Dogs and more birds

I’ve been on vacation in the Stockholm Archipelago and without much of an internet connection. Back now in front of the computer, so it’s time for some regular posting.

First of is a bunch of animals that were finished just before we left for the summer place.

The two leftmost dogs are from Reaper and the right one is a Faithful Dog from Shadows of Brimstone.

The birds are a falcon from Reaper, owl from Otherworld (my favourite of the bunch), another Reaper falcon and a crow from Otherworld.

They will come in handy as background creatures, helpers or maybe “monsters”.

Birds, part 1 – Archaeopteryx, raven, vulture, owl and a hawk

It’s been a rather slow couple of weeks when it comes to modelling. I’ve been busy with work, gaming with the toys I have (What a Tanker has hit the table a couple of times, and it is a very fun game), the garden need a lot of attention, our summer-place got a leaky roof that needs taking care of and weather here is amazingly good - we have had a month of excellent summer in spring. So it’s been slow.

Anyway here is a little something. I was inspired by a blog-post on animals the other day and rummaged around in the mountain for some birds that I had already prepped. Some internet searches for photos of said birds as inspiration and I started.

These are the first ones finished.

Archaeopteryx. Okay, not a bird and no photos for reference, but they got wings and will certainly be aggressive in some game in the future. They come from Tamiya’s excellent 1/35 scale Mesozoic Creatures set (you will see much more of that here) and are twins as I bought two boxes.

The owl is from Mantic. I’m not sure from which sprue, though, but probably some elves. It’s a nice but not great little bird. It sits on branch from a sprue of some sort of living tree-thingies GW had way back.

A vulture and a raven from Reaper. The raven is so-so and very large, and I painted it more like a crow. I rather like the vulture. Both come from the Familiar Pack VIII.

Finally a hawk from Otherworld’s Lesser Familiars pack. It’s just a great little model, as usual from Otherworld.

More birds to come shortly, and even more in a little while (I seem to have made a little purchasing-mistake…it's all Koen's fault!)

Happy gaming and modelling!

A couple of minis from Oathsworn, Blue Moon and RAFM

A varied bunch of figures this time.

 

First we have a pregnant woman from Oathsworn Miniatures. This is such a nice mini, and she can be used in everything from a fantasy setting, to pulp, to modern and SF.

Next a butcher from Blue Moon and their Slice of Americana box. A good background figure in a 1930’s pulp or gangster game.

Finally an knife-armed cultist from RAFM. It will come in handy in our Pulp Alley campaign as it is inevitable that it ends up in Egypt sooner or later. 

Welcome new Google+ follower Mystic-Realm, makers of terrain both classic and in the form of .stl-files, and Adam Fletcher of HexT 3D-printable modular terrain. Hope you find something of interest.

Mercenary Spearman from Otherworld Miniatures

Here’s the Mercenary Spearman, sculpted by Ian Mountain, and from Otherworld Miniature’s Henchmen & Hirelings range.

It’s a great sculpt, as always with Otherworld, of a not overly enthusiastic hireling. He, or is it a she, have this look of “I don’t want to be here…”

Another favourite.

Welcome followers Gary and Miniature Minds!

Human Female Magic User from Otherworld

Another Otherworld miniature, this time DAH16 – Human Female Magic User, sculpted by Patrick Keith.

She is a bit flat and not very dynamic, but I still like this mini a lot.

There’s room for improvement on the flame, but with enough practice I’ll get there.

Female Barbarian from Otherworld

Another mini for the upcoming D&D campaign, DAH19 Human Female Barbarian from Otherworld.

This one will work as my daughter’s druid-character.

It’s a fantastic sculpt, as usual with Otherworld stuff. 

A big welcome to follower Mate Lavotha with a great blog of his own – Zorro’s Miniature Sculpting Blog. Mate is a very talented sculptor and I’ve painted one of ‘his’ miniatures and he kindly asked if he could repost a picture of it. Go check out his blog as there is a lot of cool minis there. I really like some of them.

(And please, Mate, get a “Follow” button so I can follow what you’re doing!)

A handful of hobbits

Here’s a handful of hobbits from different manufacturers.

There is a slight difference in size J

Male Halfling Thief from Otherworld

Woody, Halfling Ranger from Reaper, sculpted by Werner Klocke, and a giant among halflings...

