The Butterfly's Tally 2020

As is customary, in this first post of the year, I take a look back at what I did last year and make resolutions for the new one.

Pict 971: Uruk-Hai Army

Hobby Tally 2020

If you want to have a look at the tallies of the past: The Tally 2017, The Tally 2018, The Tally 2019

And these were my resolutions for 2020:

• Paint all of my Infinity models
• Paint the Uruk-Hai army to a playable level of 600 points
• Paint 25 miniatures for D&D, concentrating on the Critical Role miniatures
• And of course paint more models than buying them...

Pict 972: Sekban Naval Unit

Quite obviously I did not manage to paint all of my Infinity miniatures. In fact I bought some more and only painted the five Sekban in June. Since I played almost no games of Infinity, I lacked the motivation to do more, even with the release of a new edition of the game.

Pict 973: Uruk-Hai Army

Pict 974: Lutz and Friends

The Uruk-Hai however are quite a different story! The same week I finished the Sekban, I also put the finishing touches on a phalanx of Uruk-Hai Warriors. But the stand out for this project will have to be my conversion of Mauhur. All in all, I painted about 1850 points. Great sucess!

Pict 975: D&D Miniatures

Almost all of my miniatures could be used in D&D, but some of them are specifically to play RPGs. I'll have to add in the Shadow Deep miniatures as well as Valten and Bertrand's Bowmen of Bergerac to reach the 25 I wanted to do. But I will still count this resolution a sucess even if I did not paint that many CR miniatures. My highlight here has to be the Hill Giant - I'd venture to say he's my best painted miniature, barring maybe the Unicorn from the end of 2019.

And lastly, as you can see with a look at the Tally to the left, I once again failed to buy less miniatures than paint them. I did however sell quite a few as well and thus improved my ratio of painted to unpainted miniatures nontheless. And 283 painted models in total is also quite an impressive number!

Last year, I also decided to swich my postings to every other week. This shedule worked better with my life outside the hobby and I pretty much kept all of the dates. I count this as a sucess as well and will stick to this shedule in 2021.

Hobby resolutions for 2021

Seeing as I could not quite keep my resolutions this past year, I think I may have been overzealous especially with the goal to paint all of my Infinity miniatures. So for 2021, I will try and keep it simple: As per usual I want to paint more miniatures than buying new ones. Other than that I will only add one more goal. I want to paint a 4x4 gaming board and at least 4 pieces of terrain to play smaller skirmish games on.

Ten Years After: The Island of Blood

As I said in my last post, I wanted to participate in the Skaven and High Elves Painting Challenge and with a bit more time during this week's evenings I not only managed to finish Prince Althran but also my conversion of the Island of Blood mage as well as some other bits and bobs.

Pict 917: High Elf Heros in Lustria

Pict 918: Prince Althran on foot

Pict 917: High Elf Mage (Conversion)

I had quite a bit of fun painting these two and I'm looking forward to painting some more High Elves! Finishing Prince Althran did not take very long and I can see myself repeating the colours not only on heroes but also warriors. First I had to try and make the white work on a bigger surface - the converted Island of Blood mage seemed like a good enough test model. It was less masochistic than expected. I did the highlights on the white as the very last thing on the model and thus could smooth out any spots where I had not been quite as neat as I wanted.

Pict 920: Shadow Warrior (WIP)

I also started on a Shadow Warrior to implement the colours on a warrior instead of a hero. I don't plan on having a real army of high elves so I should be able to take my time and only paint the models I want to a high level.

Pict 921: Bandobras Tuk, Fredegar Bolger and Hobbit Militia

After so much time in the Old World, I wanted to get back to my usual Middle-earth. And what better way to do that then painting a bunch of Hobbits. I had a version of Bandobras on foot for quite a while but never got around to the Bulllroarer on horseback. With him, I also pulled out the remainder of the hobbit militia I had in a box and of course Fatty Bolger, with no weapon other than is girth.

