A Few Finished Minis

[SotF]

Just a few minis that I painted since the lockdowns started now that I have a working camera again...

 

Nolzur's Young Blue Dragon

 

I have the breath attack, just never glued it in because I prefer the look of it without the lightning breath.

 

Nolzur's Frost Giant

 

Deep Cuts Velociraptors

 

White Tiger

 

Just a repaint from a plastic tiger toy from when I needed one for a D&D adventure.

 

Alicorn Herd

 

I'd posted the larger version of one of these toys that I'd painted as a statue in the conversion showing off terrain thread I have. These are part of my Dragon Rampant force at the moment.

 

Various Reaper Undead

 

 

 

I'd had the first for a while and it was primed and barely started there. The others are from last year with one as the dungeon dwellers and the other being the 2020 Halloween special.

 

GW Vampire Counts Minis

 

 

 

I'd bought the Carstein vamp from what the store already had when the last VC codex came out, and bought Krell (And a still unfishinished Isabella/female Vamp) at the time to try out the Fine Cast stuff...which, at the time, was horrible and wobbly, but with the years between, it seems like it hardened and was, actually, rather fun to paint. I traded for the Kemmler with a friend after looking for one for a while to pair with Krell...then the End Times stuff came and my army ended up put away because a good chunk of the players didn't want to keep with Warhammer at all, or at least Fantasy...one friend had built and painted up two 2K+ armies during it which stopped being handled then (Brettonians and Wood Elves), and another had been a long time Tomb Kings armies.

[Chaoswolf]

Good work!

[Patrik Strom]

The ice effects on the Wraith King is really well done!

[SotF]

38 minutes ago, Patrik Strom said:

The ice effects on the Wraith King is really well done!

I was trying to have him appear as if partially shifting out of the ethereal or disappearing there. It was easier with the blue translucent material (It's the halloween special one from last year), but still a pain to get it looking right.

[SotF]

A wide mix of more minis I've dug up...

 

Aiden Tidewater (Nolzur's Water Genasi Druid)

 

This was fun to paint up, unfortunately, I'd had to paint him up quickly. He's one of the characters I spent a while playing with Adventurers League games, he's actually a monk, but the druid sculpt with the water hit his more surfer dude mixed with street fighter feel. I ended up needing to find a rather large washer to glue under the base because his wave unbalances the miniature.

 

Potion Vendor (Human Cleric, Olivia) (77396)

 

I painted her a while ago, but did some touchups. She's currently being used as a potion vendor.

 

Nolzur's Winter Wolf

 

And a pic with the dire wolf pack I've been using it with (GW Fenrisian Wolves that I found for really cheap).

 

 

And adding the Old Glory Loup Garou that I've used as a werewolf with the rest as a warband for Song of Blades and Heroes because they amused me...

 

 

I'm thinking of getting another of the Loup Garou to paint...he's one of the models that doesn't fit the rest of the force in basing but I don't want to strip it...it's one of the cooler werewolf minis out there.

 

Deep Cuts Great White Shark

 

(Insert Jaws theme here...)

 

 

This one was another awesome thing to paint. Only issues were in figuring out how to blend it into the base and getting that to look right. Unfortunately, there are some issues with pictures of it due to the heavier gloss over it...

 

King of the Pride: The Lion

 

A cleaned up and repainted cheap lion toy, from the same set as the White Tiger. I couldn't resist building a miniature pride rock piece for the base though

 

Sheep Dog

 

This was a very quick thing I did because I needed a dog for a game that night. It's a good sculpt, a bit oversized, but works well for the game. I missed a bit of flash, but for a simple paint along with other things in a little over an hours time broken up by other things, quite good.

 

Rhinoceros

 

I like this sculpt, and I spent a lot of time on getting the skin to look right. It's a cheap toy from an older set I had...and the joint at the neck just would not go away with scraping and filling as every attempt made it worse until I gave up.

