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My next project, also for my current Pathfinder game. This one looks like a real fun model and am looking to improve my layering technique as there are some nice areas on him to practice that. As always, any suggestions along the way are most welcome. Here is in his primed glory. Hoping to get a decent amount of work on the skin done today, looking forward to doing some fun stuff with the eye as well, but waiting on some supplies (read paint) to come in first. Oh and I totally forgot about doing a WIP of the base, but there ya go. At least there will be some stuff likely added at the end. :) Thanks for looking!

My latest completion. Although Gunnbjorn is a warlock for the Hordes table top game, I'm actually going to be using him in my current Pathfinder game as a replacement for the upcoming big bad. As always any C&C are most welcome, especially tips for improvement. I also apologize for the photo quality, still trying to figure things out with the new camera phone -- and I wasn't particularly technologically inclined to begin with. Also I know I should have done more with his assorted bags, but frankly, was starting to get a bit "done" with him. Perhaps I will go back later and add to them. Thanks for looking!

So this was supposed to be a Christmas gift for Mrs. Gargs but a combination of a bad shoulder injury in December and a crazy first three months of work this year resulted in these guys only just now getting done. That said, pretty happy with how they turned out given my meager skill level. Biggest problem I ran into was a nasty mold line on the snowman that just didn't want to go away. In retrospect I probably should have tried an X-Acto knife instead of just files but I was afraid of getting too much off of it so to speak. All that said, any and all comments, critiques, constructive criticism, etc. are very welcome as I continue to try to improve! Hope you enjoy!

Finally got around to finishing up Ragnor Skysplitter by Privateer Press. Available in the Trollblood Starter Box for Hordes. Not my best work, but just reached the point where I needed to move on, and there are some parts that I really like. As always, any C&C would be most welcome! Cheers, Gargs

SKU: CVB280183 First time attempting to paint glass and I think it came out . . . okish. Not great, but not bad for a first effort. Need to work on the blending, but have gotten some tips to help with that. As always C&C are most welcomed as I am always looking for ways to improve on my skills since currently about the best I can hope for is table top quality (and I even occasionally succeed ;P) Thanks for looking! Gargs

SKU: CVB280176-0580 My Devil Dogs Team, part of the USARF Starter Box by Corvus Belli. Who doesn't like a gun toting werewolf and his sidekick? As always, any and all C&C is greatly appreciated as I am constantly looking for pointers on how to improve! Thanks for looking! Gargs

