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So while I was shopping at Ral Partha Europe (not the same as Ral Partha), I spotted some figures from Das Schwarze Auge which looked kind of nice in an Old School sort of way. Das Schwarze Auge was apparently Germany's answer to D&D in the 1980s. It was (might still be) quite popular there. I don't know the history of the figures. Anyhow, this is Das Schwarze Auge 15500B, "Female Sorcerer". I started this figure a while back, keeping it at the back of my painting table and adding bits as I painted other things. All paints used are Golden Matte Fluid Acrylics. Color mixes are (usually) noted, but not exact ratios. Questions are welcomed and I will try to answer them. Critiques are appreciated. This is the way I usually start miniature figures: Lightly primed with Titanium White, then when that is dry, washing it over with Burnt Umber. Burnt Umber is a dark, transparent pigment that settles into crannies when thinned down and shows the details very well. It also gives a nice warm undertone to later paint layers. I already painted her face before I took a picture. Oh, and I left the orb on her staff just primed white because that will make it look more glowing when I paint it later.

Good evening everybody, Just finished this one last night, an old Ral Partha Robin Hood, sculpted by Dennis Mize with a Citadel Crossover group of figures way back when. Very classic feel on this one, and of course, even though green was the obvious choice, it ended up taking me forever to figure out where to put what color. Anyhow, very nice little figure, not too complicated to paint!

I have been busy painting these past months, but I have not been taking pictures and posting much, and these guys are to blame for that. I started them up many many years ago, but never could come up with a good paint scheme. My Monstrous Manual didn't have any pictures let alone a decent description, and the older pictures were all line art or black & white. Finally earlier this year I took a look at them again and was able to find 3rd ed pictures and descriptions and while very different than the old school versions it at least gave me a starting point. I could have just done them up in any ld color and been happy, but no color scheme really stood out to me, so "traditional" it is. their fur ended up not being as white as I would have liked and it doesn't help that it's hard to tell if something is supposed to be furred or bare blue skin, but Ithink it's more or less ok now. Now the reason I haven't posted was because for a while now I have just not been able to take miniature photos I'm at all happy with and these guys were the worst for it since they are mostly blue and white so it was hard to get a picture where their eyes (which I spent quite a bit of time on) even remotely stood out. Even now I'm not completely happy with the pictures, but like the minis I guess I just have to learn when it's just good enough. So without any further ado Taer This one got panted black with grey dry brushing for a while, but it just didn't seem like enough. This one was the worst to photograph as his rock kept casting shadows on his face. i like how the rock turned out at least. This one spent the last decade solid grey. I wish I could have done more to make the eyes stand out, but my hand is not very steady so it either works or it doesn't. The team together. Ready to fight off adventurers and keep them from invading their snowy mountaintop dungeon complex Really turned down the settings on this picture because even the previous pictures look too washed out now that I've got them cropped down. Comments? Critiques? Photography advice? Business ventures for for young Taer seeking promising careers with advancement opportunities? Edit: Gah! Blown up the first 3 photos look even worse now. I may retake them and replace them at some point, if I can ever pin down whats going wrong. in the last photo I turned off the auto settings on my phone and set them manually, but it was all guess work since literally none of the buttons and symbols mean anything to me.

Good morning everybody! So just finished painting this one Friday I think, and getting around to posting him. This one I think is one of Ral Partha's older Citadel crossovers, where something happened wherein Partha had to rescuplt new versions of some Citadel pieces. I think this was probably one of them not sure of the actual origin, and really not sure of the sculptor. I think It's Bob Charette, because there are similar faces with some other minis, but this is yet to be confirmed. Anyhoos, fun figure to paint, not a super svelte, big-boobed super model, and a very flat figure, but fun armor, shield and personality. Color choice as always was a big issue, had no idea what colors to do her. She got tanned skin because I was painting her with some other figures, plus she's a warrior, so she probably runs around outside a lot. The red hair? Why not is the only answer I can come up with. The hardest part of this one, was her upper lip, because she really didn't have much of one. So hope that turned out okay. In any case, enjoy!

This is an old Ral Partha Shadowrun figure, now sold by Ironwind Metals as part of the set 20-568, Male and Female Bodyguards. We're using her for a Vampire: The Masquerade character. I liked her Old School late 20th century futurism look. There is very little actual black on her. Most of that is lots of other colors, mixed. There is no WIP thread, but questions and comments are welcome.

Hello guys and gals, here's a new figure I just finished, a Ral Partha figure from the eighties, a female warrior, kind of a bit barbaric, with axe and shield. As Always, deciding just simple things like colors were kind of more time consuming than they should have been. I did her hair black because I'd seen the same model very nicely painted and done blonde and didn't want to copy. This was sculpted by the great Julie Guthrie, sculpting goddess. Also had no idea what color the shield should have been so eventually and randomly chose green! Anyhoos, enjoy!