 

Horses

 

I needed a mini for my paladin's mount and there was a second pally in the party (My crown and his conquest). They're from the dollar tree's cheap plastic horses set that's normally in the same place as their dinosaur, farm, zoo, bug, and a few other sets. While they're on 2" bases, they're not plastic bases. I used the wooden coins that the craft store had because I was attaching them to the base all the way to one side. The other side will let you easily set a normal character mini on a 1" base stably on it for gaming use while the bases still look like normal without one on it.

 

Cows

 

From the Dollar Tree farm set, used the last of the wooden coins I had for them

 

Wild Boar

 

A plastic boar or warthog, not sure which, that I found, based, and painted. I'd found it in the parking lot of a local park...

 

Dimetrodons

 

They're cheap toys that I painted up years ago back when the old Lost World Safari yahoo group was around...they had a postcard scenario rules competition and one of the games involved two dimetrodons, so I painted them up. All I've done recently when I needed them for an adventure was to repaint the base rims. They're pretty good sculpts for the cost at the time, I've seen what I think is the same sculpt in walmart's cheap toy isle for a couple bucks for a lot more than just them...though the rest of the set is kind of horrible.

 

Dilophosaurus'

 

Part of a sack of plastic dinosaurs. I only wanted a couple of these for the table. They're a rubbery plastic, but paint stuck rather well to them and I painted them up using a scheme similar to the Jurassic Park ones though the size is a bit closer to the size of the real ones.

 

Dinosaur Herbivore Herd

 

These are more of a generic smaller herbivorous dino that came in the same sack as the Dilos were. A decent sculpt, and enough to have a decent herd look when in play. I'm not really sure what species they're supposed to be of though.

 

Elementals (Deep Cuts's and old Mage Knight)

2 Medium Water Elementals, 2 Medium Earth Elementals, and a plant elemental that I've painted in the past. I'd found the plant elemental in a drawer a while back with a broken clix base from when I'd tried playing Mage Knight when it had first come out (I don't have many of them, most are touched up or repainted entirely with a new base...one of my old ones is even one of their short lived metal, unpainted, collectors line that I found in a second hand bin

 

War Troll (Ice Troll) (77344)

 

I've largely used him in combination with pathfinder goblins (A mix of the Reaper and Deep Cuts ones there), but I'd put him alongside my Anhurians as an ally with a recent game of Dragon Rampant. With the goblins, he's kind of the smartest member of the group...which isn't that unusual for the Goblins of the Noctwald. Trolls tend to be irritable, but less of a a direct threat all of their own, but aren't normally that friendly either and can often be hired as mercenaries for different groups.

 

Ancient Undead Warriors

 

These were from a plastic set of "skeletal warriors" that I'd found in a toy rack at Cracker Barrel a few months ago and decided to base and paint them. They're large sized skeletons with an eclectic mix of gear

Edited January 6, 2022 by SotF

[SotF]

Flocks of Sheep

 

This is something where the sculpts aren't so good, but cheap ones from a farm set. I got the idea of using them for a mix of creature and mobile terrain of sorts. The mould lines are trimmed down quite a bit and worked with there. The end result works for what it is...I'd put them together a long while ago but never got around to doing more than priming it.

[SotF]

Actually made a couple oozes that I might end up needing and grabbed some older minis I painted up a while back...

 

Earth Genasi or Stone Golem

 

He's a slightly modified Thing mini from the older Marvel's Handfull of Heroes packs. The sculpts are really good, most work for the slightly larger medium sized characters for D&D on a 1" base. Some have poses that don't work on it and need a 2", and several are to easily seen as specific characters, but painting them in other colors normally works.

 

Witch Hunters

 

2 from Reaper, the middle one is one I'm not sure where he's from originally, I'd picked him up from the unboxed trade ins bins at a store.

