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. 

 

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.

  

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.  

Zombies (4) #3

 The final installment of human zombies in my current series; whew! Not the best picture, but I'll stick with it for now. They are rotting, after all. These are metal models from Reaper Miniatures and are a nice collection of zombies in different poses. The color palate in this batch is a little too narrow - in retrospect I should've mixed the sets up more for presentation purposes. I still have more zombies to show (and make) - the low level adventures are undead heavy - but I look forward to some different varieties moving forward.

Zombies (4) #2

 

The second installment in my series of human zombies. This time, the models come from a Heresy Miniatures; they have some excellent lines and I particularly enjoy their undead. The sculpting and poses of these zombies have a little more sinister in feel to me relative to others I have done. The weapons are an interesting touch - sometimes zombies are shown as completely thoughtless, and others they retain some spark of their former knowledge - enough to wield tools. Weapons definitely make zombies a more threatening prospect to face!

Of the various batches of zombies I have painted, I think these are near the best - the shading and colors have more contrast and saturation, giving them more un-life.

Zombies (4) #1

 

 Every adventure needs undead, and zombies are endlessly useful.

 Zombies are pretty sloppy monsters, so it was more important that I linked their color palates while giving each some unique elements rather than making each one a masterpiece - The herd is where they make their impact. They were painted at different times over a relatively long interval, so they aren't perfectly consistent, but I think that actually benefits them.  It is much easier to photograph them a few at a time, so I've decided to post small groups over a few weeks. Despite the simple paint jobs, I really appreciate that each is totally unique stylistically.

This first pack of zombies were made by Reaper Miniatures (two of them are plastic bones material, and two are metal). 

As can always be expected with zombies, more to come!

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.

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.

Animated Skeleton Guards (4)

 

These skeletons from One Gold Piece are a great intermediate build for RPGs - no armor or shields, but armed. They are formally titled "Undead General Guards" because they are intended to be fantasy shifted Magna Guard droids for their awesome (and sadly no longer available) Sky Wars line. I couldn't figure out how to stick to the original SW color palate for them, so I went in a different direction stylistically. I love the design, but my support game was weak, and it took a few attempts to successfully print and no break 'em. A few bits here and there were repaired by myself. Not my best work, but they compliment nicely with my other skeletons and will be great on the game table.

I haven't posted many undead here, which is odd because they are heavily represented in my collection. A lot of my early batch painting were of mobs of skeletons; every novice necromancer knows the fastest way to pad your ranks is with the dead. And here I am again, years later, working the same strategy! I noticed my painting goal numbers for the year are low, so I've decided I need to focus on groups of models for a bit to bump my productivity. My major project right now is grinding through The Lost Mine of Phandelver, and this low level module is stacked with the undead. Since most of my skeleton models are older, it is a nice opportunity to have a fresh take.

Wight, Monk / Dreadmere Wight

 

My painting has been sluggish with a slew of spring projects to tackle, so while I work on something new here is a piece from the display cabinet that I have never previously shared. This rotten fellow is from the Reaper Bones 4 Kickstarter, and was the first piece I painted when the loot came in. I was feeling inspired and knocked him out as fast as I could as a speed-paint. 

It is a nice standalone piece, and I really appreciate that it is an undead with some character! The living dead are often stripped down to rags, or just bones, so an undead with some personality, or at least personal history, is much appreciated. It is also one of the few robed undead I own - the old manuals are stacked with robed corpses and the concept is nostalgic for me, but they are surprising hard to find as miniatures.

This wight remained unshared for so long mostly owing to how difficult it was to photograph - it has a forward lean which throws much of the model into shadow under natural light. I'm happy with these shots, after a few prior failed attempts, which I achieved by using a vertical light source.

I really enjoy painting the dead; they are one of the few times I allow myself really let loose with a gritty style and "ugly" models, with lots of haphazard washes. Of course, that is a self imposed concept. At one point I remember finding a miniature artist who did everything like that, in a limited unusual color palate to really great effect. I envied the stylistic commitment which I could never fully push myself to adopt.

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!

Lich

 

This is one of the older models in my collection (so old it is dusty!), and was my test piece for gem technique. I considered it to be a success at the time and it quickly became a regular part of my painting repertoire.

Bodak (2)

 Bodaks! I wasn't really intending to do these bodaks but I enjoyed painting the Printed Obsession Darkweavers enough that I was inspired to knock these out as a "palate cleanser" (Or at least that is how I justified the distraction). These are very simple, understated paint-jobs; nothing flashy here. I guess that is the idea though - understated evil. They seem to be just another run-of-the-mill undead-in-a-robe but are actually wicked dangerous. 

