King gets a Kingpin

Don't ya just love ordering a bunch of minis online, then losing your job the next day?  Yep.

Oh well.  I am getting used to bad things happening.  It's really toughened me up. I am like a honeybadger.  A big, dykey honeybadger.  In a ninja gi.  Probably with an eighties film gang member headband.  I am now so tough, I could be a backing dancer in Michael Jackson's Bad.  Scary.

The good news is that now I have time for Darkling Games and my Kingsminis video channel.  I am back at The Arcade and things are looking great.  One day a week is full time on Darkling minis orders, sculpts and kickstarters, one day is dedicated to Kings minis TV and it's Patreon rewards- including Skulldred and Stardred betas.  The rest of the week will be focused on video games asset creation and commissions.  I officially open for business next monday.

Sooo aaanyway...

Heroclix.  Got some.  Mainly for my inner ten year old who was so dissapointed by Iron Fist I needed to give her a decent Marvel fix.

First things first, off with those huge pointless bases.  Shazam!

A butter knife is a great way to pop these off.  A katana, not so much.  Good god they hold katanas badly in Iron Fist.  *sigh*

As you can viddy, my droogs- Kingpin got himself some security. Well, they are actually gonna be backup for the two IMEF minis from PAXAus.  They will probably spend most of their table time blasting the brains out of walking dead and project Z zombies.  I have to convert them, I hate fielding identical minis.

Heroclix have some pretty cool sculpts, but as I am not a huge comic nerd I tend to only know the characters from my teen years- and that means Secret Wars I era.  Most clix are... mmmmm less than ideal for repainting. The clix game itself holds no interest for me either, but the challenge of making a prepaint look good?  Well, that I can get behind.  I have buckets of DnD, Horrorclix and Starwars prepaints in my lock up, so you will no doubt see me tackle them at some point.

I think I am gonna recast this JJ in the role of a cthulu character.  He looks particularly at home with these new Wizkids' Blink Dogs.  $7 for two blink dogs?  Hell yeah.

Yes, I buy all the dog miniatures.  All of them.  Frikkin' Wyrd know this.  Next time I have M£N€¥$, I have to catch up on my Malifaux undead dog collection.  Giant undead dog with a gut full of rats?  Yes please.  So yes.

I don't know what's wrong with me either.

Doc Ock is my favourite.  A touchy feely Roy Orbison in pajamas?  Sold!

Venom?  Looks like he belongs at a KISS concert.  Or roadkill.  I dunno.  I will figure out what to do with him later.

Look, I will be honest with ya... I got the set for Ock, JJ and Kingpin.  The Spidey looks like he is soooo bored, and it is rubbing off on... er... Gobbey... Greenie?  Whatever.  When I think Spiderman, I think dynamic mid swing or crouching.  This one looks like he is handing a bus ticket to an inspector.

I wonder who will get the Marvel license after Knight?  Kinda hoping Mantic after their Walking Dead triumph.  I would snap up some of their figures but... well, snap is the optimal word for their products (yes I am still pissed about my Harley mini snapping at the stupidly thin ankles) and I can't justify $25 for one  Racoon when I can get a box of 25 zombies for $50.

Welp, gonna love painting these up.  Just need my paints back from my former work.

Bones Progress

This is my haul from working on the Reaper booth at PAX 2016.  I actually have quite a bit of progress done, and as I mentioned earlier, I want to get these done before I get my collection back.  Which, by the way, is likely to be in the next month with my new job I started yesterday.  Woot!

First off the bat was my victorious Pathfinder rogue and a Paint and Take Dwarf.

Orcus has been glued and filled.  I think he deserves a better base later on, but I don't want to put him on hold for that.

I have pushed most of the others forward, but nothing complete yet.  Stone Golem is closest.  I may do something a bit fancier with him.

The one that is really concerning me is the spider woman. Her legs aren't the best for basing, and I suspect I will heat bend them and replace one or two with wire and putty for strength. That is making me put the project off.  Boo.

Anyhoo, next on the table is some sculpting commissions, then I press on with these babies until they are done.

