Dungeons and Dark Souls 5: The Red Dragon, Odds, and Ends

My literally largest miniature is this red dragon. It's another Reaper Miniature from the Bones 4 Kickstarter, called Gauth the Dragon. Most versions I've seen of this model have the wings vertical, but mine seems to have sagged heavily during some stage of transit. The head also drooped, only sitting at a reasonable height after I pinned and glued the tail to balance him. Not my favorite model, but it's impressive on the table.

This was originally going to be the second boss for Dungeons and Dark Souls (after the Colossal Skeleton), and I did the Dragonmen earlier this year to be his elite minions. He did not, however, see the table, as the lead up to the big skelly filled the time and space really well.

I also painted this mimic (from Reaper Miniatures) who served as the miniboss of a mini-sidequest. The pictures don't really do justice for some nice blending on the model. It's name on Reaper is the Mockingbeast.

I also painted up all of the treasure chests from the Bloodborne board game to serve as... treasure chests. 

Finally, because this was Dark Souls-based, I painted up an Invader; in Dark Souls, other players can show up in your world for PvP, appearing as red-shaded, semi-ghostly figures. So, I painted this figure up to mirror the effect, but it was not needed. This figure's name on Reaper is Taroya, Female Warrior.

That concludes the majority of what I did for Dungeons and Dark Souls. It was a huge project, but it was very fulfilling and a lot of fun at the table.

Dungeons and Dark Souls 4: Colossal Skeleton

Here is the massive skeleton who served as the final boss for Dungeons and Dark Souls. The model is a Colossal Skeleton from Reaper Miniatures. Because it didn't show the scale well by itself, I added a few more Wargames Atlantic skeletons to the base (including one crushed by the tombstone hammer). I based the whole thing on a 4" square piece of craft wood, then textured it up, painted it, and added the wasteland tufts to finish it off.

I love everything about this figure. It has great detail across the entire model. I love the tombstone turned into a hammer, I love the menacing pose, I love the little details like the normal-sized sword sticking out of his ribs--I could go on. With the little skeletons at his feet, this is almost a diorama. This big fella is definitely in the running for my Miniature of the Year.

While a phenomenal figure for D&D, I can also see this guy being the backbone for a skeleton army, as its "big monster" in whatever system (e.g., SAGA: Age of Magic, Dragon Rampant). 

Dungeons and Dark Souls 3: The Skeleton Horde

Skeletons are my favorite fantasy monster, bar none. They are also very quick and easy to paint. With these two points combined, it's easy to see why I've always wanted to paint up a whole ton of skeleton miniatures. Wargames Atlantic makes a box of 32 modular plastic skeletons that are pretty inexpensive, so I picked up two boxes

The painting was simple. Prime with black, then heavy drybrush brown, then light drybrush Vallejo Bonewhite (72.034). Do the weapons with Dense Red and Brass. Finally, heavily wash with Agrax Earthshade. Quick, easy, and it still looks great. This is literally the only type of miniature force that I can ever see myself painting an entire army for.

The 28 little skeletons are:

• One skeleton captain with a sweet plumed helmet, spear, and shield
  
• Seven skeletons with spears
• Seven skeletons with bows
• Four skeletons with swords and shields
• Six misshapen skeletons with daggers
  
• One skeleton with a big brass ribcage-on-a-stick called a Tetsubōne
• One dooter, dooting his horn. He has no lungs, so how does he doot? He just doots. DOOT.
• One skeleton dinosaur. It was a cheap toy that my kids got at some point. I glued it on a base, did the normal skeleton paintjob, and it's done. It's ridiculous. I love it.

Dungeons and Dark Souls 2: The Player Characters

The D&DS game was set up for up to six players, each with a color-coded miniature for easy identification. Each figure is built from a Warlord Games Landsknecht body with a Citadels Skulls box head. The arms are mostly Landsknecht as well, but a few are from the Frostgrave Wizards II sprue. I'm very happy with how these models turned out. Each it unique, but they all work well together.

I also painted up a few skull markers from Reaper (meant to be decoration on top of fence posts), to mark where each character died. We didn't end up using them much, which is probably good since it's hard to tell them apart without strong lighting.

