From whim to dragon

Among the items in Jeff's boxes of old school minis was this dragon, unassembled, but complete. So, on a whim, I threw it together with the extra glue and greenstuff I had sitting after gluing and basing the other minis. Since he was assembled, I went ahead and primed him with the rest of the bunch.

Later (today), I started varnishing all of the past two month's work. I sat at my table looking at what to paint next. I figured I'd throw on a quick drybrush base layer on this dragon. One layer turned into two; two layers turned into three, and suddenly he was finished! Jeff likes dragons, so this one is going back to him tomorrow.

42mm samurai: Red ninja

And here's the last of the 42mm samurai that were on my table. Why red? Why not? I had to have a little fun, and who's to say what the hell color I can paint my minis? In fact, especially for you Napoleonic painters out there, don't let anyone criticize your color selections. If anyone ask why you used a certain color, just say, "Because that's the color I wanted to paint it."

Though, honestly, if it were me and someone criticized my colors and asked why, I'd just tell them, "Fuck you, that's why."

Honestly, it's refreshing to paint with colors that don't fit at all. Try some figures with purple skin, or pink clothes or yellow camouflage (and not just fantasy or sci-fi figures- try it on a random extra historical figure). Think Andy Warhol or Wayne Thiebaud. Use the exercise to freshen up your brush skills without your mind preoccupied with palette selection.

Now it's time for the old-school cyclops! Yellow with purple and pink poka-dots for skin! Nah, I'll keep him traditional.

42mm samurai: Ikko ikki (More peasants)

Finally, here are my two peasants (heads swapped) from Steve Barber. They complete my modest ikko ikki group. Not much to say on these except that I kept the colors simple and drab.

I still have a ninja to finish (she's mostly finished,) and then on to some Reaper stuff. Though, there might be a couple more samurai in the near future.

I might also sneak in another old-school mini or two during all this.

Sacrilegious envelopes (plus Reaper update)

I got a couple comments for my envelope art, so I figured I'd post a few more. I also illustrate/doodle on my letters; I enjoy writing to friends and family, mostly because it gives me a chance to do random or silly art. That, and it keeps my brush hand loose.

I wonder how many Virgin Mary stamps I have left over? And thank god most of my family is Catholic, so that they have a sense of humor.

Also, my Reaper order arrived as I was typing this post (Basilisk, classic orcs, troll, old model black orc, and beggar from the townsfolk range). In the past, I have complained about casting issues with Reaper minis (bad mold lines, lots of flash, even some right-out miscasts.) But those orders were always through third-party vendors. 

This order was direct from Reaper, and there were no casting issues (a few mold lines and a bent weapon, but nothing I can't easily handle.) Coupled with the three days it took for the minis to arrive AND with free postage, I think I'll order more Reaper stuff direct. (By the way, free U.S. postage for orders over $25 -- one of the best free postage offers I think I've seen anywhere.) Oh- and not only that- Reaper sent me a sample of one of their paints. It doesn't say what specific color its is on the label, (just "1/2 oz. free sample,") but the color is very close to the orange I plan on painting my Goblins! 

So either I'm lucky, or I have a fan in the Reaper shipping department. Thanks, Reaper!

(By the way, this isn't a paid ad- I sincerely am happy with this order. You can see all my favorite makers and sellers listed near the top left of my blog.)

Old school D&D goblins

And here are the finished goblins to go up against my the adventurers. Just five goblins? Well, the adventurers are only first level, and there are no such things as healing surges, and I DO have a cyclops yet to paint.

The primitive sculpting was difficult and sometimes frustrating to paint (but I do enjoy their character). It also probably didn't help that I was trying to speedpaint these a bit, too. (I have my busy week at the office this week, so I'm trying to get some painting finished before.)

I like that D&D goblins aren't cliche green, but rather described as having skin color ranging from red to orange to yellow. So I chose yellow for this crew. For a base color, I used Foundry Dusky Flesh; I wanted the base to be more of a "living" color to help make the yellow (Foundry yellow ochre) appear more natural. I'm pleased with the result. I have my Reaper goblins to paint up in the near future, but I think I will go more orange with them (much like my goblin pirate painted earlier this month.)

Old School Adventurers (true 25mm) finished!

Here are the four adventurers who will partake in my 1st edition game in a few weeks. The wizard at the left will be a stand-in for a monk since my friend (whose figures these were) had no suitable figure, otherwise. The wizard(monk), as I've been informed by followers, is an old Grenadier sculpt. the other three figures (Cleric, Paladin and halfling) are all sculpted by Ral Partha for TSR.