Two hobbits from Mithril. These come from the MV375 In the House of Tom Bombadil and MV373 Gildor Inglorion vignettes and I got them at a sale a couple of years ago. About time I got them painted.

Welcome follower Jean-Pierre Lelain with blog Les batailles anciennes et fantastiques de JPP - a really nice blog about obviously ancients and fantasy. It's in French but that is no problem with autotranslate. Check it out.

Spiders from Otherworld and a small dragon from Reaper

These spiders come from Otherworld Miniatures and are a rather failed experiment.

My idea was to paint them black and then let the abdomen have a hazy red shimmer on it. So I gave the black abdomen a coat of gloss varnish and then a red glaze and repeated that several times and topped with a satin varnish. The result was… somewhat disappointing.

I think the idea of varnishes sandwiching translucent layers of paint could give really interesting effects, but this was not it. I’ll have to do more experimenting and probably with an undercoat of something not so dark.

I let my daughter rummage through the case of unpainted monsters the other day to pick something she would like to have finished and she dived in, full of enthusiasm. She had a hard time deciding as the case is rather large... 

What she finally picked was this young dragon from the Reaper Bones range. We checked the D&D Monster Manual and decided it was a black dragon. I just did a very fast job on it, mainly because I think black is such a difficult color (I know it is technically not a color) to work with. Well, I have to practice more, I guess.

Anyway, we both thought it was great fun for her to find a figure and me to paint it up and we will continue doing this regularly, one monster and one character. For me it is an opportunity to paint stuff that wouldn’t be in the front of the painting queue. Next monster will be a Cthulhu-thingie that is really weird and the character will be a female druid that will be Johanna’s next D&D character.

Stay tuned for that.

Crossbow-woman and monk from Otherworld

Two more figures done and the painting table is a little bit less crowded.

These come from Otherworld and have the same high standard as I’ve come to expect from this manufacturer.

The crossbow-woman will work excellently as such in Frostgrave and has already joined the warband.

The monk will stand ready for action in whatever game he might come in handy. He might even work in a Pulp -setting.

Mrs and Mr Monk

Scribe from Otherworld

This is a favourite mini from Otherworld, the HH6A Scribe from the Henchmen & Hirelings series, and it has unfortunately been waiting for paint for a long time. So full of character, just a great miniature.

I don’t really know what to use it for, but that might solve itself when he stands ready for action.

"It says here "Scratch it on its nose and it will calm down.""

On a completely different note - I had a first game of Blood Rage this Wednesday. Before the game Thomas and I joked about how good it is to try out a new game that no-one has played before, because when we get thrashed by my son David there is always easy to find a lot of excuses to why that happened. 
Well, those excuses are said and next time it will be a lot more at stake…

Anyway, it felt like a really good game and was very enjoyable. I look forward to the next game and also painting more of the fantastic figures.

Welcome follower Andre Holmlund with Hobby Worker blog. A fellow Swede with a really nice blog featuring Cthulhu, zombies, historical games and nice terrain. What’s not to like? Check it out!

Female elf archer from Reaper and female half-orc assassin from Otherworld

The female elf archer comes from the Reaper Bones II kickstarter is a rather nice little figure (but her nose was rather flat and probably miscast), she is called Allistrilee, Elf Archer and is sculpted by Bobby Jackson (Bones 77205 or Dark Heaven Legends 03166). 

She got a more impressionistic paintjob as I’m trying out a couple of new techniques and she volunteered J. Decent result.

This is DAD17 Female half-orc assassin from Otherworld’s Dungeon Adventurers series and sculpted by David Soderquist. Another great figure from Otherworld that is suitably dressed and equipped. 

Porter and Squire from Otherworld

Squire (HH6b) (with a wonky left arm) and Porter (HH5e) from Otherworld.

The painting table is filled with fantasy figures, some pulp, Wild West and Indochina terrain, sf minis, zombies, Viet Minh soldiers and what not. It will be a real mix of stuff the next couple of weeks.

These two minis, from Otherworld and their Henchmen & Hirelings series, will be very good ‘pack mule’ hirelings in Frostgrave (together with this packbearer) and they will obviously see action elsewhere also.

They have the usual high standards that I’m used to from Otherworld, the only negative is the slightly wonky left arm of the Squire. They are otherwise great minis!

This is post number 500! Yay!