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Happy Holidays, everyone!

"Speed paint" of Goldar. Total time painting was about 2-1/2 hours start to finish. I tried something new this time, which was painting all the shadow colors on the mini as a base coat, then spraying a white zenithal spray over the shadow colors, and finally doing washes and glazes, and edge highlights to add color back over white zenithal spray and tie it together the shadow colors. The result was a little chalky, but saved me the time of layering or wet blending the colors. It might have been a bit better if I could find a more transparent white to zenithal highlight the mini.

More minis from my Shelf of Shame Long-Term, Partially-Completed Backlog: A trio of kobolds from one of the Reaper Bones kickstarters! These are some of the tiniest minis I've painted. Even so, it took about 2 long evenings to complete them. I did lots of practice of NMM steel and gold. I'm now of the opinion that NMM works better than metallics for small minis. The clothing was originally red, but I found it was too close to the orange of the skin color and just blended together from about 2 feet away, so they got repainted to a color/tone that was more distinct. I prefer that my kobolds be weird dog/lizard hybrid creatures, so they all got black noses. It looks good on these! That brings the total minis I've painted this year to 19! (With another one in the wings.)

From my Shelf of Shame, a set of essential dungeon dressings: equipment designed to extract vital information from captured enemies. I had done most of these pieces up after getting the Bones Kickstarter 3, mostly as practice for natural wood textures. IIRC, the basic formula used here was a base of 09074 Buckskin Pale, with a wash of 09310 Sepia Wash over it, followed by an edge highlighting of Buckskin Pale once again. Metal parts were done with 09206 Tarnished Steel with a wash of 09312 Steel Wash. I don't remember the formula for the (brass) Iron Maiden. The reason it languished after that was the final piece, the glowing brazier, which waited until last night to be painted: I was intimidated by doing a fire effect, and at the time I didn't have any idea of a technique to do one. So i just threw down a bunch of yellows and oranges, with the high areas being the darker parts. Overall, a pretty decent first attempt at a fire effect... but I get the impression that the prisoner might get drizzled with cheese fondue instead. (That makes 9 minis taken down from the Shelf of Shame this year!)

Part of my goal for the year was to reduce my literal Shelf of Shame: The minis that I started and put down and never came back to. Some of those minis are recent, some extend all the way back to when i started painting minis in about 2014 or so. So as the first installment, here are a few things I've painted since the beginning of the year: First up is the Pillar of Good and Pillar of Evil: I forget why I had these on the shelf. I think I was intending to paint them along with the rest of the dungeon decor from the second Reaper Kickstarter. While the barrels and crates were finished long ago, these languished until now. They are painted with a green-stone mixture: Vallejo's Model Air Dark SeaGreen and US Light Grey , and drybrushed with a mix of US Light Grey and Model Color Dark Sand. I did the Pillar of Evil quickly, but then needed something to practice Reaper's NMM Gold Triad on, so the Pillar of Good got the treatment. Flowers are Reaper Punk Rock Pink, with Breast Cancer Awareness Pink highlights. Second up is a collection of large vermin Dire Rats: Not every mini can be a hero. Some have to be rats. These have been on the self of shame since the start. They were painted and stripped several times, and even served as test minis for various primers. I didn't care much about them, but they were on the shelf and are a quick-and-dirty (!) painting task. The paint job is table-top quality, but I did like the final coloration, so I'll record it here for the Giant Rats I have to paint later: Fur: Layer up with dry-brushing: MSP Walnut Brown MSP Russet Brown MSP Intense Brown MSP Intense Brown mixed with any ivory color on your palette Tail: Base: HD Entrail Pink Highlight: MSP Old West Rose Detail: MSP New Copper Finally, here is the current state of the Shelf of Shame: (I told you, it was a literal shelf! It's a shadowbox made from a plastic 12" x 12" picture frame and foam core board. See: GCB Tries Foam Core Joinery.) They're mostly Reaper minis I have to finish/repaint. The notable exception are the Gloomhaven: Jaws of the Lion figures on the top shelf. This group should be entirely doable, by the end of the year. Then I get to pull out new minis to paint!

