Wizkids Reservoir Kraken - WZK90563

 

Okay - soapbox moment/rant... I don't know if WizKids thinks they're selling gold, but the latest pricing for this UNPAINTED miniature is $44.99 at Miniature Market with a retail price of $49.99. Since when did unpainted miniatures climb that much in price. Freaking ridiculous! I'm sure I picked this up a few years ago for like $15 and probably thought that was outrageous because large minis from the WizKids line were like $8.

Maybe because it's "Magic the Gathering" and Wizards/WizKids love screwing the Magic players - stamp Magic the Gathering on it and jack up the price 5x what it's worth. Any Magic players reading this, I'll sell it to you in-box for $200, rofl!

=== rant over ===

This post isn't really about the miniature, although it's a fun miniature, instead I'm back on the bandwagon about AK Interactive PlayMarkers. After I picked up the Tools & Weapons pack, I was back at my local friendly hobby store Emerald Tavern in Austin, TX running some ShadowDark RPG and this time picked up the Viscera pack. This one had Purple, Pink, and Red.

Looking around my shelf, bags, and boxes of unpainted miniatures; the Reservoir Kraken box art was the perfect model for purple, red, and pink. Again, I had an absolute blast painting with the PlayMarkers. The best part is the ability to stop and start. Give it a go for an hour in the evening then cap the marker - come back to it two days later and "paint" some more for an hour or so. There's no prep or trying to preserve a wet palette - no getting the paints out, getting the water, trying to find the correct color consistency, cleaning brushes, etc. - this is as simple as grabbing your pen and writing - instead it's a paint marker on a 3d object. These markers completely lower the barrier to "hobby time". Have ten minutes before dinnertime, pop the cap and start painting.

I'm going to continue putting together some thoughts...

• It's contagious fun! 
• Still really easy to use - they have a brush-like tip - it comes down to a point of about a 1 brush, maybe a 2.
• After 2 models, I'd say this is a great way to introduce newbies to the painting hobby - I'll qualify that with having the "right" model - something that's smooth, easy access, with broad swath of space to color - monsters, a wizard with a robe, a woman in a dress, a knight in armor - a model with lots of tiny details would most likely be frustration.
• Using a marker to color in a model is much easier than using a brush - mostly true, with this model there were some areas that the thickness of the model made it difficult to attack because of the tentacles in crazy directions.
• They're very opaque - there's no bleed through so you can't really blend or build up layers - this remains true - so I've used this to my advantage - don't worry about "coloring in the lines" as it's very easy to "clean-up" once the original color is dry - just paint over the mistake with the appropriate color - the opaqueness of the paint wipes away the mistake.
• That leads to a new point - the dry time on these is very fast - which for the style of painting I think is a good attribute - vs. say Reaper Pro paints which I believe has some dry retardant in it so it makes the paint easy to blend and layer.
• The paint dries to solid - I haven't noticed any paintbrush streaks once dry - the sheen on it is about at an eggshell - definitely more towards the flat/matte side of the spectrum than the satin bu there is a slight sheen - red more so than the purple.

More models coming using these PlayMarkers from AK Interactive.

Reaper Miniatures Animal Companions (5) - Wolf - 77216

 

12/07/2025 - Updated with corrected title and added Julie Guthrie as the sculptor (Reaper's website was down last night when I originally posted)

This posting isn't so much about the miniature, it's about the paint. But first, this is the dog/wolf of the Companion Animals pack from my kickstarter bones stash. Looks like there are five minis in the pack to include a bear, a cougar, a bird, and what looks like a lynx.

What this post is actually about are PaintMarkers from AK Interactive - they call them PlayMarkers. I'd seen a quick youtube video a few months back but didn't really think much about them. However, my local gaming store (Emerald Tavern in Austin, TX) started to carry them so I thought that I would give them a try. I picked up a small pack called Tools & Weapons - the pack had three PlayMarkers - Gun Metal, Wood, and Leather.

Looking around for something I had this dog/wolf primered in black sitting on the shelf - so okay, I thought that's the perfect opportunity. I used the darker brown called Leather on the body avoiding the eyes and the snout. Then I used the lighter brown called Wood on the top of the fur as a bit of highlighting on the model.

Some thoughts...

• It's fun! 
• The markers are really easy to use - they have a brush-like tip.
• Using a marker to color in a model is much easier than using a brush.
• They're very opaque - there's no bleed through so you can't really blend or build up layers.
• I used the Gun Metal on some GW Brettonian helmets - worked really well - post those later.

Lots more models coming using these PlayMarkers from AK Interactive.

Kickstarter paint total 228 + 1 Animal Companion - Wolf = 229

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Ulden Mountains

 

It's been awhile since posting as the end of spring led into all sorts of activities from my youngest son's high school graduation to our Aglarion campaign slowly getting put on ice and myself getting more and more into the ShadowDark RPG (which is fantastic). However, I did have one more post to make on the Kingdom of Aglarion map - the Ulden Mountains which make up the edge of the map to the south at the edge of the Ulden Forest.

These were a blast to not only print but also to paint with the airbrush. These were completed back at the end of March so the details may be a bit foggy but I believe that the mountains introduced a new color schema to the board of Vallejo Sombre Grey, followed by Wolf Grey and capped off in Dead White.

At the time I took some additional photos comparing the 50% reduction of the mountains to the original sample trial at 100% scale.

Here's a look at the backside with the individual magnets on each hex - which then lock together and onto the whiteboard.

