Reaper's Townsfolk IV-C - 2677C

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2011-01-05: update - the above pictures have been swapped out for my new process - the colors are now much more realistic to actual and rather close to being there and picking up the model in hand.

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From Reaper's Townsfolk IV comes the third rogue character. There were so many ways this could have been painted but I wanted to keep it simplified - brownish/red (red is always difficult to digitally photograph - the true color is bit browner than displayed) with blue/green (based upon Reaper's Master Series paint called Cloudy Sea). I did use two different colored browns - gloves and boots a yellow/brown while leather bits were more of a traditional brown.

This was my first utilization of the Reaper Master Series paints from a sample bottle of Cloudy Sea. My first impression is that this is great stuff! I was able to thin down the paint considerably with a bit of water and I had good coverage over a black undercoat.

Painting Instructions for Townsfolk IV-C:

Step 01: Undercoat model with Black primer
Step 02: Use Reaper's Clouded Sea with a dab of Chaos Black on pants
Step 03: Add a bit more of Reaper's Clouded Sea and build pants base
Step 04: Use Reaper's Clouded Sea to start highlights on pants
Step 05: Use Reaper's Clouded Sea with a dab of Skull White on pants highlights
Step 06: Use Terracotta on shirt and hood
Step 07: Use a dab of Chaos Black to Terracotta on shirt/hood shadows
Step 08: Use a 1:1 mix of Terracotta and Blood Red on shirt highlights
Step 09: Use Blood Red for final shirt/hood highlights
Step 10: Use Dark Flesh on face
Step 11: Use mix of Dark Flesh and Bronzed Flesh on face
Step 12: Add Elf Flesh to mix for final highlights on face
Step 13: Use Leprous Brown on gloves and boots
Step 14: Use Devlan Mud wash on gloves and boots
Step 15: Use Leprous Brown to highlight gloves and boots
Step 16: Use mix of Leprous Brown and Golden Yellow-highlight boots/gloves
Step 17: Use Scorched Brown on leather bits
Step 18: Use Snakebite Leather on leather bits
Step 19: Use Vomit Brown as highlight on leather bits
Step 20: Use Boltgun Metal on metal bits
Step 21: Use Chainmail as highlight on metal bits
Step 22: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 23: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 24: Drybrush Skull White on base as final highlights

Townsfolk IV Treasure - 2677B

This is the sacks of treasure from the Townsfolk IV - 2677B from Reaper. I placed this on an old Ral Partha metal monster base. Added a shield I had lying around in the bits box. Added a sword from the Reaper accessories pack. Then added a large battle axe from some bits I won off of ebay years ago. Threw them all together onto the base - added some mud to the base and pockmarked that to look like piles of gold from the Dragon's hoard.

I originally started off painting some of the bags a brown leather, but they ended up blending into the surrounding piles of gold too much. So I used Vallejo's Terracotta and moved up to GW's Red Gore and Blood red on the big bag and some blues on the third. I also played around with some old colored metallics I had from the Reaper Pro Paints line - a Green Steel on the axe, Blue Steel on the sword, and Red Metallic on the shield - added GW's Chainmail to the mix for highlights.

Goodman Games Pointy-Hatted Wizard - GMG6010

Sometimes it's just difficult.

That was the theme of this miniature - which is really a shame - this was a nice Jason Wiebe sculpted (I do like his stuff) classic wizard produced for Goodman Games and their Dungeon Crawl Classics line of miniatures (which ties back to some of their D&D modules).

I try not to do the classic blue wizard - for whatever reason I've tried to stay away from that cliche. I have a yellow/red and a green robed wizard.

So I thought that I would go with Brown - starting with Scorched Brown and to keep adding Rotting Flesh for the whole model. I did - and it looked like a chocolate Hershey bar left out by the Easter bunny. Therefore I painted a different color robe, than another color, and another - a little of this and a little of that.

Basically it ended up being a salvage project. Even taking a picture of the model ended up being a disaster for some reason - it just wouldn't take - so what's above is the best I could get and provide some realistic coloring.