"Come out to the coast, we'll get together, have a few laughs..." First, let me explain "why" I made this. Yes, "Die Hard" is a Christmas movie. The same as any of those Hallmark channel movies, "It's a Wonderful Life," or "Elf." I can feel my teeth rotting just mentioning that movie. Second, my wife wears holiday pins everyday for the month of December. She even wears a pair of pins on occasion. She has too many to fit into 25 days. Since this became a tradition, as is watching "Die Hard," every year, I started planning this craft project. I did have this sidelined for a bit, mostly due to not having the right size "vent" I wanted to use for the size of the pin. I finally found a rounded corner rectangular set of cookie cutters (pkg of 10) that fit the bill. LOL So with laminated pictures of John in the can, as it were, I cut him in and then added UV resin to seal him in. A generous layer of resin. Then I added a cutout of his head and his hand with the lighter to add some depth. Voila, John McClane in the vents of the Nakatomi Building. You might have seen some ornaments around the 'net. Here are some pics as well as my wife sporting the pin today. Just john bent into the "vent." John with a cutout of his head one layer in front of the background pic and his hand and light another layer ahead of that. Sadly a few bubbles formed on the top layers. I got a few out before hardening the resin. The pin in place. My wife's new Christmas Pin. LMAO It has two pin backs attached to the back with the UV resin. Both with the clasp end and pin point down. Easy placement and closing. Holds it in place well. I think I am going to find a mini-bow for the top and add a ribbon around the outside. Add to the Christmas presentation. For those wondering what UV resin I used... I got a couple of .75oz bottles off of Wish for the job a while ago. Worked well. Enjoy and leave your thoughts and CC. I am interested in hearing what you all think.

A trio of animated snowmen, definitely up for trouble for the holiday season! Definitely a fun and quick seasonal paint-up. The snowmen are painted up in Reaper Frosty Blue and highlights of Pure White, with Vallejo Azure providing the deep shadows and lining. The bases are dead simple, using the same colors and some Americana crackle medium for a subtle cracked ice effect. I really like how the monocle came out on the top hat snowman! I think of the three, the candy cane carrying snowman is my favorite. His derpy upturned face is visible from anywhere across the table, and the tattered Santa robe came out quite well. My daughter suggested that the end of the candy cane should be spattered with blood effects, but then my wife would never let me put it in a holiday display! I went back and forth on the color of the hair for the bowler hat snowman. I was going to repaint it black, but tried changing the color in a paint app, and didn’t like it. I did one last thing to tie the trio together — I gave them matching scarves! My daughter took one look and said: “They’re in a gang!” — she got it! Happy holidays, everyone!

A very fun model to paint. It’s full of expression and has a dynamic pose. Highly recommended!

This is my entry to the 2017 Valentine's Day Painting Contest. I call it "The Ladykiller". It's a modified 77207: Dub Bullock, with a bouquet of flowers replacing his usual knife. It appears he's got his eye on some (un)lucky gal... This is my first modified figure, and it was a blast. I made the roses by glueing a 4mm x 20mm rectangle of putty to a jewelry wire at one end, then rolling it up, pinching it at the bottom. I shaped and spread the petals by poking at the coil of putty with a pin. I cut away the mini's knife and drilled a hole through his hand and pushed the bouquet through. The bouquet wrapper was a partly hardened sheet of putty that I wrapped around a shaped filler around the flowers. That partly hardened sheet of putty also produced the ribbon for the Valentine's Day chocolate box, which was just three sheets of putty left to harden, then cut to shape and glued together. My daughter says that I could take up the hobby of producing doll-sized food from Fimo clay, if I wanted. The Bones version of this model has a mold line down the center of the mini's face, and so the facial features are a bit garbled. I had to trim away flash and do a bit of reconstructive surgery on his nose and chin with superglue applied with the point of a pin. The paint job was a bit rushed, because I put off painting until the last minute, then came down with the flu on Wednesday. I pushed through the illness and painted these last three nights, and got it submitted to the contest with less than an hour to spare.

So here are the first 3 (of 6). Minus the bases, I'd say I stayed close to my 3 hours per figure. The next 3 have been started and will appear in the WIP thread soon. Thanks for looking.

Well, I'm calling him done. His drool is warping (dry air?) and I keep messing with the tooth but enough is enough. It was a learning experience all round (first bust, first try using WarColour paints, first drool and blood and most of him was painted by airbrush) so I'm calling it a success. Thanks for looking.

Armoured Skeletons (FGV314) by North Star Part of the Thaw of the Lich Lord campaign for FROSTGRAVE Table Top Quality _________________________________________________________________ Your intrepid warband marches confidently on the outskirts of the frozen city. After a long campaign clearing out the area your brave band of soldiers are ready to pursue deeper in to the white laden ruins. The cold wind, although bitter, has become manageable for your warband. Swiftly the winds begin to rush in from the inner part of the frozen Acropolis, deathly cold. Visibility is no more than twenty to thirty feet in front. Ahead you can see the white and grey haze of snow concealing the ruins. Your captain shouts, "halt" as the warband freezes in it's tracks. A slight sound of creaking then the dull murmur of metal sliding across stone and ice. The sound echos through the winds shaking your men to their cores. Slowly but suddenly a troop of skeletons flanked by two heavily armoured skeletons appear in the distance. It's just as you feared... _________________________________________________________________ -=The idea was to make them look like they are slowly marching out of the snow blind. It's so cold snow is sticking to them. =- -= The snow flocking turned out better than I expected. I copied the techniques of some fellow Frostgrave players here on the forums and I'm very pleased with how it turned out. Although with these it's hard to see but some other Frostgrave miniatures (which you'll see later) It turned out excellently. =- -=This has been an entire painting season for me. LOTS of wargaming stuff and it is all finished around now. I hope you guys like it.=-