So, because I have a bit of Hobby ADD as I like to call it, and because I really wasn't in a painting mood yesterday but was in a hobby mood (go figure) I decided to start on my Hordes Two Player Battle Box. I decided in addition to getting started on this, and documenting my misadventures as a newbie hobbiest/hobbier? I would also conduct a bit of a product review along with it. I figure that this box is intended, at least in part, for new players, and as such, may also include those new to the hobby. So I'll document start to finish (fair warning, it will be a long time before I get it fully complete) while also providing commentary on the quality, etc. So, for starters, this is a compliment to the Warmachine game (could also be called the second side of the same coin). The two games are fully compatible. The box itself comes with a starting army for the Trollblood and Skorne factions (hence Two Player). From a pricing standpoint, the value of the box in terms of content is somewhat dependent on whether you are just looking to paint the models, or if you are also looking to get into playing the game. The box retails for about $90 but you can likely find it cheaper if you look around a bit (I myself got it for about 33% off). As for the contents, you'll get 28 minis (if my math/memory serves) divided evenly between the two factions. Additionally, you get various tokens and other bits you can use for playing the game but which are not related to the actual painting side of things. Fair warning though, those 28 models include 10 models in each faction that are part of the same unit and thus, will be fairly similar. If you were to buy the models separately though (or rather as they can currently be purchased outside the two player box) you'd pay about $150 retail, so from that standpoint, its a great deal. Even better is if you have a friend that is looking to get into it as well and you can split the box with them. I'm a masochist though and actually bought the box for the sake of having some of each faction and for the experience/joy/pain of assembling and painting them. Anyway, removing the non-model related items from the box leaves you with this: Huh, how bad could that be right? Well, I decided to start with the three troll warbeasts which are contained together in one of the plastic bags shown, and when opened, leave you with this: I seem to remember counting 24 pieces for the three beasts though I only see 22 here. Its possible there's a couple small pieces hiding, or that I just miscounted (no worries though, I know I'm not missing any pieces). As I prepped these for assembly, I ran into my first complaint. The mold lines on these pieces are quite plentiful, rather noticeable, and often times poorly placed (like right down the center of the face). Fortunately I am not a perfectionist and am willing to say "good enough" but the plastic mold lines do come up easily enough with a hobby knife provided you can get the knife in there. I got what I could, but didn't go nuts on it. We'll see how bad it looks when they get primed. As for assembly, these are actually pretty easy to assemble so far. The torso pieces can fit into any of the leg pieces and although the three beasts all carry a different armament, its easy to match the arms up with the torsos because of the shape of the pegs. The downside to this is that there isn't a lot of room for mixing and matching the pieces between the three. You could probably work the shield onto any of the three if you really wanted, and there's a pauldron that you could likely do the same with, but that's about it. That said though, assembly was pretty easy which is good for a product targeting new players. So here are the three beasts mostly assembled. The remaining pieces will be added later as I paint so as to allow better access to all parts of the models. From left to right are the Troll Bouncer, Troll Impaler, and Troll Axer who I shall call Dalton, Vlad, and Lizzie respectively. Dalton is currently a bit forward leaning and needs his shield in order to stand still for the picture. Or maybe he's just drunk, not sure. Anyway, next step will be priming and then they will probably sit for a few days while I a) work on some other models, b) let the primer cure (I use brush on) and c) go out of town. As always feel free to add in any questions and C&C (though not much to C&C yet I realize). :P

So with my ongoing RPG game heading into a new chapter, one that has a rather extensive focus on trolls, it was only right that I start painting up some of everyone's favorite regenerating, pyrophobes. So starting out with (from left to right) Lardgulp 2Headed Troll 02657 by S. Garrity, Bones Marsh Troll 77152 by J Wiebe, and the Bones Cave Troll 77004 by B. Siens. As you can see, the cave troll has already received a layer of blue liner to prepare for the rest of the paint job and has had his broccoli cut off to prepare for a rebasing (which will be a first ever attempt for me for this particular style of base. I do have another cave troll that might get added to this thread if time permits. I also have some Hordes trollbloods that will be used in the campaign as well, but will create a separate thread for them since they are a completely different company. Hoping to make some good progress on the cave troll at least today, though it is absolutely gorgeous outside, so will have to see. :)

Finally finished this guy up for my current campaign I am running. This was a real labor of love for me. I absolutely love the model and loved working on it even though it seemed as though nearly everything that could go wrong, did. From missing part (quickly replaced because Reaper is awesome) to paint cracking, to one antler wanting to continuously fall off, to problems with the basing (caused mostly by my trying to rush last night to get it done in time for today's session). All in all I am pretty happy with this guy considering my current skill level (not very high). My only regret was not noticing that the right eye socket (left as you look at it) on the helm had a bunch of extra metal debris in it until it was too late. Couldn't get it off without risking breaking the model and unfortunately that prevented me from giving it the green glow that is in the other eye socket and where the nose would have been (to represent magic in the helm). I do wish I had more time to better base the model but I just ran out of time. I also realized the value in basing it first and painting the model on a separate holder (cork, bottle cap, etc.), and will definitely be doing so with future models! Regardless, he can now die with honor this afternoon! At any rate, thanks for looking and as always I appreciate any comments or suggestions for improvements. I am always looking for new techniques or ideas on how to improve my current techniques since I am still so new. WIP can be found here. Special thanks go out to @Xherman1964 for all his suggestions as I was painting this guy up.

