Dark Sun Dwarf

What seems like many moons ago, I sculpted a Dwarf that represented what I felt one from the D&D Dark Sun world would look like. It took awhile, but I think that it came out OK. I decided to paint it up, and here is the result.

Who knows if there will be a 5th Ed version of Dark Sun? It would be cool, but I'd be content with an update of the original Greyhawk (I absolutely love the updated Keep on the Borderlands book/adventure/module).

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More Pulp action

In my never-ending quest not to finish my Orlocks, I completed some awesome Mark Copplestone Chinese Dare to Die troops, from Copplestone castings. As I've said before, Mark Copplestone is one of my favorite sculptors, period, and these figs are totally cool. They came in a small set with other Chinese figures, that I've had for eons. Hopefully I'll fish out the others and get them painted up (but hopefully not before I finish the Orlocks!).

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Star Wars Legion

I finished up my boxed set of Legion Stormtroopers from FFG (further procrastinating from painting my Orlocks). They are pretty nice sculpts, but whatever material they are made of is very difficult to scrape mould lines from. I primed them all in white (something that I rarely do) and highly recommend it. I did prime one in gray, and while it turned out decent, it was a royal pain painting all of the layers of white on it.

Close-up of captain and cannon fodder:

And, a comparison shot with the two Wookies from IA, which actually scale well enough with them that you could get away with mixing (I don't have a comp shot with an IA stormtrooper, but the IA ones are much noticeably smaller than the Legion ones):

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Old school metal

In between other projects, I put the finishing touches on a classic WotC iconic figure: Tordek (from D&D). Produced around the late '90's - early '00's, I believe. Tordek's been sitting around for awhile, and begged to be finished. WotC had some real nice sculpts back then, definitely worth trying to find.

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Imperial Assault Wookiees

I finally put the finishing touches on the two Wookiees that I've been working on from Imperial Assault: one is just a grunt, and the other is the most famous Wookiee in the galaxy. They were a blast to paint, and a normal person would get them finished in a couple of days, but I don't like to paint metal, and usually save up several figures' worth of painting before I do it.

The Imperial Assault figs are really nice in most ways - much better than what I've seen so far from the Star Wars Legion stuff (although I do like the Stormtroopers for Legion). It's a real shame that FFG chose not to scale up the Legion figs with the IA ones. Oh, well - that's capitalism for ya!

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Interlude: GW LotR Dwarves

In between painting projects, I switched gears and finished up a small contingent of GW's fantastic line of Dwarves, specifically the Grim Hammers. Really great sculpts, and easy (and fast) to paint. Which is why I finally finished them, as I get easily frustrated/burned out with projects (hence the fact that I've got several going on at once). Well, here they are:

And the whole gang (well, at least the rest of the ones I completed):

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P.S. Still working on those Orlocks! I also succumbed to the Star Wars Legion figs, and picked up a set of Stormtroopers (who are currently primed). There's simply too many cool mini's out there...

D&D repaints

Here's a few D&D miniature repaints that I did for a friend a few years ago. Some were complete overhauls, while others were not as involved. I think that they came out pretty good, and they show that the line of figs from Wotc were pretty versatile and generally well-sculpted. Just more of my recommendation for miniatures on the cheap, with the end result being a good-looking fig, as long as you're willing to do a little work.

Cleric: not too much to do to this one.

Cultist: pretty much a complete overhaul (totally different colors).

Knight: not too much to do to this one, either.

Orc: a fair amount of re-working on this one.

Tannuruk: Seem to recall another decent amount of repainting for this one, as well.

All in all, I had fun re-painting these guys. The line of D&D figs really have a lot of good sculpts, and I have a fair amount that I'd like to re-paint (someday).

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Warlord Krong

While in the middle of painting up some Orlocks (well, beginning to paint up half of them, anyway), I thought that I'd put up a pic of my take on the great (and massive) Warlord Krong! A great Jack Kirby inspired extraterrestrial conqueror. Just one of the many miniatures that makes the Superfigs line (in my opinion, anyway) one of the most unique and characterful lines of Superhero figures.

