Isengard Reinforcements

This is more a catch up post now I've some photography space set - these were actually painted at the start of the year. 

After the fiddly elves I thought I'd go for something a bit swift and easy, so quick painted a group of Mordor Orcs and Trolls for my (slow grow) Isangard army.

Little High Elves

Following on from filling the lack of 15mm Goblin miniatures space in my collection I went to do the same for my High Elves

Little Goblins

 

A quick and fun bit of painting - the Ral Partha\Demonworld\Blighthaven pack of 15mm "Goblin Rabble". A bit smaller than the usual Demonworld sculpts, as you would expect, but very characterful indeed.

I experimented with the usually overly strong GW "Orc flesh" Contrast paint by mixing it with Contrast medium (after a light tone wash). The weakened contrast paint was excellent and I'll be trying it again with some of the other super-saturated colours in the future.

Rusty Robots

 

The release of "Reign in Iron" by Snarling Badger games (solo Demons vs Robots gaming) had me reaching into the neglected miniatures drawer to pull out my old Warmachine Cryx Warjacks - ideal for battles against hordes from Hell I thought.

15mm Dungeon Inhabitants

 

I've been thinking about re-starting (after one adventure) my dungeon delving, but in 15mm this time. I needed a few more figures painted though so have been putting paint brush to (small) metal & resin to populate the dank hallways.

Small Amounts of Chaos.

 A wee respite from the Sci-Fi miniatures on the table at the moment.

First model is a kit bashed mutated dwarf I picked up on Ebay years ago and has been sitting around half painted for nearly as long. It's not the most sophisticated customisation ever but fits nicely with my mutant options of my slow-build Chaos Warband.

The other two figures are from Ral Partha Europe. One is from their Chaos Dwarf line-up and the other is a Chaos Knight from a limited "Oktoberfest" release last year. Once started the RPE miniatures rattle off nicely as they are unfussy sculpts and I have an established paint scheme for them, so expect another couple "soon".

Another Horror From The Stars

 

This mystery figure has been hiding for years.

Arachnophilia

 

Another strange large miniature from the collection to oppose the human forces in Majestic 13 - an RAFM Call of Cthulhu Spider of Leng. It even comes with it's own baby spider (I'll hold off calling to cute!).

Prime Winged Xenos

 

A quick new Xenos Terror paint up for Majestic 13 - one of the new Games Workshop Winged Prime Tyranids. I knew I wanted this fiend to be dark, and once constructed there was something about his wings that reminded me of Jeepers Creepers (although the wings are different) - so brown it had to be. Mainly a combination of Contrast paints over Zenithal/Dry brushed highlights. It's pretty effective for a single nightmare. The carapace and claws have a coat (of variating) Balthasar Gold to give a sharp metallic feel without loosing the brown-ness.

Could easily fit into a fantasy, sci-fi, or horror game - perfect really!

A couple of Frostgrave chums

 

Out of the blue, a couple of Frostgrave figures. These two are a result of my unfocused collection. I quite often have a couple of primed figures that sit at the edge of the paint mat. They are usual general squad figures with no fixed project and when I have some spare paint on my palette they get some of it. When they reach a certain level an evening is spent finishing them off. It lends it self to a colour scheme that doesn't match up to anything else and also gets a couple more figures painted for very little effort.

The one aim in this case was that I was wanting to have another go at painting a dark skin tone. Here I started with a dark leather base, applied GW Doombull brown mixed with a touch of Miniature Paints Chocolate Brown to highlight, which turned out way too red, so I stippled some Coat D'Arms Hairy Brown on the highlight areas to bring the colour back and it seems to have turned out OK. More saved the situation than cemented a new colour scheme, but all a learning process.

The figures are both Northstar Frostgrave figures. The right hand one is from their sprue boxset that I thought I'd finally have a bash at constructing. The right hand figure is a metal that I received on the Frostgrave Ghost Archipelago Nickstarter. I can't find it one the site now so I'm not sure if it is temporally  out of stock, or discontinued or a Nick Starter exclusive. A witch doctor I may think? I await to be confirmed or corrected....

