Dragonlance Campaign PCs

[Sanael]

OK...update time. Spent a good bit of time at the table today, some of which got paint on these guys.

 

Here's Gerwin and the Kender, with some basecoated skin and eyes...sort of. You can also see Gerwin's medic bag in his left hand, and the Kender's hoopak is primered up.

 

 

 

The Kender is in need of some cleanup. His primer coat is kinda grainy and the basecoat of skin went down thicker than it should. Gerwin's eyes are much smaller than I want them to be, so his left eye is all pupil at this point.

 

I've also done about this much on the other figures, but they each have even more retouching before the eyes are remotely done. Most frustrating part of the mini, so I try to get the eyes done more or less first.

[Sanael]

Another good session at the table today. Happy Thanksgiving to all!

 

Finished out eyes and darklining on everyone. Here's KenderLem, full of cheer and je nes sais quois.

 

 

Also worked up the hair on the two knightly siblings, and colorblocked their tabards.

 

For the curious, here's the hair recipe. My wife and I recently started a binder of these cards so we know what we've done in the future. It's fan-handy-tastic!

 

 

The colorblocking on their tabards is based on this, their family crest. Per pale azure and vert, at nombril a sun in its glory or dimidiated with a fortress argent. (yeah, I'm a geek for heraldry, though my blazoning is piecemeal at best. Anyone know a better way to describe the divided charges?)

 

 

Now...the minis themselves. I'm happy with their hair and faces, mostly. Some touching up to be done, but this is a WiP, after all. I'm planning for the inside of the colored cloth to be a neutral color, either a pale ivory (like unbleached muslin cloth) or a brown. I'm leaning more toward the ivory, as Gerwin's pants will likely be brown. Given this, does anyone have advice for Ms. Paladin's shirtsleeves?

 

 

Thanks for looking. As always, C&C are appreciated.

[Sanael]

Was able to do quite a bit today (and Tuesday!)

 

I finally know what our wizard player wanted instead of a staff: crazy spell-effect! So here's my GS-Fu for that. I plan to make it a swirl of purple or teal light. Or maybe orange. Something bright; we'll see once I have more of him painted.

 

 

I also did a lot of work on the whole party (so far). The two Southwalls are ready for metallics, as their leathers and various under-layers are all finished up.

 

 

And, since I had all the browns on the palette, I got the leathers knocked out on everyone else. The top mini is a new addition, a barmaid/woodcutter's daughter who knows a thing or two about using axes. She's a converted Shadow Sister (14371, by Jeff Grace). I'm pretty pleased with the weapon swappage.

 

 

I'm still debating colors for the Kender. I'm pondering red-and-green checks for his pants, but then I don't know what I'll do for everything else. I want plenty of color, and just enough "busy" to make it clear he didn't come by this wardrobe on purpose. But I also don't want the mini to be eye-bleedingly chaotic. Thoughts, anyone?

 

Tomorrow, I'll pick up the last mini for the group. The mini is 3362, Kjell Bloodbear. I'll have to do a weapon swap on him (more axes!), and then add him to the queue. I doubt I'll have these finished by next Sunday (our scheduled start date for the campaign), but I'm making pretty decent progress. At least nobody will be bare metal!

 

As always, commentary is welcome.

[Sanael]

OK! Gerwin and Ingrid (the female paladin, played by Alaine) are both done. Some work this week on Padeen (our wizard), hopefully get him finished quickly so I can move on to the rest. We had our first game session this week, and for those familiar with the classic modules or novels, we made it out of the inn, across Crystalmir Lake, and beat up our first band of freaky dragon-men. We even managed to capture one alive; next session will start with interrogation. This, combined with my character's epic success on a Knowledge Religion check, has our party much better informed than the iconic characters were at this point. Which is to say, we still don't know much more than, "keep this staff out of the hands of the bad guys." Darken Wood, here we come!

 

Anyway, here's Padeen's progress. Mostly work on his robes. I plan to bring them up just a bit more, but the player has said they should be fairly sedate rather than a primary red shade, so they're pretty close now.

 

[Sanael]

No paint work over the last few days, but I've been busy nonetheless. Our kender player has described a fun quirk for his character..the Kender's name is Niko Cranewright, a surname acquired due to his propensity for turning every article of paper he comes across into an origami crane.