Another old mini that I painted at the same time as the Taer. Initially I just primed him white and called it good, but since I was painting the Taer, I figured he'd be a good one to paint along side them since he would have a similar color scheme. He was also equally a pain the %&^$#@ elf to photograph, didn't matter if I was using a neutral background or my dungeon tiles. he would inevitably be washed out and or blurry. while trying to experiment I got a decent picture of him on top of my trash can out side. This guy is very much based on his art in the Monstrous Compendium Annual Volume One. Drawn by one of my favorite D&D artists Tony Diterlizzi. Hmm blown up it's still a little blurry now. I don't get it, the S8 is supposed to have an awesome camera, but it seemed like I was getting better pictures with my wife's old Ipad. I really thought I had finally gotten a picture of him that actually worked. Might try and fix this later as well.

So continuing on with my theme of black pants and clothing, and trying to stay in certain color schemes to make my life a tad more efficient, here is the other Monk/Martial Artist I finished basing last night. He has the same black pants more or less that the Brue Lee figure had, also nunchuks, and also ready to beat a wrongdoer into submission. This one is from the Hackmaster line that Ral Partha has brought back, sculpted in 2003 (I checked the bottom before I put him on his base) by Jim Johnson. Another fun and simple figure, not too many dingly danglies, just a man, his pants, a European shoulder bag, and a few weapons. I kind of wish his wrist bands had turned out a little bit better metalwise, but oh well, he's done and I'm not going back, too many things pending...

And the third miniature in the "black pants" series of figures I just finished up, another monk. This one is another old school wonder, a monk from the Grenadiers Specialist box, probably from the latter seventies-early eighties. This one is not only in my by now certainly infamous "black pants series", but also belongs to my comparison series, where I take something I painted aeons ago and painted up a new version. This one got the same skin tones as my Bruce Lee I recently painted, and the same pants as the other monkey, Bruce, and an upcoming black jacket on somebody. First the 21st century version, complete as of May 7, 2018: and then his grandpa, one I painted probably somewhere between 1982-1984 or earlier. I really should have kept better records as a young nerd, but I guess at that time I didn't figure I'd grow up to be an obsessive older nerd: and then here they are side by side: I think it's a pretty fun and enjoyable exercise these comparisons. I'd highly recommend it from anybody who is actually old enough to have been painting "way back when", whenever that way back when was, the seventies, eighties, or even 2016!

This one is the last of my black pants series, even though this one doesn't have black pants, but rather a black jacket. For this one, I used black for his jacket, and used the same skin tones with him as my other monk, the Hackmaster one sculpted by Jim Johnson. So here we go, a seemingly friendly cleric, perhaps turning undead, version from 2018 But if you look at him from behind, you'll see he's ready, just in case he gets a low roll of the dice: This is another I did what seems to be centuries ago, even though it was really probably only 35 years or so: And here they are together: I'm glad my parents kept my old figures and gave them back to me years ago. Always nice to go back down memory lane and looking at the art you did and how you've developed and changed over the years.

Good morning all, finished this one up last night, working on a few figures with some intermingling color schemes and this is the first one that got done, a Ral Partha, stamped 1984 on the bottom, sculpted by Dennis Mize. Really like the sculpt, Partha has a few odd little pop culture sculpts from back in the day (John Belushi samurai, Rambo, Groo for examples). This one was pretty simple to do, skin, face, hair, pants, shoes and nunchuks, nothing else really going on with him: The only problem is encountered, and this was my fault, was the left nipple I originally painted too far towards the exterior of his pec. Had to bring it in a tad or he would have looked kind of lopsided. Anyhoos, enjoy!

So from my painting fervor, this is the third miniature I finished this last week, and I think my favorite. I actually took pictures of him yesterday to post, but when I looked at the pictures close up, I noticed he actually had a blade of grass on his head, right where his hair part was, so ended up having to re-photograph him. This figure came from the Ral Partha/Iron Wind Metals Chaos Wars Kickstarter and Tom Meier sculpted up two new elves for them, in the 25 mm scale that the other elves were done in (other figures that he had sculpted 30-40 years ago). There was a comparable figure he had done that was also and elf with an axe and shield that some day I'd like to paint as well, but here is his modern version of it. I really wanted to give his hair and skin a pale, ethereal look and wanted the colors too to not be to harsh with the clothing and weapons. I was surprised that he ended up actually being a pretty easy figure to paint, despite the small size. The only difficult part of this mini in all honesty was his eyes, which Tom Meier kind of made "proportionate", so they weren't exaggeratedly large like lots of figures are sculpted with. This has both good and bad parts. The good of course is you have a beautifully proportionate figure, the bad of course if you have to see what you can do with this little pindrops of eyes. I think I actually managed to do okay with them. I considered eye brows but then in the end decided against it, figuring in theory they would be such a light color they would hardly show anyway. And to give you a size of this miniature, here's a comparison shot against a US quarter: After painting this figure, it really puts me in the frame of mind that I'd like to paint more of Meier's contemporary stuff, like what he's done for Dark Sword for example.

