An Old Orc and Some New Caverns

Here's a cool little orc for ya. I found this gangly guy at the local game store in one of their "old lead" bins.  Those things have so many treasures it is amazing.  This guy is an old Ral Partha mini.  I think he's got a lot of character, and I like the fact that he is scrawny looking as opposed to super muscular.  I would use him at the game table as a scrappy Mordor Orc who has worked his way up to being a mean leader.

Mr. orc sits atop some new cavern tiles that I got from the Dwarven Forge Caverns Kickstarter.  I've started painting them up for use one day at the table.  Dwarven Forge products and service are top notch in my experience.  These things are pretty close to being indestructable.  They are easy to paint and they don't require primer. They are really beautiful after painting.

As usual, I tried to paint Non Metallic Metals on this old mini to see if it would look good.  I'm getting better, but still not at that "realistic" level.  Notice the eye of Sauren sculpted onto this guys front armor...

Finally, here is a back view of him just to show off all the browns that an orc can have.  One day I will get brave and do black armor.

Dungeon Decor from Reaper

I took last month off accidentally.   I was so busy making Halloween costumes all month for the kids that I didn't remember to paint miniatures. I'm ready to get back into the swing of things now however, and I've decided to warm up with some Reaper Bones miniatures.  I chose these easy to paint dungeon decorations which  I must have picked up at the local gaming store...honestly I can't remember anymore since I have too much mini "stuff" these days.

The thing on the left is a fountain of sorts with a Cthulhu-like face on it. This piece will go really well with my Dwarven Forge Dungeon tiles.  The candelabras are also Reaper Bones and should add a lot of "mood" to any dungeon layout.  I hit the gems with some gloss finish to make them shine nicely and give the thieves something to drool over.

Here is the back of the fountain...very exciting. I tried to get the candelabra's to stand straight.  I used hot water and ice water on them, but they seem to have bent  back to the original pose. Luckily they are cheap!!!

Old Martian Metals Lizardman

Several months ago a couple of friends and I went to the local game store after a meetup to check out the vintage lead minis in their bins.  We knew the  "cool" kids go out drinking and partying, but we're rebels so we looked for old lead on that night.  This store has a treasure trove of old lead - cast aside like trash by their customers who may or may not know the value.  This little lizard dude caught my eye on that night so I picked him up. I think he has a lot of personality and is a pretty good sculpt for being a late 70's / early 80's mini.  He's from Martian Metals based on what I could find on the lost minis wiki.

 

I tried to spruce him up with some NMM gold and silver, as well as some extra scales that I painted on freehand on the neck and shoulders.  I did not finish the base...I'll get to that one day.  I'm just not a base guy.  Hopefully this little one will make it into a game some day.

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.