I decided to go with a fairly monochromatic color scheme, with cooler, blue-ish tones. I also tried to go for more of a higher contrast look than I normally do, hopefully adding to the impact of the overall figure.

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Superfigs!

The latest Superfig that I've completed painting is none other than Ape Austin! I went for a pretty standard color scheme on this one - easy and effective. A great character, and a great Bob Naismith sculpt! Man - that line has a lot of great and characterful miniatures.

I'm still working on those Wookies (procrastinating on the metal areas), and have started the Orlocks. I'm just really slow, and a lot of times I see a fig that's been sitting half-done on my table for what seems like an eternity (i.e., Ape Austin), and I finally finish the damn thing!

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Reaper Ogre

I think that ogres are pretty cool, and I'm a sucker for well-sculpted ones. This Ogre from Reaper's Bones line certainly fits the bill. I prefer the plastic ogres to the metal ones: not only are they cheaper, but they won't chip or break when they get dropped (not that anyone ever drops them, no...). I really enjoyed painting up this one. I have another Bones ogre half done, and will finish it in between painting Orlocks, hopefully.

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LotR Gimli

Here's Gimli from GW's Lord of the Rings line. I tried to follow the paints as described in one of the old White Dwarf magazines (more or less). I still have an over-abundance of old White Dwarf mags, and should get rid of a lot of them, but I'll keep all of the ones with LotR articles, regardless. The fig is based in the old style, and maybe I'll get around to changing it one of these days. Great fig, though!

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P.S. I'm currently working on Star Wars Imperial Assault figs generic Wookie and Chewbacca. And I finally finished building the Orlock gang - what a royal pain that was! They are all built and primed, and I plan on starting them next week, after the Wookies are finished! All I need now is to figure out a paint scheme for them...

Ogre Mage

I finally finished up this excellent Ogre Mage from Reaper Miniatures. This is a great fig that oozes character and is dynamically sculpted. I have a soft spot for ogres, and I simply love this fig!

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Metal Men Heroclix re-paints

Part II of my Heroclix re-paints - Mercury and Iron from the Metal Men. I did varying amounts of work on them. I didn't have to do too much to Iron, other than a couple of washes and some highlights, but Mercury was a bit more involved. I repainted the whole fig in red, threw a wash or two on it, and did a couple of highlights. The fig isn't sculpted well enough to warrant this, I discovered, but C'est la vie! I need to get these statted out for Super Mission Force.

I love the Metal Men!

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Heroclix re-paints

Here are some Heroclix re-paints that I just finished - Ultron and the Absorbing Man. The amount of work on them was not too involved. I basically just re-based them both, and put a couple of washes on Ultron. The Absorbing Man was a bit more involved, with several washes and probably a little too much re-work on his trousers, but it came out pretty well, I think. They are good sculpts, and I didn't have to re-prime them. Just goes to show you that you can easily spruce up a lot of average painted figures and improve their overall looks.

Man is the Absorbing Man built!

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LoTR: Radagast the Brown

Next up for all of us Middle-Earth Mavens is everybody's favorite elusive wizard, Radagast the Brown. Despite his re-tooled look in the Hobbit movies, I find this sculpt much closer to my vision of Radagast. It seems to show him as somewhat detached, yet still powerful - in marked contrast to the bumbling depiction of him in the movies. Another great Perry sculpt (not sure which brother, though).

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More pulp action!

I've been in the mood to paint up pulp characters lately, and the latest is another Copplestone creation. This fig is another one from Mark Copplestone's fantastic line of miniatures. A great fig for any pulp skirmish game or rpg.

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Indy!

More pulp action! It's the best not-Indiana Jones that I've seen so far in 28mm, from Old Glory's Blue Moon line. Sculpted once again by Bob Naisnith. I've seen (and have) the not-Indy sculpted by Mark Copplestone and, while I like it, I still think that this one is better. Bob Naismith hit it out of the park with this one!

