Reaper Miniatures - Sir Conlan - 77200

 

I used this Reaper Bones model for a bit of an experiment - it had been sitting on my desk with a coat of light blue paint over it from some leftover paint from airbrushing the ocean hexes. It's also a Bobby Jackson sculpt which means it has some nice flow to it as all of his sculpts are awesome and would work well for this experiment.

I wanted to use only the Sharpie markers on this as well as some acrylic metallic markers I found on Amazon (Pagather 24 Metallic Acrylic Markers). I've been playing around quite a bit with the AK Interactive markers but they do tend to be a bit messy and I wanted to give the Sharpies more of a go. However, the Sharpies are very limited in color - so now I have 24 metallic colors (too many to be honest). 

This was a lot of fun and super easy. The blue cloak, the grey shield, the black straps were all Sharpie. The gold armor and the silver sword were the Pagather metallics. Like wow, that was simple. I did need to go to the AK's for the dark skin on the face. May need to see if the Pagather's have more colors to supplement the Sharpies. 

The Pagather acrylic markers were interesting - they're dual tipped with the brush tip on one side and what they called fine tip on the other which was more of a ball tip like the Sharpie bullet tip version. And like the Sharpie bullet tip version there wasn't a shaker ball and no instructions to shake. However, the brush tip acted and looked exactly like the Sharpie brush tips and the paint flowed quite well from the tips. I was accurate enough with the tip to get the gold chain going down and carefully follow the lines of the sword through the cloak.

One more test... I don't normally spray Bones models because they're so soft that the paint doesn't chip like a metal model would. However, I wanted to give it a go and see if there was any adverse effects on the model like what happened with the Vallejo Xpress Color paint on the Wizkids Raging Troll.

I gave it a pretty solid coat of Testor Dullcote and there was no reactivation or disintegration of the paint. Looks the same...

Time to bring the model into Google's Gemini and convert it to artwork for your VTT sessions using AI...

Now for some ShadowDark goodness for Sir Conlan. As he's designated as a Paladin which isn't in the core rulebook, let's take from the Monsters a combination of the Knight and the Acolyte - then give him a couple bumps in level...

Finally, this does count against my giant kickstarter pile (it is going down). 

Kickstarter paint total 229 + 1 Sir Conlan = 230

NextLevel Miniatures - Gold Dragon

 

This is a huge mini from NextLevel Miniatures on a 3" base and sits at 4" tall from tail to horns with 4" wings - actually quite a beautiful miniature - well sculpted with good proportions.

I airbrushed this with Vallejo Air Gold. I really like the outcome - it shoots extremely well through the airbrush.

Then it was back over to the AK Interactive Playmarkers and I used Desert Ochre on the belly and inner wings. Finished off with Black on eyes, nostrils, and claws.

Brought the first photo into Google Gemini and asked it to convert it to artwork for your VTT...

No ShadowDark card as essentially the Gold Dragon is the equivalent of a Lawful Red Dragon - use those stats on page 210 of the core rulebook.

NextLevel Miniatures - Tentacle Horror

 

Lots of fun with this model. I used both the AK Interactive and the Sharpies on this beast. Of all the miniatures from NextLevel this model is easiest my most AND least favorite model. It has great character and a fun vision - three eyeballs, monster mouth, big slime, long tale, four tentacles, and a rockin set of feathers and scales. However... this came in multiple parts - tentacles, tail, body and the precision of the assembly was awful. 

The easiest thing to do was to start off with Animal Green over the main body. Light Green for various big highlights and on all the little nodules throughout. The contrast between the greens was a bit much, so I used Vallejo Goblin Green as a wash to tone it down and blend it together a bit. 

Favorite color Purple on the tentacles with the nodules on top and the suckers below hit with a Pink. Red on the feathers/scales going down the backside following by Dark Orange. Finally I used Sharpie paint brush tips Orange and Black on the eyeball. I originally had it yellow, but when I went back to do a bit of clean-up I grabbed Orange and really liked it much better.

On the base I went back to my traditional paint it Black and drybrush Vallejo Neutral Grey and Stonewall Grey.

Time for some Google Gemini A/I magic for your VTT...

Here's my ShadowDark Monster Index Card...

It's a Kraken Holiday

 

To get into the spirit of the Holidays I picked up some fairy lights off Amazon and carefully created a light box out of the retail packaging. My original thought was to tangle the fairly lights within the tentacles of the creature but that didn't end up looking quite right. Instead I placed the lights around the edge of the package front and top so that the fairy lights would display and showcase the model. The light chord sneaks out the back of the package to an easy on/off switch. Looks pretty cool.

And for those crazy Magic players - my offer of $200 is still open and now includes fairy lights for free, rofl!

Christmas Minis Arrive from the Goblin King

 

There's a Youtube channel I've been following for years - many years - and is one of my favorites because Michael, aka the Goblin King, promotes and shows that it's okay to paint for the game table instead of a glass enclosed shrine.

