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The Frost Salamander from Nolzur's has a wonderful chunky head and heavy-jawed face, and that won me over. It also has six legs, so not your average Earthly amphibian. Good thing there's always room for planetary monsters! And it's a great canvas for patterns; salamanders are often brightly spotted or striped. Let's make him a denizen of the steaming swamps of Retro-Venus! More angles: Bombshell makes some amazing sci-fi ladies and this is one such! I took some liberties with my interpretation as a Venerian Amazon--the sculpt indicates that Wanda here is wearing leggings or tight pants rather than the singlet I painted, but her headgear, belt, and boots fit very nicely with Hydra's Valkeeri sculpts. More angles: Let's put the two together! Why does a huge predator need vivid warning coloration? Well, on Retro-Venus, there's always another, bigger predator. I *do* love putting bright colors on weird beasties. Hope you enjoy!

Let's talk about monsters for a bit. The name comes from the same root word as "demonstrate" and "monstrance"--attention-grabbing things that draw the mind to greater matters. Like comets, in ancient times, they were seen as more than just malformed dangerous beasts, but as a sign that something was deeply wrong in the world, or a portent of a great evil drawing near. Offenses against the gods, offenses against nature, great upheavals to the realms. It is unclear to me how TSR conflated the Gorgons (women with petrifying glances and snakes for hair; Medusa was only the most famous) with the man-eating red-hot brazen bull of King Phalaris (or perhaps of the cruel engineer Perilaus, depending on how you read the story). But they did! And now there are minis of scutigerous metallic bulls snorting noxious gases. Now, let's talk about the colonial American West. The interior of the country is vast and rugged. Overland journeys by wagon were grueling and dangerous--especially when traveling through the land of people who definitely did not want you around. The advent of the steam locomotive and the railroad was meant to expedite travel. And it did! Ponderous iron-clad engines, belching smoke and steam, whistling like the screams of the damned. On rails laid by slave labor, expendable labor, immigrant labor, cheap labor worked to death, the railways wormed into the interior and crept across the Great Plains. Again, I have to stress the Plains were already occupied, and the inhabitants were not happy to become casualties of Industrial Progress or Manifest Destiny. They were already using those plains! And at full strength they were a terrifying threat, incredible riders and archers who knew the land well. To be specific, the Plains tribes mostly depended on herds of the bison, whose flesh, sinew, hide, hair, and horns provided them with their necessities. And when settler businessmen and governments realized this, they hatched a wicked plan. To aid and unify the genocidal little wars and massacres already ongoing, the colonists would exterminate the bison, and thus starve the indigenous peoples. Mountains of buffalo skulls soared to the sky. The buzzards gorged themselves on the bullet-ridden flesh of enormous beasts left to rot. Displaced and starving, the dispossessed natives were forced off their land or killed in battle. Deep-rooted prairie grasses were replaced by wheat and corn monocultures, undoing the knotted mesh keeping the soil from blowing away. And the iron railroads and their riders advanced on, branching tendrils North and South. This is the sort of cruel and egregious upheaval that creates monsters. And in the Weird West setting of my Bandits and Badlands game, the monster that came forth to demonstrate here is the P'izen Bison. A steel-plated beast of immense size and strength, fueled by an unholy fire, spewing choking gases, bellowing from a rusted throat. It tramples and devours and poisons. It renders the land waste around it, like Catoblepas and Bonnacon both. It destroys the works of man without discrimination. It reeks of sulfur and low-grade coal, burns to the touch, abrades the skin with steel wool. Its gaze paralyzes with dread. It eats men alive. In short, it is a manifestation of all the externalities of Industrial Progress with none of the good parts. Various votaries of the Spirit of the Age, gadgeted up, encased in stoveplate armor and armed with steam-powered fists, have tried to stop it. But that's like trying to stop a spirit of vengeance with bullets, ain't it, pardner? Might as well try to make Old Man Buzzard gag, or try to out-lawyer Old Scratch. *** Nolzur's Gorgon with some green stuff added to make it look more like a bison, plus a couple of smokestacks left over from VROOMgear and some cotton batting. The statuesque lady with the Arkansas toothpick is an Indian Princess from CP's Weird West line, while her elderly companion is their 28mm Victoriana Plains Indian Girl, aged up a bit. Guest appearances from Hellstromme, 91002; Raven 59002, Shaman 59010, Chieftain 50113, and a couple Apaches from Artizan. Also the signpost from Western Sophie. The cacti were just on sale at a hobby store fake plants aisle.