What you working on?

Buggering about with Bugbears

Here is a work in progress of my Reaper Bone's bugbear leader.  About three quarters done methinks.  How do I know he is a leader?  Because he is pointing.  It's a fantasy wargaming trope.

It's amazing the difference good lights can make to your work.  The first bugbear I painted at ther start of this year is dreadful in comparison.  He shall be repainted to match.  I have four of the Reaper bearbuggerers, originally purchased for my Arcade Demo of Skulldred.  Feeling virtuous by finishing them up.

So I figured out what I am doing with that uninspiring troll mini I purchased on a whim.  He is now gonna be a dire bugbear.  Shhhh they exist in my world.

So I started layering up the fur.  I will drill and pin some ears onto him once that is dry.  The trick to good fur is lube.  I use vasolene but KY jelly will work nicely too.  Apparently nose or forehead skin oils work too, according to Kev White.  I remain... strangely grossed out by that.

Apply the putty firmly and smooth it in, then shape it to give it the right general bulk.  Once that is good, grease it up like Groundskeeper Willie.  Drag your tool in downward wiggly strokes, tugging upwards slightly to create each layer.

Hey, I shall do a video tute about it soon (nudge nudge wink wink).

See previous post about VIDEO TUTES!

Reaper Haul Progress

My friend Esther invited me around her pad for a painting session, and I got cranking on my Reaper Bones haul from PAXaus whilst she tortured me by playing Ouran High School Host's Club.  Just... don't ask, you don't want to go down that rabbit hole.

  My goal was to knock out table quality minis for an upcoming Pathfinder game so my elf rogue Ehzarelle took priority.  A few figures came along for the ride.

For me, table ready means 'looks okay from three feet'- which lends itself to exaggeration and bright, crisp edging and bold colors.

I painted Ehzarelle's skin tone more Drowish because in my mind elves are fae creatures and can be weird colors.  The gnarled tree on her base is naught but twisted tissue paper set with superglue and a little scatter.  Great for roots and fallen tree details.  The stale water on her base will be given a coat of modge podge to make it really glossy.

The dwarf and guard are also first pass.  They, along with the lizard man where all free 'paint and take' minis.  Woot for the loot!

When doing table ready, focus on 'good enough' rather than obsessing.  Hold the model at arms length every few minutes to check your work.

For quick game ready models I suggest painting all the flat colors before shading- it means you can hit the model with brown washes that work on belts, metal, padding, skin, fabric and so forth in one go.  A few black washes in eye sockets, armor and around joints can help.  If you are shit at picking out edges- go the other way, start painting the part the highlight color then shade down the middle of the parts- leaving the edges bare.  Far easier.

That's it from me tonight folks.  I have a lot of minis to catch up on.  Should be a productive few weeks.

Senpai notice me!

Bones

Over the last few days I have been rebuilding two cheap Skulldred warbands  using Reaper Bones for playtesting and diagram photos to replace those lost.  You may remember the bugbears I bought for therapy, the pillar to remind me of your support etc?  Well those have been joined by a six pack of goblins, a sodding great ogre, some tiik fishmen and a sea hag.  I have been speed painting them to tabletop standard, and it has been lovely to get back on that horse.

As for rules, I have recovered a Skulldred beta 4 PDF version from an email (it is actually one I sent to Ken St.Andre to review) and am currently porting it back across to open office ready to rebuild.

The nice thing about Bones is that they are durable and heavier than GW plastics on larger monsters.  I worry about snapping my GW giant, but a Reaper one?  I could drop kick that bitch across the room and it would be fine.  Anyone in its path probably wouldn't be.

My friend Rhiannon capped off the warband today by gifting me this bad boy for the size 5 category monsters.

It is freaking huge!  

I do love a good undead dragon, since I first battled The Dracoliche in Pillars of Pentagarn.  I have a couple of great lead ones, but was always loathe to play with them as they are a tad fragile.  This one is dropkickable too.

I am dead impressed by it so far.  Cannot wait to see it in action!