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.

Myah! (Painting Skeletons)

Well, that was unexpected - I didn't think that I would paint up a batch of old Warhammer skeletons, but here they are! But I also finished up the Morgul Stalkers, a few more Rohan models including Helm Hammerhand and Captain Avantika from Critical Role. After that I started on a bigger scenery project with the blacksmith forge made by Tabletop World and a converted Vampire to fit in with the skeletons.

Pict 869: Skeletons (Detail)

Pict 870: Skeletons

Man, these are some classic miniatures! And I know it's a sacrilege to put them on round bases instead of square ones. I love how chunky they are, but the best thing the Champion who's clearly superior because of the fancy hat! I tried to match my scheme from about three years ago, but I didn't write down the recipe then and the new ones came out a bit lighter. I remedied my mistake this time around and posted the recipe here on the blog. It's really quite simple and the batch didn't take that long.
The eagle-eyed will have noticed that one of these skeletons is not like the others: I also found a single Mantic skelly clawing it's way out of the dirt in my bitsbox and while I was at it, painted it to. I love how it's giving the thumbs up with the right hand but it's quite a bit flimsier than the others.

Pict 871: Morgul Stalkers

After all these creepy undeads, I went right along and finished the creepy orcs from the last post. The Morgul Stalkers came out quite nice and I look forward to seeing them alongside other Mordor Orcs.

Pict 872: Helm Hammerhand and Helmingas Command

Pict 873: Helm Hammerhand and Helmingas Command

I wanted to play Helm in a tournament that had to be postponed. While that's sad, at least I had a bit more time to paint him up. He has several different layers of armour and cloth and I enjoyed taking my time with him. Originally I wanted to give him a white or at least bright cloak to hint at his role of defending the Hornburg against Dunlendings duing the long winter. But simply didn't like the look and wanted to tie him in with the rest of my Rohan a bit more.

The command group of a bannerbearer and the hornblower were painted alongside Helm. While quite a bit older than the model of Helm, they do fit together nicely with the scale mail armour. I'm even tempted to get myself another of the Helmingas command pack to convert the banner and horn onto a horse...

Pict 874: Captain Avantika

Not forgetting to paint more D&D miniatures, I also got around to painting Captain Avantika from Critical Role. In my new years resolutions I wanted to focus on Critical Role miniatures, since up until now, I only painted one mini from the Kickstarter. But for now it's one more from SFG's Vault. At first I was unsure about the colour scheme, but she came out ok if a bit colourful.

Pict 875: Vampire Conversion (WIP)

I had this conversion in my head for a few years now. I had bought some Vargheist wing bits to convert myself some Tyranid Shrikes and apart from the bigger ones there was this small pair. And since I was able to pick up the Vampire lady at the start of january, I finally had all the pieces. It took me a while to decide on the colours, but now that the basecolours are down I hope to finish painting her in the next days.

Pict 876: Tabletop World Blacksmith Forge Bits

Pict 877: Tabletop World Blacksmith Forge (WIP)

And lastly here's a WIP of the next big project. I got myself the beatiful blacksmith forge made by Tabletop World and started with the smaller loose bits and bobs like the anvil and the bellows. I also started to work on the roof, but there is still quite a bit of work to do. And I documented how I painted the different details and how I plan on painting the rest of the model.

Space-Ninja!

Once again I painted more Infinity miniatures – the titular Space-Ninja, Nakadai, as well as Saladin and two old Ghazi Muttawi'ah. Right now I like to paint Haqqislam miniatures when I haven't painted for a while: The colours are established, my technique is established and thus it makes for a good stepping-stone to get back into the swing of things.
After that I also did some work on more D&D miniatures: Trinked from Critcal Role and the halfling Quesnef.

Pict 745: Nakadai vs. Saladin

Pict 746: Nakadai, Mercenary Oniwaban

Pict 747: Nakadai, Mercenary Oniwaban

Ah yeah, space-ninja! I finished painting Nakadai and enjoyed to get into some different colours. Since I based him the same as my other miniatures, he'll fit right in. For now he might be used as Saito Togan before I get my hands on one of Saito's miniatures. But if I managed to shoehorn all of the Outrage miniatures into an army, I just might have to go for that. We'll see what Dashat holds for me.

