Dungeoning misc

 New plot twist! Today it's turn for some good old fashioned fantasy!

Not really much to tell. I was trying to tidy up my boxes of forgotten miniatures and found a little bunch of models not really related to any ongoing project, but that I got just for the sake of painting them.

The first one is this Skeletal Knight from DieHard Miniatures. I got this one as an add-on in a kickstarter campaign, it was simply too good to let it go:

I may look a little bit skinny, but I'm in shape

I tried a lousy attempt of painting a peacock feather, but let's say I may need further attempts.

Oh, yes, the shield totally stopped those arrows. Completely

I also got this Herald Boy in the same campaign as a freebie:

Tooot!

I tried to decide what to do with this one for a long time, as it's more a NPC than any other thing. At some point I even toyed with the idea of 40K-ing the mini, but never truly made my mind up.

In the end I painted the kid as this adventurer's herald:

Yes, I painted that horrendous livery twice

Pleasantly more discrete on the back

This one comes from the now extint ranges by Red Box Games, which now operate with a much more limited catalogue.

This other one is also from the same ranges:

Totally not Green Lantern

Well, maybe Green Lantern in disguise

The last one is a mini a friend gave me, it's this warrior monk from MOM Miniatures:

Not resembling any known fantasy universe

The truth is that I don't have any specific use for these nowadays, but I really wanted to paint them anyway. I'll for sure play Rangers of Shadow Deep or whatever at some point in the future, so it will be good to have a few options on the shelf!

Unfortunate encounter on the marshes!

These all look suitable for some dungeon games, I may have to look into it...

Eru-Kin

 This was supposed to be a quick side project, a palette cleanser I could handle in a week or so, two weeks top. Then life got in the middle and here I am, just a month later. Ouch.

All these were part of a kickstarter campaign by Diehard Miniatures, too many years ago. I've been postponing them for too long, but I finally managed to put them on the bench. This Space Lizards have of course nothing to do with Slanns in Space and it's of course far from my thoughts to establish any relation between these concepts or Rogue Trader setting or whatever. No, seriously, they are enormously cool by themselves, I'll let you judge.

Jules and Vincent

My first move was priming them white and keeping the bodysuits and armour like really white. Then I painted the common elements, such as straps, skulls, clothes and so.

I was avoiding to paint the skin for no particular reason, but in the end I think it's due to my previous work on World of Twilight stuff. That project purposedly involves bright skin and eye-harming patterns, but this didn't need to be like that, I could use some gaudy colours, sure, but some earthy tones as well. So I did both.

I should have added an epilepsy warning

The models are enormously satisfying. They have an old school aura that makes them quite appealing to me.

What's not to love about this guy?

He looks like he's gonna enjoy kicking your butt with this

I had some dilemma bout the eyes. Making them just black (as the pic above) looked good, they were quite menacing, but in the end I tried more lizard-y eyes.

I found that this tone of green suits every other colour I used on the skins

I wanted (I really wanted) to paint some glyphs or Slann-like decorations on the clothes, armour and weapons, but my poor eyes and my poor pulse voted against it, so I just settled for some very simple geometric patterns. I fear that MidLifeCrisis.exe may be on the edge of trying to install itself on the system, but I still resist. The ophtalmologist just refused to put some glasses on me last week, saying it still wasn't worth of it, but I'm afraid I'm beginning to find it hard to paint some details on the minis. The good part of it is that I can put the blame on that, instead of poor painting skills!

OK, enough ranting, let's go for the finished guys:

Tech-Mage

Warrior leader

With a fabulous feathered shield

Yet carrying a gun, just in case

Another more tech-looking leader

With essentially the same shield, without feathers

Mag-gun wariors

Still no idea of what profiles I'll use for them or their weapons

I still have some concerns about the palette. I think I may have been bewildered by my idea of painting them in immaculate white, both bodysuit and helmets. I feel like the minis would have benefited of some more colour variation between both. I painted the weapons in bone/beige to provide more colour, but I still have some doubts about making them all so white. Anyway, that's the way they are now, so I have to move on.

Colour! More colour!

No matter how much they run, I still have the same feelings

Finally, the Mag-staff guys

I tried to make them look specially uniformed

Which is kind of difficult if people start to came to work with these helmets on

Yet they look professional

I'm using these last four as bodyguards, as they look quite suitable for that. The VIP Very Important Lizards they are scorting are these other gorgeous fellows, one from the Colony87 ranges and the other a conversion from World of Twilight:

Ambassador and Merchant. Or vice versa

So this is how all my Space Lizards (to date) look:

I know, I need a proper backdrop. I have to solve that!

I hope I can resume my normal hobby rate soon, stay tuned!

Lich Sorcerer

 Another single mini today, but a totally different one!

I got this Lich Lord from a kickstarter campaign by DieHard Miniatures (please go check their web in case you haven't. They have some awesome oldschool-looking miniatures!)

Like this one, for exaple

At first I was unsure of how to paint it. I made a few failed experiments, in fact, but I didn't find what I was looking for. Essentially because I didn't even know what was I looking for!!

