Huge Snow Golem and Friends

The biggest of the bunch! This huge snow golem is truly a massive threat, and represents the apex of my current snow golem project from Schlossbauer. I really enjoy that it appears to be an amalgamation of the other forms - distinguishable heads of small golems cover its body, which mirrors the shape of the medium golems, and it has a crown of ice from the large golem. There was some fun discussion surrounding whether the other forms coalesced into the huge boss, or were shed from it, or both - no matter what it seems like a fun series of encounters to run. As with the other snow golems, I wasn't totally happy with my execution, but I'll look to improve in future cold themed monsters (e.g. the ones missing from this current series). The combined effect is pretty satisfying, though, for such a speedy project.

 

St. Patrick's Day Bae

 

Happy St. Patrick's day! This is a little something different for my blog, a holiday mini with a very different vibe. Normally I  avoid "cheesecake" type minis, but after years of painting monsters and undead I thought it would be fresh to shake things up and try something a little .....softer. I wont make NSFW content a regular habit, but it was more fun than I expected - I really had to focus on skin tones and painting makeup on a tiny little face. Making a mini clean, bright, and cute is definitely a different sort of challenge for me. despite being pretty rusty with humans, I think she turned out pretty nice. 

Ill definitely be adding in more themed minis from time to time, to break things up, but the wont (always) be so risqué.  

This piece is from Vae Victis minis - their "Bae" minis are a regular part of their monthly releases, and often keep things a bit lighthearted, with both male and female thirst traps available on the regular. 

How about that beer, though?! It's making me thirsty myself.....

Wishing you some Irish luck. 

 

Large Snow Golem

This big fellow is clearly a threat. The cute grins of the small snow golems and the oafish maws of the medium snow golems have shifted to a grimace of cold malevolence. The spines, crown and tusks of ice and slush, along with sheer size clearly mark him as as leadership. Given how scary the normal sort are, this thing looks to be a TPK in the shape of a snowdrift. A perfect post for a winter day.

 

The progression of this series from Schlossbauer is fantastic; the pieces are simple but gradually ratchet up the interest level.

 

This model was painted similar to the others, but has some semi-transparent effects. The method needs work, but that's the hobby! 

 

Snow Golems (2)

These brutes are the big brothers of the Small Snow Golems I posted last week. While they are "medium" sized they represent a significant increase in mass relative to the small versions. Their considerable bulk overhangs even a 32mm base - much bigger than your average snowman. The stat blocks on these monsters are pretty threatening, with heat sources being their only real vulnerability, and their frosty fists capable of pulverizing even experienced snowboarders. 

They were painted as before, only bulkier - very quick to the table with a solid end result for something with such a simple composition. I was pleased with the depth I managed - shades of white are surprisingly difficult. In retrospect I should've made at least one additional medium snow golem, if not more, as they are typically encountered in groups (drifts)? Fortunately it should be relatively straightforward to add some additional poses in the future. 

 Despite being much bigger and more dangerous than the smaller snow creatures, they are dim witted and slow to mobilize;  something else must be directing their coordinated attacks on travelers in mountainous areas......

Small Snow Golem Avalanche (12)

 

Whew, the end of one year and the star of another - it is always such a hectic time. In addition to more traditional activities, I'm always racing to complete my annual painting goals. I failed miserably as I usually do, but at least the effort propels me into the new year. 

For January I wanted to work on a complete series of winter themed models that  were very different from my standard meticulously highlighted stuff - these super cute snow golems!

 

The models are part of a series of winter critters released by Schlossbauer. They are very simple as individual creatures, but the the progression of related models really captured my imagination. Snow flock is a basing material I often use for wintery subjects, and I wanted to carry that effect through on these guys for consistencies sake. It was a delicate balance, though, because I wanted them to reflect the original artistry of the sculpts. To achieve this I spent a good deal of time painting and shading the model in an icy white palate, most of that work was then covered with a thin layer of army painter snow flock. It seemed like a waste of time at first, but a test piece reveled the added depth and tone from the process carried through to the final effect. The bluish mouth isn't very realistic, but breaking up the snow by adding a simple focal point the helps emphasize how cold they are. A lesson I learned from animators & film is that a feeling conveyed by a visual queue is often more important than realism in art. 

 

These charming powder-balls are small, and based on 20mm bases I 3D printed (without a doubt, I print more bases than anything else!). They seem harmless enough, and make me think of the hapless snow constructs from Adventure Time. In numbers, though, they might pose a noticeable threat to hardened adventurers. Well, at least they might perk their curiosity - where did they come from, and just how many are there? A foray into the deeper snow drifts might reveal additional clues....

