my hand at painting tiny tattoos on his skull and arms. There's a WIP thread for a whole lot of Shadowrun trolls here. Show-Off threads for the other Shadowrunners are: Reaper's own Caine, Cyber-Troll, a Troll woman from Wolfram's Gang, an ork woman street samurai, an Oni bouncer, a cyber-troll in reflective armor, and the unbelievably over-the-top Lord Torgo.

As a young Nobel Woman; Elena learned that there were few that she could trust. Here joy was extreme when she was given a puppy for her very own. If only that puppy could talk ! There are some things that are hard to resist, Puppy's, Kittens, and Tom Meirer 25mm miniatures. I'm drawn to them like a moth to the flame. I was gifted this miniature by a friend, and I have tortured myself forever by not painting her. I finally succumbed. Here is my vision of "The Young Lady In Waiting with Puppy. Your comments/Critiques are greatly desired. Leave me a message. ETA: corrected English spelling, not Norwegian accented English !

This is the last of the Brigand Series by Tre Manor; Long Shot Loim served under the Duke of Norfolk, He wasn't always a scoundrel, nor a brigand. Ever since that fight in the tavern, he had been on the run. He didn't relish the thought of having another personal confrontation, so he used his other skill. He was lethal with a bow, and it kept him far enough away from his target to hear nothing. He always laid a sword at his feet, you never know if an emergency were to occur. He was smart enough to always give himself a back up. Comments and Critiques are always appreciated, and desired. I really do appreciate feed back. Jay I have added two photos of the trio of Brigands to the photo set. So here is Smarty Sean, DIrk the Ne'r Do Well, and Long Shot Loim together. Should have done that in the beginning. Here they are:

Back into the fray again with another of Tre's miniatures. This one has some interesting texture going on in the doublet. I've primed him, did some of my standard brown liner in dark areas. I gave him a green hood for right now, it might change. Gave him a simple face for the moment. Just base coating. Beginning getting my feel of the miniature, and deciding what I want to do with him. So here is the last of the brigands, Long Shot Loim.

A wonderful friend gave me Smarty Sean; so I decided to paint him up. He's been washed and glued to his base. Next will be to prime, and brown line. Have to true up his lance before the priming though ! He is part of a threesome group of brigands, that live in the forest ! Here are a couple of photo's before we are off to the races. Oh, I attached a third photo showing the size of this mini. after I primed and washed him. Yes, that's a US Quarter.

Another of my beloved sculpts by Tre Manor. Smarty Sean is a hoot to paint. One of those one inch mini's that can drive you banana's; but a great sense of accomplishment when you get him done. As I always remark, doing high quality challenging sculpts make you grow as a painter. These are sculpts to grow by. Critiques/comments are greatly desired and solicited. So leave me a note please ! Here are some photos of Smarty Sean. I include the black and white to show how big he is visually.

I tend to use Tom Meirer's sculpts as teaching lessons for myself. They are intricate, and sophisticated. They can be very challenging. I chose to make it more difficult with my color choices. Orange, Bronze, and a white horse. This is a learning miniature for me. At one inch tall, this will freak you out, in one way or another. Toss in white, and you have a regal battle going on. Loved the challenge, and learned a lot. Oh, I always enjoy your comments, and/or criticisms ! Leave me a note ! Jay