The models are slightly smaller than the default file size (I didn't want them to be so imposing), and they are based on a larger 30mm base to help protect the more delicate parts of the model. PO stuff prints very well, and paints very smoothly, so I think I'll continue to paint some of the Shadowfell/Fey creatures I have from them.

I should note that these fellows are from the AD&D Monster Manual II. Without realizing it I seem to be steadily working my way through that venerable tome, one monster at a time. I think I was inspired by Finch's efforts on the Fiend Folio, so perhaps this is my tip-of-the-hat to his notable miniature collection. I'll tag MM2 monsters in the future and go back to retroactively add notes to things I have already completed (bat, I'm looking at you).

Banshee

 

Harumph.

I said it. This may be my least favorite piece in my collection at the moment. I finished it as a speedpaint in 2020 with the idea that I would make it as monochromatic as possible. It made the queue for a few reasons: it was a good subject for a (nearly) monochromatic study, it was convenient to just grab a Bones model, and I desperately needed a banshee for LMoP. That it wasn't a great cast was an upside - no pressure. In particular, the hands weren't my favorite  and it suffered from the missing nose syndrome that many of the earlier Bones models had. I went with it and gave her a rotted-off skull-face nose, which actually ups the creepiness a bit. 

Anyhow, she does the job and even though I am now flush with ghost lady STLs I doubt I'll replace her any time soon. 

Bone Constructs / patchwork skeletons

 These wonderful "skeletons" are from the underappreciated Crucible line, sold as "Bone Constructs." I think they are really clever! Skeletal amalgamations have become more common in the age of digital STL files, but they are nearly always "large" - very few "medium" scale undead are available, which is a shame. These guys are particularly creative with their inclusion of various animal bones and otherwise odd anatomical structure.I always found it curious that necromancers always had perfectly formed skeletal minions, rather than skeletons such as these. I think they will work perfectly as the phase one skeletons in The Skull Dunes of a The Ghosts of Saltmarsh (or the original Isle of the Abby) campaign. Plus, it gives me an excuse to make more with swarms and a juggernaut! some of the previously mentioned bone golems should fit the bill, but I don't expect the collection to come together quickly. That is fine with me, though, I'll savor their simplicity when they hit the table. Even the bases are super simple - virtually nothing there, but I think it works perfectly. sometimes less-is-more.

These were originally completed in 2017, but I'd paint them just the same today.

Demilich

 

I had prepped this guy some months ago and and it earned a spot on the shelf of shame. Having recently completed a brutal short-term project on the biggest piece I have done to date (the adult black dragon that was posted recently), and I was in dire need of a palate cleanser, and this tiny fellow fit the bill - ready to go, simple, and a planned PJ. On Ssturday I knocked it out in a single-sitting two hour session, and touched it up the following morning. For me, that's great! As I've mentioned before, I really struggle with completing projects quickly - compulsive analysis paralysis and endless touch-ups are my curse as a painter.  By that standard, this represents real progress because the paint needs more work. I called it done, and I like where it is at!

Flameskull swarm!

 I needed a single flameskull mini for the Lost Mine of Phandelver, and after some hunting I settled on these nice designs from Mini Monster Mayhem. It had a few different poses and some grouped models so, naturally, I went a bit nuts printing a whole swarm of them. I found the models to be too large, so I shrank them down to half-size to be a little closer to "tiny" (still a little big, but...urm...they are magic, so...yeah, big heads). I used several base sizes for singles, pairs, and the 5 head swarm (gulp!).

 It wasn't until after making them that it occurred to me just how terrifying an encounter with a swarm of flameskulls would be - sooooooo many fireballs. 

I went with red fire because I tend to overuse green for my undead and there was a demilich on deck with a similar effect in blue-green. I didn't push the skulls to cream/bone because I thought a darker tone would make the fire pop a bit better; it worked out pretty well and I think they read as scorched.

Undying Minotaur

 

 Ah, the skeletal minotaur, always a popular option for necromancers it seems. This was a nice excuse to paint rusted armor, something I always enjoy working on. I couldn't decide on which picture to post - each offered something different but was lacking in some way, so both it is. The base on this fellow is unusually understated for me, I think, but I managed to include some visual interest in the mud/muck by adding bits from the Reaper weapon sprues they made a few years back. 

The hammer was intended to be stone and bone, but I'm not sure if that translated - it was probably a poor design choice on my part.