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Since I have virtually nothing else to paint (for certain definitions of virtually and nothing, with rounding and margin of error.....). The FLGS recently (like Wednesday) got in their first order of Bolt Action. There hasn't been anything historic being played in the area that I'm aware of (at least none of the local stores carried anything) so hopefully this is an untapped market. Early interest seems pretty high at least. I've been interested in playing something like this for, oh, a while, but there has never been anyone playing it where I was. So I was quick to jump right int. Picked up some Germans (someone has to play the bad guys, plus I have a number of German tanks and things from West Wind in this scale....) and today started on some Grenadiers. Well then, this isn't going to be as straightforward as Legion figs..... There are 6 bodies, 11 heads, a number of different weapons, some with arms, so with arms you attach, and a whole bunch of kit. I'm building 10, since that is the maximum build out for a squad, and following a video I watched for the weapons load out (3 assault rifles, 6 rifles (including the loader) and a light machine gun). Bases and bodies, and I decided I'd use the LMG over the shoulder arm. And where I ended up after about 3 hours. All the arms and heads are on, but only the NCO is fully kitted. So just because the gun looked cool, The first German finished is using an "acquired" Russian PPSh sub-machine gun (it counts as an assault rifle for the Grenadiers).

There is only a week left until Scrap Cemetery - Car Junkyard finally launches! This modern and post apocalyptic project is a perfect fit to get your table decorated! Be notified when we`re ready for takeoff: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/pharaohsworkshop/scrap-cemetary-wasteland-junkyard-pay-what-you-want?ref=264i7x

It has been a dark time for the Galactic Empire. Strong meta for the other factions have lead to few victories, and the faith of many Imperial commanders had been tested. But now, when all seemed lost, and new RRG has emerged. Unit costs have decreased. Changes have breathed new life into nearly abandoned Imperial troops. And leading the way, mighty Lord Vader's Sith training has made him even more powerful and devastating. Now is the time, for the Empire to strike back!! So, a new year, and a new Star Wars Legion painting WIP. Last year started strong but then I almost completely stopped painting for quite a while. Instead I focused on getting a bunch of units assembled, as I was playing fairly regularly. My back going to crap probably had some impact on my painting too, all those meds aren't helping with my focus or energy levels. Regardless, I've finally felt like painting again the last week or so. So I'm going to go with it and hope to settle in to a schedule where I'm getting a few hours of painting in a week. My goals for this year are to get back to painting Empire forces, but also to finish up painting my CIS army. For the CIS I still have to paint two more units of B1s, and base them and the 2 units I've just finished up in the old WIP. Then there are 3 units of STAPs, 3 units of Droidekas. 3 Spider Droids. 3 boxes of Magnaguards. 3 boxes of Bx commandos. A bunch of commanders and specialists. Oh, and 2 snail tanks, and two AATs.......so a bit...also 1 more unit of B2s if they ever come in. But, as soon as I get through the 2 units of B1s (they take up too much room on my desk to work on anything else at the same time) I'll start moving in some Imperial units to mix it up. And get back to painting white......

Let's get meta!! "Now where were we...let's see. Last session you had crashed Miss Minver's jalopy in the cemetery in your attempt to stop the cult. The Professor's apotropaic rituals and Xiufang's first-aid skills kept you alive while Sirhan's Vickers gun and Lady Rutherford's etheric disruptor devastated the cultists--but not before the high priest's chanting reached a crescendo! An awful rift forms in the fabric of reality, swirling with colors beyond human description--and from it, with a horrible squelching sound and a smell like an electrical fire in an aquarium, a forest of loathsome ichor-slicked tendrils protrude, flailing hungrily towards you! Roll for Sanity!" 50231 is brilliant, containing three flavors of tabletop geek. These are wonderful sculpts, from the dice bag on the trim GM to the soda in the large gamer's meaty hand to the young lady's minifig case. I feel like I know these people already. More pics: A furnished basement, much like many others. Shelves of books and trinkets on the wall, a table with a map and several figurines atop it. BUT! this basement is about to become an escape to other, weirder, more adventurous realities! You know the Nerd from 50091 will be here, maybe the Chick too. Not-Velma most definitely would roll some polyhedral dice. When the gang's all present, we can begin! Perhaps on an alternate week, another game: "The scent of mildew and rock dust is heavy in the air, and the sound of dripping water echoes from somewhere nearby. You would guess Saraneth's sorcerous witch-light, glinting off crystals the size of tree trunks, is the first illumination these caverns have seen since they were formed in the primeval chaos. --Liliander, your elven senses pick up faint movement from beyond this cluster of stalactites--a dark-dwarf ambuscade! Between Red Serris's sword and Ulma's bombs, this shouldn't be much trouble. ...But wait! Vistaril, as the reverberations of your thunderwave subside, they are answered by another...deeper...rumble--coming from below! Everyone make a Dexterity save!" Click for more forays into other genres! Let's take a bow, nerd to fellow nerd.

