Lashtash: Another Lizard Warrior

Here is Lashtash...a lizard man with a striking resemblance to a crocodile.  He's got a cool tail with three prominent bone spikes to lash out at any flanking enemies or even those behind.  So watch out backstabbing thieves..you could get Lash slapped.

I like the serrated blades that Julie Guthrie gave these guys. They add nicely to their savagery. Also, the bluish metal is proving over and over to be a good choice on these guys.  It seems to contrast well with their skin, and it also complements the tan colors.

 I also think the armor is very nicely sculpted for a 1990's miniature. I sort of assumed that their armor is not shiny clean and bright, but weathered a bit.  I presume either they know how to make their own banded armor or they stole it from poor adventurers.

Lashtash now joings his comrade Sslishtassh for hunting duty.  What do they eat???

The First Lizardman: Sslishtassh

As part of my three lizardman reconnaissance team, I have completed the first warrior. This is a Grenadier sculpt by Julie Guthrie from the late 90s perhaps. He is really a true 25mm guy, looking very small compared to most other mini makers except perhaps Red Box. Anyways, another really nice semi-old school scult with good personality and the typical Ral Partha "open Stance".

I like going with the greenish yellow skin on these guys, similar to the old Citadel Orcs.  The yellow just helps the highlights pop out so well.  I did try to wash some blue into the crevices of the scales, but it does not show too much.

Here is the back.  I did a crazy logo on the shield of the red dragon god they worship.  They might even have a more primitive logo or sign than this one, but I got carried away.  For the basic NMM on the sword, I added in some blue to my grey colors and I love it.  The handle is supposed to be a dirty bronze metal.

More lizards are on the way slowly....can't do half ass jobs on these for some reason - I did bad and quick paint jobs for years and all I have to show for it are piles of minis that I can't stand!!

Lizard Time!

For my next project I have selected several lizardmen from my collection.  The two small ones, 25mm, are Grenadier models sculpted by Julie Guthrie again.  She is terrific.  The big guy is some kind of Reaper Dragonkin or dragon warrior.  He would obviously make an excellent leader of a group of lizardmen.

The trick on the small guys has been to shade the recesses and get the raised parts lighter using dry brushing. The problem this poses is that dry brushing, the way I do it, is kind of messy and leaves the mini sort of powdery looking.  I have tried some glazes of a darker color to reduce that effect.  Also, I'm experimenting with using blue in the recesses of the scales as opposed to dark green.

So, I expect the guy in the middle to be done first, then the guy on the right.  The dragon guy will take a while.

That's it for now from the Fun House..

Final: Tox the Magnificent

Ahh, he is finally complete and ready for battle.  Here is my take on Tox the wizard from Reaper. One can only assume that he has special powers over dragons and can command them to do terrible deeds.

If that does not work for him, he can spout violent magic from his dragon claw staff of power....probably lightning.  Regardless, stay clear of this mage if at all possible or end up dragon chow or worse, just ash.

Eventually I will coat him with Dullcote from Testors ...perhaps two coats...to make him available for use on the table.  That will at least protect the paint from finger oils...but not the dreaded mini drop attack.

Wizard in Progress

This is Tox, a wizard of sorts from Reaper that I picked up several years ago. I got myself fired up to paint and pulled him out of box the other day. I started with the face, then the eyes, and finally the hair. The face went well for me on this one, so that was great.  The hair has been killing me, as I am trying to show gradual higlights from one end of  strand to another...in grey.

I'm almost happy with the hair, and then I will move on to complete the crystal ball/ palantir thing.  The one area on this mini that I have not come to a decision on is the color for the robe.  Would tox have a purple, blue, green or maybe a black robe?  Perhaps it would be a special color like powder blue or teal.

Reaper Gnoll Ranger

This is BlackTongue, a Gnoll Ranger from Reaper.  I painted him nearly 5 years ago and have never taken a picture of him. He is too cool looking to just rot in the display bin and not be seen, so here he is.

I would not want to be tracked down by one of these giant hyena men, as I'm sure they show no mercy.  Are gnolls really 8-9 feet tall?  Yikes.

I went for greyish skin and light brown fur combination on this one. I think the fur could have been darker as the wood colors tend to match.  The bags and things were done in greens and reds to match the surrounding forest.

Reaper Bones Kickstarter Figure Case

I forgot that I had ordered this, along with a few miniatures, from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter a year ago. Needless to say I was really happy to hear from them when they sent out the mailing notice.  I did not get the Vampire package, which has over 100 miniatures, but I did get a few of the Pathfinder minis and the case below. 
When you open it up, you see the top tray with the open slots and the back of what  I call the middle tray. The slots seem to be for 25 mm miniatures which is weird since Reaper stuff is 28mm heroic scale and huge.

I immediately went about getting all my unpainted miniatures, as well as old paint jobs  from the 90's, from out from their boxes and into this huge case. In some cases I had to tear the foam to make a bigger compartment. For most minis, I stuck them in the slots tightly so that they did not move around. This may be bad on painted minis, as the foam may rub off paint. I will find out.  I'm sure the plastic Bones minis, which are not very heavy, will be fine in this case.

As you can see in this next photo, I have taken out the middle tray to show you the bottom tray. The bottom tray, with the red foam, was facing towards the side of the case when I first opened it. I flipped it over to face inward because I didn't want the miniatures banging on the side of the case if they slid out of the foam.  However, that move created a problem, because now the bottom or top trays would  face the middle tray without a foam barrier.

My partial solution to that problem was to add a sheet of foam as follows to the middle tray. Now the minis in it will not bang the minis in bottom tray, and I also don't have to face the side try to the side of the case. Perhaps there is a better way to do this...like putting this sheet of foam on the bottom between the case and the bottom tray.   I'd appreciate any advice.

By the way, the top tray is mostly populated with Ral Partha AD&D miniatures from the 1990's (painted and unpainted). The middle tray has some of my Reaper minis, along with all of my Dark Sword and Citadel models. Finally, the bottom tray has my Grenadier miniatures as well as some Red Box and Avatars of War guys.  Almost all of my painted miniatures are in display cases.