Hi guys! So I've had a bit of time this week to do quite a bit of painting, so here is one of three figures I've finished recently. It's another one of the Hackmaster figures recently acquired by Partha, a Cleric sculpted by Jim Johnson back in 2003. As always, hardest thing to figure out was the color scheme, but I think it kind of worked out reasonably well. Chain mail is kind of a pain it seems, because as many times I gave them a coat and a wash, I can still see some little wholes. Oh well, must just accept it!

Good evening all, so just finished this one, another really fun and adventurous Dwarf sculpted by Jim Johnson back in 2002-2003. Another piece from the Hackmaster line from Kenzer and Company, but was acquired by Ral Partha and now being cast by them. Hopefully dwarfy enough colors, started out with his skin as tanned highlights and gave him some nice black hair. I thought about doing something with the runes on his axe but then just figured I'd leave them as metal. Enjoy!

Hello all, just finished another Ral Partha Hackmaster figure, this time a male dwarf thief, dagger in one hand and crossbow in the other. It's another figure sculpted by the prolific Jim Johnson back in about 2003. For this one, I wanted darker colors, but really the hardest part on him was deciding the line at the edges of his leather jerkin. I had considered red and gold, but then for some reason purple ended up being the color I went with. Enjoy!

So I recently posted Rozmina, the Half-Orc Pirate from Derek Schubert. Here is the other half-orc I was working on at the same time, but as this one had a lot more going on with armor and such, he took quite a while longer. Really cool mini sculpted by Bob Olley around 2003, large figure, good heft to him. the only frustrating part on this one was the chainmail and trying to get all the paint into all those little holes, and I can see some spots where it didn't work quite like I wanted it to. Also what color would you guys call his metals that aren't "steel" colored? Referring to the hilt, the belt buckle, and that heart looking thing protecting his manly parts?

Hi guys, so in my continuing series of old school minis that I painted in the eighties and recently, I've just finished up another one. I've been concentrating on Grenadier figures for this, as this is what we had back then in the day. I just finished this one last night, and the original one I'd painted probably somewhere between 1982-1986, probably closer to 1982. I think that the original one if I recall correctly actually came with the mace broken off, which apparently at the time didn't disturb me and I painted a cleric with a little stick in his hand. and here these two merry round bellied gentlemen are side by side: One of the odder things on this figure was originally I didn't even notice that his foot that was visible was actually a bare foot. I painted his foot as if he were wearing a red shoe. Looking back too at these miniatures with the advent of the Grenadier/Mirlton Kickstarter, wondering if I might participate.

Good morning all, so here's a Halfling rogue sculpted by Jim Johnson that was put out by Kenzer and Co., and rereleased by Ral Partha recently. A nice little Hackmaster figure, enjoy him quite a lot, because he's pretty straight forward, kind of iconic-looking Halfling thief. And I've been doing so many greens and such, it was a departure from my woodsy colors, so went for a cloak the color of the Dutch flag and some purple pants. Enjoy!

So finally finished this one from my two-week vacation. I meant to finish the female mage to in my WIP, but that's still essentially a WIP to be finished once I get the time. Tomorrow it's back to work, so might take longer than I thought, but that's the way it goes. Enjoy!

Hi all and happy new year! Here are two figures I recently finished that Ral Partha has re-released, a ranger and a female fighter. The ranger was sculpted by Jim Johnson and the fighter was Bob Olley. Fun figures to paint, kind of bulky and a larger scale than the old Partha stuff I'm usually working on. and just for fun, I took a close up of the lady's face, because it always seems to happen that when a character has something raised over his head, the detail becomes smaller because your picture is so much higher: Anyhow, really enjoyed painting these figures, loads of fun, full of personality and a good hefty size. And they're metal, which is another plus for me!

So I finished this one a while ago, which was part of a three -piece Partha set that was based on a painting of Larry Elmore, Bones of the Past. I already finished the two ladies in the painting, so this was the last one. I tried to keep him relatively faithful to the original painting as far as the color scheme, but there are always going to be a few slight differences. Here then is the painting this one came from: and the two links to the other figures: So all three of them are finished, let's see what I can work on next!

An old Ral Partha lady warrior I painted for the Morihalda Challenge. I'm happy with her eyes (only two tries!), but she seems kinda washed out in the pictures. I need to play with the light box more.

I'm not sure what this is supposed to be; I got it as part of a figure lot on Ebay. Maybe an Otyugh? Maybe something C'thulu-ish? In any case I painted it for the Morihalda Challenge.

This is an old Grenadier dwarf from their 'Fantasy Warriors' range/game. I initially wanted his eyes facing up towards his axe, but after goofing them up about 342,539 times, I decided to go with what I had. Tabletop painting for Morihalda Challenge.

I'm not entirely sure what this is supposed to be; I got it in a group of figures that I bought on Ebay. I know it's by Grenadier, and that's it. I painted this up as part of my Morihalda challenge; to a (hopefully) decent tabletop standard. Those eyes were tons of fun.