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Morning everybody, just got this one finished and photographed this early morn, one of Michael Evan's halflings, a mage: Big fan of Stonehaven and especially like this figure, as he looks like a traditional Tolkienesque adventuring hobbit, but with that caveat that he has got himself a bit of magic. Way back when in the olden days, halflings were either fighters or thieves, so this is a nice little modern twist. Anyways, enjoy!

Hello fine fans of fantastic miniatures! So I can't tell you exactly when, but months back Dark Sword Miniatures put out this miniature, two hobbit scouts one standing on the other's shoulders sculpted by Bobby Jackson, an obvious homage to some old Grenadier halflings sculpted I believe by Andrew Chernak back in the early eighties. As soon as I saw this miniature I immediately thought that all fine fans of old school miniatures would be buying the new version and then painting them both up to happily compare the two. Well, until now I hadn't seen any such "explosion" of comparisons, so I figured maybe I just need to be the first. So here is the most recent Dark Sword version, sculpted by Mr. Jackson: and here is are the original hobbits, sculpted by Andrew Chernak back in maybe 1982 or so?: and here they are side by side: I tried to use as much as possible the same or similar color scheme in each version. The only thing that did happen is that there is a Dark Sword version of the hobbits scouts one on top of each other with two separate cloaks, but I accidentally grabbed the one with a single cloak only. anyhoos, enjoy this blast to the past and let me know what you think!

Hello all you denizens of Reapershire! So been working a little bit more on some Bones V goodness, and today I finished the Female Halfling from the Dungeon Dwellers set: As always, couldn't choose colors, but once I got the colors figured out, it was pretty smooth sailing from there. I have a little bit of flash issues, it seems that plastic flash works a bit differently than metal. I am seemingly merciless with metal flash, but too cautious with the Bones material, but I don't know if that can be noticed or not here. In any case, enjoy and have a very nice weekend!

Trying something a little different this time. I've got a friend who loves JRR Tolkein and I thought he'd really appreciate a little diorama. Since I have to ship this, I need it small and durable. Now, I get it that Bilbo's sword Sting glows bright when Goblins are near, but let's just say for this story it's glowing because danger is close. I have him in the stone henge area with a Wraith King coming around the bend. Let's just say this is about to get real... Starting this on some foam board. I was going to use some chip board, but didn't want the glue and stuff I'd be using for the base to get soaked in and bend. Using the extruded foam core for the stones. Carving them down was pretty fun. I'm thinking I might add some runes or something into them. I haven't primed them yet, so I still have time. The ground terrain is kind of fun - I used spackle, glue, sand, and some burnt umber paint. I'll do some grass and floral additions to it. You can see on one of the pillars that I used a different mix to surround the stone. That was the filler without the paint added. For the circles, I'll be leaving those open to put the minis into and can be taken out on their own. I'll be basing them to match the surrounding area, but Iike the idea of taking them out of the diorama when wanted. Open for any and all suggestions here. We're still far from done.

Someone say painting weekend? Got another one in, but sadly it's not one of the Reapers. I purchased a cool, little Hobbit a few weeks back and the printer sent me this one that was a bad mold, but I ended up making something out of it. What looks wrong with it you ask? Well, for one, the details got a little sloppy. The barrel he's on got halved in printing, his face looks like he's a stroke survivor - his left side of his face is sloped big time. I tried correcting it in the painting, but it's pretty noticiable. There's some big gaps between the hobbit and the barrel. Oh well - it made for a good color study. I stuck to Orange Brown, Chocolate Brown, Light Sand, Yellow, GW Nuln Oil, GW Agrax Earthshade, Stone Grey, Fair Skin, Fair Shadow, Flat Brown. If it's not clear already - the goal was browns. BATTLE REPORT! Wins: * I think the shirt in that orange/cream cuffs came out pretty decent. Went over it with a wash and brought more depth to the lines with brown diluted. Win. * Face was a mess, but considering how sloped it was, I think it wasn't too bad. * Mug foam isn't terrible. Isn't great, but first time doing foam. * Barrel colors look dark and separated from the other tones. Misses: * Eyes on this one were such a pain! Big miss. * Lips look like he's about dead with how much he's drunk. I couldn't go in to give them a more natural color after a few tries I just gave in because the paint was layering up and was going to distort the look further. * Mug wasn't my favorite. I got into it a bit, but lost the momentum to finish the rings around the mug. It also hit me after I was cleaning up that this was a tankard with a top with foam flowing out, not just a foam overflow. May need to go back to fix that. Boo. * Hair was better than I have done on some of the others. I made it with a 3 color setup, but it still looks...washed out. At least it has depth and better than before, but still hate doing hair. Without further excuses - here's Pippin sippin' and slippin with his foamy mug drippin. Always good for feedback if you've got any to give.

