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.

The Butterfly's Tally 2017

This post will be a longer one than the usual sunday's post as I'll be looking at not only what I got done this week but the entire year

Pict 318: Board of Miniatures

Pict 319: Board of Miniatures

As you can see with a glance at the tags on the right side of this text, 2017 was rather producitve. The focus of my painting was with the Middle Earth SBG, painting an army of Iron Hills Dwarves, one of Rivendell and getting a good start with the Hunter Orcs. Other than those, I also painted a few more Heroes and a host of Rohan Warriors.

Pict 320: Board of Miniatures

But I didn't paint stuff for the SBG alone - I also (re)painted some of my Asrai. But I added way more to that list early on in the year by having bought a lot of earlier edition Woodelves.
As you can see in the first picture of this post, the fantasy department of my miniatures grew with a few miniatures intended for D&D. Sadly I did't get to use them all, but it's nice to have them when preparing the adventures.

Pict 321: Zoanthropes

Pict 322: Zoanthropes

Pict 323: Tyrant Guard

Pict 324: Tyrant Guard

Pict 325: Sporemines

I also made progress with my Warhammer 40k backlog (especially with the Tyranid painting spree of the last few weeks). But I also painted a Chaplain Dreadnought for my Flesh Tearers and a whole army of Death Guard. As you can see, this week I added two Zoanthropes, a Tyrant Guard and some Sporemines and with that my total tally of painted miniatures is 317. I'm happy with that number even tough it's not quite a mini a day. But it is a new record for me!
Comparing this tally to 2016's - the ratio of painted miniatures to the ones I bought is better, but I didn't manage to paint more than buying. That means I'll have to do better next year - one resolution sorted! Other than that, I want to try and reduce the backlog of miniatures not only by painting them but also by selling projects that will never get done. I hope to be able to take inventory during the first week of the year, but we'll see how much time I'll have.

Pict 326: Tyranids (WIP)

Pict 327: The White Council at Dol Guldur (WIP)

These work in progress pictures will be the first things I'll paint in 2018: I do want to get some more Tyranids done to advance this project a bit. After that I do want to mop up some of this years projects, namely the Iron Hills Dwarfes (with the chariot and the crossbows) and the Hunter Orcs (including Hunter Orcs, Hunter Orcs on Fell Wargs and the Keeper of the Dungeons). Staying in Middle Earth I want to finish up the Balin's Tomb diorama of the Fellowship and a diorama of the White Council in Dol Guldur. And since GW released the Battle Companies book for the Middle Earth SBG I'm planning a Shire force as well - this will be a colourfull and well converted band to take on the challanges of The Quest to Fornost. Once the evil campaign is published in White Dwarf, I'll have to take another look at the evil companies and get to work on one of those as well.

Itsy Bitsy (Phase) Spider

I started this week's paiting of with the last Goat Rider and then I focused (again) on more DnD monsters. Other than that I painted one more Schicksalspfade miniature and started work on so many projects that I had to take a step back, pack a few things back into their respective boxes and focus.

Pict 160: Phase Spider

Pict 161: Phase Spider

Pict 162: Phase Spider

Pict 163: Phase Spider

Pict 164: Bugbear

Pict 165: Bugbear

First are the mentioned monsters. The four pictures of the spiders show two Phase Sipders made by WizKids in their Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line. As with the other miniatures from that line I painted during the last weeks there were some mold lines, but they were not that bad this time around - only the legs had to be scraped. Since the two spiders had the same pose, I cut one from the stoneslab they are sitting on and got her a nice log to drag around. The bugbear painted up rather nicely. I really enjoy the details in the face and am looking forward to painting the other bugbear (it's already in my table...).

Pict 166: Knight from Weiden

Pict 167: Knight from Weiden

Next up is the Schicksalspfade miniature I painted this week. The fully armoured Knight ment a lot of metals and thus he painted up rather quickly (no skin to paint!). I do look forward to getting to play the game sometime - I ordered some more miniatures to complete two warbands of six models and have four mercenaries to change up the lists a bit.

Pict 168: Iron Hills Goat Riders

And lastly here is the group shot of the Goat Riders I promised last week. Now that they are done the only Iron Hills Dwarfs missing right now are the dismounts and the banner bearer and they are coming along nicely! With the amazing chariot up for preorder this week the list of dwarfs that want to get painted might expand in the near future...

Focusing on Schicksalspfade but the Goats are not forgotten

So last week I didn't post an update since nothing really was done. Fortunately this week I got back into the swing of things and managed to paint quite a bit for the game Schicksalspfade. Other than that I finished three goats and with that only one Goatrider is missing the goat.

Pict 154: Garethian Explorer

Pict 155: Nostrian Mercenary

First up are the two heroes I painted or Schicksalspfade. The first one is an explorer from the realm of Gareth, the second a mercenary from the small kingdom of Nostria. I might still change a little bit with the explorer because right now there is almost no blue (the faction's colour) on him. Btu this way he looks good on any DnD table too. The mercenary was a joy to paint - her face really came out great!

