D&D Essentials: A Kobold Champion

I've got plenty of WotC D&D miniatures to use for foes in my games, but sometimes I like to mix in miniatures from my collection of painted metal and plastic figures to spice things up. The figure featured in today's blog has hung on Phantom's shelves for better than five years, and I finally freed him from his "prison" yesterday and painted him up for this weekend's Sunday morning game.

He's from Goodman Games excellent line of metal Dungeon Crawl Classics miniatures. He'll make an excellent named foe to give my 1st level PC's fits!







Incidentally, we've already played the first part of this delve, so my players are wise to the fact they'll be facing more Kobolds as the adventure progresses--so no spoilers here!

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

D&D Essentials: Tiefling Paladin!

The early morning D&D Essentials campaign could contain a Tiefling Paladin, so I had to come up with a mini for him, and Reaper once again has delivered! Their "Hellborn" make perfect Tieflings, and this guy is no exception.









Taejas, the guy playing this character, asked that he have a trumpet; it's part of his back-story, so I obliged by adding a horn from the Bretonian Men-At-Arms sprue:



A simple conversion, but it works well. Here's a comp shot with my own Dragonborn Druid:



I picked up the Essentials DM's kit boxed set on Friday and it is really excellent. A great way to re-experience 4th ed. D&D.

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Hordes: Croc Proxy

My 25 pt. Blindwater Congregation force contains no duplicate minis (except for my conversion of the Croak Hunter), but I have a 20 pt. build where I'd like to use a second Bull Snapper, that 3 pt. Light Warbeast that is hell to build and practically impossible to convert into a second pose.

Clearly, I needed a proxy. Enter Impact Miniatures. Their slick range of Sarcos croc models contains some medium sized figures just big enough to work as alternate Bull Snappers. I picked one I liked, ordered him, and when he showed up, I gave him a quick paint job. Here's the results:





And here's a comp shot with the actual Bull Snapper:



Not bad, works for me!

This weekend, more role-play models!

Thanks for looking!

--Scott

D&D Essentials: Dragonborn Druid Animal Companion!

Finally got my pack of Reaper figures in to do my Dragonborn Druid's animal companion. In Essentials, the Druid can choose the Spring or Summer aspects. Spring gets a wolf, Summer gets a bear. I chose Summer because it better reflects the fact that my Druid is armed with a staff/shillelagh. I didn't want to use an actual bear model, so to better reflect the Dragonborn race of my Druid, I chose a lizard-like animal companion.

The Lizard Hunting Pack was perfect for this. I picked one of the two lizards in the pack and went to town, sticking to my white scheme. Here's what I ended up with:









And here's a shot of the pair:



I may do some additional blending and touch-ups, but I am now ready for my first Essentials game.

Thanks checking out the blog!

--Scott

SuperFigs: Chrononaut!

I've got a number of unreleased SuperFigs in the hopper, most of which I've shown off on this blog over the last couple years, but this weekend I painted another one that I had never shown before. He's a very slick conversion from one of our existing alien henchman miniatures, and I call him the Chrononaut!







This guy's name is Gulg, he's Chrononaut 717A, an operative of the 36th Century's Time Agency. Their job? Make sure no one from the past mucks with the flow of time. Using his Chrono-staff and the other gadgets in his power armor, Chrononaut 717A has traveled back to Four-Color Earth to make certain that Mr. Cranium does not complete his latest device: a time-convergence apparatus!

Here's a few comp shots of Chrononaut and a couple of the heroes he'll team up with:



The Golem is no stranger to the passage of time, although as a virtual immortal he's taken the "slow path" from his time as a hero of WWII to the current era.



Lucky Strike's fortune altering powers make him an ideal companion to the super-scientific Chrononaut.

At this point, Chrononaut and the other unreleased SuperFigs only exist in master form and I am uncertain if and when we will ever make production molds for them. If you'll pardon the pun, time will tell.

As always, thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Hordes: IronBack Spitter!