Next up in my painting journey for my current Pathfinder game. The Stag Lord, a.k.a. the first Big Bad that the party will encounter (likely at the next session, so I may need to speed up the painting process near the end to get him done). This is also proving to be my first "Moby Dick" mini, or perhaps "Murphy's Law" if you prefer. When I first opened him up, I learned that he was missing his bow arm. While it's certainly plausible he'll lose that arm when he encounters the PCs, it seemed a bit premature to me. :) Fortunately, Reaper Customer Service is awesome and even though it was months after I had placed the order, they still replaced the entire mini for free, which is doubly awesome since as a newbie painter I don't have a lot of random extra bits lying about for basing materials, conversions, etc., so getting a full package was pretty sweet (even though I'd have been thrilled with just the one missing piece). Next thing I noticed as I assembled this guy was that he required a lot of gap filling. The helm was a rather loose fit and the cloak didn't really line up in back either. Ironically, this actually didn't bother me much since i saw it as a chance to practice my gap filling which I have not had to do too much of to date. So with that out of the way, I set about priming and getting the base coat on the skin done. Can't really see it here, but I then noticed a weird issue on the skin. For some reason, the paint on his skin began to crack. This is puzzling to me as I am not sure what could be causing it. I had used the same bottle of paint very recently (like less than a week ago) with no problems. Any thoughts on what could have caused it? I've gone over it with another coat and will see how it holds up, but hopefully he won't need a Simple Green Bath. That said, I'm open to suggestions here. The initial plan from here is to go with kind of a dirty bone look on the helm, gray for the cloak, and Coal Black for the armor pieces. Haven't quite decided what to do with the leggings yet, but I'm thinking possibly a darker brown, but I am very much open to suggestions as I freely acknowledge I only have a basic grasp (if that) of color theory. Anyway, thanks for looking and please feel free to provide C&C as I go. I am always looking for pointers, tips, etc. as I continue to slowly improve to a somewhat passable state. :) Ultimately I will be aiming for Table Top quality which I don't think I will have too much trouble achieving (well my version of TT anyway).

Kobolds! Who doesn't love the cute little guys? So these guys were a really quick paint job for my ongoing Pathfinder campaign, and I know what you're thinking. "Gargs, that sorceror is purple!" True, he is, but that's he is described in the module. :) Anyway, for a quick paint job at my relatively newbie level, I'm actually pretty happy with these guys. In retrospect, I probably should have chosen a different color for the shirt on the sorceror, but honestly, wasn't sure what would contrast well with his dark skin. Any thoughts for future reference? Eventually, I may go back and add some OSL to the sorceror as well, but trying to tackle two different flame effects was definitely a bit intimidating to me and I wanted to get them done in time for game day. Biggest fear I had was trying to figure out the color of the OSL effect given that the flames are made up of multiple colors themselves. Anyway, as always any comments, critiques, advice, etc. are always appreciated! Thanks for looking!

Here's my latest newbie WIP. Trying to take some of what I learned from the Bones LTPK2 and apply it here. These little guys are for my current Pathfinder campaign. As you can see here, I've started on the prototype to see if I can get the skin coloration (primarily) and the rest of the scheme looking more or less right. I intend to have fun with these guys as they are meant to just be sort of the red-headed step children of the fey world (at least among the evil fey anyway). Needed two sets of these guys, so normally you only get 3 in a package. Will get around to dotting the eyes of the prototype mite, and am thinking a bright green for the cloak, but not sure how that will look next to the blue skin. Trying to avoid red though simply because red and blue are always my go to colors, and want something a little different this time around. Going with the blue skin though because per the lore, they are in fact blue. Think of them as evil smurfs. ;) Anyway, base coat on the skin is Heather Blue for those who are wondering. Thanks for taking a look!

Happy birthday, Gargs. Stay warm!