Another Last Mini of the Month

Finishing with a Duel (Again)

My vintage AD&D adventurer characters continues to grow. But I doubt you find these two in the the same party. Lawful good paladin  and chaotic evil fighter.  Bit a last minute rush to finish him by month end. But it is good to finish a few figures by a target even if it is my own benefit.   I expect he will be drawn to the banner of chaos as I need a few more figures to bulk out the Chaos warriors unit. 

Both figures are very nicely sculpted and with all of the figures in this range are well kitted out for a life of adventure. 

A chance encounter turns violent. 

Duel No.7 Encounter in the Wilds

I have attempted to paint the wolf rider before but didn't like the look of the fur so I may strip the paint off and try again. I will however keep on a circular base as I seem to play LotR most. 

Rob 

Defending Orcs Drift

 Bertolac - Wounded Hero of the Grand League

Bertolac at Orcs Drift

My Bertolac figure started life as a City Guard from Grenadier’s Fantasy Warriors Fighting Men (Still available from Fornlorn Hope).  When I decided that I wanted to use him as the human hero, a bit of conversion was needed. I decided on him because has a similar looking figure to the one in Gary Chalk’s picture. I did find an original on eBay for £25 but that is about 4-5 times more than I am willing to pay. Now if I could find him for a fiver…

The Mark Copplestone City Guard

With the original 90's paint job

I managed to find a sword arm in my bits box and did a simple  the arm swap.  However, he has a 20-year-old paint job, but I really like the shield design, particularly the chequer board.  So, I decided to repaint him without  stripping the original paint job. If I can find a suitable feather I will add it to the helm later.

Another excellent Gary Chalk Illustration

'Bertolac has removed his armour, but a shield is at hand giving him a saving throw of a 6. He is armed with a sword. He has a light head injury, giving a -1 on all profile characteristics.'

Bertolac lead the Walking Wounded

Holding the Line.

Rob 

Duel No. 5 - Lawful Good Enforcer

 At Least a Level 10 Paladin!

After what seems like a long time, I actually have finished something. I seem to have lots of stuff in progress which are all moving forward a little bit without actually finishing anything. However, I finally focussed on one figure and got him done. It probably helped that we have had a change in the weather form hot and sunny to wet here on the South coast of the England!

I definitely went for a bright heroic colours as befits the noble paladin. As this is the high level character he is well kitted out in an array of top end items and like other figures in this range is well prepared for adventuring! This meant it it took a while to work through all of the base colours as there are lots of different parts before  starting the highlighting/ washes. But an enjoyable figure to paint and adds to my small but growing band of AD&D adventurers. 

Rob

Homemade Woodland Scenic Scatter

 Or Stuff I Found in the Garden & Kitchen 

At the start of the Fae army building, I knew that I wanted a  distinct look to the bases. Which included a blended scenic scatter. I had already seen the use of birch seeds from other blogs. Which give a suitably woodland look.  So it was a bit a forage around the house and garden. 

Woodland Scatter Mix

From Left to right in approximately equal amounts. 

1. Light Brown Scenic Scatter -  If I was doing this again I would probably leave this out as it doesn't show up much on the brown bases. 

2. Mixed Herbs - form the local supermarket (Other Brands are available).

3. Autumn Scenic Scatter (Yellow / Orange grated sponge) from eBay.

4. Dried Catkins - The whole catkin was dried on a window sill and then they were removed from the stalk by hand.

5. Birch Seed Pods (Silver Birch - I think) - I found a load around the silver birch tree at the bottom of the garden.

Rob 

Grog Finds His Spiders

 Like Many People perhaps Not Much Painting Going On!

With the lure of better weather, not surprisingly other things have taken over from painting. Like drinking beer in the garden/pub. Still I have managed to finish a few things. But mostly everything seem in progress. 

Firstly I did manage to finish the trio of giant spiders which have been sitting patiently for some time.  Recently a friend did give a copy of Frostgrave and I am thinking these might come in handy for that as well. But these were painted up as an animal handler unit for the Fae.  These were from the Pound shop as part of Halloween decorations but I think they make perfectly useable spiders at a fraction of the cost of 'Wargames figures'. 

Also got round to painting up some of the Sprites/Faeries  from Eureka Miniatures. The sprites work out about 33p each so I can afford to use them as familiars and as adding character to larger units / scenery. i Plan to make a large unit of figures, bulked out with specials and minor characters. 

Rob 

Time for Another Project

 Or You Can Never have Too Many Projects

This is one the projects that has been sitting on my Must Do project list. I am a big fan of The Hobbit. Whilst the films may have had a number of flaws (notably when they stopped trying to follow the book), the costume design, acting and characterisation was generally great (with the exception of the attempted comic relief - Ori). 

This is one of those sets that I would regret not getting whilst it is in production and end up paying over the odds to get later. I managed to get a slightly discounted set off eBay but it still costs nearly £2 per figure. So not particularly cheap but as usual Citadel have done a great job of making miniatures out of the characters. 

I was surprised to see how many of the figures are single piece mouldings whilst retaining a good 3-D design. There is bit of choice with Thorin and Bilbo to arm them before or after the troll hoard. I planning to use the after the troll horde as both figures just look better with Sting & Orcist. 

My plan is to paint them one or two at a time as side project.  Really so I can take my time and try to do a good job. After a bit internal debate I decided upon Gloin first, as I like the figure but he is not one of my favourite characters or models from the set. 

I have got a couple of the glossy books which were released at the time. Which should serve well as reference sources. While scanning through the books I noticed a short piece by Ann Maskrey talking about colours: Thorin - Midnight blue, Balin - predominately red, Dwalin - Khaki, Bifur - rust, Bofur a dirty yellowy mustard, Bombur- tones of olive green, Fili - a slightly mauve grey, Kili - teal blue, Gloin - blood red, Oin - brown, Nori - grey, Dori - mulberry colours and Ori -soft lilac grey.  Which gives an interesting starting point. 

Rob

Battle at Dusk - on the Borders of the Wood

 A bit of Painting Here & There

Holding back the undead

With the good weather, the painting has taken a bit of a back seat. As I hit the trails on my mountain bike. However my delivery from Eureka Miniatures has arrived with a  delivery of Sprites and Faeries. The figures are much smaller than the standard 28mm at about 10mm and 15mm which makes painting them quite quick. I plan to do a number of minor conversions and changes such as putting the Sprites on toadstools and riding woodland creatures.  Just started putting sprites on toadstools!

Eureka Miniatures Sprites (10mm tall) on toadstools

Holly challenges the Necromancer to a duel. 

Anyway finished another one of the elves who has joined the growing elven warband. So a couple of battle shots in anticipate of actually getting a game. 

Rob