Goblin Horde

Goblins! Another monster that helps round out the bottom tier of adventurer fodder. The Reaper Miniatures Bones 4 Kickstarter included 27 goblins, of which I picked out 19 to paint. Aside from their obvious use in D&D, there are also enough of them to use as a (somewhat limited) Frostgrave warband. Also, since they're largely matched sets, they could be used for four teams for some one-off game. Let's look at what we've got here.

These are the leaders of the goblin horde. A shaman of some sort and a feisty-looking fellow waving his sword in the air. Yellow isn't the easiest color to paint, but I layered up from orange to bright yellow and they turned out rather striking. I also like the spider on the shaman's back; I assume it's his beloved pet. There are a lot of details on these guys (and on all the goblins) that make them fun to paint and pretty to look at.

Now, there are four nearly identical groups of models, each painted a different color. I say nearly identical because the Red group is the only one with the bulky chap in the center. Quite the bruiser. He was the final goblin I painted, so I chose to put him with what I considered the best team. I imagine the Red clan is the most brutal and powerful clan, with their intimidating red facepaint and all.

I envision the Brown clan as trackers and sneaky wilderness fellows. But here we see the four goblins in each type. A goblin with mace and shield, one with a bow, one with sword and board, and one with a two-handed axe. A nice, complimentary group of goblin types.

The Blue clan is probably the smart guys. The swordsgoblin's sword is bent, but I didn't notice until after they were primed, so I didn't fix it. Perhaps it fits his unique fighting style.

Finally, the Orange clan. These flashy fellows have an absolutely ostentatious orange color scheme. The picture doesn't do justice to how bright it is. These are my least favorite ones, but they still look OK on the table.

I mentioned the goblins could be a limited Frostgrave warband. Well, Wizard and Apprentice are the yellows, of course, and then possibly the big red bruiser as a barbarian, two archers, and five shield guys as thugs (just ignore the shields). It would be a decent group if I ever find myself in need of another warband on short notice.

Dirk Grimstone, Private Eye

Here we have my current D&D character, Dirk Grimstone, Private Eye. He's a Reaper Bones "Dwarf Brewer" model, representing Dirk's noir detective affinity for drinking. It was difficult to figure out what model to go with, as Dwarf Detective miniatures are in limited supply, but this figure turned out very well. I'm happy with pretty much everything about it, except for the hammer resting behind his back. Why they felt the need to throw in a random hammer and a random pauldron on his shoulder (emblazoned with a wheat symbol) I do not know. He's based with fairly dense foliage because I took the time for once.

Unusually, I took progress shots while I was painting him up.

1. First, I primed the model by brush with Apple Barrel "20504 Black." This is quite honestly the best black color I have ever used. It's the darkest, most opaque, and smoothest of any I've tried, despite being cheap craft paint.

2. The skin is usually painted right away because it's the most important, eye-catching part of the model. You can ignore mediocre clothing, but the face needs to look nice or it damages the entire figure.

3. Hair, in this case the beard, finishes off the natural bits. Oh, and he actually has something approaching pupils. The model has large eyes, which is the only reason I even attempted pupils.

4. The clothing. I left the boots black, as I frequently do. I remember years ago reading an article about character design for Team Fortress 2 where they noted that the characters all get darker as they go down, to draw the eye to the face and upper body for easy identification. I took this to mean you could get away with not doing much to boots as long as they were dark.

5. The mug, barrel, ground, and hammer all got their paint. The wood of the barrel turned out well. I'm not sure about the red mug, but the contrast with the green clothes makes it pop nicely.

6. Proper basing. Why he lugged the barrel out into the overgrowth I could not say. Also, looking at the pictures I should point out I attached the model to the top of an unused craft paint container with sticky tack to use as a handle while painting. This is my normal way of doing it and it works really well.

Next time, goblins!

Four Adventurers!

