Eclectic Painting for Dungeons and Dragons

So another quick post today showing what I painted when I needed a break from the Blacksmith Forge from last week. I focused on painting an eclectic bunch of miniatures mainly for Dungeons and Dragons, but I may use them with other systems such as Rangers of Shadowdeep as well.

Pict 891: Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures

Pict 892: Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures

First up I want to talk about two models on the right made by Otherworld Miniatures. They really have some amazingly characterful faces and were a joy to paint up. That Rat-chatcher has such a grat face while the Were-tiger simply has an amazing pose.
The guy secend from the left is another Critical Role miniature - the Gentleman. I debated whether to put a gloss varnish on his skin since he's supposed to be a Water Genasi. In the end I didn't because I could not imagine it turning out great.
And the last guy in the group is a Dwarf Fighter made by WizKids. I already painted the first iteration from that set pretty much two years ago to the day! This one is slightly converted - I added spikes to make him into a Battlerager - basicly a dwarf barbarian weaponising their armour.

Pict 893: Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures (WIP)

And here is what got started during the same time: Two more Reptus Skullbreakers by Reaper Miniatures to be played as Dragonborn. A Packbearer by Otherworld - again I love the face! And the last CR miniature from the Steamforged Games Vault - Caduceus Clay. This last one is not to far along since the colourscheme is quite different to what I usually paint.

Silverhorn the Unicorn on Displaybase

This week I managed to finish Silverhorn the unicorn on it's display base from last week and started to work on some more Haqqislam miniatures including a few Ragiks as well as the big bug.

Pict 767: Silverhorn, Unicorn

Pict 768: Silverhorn, Unicorn

Pict 769: Silverhorn, Unicorn

Pict 780: Silverhorn, Unicorn

Pict 781: Silverhorn, Unicorn

As I said last week, I went back to the shadows especially around the chest and the belly but also where the head meets the neck. I also lightened the rocks and treestumps on the base to set them apart from the substrate and the black plinth. But what really gives the miniature it's live is the greenery. The leaves threw a last wrench into my progress since at first they were way to bright. I now toned them way down and am pretty happy with the result!

Pict 782: Avicenna, Hassassins Ragik (WIP)

These Ragiks are the next few miniatures I want to paint for my Haqqislam. The hacker option seems really great since it is able to achive a majority of the classified objectives that are quite important in the current mission we play in our league. Avicenna might not get played much but I wanted to add a new mercenary as well.

Pict 783: Maghariba Guard (WIP)

 And here is my start on the one TAG Haqqislam has available to them, the Maghariba Guard. It's the old model that's inspired by the shape of a beetle. The new one is awsome as well and I'm pretty sure I'll get it sometime but I imagine there will always be a place in my heart for this cubby little six-legged mech.

Doing something different / Pushing myself

This week I went ahead with a different sort of project: painting to a high standart and pushing my skills as a painter.

Pict 764: Silverhorn, Unicorn (WIP)

I picked a unicorn made by Reaper Miniatures they call Silverhorn. I decided on a unicorn early on to practice shading and highlighting on the larger areas but still paint a fantasy miniature and not just a horse. Nevertheless I spent quite some time looking at pictures of horses, especially eyes of horses... I also knew that I wanted to try and do a display base to frame the miniature and decided to go for a forested area.

Pict 765: Unicorn Display Base (WIP)

And that's how far I've gotten with the base for now. I'm pretty happy with the forest substrate - I wetblended three different browns, keeping everything darker towards what's going to be the back of the base. To pull it all back together I drybrushed some brighter colours and added spots of a green wash. The rocks look ok, but I think I will have to brighten them some more.
The trees however will have to get completely reworked. I want the rest of the base to be black which I hadn't considered when painting the trees. And now they don't stand out at all... I might just got for birch trees but I fear that this might not achive the framing effect I had in mind for the unicorn. And of course I will have to put on some greenery and model leaves!

Pict 766: Silverhorn, Unicorn (WIP)

Pict 767: Silverhorn, Unicorn (WIP)

The unicorn itself is also pretty far along. I wanted to use very limited amounts of washes since I usually depend on them rather heavily. I only used a wash on the longer hair like the mane and the tail. The main parts of the fur were done using many layers of very diluted paint. I'm pretty happy with the effect of highlights and texture I managed but I still want to deepen the shadows some more and after that I assume I will have to touch up the other blends a bit.

Fear not! The Azra'il have arrived to protect your Silk

This week was another foray into Haqqislam. I managed to finish the two Azra'il, that I started a while back as well as some more Infantry to further bulk out my roster.