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Old School Umber Hulk

Not old enough to be from the first edition of D&D, but the skinnier one of later iterations. This model was produced by WoTC in the late '90's, I believe, when they were churning out a lot of high-quality D&D books and miniatures. I decided to go for a fairly monochromatic color scheme on this one. I have the new Umber Hulk (the beefier plastic one), and may paint him up in a different color scheme (maybe more purple-ish - we shall see). Anyway, a really cool model.

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WOTC Jedi knight

Back before the excellent miniatures from FFG's Star Wars Imperial Assault came out, the best figs that you could get (28mm, at least) for Star Wars were the collectable miniatures from Wizards of the Coast. The quality of the sculpts were varied, but for the most part ran from adequate to downright great. In typical fashion, I've gathered one or two...

This is the Jedi Knight. Basically a generic character, but the sculpt is excellent. I decided to re-paint it without any priming. It came out pretty well, and scales up nicely with the Imperial Assault guys.

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LoTR: Gandalf

The next Lord of the Rings installment brings us Gandalf. We needed a wizard for the free peoples to counter that nasty Saruman! I really like this model, as well - I think that it's a classic. You may notice that Gandalf's base is different from the other LoTR figs I've shown so far. It was done in my newer style, which is how I base all of my figures now (with slight adjustments).

One of the reasons that I haven't painted as many LoTR figs as I'd like is that I'm intimidated by them. They are such incredible sculpts, that I hesitate to paint them for fear of screwing them up somehow. Silly, I know. Hopefully, I'll be adding more to the queue soon.

Also, I've got a few new things painted up and based, but I'd like to seal them with matt varnish before I take photos of them, and since I'd like to do it at above-freezing temperatures (re: outside), it looks like I'll have to wait a bit more before I break out the spray can!

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Reaper Cleric

Here's a great fig that I picked up immediately when I first saw it, and it naturally took me forever to finish painting it. I actually have lots of figs half and three-quarters painted, and many that are painted, but with unfinished bases. I usually stop painting when I get to the little fiddly bits on the figure, and put it aside thinking that I'll come back to it in the next day or two, but rarely do. I also hate dealing with bases, so I wait forever to finish them off, usually working on several figures at a time. Hopefully I'm not alone in this. But I digress…

So, here's a fig that I simply call Cuthbert (after the saint from D&D, of course), made by Reaper.

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Copplestone archeologist

One of my favorite sculpters is Mark Copplestone. I love just about everything that he does. His figures are expressive, dynamic, and full of character. This one is an homage to the Brendan Fraser character from the movie The Mummy. I've had it nearly finished for years now, and finally completed the base (a recurring theme going on here...). I just love the fig - totally awesome!

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Necromunda redux

With all the hype around the reissue of GW's Necromunda, I've taken a look at my old Necromunda figs. I have two painted gangs: Cawdor and Delaque. Both were painted around 20 years ago (I know - I'm getting old...). Anyway, the paint jobs are less than stellar on them, and I pulled out the Cawdor leader and decided to repaint it. I think that it turned out pretty well, especially considering the original state of the paint job (which I unfortunately did not take a shot of). It just goes to show you that with practice at anything, you will get better, and you can always at the least touch up your figs from the past to make them look better. The Cawdors were all pretty great figures, in my opinion.

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Frostgrave characters

I've managed to complete a couple of Frostgrave figures: a generic build from the excellent plastic Frostgrave Soldiers box (the first one they put out), and a metal Cult Barbarian. You can create an amazing variety of charcters from the plastic box set, and as a bonus, you can use them with the other plastic boxes to give you even more options. I can't say enough about how much I like the Frostgrave line.

Soldier:

Cult Barbarian:

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LotR: Saruman

Time for another GW Lord of the Rings fig. This time it's everybody's favorite corrupted wizard - Saruman! Not the most dynamic sculpt, but I like it nonetheless. The Perry twins have produced some great figs in their time, and this line is among their best. It's unfortunate that the metals are out of production (and that I'm still missing a few of them!).

Projects for this weekend include finishing up a couple of Frostgrave figs and a few others that I have to just paint the metals on (and a classic Umber Hulk retouch-up). I may also paint up a D&D plastics Dire Wolf fig that I recently picked up, if I have the time.


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