The Grenadier figure was rough. It didn't have a lot of well-sculpted detail, especially the hand in front holding a pouch- I'm not sure if it was miscast or accidentally filed away- but it only has two fingers. I had to make up as much as I could; we'll just say something bit the rest of his fingers off.
The Ral Partha figures were also a bit difficult to paint, but only because they're smaller than I'm used to. They have some well-sculpted detail for sure, and they were definitely a joy to paint. To give you a reference point of size: The bases are the smaller 20mm slottabases (not the regular 25mm size.)

Old-school detour

I WILL finish the last of my current 42mm samurai, but in the mean time, I've started on these old TSR and Grenadier figures. My friends and I, after seeing that Wizards of the Coast are re-releasing the 1st edition AD&D books, decided to have a go at the 1st edition rules (one of my friends has all the original books.) We're just going to do one small dungeon-crawl session, but I thought it'd be nice to use almost-original figures with the old rules. (I'm also using graph paper, and will get some pizza rolls as well as seek out some old-style bottles of Mt. Dew. The only thing we won't have is a musty basement.)

I've gone with yellow goblins here (they're the Grenadier models, by the way). And I'm keeping everything else simple: all leather using the same palette, three-layer base colors, no experimentation with color combos. The paladin (in blue), Cleric (in gray) and halfling assassin (hiding up front) are TSR figures. I'm not sure what make the wizard is (in brown next to the paladin.)

I've also ordered a few minis from Reaper, some stuff for playing old-school style D&D games (though newer figures and using 4th ed.) I'll try to push through and finish these figures, then finish my samurai, then get a good start on my newer Reaper stuff, which includes some nice goblins I've had tucked away for a couple years, a few classic Reaper orcs, a troll, cyclops and a basilisk.

Reaper Bathalian Pirate

This is another figure from the lead mountain. It's Reaper No. 3135 Bathalian Pirate. To give you an idea of how long he was sitting in my lead mountain; I purchased this figure originally when I first learned that 4 edition D&D would have dragonborn - this was before the game had even come out. I was going to use this figure as an alternative dragonborn figure (as if there were any actual dragonborn sculpts out there at the time, anyway.)

This is an easy figure to paint, but requires a lot of patience. There are a lot of details on this figure -- a lot of stuff that can get missed. But nothing is hidden, hard to get to, or difficult to paint. You just have to keep at it, rotate the figure often to see what you missed, and resign yourself to opening and re-opening the same colors over and over again.

42mm samurai: Conversion

Here's the finished samurai conversion all painted up. Everything went well with this figure- the conversion and the painting. Not much to say except that I'm happy with how it turned out.

Also shown below is my converted figure next to the vanilla version.

Hasslefree goblin

I spotted this little guy while surfing the net. He is Buckle, a goblin pirate by Hasslefree. The figure comes with a separate scabbarded cutlass, but I replaced it with a custom rapier. The figure comes with a 20mm slottabase, but I replaced it with one of my 25mm self-made flagstone bases.

The rapier is made from one piece of brass rod which has been hammered just a bit to square it up. The guard is made from a scrap of cured greenstuff (save your cured greenstuff!) The straps holding the rapier are simply a triangle piece of paper, glued into place.

This is a tiny figure, especially since I'm painting 42mm samurai right now. The face was difficult to paint; I dug out some tiny brushes I hadn't used in a while to get the job done.

I've been wanting to play a goblin as my next D&D character, and this sculpt won out (I like my characters to have a nautical theme.) I wanted him to be a fighter/thief, and that's why I gave him a rapier instead of the cutlass. Oh- the orange skin: The original editions of D&D described goblins as having skin tones ranging from deep red to orange to yellow -- no green here. It was nice and refreshing to do a skin color I hadn't done before.

42mm samurai: Painting has begun

I started painting the new batch of samurai. I've finished applying the flesh layers as well as almost finishing my swordmaster. I was thinking about what I could use for Asian flesh tones (I forgot what I used last time; I need to start taking notes- or look for the notes I took a few years ago.) In the end, I simply used what I use for caucasian flesh tones- I just left off the last highlight. I think it looks just fine.

I'm fully happy with the head swap, too. The neck seams are mostly hidden, and the heads seem to fit their new bodies well- especially the fellow with the nagimaki at the ready, yelling his war cry as he prepares to receive the enemy.

I also still plan on doing this ninja in a red get-up, though, I may tone it down just a touch by doing her mostly in brown but with red highlights.

42mm Samurai: Head swaps and conversions

The next batch of 42mm samurai arrived from Steve Barber today. I got right to work. The unarmoured samurai has had his fan replaced with a katana hammered out of brass rod (with a handguard made from greenstuff.) The peasants have had their heads swapped. I've made a nagimaki for one of them (just to change things up a bit from all the spears/yari.

The ninja was not changed in any way. I just included it for completeness' sake. It is a female ninja using a small blowgun. I think I may paint her with a more fantastical red scheme.