Demon Shruuf

 

This beauty is all built and painted and I've not even got a part to moan about this time!

Paladin Lady Monique

A single figure painting of Paladin Lady Monique from Heresy Miniatures. After years of painting my faces are still irritatingly hit or miss but fortunately she is looking downwards and on the table it looks fine to me as I'm perfectly happy how the rest of the model has turned out. The armour looks very pure thanks to the excellent Miniature Paints "Blue Steel".

It marks a "dangerous" period as I run down my "Skirmish Supplies" stock after the decision to shut it down. I'm now left sorting through the remaining stock, all of which I like. I need to be strong and not just keep the lot! I failed with this one though as the simple clean pose and modelling just lent itself to a quick paint job - oh well!!

Fiends Reunited

Who doesn't enjoy a quick project? Rules changes in 6th ed. WHFB saw Ghouls go from a rank-and-file unit to a skirmisher formation. With that in mind, I decided to cover both rule sets with different movement trays for them. Not that I play both systems, its nice to just daydream and they look great...

Refurbed: The Black Coach

With my first post on Sam’s blog, I’m going with the Black Coach from the Vampire Counts. I don’t have any “before” pictures as this blog post was an afterthought. Originally, I was just going to replace the base as it was mounted on sturdy artist’s canvas board and it did the job for 25 years. However, as I’m sprucing up my army to a slightly better standard, I wanted the Coach to have the same base and look as the other units. Then I went a bit further and thought I could improve it a bit with more highlights and a repaint of wheels etc. When I lifted it out of the box, it fell apart…. a sign that it must be redone!!!

Orcs Assemble

After my previous Orcs post I looked out all my GW Lord Of The Rings Orcs\Uruk Hai from the project box and assembled two 12 model units. Nominally Light Infantry and  Heavy Infantry in Dragon Rampant terms. Whilst it has taken me longer to finish them than expected this was due to lack of sitting down at the paint desk rather than slow painting rate.

The Trouble with Orcs (Part 9)

 

So Slapchop v2 was dished out on a variety of different figures from my proposed Lord Of The Rings Orc army (notionally for Dragon Rampant).

A few negatives here in that I'd forgotten about the detail casting (or lack of) on these plastics, something I'm sure I've moaned about in the past.

Also, as far as my new found skin formula goes, the amount of skin on display in this army is minimal, so no great revelations there.

To be honest I'm pretty underwhelmed by the results here. The palette is very subdued and samey with no real eye catching detail. They do fit the feel of them in the movie though and are also only going to be used en- masse and not as individuals, which as a saving grace. They are also super fast to paint up with this method!

I think I'll paint up a unit (12 figures) of at least one type and see how they look and how long they take.

The Trouble with Orcs (Part 8)

I've been seeing a load of Youtube videos on the latest fast painting trend going under the name "Slapchop" or more specifically "Slapchop v2" as demonstrated by Ninjon. Basically prime black, grey zenithal and heavy white dry brush before using translucent (or in most cases Contrast) paints.

D&D Rogue Repaint

 

I've been making extremely slow roads into setting up a campaign of "Five Leagues to the Borderlands". I have created my starting group of adventurers and so launched into my collection (painted and unpainted) to find appropriate figures. An archer a rangers cloak was called for. This Old D&D pre-paint seemed to fit the bill but obviously needed a bit of TLC. Glad to find there was a nice figure behind the original paint. There must have been a sculptor somewhere weeping at what became of his work!

Dwarf Specialists

 

A couple of more specialist figures now, both from the Ganesha Games ranges (produced by Alternative Armies). Advanced Song of Blades and Heroes has a specific "ball and chain" weapon rule giving an extended attack radius, which the left hand figure perfectly represents. The other figure is obviously a thief, and a great looking figure he is too!

Two More Dwarf Troops

 Two more standard troops. One may be a guard, actually. He's certainly leaning on his spear enough to have been standing watch for a few hours! An old Harlequin figure.

I really should have done something with the mould line on the right hand figure, but oh well, maybe next time.