 

Black Oozes

 

These were rather easy to make. I did the bases first, then used a few layers of hot glue to build up heaps of goop. Gloss black layer, highlight with a glossy grey, and then using the high gloss varnish over that for them. Just made 4 of the smaller ones there, when I'd made the first ones, ended up burning my fingers when the dog tripped me up while standing up and fingers landing in still molten hot glue is not fun...

 

But when I'd made them, I also made a pile of others using the nolzur's 1" bases that I'd handed out to some friends as a gift back then...It was a pain to paint them with a hand all bandaged up though...and made me really nervous while working on it this time, but got it done.

 

Spiders

 

The smallest ones come from a halloween store, I've still got a bunch of them to deal with at some point. They were on discount at that point for under a buck. The duo are from the dollar tree and I have some more of them if I want to make more, but they aren't that detailed, just a cheap, thin plastic that was covered in a glittery layer that wouldn't brush off without destroying the plastic and there wasn't much detail anyway...so I soaked it in thinned glue mixed with black ink to solidify them and stop shedding, then went with a simple paint job for them as I needed spiders for an adventure I was working on. The last one is from a painting competition I was part of a few years back where I got it from the store as part of the requirements for it, but the mini is originally a toy that I've seen at Dollar Tree. It came with a sticky wheel in it so that you could stick the rather flat spider to a wall and it would roll down while looking like it was climbing...I removed the mechanism and the underside before I based and painted it...ended up with 2 awards for it that got me enough store credit to get one of the 5e books I'd been wanting at the time.

[SotF]

I've been working on trying to finish up a new spearman unit for dragon rampant, and was pulling out the figures I had for the force already since I wanted some more options. While my cavalry and heroes with some other painted figures I did before needing to close them up when I had carpets redone, the box with my troops and artillery seems to have gone AWOL on me...but I grabbed some pics of the extra command and heroes I know where are.

 

Asandris, Denethall, and Anhurian Command (Standard Bearer and Captain) along with Gravestone of Protection

 

Denethall's shield didn't end up as smooth looking in the pics as it is in real life. It took a lot of work to remove the horse head sigil from it. Wish his sword was slightly less massive as well, but it works and I didn't really want to try modifying it or a blade swap. I'd had enough trouble dealing with removing a hilt from a different mini at the time...

 

The banner took forever to get looking right and it's still a bit large, but looks good and stands out.

 

While I tend to use Asandris for scale comparisons, I'd grabbed and painted her for this project...

 

Anhurian Elite Guard and Anhurian Command (Drummer and Musician) with Standing Stone

 

I tend to use the elite guard as more of an extra hero...might use him for a captain if I do another sword unit in the future. I'm thinking about getting one to convert for an officer for bows with swapping both weapons.

 

For the drummer, I'd managed to acquire several of them, removing the drum and sticks leaves you with a pretty well positioned mini for using the old, 2 pack of Deep Cuts ballista (the small ones) for emplacements.

 

Anhurian Cavalry with Garr

For the cavalry, all of them end up using a swapped right hand. The one thing with the mini that didn't work for me was the lance both because it never comes straight and it doesn't seem to fit the style I was going for...plus I like the mounted spearmen thing more. The banner and trumpet are from the banners conversion kit and the trumpet from the instruments one. The hands and weapons added are from the fireforge games foot sergeants sprues, the spear on the back of the leader is from Mantics undead kits (I keep forgetting to add one to the standard bearer and musician, though i have them). And I've wanted to use Garr in a force and with his shield, he has the same black shield with white stripe as the rest of the force, and works as another part of the cavalry.

 

For the leader, the hardest thing was removing the hilt of the sword because it wouldn't make sense to have two swords there along with the spear and shield. I made him after the others while I used another mounted figure that I have to just have the numbers, but it wasn't part of the project, and I'd been using the one with the longer spear as the leader (Might add a pennet to that as it was a banner from the kit it came from, but I wanted to be able to tell which was the leader).