Pict 748: Trinket

Pict 749: Trinket

And here is Trinket from my last post finished. He was quite a fast paintjob but I very much liked to do the fur via wetblending and washes to deepen the shadows around the sculpt. For the base I went with the same scheme as with my limited Vax'ildan. I intend for the whole Vox Machina and Mighty Nine to match even if the other assorted Critical Role miniatures are on differing ones.

Pict 750: Saladin, Ghazi Muttawi'ah

Pict 751: Saladin, Ghazi Muttawi'ah

I also painted three more miniatures for my Haqqislam. The old Ghazi Muttawi'ah don't quite hold up: the faces are quite stereotypical and maybe even comical. Saladi on the other hand still strikes an imposing figure. I love the flowing cloak and the combination of myrmidon armour (he's a recreation by Aleph after all) and the Hafza shoulder pads.

Pict 752: Quesnef, Halfling Form (WIP)

And after all that I also started to paint the hafling form of Quesnef, a shapechanging Oni. He's from one the first D&D modules: White Plume Mountain and one of the more formidable foes one has to face if one want's the get to the famous sword Blackrazor hidden in that dungeon. I like the characterful sculpt and of course he is wearing a waistcoat – thankfully a green one in the official picutres, in red he'd be to close to the Bilbo from the films...

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?

Finally back in Middle-earth. Painting Rangers

This week I found my way back into Middle-earth with some Rangers of the North that I want to play in a big tournament next month.

Pict 711: Rangers of the North

Pict 712: Rangers of the North

I very much like these miniatures from late in the Lord of the Rings era of the game. But mostly I really enjoyed converting them. Since last I showed them, they sat accusingly on my desk, demanding attention. But since I was distacted by Haqqislam miniatures, they had to wait. In all ernest though, my painting queue is highly influenced by the games I play and now that my dryspell with the Middle-earth SBG is broken, I'm back to painting for it again.

Pict 713: Halbarad on Horse (Conversion)

As I said at the top, I want to play my Rangers in an upcoming tournament and to boost their effectiveness, I want to field Halbarad with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar on horseback. GW never released that particular model, so I had to go chop one up in the name of sience! He's pretty much only stuck together right now and I will have to fill in the gaps with green stuff as the next step.

Pict 714: Halbarad with Banner (WIP)

  And since I'll want a model without the horse in case he looses it, I started painting one. The basecolours are down now and he's waiting for the washes and highlights. I mostly refenced the other Halbarad I already painted but they have somewhat differing armour so that I had to improvise a bit. He seems to have stolen his breastplate from the elves of Lorien but I didn't want him in shiny golden armour and went with lether instead.

Pict 715: Victor

Pict 716: Victor

And lastly, of course, I have one more D&D miniature. This time it's Victor, the somewhat insane blackpowder merchant from campaign one of Critical Role.

Kobolds Attack!

This week, Kobolds attack! I did something good for my tally of painted miniatures and quickly put some paint on these minute monsters.

Pict 693: Kobolds Attack!

Pict 694: Kobolds

Pict 695: Kobolds

These Kobolds are rather cute but I wasn't that happy with the sculpts (Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures by Wizkids). The detail is somewhat washed out and that makes you guess sometimes what a particular detail is. I also didn't bother to paint the three versions of the same sculpts differently. I assume that the individual Kobolds will die fast enough in combat so that it wont matter. Nontheless I'm happy to have them in my arsenal to pester low level characters. I also like the little bright red spot I did on the heads that make them stand out and even cuter.

Pict 696: Female Gnome Fighter, Twiggy

Pict 697: Female Gnome Fighter, Twiggy

After that I finished the two gnomes I had started to balance out the Kobolds in the cosmic scales. Twiggy is a cool miniature, but I'm really in love with the female gnome fighter with the crossbow. Even if she should not be used as a hero, I will use her as a bandint or similar to ambush my heroes.

Pict 698: Goblintown Walkways and Plattform

Since I wanted to have some cool scenery for those Kobolds to ambush the Gnomes in the first picture, I also painted these Goblintown walkways and plattform. I had built and primed them at the tail end of last september and even tough they paint up super fast, they lay about on my todo pile for quite some time now.