The worshippers at Saint Toad's Mere (Midlam's Kraken Cultists) have come up before. They meet at dawn on the beach to worship and call on their patron. Here they are, same as every day. But--this is NOT a day like every day. Today, their prayers are being Answered. Behold, the pale emissary of THE HUNGER IN THE GULF! "And the Beast stood on the shores of the sea." Click for full, awful turnaround. This avatar is hard to look at, from its rubbery, unwholesomely livid hide to the cracked fissures to the infinitely nested ventral mouths. You BETTER bet those can do some extradimensional shenanigans. I tried for a marble effect on the hammer but think I overshaded it. Onward, Squishian Soldiers! To new ways to shout and revel and kill! *** The Tomb-Tapper is apparently a faceless underground magic-hunter in D&D. But as soon as I saw the baggy, flaccid tentacles I knew this thing had to be related to the squid cult. The horrible mouths and cracked flesh just underscored it. I think the HUNGER IN THE GULF is a competing and opposed power to the PIPER IN THE WOODS. Neither of them are exactly "good," or even neutral. But they do give boons to those desperate enough to become their worshippers. It's always good for your setting to have multiple awful cults you can pit against each other. Either way, the HUNGER IN THE GULF is not from here originally, nor is this avatar more than a fragment of Its size and power.

Retrofuture Mars is a cold world, a dry, harsh world--but not quite a dead world, yet. Survival is tough, and most of the remaining fauna is gaunt and quick. The Martian Ravener has an ecological niche approaching that of our Earth coyote or tiger. Here, one stalks a pelgrane. It must be stealthy, for the pelgrane is easily startled and can fly. A pounce, and a clean kill! The ravener will first drain the corpse of precious liquids before consuming it, bones and all. This meal will last it for Earth-months to come. The Ravener is not a tool-user, but it is cunning, and has been known to mimic the calls of other species, and even Martian words, to lure prey closer. Humans were surprised to find that such a predator in a resource-scarce world would need--and could afford--horns! The Martians could have told them, but the Weinbaum expedition found out on their own. Weinbaum's Cloaker! (the Martian name cannot be properly pronounced without the telepathic emphasis). A flying apex predator that haunts sandstorms and windswept canyons. Ingenious countershading means it appears like the dark, starry sky from below, and a cratered field from above. Martian children, sporelings, and buds are taught from early age to watch for sourceless shadows. Humans and their Space Ape pals are learning the same lesson! **** The Ravener is a Hound of Tindalos, 50289 with the head removed and swapped out for a GW demon skull and Ork mandible from their Skullz box, glued onto a neck made out of sprue. That body is lean and athirst all right, perfect for Mars!

Hello everyone, here’s the second Wizkids character model I painted for one of the players in my DnD group. I painted the armor using the NMM technique and added blood effect (not hers). This is a Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures 73542, Half-Orc female Fighter produced by Wizards of the Coast. I painted it with Reaper MSP paint. Happy International Hobby Day!

Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures still make some great D&D monsters, here are three more: Wave 1: Displacer Beast The Displacer Beast is one of the iconic D&D monsters, described as a six legged panther with a pair of enormous tentacles growing out of it's back. If that is not bad enough, the schtick of this beast is that is displaces. This is an ability that makes it appear as it is a few feet off from where it actually is, so while the party are slashing at the image in thin air, the beast invisibly outflanks them with it's powerful claws and massive bite attack coming from seemingly out of nowhere. Where are the mirrors I need to start breaking? I rebased it on a 40mm round. This is a Wave 1 mini, released a few years ago. The tentacles needed repositioning using the hot water/cold water technique. Wave 11: Grell & Basilisk Grell: Who names these monsters? Grell? What kind of a name is that? This is obviously the Flying Spaghetti Monster! The tentacles did not turn out all that well. The purple was too strong compared to the other colours and dried too fast to blend. Bah! Check out the big brain on Brett! 40mm base. And in the same pack as the Grell, a Basilisk: This one was significantly smaller than I expected. Please disregard the piece of flock-fluff on it's right side middle. This is a loose particle I did not see was stuck there until after the pictures were taken. I just cannot be bothered with taking new ones. Nice doggie? 30mm x 20mm oval base. Nolzur’s Marvelous Miniatures Wizkids I have no idea who sculpted these, as WizKids do not -as far as I know- publish this info. PVC

Nolzur's do make a few great monster minis, even though most -if not all- of their humanoid minis are too small, weedy and have too shallow detailing for my liking. Here is one: Yep, a dead head. 50mm base. The main colour is Citadel Contrast Plaguebearer flesh, the rest is regular paint. This mini was finished September 12th 2020. Zombie Beholder Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures, Wave 11 2020 Wizkids I have no idea who sculpted this, as WizKids do not -as far as I know- publish this info. PVC, 50mm base

After several iterations of painting and base, I'm finally happy with my Griffon and I'm calling it finished! The mini ended up looking a bit cartoony I did go for something else initially, but it seemed too plain for a griffon, so I was happy to exchange realism for 'striking'. More on PSA. And I just finished redoing the base -- thanks for support on the WIP board.