Pict 156: Schicksalspfade Doors

Pict 157: Schicksalspfade Objective Markers

Secondly here are some more pieces for Schicksalspfade. The first picture are the doors that I showed some time ago as WIPs - they are now done, waiting to spruce up some dungeons. The objective markers are really nice as well. They are a bit more varied than I normally have them with Warhammer or the Hobbit SBG. The only nuissance was the gold colour on the coins. I hadn't used it in a while and thus the pigment and the medium had separated quite well...

Pict 158: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Pict 159: Iron Hills Goat Rider

And here is one of the finished Goatriders. Nothing really more to say on them - they are still amazing miniatures and I very much look forward to finishing the army. As soon as the army is complete I will make some nice pictures of the army but before that I will show the Goat Riders once they are all completet.

Finally: I bought a Behir do counter all the planned dragons in DnD. But since it is not yet fully assembled I wont show it just yet.

A Dwarf, Monsters, Animals and Schicksalspfade

This week was quite sucessfull with over ten miniatures painted or repainted. The main focus was the session of DnD I hosted on the saturday.

Pict 148: Male Dwarf Fighter (Barbarian)

Pict 149: Male Dwarf Fighter (Barbarian)

First up is a miniatrue for one of the heroes. One of my friends decided he wanted to play a dwarf barbarian and so I was on the lookout for a fitting miniature (Gimli as a stand-in is cool but not quite the same...). I imideatly liked the dwarven fighter by WizKids and with the agressive pose and the fur on his back he would be make for a nice barbarian. The moldlines were not as bad on this miniature as on some others in the WizKids unpainted line. The highlights on the blue cloth seem a bit harsh on the picture - in person they are more suttle.

Pict 150: Grells (Ral Partha) and Batswarm (Armalion)

Pict 151: Blood Hawk, Frog, Badger, Fox and Bat

Next up are some monsters and some animals I painted for the game. The monsters (two Grells by Ral Partha and a Batswam by Armalion) have not yet been pittet against the heroes. And the animals (a Blood Hawk from a Woodelf, a frog from the 5th edition Morgiana and the badger, fox and bat from WizKids) were also not needed, because the druid of the party is still learning the ropes and not quite ready to transform. Nonetheless now there are more options! The batswarm is mounted on a 40mm base, so that I can use him with my Moria Goblins in games of Middle Earth SBG.

Pict 152: Schicksalspfade Heroes

Pict 153: Schicksalspfade Heroes

And lastly I present you with four heroes for the game Schicksalspfade. I use them as heroes in the DnD game since I painted them some time ago when Schicksalspfade was released. I decided to rework them - new resinbase, eyes and better shading - now that they are in use. Getting the miniatures of their original bases was quite hard with the ones that have robes to the ground, beacuse the miniatures have a large bit of metal to keep them upright without pinning. I bought pretty much all of the rules availiable for Schicksalspfade and I hope to use the miniatures for their intended game once the opportunity strikes!

There's progress with the Iron Hills and even more DnD

This week was not as productive as the last few, but I did make some progress with the Iron Hills Goat Riders.

Pict 136: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Pict 137: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Pict 138: Iron Hills Goat Rider

Firstly I'm showing the first completet Iron Hills Goat Rider. I have to say I love these miniatures! Everything is clearly defined and paints up really nicely. I only struggled with the horns because they took so many layers of paint from so many angles to get them where I was happy with them. I'm pleased how he came out overall and look forward to having six painted up and on the table.

Pict 139: Woodelf Sprites (Pixies)

Next up are two more of the Woodelf Sprites that are on my desk right now. As before, they will be used as AoS markers and will double as Pixies for DnD.

Pict 140: Iron Hills Goat Riders (WIP)

And here are the remaining five Goat Riders that I'm working on at the moment. The basecoats and washes are down, so I hope to finish them quickly. Not only because I need them painted on the coming sunday, but also to finish this part of the army. What's still missing then are the dismounts and the Warrior with the banner. Right now I don't think I'll be adding to the army but that might change as more options for the Warriors and more heroes are released.

Pict 141: Schicksalspfade Doors and Markers (WIP)

Pict 142: Crates

The last pictures show the second half of the Dungeons and Dragons order for this month. The pieces that were originally produced for the game Schicksalspfade will mostly get used for DnD but I might give the game a try since I do have two little gangs. I never got around to reading the rules and thus never played the game. As you can see I already started painting the doors - every time a layer of paint was drying on the Goats, I quickly blocked in some colours here.

Pict 143: Wizkids Unpainted

And lastly, here are some more DnD miniatures. I was really intrigued by the rather new Wizkids Unpainted range and decided to give them a try. Having recieved the miniatures, I do have to say the sculpts are good but there are very nasty moldlines, that will have to be removed and some gaps that will have to be filled before I can actually start to paint. The coat of Vallejo primer looks like a good base to work from and I'll probably wont prime over that. I still wait on some GW bases for the Displacer Beasts and the Phase Spiders. But I do look forward to start painting some more minions.