Pict 922: Uruk-Hai Warrior and Raven

My friend over at smallthingsmodelling also donated a crossbow to the Isengard cause as well as a raven. The former was promtly used to convert a second Uruk-hai Warrior. And the latter might get used as an animal compaintion in Rangers of Shadow Deep.

Pict 923: Adult Red Dragon Base (WIP)

Lastly, I also did a bit more work on the Adult Red Dragon's base. With the gold on the coins, the next step will be  a lot of tidying up of the ground... After that: Only the gemstones and some other small details left now. The big problem will be the Dragon's paws - I haven't quite decided on how I'll paint the big scales and the claws...

Painting a Preyton

I finally got back to swinging the paintbrush and took out a Warhammer Preyton from the drawer of onloved miniatures. I also started to work on the Adult Red Dragon's base, but this seems to be a larger project...

Pict 912: Preyton

Pict 913: Preyton

Getting back into painting always takes me some time. This Preyton languished in a box for quite some time and I never really had a good idea of the colours I wanted to use. But simply starting by throwing some brown tones on the model got me started and the blue wings came naturally as a nod to the chaotic nature of the beast. The base fits my Wood Elf army since the monster was originally planned for a Storm of Magic game that never happened.

Pict 914: Adult Red Dragon Base (WIP)

For the dragon's base, I started with the ground and the stones, using the same technique I used on the stones of the Blacksmith's Workshop. Painting the base, however, I noticed how it's somewhat unlogical. A mound of stones with a wall running through it? A treasure chest sticking out of the stone in the ground? - Oh well, it's not too bad because eventually a big red dragon will take up all the attention!

Big Red Turkey

These past few weeks were not that productive hobbywise once more. But I managed to fill the gaps on two big D&D miniatures: the Adult Red Dragon I showed of last time and a Zombie T-Rex.

Pict 908: Adult Red Dragon (WIP)

I also put in some extra time and primed the Red Dragon. For now he's still of the base to have better access to the underside while painting. But I might just start with the base - I dread painting all of the coins and differentiating them from the ground.

Pict 909: Adult Red Dragon (built)

Pict 910: Adult Red Dragon (built)

And here is an additional picture of the big flying beast before priming and the Tyrannosaurus Zombie at the same stage of having filled in the gaps. I used green stuff for the bigger gaps - especially on the wings since they came in two parts. I filled the smaller gaps with Vallejo Plastic Putty and also used it to smooth out the borders between the resin and the green stuff.

Pict 911:Tyrannosaurus Zombie (built)

Also: the concept of a Zombie T-Rex is simply ridiculous. I love her and have decided to call her Betty (short for Beatrice).

New and old Projects

I did not have that much time for the hobby and did not touch a brush to a model during the past two weeks... But I managed to strip some new and old friends and build a few more models to take up space on my table.

Pict 907: New and old Projects

As you can see my model selection is somewhat eclectic once more: some Warhammer High Elves, one Bretonnian, six more Rohan Royal Guard, Jarlaxle Baenre and of course that montrosityof  a Red Dragons in the background... Next I'll have to get out the green stuff and fill in some gaps. Fortunately the dragon fit together pretty well after some hot baths.

D&D Hill Giant, Planetar and more Uruk Scouts

These past two weeks I painted more Uruk Scouts and then went onto paint some Moria Goblins. I struck some motivation issues with batch painting them however and thus distracted myself by painting some monsters for D&D.

Pict 842: Hill Giant Smash!

Pict 843: Hill Giant

Pict 844: Hill Giant

Pict 845: Hill Giant

Pict 846: Hill Giant

Pict 847: Hill Giant

Man, this was just the best distraction. It didn't really take to long since it's pretty much just fur, some leather bits and a whole lot of skin. I'm really in love with the miniature - the face is amazing, the different textures are a joy to paint. The pose is a bit exaggerated but I like it. As with the unicorn I painted at the tailend of last year, I went for minimal use of washes. Instead I drybrushed the boulder, the hair and the fur and layered the skin with translucent paint.