The six models each represent an archetype (more or less):

• Purple: Dual-wielder with a sword and dagger.
• Red: Carries a greatsword over his shoulder. (This is probably my favorite of the bunch).
• Orange: Axe and shield tank.
• Yellow: Staff and summoning bell.
• Green: Crossbow!
• Blue: Magic staff

And each of these items was available in the game. Even the Starbrand Staff and the summoning bell (which summoned Sir Siegtruh, the Mimic Knight!).

Dungeons and Dark Souls 1: The Board

The board in situ at the con.

For a couple of months, I've been working on a secret project called Dungeons and Dark Souls, based on a scenario that a friend ran with modified Dungeons and Dragons rules. I finally got to run the game at a mini-convention, and it was phenomenal.

To the right, you'll see the map. Made primarily out of foam, the main portion began life as packaging for a flatscreen monitor (seen in the lower picture). The different elevations were pretty inspiring. Later, I decided to expand it and used insulation foam sheets to expand the map some more. Currently, it covers a 1/4" plywood sheet that's two feet by four feet (so I can also use it for Mordheim).

Most of the fittings (such as the fences, the mausoleum, the tombstones, the cart, and the statue) are from Reaper Miniatures. The trees (and flocking) are from Woodland Scenics. The chests are from the Bloodborne board game. The wooden planks, the little doors, and the other wooden stuff is built from coffee stirrers and little craft wood stuff.

The ground is textured with Vallejo "Dark Earth" earth texture gel. Two 200ml bottles were enough for the whole thing, with some left over (which I will use to finish a couple of spots). I then painted it up over a black primer with a layer of FolkArt Matte "Real Brown," then a drybrush of "Coffee Bean," and finally a light drybrush of "Coffee Latte."

I attached the flocking and clump foliage with Mod Podge Ultra matte spray-on glue and sealer. This also sealed the board and made it much more resilient. (As a side note, the sprayer top on the bottle was absolute trash, so I just poured what I needed in to my Woodland Scenics spray bottle and it worked really well.)

An early photo, laying everything out on the styrofoam.

Some of the walls were covered with 1/4" corkboard sheets. Others were textured with the same Vallejo earth texture gel as the ground. The walls were layered up and drybrushed with whatever grey paints I had lying around.

All of that said, it was a ton of fun to run this game and the players all enjoyed it. There will be a few more posts about other parts of this project, like the player models and the skeleton horde. There's a lot to go over!

Mordheim: Captain, Blunderbuss Marksman, and Warriors

More characters for Mordheim! This first picture is my captain and a marksman with a blunderbuss.

The man on the left is the captain. He's a figure from Reaper Miniatures called "Jakob Knochengard, Human Ranger." I got the figure in the Dreadmere expansion box from the Bones 4 Kickstarter. It's a great model that I've wanted to paint up for a while, and this project gave me a good reason to do so. I filed off a few of the bits that made him more "vampire hunter" and added some feathers to his hat to make him more Mordheim. He's armed with a sword and a brace of pistols. He's also a bit taller than the rest of the warband, since Reaper Heroic Scale is taller than the Perry Miniatures or, especially, the Warlord Landknechts.

Case in point, the marksman body is from the Warlord Games Landsknecht Missile Troops box. The main weapon (a nock gun standing in for a blunderbuss), arms, backpack, and head are from a Wargames Atlantic British Riflemen sprue. It took a little doing to get the head to work with the body, but it turned out nicely. I also included a bow (wrapped up to protect it against the weather) so that the Marksman isn't literally a one-shot threat.

Every warband needs a few cheap bodies to get stuff done, so here are three Warriors armed with a club/mace/hammer in one hand and a knife in the other. They're not pretty, but they'll get the job done (hopefully). The bodies and heads are Perry Miniatures Agincourt. The weapons are mostly based on that sprue as well, but with beads for mace-heads and a few knife-hands from Frostgrave boxes.

I'm still not 100% on my warband composition, but there's a good chance that most of these guys will be included. The only one that's really iffy is the blunderbuss marksman, since he's extremely expensive... but I do like the model.