Garrick the Bold: 77008 Sculpted by Bobby Jackson For the Sir Forscale Contest I decided to take a try at this with two miniatures. Hope you like them. 1. Green and White Striped. Standard Metal Plate Armor _________________________________________________________________________ 2. Purple and Black: Black armor with Silver and white highlights. *These are both done with Metallic paints for the metals. Sir Forscale Contest entry page Accepted

Hakon, Iconic Skald: 60182 Sculpted by Bobby Jackson This was a commission piece and one of the fastest I've ever done. Hope you guys like it. Here is the WIP for this piece

One Eldritch Demon. Based and primed, then left to languish for about two weeks, before I made up my mind to finish her* this weekend. Three hours Saturday, and seven today -- and I still have to seal it. This is an attempt to lighten my painting base colors -- it started as Olive Green -- and add shadow using inks and washes of flesh, purple and dark green. * 'Her', because somehow it took on a distinct feminine tone during painting -- perhaps the pink eyes?

It's been a while since I posted, but I'm liking this fellow enough to show off. He's not quite finished, but not a "work in progress", either. I was going to take a few photos to see if i missed anything before final assembly and varnishing, then decided to upload them to the forum. I drew inspiration for his color scheme from his concept art on p.23 of the Warlords first edition rule book. I've been working on him pretty steadily for over a month, and I now see the end. The weapons are an eclectic mix of metallic drybrushing on one weapon, and NMM painting on others. I was going to experiment with shading a weapon with NMM techniques, then glaze over it with a metallic paint. But when I finished the undercoat color, I liked it and decided i was done. Let me know what you think! EDIT: For spelling.

Work In Progress for RBG: CleeseWych the Cuss by Tre Manor This is my miniature for my D&D group. This is my first time snow basing. I think it turned out well but I will be getting better with. :) This would have been done before the long Christmas break but... I got lazy. :P C&C Welcome. Thanks! I was particularly proud of the free hand I did on the shield. I use a nail doter for the circles. Additionally, I enjoyed adding the snow to the clothing. :)

Three more skeletons, this time with one in blue. These are in addition to the skellies I did earlier this month. I realized that with this group, I've now painted 65 minis in all since I've started about two years ago, not counting one test mini I did.

Since I just made my October order I figured it would be appropriate to post the mini I got in the goody package last year. Enjoy!

I have to say I was a little disappointed when I looked in the store and discovered I painted him just like everyone else. Great minds I guess. Also he does have some wear and tear some how, guess the primer didn't work so well on this guy. Enjoy!

Finally, my first show off post. I am still trying to get the hang of taking pictures and am by no means a professional miniature painter, but I am pretty happy with this mini as a tabletop piece. Enjoy.

Two more skellys. These things are like popcorn: I'm particularly fond of the rusty sword. I spent over and hour trying unsuccessfully to paint a TMM sword, then just gave up in frustration and whipped out the rust in 10 minutes. The recipe for the rust was HD Umber Brown, Burning Orange, and Fireball Orange dabbed on that order, over a base of Tarnished Steel mixed with a little Black. I think I will paint all weapons rusty from now on, even on adventurers. P.S. I've been putting a strip of painter's tape around the outside edge of the base when I start, and pulling it off only at the end. I think it gives a nice clean look.

Here's a little fellow I painted as a warm-up: Well, what was supposed to be a warm-up ended up taking three days. First, the sand for the basing material ended up getting messed up during application, meaning I had rinse it twice and start again. The I noticed the paint was getting rubbed off the high areas (it's not quite waterproof), so I had to repaint certain areas. Finally the matte varnish I put on frosted a bit, so even after reapplying gloss and matte varnish again, it looks dusty. At that point I called it quits and skipped the grass flocking. Still I like him, and he's good enough for tabletop. My son now wants me to let him play as a skeleton in an RPG session, with this as the figure.

Work In Progress for RBG: Edele of Aelfheim By Tre Manor This miniature was a commission for my D&D group. I added the flowers as an afterthought but am thoroughly pleased how they came out. I'm getting better with static grass but not where I want to be. Going to do more research. I just had to call it with this piece or I would have never got it done. It turned out well but not as well as I would have liked. I was continuing a new technique I did with a previous miniature. This is the third John (Tre) Manor Sculpt I have painted. I'm fond of his style. Thanks everyone! C&C Welcome! Don't forget to check out my blog - Iron Bristle Studios - for my complete list. The link is in my signature.

Work-In-Progress for RBG: Olsvalter the Aged by Tre Manor This miniature was a commission for my D&D group. He is standing on broken ground that is still irradiated by magic. This is the second John (Tre) Manor Sculpt I have painted. I'm fond of his style. C&C welcome