I expect this is going to be a long-running WIP thread. My intention is to convert this heap of vintage lead into war games armies to allow me to field forces for a variety of Tolkien situations, using only vintage Minifigs. For those who are younger than me, Minifigs produced this line of Tolkien-inspired figures starting in 1972, and, as far as we've ever been able to determine, it was the first range of specifically fantasy miniatures ever produced. They were the first that I bought as well, and I will freely admit that this is a nostalgia project. I posted a batch of finished elves this morning. Here's what I have left to do: two elf riders, an elf king to form a second command stand, 14 elf swordsmen, and 9 elf bowmen (three of whom have lost arrows and one who's been redone as a standard bearer for the command stand.) For the era of the Battle of the Five Armies, they have some dwarf allies. Here's a dozen, representing all three stock numbers that were produced. Each stock number was a strip of two. I have a batch of seven already finished and based. Minifigs did not issue any specific Lakemen, nor, for that matter, any specific Rohirrim on foot. For the Five Armies-era humans, I'll have to reach into the historical and use some figures from their NS (Norman/Saxon) range with round shields. I've got about three dozen available with which to work. They should also serve as dismounted Rohirrim when needed. Beorn and Gandalf are also available, and a token eagle... To continue with the good guys, there were two catalog numbers of actual mounted Rohirrim. I have two completed so far, and about 22 available, including a few Later Romans or similar Dark Ages figures which blend well. A few spare horses remain to be found. The Gondorians were represented by five different figures, a citadel guardsman, two rangers of Ithilien, a spearman, a swordsman, and a foot knight. I've got at least a dozen of each, plus a total of two dozen of ME53 and 54, Rangers of the North. The Dark Lord's forces can be lead by the imposing squadron of flying Nazgul, of which I have four: I have 18 wargs (plus a few already finished), but only two of the goblin riders: Large orcs came in three poses, with sword, axe or spear. I've got about 85 to be done: Smaller orcs came in four poses, a bowman, a swordsman without shield, a swordsman with shield, and a well equipped armored goblin with shield, spear and bow. Of that latter, I've only got a handful, all completed. Of the first three, I've got about seventy from a recent purchase: There is also one pose of little goblins. I finished a few of them last month. I've got more, but they are sitting in paint stripper at the moment. Sauron's human allies were represented by four poses of figures; there was a Haradrim spearman and a mounted lancer, of which I've got about 30 and 5 respectively: There was also a Southern spearman and a mounted swordsman. I only have a token 3 of the spearmen, so they won't be a unit on their own, but I do have nine of the mounted swordsmen, so they can be. Last, I have a hobbit militia of about a dozen, plus a couple of mounted hobbits. The foot hobbits came in strips of three, and one strip is much easier to find than the other... My basic plan is going to be to play these with Dragon Rampant, which generally uses units of six mounted or twelve foot figures, with provision for heroes and large monsters as exceptions. However, some of the teams will be big enough that I could use Chaos Wars (also in sixes and twelves), and I expect that an actual Battle of the Five Armies game my brother and I have been discussing will take every orc/goblin that we have painted. Edit: Ooops! Forgot the Dunlendings; there are enough of them to make a unit, and given Saruman's forces a bit of distinctiveness...