All my attempts were mildly old school looking, but it took me some time to realise that I simply wasn't comfortable with the palette I was using. It was too colourful, there were too many colours and they were all too bright. I was making the mistake of confusing old school with colour explosion.

When I came to terms with myself I took a deep breath and simply painted by instinct. I was subconsciously expecting this Lich to look dark, so dark it was. But that doesn't mean grimdark. Well, let me explain with pics:

If I left it this way it would be grimdark

But different variations of the same colour made me feel better

I felt more comfortable this way, using only green. I had been using green, red and blue, and there was not a single combination that worked for me. Once I finally had an idea of where to take the mini, it all was pretty easier.

As an obvious powerful sorcerer of old, his ragged clothes had to look somehow rich, so I improvised some embroidery here and there.

Not too original, but worked for me

I finally thought this was taking me somewhere

I think he's even smiling, feeling fashionable

I think you should see more hues of green than the ones appearing in the pic!

The green lich sorcerer finally looked like this:

Boo!

How on Earth I made the camera focus on the feet but made the face blurry remains a mystery to me. I'm just noticing as I write this post.

Not spectacular, but enough for my skills

 

So let me show him alongside the other Undead character I have:

Undead leadership

Maybe I should start an Undead army?

 

Well, I don't think I'll start a new army anytime soon, but... what is time to such eternal creatures?

 

 

PS: I'm editing the post to provide a scale comparison shot. I'm afraid I'm just using what I have at hand, i.e. a HeroQuest mini, a Bretonnian (so you can see how the Lich stands beside a cavalry unit) and a Space Marine (i.e., the scale of all things warhammer):

Confusing and incoherent pic

It's maybe slightly taller than classic minis, but fits in perfectly, so I'm totally recommending it!

Winter is coming (No, this is not what you expect...)

Frostgrave caught my attention since the beginning, just like everyone else. I got the rulebook and I really wanted to run some games, a little campaign, see what was it like... That was, I don't know, a couple of years ago? Since then. Since then I've been wanting to do something about it. In fact I had a clear idea I wanted to do last year before Christmas, but time caught me, calendar expired, blah blah. The time is now. I'm doing it this year. But if I want to have it finished by Christmas, I better hurry now.

'But what are you talking about, deranged man?' I hear you say. 'Why the obsession with Christmas? Can't you play a game... well, whenever you want?'

Of course, but as weird and silly as this particular project is going to be, it would be even weirder and sillier in August. Let me explain...

I got the following mini from the first DieHard Miniatures Kickstarter. I had quite a particular idea for it, and I'm not sure of where did it come from. But I certainly envisioned quite a specific magical person...

His true name was forgotten in the mists of time. Most people call him Klaus, Klaas or other variants, it depends on the country where you ask. Some people just call him 'Father'. His origins are also unclear. Some rumours and legends say that he comes from the South, the warm, mysterious South. Most people believe instead that he dwells in the eternal ice of the distant North. Truth is elusive.

Many years ago, a pact was sealed. He took an oath to pay tribute to the Men. It is still a matter of debate if this was done wholeheartedly or if it was a result of the dark war who confronted the Realm of Men and the Realm of Faerie. The only thing that is a fact is that he is compelled to pay a tribute every year. Every single year, the night before Christmas...

Nowadays people depict him in a different way, all in red. But it was not so in earlier times...

OK, now you see where am I going to with this. There was something in the mini, I couldn't say for sure what was it, that made me think about the most typical magical being in Christmas time, but not in the ubiquitous current red Santa Claus fashion, but closer to the idea of Father Christmas, an earlier vision of the character. I was visually thinking of the version we saw in The Witch, the Lion and the Wardrobe movie. Kind of.

Now, who would be part of Mr. Klaus Warband? Who will be his companions into the frozen ruins to ransack old pieces and treasures that would eventually become the presents this mysterious Wizard has to gift the humans? Well, tradition speaks of Elves...

Every Wizard needs an Apprentice...

She's casting these rare spells known as 'Carols'

Otherworld was quite an obvious choice for most of the warband, as the Elves in their ranges totally fit in the Frostgrave theme. So here we have some pillagers...

Do they look like Mr. Klaus' Elves?

The one on the right is from Northstar, but suitably blended in

So three thieves, an archer, a treasure hunter and finally, a barbarian...

Rudolph, the red nosed reindeer beastman (Northstar too)

This is the full warband:

Ready to rob the gifts you may (or may not) receive this year

In all their seasional fashion

I honestly have to admit I have no clue of the actual gameplaying, as I've only read the Frostgrave rulebook, but never actually played (yet), so I'm not that sure, for example, of what Wizard type better suits this particular magic user. Chronomancer, as he delivers the gifts all over the world in just one night? Illusionist, as he manages to bear the magic of Christmas among this dark realm? Thaumaturge, as he pretends to peacefully accomplish his mission? If any of you has experience with the game, I'd appreciate your thoughts on the subject!

BTW, just a bonus. If I've built this bizarre warband, what kind of rival may they face? Who would dare to oppose such colourful Elves? That's the next part of this project. Thanks to Otherworld...

...this chieftain Gnoll will be the Grinch himself

So I'm building a Gnoll warband ;) I hope I have them ready in time!