Updated 2010-12-31: playing around with digital macro settings and gimp software:

Reaper's Kiri, Female Ninja - 2534

Completed a miniature that I had started quite a long time ago. I had painted the skin tones and basecoated the clothing - then it sat for a long, long time - several years actually. Until now - I had a bit of inspiration - grabbed the color wheel and instead of two-color red/green I decided on a tri-color red/blue/yellow - the blue I worked into the ribbons and the yellow I used on the hair to great affect.

Painting Instructions for Kiri, Female Ninja:
Step 01: Undercoat model with black primer
Step 02: Use Dark Flesh on skin
Step 03: Add bit of Elf Flesh to Dark Flesh and build highlights on skin
Step 04: Continue adding Elf Flesh to mix until final highlight on skin
Step 05: Use Red Gore on clothes
Step 06: Use Blood Red on clothes for highlights
Step 07: Use Blazing Orange on clothes as final highlight
Step 08: Use Shadow Grey on cloth armor
Step 09: Use Space Wolves Grey on cloth armor for puffies
Step 10: Use Ghostly Grey on puffies as highlight
Step 11: Use Regal Blue on ribbons
Step 12: Use Enchanted Blue on ribbons as highlights
Step 13: Use Lighting Blue on ribbons as final highlights
Step 14: Use Scorched Brown on all leather armor, straps, and boots
Step 15: Use Bestial Brown on all leather armor, straps, and boots
Step 16: Use Snakebite Leather on all leather armor, straps, and boots
Step 17: Use Bubonic Brown on all leather armor, straps, and boots
Step 18: Use Lightning Blue on bottles
Step 19: Use Ice Blue as liquid in bottles
Step 20: Use Bad Moon Yellow on hair
Step 21: Add Skull White to Bad Moon Yellow and build highlights on hair
Step 22: Use Boltgun Metal on metal bits
Step 23: Wash metal bits with Devlan Mud
Step 24: Use Chainmail on metal bits as highlight
Step 25: Drybrush Codex Grey on stone
Step 26: Drybrush Fortress Grey on stone as highlights
Step 27: Drybrush Skull White on stone as final highlights

Reaper's Sir Justin, Templar Adventurer - 2715

While Reaper named him Sir Justin - I ran out of room and shortened it to Sir Jon. I used the same painting scheme as the two previous templar knights in my collection - 2330 and 2513.

I'm starting to feel more comfortable with each mini painted - I'd say this is as equivalent or maybe even better in some areas as the other two templar knights.

Reaper's Unknown, Rogue (2677D)

2010-12-13 - UPDATE FROM REAPER'S RON HAWKINS:

Here's the deal. Originally, the pack was going to have the scimitar
wielding mini. But, the figure was replaced with a more "Bandit-y"
feel to it (the Pirate-y looking bandit was converted to the one with
hood and short sword).

I just replaced the photo online with the correct shot. And I looked
in our mold department - all 02677 D molds only have the "correct"
model (short sword).

** Please help in identifying this Reaper miniature - note that the dagger in the left hand was added by me **

Hmmmm... what to say about this miniature - first off it was a test bed for putting a name on the miniature - see below post - I added a scroll style on the front as the "official" name badge.

Then it was a test for some new Vallejo Game Color paints in the brown family which I picked up from Leesburg Hobbies. The matching colors were to GW's scorched brown, bestial brown, and bubonic brown to replace my dried up GW paint pots.

It started off alright as I primered in black. Then used a watered down scorched brown - the opacity was nice with the Vallejo and the results can be seen in the below post regarding the nameplates.

Next I used the bestial brown and I was rather disappointed with the coverage - it wasn't doing what I needed and required multiple layers - more effort than what I was wanting to give or expecting to have to do. I was hoping for more of a coverage experience that I was having with the scorched brown.

Building up to the next layer was bubonic brown and here's where I became really unhappy. If I watered down the paint, the opacity of the paint moved to the edges of the brush and I wasn't getting any coverage with the actual brush stroke - it looked like I was painting railroad tracks. I know it wasn't the brush as I'm painting with Windsor & Newton Series 7 - probably the finest line of brushes for miniature painting. Not watering down the paint is of course too thick and not a real option.