I have the distinct pleasure of playing D&D with a relatively stable group of players on a very nearly weekly basis. It's every player's dream come true. In the past six years, I've been in four main campaigns, each of which has lasted at least past level ten. This gives me the time and opportunity to make a miniature for each one. Here are four of my characters.

This first gentleman is The Warden, a half-orc Inquisitor (because this was in Pathfinder, not D&D). I love this miniature, but it looks nothing like the character aside from the red eyes, green skin, and blue longcoat. I've rationalized it as this miniature represents a much older, much more experienced Warden.

The model is a Reaper Bones "Barnabus Frost, Pirate Captain." (There's a slightly different version of the model in metal with a pirate hat.)

Technically, Cogswell the Gnome Rogue was not one of my primary PCs, as he only popped up for a couple sessions in the middle of The Warden's term. Still, this plucky little guy managed to survive the Tomb of Horrors from start to finish while comrades fell around him, and he's gone on to serve as a memorable NPC in the following campaigns. This miniature fits him perfectly, as far as I'm concerned. It's even got proper basing!

This model is one of my few actual metal miniatures. It's a Reaper "Marius Burrowell, Gnome Thief."

Dr. Caladon Featherstone the Elf Wizard was the last character I played using the Pathfinder ruleset. Wizards are amazing. Caladon, specializing in teleportation, had a trick for every situation, as well as skill checks that were frankly ludicrous in most fields. He eventually became the (semi-divine?) herald for a long-dead but revived deity of portals and teleportation. Career goals!

He is, however, standing in mud because I never finished his basing.

This is another metal model, in this case the Reaper "Ilnerik Sivanshin." 

Sir Quintus of Rufurio was my first PC in D&D fifth edition, so I went with something simple to learn the ropes. He was a Human Fighter, and taking the Battlemaster subclass gave me plenty of buttons to push.

I like this miniature, especially the big burn-scar on his cheek and the way he's looking off to the side. What I don't like is that terrible shield design. I keep telling myself I'll redo it some day, but it's already matte varnished and I have so many other unpainted miniatures that need love and so on and so forth. Still, I'm satisfied with the miniature overall.

The model is a Reaper Bones "Duke Gerard." The face is modeled a little awkwardly and the sword needed to be straightened when I got it, but it's a solid miniature.

As a side note, my group uses Roll20 to play D&D, so it's strictly digital. This means there's absolutely no call to paint up miniatures like this. But I enjoy the hobby and like having little mementos of my characters, so here we are.

Next time, my current PC: Dirk Grimstone, Private Eye.

Dwarf dwarf dwarf

Dwarves! Alternatively, Dwarfs! Or possibly Dorfs! I'm a huge fan of Dwarves, so it's no surprise that I have several in my collection, even though I've never used them.

First, a Dwarven Wizard. He's a Reaper Bones "Khael Stonekindle, Dwarf Wizard." He's a studious-looking fellow, with a staff that must make going through Dwarf-height doorways an issue. The giant sword on his back probably also makes going through Dwarf-width doorways a problem. I really like the sculpt, however, and hope to eventually use him as a character in D&D. I've also toyed with making him a Frostgrave wizard, but I have no apprentice to match him.

Secondly, a Dwarven Ranger. He's a Reaper Bones "Klaus Copperthumb, Dwarf Thief." I am very pleased with how this guy turned out. His pose is dynamic but not crazy, and he has some nice weapons and pouches that aren't overbearing. The skin also turned out nicely. He could make a good ranger or companion for Rangers of Shadow Deep.

Finally, a strangely noseless Dwarven Warrior. He's a Reaper Bones "Undead Dwarf Fighter" originally, but with the black eye sockets hiding their depth, he looks decently like a wounded, grizzled fighter. Orange isn't a color I use particularly often, but it looks fine. Each of these Dwarves has a different color scheme, so I guess the next one I eventually do will need to be yellow or purple. I do have some more Dwarves in the pile...