Pict 848: Uruk-Hai Scouts, Uglúk, Captain

The Uruks this time around are mainly Scouts - seven with shield, three with bow and the two carrying Merry respectively Pippin. I also painted Uglúk holding an orc head and his twin brother, an unnamed Captain. Lastly there is a single warrior with a crossbow. I'll have to get some more of those to play the Assault on Helm's Deep Legendary Legion, but for now, I'm staying on track with the scouts.

Pict 849: Planetar

After painting the Uruks, I finished up the Planetar, I showed last week. As I said, the pose is quite cool but I'm not that happy with the detail on the wings. I tried drybrushing and it looks all right, but compared to the Hill Giant there is a remarkable difference in quality.

Pict 850: Grôblog and Moria Goblins (WIP)

These Moria Goblins again are very nice miniatures and hold up despite being from the first batch of Lord of the Rings miniatures from 2001. Grôblog, the goblin chieftain on the pillar with the cloak is from some later time and only was released in Finecast. It took me quite some time to go through the basecolours but I finnaly managed to get to the wash stage. I hope to finish them next, but since I let myself be distraced by D&D miniatures, I might do some more of them...

Pict 851: Watcher in the Water's Tentacles

While I was on a stroll in Moria, I fished out these tentacles, I had started a long time ago. They were released by GW to play a scenario with the Fellowship of the Ring against the Watcher in the Water on the western door to Moria. Now that they are painted, I'll have to play that scenario sometime!

Pict 852: Dragonborn Rogue (WIP)

And lastly here is a WIP of the next D&D hero. As always, I very much enjoy Darksword's miniatures and this Dragonborn Rogue is no exception. Right now I don't have any plans to play this miniature but as with the Hill Giant I simply wanted to paint a cool miniature to distract myself from batchpainting...

Rohan Reinforcements, Nazgûl and a Blue Angel

Pict 829: Rohan vs. Wraiths

Not to be overcome with Uruk-Hai, I painted some reinforcements for my Rohan army and put them to good use in a doubles tournament this past saturday. I also quickly whipped up a few wraiths from Mordor while I was in the Middle-earth mindset. I also put the finishing touches on Bertrand and Hugo that were almost finished during my last entry. To round out my painting, I then got onto a planetar for my D&D games.

Pict 830: Dernhelm and Merry (mounted)

Pict 831: Dernhelm (mounted)

Pict 832: Éowyn (Death of Gothmog)

I started painting the Rohan heroes of with Dernhelm since I needed her for the tournament. My doubles partner (you can see more of his over at SmallThingsModelling) could have lend me his version but nothing is better to motivate me to paint than a deadline such as a tournament. I then threw in the crawling Éowyn from the 'Death of Gothmog' diorama.

Pict 833: Théodred and Rohan Captain (mounted)

Pict 834: Théodred and Rohan Captain (on foot)

After they finished up rather nicely, I went into my drawer of primed Rohan miniatures and took out Théodred and the Captain. Up until now I never had a reason to paint them but the former got a cool new Legendary Legion in the 'War in Rohan' supplement and I might just use the Captain in an all-hero army. I'm still lacking a painted Gamling with the royal banner however so that model might jump the queue?

Pict 835: Riders of Rohan

Other than Dernhelm, the two riders had to be painted for the doubles tournament. While they are not my best paintjobs, I'm happy with how they look. There are now only four more Riders of Rohan primed and if I painted them, I would have 24 in total. That seems like a reasonable amount (there are quite a few more in my box of shame though...) and it might even be doable in the coming weeks?