 

...so, of course, I decided the mini needed a crane or two. Turning Lem's flute into a hoopak and adding a topknot just isn't enough.

 

Problem being, paper that small is hard to fold, so getting actual, to-scale paper cranes just isn't going to happen. So (thanks to Gene, Derek, and all the various sculpting threads I've read through in the past year) here's the GS alternative.

 

First, I made a flat puddle of GS. Like rolling out dough for sugar cookies. Not having a crane-shaped cookie cutter that small, I just cut the shape out with a sculpting knife. This is just the shape of the center of the crane without any wings.

 

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I decided I wanted three cranes; two will end up on Niko's base somewhere and one will land on the wizard's base. Alternatively, I may try to string all three and hang them from Niko's hoopak, but I'm not entirely sure what I'd string them with.

 

Once I cut out the three crane bodies, I made some rectangles and cut triangular wing-shapes out of them. Here's the crane-shapes and the scored rectangles.

 

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After a day of letting all these shapes cure, I cut them out, trimmed the edges to get rid of any stray GS, and chose which triangles went with which bodies. At this point, I'm happy with how this all came out, but I think if I did it again I'd roll out my puddle even thinner, let it cure, then cut all the shapes out of the cured piece. I'd be able to get everything much thinner and probably would be able to skip the additional trimming step I did here.

 

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Finally, I took tiny blobs of uncured GS and attached the wings to either side of each body. Et voila, tiny paper cranes!

 

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I'm pretty happy with the way these look. There's some trimming and whatnot to do when they come off the plasticard, but they look pretty nice in the hand even now.

[buglips*the*goblin]

Creatively cool idea!

[klyons99]

Seconded, great idea and execution!

[Sanael]

Thanks, guys. Now I have some sheets of GS on the cure for cutting out some feathers and beads to dangle from the hoopak along with a crane or two. We'll see how it all comes out!

[Sanael]

OK, one more for the day, did a bit of work on the wizard. Thought I was done with the hair, but then I saw this photo and realized I need to do some work on his beard and moustache. I am pretty pleased with his face; he's missing an eye, and I think the thin line of the closed eyelid, with the still-high eyebrow, works for "missing, not winking." Let me know what y'all think.

 

Also got some basecoating down on the trim/sash of his robes. Even though he's a red-robed wizard, I wanted to pay some homage to all three moons of magic, so he's got some black and white happening. I think he's looking sharp, and provided I get the time I hope to have Sunday morning he should be ready that for evening's game.

 

[ObsidianCrane]

Hmm that wizard makes me think "Angry Santa".

 

"You better watch out" indeed!

 

The brush work is excellent though. :)

[Sanael]

Hmm that wizard makes me think "Angry Santa".

"You better watch out" indeed!

The brush work is excellent though. :)

 

Hmm. I wasn't even thinking "Santa." Hopefully I can work past that as I fiddle with the white trim, since now I can't unsee it.

[Slendertroll]

I didn't see that at all, and I think he looks great. If you play up the blue and yellow a bit more, that should be avoidable.

[Sanael]

Progress today!

 

I've hit a wall on Padeen...just can't look at the wizard right now. Did a bit of fiddling on his blacks, but otherwise worked on two other party members, Gwynneth (played by Saori) and Truebreeze (played by Kjell Bloodbear).

 

Gwynneth has become my tribute to the fact that the first DL module is "Dragons of Autumn Twilight." I'm quite taken by the orange on her cloak, especially at arm's length. Here's the recipe:

 

1. Basecoat in 1:1 Rust Brown and Saffron Sunset.
2. First Shadow: Powderburn Brown and Rust Brown (1:1)
3. Second Shadow: Powderburn Brown.
4. First Highlight: Saffron Sunset
5. Second Highlight: Saffron Sunset and Golden Blond (1:1)

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Truebreeze' pants are actually the same series of colors as Gwyn's cloak, although I basecoated his pants in the shadow color and didn't take the highlights up as far. I think it's pretty cool that you can get some very different results with the same set of paints.

 

[klyons99]

I think it's pretty cool that you can get some very different results with the same set of paints.

 

Indeed - in fact, if you don't mind, could I paraphrase that in the Open/Group Colour Theory thread?

[Sanael]

Please do! Any words I post are imminently borrowable, I don't mind sharing.