After battling with that for awhile I moved up and added a bit of Vallejo skull white to the mix and walla - beautiful brushstrokes - don't get it - but by that point in time I was overally frusturated - dabbed on some highlights and called it a day.

Work In Progress

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2010-10-11: update - added second picture showing use of scorched brown for lettering and an attempt at making a brass plate nametag - brass plate was done using bubonic brown for the base, then adding skull white and making a line through the top middle, then adding more skull white and adding another line on top of that - then adding black dots for the "rivets".

Additional sample - a plankwood - bubonic brown base with bestial brown on top with scorched brown lettering and holes with boltgun metal bolts.

Final additional sample? - two more pics - one using actual metallics - nope - looks awful - then back to using bubonic brown for the base, then bleached bone in the middle, finishing with a strip of skull white in the very middle (in essence the highlighlighting goes inwards - darkest on the outside and "shiniest" in the middle).

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Didn't get a lot of painting done this weekend - simply a basecoat and a little test I'm working up.

The next project is going to be another Reaper of a rogue - this time I'm doing him up all in a single color - brown - but the real point of this post is to take a look and showcase the naming of a miniature. It's something I've been wanting to do for awhile and just haven't thought about how I want to go about doing it.

Two thoughts...

1st - is to put a signature on the model and a date - either year or month/year

2nd - when playing an rpg and plopping down a bunch of minis - it's difficult to keep track of all the minis on the table for the NPC (non-player characters - the ones being ran by the dungeon master / game master / judge) - typical conversation:

player: I'll attack the green orc
judge: which of the six
player: the one on the left side
judge: there's three on the left
player: the one with the sword
judge: there's two with a sword
player: the one that has the red doohicky thingy on his body

and so on... - whereas it's really easy to google up an orc name and finding a website - now if you dropped on the table Vrunk, Kridish, Bruuk, Hork, Hagdush, and Buulg; then the role playing will go a whole lot faster when the player announces they're going to attack Vrunk!

I've also thought about just putting numbers on them - or a little flag with a number on them, but how boring is it to say elf attacks number 7 when the player can say Calaitharnith attacks Vrunk.

I was also thinking about freehand white lettering the name on the base, but I thought it a bit boring and therefore never did anything.

So I recently came across the website of Glyn Evans who goes by the name Zaphod. About 2004 he started to sign his stylized name of Zaphod on the base of the miniature in what looks like a tattered scroll - he eventually gave that up for a stylized Z and the year - then on his latest minis painted for gaming he used the tattered scroll affect for putting the miniature name on the front - another example - I really like that idea and I gave it a try tonight.

I started out with a set of white lines to make a solid block. Then I "yellowed" them with some bleach bone in the middle. Followed that up with some black cutouts. Finally the lettering - my consulting is Zingodia Systems - Zingodia is a bit long to use - so I used Zing and the year.

For my first try:
- tattered edge is good - I think the cuts on top and bottom is a bit much
- lettering is too thick - need a bit more practice
- black lettering is too strong - probably a bestial brown would be better - aged lettering goes brown - can give scorched brown a try as well

Hackmaster Human Magic-User male - K&C4080

Here's the end result of the WIP miniature - I was able to spend an hour here and there on it this week. This miniature is from the HackMaster line by Kenzer and Company. HackMaster was supposed to be a parody of the original D&D game. They did some rather strange stuff in the "old-school gaming" look.

With all the wackiness that was Hackmaster, the miniature is actually very good - right up there with any of the Reapers that I enjoy - which make sense as Kevin Contos sculpted this as well as a number of the early Reaper miniatures.

Work In Progress

Quick update on what I'm working on - had some time Friday night and Saturday night to do a little bit of painting each night. Just about finished - need to complete the eyes, beard (red, or red/brown, or brown, or grey), metalic bits, and stone base.

Kids...

