Reaper Miniature's Sarah the Seeress - 3354

Yes I am alive and kicking!  Actually I have a few miniatures that I've painted but haven't posted as I've been playing some Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 edition at the local hobby store.  This one I'm posting right away because it's going to go to a good home with one of my fellow players.

This is more heavy metal - really like the metal - the plastic bones are great for what they are (and are easy to carry, more durable, and understandably half or more of the metal price), but the metal has better detail and just feels awesome to have that weight in the hand.

I used a tri-color scheme using the triad of blue, red, and yellow.  The blue was the asked for color of the dress - so the details are balanced using red staff, crystal ball, and bracelet along with a yellow/brown/gold on the leather and ornaments.  The skin tone is warm using tan as a neutral color.

Painting Instructions for Sarah the Seeress:

Step 1: Undercoat model with black primer (back to metal so I used the spray primer)
Step 2: Use Skull White on eyes
Step 3: Use Regal Blue on eyeballs
Step 4: Use Tanned Flesh on skin
Step 5: Mix various amounts of Dwarf Flesh with the Tanned Flesh on skin highlights
Step 6: Wash skin with Devlan Mud
Step 7: Use Regal Blue on dress and spell hand/ball
Step 8: Use mix of Enchanted Blue and Lightning Blue to highlight dress and spell hand/ball
Step 9: Use Skull White on spell hand/ball - I'm trying to make it look like a ball of magic missile is developing and starting to leave the hand
Step 10: Use watered down Regal Blue as a wash on dress and spell hand/ball
Step 11: Use Scab Red on staff, crystal, and bracelet
Step 12: Use mix of Blood Red and Blazing Orange on staff, crystal ball, and bracelet for highlights
Step 13: Add Sunburst Yellow to mix and keep highlighting down on crystal ball
Step 14: Use Bubonic Brown on all leather straps
Step 15: Mix Sunburst Yellow to Bubonic Brown for highlights on leather straps
Step 16: Use Tanned Flesh on book
Step 17: Use Gold on all ornamental items - book pouch, bracelets, staff topper, headband
Step 18: Wash Gold with Devlon Mud
Step 19: Use Shadow Grey on hair
Step 20: Heavy wash hair with Chaos Black
Step 21: Very light drybrush (wetbrush) hair with Shadow Gray and picking out some specific hair lines
Step 22: Use Scab Red on lips - focused on bottom - very little on top
Step 23: Use Skull White on teeth
Step 24: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 25: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 26: Drybrush Skull White on base
Step 27: Use Chaos Black on sides of base

Dungeons & Dragons Lizard Folk Group - WOC 88284

Finished the other three models this weekend for a total of four.  Nice looking group ready to bash some adventurers heads with a mighty club swing!  Original post for Lizard Folk with painting instructions.

Dungeons & Dragons Lizard Folk - WOC 88284

Painting metal is so satisfying!  Some more heavy lead with a Jason Weibe sculpt he did for Wizards of the Coast's Dungeons and Dragons official line.  I believe this goes back to early 2000's immediately following the release of D&D v3. I have a number of different models and they all say 2001 on the metal slotta tag.

I really like this model (something I often say with Jason Weibe sculpts) and this is first of four I have in my collection.  I plan on painting all the others as well - they're prepped and ready to go!  I wanted to give this first one the color scheme and then I'll replicate that on the other three.  I based it to closely resemble the paint scheme used on Lizardfolk 35/80 from the Harbinger set of pre-painted models.

Because of the club, the depth of field is a bit difficult for the macro setting in some of the picks - the top row is the traditional side views that I normally post.  The second row of images are quarter turns in front and rear of the miniature.  I think these two pictures give the best representation of the figure as the depth of field is reduced to the width cast of the mold.

Basically I used a base color and a highlight with a wash of the base color watered down to bring the two together for each section of the model.