I planned to go for the coloring suggestion on the box, except with brighter feathers. After base coat and a wash it seemed to turn rather plain. I keep the underside this way, while for the top side of the wings I started adding some variation to the feathers, gradually daring to add more detail and contrast. Took a while to get there, but in the end I was happy and called it finished. I even took a fun picture with it: But now that I'm a few minis wiser, I demoted him from finished to lacking base. And this is where I am stuck now. I had this plan of making a sandstone cliff looking base. I positioned him and started building up terrain, working carefully not to damage the finished mini. I colored some stones of various sizes in a few colors so I don't need to paint as much around the mini and I started to glue my rocks carefully around the base. I kept working on it for hours thinking I am getting somewhere, but once I took a break and looked at it again from all sides... I stand by my rocks, I think in a few steps they'll look great, but the scene makes no sense. These are not cliffs, more like a stone quarry, what would a griffon be doing there? - that's too specific and unlikely. Time to "delete" this somehow and start over... Wish me luck! https://pocketsizedadventurers.wordpress.com/2019/12/18/griffon-wings/

My photography has really been sub par for some time so I am trying out som different settings on the camera, including changing the backdrop to try to find a setting that works better than before. Focus is key, deep focus is even more key. I think I might just have cracked it. At least for now. Just some incy wincy spiders today, the pack called "spiders" from Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures. The dark background has it's uses, but did not really work for these models. #1 #2 #3 These spiders are a little bit too similar to the real ones intermittently crawling across my walls both in size and shape, and I have had to stop myself fixing to slap them as they were lying about my desk. I made 40mm bases for them. One of the spiders came with a webbed victim-piece, which can be seen above. Super fast paint scheme, gloss black all over, dark green drybrush, then red in three shades for the red bits, then gloss varnish. The colour scheme is inspired by a real spider, the Australian (...because of course Australian!) Ambicodamus Crinitus, aka the Red and Black spider, Imaginative naming there. Luckily the real red and black is no more than a centimetre or so long and not seen as dangerous to humans. One of the models had a piece missing from one leg. I could not be bothered with complaining and requesting a new one though. Also, as is usual with the Nolzur line, the renders used to promote and illustrate the minis in webshops come across as way more detailed than the actual models. Something which I think actually is a bit disingenuous, really. Have you seen some dwarfs that were strolling through these woods? Spiders Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures, Wave 1 Made by Wizkids, 2016 PVC hard plastic 40mm bases

Recently finished up another jarred mini, this one a Beholder. Beholder mini - Built on the base with a coin pile and treasure chest (also from Nolzur's/WizKids) as well as some hand punched loose coins and lots of sculpted resin Close ups. In jar - Client wanted a nice, small, display piece for his desk that he doesnt have to worry about the piece getting dusty. Metal plate on bottom of beholder, and magnets inside bottom of jar, if he chooses to use it for tabletop. Also more handcut coins glued inside the jar. writing on top was a found fantasy script that he liked, I translated 'Imprisoned Nightmare' as the writing. Have to say that I had so much fun painting this mini that I ordered 2 more to play around with later this year. Think I want to zombify one, and the other will be similar to this but with more elaborate basing.

Every once in a while I get the hankering to do some Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures. I like the monsters and have bought a few, but I can't stand the itty bitty truscale of the humans though -they are simply too small for my tastes, the shallow details disappearing beneath the oft-to thick primer. Here are Xorn, the three-legged three-eyed earth elemental with a massive maw! There are two to a pack, and I think they are supposed to represent a low-level and a high-level version. However, they are the exactly the same size, so who can tell the difference in power level? I stuck them on 32mm bases, as they fit well. They come pre-primed, so I painted them by sloshing on some thin greenish grey, followed by drybrushing with sandy yellow and some bone white. I put some old citadel imperial purple in the maw, and slathered the things in dark tone quickshade ink. Well. maybe not slathered. I made sure to draw off most pooling before they dried up leaving those horrible tide marks. I did the teeth and claws in bone white, and the eyes with several shades of blue with a white centre and some gloss varnish. Not really happy with the eyes, so I might revisit them at some point. These also are good as some sort of Cthuloid entities or chaotic daemonspawn somethings for Conan to send back to the Abyss! Xorn for Dungeons & Dragons Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures, wave 5, 2018 Wizkids PVC plastic 32mm bases