I had a day off yesterday and wanted to get some work done toward staging an Original D&D game sometime “soon”. I’m working on a handful of potential PCs, but wanted to get a couple of smaller monsters done. These have all been sitting around in primer for a long time and I’m tired of looking at them. So…drybrush the heck out of them and call it a day. The figures are all Ral Partha, two trolls (01-063), three skeletons (01-046), two wraiths (01-030), and a small carnosaur (13-004, an erythrosuchus to be exact).

Being the timid fellow that I am, I wanted to be fairly sure that I had a chance of finishing a Minivember challenge before I announced it publicly. I enter miniatures into my painting log when the final basing and varnish coat are complete, and the “whatever” is ready for play. I’ve recently resolved to relax and not worry too much about where the Muse(s) lead, as long as I’m getting something done. So all plans are subject to change. That said, I’ve had two things on my mind recently. The first is that I was in a Rangers of Shadowdeep game at Barrage, our local miniatures gaming convention, back in September, and decided that it was time to try to get it on the table. For fun, I decided that I would fill out my small (1/72) plastic fantasy collection for this. I looked over the book, and found this was what was called for: I got a good start on this on a business trip last month. I am also working toward “finishing” the army lists I’ve drawn up for my Portable Fantasy campaign: But exactly what I’m going to end up painting is a bit unpredictable. As posted in the November Speed/Army/Tabletop goals thread, I’ve also got some vintage Broadsword Miniatures Rangers to round out a unit, and the much-deferred Goblin Carolers for my Winterfeast village. There are also orcs for the campaign mass battle, some human cavalry, some historical Bronze Age Nubians and some additional giant war trolls. I’ve already finished a couple of medieval(oid) human horse archers. (English and other mounted bowmen did not generally shoot from horseback, so these guys, Strelets plastics I’ve had sitting around since 2005 or so, are probably more at home in a fantasy setting anyway.) I also finished the zombies (plus a couple of smaller Reraper Bones 5 monsters): These were knocked out pretty rapidly with washes and drybrushing, with a deliberate choice to keep them subdued and semi-monochromatic. I doubt zombies spend much time on hygiene… For the trolls needed for Rangers, I had planned to use the Bones 1 (SKU 77159) Ghast. As a 1/72 scale figure, they end up being 8 or so feet tall, so look more to me like something a human might stand a chance of fighting than something like a Dark Alliance 12 foot tall War Troll. But, yesterday was apparently Trollfest, and I finished up the three troll/ghasts, a Dark Alliance War troll, and a Caesar Miniatures “something” from their currently-out-of-production “Adventurers” set. They are shown here with a Strelets medieval city militiaman from last month, for scale: That’s 18 figures down, so at least 12 to go. I’m on vacation with no particular plans this week, and I’m also off the week of Thanksgiving, so that should be achievable.

The latest MODULAR DIGITAL BATTLEMAP expansion seeks to take the Meanderverse back in time and underwater to the glory days of this technological legend some say was a paradise - others a ferocious war machine. Dock at the Port, stroll through the Atlantean Water Gardens and explore the alien wonder of this mystical city on dry land - and then again after a cataclysm sinks it beneath the waves. Preview the campaign HERE. Launches July 21st on Kickstarter. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/gametilewarehouse/meanders-5-rpg-modular-digital-battlemaps-atlantis

This year's Christmas present to myself was a Sonic Mini 4k printer. I've done a few runs now and promised a pic of a painted mini at some point. Gardain here was a bit of a failure as it turns out there were a few problems with the pre-supports. Still, he's 99% ok which means he's good enough to use as an example, but also that I don't care enough to paint to a high standard. So with that in mind, he was painted with a thin layer of primer through the airbrush, a slightly thinned basecoat, and then a few washes. I.e. the point is to show off how much detail the printer can do, how visible the layer lines are, etc, not how well I can (or can't) paint. He is a 32mm scale dwarf, which means he is a little taller than a Reaper dwarf, but not quite as tall as a Reaper human. The very bottom of this gauntlet pancaked, but you can only really see it if he is upside down. Yup, that's a hair support. The presupport was at too low of an angle so it bonded to the figure. Btw, those eyes are tiny. His right eye is really bad because the arm blocks coming in from below, the sculpted bushy eyebrow makes any high angle impossible, and he has a big nose. Jab straight in and hit where you aim! In fact, they are so small that I can't even tell I painted them at arm's length. If you skipped them to get him on the table no one would notice. And there you have it, my first [painted] 3D print.

