Lost Mine of Phandelver - Twig Blight

 

This was my second hoard of minis - although 8 is a far cry from 23 ash zombies, the airbrush was again a welcome method of getting the job done.  I hit the entire model with brown - I probably could have done a top coat of a highlight brown much like with the zombies, but I knew that I was going to spend some time picking out some of the growth items like leaves, fungus, and mushrooms.  Again, like the ash zombies I decided not to black out the base as I wanted to add some color to the objects on the base.

This is part of the 3D Dungeon Labs Etsy shop purchase.

Sculpt: Excellent - this is an awesome sculpt and does a better job than the monster manual in my opinion

3D Print: Excellent - well done - clean - and I'm impressed with the strength of the printed material - these prints have lots of tiny bits sticking out and they've lasted without breaking through case travel and gameplay

Fitness: Excellent - has the proper base and scale, model matches expectations -  although I'm sure the model count in the set matched the module, I probably could have used a few more bonus twig blights as my players split up the party at times and I had twig blights popping out of every bush and tree

Lost Mine of Phandelver - Ash Zombie

 

This was my first hoard of minis which I sprayed with the airbrush and is really where using the airbrush gets its time in the spotlight.  I had 23 of these minis which, if you think about doing that by hand, it would be so laborious.  Instead, I shot these first from all angles with Plague Brown and then only from the top with Dead Flesh.  I followed that up with painting the outside edge of the base with Black.

I love these minis - the idea of these ash zombies popping up and forming from the volcanic ash of Mount Hotenow is awesome.  What's makes it great is multiple figures on a base and all the little detail like one zombie's hand on the head of another to lift himself up, lol - that awesome!  

This is part of the 3D Dungeon Labs Etsy shop purchase. So let's give it some ratings...

Sculpt: Excellent - this is an awesome sculpt and really brings the idea forward of a hoard of zombies popping up out of the ash

3D Print: Excellent - well done - clean

Fitness: Excellent - has the proper base and scale, model goes beyond my expectation with the multitude of figures - normally you just get a single zombie - my players did ask if each figure on the base had its own stats - lol - no, I just used one stat block per figure

I did get away from my art "design/language" on this one with the base.  What I've been going for with these models is to be similar to the Wizkids pre-painted models which is a primary model color, a couple of splashes of additional color to highlight model features, and then a black base.  Trying to paint the base black here would lose the efficiencies gained by using the airbrush and I feel that the base ash is actually part of the model design where these zombies form from the ash itself - therefore I simply painted the edge of the base black.

Lost Mine of Phandelver - Ochre Jelly

 

Back to solid colors from the metallic and more learning with the airbrush.  This time starting with a yellow-green working to a yellow.  I think finished this one up on the paint bench and hand brushing brighter yellow highlights.

This is part of the 3D Dungeon Labs Etsy shop purchase.

Sculpt: Good- there might not be a lot you can do with a blob of oozing jelly, and this does get its inspiration from the monster manual, but it just doesn't meet that same wow factor that the other miniatures of the set achieve nor does it have a base (I added my own)

3D Print: Good - it's a clean print, but it does suffer from its sides curling up so the bottom is not flat - I really wanted to put this on the top side of the base but it wouldn't look good as there's quite a bit of curl and it wouldn't sit flat.  So instead I flipped the base and super glued it inside.

Fitness: Good - has the proper scale, model matches expectations - could have used this model scaled down on the 3d printer into some medium sized models because when an Ochre Jelly is attacked with lightning or slashing damage (most likely low level characters are going to swing a sword at it), the jelly splits from one large creature into two medium creatures.

My takeaway is that yellow allows colors underneath to bleed through - the yellow looked bright when first sprayed on the model, but then became more transparent to the colors underneath when it dried - probably should have added some white to the yellow while airbrushing as I've found that yellow is more opaque and covers quite well - adding white to a color gives it better coverage.

Reaper Miniatures Maggotcrown Ogre Juggernaut - 44011

This miniature is sitting on a 2" base and is pretty good size - basically it's an undead ogre - full title is Bones Black: Maggotcrown Ogre Juggernaut - it is part of the Bones Black line but I'm not sure why it uses the Bones Black in the title as there isn't a metal nor an original Bones version of this model (looking at Reaper's website there's only a handful which use the Bones Black in the naming of the figure).  

This is the first Bones Black miniature that I've painted and in my opinion much better than the original Bones material.  It's a bit harder, more rigid (but still has some flex which is good to keep paint from chipping on a drop), and holds detail much better.  Pricing appears to be about the same as the original Bones material.

After airbrushing the core colors in the previous three models, I wanted to test what it's like spraying metallic paint through an airbrush.  I used the base metal color in the Vallejo Air kit that was actually considered a primer.  It laid down beautifully - far better than I expected.  Normally I'd do a model like this with a black undercoat and then a lot of drybrushing.  Spraying down metal give the model an awesome look - very smooth and the metal dries in perfect flat without sheen.  I then used Vallejo Game Wash and a size 8 brush to carefully apply lots of wash to give the metallic paint depth and shadow.  I layered up the skull from a Filthy Brown, Bonewhite, Dead White and then a light Flesh Wash to tone it down.  Drybrushing of Cold Grey, Stonewall Grey, and DeadWhite on the base and that's it!