Pict 836: The Shadowlord, the Knight of Umbar and Castellans of Dol Guldur

Pict 837: The Shadowlord, the Knight of Umbar and Castellans of Dol Guldur

The other list we were running at the doubles event called for a Castellan of Dol Guldur. I knew I had these two primed and ready to be painted but they were rather far down my queue. However since I had them on my mind from the list building process, I decided to slap some paint on them. Of course they are pretty much only metal and dark cloth so they painted up rather fast. Spurred on by the quick success, I also painted the two named Ringwraiths I sill had lying about: the Shadowlord and the Knight of Umbar.

Pict 838: The Bowmen of Bergerac - Bertrand le Brigand, Hugo le Petit and Gui le Gros

Pict 839: Bertrand le Brigand

Pict 840: Hugo le Petit

Bertrand and Hugo pretty much done with my last post. They had to sit idly on my desk though while I went on my Rohan and Morder painting spree. But after I had varnished everything above, I finished the two of them. Again: the models are really amazing, especially for their age (the first mention in a catalogue was from the 1997 Annual with a copyright from 1996, they had profiles in the 5th edition of WHFB). I suppose, they will only be used in D&D but if I ever get around to play Mordheim or Warhammer Fantasy Skirmish, they would be first in line!

Pict 841: Planetar (WIP)

Speaking of D&D: I have some of the bigger models that are primed and ready to go sitting on my desk at all times. (Amongst them a Beholder, a Carmine Dragon as well as two Balrogs.) They always accuse me of not getting a move on and painting them... Last week I finally gave in to their cries and started to work on this planetar made by Gale Force Nine for the D&D Collector's Series. I have to say that the older models of the product line were a bit better: The detail on the planetar's greaves and braces was slightly washed out and I had to resculpt some of the feathers where a big moldline was running right through them. Nonetheless the model looks quite cool and I look forward to finishing it next week.

Ghulams and Bounty Hunters

I spentmore time painting some rather old Infinity miniatures: four of the earlies Ghulam Infantry figures that were released for the game. I also managed to finish the Halfling Quesnef and then got to work on some more Mercenaries for my foray into the NA2 – Domovoi, the Dogwarrior from the Outrage manga and a start on the Authorized Bounty Hunter on bike.

Pict 753: Ghulam and Mercenaries

Pict 754: Ghulam Infantry

Pict 755: Ghulam Infantry

The three Ghulam Infantry with rifle and light shotgun are from the first Haqqislam Starter set realeased sometime in 2007 (?). They are part of the game's history and still look all right but as I said in my last post the faces are pretty comical ad the poses are a bit stiff. The doctor with her MediKit falls in the same category but I like the pose of her reloading.

Pict 756: Domovoi

Pict 757: Domovoi

Vania 'Domovoi' Nevsky is a Dogface from Ariada and thus I hat the chance to again go for different colours. I incorporated the beige kneepads as a nod to my Haqqislam but overall went for a more contemporary look. His face really shows what you can do in digital sculptig - I love the angry look barring his teeth and it was a joy to paint. He's not on the base he comes with since I don't like the way he overlaps the 25mm size and thus was promoted to a 40mm base. He might get some playtime as McMurrough but I really want to paint that model as well so that Domovoi might be only a character piece I painted for myself.

Pict 758: Authorized Bounty Hunter (Bike)

Pict 759: Authorized Bounty Hunter (Bike)

Pict 760: Authorized Bounty Hunter (Tactical Rock)

Pict 761: Authorized Bounty Hunter (Tactical Rock)

And here is my start on the first Authorized Bounty Hunter. I'm going to need quite a few of them to play Dashat, since they can mix into any fireteam. Corvus Belli sells this one with a bike but I separated and magnetised them since they are not certain to get the bike on the Booty Lvl. 2 table. Additionally I now have a cool bike for the next time one of my Ghazi finds one in a panoply!

Pict 762: Quesnef, Halfling Form

Pict 763: Quesnef, Halfling Form

Since I showed a WIP in my last post, there was not that much left to do with this nice little halfling. With his green coat he now looks a bit to much like a leprachaun, but I'm happy with him nonetheless.