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.

NextLevel Miniatures - Callous Troll Alternative Paint

 

Wow - March 1st already - two months gone in 2025.

When I purchased a group of NextLevel Miniatures from Miniature Market I picked up two of the Callous Troll models because I thought it was an interesting model and I'd try to give each a different paint jobs. I didn't realize at the time exactly how that was going to occur, but like the original Callous Troll, this was a result of what was leftover in the airbrush pot. As I've been painting my Hexton Hills project, I just completed a very large section of water and there was plenty of opportunity to spray various shades of blue.

I like the look of these guys - looking forward to using them on the table in an upcoming D&D session.