This thread is something ... different from other works I have been done. I guess it's not entirely in accordance to the board rules, so you may forgive me and accept my humble bundle of roses, choclate and other stuff that will easy your severely upset minds. When I am in the mood, I am doing so many speed builds up to the point of painting (means assembly, basing and priming), that making them all into different threads I would flood the forum with an unnecessary number of threads. So I will keep this limited to the building process of my different tabletop figures, armies and stuff and transfer the finished figures to their respective painting threads. What's on the table at the moment? Watchful I Studios 28mm Chinese Army Deal (around 100 figures and equipment) Warlord Games 56 Soviet Russians (winter) (making M into F) Raging Heroes Sisters of Eternal Mercy: 10x Sisters and 10 Flying Sister plus some support units Andrea Miniatures 1x Female Warrior (upgrading her to be a Chinese Warrior Woman) Creature Caster 1x Tree Walker Flames of War Fallschirmjäger-Kompanie + Support Weapons 4x Battlefront StuG 3G 1x Plastic Soldier Company StuG 3G Corvus Belli A lot of Aleph miniatures What's done and ready to be painted? Flames of War 1x Fallschirmjäger-Zug (9 units) 1x Fallschirmjäger Kompanieführung (HQ) - different Units and support weapons. Warlord Games - 18 German Fallschirmjäger - 10 German Panzergrenadiere Mantic Games: Kings of War Succubi Regiment (20 Succubi) CP Models: Diana Andrea Miniatures 1x Female Paladin 1x Naga Warrior 1x Gunmaid Corvus Belli Some Aleph miniatures Watchful I Studios 28mm Chinese Army Deal (15 figures)

I just cannot get this mini to come out the way I want. This is my second attempt, and I got just a stuck as the first time. I finally decided to just finish it and call it done. Reaper Bones Spirit of the Forest (SKU 77184)

Hello all! I am a very novice beginner to miniature painting, and have only been doing it for about a year or so. I feel like my skills are leveling up pretty quickly, but still need some advice. My friend is trying to coax me into pen and paper RPGs like DnD and pathfinder, and we are currently doing a pathfinder session. To add flavor to the games and because I like to feel like I'm participating, I'm working on terrain and buildings. The first building that I'm nearing completion on is Tabletop World's Mansion. Because of the large size of the model (and the hope that I'll be getting more pieces, creating a city that will look like it all came from the same forest/quarry/paint shoppe) I went to various Hardware stores and bought actual high quality building/house paint. I'm a little concerned this was a bad move, since I know model paint is specifically made for small scales. The colors for the mansion were ripped from the Winchester Mystery House photos because I love the design and colors. So the main question I have is regarding sealing. I've heard krylon matte spray can leave a sticky residue, and I want to avoid that. I was wondering what sealing spray I should use since I went with actual house paints. Because the parts where the house fits together are extremely snug, my desire is to paint on a gloss coat for the connecting parts, so when the mansion is put together/pulled apart the gloss coat will protect the paint better from rubbing off. Or will it stick together because of the gloss coat? Looking for advice on that. Finally, the wood flooring I would like to look a little more aged. I'm kind of worried about adding grey or white with dry brushing but will probably end up doing that. The wood color was a brown paint I had mixed up at the hardware store, so I figured I would brush some burnt umber over it and then go with some kind of gray and then white for the aged look. This is almost finished, I'm very much a "good enough" worker and hobbyist, and so long as it looks decent on the table I'll be happy. I could certainly obsess over the tiny details for the next 10 years, but I like my sanity. Looking for some advice on the sealing/aging wood though! Thank you for reading my post. Sorry about the length.

