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This is an old Mage Knight figure that I decided to repaint. Originally, she was an 'Amazon Blademistress'. With her new paintjob, she'll be serving as a pirate aboard Sophie's Revenge. I hope you like her.

So, I was very productive on my snow day today. I finished up this critter; it's a Griffhound made by GW for their AOS fantasy wargame. I dont play that, so I figure he'll make an interesting stand in for a war dog in a FrostGrave or perhaps Mordheim warband. I hope you like him.

These are a couple Mimics I've had hanging around forever. They were both gotten as swag at past Reapercons.I finally decided to get them painted; they're done to my usual tabletop standard. These are pretty nice pieces, and they painted up easily. Let me know what you think.

So, like the title says, we're here to make some good, sturdy, cheap terrain. This will never win prizes, but it will look good and stand up to some abuse. Plus, it's CHEAP. Please feel free to take and change any/everything that I show you below to make it yours. Here's what you'll need: Plastic canvas (AKA granny grating) used for needlepoint. You can get this at Michael's and similar stores. (Sewing/crafts shops for those not in the US) This comes in a few different sizes; get the one you like. I use the smallest one I can get; it scales better with 28mm figures, IMO. Mod Podge Knife/cutting tool of some sort Sharpie marker Vinyl floor tiles--available at DIY/home improvement stores. Home Depot gives away free samples like the one shown below. These are a good size to make corridors. They'll probably look at you funny if you try to walk out with 50, but a half dozen or so shouldn't be an issue. Grab whichever ones you like; we don't care about the texture on the top. You can also get a a box of larger squares for $18-20. I picked up one box, which has enough tiles to cover 20 square feet. Again, get the cheapest ones they have, you're not using the top, so it doesn't matter what it looks like. Not shown: some cardboard from an empty cereal box or whatever source of thin cardboard that you have. Random detail bits Measure and mark the top of the tile to show you where you're going to cut. In this example, I'm making a corridor, so I placed a couple of spare 30mm figure bases side by side, added a few millimeters on either side and then marked the area I'm going to cut off. This step is up to you, make your corridor as thin/wide as you like. If you want to go with only one base width, you can simply cut the tile in half and get 2 corridors from each tile. Ok, I goofed up and didn't take pictures of the next 2 steps, so I'll try to describe it. Use the tile you just cut out as a template to trace and cut out an equal sized piece of the grating. Next, flip your tile over and remove the paper backing. Now, coat the uncovered adhesive with the Mod Podge. Why not just stick the plastic grating to the adhesive on the back of the tile? In my experiments, it wasn't a very strong bond. Also, by leaving the adhesive exposed, you're asking for lint, dust, dog/cat hair, and all manner of other junk to get stuck to your sci-fi corridor. By coating it with the Mod Podge, you eliminate that problem. Ok, take your piece of plastic grating, and stick it down on the Mod Podge covered tile. Put something heavy on it and leave it to dry for a while. Technically, you're done and can stop here and paint you new terrain. Try to imagine the below picture without the cardboard strip on the side; kind of plain and boring, right? Ok, so let's add some more detail. Grab an empty cereal box, cut some strips from it, and stick them down with the Mod Podge. I made 2 long strips, and used an old ball point pen to score lines in them to show that they were separate deck plates. (They didn't show up well in the pictures, so I colored them in with my sharpie; you don't need to do this.) Experiment with your deck plates. You can make them thinner or thicker, place them only on one side or right down the middle, or even go across the tile instead of lengthwise like I did. This is what you'll end up with. You can also stop here and paint your corridor if you're happy with it. If you want to go further still, you'll need to find some interesting looking junk to stick down as shown below. (You can buy stuff, too, but that's not cheap). The stuff I've used is junk from my job that would've normally gotten thrown away. If you don't happen to work someplace that produces interesting junk, you can take apart dead pens to get pipes and a few interesting looking mechanical parts. If you've got an old electromechanical device of some sort that you're going to throw away because it doesn't work, take it apart first and strip if for parts. If you've got kids, broken toys are a good source for parts, too. Use your imagination! A quick reminder, though: putting all that neat looking junk along the edges cuts down on the amount of space for figures, as shown below. Without the stuff on the edges, I can fit 2 figures side by side. With it there, it shrinks the hallway down quite a bit. Dry fitting and experimentation are key here. I hope that you found this interesting/useful in some fashion. Even more, I hope that you feel inspired to give this a try. If you do, please take some pictures and share them here. If you have any questions, please let me know. BTW, I don't have a painted example to show (yet); I'm doing this as part of a bigger project and plan to paint it as one large batch. I'm also working on doing some walls, too. I have a few things to finish working out before I share them.

This is an old Ral Partha dragon sculpted by Tom Meier. It's supposed to be the Great Fire Dragon, obviously I didn't know that when I painted him or I would have gone with red. I've had him for 20-30 years, so I figure it's high time that he got painted. Please let me know what you think. >Taking decent pictures of something this big is a little difficult. <

I know nothing about the figure; she was in a random lot of 3D misprints I got for free a while ago. Whatever was in her right hand was broken off, and her left arm was broken off around the biceps, so I fixed her up with some spares from my bits box and gave her a quick and simple paint job. Her shield has a Space Wolf decal on it. I hope you like her.

I grabbed this bear from the most recent Box of Goodwill, and painted it almost right away. It's kinda small by today's standards, it was made in 1984. I've always been a bit intimidated by painting animals; for some reason I got it set in my mind that it's hard to actually make them look GOOD. Sure, just paint the fur brown and it's done, right? Well, no there's a bit more to it than that, and it was that little bit more that I always got hung up on. Well, I'm glad I finally managed to get over it; I pulled up some pictures of bears on my computer and just did the best I could. The reason I mention this is because I'm sure someone else is going through the same thing. Please just go ahead and try the thing, no one is going to come beat you up if it's not 'right'. Anyway, I hope you like it.