Fire Elemental

I painted up this Reaper Bones "Medium Fire Elemental" as a superhero for SuperSystem, but it works just as well for a D&D fire elemental (as its model name might imply). It's material is a semi-translucent reddish plastic, and it just took a few layers of drybrushing to complete it. Quick and easy, and it looks pretty nice.

Two Blue True Blue Heroes

Two more superheroes I painted up for SuperSystem. The first one here is the imaginatively-named Blue Golem. He's a Reaper Bones "Clay Golem" figure, painted to be a big Hulk-like bruiser. I'm happy with some of the shading on his muscles, along with his red short-shorts. I didn't include another figure for scale, but this fellow has some decent height, and is as wide (or wider) than he is tall.

And this guy is the Indigo Detective. A pulp hero in the vein of The Shadow, he's a Reaper Bones "The Black Mist" figure.

The pictures don't do justice to the electric blue of his outfit. The overall painting isn't fantastic, but I love how some of the blue turned out.

The Dead Marshal

Another superhero character, though a figure that would also work just as well in a Weird West setting, is "Dead Marshal." A Reaper Bones "Undead Outlaw," he was painted up in simple maroon and grey, with white bones poking out here and there.

With a traditional backstory of a lawman returned from the grave to punish evildoers, Dead Marshal is over 140 years old, still fighting crime in the modern era. While in Supersystem he had other powers, the only power of the Prime version of the character is that he returns from the dead 24 hours after he's been killed, over and over again, without exception. He just pops up as whole as ever somewhere else (but usually in The City these days).

Battletech Mechs

Battletech! I have been a fan of Battletech since I was a kid playing Mechwarrior 2: Mercenaries. How could the idea of big, stompy robots slugging it out not appeal to someone? I read plenty of the old novels (some good, some bad), but I was never able to get my hands on the tabletop rules. If I remember correctly, I built mechs out of discarded wood scraps, colored them with colored chalk and glitter-paint, and made up my own rules to fight across the basement floor.

One of the nice things about being an adult is that you can buy a reasonable amount of cool stuff that you couldn't get as a kid. I have a decent set of unpainted mech miniatures now, just shy of fifty, I think, but I also painted up a few.

All of these painted miniatures are from the Alpha Strike plastic sets, though I do have the newer sculpts from the more recent Battletech beginner box and game of armored combat box. The Alpha Strike figures aren't great, but neither is my paint job, so it balances out.

First up, my Draconis Combine lance. It's a fairly typical Combine force from the Aka-Oni Regulars, featuring (from left to right) a Dragon (60 tons), a Trebuchet (50 tons), a Jenner (35 tons), and a Panther (35 tons).

Total tonnage: 180 tons
Total Battle Value: 3960

I made these as the opposing force for my mercenaries (below), but I'm happy with how they turned out. They're simple block colors with my normal cheap acrylic paints, but they have a bold character about them.

Here we have my mercenary lance, Leland's Fusiliers. Aligned with the Federated Suns, they're a small outfit with their own Leopard-class dropship. The mechs from left to right are a Guillotine (70 tons), a Centurion (50 tons), a Dervish (55 tons), and a Wolfhound (35 tons). Technically, though, they don't actually use the Dervish, but have a Commando (25 tons, COM-3AN variant, clearly) instead. I just didn't have a Commando miniature at the time.

Total tons: 180
Total Battle Value: 3886

Finally, two little "neutral" light mechs, a Clint (40 tons) and a Spider (30 tons). These can be used for any faction. Some have pointed out how useless it would be to have camouflage on a many-ton, many-meter-tall stompy robot. On the other hand, I like how it looks and it's quick to paint up, so there we go!

English Civil War Figures

These figures come from the Warlord Games "Pike & Shotte" line. Like most of my miniatures, they're plastic. I enjoy building figures probably as much as I enjoy painting them. The first three figures were made as a bridge so that I could use my Red/Yellow team of medieval soldiers as part of a Mordheim Reikland warband. I also envisioned them for use in "En Garde!" or "The Pikeman's Lament" from Osprey Wargames.