Rarely is there a model that I say oh that was easy and it looks great - usually it's a scale of effort to results - more effort = better results but less miniatures to the table and less effort = okay results but more miniatures to the table (the story of 2022).  I'm really liking what the airbrush can do to provide less effort and better results which equals more miniatures that look great!

Lost Mine of Phandelver - Flameskull

 

Basically at the same as working on the Abyssal Gargoyles, I grabbed this figure for my Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign.  This is such a great sculpt - so dynamic - I love it!  It is so much more awesome than the Reaper Demi-Lich model I painted the first time I ran this module about five years ago.  

This is part of the 3D Dungeon Labs Etsy shop purchase.

Sculpt: Excellent - this is an awesome sculpt and really brings the depiction in the monster manual alive

3D Print: Excellent - well done - clean

Fitness: Excellent - has the proper base and scale, model matches expectations

Per the monster manual, the flameskull is supposed to be surrounded by green flame (audience says green flame out loud - if you get the joke great, if not go watch Acquisitions Inc. on Youtube).  However, since I was playing with the reds, oranges, and yellow I decided to go that direction with this figure.

The interpretation of the monster is a white skull sitting on the ground and when the characters approach it turns burning hout and jumps into the air 10' off the ground in a burning trail of flame.  I tried to give the look that the skull was white hot and the further from the flame the darker the color - so it was an opposite approach to the abyssal gargoyles.  Additionally this went to a yellow and then pushed into the white on the skull without being true white and has longer transitions.

Not only is this a great looking miniature but because of what's really a simple linear path of the model it was therefore also really good training model for blending airbrushed colors.  So looking forward to putting this one out on the table which is perhaps my favorite part of the entire Lost Mine of Phandelver campaign.

Mantic Games Abyssal Gargoyles (Winged Succubi)

 

Following up on the Green Dragon, my next venture into airbrushing was to see what I could do with red, orange, yellow on some models my son had left over from an Abyssal Kings of War army he built half a dozen years ago.  They've been sitting on my shelf as I thought the sculpts were pretty good and I figured they could be used in a D&D encounter.  In the Kings of War game they represent Abyssal Gargoyles although they don't look like your traditional gargoyles - they look more like winged succubi to me.

What I was trying to do with these figures is to learn how to blend colors together with an airbrush and how tight I could get the airbrush to be in order to get realistic highlights.  I did get some "spitting" which occurs when you get to the end of the paint in the airbrush pot - I learned it's better to be a little wasteful and always have some paint in the pot at the end.  I did no brushstrokes on these other than to tidy up the sides of the base with black paint.

I do have lots of models from Mantic Games from their Dungeon Saga board game and after painting these I'm really looking forward to getting those miniatures opened and painted.  They have some really awesome looking sculpts and an unique look to their models.  My only disappointment is they don't credit the sculptor on their product nor the website so I can't attribute these models - much like the Wizkids unpainted line.

Lost Mine of Phandelver - Green Dragon

 

This is an awesome model of a large dragon (it sits on a 2" base - so tactically it's large - I think that makes it young adult).  This is part of the 3D Dungeon Labs Etsy shop purchase.  I'm going to scale these models with Poor, Average, Good, Excellent in a couple of categories.

Sculpt: Excellent - one of the better looking dragons I've seen and matches what a D&D green dragon should look like.

3D Print: Excellent - well done - clean

Fitness: Excellent - has the proper large base, model matches expectations

This model represents my first attempt at airbrushing.  After receiving the gift of an airbrush, I spent the month of January reading websites and watching Youtube videos.  Then I grabbed the biggest model that was pertinent to one of my current campaigns.  One of the campaigns is the Lost Mine of Phandelver and I had purchased a complete set of miniatures - we started the campaign in a new local game store in Cedar Park, Texas that unfortunately after a few months didn't make it (I understand there was a lot of drama in the ownership group - not for a lack of interest by customers).  We had just arrived in the campaign at the deserted town of Thundertree - so go big or go home - I grabbed the winged beast and started spraying.

I used basically the same techniques I would have used if I had painted it by hand.  I started with a black primer.  Then dark green to a light green layers and eventually mixing some white into the green for the final highlights.  I then hit the belly of the beast with Rotting Flesh as it's a cream color with just a bit of green in it.  Here's a film strip of a couple shots I took along the way...

When I was done airbrushing I came in and tagged all the claws, including the ones on the wing ends, with Bonewhite.  Then finished off the base with basic black - the art design language I'm trying to replicate here is equivalent to a D&D pre-painted mini.

A note on paints... I purchased the Vallejo Game Air paints because they are a 1:1 match for Vallejo Game Color paints.  While I could have diluted in various ways the Game Color paints (and everyone has an opinion on what the proper mix/ratio is of all sorts of various ingredients), it's just easier for a beginner to open bottle and go without having to worry about mixes.  BEST DECISION EVER!  As I was working my way up from dark to light I didn't even clean the airbrush - just kept adding more paint of a lighter green.  The first time I cleaned the airbrush was when I switched to the Rotting Flesh.