He also has a ko-fi channel and sells subscriptions for miniatures - I've been a member for a few years now and I'm on a tier where I receive several monster minis twice a year - a summer release and a winter release. I love receiving these, not just because they're my toys that I look forward to getting into a gaming session, but I like to see how another painter approaches tabletop quality and he bases miniatures very different than mine (I'd say it's a more traditional approach).

Michael's Youtube channel is Michael Mordor.

And here's a link if you want to go straight to the videos. Lots of great older videos in his list. Much of what he paints are Reaper Miniatures and WizKids - mostly what I paint as well.

Here's Michael's ko-fi shop. He has almost a dozen membership tiers you can join to receive minis in your mailbox (and it's quite fun to receive a box with Royal postage from the UK for us living in the US).

Michael also runs a blog on ko-fi that he updates on a regular basis - so check out some of his past posts.

Ruined Manor House

 

I took a risk and bought some things of Temu - picked up a couple t-shirts, some 3d prints, and a 2d metal artwork piece. I definitely will not be buying t-shirts off Temu, I could have guessed those would just be very low quality. The 3d prints are alright - this manor house, a graveyard, and a couple of medieval boats that'll need airbrushing. The 2d metal artwork came bent, I complained and received money back on the item with a keep it message - we'll see what we can do with that - I've started working on it, but unkinking metal is a pain in the ass.

First up, I picked up this ruined manor house. It's scaled at true 28mm - probably really needed to be 32mm to deal with where heroic scale minis have been for the last two to three decades. Original 80's Ral Partha miniatures would be right at home. It also appears to be missing a lower doorway piece on the front side, but that wasn't included (and not included in the seller's image).

I did the majority of this with airbrush. Black base for the brick - brown base for the wooden structures - blue base for the roof tiles. Then drybrushed with a giant Citadel Scenery brush (it's the only Games Workshop brush I own). Neutral Grey and Stonewall Grey for the stone. I think it was Plague Brown for the wood. Then Magic Blue and Lightning Blue on the roof tile.

NextLevel Miniatures - Morlock Wretch

 

More of the same as the last batch of Morlocks. Using AK Interactive Playmarkers I put down a layer of Zombie Skin, then hit the teeth with White and the eyeballs with Light Green. Black on the base with dithering of Dark Grey and Light Grey. These did have some hair which I used the Dirty White - I probably should have highlighted some of the strands with White for more pop.

Google's Gemini A/I got it half right - it found the hair on the right Morlock but not the left.

Image "enhanced"...

See the Morlock Lurker for the ShadowDark stats.

NextLevel Miniatures - Morlock Lurker

 

As easy as it gets with paint markers. Using AK Interactive Playmarkers I put down a layer of Zombie Skin, then hit the teeth with White and the eyeballs with Light Green. Black on the base with dithering of Dark Grey and Light Grey.

Google's Gemini A/I is just so much fun - here's some VTT artwork...

Here's my ShadowDark Monster Index Card. I wanted to give these guys a bit more than just another goblin. They're aggressive subterranean creatures with violent tendencies - they crawl up the cave walls, hide in the shadows, and then jump down on their victims slashing them with a clawed hand and then biting them while wrapped around their victim. I thought about giving them Dodge monster talent - I still might - let's them dodge a successful attack once per day.

NextLevel Miniatures - Bartop

 

A fun miniature to paint by NextLevel Miniatures - later I realized they had a human barkeep - should have picked up that model as well. Again, I'm trying to use more of a coloring book style (at least that's what I'm calling it) with dramatic contrasts while using the AK Interactive Playmarkers. Normally my approach would have been to spray a black basecoat and then drybrush everything else.

I used the Black to paint all the stones. Dark Grey on each individual stone. Then a thick "edge" highlight of each stone on the actual face on the stone. The wood pieces were completed using Leather with highlights of Wood along the grain.

Here's your VTT model using Google Gemini A/I...

Asking Gemini to enhance the artwork is interesting - it used patterns to enhance the woodwork which isn't so dramatic - but the stone it completely revised and added moss, lol...

NextLevel Miniatures - Archway

 

Another fun miniature by NextLevel Miniatures. This is the Archway and unfortunately when I purchased this I missed that there was an Archway with Portal - so I cheated and made my own using a bit of A/I to give me a green portal swirl and printed that out on a color printer - not as good, but it'll do on gameday...

Using most of the same techniques as the Runed Gateway, I painted using the AK Interactive Playmarkers all the grooves in the stone and sockets in the skulls with Black. I also completely did the stepped base in Black. Then I used Dark Grey for the stones and Light Grey for "edge" highlights - and I use the term "edge" loosely because it's really a thick line along the edge but on the flat to give an interpretation of depth. For the steps of the base I did something a little bit different, I wiped off the excess paint on the Dark Grey and dabbed using the side of the brush onto the black steps and it gave me that mottled granite look I was hoping to get and then did the same with the Light Grey as a highlight/color variation.

The skulls were painted with Dirty White and then a bit of White for the highlight. Finally, the vertical plates on the column were painted with Copper - the idea of that detail being a copper plate versus carved stone appealed to me.

Here's some great artwork for your VTT session using Google Gemini...

And how about a portal for your VTT session as well...

One more - I asked Gemini to make the runes glow with the portal...