Painting Instructions for Lizard Folk (Inzixt):

Step 1: Undercoat model with black primer
Step 2: Use Dark Angels Green on all the main skin areas
Step 3: Use Snot Green on all main skin areas
Step 4: Wash all skin areas with watered down Dark Angels Green
Step 5: Use Red Gore on spine
Step 6: Use Blood Red on spine scales
Step 7: Use Golden Yellow as a splash on spine behind head
Step 8: Use Sunburst Yellow as a splash on spine behind head
Step 9: Use Camo Green on belly
Step 10: Use Rotting Flesh on belly
Step 11: Wash belly with watered down Camo Green mixed with Sepia ink
Step 12: Use Scorched Brown on all wood and leather
Step 13: Use Bestial Brown on all wood
Step 14; Use Vomit Brown on all leather
Step 15: Use Vomit Brown on claw nails
Step 16: Use Bleached Bone on claw nails
Step 17: Use Camo Green on wrap around spears
Step 18: Wash wrap around spears with watered down Sepia ink
Step 19: Use Warlock Purple on tongue
Step 20: Use Tentacle Pink on tongue
Step 21: Use Bad Moon Yellow on eyeballs
Step 22: Use Chaos Black for pupils
Step 23: Drybrush Codex Grey on base
Step 24: Drybrush Fortress Grey on base
Step 25: Drybrush Skull White on base
Step 26: Use Chaos Black on sides of base

Reaper Miniature's Arrius, Skeletal Warrior - 77158

Back to the Bones.  This model is Bones 77158 which sells for $2.49 and is a duplicate of the metal version 2766 Arrius the Black, Skeletal Champion from the DHL line retailing for $6.99 - sculpted by Bob Ridolfi.

Once again, about 90% of the detail in a Bones miniature at about a third of the cost of metal.  For these Bones lines of figures I'm trying to find the right blend of time and detail and still have a good looking figure for the gaming table.  On the last skeletal knight - the Ghost King - I simply laid a foundation and then used an ink wash to give a semblance of highlights and shadows.

It was suggested to provide a bit of highlighting prior to the wash to give the figure more interest.  While blending 10 layers is overly time consuming for the utilization, I figured a quick contrasting highlight would do the trick.

Therefore, this figure uses the exact same paint scheme and steps as the Ghost King - however, I did add a quick layer of highlights between each step.  On the cape I used Blood Red over Scab Red, on the skull I used Bleached Bone over the Vomit Brown, on the front drapery I used Kommando Khaki over Graveyard Earth and on the stump I used Bestial Brown over Scorched Brown.  Finally, I washed the model multiple times with Devlan Mud deepening the shadows and toning down the overall figure.  I hit the head skull again with a drybrush of Bleached Bone to brighten that up as the "face" becomes a center point of attention.

All in a night's (knights) worth of effort.

Kickstarter paint total: 52 + 1 Arrius, Skeletal Warrior = 53

Reaper Miniature's Dust Devil - 65072

First miniature painted in 2015!  Excuse the quality of the pictures as this is a tall miniature with a lot of depth due to the four arms with swords.  It was very difficult to get a clear field of focus for the macro photography on this model - and non-macro mode was even worse.

Good getting back to the heavy metal and this is indeed the "heavy" metal as it's from Reaper Miniature's P-65 line that was their brief return to using a lead based alloy.  Prior to Bones, Reaper was looking for a way to reduce the price of miniatures as tin was skyrocketing in price (while the P-65 line is no longer available, Reaper still has their P-65 explanation on the web).  These are great metal models at a reasonable price that are quickly becoming very hard to find.  Luckily I still have a few more I'll be painting.

Great looking model sculpted by Jason Wiebe and I'm looking forward to using this figure on the gaming table.  I kept thinking of that scene from the movie, "The Mummy" where the sand monster forms out of the sand storm.

I sprayed an undercoat of black primer and then used Scorched Brown as my base.  Next was a layer of Graveyard Earth that was about 90% coverage - all but the deepest recessions.  From there I dragged out the drybrush and started with Desert Yellow building layer after layer - first adding Bleached Bone to the mix and then Skull White.

