Aenor Goblins Finished

 

I finally finished the goblins by Aenor Miniatures that have been stuck on my desk forever. I'm pretty pleased with how they came out, and a bit annoyed that the passage of time has meant I forgot a few bits of how I did them, which meant when bits needed fixing due to overpaint, I struggled to get the right colour match.

This does remind me that I really need to work on getting half done bits and pieces finished before I move house. Not just because half finished projects are harder to move and you're more likely to miss things, but the delightful feeling of Just Finishing Things is probably going to be needed for morale purposes in the run up to the move.

I still need to finish up the new Conquest Druids, but the new item for the paint table is this Dwarf from Otherworld Miniatures. She's going to serve duty as a Templar in my Frostgrave warband, so I need to get her painted up before my next game.

A Monstrous Month End

This is going to be a bit of a big post as I finished a couple of things, and I'm going to take a bit of stock at the end of the month. First up, we've got these two gnolls from the Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures line by Wizkids - pre-assembled figures for Dungeons and Dragons.

I decided to paint them following Sonic Sledgehammer's Gnoll Tutorial. I found it pretty useful, but felt that they came out a little too dark for my tastes, so I added an extra drybrush to finish them off.

The Aenor Miniatures Troll that has been a bit of a nemesis for me this month is also finished. I adored the model, but had mentally filed it as a "quick win" when actually it's a complex, detailed sculpt that needed quite a lot of work to finish. I enjoyed it once I reset my expectations, but that mismatch caused me to lose motivation for quite a while.

With the back of the troll, I've gotten nine models finished this month. That's well on the way to getting a hundred done this year, and a good sign.

I didn't quite manage to get everything I bought in December assembled in January, so it's time to put the brakes on purchases until I'm caught up. I do have a few things ordered in the post, but no new purchases for now, unless it's a limited edition thing I'll otherwise miss out on.

A big pile of Otherworld Miniatures that had arrived in January got back from one of my assembly guys - you'll see their "Work in Progress" blog post later this week. I've got a bunch of other stuff assembled too, but most of it isn't undercoated just yet - I'm dependent on the weather there.

So, as well as catching up January's assembly, lets have a look at what I bought in January that I need to get assembled. First up is . . . oof. Blackstone Fortress. I had deep suspicions this was about to go out of production, and I didn't want to pay eBay prices. It was paid for with stuff I sold, but I'm determined this will get out of the box and see play rather than see it sit on a shelf as part of a stash.

With January behind, I think I'm going to get to this last - it'll be a big job, and having stuff I'm "behind" on as well will stress me out. It's also a good reward for getting caught up.

The Limited Edition Malifaux Candy and Kade arrived, to go with the Witches and Woes set I already have. Ordered months ago, but there's always a big lead time on these sort of things. I'll probably also dig out Witches and Woes to assemble alongside them so they're all table ready at once.

I've gotten majorly into Critical Role in lockdown. Although the current in game social tension due to an amazing dramatic stand off means I'm a little behind as it's sometimes a bit too much stress to watch. It meant that the models of the characters were something I asked to get for my birthday. They're pre-assembled, so they just need some basing sand and an undercoat and will be good to go.

Humblewood is an RPG, but it also has some absolutely adorable figures. One of my gaming club painted one up and I just kind of had to get it to put my own spin on it. Again, a birthday present that I'm looking forward to breaking out and getting some paint on.

And finally, a few Reaper Bones Black and Wizkid's primed models that should be some nice simple paints in between the big projects.

Looking forward, I've got plenty to be getting on with. Here's the assorted palette cleanser miniatures I've got next to the painting area to grab and throw some paint on if the mood takes me. I will say I am deeply pleased with the variety of manufacturers and styles here, and hope to get a good few done.