I know I said I would swear off painting minis for skirmish or other miniatures battle games for at least a week, but then the Ironback Spitter showed up at Phantom, and I had to work on it!

I've blasted PP in the past for bizarre mold-making decisions that lead to hellish assemblies. The Spitter suffers from no such issues. For a Heavy Warbeast, it goes together quite well. I would even dare say that it's design is ingenious.

Anyway, I went with my version of the studio paint job--I thought about working some green in, but I ended up happy with where the paints took me, and the basing ties him to the rest of the force.













And here are a couple of comp shots for scale ref:





Look for more RPG minis this weekend!

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Old Glory Rioting Peasants

In my effort to add more role-play figures to my painted miniatures collection, I dug out a trio of OG's Revolting Peasant Mobs and gave them a quick paint job.

The sculpting on these figures is crude, but they take paint well and are super to fill out the populace of a town or village. They make great minions for the player characters to mow through.











At $35 for 30 figures, you can't beat the price!

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

D&D Miniatures Retrospective Podcast

I'm pod-casting again! Well, at least a little bit! My buddy Rico started an awesome news site called Play Unplugged that covers the adventure gaming industry, and he asked me to participate in its inaugural online radio podcast, a retrospective on the now defunct D&D Miniatures sets released by Wizards of the Coast.



He and I gab for more than an hour on our favorite, and least favorite, D&D miniatures. You can listen to it right here.

Thanks for checking it out!

--Scott

Another Bugman Warrior Painted

I've had a 4th Aegis Bugman Warrior prepped for painting on my table for quite some time. In my effort to spend some time painting role-play minis over the next week or so, I decided it was his turn, and here he is!







Once again Foundry Butter Fudge comes through--this is becoming a really useful color for all manner of jobs. And here's a comp shot showing my quartet of Bugmen Warriors:



Later this week I hope to nail down my D&D Dragonborn Druid's animal companion, and maybe a few other surprises!

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

D&D Essentials: Dragonborn Druid!

I think I'd like to retreat from painting miniatures for skirmish battle games of any sort for a week (maybe more!) or so, and do some one-off pieces for RPG's, and just personal enjoyment.

To start off, I picked up a great Reaper Reptus Wizard to use as a Dragonborn Druid for a possible D&D Essentials game my buddy Rico may run on Sunday mornings. D&D at dawn? We've done it before!

I didn't like the scroll hand, so I swapped it with a plastic closed fist from some of my spare Warhammer Lizardmen bits, a near perfect fit!



I wanted this mini to have a unique story, and I wanted to do some 3-step white blends again after a while away from it. So I decided he would be a foundling, some scion of a long-lost tribe of albino Dragonborn that worshiped a massive White Dragon as their god. Raised by human druids, he too would take on the mantle of a protector of nature and wielder of its power.

I've decided his name will be Zephyr Frost-Tongue, a title given him by the mountain dwelling druids who raised him as their own.

I went with my go-to green for the robes and hood, Foundry 3-step Phlegm Green. The shillelagh was meant to be ash, so I used Foundry Butter Fudge on it. Here are some more shots:











I need to do a bit of clean-up work on that eye.

Here are some comp shots for scale:





Next up, I need to do an animal companion for Zephyr, and you can pretty much bet it won't be a mammal!

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

WFB: Rats In Unusual Numbers

My buddy Rico and I were talking about playing Warhammer Fantasy Battle again, and I realized I had not yet shown off my recently completed unit of 60 Giant Rats. Yes, I went there. It is a horde of hordes, and surprisingly effective in the two games I have fielded them in.

If anything, they're a tar-pit that when placed in the center of my lines, proves difficult to avoid!











In making the unit I used GW rats from every conceivable source, including Necromunda and some long OOP fantasy models (thanks, Lou!).

As impressive as they are, a bit of good cannon fire sends them packing! They are Skaven, after all!

Thanks for looking!

--Scott