Pict 699: Hassassin Fiday, Husam Spec-Ops

Pict 700: Hassassin Fiday, Husam Spec-Ops

I finished this Spec-Ops for a tournament last weekend but he seemed to suffer from new model syndrome and didn't really help me. The Fiday was then painted this last week to prepare myself for the next escalation league I'll be a part of and in which I'll be playing the Hassassin Bahram sectorial.

Pict 701: Victor (WIP)

And lastly here is a quick work in progress of the next Critical Role miniature: the insane blackpowder merchant Victor.

Again with the Haqqislam and D&D

These past weeks did not amount to much hobby time but now after two weeks without a post, I have to show something for myself: I painted some more Haqqislam miniatures as well as something for D&D.

Pict 687: Al Fasid, Djanbazan (Hacker), Ragik, Djanbazan (Conversion), Muyib, Hafza

Pict 688: Al Fasid, Djanbazan (Hacker), Ragik, Djanbazan (Conversion), Muyib, Hafza

With the completing our Infinity escalation campaign I painted some more miniatures, I wanted to try out in the last round and some that I just wanted to get some colour on. The old Al Fasid might get used as a Nahab with Boarding Shotgun until they release miniatures for them. The two Djanbazan might have to stand in as one with an HMG until I get myself the fitting miniaure - the profile is just to good in combination with the amount of smoke the rest of my lists can put out.

Pict 689: Kern, Orly

Pict 690: Kern, Orly

After my Critical Role Kickstarter miniatures arrived (more of them in the coming weeks!), I went ahead with these two resin Critical Role miniatures. Orly was quite fun since I got to look at lots of turtles for reference. Since Kern is a half-orc, I used the colourscheme that they established with Fjord. I like the two tones even if I don't really subscribe to green orcs in my D&D settings.

Pict 691: Haqqislam (WIP)

And here are even more Haqqislam miniatures that I started. The Fiday simply has to get some paint, becaus I have that one friend againt whom my old Fiday never managed to do something relevant. With the new miniature painted, I hope to remedy that!

Pict 692: Twiggy, female Gnome Fighter (WIP)

And to add to my growing pile of WIP miniatures, here are some more figures I want to use while playing D&D. Twiggy is again from Critical Role while the female gnome fighter is made by Otherworld Miniatures who really have a great selection of adventurers and monsters.

More Critical Role Miniatures and New Projects

These past two weeks were I didn't have that much time for the hobby. I however managed to paint two more miniatures from Steamforged Games' line of Critical Role miniatures. After that I started the work on some more stuff for my Haqqislam and while that was going on, my Made-To-Order models from the latest batch of Middle-earth miniatures arrived and I got to building.

Pict 679: Calianna, Kashaw

Pict 680: Calianna, Kashaw

Here are the two miniatures I finished: Calianna of whom I showed a work in progress in my last post and Kashaw, the next one down the line in my set of Critical Role miniatures. I liked putting in the pink bows in Calianna's hair to contrast the greens and browns of her clothing, but I'm not that happy with how her skin turned out. My Pallid Wych Flesh seems to have very big chunks of pigment in it so that the skin doesn't look as smooth as it could. With Kashaw, I liked the bronze armour - I find mixing different metallics together great fun to get a somewhat tarnished look.

Pict 681: Ragik, Muyib, Al Fasid, Djanbazan Hacker, Djanbazan, Hafza (WIP)

Here is the next leg in my Haqqislam journey. These six I wanted to paint because, I liked the models not since I'll be using them in an upcoming game. I managed to put down the basecolours and washes rather quickly and without getting overwhelmed by the sameness. I hope to finish them up during the next week and the getting on with other stuff again.

Pict 682: Rangers of the North (Conversion)

And lastly here are some Ranges of the North, that I ordered via GW's Made-To-Otder programm. I really like the opportunity to get some models I didn't get the first time they were around. And since I didn't pay an arm and a leg for them on eBay, I can justify to convert them a bit to make six unique poses. I especially like the fourth guy in the row - after removing the spear I gave him the sword of a Rohan Warrior while the left arm is a leftover from a Lindir-conversion.