My LFGS had a painting contest on its FB Star Wars Legion page a bit ago. 2 weeks to paint up a squad of at least 4 figures. As creativity counted, I decided to set my white and black paint aside and paint something besides Stormtroopers. I took a look through the Rebel scum I'd acquired and really like the poses and sculpts for the Rebel Veterans. I'd planned to do the whole box of 7 figures, but (as anyone who's seen my WIPs knows) I'm not the fastest painter. I'm lucky if I can get one figure done in two weeks. So I quickly decided to just do 4 figures for the contest. I liked how they came out, and they did get "best painted" in the contest, so I guess they are alright. It then took me another 6 weeks to finally finish the last 3 figures (see? Sloooooow.) But the whole unit is finally done. Should probably read the rules on them sometime soon..... Now back to all those Stormtroopers.

This was a quick speed paint, less than an hour. And I think the Night Spectre (Reaper Bones SKU 77099) turned out looking awesome for the amount of effort put in.

Some basic tabletop paint jobs on Goldar the Barbarian (Reaper Bones 77047) and Dub Bullock (Reaper Bones 77027). Their faces where pretty mangled, so I didnt want to spend a lot of time on them. I had painted Goldar earlier, and on that one the face was fine. SO I think I was unlucky on the above Goldar:

Look at that winning smile! He wants you to come for dinner.... Reaper Bones Burrowing Horror (SKU 77372) I am sad to see the paint has rubbed off in some places, might have to try to patch that up by using some Reaper liner.

Hello forum Family, Ciccio is back with more awful minis! I'm trying to get the Blood Rage minis painted ATM, and well... no problem with big guys like the troll or the frost giant, but the smaller minis... O M G! The worst sculpt I had to paint in my life... really CMON? Anyway, is a game, I don't pretend the super quality, and do not need to paint every mini perfectly... Let's get it started: the whole party (sorry for the bad pic...): The Valkyrie: The Soldier of Hel: The Volur Witch: The Dark Elf: The Dwarf Chieftan: As you can see nothing special, tabletop standard. Not so "Speed painting" cause of the lack of detail/bad sculpt, anyway from 1 hour (fro the Witch) to 4 hours (the Valkyrie). Hope you'll like them. C&C welcome as always. Thank you!

This is the delightful Stonehave female halfling mage. Did slight OLS from the spell effect. Other than that, totally a tabletop paintjob.

So I was just about to check out my first Star Wars Legion game night at the lfgs when the whole apocalypse thing happened, so rather than painting my Imperials, I've been focusing on getting my rebel scum assembled so that wife (who is "mostly" interested in playing) and I can learn to play here at home. With that complete I now need to get some more Imperials finished so we can actually play, since I'm not attaching bases to the Imperials until they are painted. As my wife actually agreed to play this weekend, that meant I needed a commander quick! So I pulled up the FFG guide online to paint Vader and knocked out a decent tabletop in a couple of hours. Good enough and he already squeaked on a victory yesterday in our first game (he had one wound left). Now back to painting white armor to get more troopers ready.....sigh.