Green Slimes (2)

Ooze monsters are always fun, and they come in many colorful hues. These were originally grey oozes made by Threat Factory, but I already have a set of gray oozes as WIPs in a different style, and I thought the ooze-on-a-wall design to fit well with the green slime aesthetic. 

I was also partially inspired to paint these by the mysterious holiday green jello that is a traditional food at my family gatherings. I'm not a fan, but I'd be bummed if it weren't there.   

These were effectively a speed paint, and the whole thing came together pretty smoothly up until the end. I use a craft high-gloss sealer on the ooze parts for a really wet look, but I applied it too thickly and I got a little cracking that needed to be patched. In the future I'll be sure to use a thinner layer of gloss. 

Specters (4)

 These models were painted over my brief  November vacation, and were completed while visiting family. Traveling with a miniatures paint project can be challenging, and I often find that I don't have every paint color or hobby supply I might need to complete the project. This year I planned ahead and brought a very simple project that would only require a few colors and their blended derivatives. It ended up being my most successful paint-cation to date.

 These specters are a continuation of my attempts to paint ghostly monsters (see: Wraith, Wraith, Banshee, Demilich) and I elected for a bright glow like effect. My previous attempt with the demilich wasn't what I was hoping for, and I wanted to further develop that technique. Ultimately, I am pretty happy with the end effect, and I plan on trying it with some different color shading on ghosts next. As an added cool feature, these models were over-painted with an invisible aqua glow-in-the-dark paint, so their ghostly silhouettes are still visible in my display cabinet at night. OOoooOOOooo!

The project wasn't without its hiccups, though! I accidentally based the set on two similar but different sized bases (2x 25mm and 2x 28mm) - Doh! I'm calling it an artistic feature.  

The models are from  "The Lion's Tower", and were the best small collection of models I could find. I particularly appreciate the mix of male and female models, which makes the set particularly useful for running "Death House." The bases are from Zabavka Workshop, and have some great detail and variety. Many of the bases feature skeletal remains, and I thought it was fitting to have the specters floating above the location of their demise (see below).

 

 

Dretch Demon Horde! (20)

 Demons! The perfect seasonal post.

Even dretch can be a threat in numbers, and any demon invasion needs its front-line minions. Unfortunately, it can be hard to find enough unique models to really fill out a big horde of weaker creatures. To compensate for that, I have gotten in the habit of rigging models and reposing them. This set of models was my test case for that approach. I started with Schlossbauer's excellent dretch model (center above, top left below), which had a nice neutral pose and rigged it up in Blender to practice all sorts of poses. I ended up having to do some sculpting opening the mouth so I could get a better variety of facial positions; It was a hack job, but at scale it works. I gave several of the dretch dog like poses, as I thought that would fit their personality well. Once I had made that many, well, it'd be a shame not to print and paint them all!

With so many models, I broke these paint jobs up over ...years, lol. They went through many iterations, and the current paint is nothing like the quick dip I had been planning on originally. I am not much of an army painter, so this was a big batch for me to take on all at once. They were fairly simple, so that helped, but painting the spots on the back ended up being a a much harder exercise in persistence than I had expected.  Still, I really like the end result.

These are an awesome addition to my AD&D MMII collection. Lots more demons to come. Maybe even more dretch, of a different sort. 

Will-O'-Wisp /Will-O'-The-Wisp (3)

This "string" of will-o'-wisps is a fun first October post. They are very atmospheric and mysterious creatures and really ratchet up the tension, even if only as a set piece. Their real world story and history is no less intriguing; well worth a read. 

 October is a time-of-plenty in the miniatures world and I am happy to get caught up in the moment and work on spooky projects. I'll make a point of sharing sinister models from years gone by while I paint up some new horrors & delights.

 The 'wisps were printed slightly smaller than normal - they sit on 15mm bases. I got a little creative with the bases and played around with painting over flock to give it a mossy bog-like environment that they needed. It is a sloppy approach, but gives the flock some extra variation and depth that enhances the look significantly. The sculpts were made by Crippled God Foundry, an STL company that I follow. Their catalog has great depth and, despite being finely detailed, print very well. 