This flamboyantly-attired fellow is clearly the leader, ready to blast some poor fool with his somewhat sideways black powder pistol. I'm not sure if this is the first of my miniatures I've displayed on the blog with my occasional orange hair, but I think this was one of the earliest miniatures that I painted with orange hair. I've never got the hang of actual "red" hair, so I use orange instead.

In Mordheim, he was run as the Captain, armed with a sword and a brace of dueling pistols (which was ludicrously expensive).

The fellow to the left was run as a Champion with a halberd. I particularly like his face, and his pose is aggressive and focused.

The fellow to the right was going to a Marksman with a handgun, but never saw action on the table.

To the left, a figure that I've always envisioned as Dutch; In my notes, he's specifically named as Klaas Van Duister, which I presume I made up from whole cloth. I rather like the face, but I feel that especially with the dark clothing, he looks a bit like a vampire.

To the right, a blue bonnet fellow with orange hair, presumably from Scotland; My notes call him Rory MacCulloch. I added a Perry Agincourt buckler to the model because his clenched fist looked kind of silly.

Soldiers, Cop, and Robbers

Four of these figures come from the Warlord Games Project Z Spec Ops line (which, along with all Project Z stuff, has been discontinued). The central figure in the boonie hat was built from Project Z Male Survivor parts.

I made these five as a police response team to take on "super level" threats in SuperSystem from  Four-Color Studios. The sprue (the frame that the parts come on) had enough for four soldiers, and since minion groups in SuperSystem need a minimum of five, I painted up the boonie hat guy to match the others. Boonie hat is clearly the leader, given his disregard for proper headgear, his lack of regulation armor, and his custom, super-cool trench coat.

Also from the Project Z Male Survivors sprue (with balaclava heads from the Spec Ops sprue), two robbers and a cop. I had planned to do a bunch of thugs/thieves/criminals in the same black and maroon color scheme, but I was pretty dissatisfied with these guys and I moved on to another project.

The police officer's skin is atrocious, just a thick layer of really light Craftsmart "Flesh" and it makes him look like a bit of a blob. Still, as just a random NPC on the table he gets the job done.

Pulp Adventurers

I love old-school pulp adventure stuff. I didn't have any particular game in mind when I painted up these two miniatures, but I suppose they could be used for Call of Cthulhu or even modern games at a stretch.

Both figures are Bones plastic from Reaper Miniatures. The Indiana Jones-like figure on the left is listed as "Frank Buck." I went with a smooth earth-tone palette for his outfit, with greys on his weapons.

The figure on the right is "Jake Ryan, Hero Explorer." Aside from being simply enormous and thus out of scale with most other 28mm figures, he's a nice figure. His shirt is one of my first attempts to do decent white, layering some warm beige before the white in order to get a decent resulting color.

And both miniatures have proper basing! Jake even has a "Army Painter Wasteland Tuft" on his base. You'll be seeing a lot of those, since it's the only decent basing thing I have.

Looking back at these guys, I'm really happy with how they came out, especially the outfit of "Frank Buck."

Egyptian Undead

I'm not sure if the big Avatar is really undead, but there's definitely a theme here. The mummies are regular 28mm size, so you can see just how big the big fellow is. These guys are more monsters for D&D, with the big one great for a boss or even a deity.

This is the Reaper Miniature that they call the "Avatar of Sokar." He's a big, bird-beaked fellow. It took a while to paint him because there's a lot of detail spread out across the miniature. I went with a gold, blue, white, and orange color scheme and I think it really worked nicely.

I also did actual basing on his base! I don't frequently do basing, even though it adds a lot to a miniature; I don't enjoy it, so I skip that step. Still, the sandy base with little clumps of Woodland Scenics clump foliage looks pretty nice.