I was on the DC mini-painting Yahoo group tonight and happened across some old files from the first time we met back in summer of 2001 at the Chantilly Game Parlor (back then it was the only Game Parlor). These were posted by Jason Moses who was living in the DC area at the time. Oh my goodness - look at these pictures - the kids would have been 5 and 8.



That was nine years ago - they did some Warhammer, Warhammer 40k, Lord of the Rings, and a few Reaper's for a D&D game over the years - but both love the ballfield which is where they spend all their time. This is a pic from this summer - on a Saturday at the ballfield prior to them both having a game...



There's one more coming along - who knows when he'll be willing to sit down and paint with me. I have a feeling it will be awhile as he's a real handful and full of energy - doesn't sit still. He turned 4 this summer and is the main reason for my mini-painting hiatus these past five years (pre-baby year prior was spent painting bedroom and getting ready!) as it's hard to do anything with a baby in the house. A bit of family resemblance?

Hobby Desk...

Thought it would be fun to show off the hobby desk tonight.

* hobby room is the only unfinished room in the house - it's about 10'x12' in size located in the basement - I bought a piece of inexpensive carpet from home depot to cover the cement floor - desks are made from 2x4's and topped with that wood made from sawdust (it's cheap, light, but extremely sturdy).

Going from left to right...

* newish laptop computer - used to play cd's (not very often), pandora radio (very often), and update the blog.

* two shelves of opened and unpainted miniatures.

* old laptop computer - runs a custom piece of software I wrote to enter in step by step instructions as I'm painting, then a routine categorizes all the paint used, also displays a picture of the finished miniature - I use this for reference on past miniatures I've painted or experiments performed.

* a spotlight from Littlite (pronounced little light) - this is a company that I worked with when I was a consultant implementing enterprise software systems - the company has a very interesting history to it in that the company originally (and still does) made custom sound and light boards for rock bands (Emerson Lake and Palmer was first client). They needed a small and flexible light to see controls during the concert and the littlite was born. I use two daylight florescent bulbs hung from the ceiling but this puts a little spot light on the actual work without getting in the way.

* a shelf of spray paint, glue, and air canister.

* a shelf of painted miniatures (except for the pile of in the blister mage knight special editions).

* above that is a third shelf with years of dungeon, dragon, and white dwarf magazines.

* a paint color highlight/shading reference chart.

* three boxes of GW paints - most of them have gone bad - I'm trying to decide between reaper master or vallejo game color - problem is that I can't find anyone who stocks either in the area

* a pile of based miniatures - some are primered.

* water cup and folded paper towel for cleaning brushes.

* pop.

* Jim Beam barbeque sunflower seeds and spit cup - absolutely the best seeds.

* old version of how to paint citadel miniatures.

* paint brushes stuck upside down in styrofoam.

* paint sticks for whatever.

* roll of paper towels for cleanup.

* 2 old wireless g network cards that I need to get rid of - any takers?

* a clear, 3 drawer, fully loaded filing cabinet bursting to the seems with in the blister miniatures (it's clear so I can constantly be aware of how many unpainted minis there are!).

Reaper's Dirk, Male Rogue - 2555

2010-09-27 - updated - thanks to comments from "bighara" - this is indeed a sculpt by Sandra Garrity from Reaper and is number 2555 - Dirk, Male Rogue.

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An old reaper fighter that was sitting on the shelf (probably early 2100/2200 series sculpted by Sandra Garrity) - my goal was to paint something Friday night (Saturday morning) to a nice tabletop standard within the few hours given of the evening after the family went to sleep - basically to push a time limit and get back some painting speed. To that end the color scheme is basic brown and green.

Overall I achieved what I was hoping to do - there's parts that came out which I'm very happy with and there's other areas I don't care for - but the success was getting the paint down in rapid succession for each layer.

Games Workshop's Armoured Skeleton With Spear 3

This skeleton from Games Workshop is circa pre-2000 - I've always liked the strong look of GW's armoured (british spelling) skeletons. Long ago I went to a GW Games Day in Baltimore and picked up some bits including shields with skeletons on them - I used one of these instead of the boring round plastic shield. I also tossed out the tiny base and mounted him on GW's one inch base - then gave it my standard dungeon look.