I did this lioness at the same time I was working on the bear, she's 2 years older, being made in 1982. Let me know what you think.

These are some terrain piecees that I grabbed from the most recent Box of Goodwill. I painted them using paints, washes, drybrushing, and various inks. I used Woodland Scenics and Army Painter for the vegetation on/around them. I hope you like them. If you happen to know who makes these, please let me know.

Some quick table top painting on these guys; they'll see use as imps in Frostgrave. I hope you like 'em.

I finished up my jungle terrain piece, let me know what you think. This might not have been a very nice goddess: It's been a while since anyone has been here. Ruh roh, Rhaggy, if this shrine is abandoned, who lit the torch?

This is a 3D printed bard I picked up cheap at Reapercon; he was part of a batch of misprints I bought. Quite a few were still useable in my opinion. This guy for instance had the left foot broken off, but the part was present, and it was a clean break, so very easy to glue. He's also supposed to have a feather on his hat; that wasn't present, so I cleaned up the break and painted it as a badge instead. I wasn't sure if he was supposed to be a halfling or a goblin since he's barefoot, has hairy feet, and he's dressed fairly well, but he's also got huge ears and exposed lower canine teeth. I went with halfling, and found out it's supposed to be a goblin when I saw the figure on Etsy. Oh well, maybe he's got a little goblin in his blood from a few generations ago. There IS a reason he's on a pirate ship, after all. Let me know what you think.

I painted this guy up for use in StarGrave, 5 Parsecs From Home, or any other sci-fi skirmish game I might get involved in. His paint scheme is very loosely based on a well known smuggler from a galaxy far, far away. I tried to get his eyes looking off to his left; I think I didn't make him look too bad. I hope you like him.

This is s figure that I painted during a speed painting class at Reapercon a couple years ago. I decided to go back and clean up a couple things that I think could have been a little better. I know that's not quite the idea of speed painting, but I brought him to my tabletop standard, so I'm happy with him now.

This is a figure that was given to me at Reapercon last year. If you know who makes it please let me know so I can give proper credit. I hope you like it.

This is a figure that I painted during a 'Sophie says' at Reapercon last year. It was a fairly decent paint job that didn't take too much time to clean up, so I did. I'll be using him as a flunky for various different gangs/crews/whatever. Just look at his face; he very obviously has no idea what he's gotten himself wrapped up in.

I finished Ape-X this evening, I figure he'll go well with the mad scientist group of figures that I'm slowly working on. His base was warped pretty badly, and even boiling it didn't help, so I chopped it off and rebased him on a resin base that looks like a wrecked lab. Like most of my stuff, he's painted for tabletop; I hope you like him.

I knocked out some random pieces of scenery last night. Everything was washes and dry brushing. I hope you like them. First up is a heavily damaged Jersey barrier made by Secret Weapon miniatures. Next are 2 grave stones from craft store Halloween village sets. The one on the left I repainted then did washing and drybrushing. The one on the right i intentionally did a sloppy job of painting so that some of the original colors were still visible, then i weathered it like the other one. I'm not sure where I got this table from, but it looked like it would be pretty quick to spruce up, so I did. Let me know what you think, please.

I wanted to just get something done, so I did this ghost up in about an hour. I did go back and try to do a little OSL on the tombstone where it was phasing through it. Basing was an extra 20 minutes or so. It's nothing spectacular, but it'll look good on the table.

This is actually a 54mm miniature; it was made by GW for their long OOP Inquisitor game. It came as a pet/sidekick for the mutant character Quovandius. I got the pair of them for $1.50 at a store clearance sale. While going through boxes the other day, I found the rat, but not the other figure. I decided the rat would make an excellent mad scientists experiment, so I painted it up. Please let me know what you think.

This an old D&D miniatures Bonded Fire Summoner that I cleaned up the basic paintjob it came with. This was mostly done to knock out something quick to get back into painting. Basic tabletop. Lots of dust, I really need to clean out the lightbox....

You'll take my life, but I'll take yours too You'll fire your musket, but I'll run you through So when you're waiting for the next attack You'd better stand, there's no turning back I'm going to be building/converting/sculpting my own copy of Eddie from this artwork. I'm just going to do the central figure, not the battlefield around him. For those who don't know, the song 'The Trooper' is based on the Charge of the Light Brigade, an action during the Battle of Balaclava during the Crimean War. So, before I get started, a question: The artist who did this piece (Derek Riggs) applied a little creative license to the flag that Eddie is carrying. It is not historically accurate to the best of my knowledge and research. If you know differently, please enlighten me. When I get to that point, do I try to recreate the flag as seen in the artwork, or go with something a little more accurate? Or is that a detail that most people will not notice?

Here's 2 beetle swarms that I knocked out pretty quick this weekend. One basic brown, and the other with a more metallic look to them. Let me know what you think.

I finished Mason Thornwarden a little earlier today. He's painted up to a (hopefully) decent tabletop standard. I've been reading a lot about Rangers of Shadowdeep on various blogs all over the internet; I can neither confirm nor deny that is what may have led to his selection for the paintbrush. Let me know what you think of him, please.

I just finished painting this figure yesterday. It's from the old Grenadier boxed set 'Fighting Men' #2005. Not really a whole lot to say about him, I spent about 3 hours painting him to a good tabletop level. I got a little burned out on painting for a while, feeling like I had to paint everything to a competition level. Well, sometimes it's just fun to slap some paint on a figure in a few hours just to take your mind off of other things. I had just forgotten that somewhere along the way. Anyhow, here he is, let me know what you think.