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...

More Mercenaries and D&D

These last two weeks I looked at expanding my options for my planned dip into the Dashat mercenary sectorial for Infinity as well as more pieces for my Haqqislam. For D&D I finished up the female mage by Darksword Miniatures and started to work on Trinket from Crital Role.

Pict 738: Everyone's pointing their guns for the group photo, only the Barid is not looking...

Pict 739: CSU, Al Fasid, Hassassin Barid, Tariqa HVT

Pict 740: CSU, Al Fasid, Hassassin Barid, Tariqa HVT

The Al Fasid is obviously the stand out in this picture thanks to his size (and his really cool pose!), but the other models are nothing to be sneezed at as well. There is the converted Hassassin Barid – I changed his stance and rotated his head – that I wanted to add to my Hassassins since I often found myself building lists with two of them in. There is the limited edition Tariqa HVT from the Infinity RPG Kickstarter. A really generous friend gave that particular model to me since he had one spare and I was to late to get it for myself during the Kickstarter. And last but certainly not least is the male Corporate Security Unit with the Breaker Rifle that came in the limited edition Beyond Red Veil box. I really love the model – the pose is excellent, the trench-coat looks cool from the back and the inner lining has that contrasting black and white pattern (google told me it's called Houndstooth).

Pict 743: Female Mage (Darksword)

Pict 742: Female Mage (Darksword)

And here is the next hero finished: the femle mage made by Darksword. As ever a joy to paint their miniatures! The only struggle I had were the hands – they are a bit small and compared to the face they seem to fall out of the usual proportions. But that was nothing a little guesswork couldn't handle! The face and the cloak again are amazing and painted up easily and nicely.

Pict 743: Trinket (WIP)

I don't post that many WIP photos any more because of the two-week intervals between posts. In that time I usually manage to get through the few miniatures from start to finish. Trinket the bear from Critical Role however seems to paint up rather quickly so that I was able to put down the basecoats before finishing up this post today.

Pict 744: Nakadai, Mercenary Oniwaban (WIP)

And lastly here is the start for the next Infinity Mercenary: Nakadai, the Oniwaban Mercenary from the Outrage manga. What's not to love about ninjas in space?

Assembling the Party

I painted some more heroes to add to my D&D party and with those I'm almost have the most recent group ready. After that I also got to some more Haqqislam miniatures that might just get me started with the Dashat mercenaries.

Pict 731: Human Captain, Gnome Wizard

Pict 732: Schicksalspfade Captain

Pict 733: Schicksalspfade Captain

I once again painted a model from the game Schicksalspfade. I really had problems finding a simple fighter with a shild and a sword - I would have liked for him to have a cloak as well but for one I didn't find a suitable model in my usual miniature lines. And after looking through my several boxes of unpainted miniatures, I found this guy already in my possesion. I enjoyed doing the back of the shield (he isn't really holding it to protect himself?) and after I was at a stage where I would usually call a model done, I also went back in and did some darklining.

Pict 734: Gnome Illusionist / Thief

Pict 735: Gnome Illusionist / Thief

Similar to my search for a human fighter was quite vexed to get my hands on a (male) Gnome Wizard. This miniature by Otherworld is the only one that fit the bill to an extend. He is marked as an illusionist as well as a thief and for example the dagger in the right boot does not quite fit my image of a wizard. Nevertheless I liked to paint the blue cloak as a somewhat more expensive cloth. The gem in the left hand also fits very well, since the character represented by the miniature has the guild artisan (jeweler) background.

Pict 736: Hunzakut, Bahshi Bazouk

And here then are the next two Haqqislam miniatures. I pretty much got through all of the miniatures I had for the Hassassin sectorial and with these two I might dip into the mercenary Dashat Company. But I want to at least try and paint more of the vanilla Haqqislam / Qapu Khalqi ones before I go out to buy some more...

Pict 737: Female Mage (Darksword) WIP

Other than the other heroes, this miniature however was a quick find. I like to go browse the Darksword category Visions in Fantasy to look for characters and when I was on the lookout for a druid, this miniature was a natural fit. I inverted the colours of the cloak and tunic of the official paintjob since I like the contrast between the bright orange and the framing muted green but thought the orange cloak impractical when blending into the underbrush of a forest.

More Time for Dungeons & Dragons

After my stint in Middle-earth I went back to painting miniatures for my upcoming D&D campaign: a halfling rogue and two dragons! After that I also got to a few more Haqqislam miniatures since I'll be having the next game in our league today.

Pict 725: Halfling Rogue, Topaz Dragon, Faerie Dragon

Pict 726: Halfling Rogue

Pict 727: Halfling Rogue

I really enjoyed painting this miniature and it was finished in about two hours. The scale is around 28mm but rather on the heroic size and I liked the size of the details while painting. Dark Sword really has some of the best miniatures for heroes (not all of them are to my taste but the ones that are really stand out!). I've got some more of them in my to do pile and I really look forward to it.