I kept the paint theme classic for these tiny spirits - dancing lights in the mist of a swamp. Cloud and smoke effects can be challenging to pull off well, but the added benefit of acting as a flight stand is very convenient and worth the abstraction. I used some neon paints, and even a touch of glow-in-the-dark paint, to really give the orbs some pop when viewed with the naked eye. The green is my go-to "undead energy" color, so it made sense to start there with 'wisps, but Id like to expand into other common colors for them. There are some great wisp models that match up with these well, and I have a handful of neon/black-light/glow color pairings id like to experiment with, so they might be on the short list for speed-paint projects this month.

  

Animated Broom / Broom of Animated Attack

 

Happy New Year! Time to clean house. While the broom of animated attack is a notorious PC killer in Death House, I can definitely see why an evil house would keep one around. Its a good way to end the year, I think. Sweep away the dirt, and start anew.  

This is a very clean (free) STL by Cult Miniatures - It printed well and I completed the paint work in only a few very brief sessions. This was the final miniature I will complete this year and, happily, I hit my annual paint goal of 52 completed models just in time. 

Old Owl Well / Old Shitty Well

 

I don't often post terrain, but I am hoping to include more pieces in my collection, particularly if they fill a thematic role in one of the modules I am working to complete. With that in mind, you can't have an encounter at Old Owl Well without an old well! This free sculpt from EC3D fills that need perfectly - it doesn't get better than that.Yes, it is called "Old Shitty Well", but it's great. This is also a support free model which ended up ended up being a really pleasant hobby experience. It went from file to done in no time, which went a long way to reinvigorate my painting mojo this fall. I'll have to start using more support free models to make prep a more relaxing experience. 

I'll close with a rough shot of the whole encounter. I apologize for the  photo edit - I didn't have a backdrop big enough to capture the whole group. I'd like to do more encounter shots like this as my collection grows, so ill need to work out a better system for photography.

Actually, this photo makes me wish that I had also done the tent for this encounter - more terrain to come, it seems!

Pumpkin Dragon, Adult

 

 

This is a much larger pumpkin dragon to go along with the smaller one I did recently. I really enjoy all of the pumpkin creatures I got during October - It seems like it would make for a very satisfying fantasy adventure to have the heroes go smashing evil pumpkins. November is still a pumpkiny season, so maybe I'll keep it going. Painting pumpkins is super relaxing, too - I could use a bit more of that vibe. 

This base is a custom oval size - somewhere in the ballpark of 75mm / "huge". 3D printing bases is amazing - I never seem to have enough of the right size and shape; the printer has paid for itself in just bases many times over. 

My color palate here was nearly identical to that of the smaller dragon, but the color of the picture is much closer to the eye than that post - I think the greens and browns in this piece really balance out the image so it doesn't get over corrected by the phone.

Wraith, Mage / Mormesk

 

 This was a nice on-theme simple speed paint to keep my momentum going. Not my best work (I prefer my earlier wraith to this one), but it was an effort to improve upon my quick ghostly green subjects (e.g. the banshee). Most notably, this is another model that fills a spot in the lost Mine of Phandelver roster - I'm (slowly) making progress!

This model is from Monolith Arts - they make some of my favorite sculpts for incorporeal undead and a "Ghost Mage" is perfect for Mormesk.

Pumpkin Dragon, Wyrmling / Harvest Dragon

 

 

 I have been struggling to do hobby stuff since the start of autumn, due to other responsibilities, which is really unfortunate because this is my favorite time of year. This also seems to be the season for the absolute best miniatures releases. So, to shake off my low productivity, what better way than to paint a seasonal release! This cute little dragon is from the under appreciated Dillon Olney, and took paint like a champ for a speed-paint. I had such a fun time, I will start work on a bigger pumpkin dragon mamma dragon. Not sure what the timeline will be there, but ill definitely post more thematic Halloween treats this month.

Color balance was tough on the photo here - I went with a more naturalistic orange, but the smartphone wanted to crank this think up to neon red.

Dragonfly-Folk, Male

 

This is a fun piece that I had a lot of fun with. The subject for the Printed Encounter was "Modular Insectoids, " and I wanted to make another unique entry in the spirit of the kobolds I did for the last round. I found a really cool giant dragonfly in their catalog, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to make something really unique that fit perfectly thematically. This model was the first of six that I prepared, but with the whirlwind of activity that the end of summer brings to my household I was only able to finish prep on one of them before I was facing a tight deadline of only a few days of painting time (with limited time each day, that is pretty tough for me).

