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?

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...

The Rangers of the North are ready for War

These past two weeks I managed to finish the last few miniatures I needed for the armies I'm going to bring to the national Middle-earth SBG championship this coming weekend. I also painted some more miniatures for the Hassassin Sectorial of my Haqqislam army.

Pict 717: Rangers of the North Army

Pict 718: Hunter Orc Army

Here are the two armies I decided upon for this coming weekend: the Dúnedain led by Aragorn and Halbarad, both on horseback, Halbarad with the Banner of Arwen Evenstar. I really like how they all look together as a group an look forward to getting to shoot some evil-doers.
The evil army again is a variation on the hunter orc theme - Bolg, Fimbul, Yazneg and Narzug leading a host of two attack orcs on foot. Only thing I'm missing is a banner and maybe a hornblower. I missed the latter during a game trying them out against Mirkwoodelves lead by Thranduil, who made them all terrifying. The orcs have such a low morale that I wasn't able to charge into batte and had to get picked apart one by one...

Pict 719: Halbarad (Banner, Horse)

Pict 720: Halbarad (Banner, Horse)

This guy really came together nicely. The banner looks very much imposing (I don't quite kow how he can manage to stay atop his horse with any wind, but never mind that). And with him done I now have paited all the miniatures I own for the Rangers of the North armylist and I look forward to using him in some games!

Pict 721: Arnor Bannerbearer and Captain

Pict 722: Arnor Bannerbearer and Captain

Whilst paiting Halbarad on foot, I also managed to finish these two models that were missing for my Arnor force. Since I primarily built them for Battle Companies it's not really a force, but nevertheless these two will now bolster my ranks. I had started to paint them when I painted the Rangers of the North but didn't finish them until now. It's always a good feeling to

Pict 723: Hassassin Fiday, Hassassin Muyib

And here are some more Hassassin miniatures – I decided upon this sectorial for the secod escalation league I'm part of. I somehow managed to win both of my first games and now find myself on top of the table. That pits me against the two best players in the league and I'm sure after that I'll find myself back at the lower end of the table again. The Muyib with Spitfire already did some amazing work while the Fiday pretty much only let herself shot in the back by Senor Massacre who had picked up a Multi Sniper from a panoply.

Pict 724: Ghulam Infantry (WIP)

Lastly a quick WIP of some more Haqqislam miniatures. The Ghulam with Panzerfaust will likely be used as a Daylami with the same loadout to destroy some high armoured targets. The other Ghulam will be a gift to my friend who is organising the league as a birthday present – he wanted to get some linetroops of every army to use as impersonation markers with his aliens and that to me sounded like a great idea!

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.

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.