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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15mm Super Apes!!!

I used to dabble in sculpting, and a few years ago, I sculpted up a 15mm ape. I showed it to Scott - he liked it, and asked me if I could sculpt up a couple others. I did, and here is the result. I tried to make each one a little different from the other, and gave them each a similar belt to hopefully tie them all together, and make them look more "comic book like," if you will. One also got power gloves (the Orangutan). I finally got around to basing them (they've been patined for quite awhile now). The figures were actually produced as masters, but never made it into production. If only Julius Schwartz was still around...

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Frostgrave Large Construct!

Northstar's Frostgrave line of miniatures has been producing some of the best (and most reasonably-priced) fantasy miniatures available anywhere. The plastics are simply amazing, and the metals are equally good. You can use them for just about anything you want - role-playing, skirmish (they'd be great for Mordheim) and mass battles. I highly recommend any of their plastic miniature box sets. I've started several plastics, but I finally finished the Large Construct, which is metal. Super easy and fun to paint. It's a great fig!

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LoTR

While I try and get my digital camera figured out for proper pics of some newly painted mini's, I thought that I'd post a couple of pics from one of my favorite lines of miniatures - GW's Lord of the Rings. In my opinion, they are the best looking and sculpted Elves and Dwarves available. I love the vast majority of the entire line (though there are some duds, I admit), and I have most of them (naturally, the majority are unpainted). First up is Legolas -  his base is finished in an old style, which I soon changed in favor of other methods, but I still think it looks alright. Anyway, great sculpt!

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Rattle them Bones!

Thought that I'd post a great Reaper Bones fig - the Bugbear! I'm on the fence about Bones' smaller figures (due to loss of detail and the elasticity of the plastic), but I simply love their larger ones. There's not much loss of detail from the metal figs, and if you drop them, they won't chip or break!

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Rising like a Phoenix (or a zombie…)

Hey all! No, it's not Scott - it's his buddy Jan (posting as "Skip"), carrying on the hi-jacking of this site (with Scott's approval, of course). I always enjoyed reading Scott's posts, and think that it would be nice to at least keep the spirit of this blog alive. I plan on posting at least once per week, and will focus on miniatures. I've recently begun painting mini's again after about a three-year hiatus (more or less). I've got some cool things in the can already, and lots of projects in the pipeline.

I'll start off with some previously painted Superfigs (my two favorites): Ape Ace! and The Battlin' Belgian!

Hope you like them!

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Chaos In Cochise County

My good friend and fellow Goalsystem writer Lee Howard is running a Kickstarter that is well worth a look!

Chaos In Cochise County

Thanks for looking!

--Scott

Pause For The Cause

I am popping back in for a brief moment to promote my buddy Rico's new online store!

http://thriftywargamer.com/

He's got a lot of great stuff on offer, and if you live in the USA, it's well worth a few minutes browsing on his site. 

Give it a look!


P.S. While still in the throws of gamer ennui and real-life struggles, I am slowly making my way back.  Not sure when the blog will fully revive, but keep the faith.  I am still here. Thanks!

Modeling ain't easy...

The 1/72 project has spiraled out of control. After the incorrect attempt to match up Zeros and P-40s I switched it up to Kittyhawks vs Bf-109s in the desert. Its a great setting with some great color schemes to model. After some more research I settled on 112 Squadron vs. 27 JG and found appropriate decals. I had to figure out how the RAF and Luftwaffe marked their aircraft. As I expected, the German system is baroque and overly complex. < + = gruppen staffel waffle smaffle with special markings for the unit's cook's aircraft. Come on.

While I am enjoying the modeling, part of me longs for the days when filing a mold seam for 30 seconds was all that was required to get a model ready for paint. These Airfix kits are easy level and come together nice but the whole thing is a huge schlep compared to most of my wargaming past. Now I am trying to figure out how to go about masking canopies.

In the last few weeks I completed a Mighty Armies Barbarian force and did a platoon of 1/285 GHQ Shermans. Once I get the stomach to get the camera out again I will put up some pics.

Let a hundred projects bloom...

Finally getting an airbrush has opened up a whole new world. Its a somewhat frustrating world, featuring endless decisions regarding paint, thinning, cleaning, moisture traps, needles, cleaning, future, flat coats, cleaning, etc... While I cut my teeth on the rebel shuttle project my eye has been wandering. With an airbrush I can give aircraft models a proper treatment. And coincidentally I have been playing the fantastic X-Wing game with King Jeff. So I started to fantasize about converting those rules to World War II air combat and then before you know it I am buying up model kits. I decided to do Flying Tigers vs. the Japanese and I was ecstatic to find these new retooled kits on offer.

 

I pulled the trigger and now of course it seems the AVG didn't actually fight Zeros, they just called everything a Zero. So that means I need two more sets of planes, some Hellcats to fight the Zeros I already bought and then some Oscars to fight the P-40s. I am really looking forward to doing these model planes. I did so many as a kid and now I can do them properly. If anyone knows some X-wing conversions out there let me know!

Chaos Bike

Photographing this thing was not fun. Building it was. If you fudge the trees like I did there isn't any serious engineering. Some tube and bits and there you go. I have a few more unpainted. I had a concept for a really biker heavy force but that got scaled down to a nice unit. I am going to spend the points for everything in the army to be mounted. I had a vague idea of a renegade legion that perpetually rode a massive highway that circled the equator of some blighted industrial planet. They would lean toward Slaneesh or Slanesh or Slade or whatever, but not be sophisticated enough to go all the way.

Three more to go. Scott posted in progress pics of a Kenner Rebel Shuttle I was converting for use with 15mm Sci Fi. That beast is finally ready for paint. I even bought an airbrush. Stand by for alot of wailing and gnashing of teeth as I get that going. Preshading soon!

Do not adjust your screens! Four-Color Figures is back! Sort of! Scott has temporarily lost some of his gaming mojo but until he gets it back, his friends and biggest boosters are going to keep his blog running. Why? Because we really liked his blog and don't want to watch it fade into obscurity. So until Scott drifts out of the horse latitudes we will keep it going. Up first is me, Scott's friend Sky.

Here are some pics of what I am doing lately.

Once or twice a year I always slide back into 40k Chaos. I can't help it. I just like the models. I even bought my third codex for the army. At least its hardback and all color. Check back in a few days. If Scott didn't regret giving me the password to this cadillac blog then I will post some pics of a chaos bike conversion.

Sky

On Hiatus

Hey, folks.  Life events swirling around me have changed me. I no longer possess the zeal to game, paint, and post.  It is unlikely I will be quite the same person when I come out on the other side of this, so who knows if and when I will return.  It's been a great ride either way.  I thank you all for your support and your page views.

Peace.

--Scott