In terms of projects, with that troll out of the way, I'm making the Battlemasters Archers my top priority project. They're someone else's, and I don't want to have held onto them for a year. For my two "on deck" projects, I think the Shasvastii are a certainty - there's tons of new awesome stuff coming out for Infinity and I'm not picking up any of it because I haven't painted more of what I have. Similarly, with the warbands coming out for Underworlds, getting one of my warbands painted seems like a sensible "third project" to have lined up.

Progress with the trolls

I've managed to get the first of the three Aenor Miniatures trolls painted up. There's still two more to go, but the first being finished is a big deal for me.

I'd originally planned to do them as a "little distraction" from my Shasvastii project, but it turns out that there's loads of beautiful detail on them that takes quite a bit of time to sort out. So my plan now is to finish up the two Shasvastii from the Wildfire box before returning to the remaining two trolls.

Also, as is the way of things, I've of course spotted a couple of bits and pieces I'm not quite happy with with how the model has turned out - little mistakes and overpaint that I want to go back and fix. I'm going to put him to one side for now and come back and do those little fixes when I get back to his brothers.

Work in Progress Wednesday: Aenor Miniatures Half Giant

The last of the Aenor Miniatures Kickstarter I got assembled was this half giant. He got done a little after the others as I needed a break from assembling miniatures after getting all the trolls done.

I've given him a zenithal highlight, which has added another type of texture to him, and should provide a good base when I finally get around to painting him.

Work in Progress Wednesday: Aenor Miniatures Goblins

As well as the trolls I picked up during the Aenor Miniatures Kickstarter, I also ordered a whole ton of goblins. While Aenor do both metal and resin, I'd picked metal to go with the rest of my planned goblin army at the time. I've since seen sense and am offloading a lot of goblins, but some of them were just too characterful to go, so I've kept them as a little painting project.

Here's the brains of the outfit - a goblin wizard. He's definitely the brains because he has both a book, and a big fancy stick.

This adorable bell ringer was going to be a musician in my Oldhammer style goblin Age of Sigmar army, before I gave up on the idea. But I had to keep him. He looks so put upon. Unfortunately, the metal chain attaching the bell to the rest of the mini fell off as soon as you sneezed on it. The bell is now firmly pinned to the hand of the goblin, because life is too short.

Goblins are mean little beasts, and these three, I think, really sum up that aspect of them. Sword goblin really looks like he wants to be hiding behind some big orc or something, shaking his fist from behind the big guy. Crossbow goblin is one of the bigger goblins, and has both a fancy crossbow and much bigger armour. He's clearly some sort of bully who isn't afraid to beat up the smaller goblins. And bow goblin is a nasty little sneak who doesn't just want to shoot you from range, but in the back as well.

These two are clearly on guard duty. I think they remind me of some Fighting Fantasy illustrations of goblins, all long and thin, but also massively different creatures one to the next, like Froud's work. They are sad, and bored. And probably a little damp. It's dark and there's a dripping noise around them.

So, that's my little tribe of Aenor goblins. They're in the queue to get painted one day . . .

Work in Progress Wednesday: Aenor Miniatures Trolls

One of the longer-standing items on my "to do" list has been an assortment of models I picked up from the Aenor Miniatures Kickstarter.

I really should have finished these last year and frankly I only got to start assembling them last week.

They're gorgeous miniatures with tons of texture that I think is going to really take well to both Contrast Paints and dry brushing. I played around a little with Games Workshop crackle and texture paints on their basing, and gave them all a skull from the GW Skulls Pack to give a bit of character to the bases, and because I can't find my bag of rocks since the move.

I gave them a black undercoat with a spray can, then caught a few bits that were missed with black brush on undercoat, before giving them a heavy zenithal spray with Wraithbone. I would recommend undercoating these with an airbrush if you have it available, though, as making sure you get the paint into all the nooks and crannies of the model is much easier if you're holding it in your hand and have an airbrush's trigger control.

Still, they're now sitting on the shelf ready for painting, which is a good step forward. If you're tempted to get them yourself, they've been available for sale outside the Kickstarter for absolutely ages.