Hi Guys, Just thought i'd share this project with you. i've been working on it for a few weeks now. I run a weekly gaming session using a home brew system that we've been working on for about 20 years, but this post isn't about that - though if you're curious please send me a message i'd love to chat about it. First as is the tradition - the completed board in all it's glory. On the surface, it's nothing unusual, however hidden inside each tile is a small rare earth Magnet. I'm also placing magnets on the bottom of the miniature bases. This gives the miniature a very nice pull towards the board and keeps everything in it's proper square. I'm also going to produce walls, columns and doors each with magnets in to allow me to customize the terrain. I chose a typical dungeon style flooring as it's easier to get a good grid pattern going. Though given that there's magnets in the board, i could easily design tiles to sit on top of the board with other terrain types. I'm trying to think of a way to get an outdoor setting and still keep the grid going. and now to the construction. I began with a thing piece of panel wood only about 6mm thick as the base for the board and placed little rubber stoppers on the bottom for feet (i didn't think to take a picture of that as it's not very exciting.) This board is going to to be the base for the board. On top of them I placed 3d printed tiles. There's only about eight different designs of tile, but with placement and paint they come up looking very distinct. It took about four hours for my little Anycubic Filament Printer to print the tiles (and I had alot of help from some friends and the local 3d printer store) Each tile is 4x4 squares with each square bring 30mm. Each Tile took about 5 hours to print. On the underside of the tile is small circular holes about 10mm wide and 2mm deep just big enough for the magnet - though with the print tolerances of the printer i did have to use my dremel to widen the gap so that the magnet could fit comfortably.In the end, i applied superglue to make sure that the magnet wasn't going anywhere. I also had to mark the magnets to make sure that they were all facing the same way. (I'm also thinking about adding a few magnets of the opposite polarity into the base of a Beholder Miniature to see if i can get it float, but that might be just a pipe dream) Once the tiles were finished it was simply a matter of spraying the board black as a printer and placing a thick coat of grey paint. I simply used the Acrylic paint from the local art store rather than my Citadel paints. This simply acted as the base coat and then i simply built it up in layers with dry brushing lighter shades on to the board to give it depth. Once this was done I simply mixed in some blue with my paint added a bunch of water to water it down and made a thin wash to bring out the details. I'd need to come back in and add in some of the features, such as the trap door and drains. I also sprinkled some Skulls, broken weapons and shields for good measure onto the board. Once the painting was done, I used a thick mud agent, I can't remember the brand from my local gaming store and then covered the whole thing in flock and sand to give it a grimy, slimy feel. Unfortunately, my poor AnyCubic didn't survive the process (May it rest in peace) So this gave me the opportunity to buy a Resin Printer - A Creality LD002S. The Goblin Wolf Riders were my first print. Actually really impressed with how they came out. Other than the clean up, It wasn't too difficult. I used a water soluble Resin to make things easier to keep neat. I was pleasantly surprised at how easy the whole process was - It was much much easier than dealing with Filament printers. Once the board was finished, I then cheated and had the board framed at my local picture framing store (the only thing i didn't do myself.) Once I got the board back, I thought it looked a little plain So i decided to glam it up - Also was a good excuse to stop printing Mini's on my 3d Printer So i thought i'd print a Celtic pattern around the edges. I knew that i wouldn't be able to print them in one solid peice (Resin printers only downside is a small print bed) So i decided to make little tiles. I designed these tiles myself, grabbing the celtic design online and then simply just adding them into 3d builder and setting a thickness to them. A quick coat of gold Spray paint and they came up looking real shiny.. Too shiny.. I added a wash over the gold to attempt to dull them, the pictures don't really do it much justice, but on the board it breaks up the gold really nicely. By this stage i was feeling pretty clever with myself, so i thought i'd added another feature, Gemstones in the frame. this proved easier than I thought, I quickly found an STL file for the gemstone and then it was simply a matter of giving them a coat of Citadel's technical range - Waystone Green, Soulstone Blue & Spiritstone Red. The finished photo really doesn't do justice to the how the gemstones came out. and there you have it. About 6 weeks to complete (most of this time was waiting for my anycubic 3d printer to finish printing the tiles) Let me know what you think! I can provide the STL Files for the tiles if anyone out there is interesting in having a go at making one for themselves We're shutdown right now because of the Corona Virus, so no RPG for us for a while, but i can't wait to get back into it with our shiny new board. Cheers, Chris

Been a while since I posted a show-off....hopefully I'll be more productive painting this year. Of to a good start, I've already painted more than double my total for last year.... I've started painting up some of the Star Wars Legion figures I've been picking up from my lfgs for the last half year or so. I started with a unit of Stormtroopers out of the starter box. These were supposed to be a nice super quick tabletop paint job to get the year started. While they were a quick tabletop paint job, that quick ended up being spread over 2 months....hopefully I will get better at getting some painting in more often over the next couple of months. The whole unit. Standard troopers. Commander and specialists.