There's no drybrushing on this model - all painting was layered from dark to light colors including the metal. I used a copper color on the breastplate to ease the brightness of the silver scale armor.

Wiz Kids' Wraith - WZK558

Finished something a bit different - I wanted to work up a mini where I could focus on layering to get back into a groove - therefore I found this Mage Knight Limited Edition piece and went for it! I already had done something similar with red, purple, blue, and green on other ghosts/wraiths in my collection - therefore yellow was chosen.

Using yellow was a good/bad choice. Yellow has to be the most difficult color to work with as it doesn't cover very well and needs many many many layers to get good looking results. Therefore I received numerous amounts of layering practice and in the end it turned out ok. Started with Fiery Orange and worked up to Bad Moon Yellow and then continued by adding Skull White to the mix.

ZN Games Goblin Dungeon Scout - 23-004

Yahoo!! Another mini painted in 2010 - maybe I can get another one or two cranked out, but then I think the kids sports and projects at work are going to sap my time - but here's a miniature from ZN Games' Unearthed Hyperborean Age straight from the package - as you can see, it has the same 2d sculpting feel as the other goblin and fighter and uses the same hexagon 1" base. I'm fairly certain that the other two are from ZN Games as well.

2014/12/30 update - found the sculptor to be Chaz Elliot.

This is kind of a goofy miniature whereby the sword is twice the size of the figure - and how about them antlers. I kept with the same blue skin tone to match up with the other gobo. I'm starting to feel a bit more comfortable and the non-metalic parts are a slight step up from the previous figs. The metal armor - and there's a lot! - I painted on versus using a drybrush technique - I tried to leave blacklining between bits and used the metallics extremely watered down building up multiple layers.

A did a slight variation on the side of the base - instead of the striping as in the previous gobo, it was more of a drybrush - not sure if it really works - not bad, just different.

Painting Instructions for Goblin Dungeon Scout:

Step 01: Undercoat with black primer
Step 02: Use 50/50 mix of Dark Flesh and Blazing Orange on hair
Step 03: Use Blazing Orange as highlights on hair
Step 04: Use 50/50 Blazing Orange and Skull White for hair final highlight
Step 05: Wetbrush Dark Flesh on horns
Step 06: Add Bleached Bone - continue to white - then wash with Dark Flesh
Step 07: Use Enchanted Blue on skin
Step 08: Use mix of Enchanted Blue and Skull White on skin - continue adding Skull White until 2 parts Skull White to 1 part Enchanted Blue
Step 09: Use Boltgun Metal on all armor and sword
Step 10: Use Mithril Silver for armor and sword highlights
Step 11: Use Snakebite Leather for leather
Step 12: Use Vomit Brown for leather highlights
Step 13: Use mix of Vomit Brown and Bleached Bone for leather highlights
Step 14: Use drybrush of Codex Grey on stones
Step 15: Use drybrush of Fortress Grey on stones
Step 16: Use drybrush of Skull White as final highlights on stone

ZN Games Goblin Dungeon Boyo - 23-006

Hey - another painted miniature within 8 days! More painting then I've done in 3 years.

I believe this is another ZN-Games model (2010-09-24 - I happened to come across one in the package at my local hobby/gaming store - it is the Goblin Dungeon Boyo number 23-006 - title has been updated) - they all have the same one inch octagonal base and what I call a 2d look - there's a front to the model and a back to the model but no real effort at making the model look good from the side. This is typical of the smaller casting shops that kept the mold making simple.

2014/12/30 - discovered that the sculptor is Kev Adams.

I've grabbed these two models as they're easy to paint and I figured that would be a good place to reshape my skills and a blue goblin with orange hair is a bit whimsical but hey - they're on opposite sides of the color wheel so I'm within good color theory!

The fighter below looked like he was a barbarian out of the north - so I modeled a bit of snow which was a first for me. For this base I went back to my traditional in the dungeon look - but I did a bit of what can be best called a drybrush swipe along the sides. I've seen this done previously by another painter to good affect and tried it way back when on a model of a small lizardman using blue and white on the base. It's a bit different and breaks up the monotony of a black base.