Pict 702: Azra'il arrive to protect your Silk!

Pict 703: Azra'il

Pict 704: Azra'il

First up have to be the Azra'il. I love the bulky suits of armour and the two different poses with the (somewhat overly) large guns. Following my usual recipe for Haqqislam I was able to get through the base colours and highlights on the greys and reds pretty fast. The beige armour however seemed to take forever to do. Getting all those little individual plates and leaving it darker in the recesses was quite a slog that I delayed for some time...

Pict 705: Odalisque, Hafza

Pict 706: Odalisque, Hafza

These two were also shown with the Azra'il. I don't really plan on playing them since I feel the Spitfire is a gun that a sturdier plattform that can take a bit of punishing when targeted by the enemy. But the two were the last miniatures I hadn't painted from the Qapu Khalqi Starter set, so it seemed like the right thing to do.

Pict 707: Hassassin Muyib, Asawira

Pict 708: Hassassin Muyib, Asawira

And here are some more miniatures, that have gotten new sculpts in the meantime. I quite like this old sculpt for the Asawira with Spitfire however. He will definitely be used wome time in the future while the Muyib again is more a completionist thing.

Pict 709: Bailey Silverbell, Dwarf Ranger

Pict 710: Bailey Silverbell, Dwarf Ranger

And lastly here is another miniature for D&D. I had a look at my miniature collection and decided that I didn't own enough female adventureres (especially non-human ones!) and thus was on the lookout for some more. This female dwarf made by Reaper Miniatures one I settled on and I enjoyed painting her. In retrospect the red cape might be a bit to much in the way of Little Red Riding Hood, but I like her nonetheless.

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.

Grimmhammers and a whole lot more done!

This last week was really quite productive. I managed to almost double my tally of painted mininatures from 34 up to 60! I finished the Grimhammers monday evening and had the time over the following evenings to get to some minions for my DnD game.

Pict 107: Grimhammers

So as advertised, here are the Grimhammers. I was rather happy to have them done - now I can field a full warbad with either young Dwalin or young Balin. I'm sure I will paint some more to play the scenarios from There And Back Again. The other heros for Thror's Army are primed in a box and I want to do right by them, so I will wait until inspiration strikes to start with them. Once I paint more Grimhammers I might try and highlight the metals individualy and not drybrush as I did here - I am not convinced that the drybrush saved me that much time.

Pict 108: Reptus Skullbasher

Pict 109: Reptus Skullbasher

Next up is one of the Reptus Skullbashers. I painted him up as a bronze dragonborn and I'm really happy with the bronze scales. The orange for the loin cloth was chosen by chance, but I do like the contrast with the rest of the miniature.

Pict 110: Skeletons (5. ed.) and Giant Spiders

Pict 111: Giant Snakes

And the last two pictures show the minions I painted for DnD. Most of my sunday was spent running a great group of friends through a dungeon filled with goblins. Sadly I overprepared (as ususal) and none of the above actually saw the tabletop.

Other than the painting I spent my hobby time with basing, filling gaps and priming the stuff I build during the last two weeks. With a Hobbit tournament at the end of april fast approaching, I will most likely focus on the rest of the Iron Hills and the Gundabad Army.

The Iron Hills Cavallry arrives (Dwarfs riding Goats!)

So this week was not as succesful for my painting as I only managd to drybrush leadbelcher on the Grimhammers. I wont bother taking a picture because the is hardly a difference to the picture form last week. But as I expected I was distracted by the order that arrived from Forge World.

Pict 093: The Forge World Order

Pict 094: A Bunch of Resin

So here is a picture of all the resin goodness; first still in packaging, second everithing unpacked and ready for a soapy bath. Once everything was scrubbed down with a toothbrush and some dishsoap water, I started building.

Pict 095: Iron Hills Captain and Banner Bearer

Pict 096: Iron Hills Goat Riders

At first I straggled a bit with the Iron Hills Command pack. While the miniatures are amazing, I had to once again get to grips with my super glue. And once I got to the Goat Riders everything was in full swing. They went together like a dream - almost no moldlines, only a little bit under the hindlegs. I will have to sillin some gaps that cant be avioded but I can't strain enough haw amazing these miniatures are! I really looking forward to getting some paint on them and ger them on the tabletop.

Pict 097: Reptus Skullbreakers (Conversions)

Finally I will have to add three more miniatures onto the pile of miniature bought - I got myself three Reptus Skullbreakers from Reaper and converted them a bit to give a litte variety to weapons. My Dungeons and Dragons party got reinforcements in form of a Dragonborn Warlock. I look forward to test those eldritch powers against my minions!