[SotF]

The Nightwalker (Nolzur's)

 

The Nightwalker is one where its looks made me buy and paint it, the sculpt is great for a giant, creepy thing...though I'm not sure if it looks right for an undead, the thing looks more like a demon or devil of some sort while being bigger than their giant that I've painted and downright dwarfing the blue dragon. It was a downright pain to paint while looking good. The transparent "smoke" is also a pain to paint and the camera seems to pick up both in a way that it doesn't on the table due to the translucency effects I was using with it, and the camera seems to have brightened up the entire thing and the front seems to be just right to make it hard to focus.

 

It was a pain to get the different types of black to work right and be cohesive there.

 

Bones Raft

I'd grabbed this because I had some extra on an old rewards card for the hobby store that was expiring on me.

 

It's very well detailed, but rather hard to get to look right in a proper sort of way for a raft that's in use...but the design does also seem like it would work well for a barricade or similar log construction.

 

Bones Rowboat

This one was great to paint up, though I didn't use the pair of fish that came with it that normally would be placed inside...I figure that I could use them elsewhere in the future and this opens up a bit more internal space.

 

All three things were bought at the same time...

[Grand Slam]

That Nightwalker looks great... you're right, super creepy. From what I can make out in the pictures, the smokey effect looks well-done. I can definitely see where that would be difficult to photograph.

 

Nice job weathering the raft and boat as well.

[SotF]

1 hour ago, Grand Slam said:

That Nightwalker looks great... you're right, super creepy. From what I can make out in the pictures, the smokey effect looks well-done. I can definitely see where that would be difficult to photograph.

 

Nice job weathering the raft and boat as well.

The nightwalker as something lovecraftian horror seems more right to me with the sculpt. I'm thinking of creating my own version stat and lore wise to go more of that direction.

 

It's also kind of funny that the original artwork of a Nightwalker barely had any horns and seems like it's more of a gigantic version of other undead creatures with a lot of Shadow inspiration there...then the horns grow in prominance with each edition.

 

The one thing I really wish, with the boat, is that there was a less damaged version with the extra planking patches being pieces that could be positioned elsewhere and that the basket didn't have the plug, so that it could be left off. I'd love some other boats of the same type for a fishing village or just something using multiples, but I don't want to spend the time carving and sculpting and filling things in.

[charcon]

Who makes the herd of dinosaurs?

[SotF]

On 3/26/2022 at 9:05 PM, charcon said:

Who makes the herd of dinosaurs?

I'm not sure, they were just some cheap, rubbery plastic dinosaurs, same with the dilophosaurs which were in the same set. I've seen similar ones under a lot of names.

 

But I got something else painted while slowly working on more Anhurians and dealing with everything else going on for me...some of the drainage pipes in the yard cracked and/or collapsed, which meant that I've had to do a lot of work in the basement for repairs along with digging the pipes out to replace and upgrade parts of them...

 

Sphinx (Bones Female Sphinx)

 

I really like the sculpt, just wish the face was a little bit crisper with the nose and lips since it's nor a human nose but the little bit of the mouth there is doesn't look human...so I tried to add something of a cats there. She's also something of a rush job, a friend of mine is running a game and knew I had the mini...wanted to borrow it due to running white plume mountain, which got me to paint if over the week...I'm seeing him again tomorrow to let him borrow it, thankfully, there was a dry enough time to add a layer of varnish to it. I might end up using her, in the future, with my Anhurians since I went with a similar color flourish there with the blue gems, though I'm not sure as of yet.

[charcon]

I wanna game with this person!

[SotF]

4 hours ago, charcon said:

I wanna game with this person!

I'm not entirely sure, he's fun as a player, but, from the few times he ran AL stuff, he's a bit to locked into the text of published adventures and gets frustrated when groups have abilities that might change the way it plays out.

 

He also hasn't gotten to play since the lockdowns started...

 

He was one of the people who got very into character for playing though...I think he got to the point where his schedule isn't very good for going back to what it was and can't find one to play in...