I need some help people. I've got a hobbit down to the last 25% to get the painting done. I need to try my hand at nmm and this is the one. Sting is a magnificent sword that glows blue when goblins are near. I need some guidance on how to make this happen. Give me some inspiration, folks.

Hello guys and gals! so this is the first figure I ever painted, even though these aren't that version. The first version, which is actually the one you see below that was painted first years ago, is actually the original stripped version that I would have painted when is was probably about twelve. The original one was painted in model enamel colors, with pink skin, yellow hair and shirts, green paints and I think grey cloak. I ended up getting back into minis again way back and stripped him before I knew about EBay and was able to get a second copy. So here's the one I just finished painted a few nights ago: and here's the one I painted I think in about 2004: and here they are together: So anyways, just thought it would be fun to post, now I'm off to go make some organic pancakes for breakfast! Enjoy!

Hobbit thief with an invisible cloak. This was a really fun little project. A lot of playing with colors and experimenting. It is an old Ral Partha hobbit from my ‘painted-years-ago-box’ that got a repaint. The first picture is from the side that is towards the wall. And the last is from the angle where the illusion (almost) works. Any critiq and comment is welcome. Thanks for looking.

Been kicking around the idea of making one the Bones dragons into Smaug since there's so many choices of great sculpts. Therein lies the problem... Too many choices. I figure Cinder would be the obvious choice, probably the one I'm most leaning towards, but is there a better choice? I'd be leaning towards a more live-action look even though his wings are designed like a wyvern's. T'Raukzul would definitely have the grandeur I imagine Smaug to have, but the would put the project on an indefinite hold while we wait for it to hit retail. Thoughts?

One of my favourite range of figures ever was Citadel's 1980's licensed "Lord Of The Rings" minis. I have finally decided to get all the miniatures I own painted up (over time) & try to acquire the ones which are missing from my collection (& paint them up too!). Here is the first completed mini - Frodo. He is actually part of a blister of 3 minis which also includes Strider & Gandalf, I will be painting those 2 sometime at a later date. This was also an opportunity for me to use my newly acquired "Flockbox" to create a more lush realistic upstanding static grass effect on the base, I'm quite pleased with how it turned out. Thanks for looking!

In my last Lunch Sessions thread, I posted this teaser: This Clearly Non-Hobbit mini was a special piece created by Victoria Lamb (I'm not sure at this point whether it was limited edition, or convention-only, or what) which I picked up at Reapercon 2015 (Victoria was there, talking about OSL, go figure). If you're at all familiar with Victoria's painting work, you know she's an incredible OSL painter, and this sculpt is perfect for the technique. Both the torch and the sword (given the clear "sting" of inspiration) are light sources, and both the clothes and the base offer some really great lines for casting shadows and catching light. I'm very excited to paint this fellow, as OSL is one of the more advanced techniques that has always drawn my attention...and there are several pieces I want to do up to competition level involving OSL, for which this piece will serve as practice. I intend to take him up to display or competition quality, so please comment and critique as I move along. My intent with the lighting is to have a very strong yellow-to-orange light cast by the torch, with a very soft bluish light from the sword. I want to play with the interaction where the light sources contact each other, as well as see what I get on different colors of fabric. This week will be mostly blocking colors in, so I know what the light is falling on. If I move really quickly, I'll start playing with shadows, but I doubt that will come until next week. DAY 01 30 minutes A few basecoats. I started by basing the skin in Carrot Top Red, then lining everything in Blackened Brown. After lining the base, you can really see where those stones are going to create some really cool cast shadows from the torch. Following that, I mixed P3 Coal Black into the Blackened Brown and hit his hair with it, then based his coat in Ancient Oak. I'm choosing black hair mostly because I think it will be the most forgiving of the multi-colored light sources. Trying to figure out how to play with two light sources filtering through translucent hair is beyond the scope of what I'm hoping to accomplish right now. Baby steps, right? And that's all for today. Tomorrow will see the pants and leathers blocked in, and possibly his eyes. Once the eyes are done, I'll block in the "visible" skin tone (no, he won't stay that orange!)

I was still learning how to take pics with the new camera, but these came out pretty good. Killed my eyes painting this after another very small Tengu model, but she is was worth it. Originally I was hoping my friend could use it in his Dragon Island campaign, but she did not make it into the story. Really pretty model though, love the pose.

