Kobold Archers (2)

In the interests of keeping things moving along, here are two more diminutive representatives of my kobold warband (see the "kobold" label for more). Despite being some of my oldest pieces, they still hold up pretty well. In fact,  I am considering adding to them in the near future to round out the force and make sure I have enough to run "The Sinless Citadel" module.  

 

These archers tend to be just behind the magic-users in terms of the threat they pose within the warband. Small, crafty, and fast, with the ability to pump out damage at impressive range, they are far more dangerous than they might seem at first. The kobolds are a unique and fun gaming option  because of how differently they play from other warbands; they are individually weak, but coordinated attacks and sacrificial plays can draw the opponent into an overwhelming kill-box. More often than not, it is these archers who end up playing a key role in those tactics.

 

 

 

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.

 

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).

 

 

Orc Skeletons (5)

These orc skeletons are half of the "old guardroom" skeleton encounter in LMoP's Wave Echo Cave. The brief encounter description mentions the bones of both dwarves and orcs, and I thought a good mix would make for a more memorable encounter than if I had just subbed them with vanilla skeletons. Making species appropriate undead adds a good deal of work to my various adventure module goals, but I enjoy the depth it adds to my collection.


The models are 3D prints, sculpted by Avatars of War. Bases were hand sculpted and are ~32mm. I'm still having issues with bloggers image display - it always scales images up and makes them look fuzzy relative to how they look in an image viewer app. Ah well, Ill replace these images if I ever figure it out. 

 

Ordinary Bat

A tiny "ordinary bat" miniature on a 15mm base. This unassuming creature marks a return to one of my favorite subjects - non-fictional animals! Despite their bad reputation, I love bats. While most people associate them with the fall, I look forward to our small friends first arriving at the end of long summer nights. Watching them flutter over the fire pit in the back yard is a favorite pastime with the fam. 

 

The "ordinary bat" title is a joking homage to how they are named in the AD&D MMII. Evidently the fantastical creatures are so abundant in some fantasy worlds that natural ones need to be specifically called out as "ordinary." This convention applies to other ordinary critters which are sure to wander onto my painting table in the coming year. 

 

This itty bitty miniature is from the reaper Bones familiar pack. Thankfully, it is a light enough material that I was able to attach it by the wingtip to a branch with a small pin, and it has proven sturdy enough to survive several falls and even a rampaging house cat over years of play. I think the added height is needed to capture the character of this little flying fellow. 

Giant Four-Armed Gargoyle

 

Gargoyles are a fantasy staple; if you don't have gargoyles, you're doing it wrong! While standard gargoyles are a recognizable classic, this mountain of living, flying, rock with four arms and loads of animosity isn't what most people picture. It is a classic for the lich Acererak, though, and his opinion holds some weight around here. This model will make a nice leader / centerpiece for a clan of gargoyles I have been working on at the same time, but are just a little behind this fellow in terms of progress.

This very nice model is made by Threat Factory, who have earned an increasing share of my time at the paint table.  Their sculpts really appeal to me because of sheer paintability. This model was completed just in time for TF's paint contest. I don't expect to place, but I love to participate for the brief moments of community the events foster. I am a fussy painter, and models tend to slow down the closer they are to being done. I always want to touch up this-bit or that-bit, and I take twice as long to finish the last 10% as the preceding 90%. A paint contest and its deadline give me a good reason to just say "it's done" and just move it to the display cabinet. Heck, I should do more contests for that reason alone - a similar outcome for a fraction of the effort by forcefully bypassing my own indecision and procrastination. 

 While I personally love painting heaps of rock, I imagine it isn't super thrilling for others. The pop of orange eye-glow gives it that little bit of visual interest / focal point the model needs.  Normally I avoid the glowing eye trope, but it really fits for a gargoyle mauler. 

 

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. 

Ghouls (3)

 

 

These are the first of my sizeable ghoul pack. They are sculpted by the ghoul master himself, Paul Muller. This pack was originally produced by Otherworld miniatures, but now appears to be sold by Crooked Dice games. The nice sinewy texture Paul puts on these makes them a snap to paint with a few light washes and highlights. The primary painting goal with these guys was to keep them simple. I have a large number of them, which is often called for with ghoul encounters, and I wanted to be able to reproduce the paint scheme easily as I added more members. I kept them gritty, somewhat mirroring a painter I knew from many years ago that did everything in this palate.

Because ghouls are so common in published adventures, these guys are an important addition to my collection. Ill follow with more of the pack in coming months.

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.

  

Three-headed Pyrohydra / Tryclyde

This three-headed beast was wayyy off script, but it was a really fun way to finish off my painting goal for 2024 - model number 52! I try to average at least one model a week every year, and almost always fail horribly, but in 2024 I squeaked under the deadline with this huge sized monster. I went with it because it was a great opportunity to play with the airbrush I had just gotten for xmas. With big blocks of color I was able to knock out the base coats in no time at all, even with my ham-fisted spidery airbrushing. In retrospect, red was not the best starting point for my first color palate (so tough to highlight well), but it definitely gave me confidence to bring the airbrush into my regular rotation of painting techniques. I'm a little embarrassed it took me this long to try out - it was intimidating at first, but actually pretty easy to do. The paint work isn't perfect, but, dang, it was definitely fast for a model of this size. Of all the different elements in this piece, I really like how the eyes and tongues turned out. The scales need more pop but, hey, I was on a deadline. 

The sculpt itself is great - another gem from Schlossbauer. I really appreciated the Mario-D&D crossover potential. I know a three-headed pyrohydra isn't normally a D&D thing, but that is a missed opportunity (Wizards, take note). I stayed true to the tryclyde color palate, or at least my interpretation of it, and I'm happy I did. In fact, I'd like to make some shooting fireball models so I can really geek out on the Mario style encounter. 

Hydras are a favorite monster of mine, and all too often I find myself "saving" models like that until some magical future time when I am "good enough" or "have enough time to do it justice," but I end up just keeping them in the pile-o'-shame. But, not this time! I committed to try something new, and my first hydra is done! Only like 50 to go.....

Mud Elementals / Mudmen (2)

 

These are a pair of classic Ral Partha mud elementals. They are simple to paint, and really fun on the game table. Mud elementals are among my favorite adversaries because of the interesting tactical challenges they present by merging with terrain. These were painted roughly 15 years ago (at the time of writing), when I was first experimenting with gloss effects, but I have never shared them before. 

Otyugh

 

This is a heavy metal miniature from WoTCs Chainmail line, long defunct, and painted many years ago. I tried to make the base as trash and waste filled as possible, befitting its reputation. Unfortunately, the idea was better than the execution and the final result is too low contrast. 

Other than that, aberrations are always fun to work on with their bizarre and twisted forms. The central feature, the mouth, came out suitably gross. So, while some aspects of the project were disappointing, others were satisfying.

Corpse Counters (2)

That about sums it up. Due to personal and professional challenges this year I haven't felt like posting, but I have decided to resume at a slower pace. 

These counters were made from basing bits that previously come with the Heresy Miniatures Paul Muller ghouls (OOP). A preview, as it were.  

Kobold Soldier (2)

 

These diminutive hoplites represent the apex of kobold military might. So, not that impressive. still, we are finally getting to the rank-and-file of the kobold warband that I have.

 That these are based on square bases is a clear indicator that this is one of my older projects. I have so many models based this way that I feel obligated to carry it forward, despite my preferred choice being round bases.

These were painted with a simple and fast layering of washes. It falls flat in some parts of the miniatures, but the metals end up looking nice and become the focal point.

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!