Finally, these two quick and easy drybrushed mummies are from Heroquest, like the skeletons in the previous post. They look pretty good, ready to ambush unwary adventurers that dare defile their tombs!

Next time, those that dare defile their tombs!

Skeletons

Another monster that every adventurer faces at least once is a skeleton. How do they function? It's literally magic!

These specific skeletons are somewhat iconic, coming from the classic HeroQuest board game. I found the game in a thrift store when I was a kid, and I kept most of the pieces intact over the years.

These fellows are black primer with heavy drybrushing to bring out the bones. Simple and effective. Like necromancy.

Next time, more undead, but Egyptian.

Vermin! Rats and Giant Spider

As every low level adventurer knows, at some point you're going to have to go into an inn's basement and kill some rats. Here are six such oversized rats, with a nervous local for scale.

The imaginatively named "Rats (6)" from Reaper Miniatures come in a pack of six. They're the soft plastic Bones material, which I love. They painted up quick and easy and are ready to be a source of much needed experience points for the less fortunate (and less leveled).

And on the topic of common RPG monsters, here's a giant spider, with an unaware local for scale.

This is some kind of Dollar Store spider that I've had in a drawer for probably two decades. It started out bright green, but it had a good texture to its skin. I painted it up with a black undercoat, three drybushed greys, a little bit of drybrushed white, and some maroon for the eyes, back, and the tips of the legs. There's no base on this little beastie, but it fits in a two inch square pretty well, so it's a nice "large" monster for D&D.

Next time, some classic undead!

Southpaw the Luddite Cyborg

This one requires a bit of explanation. I needed an army of minions for SuperSystem (third edition? I think this was before I had fourth edition). What did I have a lot of? Well, I had a lot of guys in brown and maroon medieval outfits. So, to make a character that could reasonably take those fellows as minions, I made this guy.

Southpaw was a former cyborg super-agent for... someone (maybe a government or a corporation). He became disillusioned and was swayed by a group of luddite terrorists. He joined them, but they figured they could use a superstrong cyborg in their quest to destroy technology, so they told him to keep his massive power-claw arm, cyber-eyes, and grenades. I mean, that's just a matter of practicality.

In effect, he could be super-level powerful and let me use my medieval soldiers in a modern setting, bridging the gap reasonably enough for a game or two of SuperSystem.

In terms of the miniature, the body and left arm are Perry Agincourt. The head is from a Games Workshop Sentinel pilot, the grenades are from either a Cadian or Catachan guardsman sprue, and the big right arm is from a Space Marine commander sprue.

If this doesn't show my love of kitbashing, I don't know what will.

Next time, something not brown and maroon.

Frostgrave Wizard and Apprentice

As I noted in the last post, the brown and maroon color scheme soldiers are diverse enough to make a pretty solid Frostgrave warband. So recently I painted up these two fellows from Reaper Miniatures. Both came as part of the Reaper Miniatures Bones 4 Kickstarter.

The figure on the left doesn't have a name I could find, but it was included in the Kickstarter core set as #47, one of the "Greybeards." Edit: As of September 2020 he's been released as "Zenfis Zadar, Wizard" on Reaper's website. I painted up his shoulder dragon with a nice green that compliments the red of his cloak. As a fairly generic wizard, he could be a part of pretty much any school of magic in Frostgrave, but the dragon makes me think Elementalist (or maybe a Summoner?).

The apprentice, also from the Bones 4 pack, is listed as #50, and is a part of the "Townsfolk I." His staff was originally a hoe, but I sliced off that part and painted it like wood, so it just looks like his staff has a little ring near the bottom. His belt was painted green to tie into the wizard's dragon color and further connect the pair.

With the matching hoods and colors, these guys go well together. On the table, they stand out among the other members of their warband, too, since the heroic scale of Reaper miniatures is a head taller (at least) compared to Perry figures.

Next time, another maroon and brown figure (and the last one for a while, I promise).