Final view here of bringing the camera in for a birds eye view of the place.

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Ulden Forest

 

I printed off bunches of forest hex tokens - so this hex was pretty easy to get painted up and ready to go on the board. I actually expanded a bit more southwest than originally planned as that hex is the Ulden Forest and didn't need anything more than trees.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex starts the fourth ring around the city of Onadbyr to the southwest...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Vaddon's Abode

 

On the edge of the swamp is Vaddon's Abode. A rumored hermit living at the edge of the Ulden Swamps who talks to and understand plants and swamp creatures better than people. This was a fun hex to build as it transitions from the swamp to the forest and there was a perfect Hexton Hills hex token with a little cabin on the edge of the swamp but also embedded in the forest.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex starts the third ring around the city of Onadbyr to the southwest...

Hexton Hills - Kingdom of Aglarion - Ronul's End

 

Now that I've completed a couple more minis and projects off my desk it is back to the Hexton Hills project with Ronul's End. This extends the North Bay into the main continental land mass with the town of Ronul's End as the showcase of the area. This also will complete the peninsula of the North Bay Lighthouse.

The only bit missing for Ronul's End is a ship - I think the rumor is that Ronul was a pirate that retired in Aglarion and married a mermaid. His own ship was run aground at the end of the pier so that half of it is in the water in order for his wife to have a method of discreetly socializing with her mermaid relatives. I'm going to need to fire up the 3D printer and see how tiny of a ship I can create.

If you're following along on my Hexton Hills printing of the Kingdom of Aglarion, then this hex completes the northern gap in the second ring around the city of Onadbyr - it's just to the north of the city in the North Bay just past the Tomb of the Constructor and its southeast hex token completes the Lighthouse...

Obelisk

 

One of the more interesting and intriguing ideas Wizards of the Coast did in their 5e adventures was to place a mysterious obelisk within the adventure. Individually they're just an interesting location with some having more powerful attributes than others but not key to the singular plot of that adventure. However, taken together over time there is potentially a plot that these are the artifacts holding back vast evil. I think the Witcher books, video games, and Netflix film series had a similar somewhat magical obelisk like monoliths that controlled magical power and teleportation. One of the obelisks located in the adventure Out of the Abyss has teleportation powers as well.

I came across these while perusing Makerworld for D&D type of items and figured I'd print these off as they can be used in all sorts of tabletop terrain from D&D to Warhammer battles.

The shorter version is actually the original. Then I did some experimenting where I kept the X and Y dimensions of the base the same but then extruded upwards the Z axis within the software. Overall, there is something else interesting, well a bit of a problem actually and I couldn't figure it out. It's hard to tell because of the flat black (which is purposeful), but one side of the inner panels has a glitch which is almost scarlike. I printed the original version first and thought huh. Then I printed the modified version and that ended up with the same scarlike glitch but on the opposite panel. That makes no sense. 

I airbrushed a flat black and then brush painted the runes using Reaper's Retro Emerald #09694 I picked up several years ago at the Reapercon event.

Wizkids Murder Hornets - WZK90592

 

Living in Texas, I'd say these minis from Wizkids are 1:1 scale. These were a basic paint with the brushes (no airbrush). The pair of hornets weren't bad to paint as the miniature comes separate from the stand. The queen hornet is a bit of a pain - I wish they elevated her a bit with a stand - is was super difficult to try and paint the bottom side of the mini.

I have to go back a ways since the last time I painted something straight up that wasn't airbrushed or hanging around the desk for awhile.

Painting instructions for Murder Hornets (used Vallejo paints)...

Step 1: Used Earth on the bases
Step 2: Used Sun Yellow on the entire hornet
Step 3: Used a very watered down wash of Sun Yellow on the clear plastic wings to stain them
Step 4: Used Black on hornet bodies
Step 5: Used Black Wash over everything but the wings
Step 6: wasn't happy with the Black Wash on the yellow so re-touched the yellow with Sun Yellow

These were from the Deepcuts line.

Reaper Miniatures Foo Dog - 77410

 

I needed a test figure for a 3D printed item that is going to be airbrushed in gold. Looking at my unpainted Bones shelf, this mini stood out as the perfect set piece to be a golden statue.

So this was pretty easy - airbrush with Glorious Gold, then airbrush with Umber Wash, then drybrush with Polished Gold. Pretty happy with the way this turned out and I'll follow those steps on my 3D printed item.

Kickstarter paint total 227 + 1 Foo Dog = 228

Reaper Miniatures Honaire, Spirit - 60199

 

I did a no-no, sort of - I experimented on a metal mini vs. a plastic mini - again, a victim of having blue paint in the airbrush, lol.

This metal miniature was sculpted by Bobby Jackson - his sculpts are always great - for the Pathfinder product line and I think in the Pathfinder lore this particular ghost is full green. I've already done that with Reaper's Cairn Wraith.

Instead I hit this with various shades of blue as I was airbrushing my Hexton Hills project (after a prime coat of white as this is a metal model). I only did the swirly bits with the blue and then I gave it a wash with Vallejo Blue Wash. I used Vallejo Silver on the upper portions. 

Then, I've had this fun paint color from Reaper called Retro Frost Satin which is a bit of a metallic silverish light blue. I placed that on my palette and watered it down to almost a wash - then I hit the silver on the model hard like a wash and blended down into the blue just a bit to bring the blue and silver together.  On the face I used Vallejo's Pale Flesh with highlights of Dead White.