Hey guys, I've been lurking and posting around these forums for nigh a while now and i thought i'd share a project that i've been working on for quite some time. It's a tabletop roleplaying Game that i've been working on for about 20 years now as a personal hobby. After much convincing, I've decided to create a 4th Edition and make it available to the world at large. The Quickstart guide is a free starter pack for the System, including how to make a character, equip them and conduct simple adventures. I'm looking at releasing a Kickstarter next year to release the full core system, but for now i'm just looking for feedback and interest. https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/282100/Tides-of-Prophecy-Quickstart-Guide Check it out, hey, it's free. I'd be very appreciative for any feedback, comments or constructive critique you could provide! Cheers, Christopher George

and now for something completely different! https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/necromolds/necromolds-monster-battles Story 48 Hour Exclusive: The Deluxe Distance Tool is made from flexible plastic and is used in the game to measure movement and ranged attack distances. This deluxe tool includes clay sculpting ends which allow you to sculpt and shape your monsters! Necromolds are a series of collectible toys that let you build and destroy terrifying miniatures out of Spell Dough, a soft modeling clay. The back of each Necromold spell book toy features the miniatures' game skills and abilities. Not only will the number of Necromold monsters continue to expand, but so will a new and exciting line of games to use them in! Necromolds Monster Battles is a streamlined and lite wargaming ruleset easy for tabletop players of all experiences to enjoy. The size of your monster army is limited by 3oz of Spell Dough. Build your army wisely, for each miniatures' strengths are balanced against the amount of Spell Dough required to mold them!

So, let's get this show on the road, shall we. I have been... remiss... in actually documenting the painting I've been doing. Partially because this has mostly been utter speed painting of the "get paint on Bonesium so it doesn't all look the same from six feet away" variety, partly various other reasons. But today is Paintsgiving (my parents live in Texas. I do not. Hence...). So I have a little time. And some projects I want to get completed before Sunday (the next session of the high-level D&D5e game I play in - we're talking high level here, folks. The party currently includes a Chosen of Tymora, a halfling wizard whose next goal after we're done with this is to overthrow the Maharajah of the City of Brass, and become a Demigod of Fire... etc.) - currently our endgame for this story arc is shanking Lolth (or "she who will not be named" because we're not interested in drowing (drawing, but I liked the typo, so I left it...) her attention) and freeing the dark elven people from her bullcrap. So, the first set of "finish these" are - Deena Halentyr, Chosen of Tymora and her Sixth Dagger (one of Tymora's secret agents), and default leader of the band of adventurers known as Calculated Risk ("Our opponents have always taken a risk that was calculated... but they have also always been bad at math". Human, but currently taking on the aspect of one of Tymora's Solars (with her permission, and the help of a True Polymorph). Solars are supposed to be Large, but none of the minis I looked at really fit the bill besides the Angel of Shadow (especially not the Bones Solar, which is a pretty cool mini... but is about the beariest Bear that ever beared... and Deena is definitely not that. In fact pretty much the opposite - Deena is the femmiest Femme that ever looked at another woman and said "she's really cute." So, colors - Blues and silver were pretty much required - first, I love them, second, Tymora's colors run to blues and silvers, and third, Deena had already been noted (manymany sessions ago) as preferring them even before she took up Fortune's Coin. Her wings are (very) roughly based on the lipstick lesbian pride flag - but I stuck to only three colors (a dark red, a dark pink/rose, and a light pink/white) because with six the wings would be too busy, and the numbering doesn't match up - whereas with three, the wings start at the tips with red, and end at the base with red. Her skin will be a dark tan, her boots will probably be chocolate with some bright lacing, and the lantern will probably be my first half-serious attempt at some OSL. The rest of her wings will be some shades of blue - likely starting darker at the top and working my way down. Her eyes are heterochromatic, and she's a Higher Being (right now), so one will be bright green (solid) and the other bright blue (same). Hair got roughly blocked in with red ink, which should give everyone an idea of what her hair color is... I'm unsure what to do with shading for her - I don't want to just use one of the Army Painter quickshades, or something from GW, because I'm concerned it will draw the color down too far (and then I'll have to spend too much time bringing it back up again - which, honestly, is work I always hate (re-)doing - "I already painted this once, and now I have to redo it?!?!") I'm considering using one of the red inks I have (Army Painter red tone, or Reaper Red Liner/ink) but I'm not sure how well that would work? Deena's Familiar/Patronus/best friend, Bastia. She's a Tressym (theoretically - she's actually a Spirit of Tymora, but everyone mostly ignores this fact because she's adorable and cute and very much the epitome of "what if a cat had wings and an IQ of 110?"). Stones will be stonelike. Her body will probably be a sort of dark-grey-ish color, with slightly darker in the wing membranes, and a lighter shade on the ruffs in her fur. Like Deena's eyes, hers are heterochromatic - blue and green. Did we mention that one of Bastia's powers is she can get bigger? She can get bigger, and spoopier. The miniature is Ral Partha (now produced by Iron Wind Metals) Winged Panther. I'm likely to use Reaper's glorious Nightmare Black for her (I will be so sad when I run out of this) - a dark grey for the inside of her ears, something like silver for her claws (her attacks are magical in this form), and, again, blue and green eyes. If I was feeling really inspired (and had more time), I'd try and do a starscape effect on her wings, but, I'd rather learn something like that on minis I don't care about... Garrius is a Triton Paladin! He is Very Loud and Forthright, and sometimes Not Very Bright, because INT was his dump stat! He has No Fashion Sense Whatsoever! Deena is very fond of Garrius, even if he's a blooming idiot, because he's a very honest blooming idiot who is actually fairly self-aware (low INT, decent WIS). This... is not my finest work, at all. I'm painting directly onto Bonesium because that's how the player started with him, and I didn't want to strip off all of his work and start over, but I also wanted the mini to actually have paint on it - so this is sort of a mercy painting. "Has no fashion sense whatsoever" and "has lots and lots of money, and not much idea what to do with it" sort of runs the show, here - Garrius is bright and bold and clashing, and has made a lot of clothiers very wealthy with his gullibility... Iron Trumpet wants to be immortal, and wants to be a god. For someone who is as smart as he is, he sometimes needs to be reminded that the latter mostly encompasses the former (as much as one can in the Forgotten Realms). He's not evil... per se... but to a degree this is only because he hangs around with (and is slightly scared of) Deena, who has tried very hard to keep him (and most of the rest of Calculated Risk, who lean in the main towards self-interested/not quite Dark Side in alignment... ) on, if not the straight (yeah, right...) and narrow, at least targeted at people where if they end up dead, it makes the world a better place (so, red wizards, evil giants and dragons, evil ifrit lords, Lolthite priestesses, and the like). Iron's mini was a combination of "Iron needs a mini" and "hey, that one is kinda cool, and fiery halflings... who does this remind me of" - the sculpt is neat, the priming on this one actually wasn't bad.