I decided to take a chance on the color scheme, and rather than the safe blue palate for a dragonfly (the classic blue-eyed darner) I went with something flashy that broke up my current color palate. Specifically, I modeled my paint after the real world "roseate skimmer" - those were some really striking (and risky!) colors

(credit to Jim Angelo for the great pic)

The males are super flashy purples, pinks, magents and reds, while the females are a whole different palate (for another post!). 

Definitely a bold palate that would pose a challenge, and very different from anything I had done before! I also elected for some other firsts - most notably, the transparent wings. This model, like most I print, was done with transparent resin.  I then used some liquid latex mask to cover the wings while I painted the model to keep them perfectly clear (good thing, too!). once I was done with the bulk of painting I carefully stripped of the mask - this was really challenging and took hours to achieve because I didn't want to damage the delicate wings.  Then came a clear coat, and some final details, including a transparent colorshift glaze (pink-gold). this looks amazing in person, but only the back photo captures it here. Ill have to get some alt photos to really focus on that effect at some point. I was really happy with the (super labor intensive) outcome, enough that my gears are turning and I want to dry all sorts of shimmery clear wings!

Bone Golem / Patchwork Skeleton, Large

 

I Just completed a new bone construct, which makes it another series I seem to be building. I tried to keep the paint as similar as possible to those original models, but I have definitely upped my game on subtle color shading with simple palates since I last worked on the patchwork skeletons. 

The picture came out pretty nice, so I posted it at a relatively large size. This fellow is pretty big, sitting on a 45 mm base.

MZ4250s paint contest this month covers constructs and I didn't have time to print something new, so I dug this gem out of the depths of the bag of unused prints. This model itself if one of the first things I printed and had a bunch of damage - my support game was weak. I think I managed  to salvage it, though, and I'm glad that I was able to put it to good use.

A Shiver of Sharks; Bullsharks (4)

 

Yay! I finally finished something new! I have had a bunch of projects bogging down my painting, but I was able to find some quiet time to finish these sharks this week. They might be my favorite project of the year so far. It has been ages since I finished an extant animal, and I feel a little invigorated returning to real world critters as a subject. I had thought they would be a fast project, being fairly monotone, but I sorely underestimated how much surface area I needed to cover for these large sized models.

The sharks themselves are really great Bullshark sculpts from  Wundervale Games - I was impressed with how anatomically accurate they are, and I was happy to get a set of four. In the same spirit, I based the paint-jobs on real pictures of bullsharks to keep them as realistic as I could. My son said the paint was "basic" - LOL. Sometimes you can't beat the real deal - I like 'em! 

I'm not really a fan of "flight stands" for models, and fortunately creatively basing undersea creatures is forgiving. I remixed these bases with elements from scatter terrain by "Fantastic Plants and Rocks" and some sand bases by "Cobra Mode" I reshaped. The kelp was perfect for creating an elevated look. The execution wasn't flawless, but definitely captures the idea. 

Same could be said of the whole project, I suppose. I'm pleased, so I included a lot of pics. 

 A note about bullsharks: they are a really fascinating species of large shark capable of living in fresh water (they may even rely on fresh water to breed). This often puts them in conflict with humans - we both occupy the near shore environment and estuaries. They are probably responsible for more shark attacks than the usual suspects, but their populations are in decline. Bullsharks are fierce predators, but they are also vulnerable to overfishing (they mature slowly). Take a moment to learn more about these amazing creatures!

Shark Fin Surface Markers (4)

 

 

Sharks! Its that time of year and lately I have been in the habit of working on things that are on-theme for the season. That said, these are not my actual project but, rather appropriately, a preview of what is to come. I thought that some shark fin surface markers would be a fun and useful addition to my miniatures toolkit while I work on the sharks themselves. They'll be a good way of ratcheting up the pressure for encounters over water and I think it'll feel better in-game than having underwater models over the waters surface. 

I made these by grabbing the fins in Meshmixer and stitching them to simple 25x20mm bases before printing. The water texture was added later with green stuff, and the models were painted easily in a single short session. 

Now, on to the fins owners....

Night's Cult Leader / Spyron “Moonface”

 

 

This is my evil cult middle-management leader, to go along with the previously posted Night's Cult models. This guy is simple, anonymous, and effective as a cult leader stand-in for most of my needs. Like my other Nights cult models, he was a speed-paint for the table a few years ago.

Night's Cult Swordsman (3)

 

 These cultists are the muscle for the captain I posted previously. These guys really shine as groups of mobs -  it makes them much more impressive and formidable on the table. Only some minor stylistic differences, and a slightly better picture, but this post is much more satisfying than the captain.