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I finally got inspired to paint these guys up after BlazingTornado posted one a while back. For what they are, the sculpts have a respectable amount of detail (except the teeth...the top row of chompers had to be freehanded on each skeleton due to soft details). I was originally going to go with a tarnished bronze look on the shields. But, after I muddied them up a little, I fell in love with the look and decided to keep them as-is. I think the rust effect came out pretty well on the sword blades. They won't be superstars in my skeleton army, but they're good middle-of-the-road models.

And finally: The third mini in this blister - a Kender Vampire! The curse of the Kender Vampire is that he can't talk anymore. Apart from that the entry is a bit disappointing, basically just "a wizard did it". The wizard in this case is Lord Soth (yeah, the Dragon Lance Lord Soth, but after he came to Ravenloft and got to rule his own domain there...) Tried a snow base. This is GSW's "Realistic Snow". Well, I'm not too sure about that "realistic" part. But then again, maybe I used it wrong. Anyway: The Kender, C&C welcome! Klick here for the elf and here for the dwarf.

Next: The dwarven vampire Despite being irredeemably evil, apparently he does not like to create undead minions: "Because they realize the torment that transformation into a vampire causes to dwarves, the vampire dwarf is reluctant to create others of its kind. Thus, it does this only when it feels that it need minions to help it carry out its acts of evil." Unfortunately, those acts of evil have to be committed "in an attempt to ease the misery it feels over having been doomed to an eternal life that it detests." No chance of not acting evil there... But, why not hire some goons instead of this undead minion thing then? I could see a campaign where all the evil guys suddenly act a lot more effective and logical - and the BBEG is a counsellor advising them...😁 (Elven Vampire here)

Lo and behold: The elven vampire. According to the Ravenloft Monstrous Compendium (2nd ed. AD&D) elven vampires "often dress in dark robes ... to hide their appearance from the world" while they "transform the vital, living forests around him into places of death and decay." That's because of their "black thumb. Any plant that the creature touches withers and dies." Although gloves (and shoes) apparently negate this effect. "Elven vampires cannot be held at bay by mirrors, holy symbols, or garlic, but cannot cross an a line of flower petals." So hippies are safe, I guess. As are florists. I really like the quirky monster descriptions in the old 2nd ed. compendiums. Even if they don't always make sense. No, it's because they often don't make sense!

My buddy Kelly ran 2nd edition Ravenloft for us. Still not finished.

For the getting to know you thread. Hopefully, I can get a link to work back into that thread.

I commented in Dracolich - First painting attempt and as this mini isn't finished I thought I'd put up a WIP thread for it so that I could explain things. Colours Used So Far: 09116 Brilliant Blue 09037 Pure Black 29824 Maiden Flesh 09255 Black Wash Base Colours: Maiden Flesh for the bones. Brilliant Blue for the flesh. Wash after the base colours are dry I applied a thinned wash of Black Wash over the entire miniature. Once the thinned wash is dried I applied Black Wash again this time specifically targeting the deep recesses of the model, such as the tail and similar areas. Next Step: At this point I painted over the bones of the model with thinned Maiden Flesh. When I say "thinned" I mean I dip my brush into water (collecting enough water to wet the brush not loading it with water) and then picked up paint (from a drop) and mixed the two on my pallet so that the brush was not over loaded with paint. This paint is then applied lightly to the miniature building thin coats. Contrasted with the black of the wash this makes the Maiden Flesh look white. In places I built some layers up of this colour, usually on high points or areas where the colour should be strongly white (because in the things I still have to do is apply a mix of Maiden Flesh & Pure White for highlights and Pure white for extreme highlights). At this point I "black lined" the mini. Using Pure Black I carefully painted over the deep joints and other areas that I wanted specifically black and then along where the white bone is adjacent to the blue. I also touched up a few of the deep shadows on the blue as well. (I still need to revisit the inside of the mouth I noticed.) To bring the mini to the stage in the photo I thin thinned (as described above for the Maiden Flesh) Brilliant Blue and painted over the blue areas. On the body I focused on the high surfaces and other areas that will build to highlights. On the wings I painted over the whole surface right up to the bones (yes this covers the previously established black line). This completes the miniature up to its current state, which (aside from the base needing painting and fixing the mouth) would be perfect for the game table to be honest (maybe a little more highlight on the blue). Where From Here; The next step is to work the blue up to highlights more and eventually to come through and paint black veins in the wings (where the small groves are in the model). Its a big impressive model and I expect to use it in games other than Ravenloft. I am still considering removing it from the plain base and remounting it on a scenic one, though obviously the more painted it gets the harder that becomes to do.