A Few More Oldies

These two miniatures are some of the oldest ones in my lead pile, dating back to the late seventies I think. They are a real challenge to paint with all of the rough edges and warped details  The first one up is a Heritage Warrior of Harad.




Next up is a giant snake from Archive
 Miniatures.  It was pretty tough to make him look good, and even harder to get a pboto of him.

Ral Partha and Reaper Orc Skintones

Over the last several months, I've painted a half dozen or so older miniatures that I have found in a discard bin at the local game store.  The guys there sell them to me for $1-2 each, depending on their mood, day of the week, etc. As I have mentioned on here before, there are a lot of treasures in those bins that are overlooked because they are vintage and also because the bins are a pain to go through.

Below are a couple such pieces.  They are both orcs from two different companies.  The little guy is a Ral Partha Fantasy Armies orc and is lot older than the bigger guy.  I think he was cast  sometime in the early 1980s.  The bigger guy is a Reaper orc in metal..not one I see often but perhaps they have made a Bones out of him.

Anyways, I could not paint these guys shades of green anymore.  I just couldn't do it for some reason...I think boredom.  So, I tried to paint them with skin tones that I almost never use...blues and greys.  I like the grey one better I think:

Reaper Bones Mushroom King

I present to you Gus, the Mushroom King. My daughter asked me to spiff him up for her gaming adventuring crew. I think she uses him as a friendly ally found deep in the dungeon.

These fungi are easy to paint mostly because they don't have all of the fiddly little parts that need different colors. Lots of smooth surfaces on them.  I think for the next few I have, I'm going to try and do more wild color gradations on their skin.

He came from the goldmine known also known as the Reaper Bones II Kickstarter.  I think he has a great pose...whimsically walking through the woods of his kingdom.

Reaper Bones Kallaguk, Troll King

I have finally finished Kallaguk, Troll King from Reaper.  This is a fairly big miniature to paint with a lot of scales and wrinkles to keep you busy.  I must have taken over 4 weeks of painting "off and on" to get this one done. It's a lot of work, but it is also pretty fun because you can really use your imagination with these monsters. I tried to do some variations of color on his stomach which I found entertaining. I also was interested in giving him dirty claws.

Kallaguk is so heavy, and his plastic ankles are so weak, that he tends to hunch over quite a bit. I didn't bother reshaping him in hot and cold water because I could see he would just hunch over again eventually. He needs a cane.

There are quite a few warts, spines,  and scales on Kalluguk that are crying out to be painted in fun colors.  I'm not as much of a risk taker as I would like in that regard, but I really do think green skin suits him well as a denizen of the swamp.

 If this miniature comes out in a gaming session, I would expect many player character deaths...

More Old Grenadier Miniatures

Below are two more Grenadier miniatures from the 1980's.  This first one is a henchman/hireling from the AD&D set 2004 Hirelings. Once again I tried to do a quick Zenithal primer/highlighting scheme before applying glazes.  It didn't work out to my satisfaction and I ended up going back over him to blend highlights and shadows.

For the final protective coating, I used Games Workshop's Purity Seal for the first time.  I applied two quick coats which was way too much.  This stuff  made the colors look cloudy and dulled ..very strange.  Perhaps I needed to shake the can for 5 minutes or more.  I only did one minute. Anyways, I went back over the miniature with ink washes to brink back the vibrance of the colors...and I rescued him!!!

Next up is a miniature I found in the bitz bin at a local game store. The bins there are full of vintage miniatures considered junk these days. I have no idea why folks would throw them out.. they need to be brought to life.  This guy is a Grenadier Fantasy Lords orc.  He has a very intereting pose, like he is pointing  his mace at a guilty adventurer.

The Zenithal priming/highlighting plan worked better on this miniature than the others.  Also, he has not been coated with GW Purity Seal of Doom.  I think this miniature would make a great orc leader who talks to players and taunts them.  Perhaps a mean jailor ....

That is all for now.  Coming soon will be the huge Reaper troll miniature: King Kallguk.

A Couple of Old School Minis recently Completed

I've actually been painting quite a bit these last few months since January, I just have not posted anything.  Now I suppose I should binge post mini pictures.

Below are a few of the minis I have completed recently.  The first up is a Gnoll Champion done sometime in May, part of Julie Guthrie's Grenadier Personalities collection. My daughter wanted him for gaming, but she wanted a Polar Bear Paladin, so I painted the mini in that style. I would say this was a fairly quick paint for me, less than 8 hours LOL. I'm getting older and so my eyes are getting bad!

Next up is one I completed in July, a Ral Partha AD&D Gnoll. I tried to use a Zenithal highlight technique on the mini during the priming stage.  This means I spray primed him black first, then I spray painted yellow at a 45 degree angle, then I sprayed him from straight above with a shot of white primer. I then tried to glaze on paint over the primer highlights.

The yellow spray paint was too globby, and I should have used a finer primer, but it worked OK.

He has a lot of metallic paint on him, and I find this makes the mini extra reflective for photos.  The camera kind of freaks out.

Another Reaper Bones Barrow Warden

This guy was done back in January and has been begging to be photographed.  He's another of Reaper's Barrow Wardens. I'm not sure what his pose is all about...is he stabbing gophers?

Now on both of my Bones Barrow Wardens, I straightened out the swords by dipping the minis in boiling water, adjusting the sculpt, and then dipping them in ice water.  This worked for a while, but then the original bent pose came back.  Hmmm.

This guy is well armored and would be a pain in the patooty to fight.

Reaper Bones Amiri, Female Barbarian

One of my daughters wanted this really nice miniature for her own.  She asked me last week if I could paint it for her, and I agreed on the condition that she give me the colors she wanted for the various parts. These Pathfinder miniatures are quite detailed and have a lot of parts...I can't even tell what some of them are. Here is Amiri:

This is not a Pro job like the amazing Derek Schubert, but it is good enough for me to like it.  It went fairly fast as I underpainted the whole mini in greyscale and then tried to glaze over it.  Glazing with metallic paint really works well as it helps avoid the clumping and bumpiness caused by the metallic flakes in the paint.

Reaper Bones Mimic

I'm back into painting after a long hiatus of house projects.  Here is a mimic miniature that has been sitting in my box of terrain pieces unpainted for at least a year.  The kids love this mini and always bring it out when we play with the Dungeon Tiles. I finally got motivated to paint this one and I'm glad I did...he looks really cool.

I tried to do some NMM metal for the frame of the chest.  It is a cleaner look, but it tends to look more like greyscale than metal.  The next chest I will paint will be with RMM methods.

I generously applied gloss finish to his teeth and gums to give him that hungry look.

Reaper Bones Barrow Warden

Happy New Year.

This fellow has been done for several weeks and is just making it onto the Internet.  He is a Barrow Warden from the Bones II Kickstarter.  As you can see, there is a lot of metal on this guy.  I spent a lot of time trying to weather the plate mail, but I just could not get it right. Still , he is good enough for the gaming table and will no doubt be used since skeletons are so popular in D&D!

His friend is basically done except for the base, so I will post him soon.