The hobbits from Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings line. Frodo Merry (I think)

Back for the January Bones Beauty Contest I painted up a half dozen or so Bones halflings and gnomes (and enough more metal halflings to make a baker's dozen, but they will get shown later). This is Lem, Iconic Bard. I painted his facial expression after a particular mischievous and charming nephew of mine. I played a flute like his in school; the reflections on the flute are all painted on.

During the January Bones Beauty Pageant in addition to a handful of Bones gnomes and halflings, I painted some metal ones as well. This is Woody the Ranger in his red-lined black greatcoat with red toggle buttons. He's also in the Bones II Kickstarter, but this one is metal. I made some attempt to paint one side of his face in shadow but am not sure how successful it was.

This is 02110: Darby Darkleaf, or rather one of a set of three, 03359: DHL Classics: Female Halflings. They are not quite identical, since the individual figure has a larger base than the three in the set. All three halflings in the set are tiny and Old School style, with especially small faces with eyes that are shaped a little difficult to paint. They are, however, very cute. I painted her eyes rather larger than they were actually sculpted. I think this might be the first time in twenty years I've tried to paint a mini red-blonde. I'm not sure how successful she turned out.

Here she is, the last of the hobbits (and gnomes) I started during the January Bones Beauty Pageant. Olivia, "halfling" could maybe be a druid, or a wizard. At any rate, she a non-thief hobbit female. Many times when I start one of these things I think, "Oh, I should try painting in subdued colors and earth tones." Hah. So anyway, here's the world's least camouflaged hobbit druid. Or most ivy-loving wizard. Or something. I love that she has a loaf of bread in her sling of scrolls and books.

This is one of my favorite halfling sculpts. Melantha is smaller than some other recent halflings (like the statuesque Elia Shadowfeet Mark II), but I like her attitude. There's so much life and movement in this sculpt!

Inspired by the January Bones Little People Beauty Pageant, I pulled out some of my metal hobbits and painted them up as well. This is Elia Shadowfeet, Female Halfling Thief. I discovered I also had an earlier incarnation of Elia, much more old-school in style but sculpted, as this one was, by Sandra Garrity. I do like the more modern approach in this figure. She's pretty tall for a halfling, reasonably armored, and packed for a serious expedition. Looking at some of the other paint jobs, like Derek Schubert's stunning version in Reaper's online store, I am struck by how soft mine look. The colors kind of melt into each other and are sometimes ambiguous as to what they are and where they go. This is also almost my first attempt in 20 years to paint a blonde mini (this was the first, and only by a few hours). I do try to make use of the broccoli bases. This one maybe looks a little more tarry than I intended.

This is Reaper 02100: Trissa Cloverhill, the last of the three female halflings in the set 03359: DHL Classics: Female Halflings. They are a cute set of three extra-small old-school-style hobbits. Trissa's legs felt a little bare to me, so I added blue breeches.

Another of the Bones halflings-and-gnomes I painted for the January Bones Beauty Pageant. I like his active pose. I think he has the biggest feet of all the halflings I painted. His eyes were dark and a little hard to get to. I was trying for a glint out of the shadows effect for his left eye (on our right). As with all the swords and shiny bits, the reflections are painted on.

This is 02058: Elia Shadowfeet, which came in a set with two others, 03359: DHL Classics Female Halflings. She's a dainty little Old-School thing. To give an idea of size, she is standing on a standard Chessex dice box. There is a later version of Elia who is an amazon by comparison. Both were sculpted by Sandra Garrity. She was sculpted with (probably) bare legs, but I added painted-on breeches because that tunic looked mighty short and drafty. I painted her dark because dark hobbits, why not. Reflections on the short sword are painted on. I think the whites on her sleeves got a bit overexposed in the photos except for the back view. There are a lot of different colors in the shading of those sleeves. Her face was a bit difficult to paint. It is very small, and the eyes had a sort of agressive shape with two pits on the side of a ball. It took a little finagling to make it work.

Didn't see any post about this: Going to see it NOW at the 7:50 showing here in Birmingham! Will life be the same after tonight? I think not!

Battle of the five armies sneak peek. Pure Win - FFWD: 5:02

Hi, in the moment I have the problem that most 28-32mm Halfling minis do not satisfy me. 1. I don't want them to have tall. Most have sizes like Dwarves. Even the new Arcworlde Halfling minis I will get soon. I want only half the size of a human +/- few inches (not +/- whole feets!!!) 2. I do not want them thinny. No thinny Halflings. More like Tolkien made them in his mind. 3. No shoes! Only shoes for one or two special characters... Does anyone know a producer of such Halflings to get together a skirmish group (even a bigger group)?