Grenadier Dwarf Fighter

This dwarf mini was found on ebay a few weeks ago for under $2.  Something about the sculpt appealed to me... I guess it is the clean design and the strong stance. He was easy and fun to paint.

I believe this is a Sandra Garrity sculpt. She is another one of those amazing talents who have been making miniatures for a long time.

I went with a dark NMM metal style on his armor and weapons. Sort of a dirty, unpolished look. He will be happily used for gaming and should make an excellent figure for a dwarf character.

Ral Partha Dealers of Devastation

About a year ago, I met a gaming and painting friend at our local game store to go through their boxes of old metal minis.  This store has a lot of treasures buried in those boxes, and no one there seems to know or care about them.  That night, we basically picked  through the boxes for all of the cool old fantasy miniatures we could find.  We ended up paying something like .25 cents a piece for them.  It was surreal...especially since I had seem so many of the figures we found go for big $$ on eBay.  These Dealers of Devastation were found on that fateful night.

We recently made another trip to the store and went through the bins again late on a Friday night.  The Magic players thought we were strange or something.  After finding even more good minis, I decided I needed to paint up the ones found a year ago or they would probably rot.  That is why you are seeing these guys here now.

I usually start the skeletons in a brown and then work up to a tan and then finally an off white.  I find that I have to do many, many corrections to the bones to get them to look right. It is a long process for me doing old bones.  I usually stop when I like what I see.

For the weapons,  I decided to give them a tarnished but sharp look.  I used metallic paints and glazed them with several  washes to get the coloring I wanted.  I know some painters like to make these look rusty, and that looks good as well.

For the eyes, I decided to give them the Scooby Doo treatment. In that cartoon, the skeletons and ghouls always have these neon greenish eyes to make them look spooky.  That is what I went for with these minis. I am probably going to put a layer or two of Dullcote on these and have them ready for gaming along with my Grenadier personalities minis.

That is all for now.  Good luck and good painting.

Grenadier Personalities: Desert Warrior

Here is Grenadier's Desert Warrior.

I chose this model for several reasons, one of which was the ornate shield he carries. I thought it would be interesting to paint that up in NMM style.  The pose on the model is quite good too, but that is expected from Julie Guthrie. He looks ready for anything thrown at him.

I purchased this mini from Mega Minis.com while they were still in business a few years back.  He was only $2 - what a great deal.  Too bad they went out of business because of the high metal prices.

I researched pictures of Saracens, Moors, and other desert warrior groups throughout history.  One thing that stood out was how colorful their clothing was, and this surprised me. I thought they only wore white or black robes and head dresses.  I saw lots of reds, greens, and blues in the pictures. With the whole array of colors available to me,  I took a while to decide upon the color scheme.  I decided on blue and yellow,  which always gives a good result .

That's it for now.  Happy painting all.

Grenadier Personality: Female Cleric

One of my twin daughters really likes this cleric, and has been playing with her for a year now.  She has only had primer on her until this last week when I decided to paint her up (get off my lazy butt).   I buckled down and forced myself to paint the face first.  Once the face came to life, painting the rest of the figure went really quick.  I asked my daughter to choose the color combinations for her clothes, which always seems to stump me, and she made a really great selection.

This is one of Julie Guthrie's sculpts I believe.  It seems Julie has worked for all the big names like Reaper and Grenadier and Ral Partha.   Julie, if you are reading this, you are a fantastic sculptor!!  My favorite !

Here is the back of her cape.

 I used a Reaper metallic gold paint on her..and the problem with these metallic paints is that the metal flakes bunch up and don't give me a really smooth surface. The mini looks crusty in the metal areas.  Oh well, there must be some way to water it way down, perhaps shake it for an hour, and then get a smooth metallic.

Reaper Bones Lizardman Warrior

I picked this mini up a few weeks ago at the local game store - Game Empire.  They have a huge selection of Bones miniatures, more than the metal Reaper minis I think. The Bones are fairly inexpensive, so I always pick up 1 or 2 when I visit.  Metal minis used to be like that back in the day...ughh.  

Like I said before, the Bones minis are perfect for RPG gaming because they don't chip like metal minis so you can throw them in a case and handle them at a game and not worry. I decided to take more time on this guy than usual, to see just how good I could make him look.  No dry brushing of the skin or club here for me.

Here is a head on view showing off what I assume to be a snapping turtle shell. I painted the crests or spines on the back a blue color to contrast with all of that strong green skin color.

Here is another angle.

I think I may add some water effects resin to the base in between the legs there.  Perhaps a greenish swamp water color.

That's all for now.

Reaper Bones Oxidation Beast

I wanted to try something a little more outlandish for this Reaper Bones Rust Monster...err I mean Oxidation Beast -- something more interesting than the usual browns and yellows.  So, I decided to try some crazy alien and space colors on him.  These are the neon greens and purples ...even blues.  I figure he or she is bioluminesent or something like that !

The legs are actually purple that blends in layers into blue.  I would assume that the light blues on the scales would glow along with the eyes and perhaps the fringe on the antennae.

Taking a picture of this guy was really hard, and it looks a lot better in person than the photo.  The camera picks up every little shiny area on the mini and exaggerates it.  I think the paint I used on this one, Vallejo, tends to be a bit shiny as well.  I thought about using a matte sealer but the Dullcote sealer I use also tends to add a sheen of shine...hmmm I wonder what else I could use.

Vaeloth, Hellborn Paladin

This is the finalized Vaeloth, Hellborn Paladin from Reaper.  My version is a person who seeks to prove himself to society as a force for order and justice.  He is kind of a vigilante who goes after evildoers...perhaps that is why I chose the Batman blue colors.

I did my best to photograph these minis with the iPad.  The pictures are not optimal,  but they are good enough to show the colors and the work.  I'm glad this miniature is done, as the NMM metal colors tool a long long time. Each subsequent picture of him shows another side of the mini, as if it is being rotated.

It is interesting how the sword colors really pop out in the pictures.   I find the scale mail to be hard to do in the NMM style.  I think I could have tried some freehand runes or lettering on the kilt, but I really wanted him done so I passed.

Here you can see the wolf pelt he wears.  I chose the colors of the red wolf as inspiration.

Coming up with a sigil or logo for the shield was hard.  I decided on a blue infernal flame look to match the flame-like appearance of the shield frame. 

Finally, I decided to make a quick little battle scene with him fighting a dragonborn to the death.

That's all for now.  Good health and good painting to you...