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.

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.

More D&D Monsters and Adventurous Hobbits

Riding the wave of D&D miniatures, I finished some more monsters for my menagerie: one Diablo II Goat Demon and two Displacer Beasts by WizKids. I also got started on the four Hobbits in Balin's tomb.

Pict 461: D&D Monsters

Pict 462: Goat Demon

Pict 463: Goat Demon

Pict 464: Goat Demon

I wanted this Goat Demon to be different from the Beastmen I have and thus opted for black fur. I'm rather happy with the contrast between these dark areas and the lighter skin. The demon is part of the same set of Diablo II monsters as the skeleton I painted in march. The complete set consists of only four more, so maybe I'll try and complete it within the next few weeks?

Pict 465: Displacer Beast

These two were rather quick to paint since the main area is simply black, highlighted with a very dark blue-gray. The casts themselves are ok, but you could improve them by smoothing out the seams where different parst meet - and you do have to clean up quite a few moldlines. But they are alright as gaming pieces and with the paint and bases, they are ready for some action.

Pict 466: Frodo, Sam, Merry, Pippin (WIP)

Lastly I made a start on the Hobbits from the original fellowship for the Balin's tomb display. I have put down the main colours and washes and after they have dried, I hope to get some highlights and details on them today as well.

More Gnolls and Revisiting my New Year's Resolutions

This week's progress consists of two more Gnoll Warriors. I started them when I did the one last week, but then they were not far enough along to warrant a picture. I kept the coulors pretty much the same as before but these miniatures by WizKids do stand out since they are bigger.

Pict 454: Gnoll Warriors

Besides that: With this week, half of the year is over I wanted to take the opportunity to check in on my New Year's resolutions. I know that I didn't get to all and I hope this post will maybe help me to priotise them. At the start of the year I wanted to get to a few of last year's projets: the Tyranids, the Iron Hills Dwarves and the Hunter Orcs.

Pict 455: Tyranids

Pict 456: Iron Hills Dwarves

Pict 457: Hunter Orcs (WIP)

I'll count the Tyranids and the Iron Hills as sucesses, but I'll still have to finish twentyfour Hunter Orcs on foot and five mounted on Fell Wargs. I also still have a whole bunch of Termagants in a box and I'd be happy to get to them in the second part of the year but I don't see them as a necessity.

Pict 458: White Council in Dol Goldur

Pict 459: The Fellowship in Balin's Tomb (WIP)

The dioramas however will have to be finished. The White Council in Dol Guldur was completed at the end of May but Balin's Tomb still looks way to pale. At least I finished Aragorn; but Boromir, Gimli, the Hobbits and the base itself are still left to do.

Pict 460: Hobbit Archers

Lastly I spoke of plans to put together a Battle Company of Hobbits. I'm not sure if I still want to do those now that I completed the Arnor company. I think an evil force might be more interesting... But I guess my fancy will take me to new and different projects anyway.

Dáin has sent for help - and a Chariot and Dwarves with Crossbows answer the call

So this week was another quite productive one. Besides some more stuff for the next DnD adventure, I finished miniatrues for Warhammer 40k and the Middle Earth SBG. And as you read in the title, I put together a chariot and some Crossbow wielding Dwarves for my Iron Hills Army.

Pict 226:  Iron Hills Chariot (WIP)

Pict 227: Iron Hills Dwarves with Crossbows (WIP)

First up I have to show the new Dwarves. The Chariot is a dream of a model - it looks amazing and goes together quite nicely; only the goat's horns don't connect that good and there was a gap to fill on all of the goat's brows. Even though I usually don't like to do so, I kept the Chariot in subassemblies to be able to get to all the surfaces. I'm going to use the Captain as the driver and the normal dwarf driver will be used as additional Crew for the Ballista.
The Dwarves carrying crossbows are really great as well. I like the underslung design of the Crossbows and the size of the bolts alone should be enough to take out some Orcs.

Pict 228: Gargoyles

Pict 229: Gargoyles

Pict 230: Fell Wargs

Wednesday afternoon, a friend came over to paint and I used this time to finish up two Gargoyles for my DnD collection. Since they were finished ratehr fast, I also continued work on the Azog's Hunters Army with six Fell Wargs.

Pict 231: Tyranid Ravenors

Pict 232: Tyranid Ravenors

After the Wargs were done, I had a fit of nostagia and painted up two Tyranid Ravenors. The Tyranids were my first Warhammer 40k army and my colourscheme has changed quite a bit over the years, but I kept them in line with the Kraken Scheme the main part of my army is painted righ now. The scheme borrows heavily from the main scheme of the 3rd edtion Tyranid Codex but I use less red. Since I only have the two of them right now, I will have to use them as a unit under strength in 40k, but they will also serve as Ankhegs in DnD.

The Poxwalkers done and finally some more DnD

With the Poxwalkers and more done, this week was quite good for the tally. Besides the progress with the Death Guard I finished up some Dungeons and Dragons miniatures for a game on friday.

Pict 218: Poxwalkers

First up are the remaining 18 Poxwalkers from the Dark Imperium box, halve of which are converted for mor variety. I went for bright colours with the oranges, greens and blues. Other than that the main work was done with different washes.

Pict: 219 Bugbear

Pict 220: Bugbear

Pict 221: Hellhounds

Pict 222: Hellhound

Next up are three more miniatures for DnD. The bugbear stood on my paintingtable for months only waiting for the final highlights. Thus he finished up pretty fast and I was then able to get to work on two Hellhounds. They come in a clear plastic, but I decided to just spray them white and then lay down progressivly darker tones from yellow to dark red.

Pict 223: Foetid Bloat-Drone (WIP)

Pict 224: Foetid Bloat-Drone(WIP)

Pict 225: Death Guard (WIP)

Lastly here are some miniatures I worked on during this last week. The Bloat-Drone is really getting there - only the highlights are missing. The Lord of Contagion and the Plaguecaster have their basecoats (almost) done and are awaiting the washes, while the Plaguemarines are only now getting the first layer of white armour.

With 21 miniatures added to the tally of painted models, I already painted more miniatures than I painted in 2015, so there's a first goal achived. I didn't finish up the Hunter Orcs in time for the tournament last weekend, but they performed well nonetheless. Right now they are rowed up on my table again...

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...

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!