Pict 728: Topaz Dragon Wyrmling, Faerie Dragon

Pict 729: Topaz Dragon Wyrmling, Faerie Dragon

After that hero, I went over to some more monsters. This little Dragon here is a Topaz Dragon Wyrmling made by MCDM for their Strongholds & Streming Kickstarter. I really like the quality of the models: you do have to remove some moldlines, but the resin is quite sturdy while retaining sharp details. I think I could have pushed my painting a bit more on the stripes but it will do.
The Faerie Dragon is one of the dragon babies that came with the Warhammer Highelf Dragon kit. At first I wanted to play him as a Blue Dragon Wyrmling but the size doesn't quite fit - he's a bit to tiny. But as a Faerie Dragon he will do just fine.

Pict 730: Hassassin Lasiq, Hassassin Farzan, Leila Sharif, Remotes, Ghulam Infantry

And here are some more of my Haqqislam Miniatures. I showed two of the Ghulams in my last post and the converted Lasiq before he had any paint at all. While at it with the Ghulams, I also got to the conversion with the sniper rifle and Leila Sharif. And since I was on a roll, I also painted the Lasiq as well as a Farzan and two more of the chicken-leg remotes. I hope to use the latter during today's game to reveal some camo tokens via the sensor of the Rafiq, but we'll have to see if I manage...

So much DnD, also Goblin Mercenary Conversions

 I had quite the productive week full of painting, converting, cleaning up and priming miniatures. The start of the week saw the arrival of a box full of DnD-miniatures and I just could not help myself and started painting some of them, even though I really should be working on the Dwarven cavallry for the tournament at the end of the month.

Pict 122: Owlbear and Cubs (Darksword Miniatures)

I searched quite long until I found a good owlbear miniature. So when I found this one made by Darksword Miniatures I was overjoyed esspecially because of the adorable cubs that came with it. The three were part of the order that came this week and as you can see, I simply had to paint them. I chose to paint them purple as the owlbears are shown in the Monster Manual - it showes that they are magical creatures - rather than using pictures of real bears and owls.

Pict 123: Goblin Mercenaries (Conversions)

Pict 124: Goblin Mercenaries (Conversions)

Next up are the Goblin Mercenaries I mentioned in the title. I wanted to convert some for my Azog's Legion to have them for the tournaments to come. I made a mold  of a Moria goblin's shield and after I had about 15 copies I cut them up and used them, to put armour on some Goblintown goblins. The goblin in front of the others standing a little higher will be the Captain to lead this warband.

Pict 125: Henry Goatleaf and Barliman Butterbur (eBob)

Next are the other two townspeople made by eBob. I really enjoyed painting the cloth; the folds are very well modelled. I had my difficulties with the hands and the faces but I think are alright now.

Pict 126: Gor and Bestigor

Pict 127: Woodelf Sprites (Boggles)

On the AoS front I finally painted another Gor and a Bestigor as well as two Woodelf sprites. The former were simply done as the ones before. With these two finished I have five and thus half are painted. The latter really are only markers, but I think I will use them in DnD games as Boggles to annoy the players with chaotic fey.

Pict 128: Mimic (Reaper Miniatures)

Pict 129: Mimic (Reaper Miniatures)

Pict 130: Gelatinous Cube (Reaper Bones)

Pict 131: Gelatinous Cube (Reaper Bones)

Speaking of DnD: I also completed two Reaper minis - a Mimic and a Gelatious Cube - two of the really iconic DnD monsters. With the Mimic I hope to keep my players on edge with every treasure chest they encounter, while the Cube will serve to trap and dissolve them. (Well, hopefully it wont be that bad, I still want to get a good story out of the game and prefer to not loose friends.)
The translucent cube was really something new for me and I'm not sure if it needs a litte more work.

Pict 132: New DnD Miniatures

Pict 133: Umber Hulk (DnD Collector's Series)

Pict 134: Eye Tyrant (DnD Collector's Series)

And with the last three photos I present you the other DnD miniatures that came in this last box. I loved the Eye Tyrant as soon as I saw a picture of it in 2012 when it was released. Now I finally own one! But it still needs some more work with the green stuff. The other miniatures of the DnD Collector's Series by Gale Force 9 are amazing as well and I hope to get to them once the Hobbit SBG armies are finished.
Also pictured are two Grells made by Ral Partha quite some time ago and a batswarm made for Armalion. I also got myself Lem the iconic Halfling Bard made by Reaper for Pathfinder. I really like the character the miniature radiates and do look forward to painting it.