Painting Instructions for Archived Goblin:

Step 01: Undercoat with white primer (should have been black)
Step 02: Use Enchanted Blue on goblin skin (something different)
Step 03: Use Chaos Black on all armor and weapon bits as well as hair
Step 04: Use Boltgun Metal on all armor and weapon bits
Step 05: Use Dark Flesh on all leather and wood
Step 06: Use 50/50 mix of Dark Flesh and Blazing Orange on hair
Step 07: Use Blazing Orange as a wet drybrush on hair
Step 08: Use Snakebite Leather on all leather
Step 09: Use Bubonic Brown on all leather as highlight
Step 10: Use 50/50 Bubonic Brown and Bleached Bone as final on leather
Step 11: Use Bleached Bone on skull
Step 12: Use Skull White as highlight on skull
Step 13: Use Vomit Brown as wood highlight
Step 14: Use 50/50 Vomit Brown and Skull White as final wood highlight
Step 15: Use Blazing Orange as highlights on hair
Step 16: Use 50/50 Blazing Orange and Skull White for hair final highlight
Step 17: Wash of Regal Blue on skin with focus on crevices for shading
Step 18: Use 2:1 Enchanted Blue and Skull White for skin highlights
Step 19: Use 1:1 Enchanted Blue and Skull White for skin highlights
Step 20: Use Chainmail on metal highlights
Step 21: Use Mithril Silver on metal for final highlights
Step 22: Use Chaos Black on base
Step 23: Drybrush Codex Grey on rocks
Step 24: Drybrush Fortress Grey on rocks

ZN Games Human Hero - 23-014

2012-03-25: I came across a webstore today called Ahzz'z who happened to have a few of the Hyperborean Age miniatures and therefore this is no longer an unknown "archived" miniature - it is indeed from ZN-Games and is figure 23-014 the Human Hero.

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The paints still live! Well sort of - it's been a couple of years and there's not much wet paint in the buckets - even the year or two prior to the past two years had only one mini - this is the post Matthew era. But nevertheless, I've managed to find a bit of time to paint a miniature this past weekend - yahoo!

Not my best work, but far better than I actually anticipated - between the dried up paint and the rusty skills, I'm surprised it doesn't look like a big blob. This miniature was hanging around and it had a black undercoat on it - additionally, it was a lot of chainmail armor - easy to drybrush as a welcome back. I think it's from ZN-Games and their Unearthed line - however, I no longer have the blister package and ZN-Games is defunct - I couldn't find a website out there with their products to match up a picture.

Might notice the pics are a bit different. I've tossed out my really old computer (it was 13 years old - one massive piece of iron - they don't make them that way no more!!) which had a SCSI card in order to run the HP scanner I was using. I'm now using laptops, so I'm not able to hook up the old scanner. Therefore the pictures were taken using a digital camera, tossed into ms paint, zoomed up to 400x, and edged out by hand.

Painting Instructions for Archived Fighter:

Step 01: Undercoat with Black Primer
Step 02: Use Dark Flesh on face
Step 03: Use Skull White mixed with Dark Flesh for highlights
Step 04: Continue adding white until final highlights on tip of nose
Step 05: Use Red Gore on beard
Step 06: Drybrush Blood Red on beard
Step 07: Use Boltgun Metal on all armor and helmet
Step 08: Use Snakebite Leather on leather bits
Step 09: Use Bubonic Brown as highlights on leather bits
Step 10: Use Bleached Bone on horns
Step 11: Wash horns with watered down Dark Flesh
Step 12: Highlight horns with Bleached Bone
Step 13: Use Snot Green on shirt and pants
Step 14: Use Skull White mixed with Snot Green on shirt/pants highlight
Step 15: Use Chaos Black on eyes and dot with Skull White
Step 16: Use Skull White on snow
Step 17: Wash snow with watered down mix of Skull White with a little drop of Enchanted Blue
Step 18: Drybrush Skull White on snow
Step 19: Use Chaos Black on base