Watered down Sepia ink was added to put depth back in the model - I probably should have watered it down a bit more as the ink toned the model down more than desired.  Starting from a 50/50 mix of Desert Yellow and Skull White I redid the highlights.

Hobby Desk Part 2...

Hope everyone had a great set of holidays from Halloween through the New Year and everything in-between!  Looking back at my posts the number one post by far is my hobby desk posting - almost a 1,000 individual hits and if you google hobby desk it appears in the top row of images - so there's my little claim to fame on the internet :-)

I have a bunch of new toys for the hobby desk this year.  Matthew and I went to the train show at the Dulles Expo Center the Saturday after Christmas to see the trains.  Awesome layout and great work - those train guys really know how to put together scenery and we saw some really cool work.  Here's a couple of pictures...

There was also a vendor from B&B Hobby out of Bridgeville, PA at the show who was selling all sorts of great tools and gadgets.  I picked up a Robart Paint Shaker (shakes paint bottles 5,000 times a minute) which is pure awesomeness!  Also found an Excel hobby knife and an 18" x 24" cutting pad which is perfect for the desk.  My eyes are starting to get a bit old (that's another story) and I picked up a magnifying light with daylight bulb - what a difference that makes!  Finally, I bought myself a set of diamond files - much better than the worn out steel set.

As to the desk - some things are different and some things stay the same...

* Two questions I had from before... (Q1) why no drywall... because it's a spare room in the basement and that would require more time and expense than what I want to put into it - I did throw down carpet and a couple years ago we replaced the carpet in my son's room so I took the old padding into the hobby room and now I have a bit of cushion.  (Q2) what program did I write for the computer... I used a database I built on an old product called Superbase (this was back in 1999 when I first started painting minis) - at some point blogger was enhanced to allow backposting dates, since then I've transferred everything over to this blogsite in chronological order - isn't the internet great!

* Same home built desks as before - it's 3/4" medium density fiberboard and I haven't experienced any warping/bowing with the desk.  I should probably flip it one of these days - but that means I have to clear it off first.

* I've replaced my laptop over the years with a 17" version which I use for work and home - as for music... I've gone completely to the internet with Pandora and Google Play Music.

* With a bit of sadness I replaced my Littlite with a magnifying light - the magnifying light uses a daylight bulb which is actually better and the magnification is welcome to the old eyes.

* Still have shelves of prepped and "to be painted" miniatures as well as about 70% of the Reaper Bones Kickstarter (I should have Bones II coming sometime soon) is taking over half a desk.  Outside of the Bones product, I have made an effort over the years to open up all the metal minis, prep them, base them, and put on a coat of black primer.  When I get only an hour or two in the hobby room it is easier to do some prep work.  Ideally, I like to have a bigger block of time when I paint.

* Paints - 4 years ago I was trying to decide what to do as most of my GW paints had dried out thanks to that stupid paint pot they were using at the time - what a horrid design.  I decided to go the Vallejo Game Color route and I've really enjoyed the paints.  I cut a 4" x 4" the length of the desk and then drilled two rows of 1-1/16" holes in a line of 37 across for a total of 74 slots.  The holes in the back row aren't as deep as the front so that the're elevated for easy viewing and accessibility.  This scenario works very well for me - I pull out paint as I'm using it and then put it back after updating the blog.

* Pop was replaced with beer tonight!  Breckenridge Brewery - Avalanche Amber Ale - received it from a friend over the holidays - good drinking!

* My new Excel 24" x 18" cutting mat has already proven useful and I'm using an old keyboard gel strip as an armrest which keeps the edge of the table from cutting into my arms while I'm painting.

* There's a cup of The Masters Brush Cleaner - heard about that a couple years ago and picked up a bit of the product.  This is magic for your brushes - gets all the paint out just by swiping your brush in the product - magical!

* There's a few more finished minis on the shelf - yeah!  A bunch of them are currently in travel case I use for gaming.

Hopefully we'll do this again in another four years.