Since I don't have enough projects on the go, I decided to start another one. When the Bones III Kickstarter came around I really liked the Blackstar Corsairs, so much I ordered two sets. When the giant box o' Bones arrived I was surprised to see them on their sprues still and in pieces. Not a problem, it just meant I couldn't play with them, err, inspect them when I was sorting my figs. So they all went in a Ziploc. Today while pondering which project to work on I noticed them (they were hiding behind another project I have't even started a WIP on yet....). And tonight while pondering how the Olympics ruin TV for everyone, even when it is night where the Olympics are being held, I decided to go take a look at them. I found it interesting that all 5 come with the same "accessory" sprue, which contains a bayonet, a belt of grenades?, the visor, a sheathed knife and a gun with right hand. But 80076 and 80080 come with the same gun on their parts sprue as well. So you end up with a couple extra guns. Each guy comes in 4 parts btw, lower torso, upper torso and each arm. My plan is to do the first 5 as designed, then do some mods on the other 5. May need to look for some weapons to swap. At this point these guys are just clipped and friction fitted. I'll get them cleaned up and glued together sometime soon. The middle 3 will likely need the right arm and weapon left off until after painting the body. Not sure if I'll use all of the accessories on all of them or not. I'm very happy with these guys, glad I got 2 sets. They will likely play a role in my Savage Rifts campaign at some point. And maybe the IMEF have a new enemy to battle....