Young Green Dragon / Venomfang

 

 

This fellow is an important encounter in LMoP - he may not be the BBEG, but has the potential to be super deadly. What's more, he is almost certain to survive and become a recurring threat. 

Paint wise this piece is pretty simple and was completed quickly. In retrospect I could've upped the contrast - under the bright lights it looks a little washed out. That said, I recall consciously going for a brighter look. <shrug> Just an excuse to revisit the green dragons again in the future; I definitely enjoy green color palates.

A bright spot here for me is the base. I typically sculpt my bases the old-school way with mixed media: polymer clay and green stuff. These days it isn't really necessary, but pushing clay is very calming and lets me really tell the story I want. In this case I was inspired by some unusual terrain I have seen from time to time - elevated grass mounds in flood plains and marshes. Nothing too fancy, but I do like the effect and I'll continue to toy with the execution of the concept. 

This model was completed in 2020, but I have yet to share it anywhere, so it feels like a new accomplishment. I feel like I'm finally making some meaningful progress towards completing LMoP, and That is some nice motivation to push through.

Corpse Mound

 

Oof! I may have bitten off more than I could chew with this one! I decided to all-in on Halloween painting and participate in MZ4250's monthly competition - there is a printer up as a prize, and it was worth a shot. Unlikely to nab it, but I am more than happy for the extra motivation to work on spooky topics befitting the season. MZ has been making a bunch of creepy monsters on his end, so I wanted to work on something new to the catalog. This piece immediately struck me as being ambitions and audacious - perfect! I tried a few other prints as well, but my print game was weak and this fairly complex and delicate piece was the only one I was satisfied with. Ambitious was right!  

After printing I had only a precious few weeks left, and my initial look at basing was unimpressive. I spend some solid time building up a base worthy of the title "corpse mound". It is partially clay with some woodfiller and a good dose of chopped up chunks of bad prints. I even made a few skeletons from MZs catalog to bulk it up. I followed that up with a few rounds of late-night speed-painting. I pretty quickly realized I was in over my head - so many bits and bobs here and there. I mostly just went sloppy with it with the hopes that the decayed nature of the undead would mask my mistakes. The photography leaves a lot to be desired - I was forced to use my old phone in a pinch and it struggled with focus on all the protruding bits. Next time ill do better with my painting contest goals.

The end result is decent, but suffers from some balance and detail issues. I think it gets the point across though. Maybe. My kids have differing opinions on what it is - green magical fire, ooze blob or ectoplasm. Not sure what I had in mind, actually - necromantic magic? 

Not sure how I will use it - it is almost more of a terrain piece. Maybe is is a mobile portal to the realm of the dead?  Or perhaps just mundane rotting zombie stench? Time will tell.

Happy Halloween!

Adult Black Dragon

 Fresh from the painting table! Well, the kitchen table, in the spot where I paint, much to the annoyance of my patient wife. It has been a whirlwind couple of project days getting this beast of a mini ready for a "chromatic dragon" paint contest MZ4250 is holding. Normally I struggle with short timelines on projects, but the top prize is an FDM printer which I could definitely put to good use but have no budget for. So, I decided to throw my hat into the ring by painting the biggest piece I have ever completed (perhaps comparable to the adult white dragon I completed previously). 

It was probably a poor choice - I had a good amount of indecision with reposing the model and some trouble with early print attempts (file scaling problems I didn't anticipate), which cut into my working time considerably. Assembly on these huge dragons is a bear - I had to cut and key it in Meshmixer to fit it on my Photon build plate. That means a lot of prep time was required. I also printed a base element (from Cast 'N Play, I believe), so that I could mount the model somewhat elevated in the air. It was a tricky pin job to secure it well, but the end result is very sturdy. The model is hollow, so very light, and I weighted the base with nickels to keep it stable, which worked out well. 

The paintjob itself was a bit of a random walk. I had some vague ideas, but only about 12 hours of paint time available to me when all was said and done. For me, with a model of this size, that is firmly in "speed paint" territory. A lot of people have been playing with the variety of colored metallic paints that have recently become available so I wanted to joint in. I knew I wanted to break out Reapers new "black Pearl" color and a collection of of Turbodork paints I had accumulated but had yet to try. The fam was pretty convincing that it should be a purple-black dragon, rather than the traditional green-black that is the norm for D&D art, and I am really pleased with that decision. I think it reads well as a black dragon, and I have plenty of room on the palate for other purple dragons down the road (looking at you amethyst dragon). 

When I completed my Adult White Dragon I mentioned that I might try to complete a whole cycle of MZ4250's chromatic dragons, and with this second entry, it seems like I am committed. Given that it is such a big piece in my collection, and sure to grab some attention on my display shelf, I think it is worthy of being a named dragon. I'm liking " Susyalgra the Odious,"  what do you think? Ill have to come up with a name for the other dragon as well.

 In terms of utility on the game table I had the black dragon Aulicus from I2: Tomb of the Lizard king in mind. The encounter in that module looks positively vicious - TPK material. This should fit the bill; looking forward to it.

Spectator

 

My fourth mini of 2022! I have been a painting machine lately, but I have been worse than ever at sharing my work. I completed 52 minis in 2021, making the first year since 2013 (gasp!) that I have actually achieved my annual painting goal of averaging one mini per week. I think part of my success came from giving myself a non-arbitrary goal.

 I have been steadily painting every miniature needed to run The Lost mines of Phandelver. At first it seemed pretty easy to do, but there are a surprising number of different pieces needed, especially when I consider descriptions that are unique (such as demihuman undead and villagers). The spectator is, of course, one of the apex encounters in that module, and easily the most monstrous creature to be found. 

This sculpt was a 3D print from MZ4250's collection, painted quickly with his monthly contest in mind. It is my second beholder kin from him, and each has been super fun. There will be more beholders in my future.

I wanted to try something unique with the basing here - I really wanted it to be flying but I have been overusing the conveniently close pillar for flying creatures quite a bit. Ultimately I opted for something I hadn't done before, smoke! I thought it would be action movie-esq to have him swooping through the smoke from a prior destructive eye ray blast. The smoke effect actually lends a ton of flexibility for attachment points, and though you cant really see it in these pictures, I think it pulled off the floating effect well. For those interested in the craft, the smoke was made bake clay and wire for strength.

 Death from above!

Mikey the Fiendish Flesh Golem

 

Mikey (or Mickey, as he is known in Descent Into Avernus), was painted for MZ4250's monthly painting competition. I went through his catalog and picked out the creepiest thing I could find (and thought I could complete on time) for a the fun thematic contest. I didn't know anything about the character  beforehand - he definitely wasn't something I expected to paint, but man, he was fun! I was able to play with all sorts of sickly and unearthly flesh types in a single piece. Definitely a good learning opportunity. Ill have to paint up his creator ("Mad Maggie") to accompany him.

Despite my best intentions, found myself waaay behind today (submission day), so I sat and cranked a good chunk of the model in one sitting. Still, I'm pretty happy with the paint. The photography, on the other hand, didn't work out as well. I am a poor studio photographer, and I don't really have proper equipment to do it right, so I tend to rely on natural light. Because I finished so late, that wasn't an option, and my crude rig of household lamps made for some unsightly shadows. 

But, hey! something new, and fun, in a ghastly sort of way