NextLevel Miniatures - Water Weird

 

This model was a bit of an experiment in airbrush blending. Using Vallejo Game Air I first hit it with Ultramarine. Then blended in Goblin Green. Finally used White. I also tried using a new airbrush - the Badger Xtreme Patriot. It's a lot like the Patriot 105 which to date has been my airbrush. The difference is that it's setup out of the box with the black ball fine detail needle, the tip is exposed, and it has a screw regulator to control the amount of air going through the tip.

The Ultramarine I used the Patriot and did the entire model. Then I switched over to the Xtreme Patriot with the Goblin Green and reduced the airflow quite a bit and I think that worked out rather well. The the White - the White just failed me because it wanted to splatter even though I have a mix of about 60% white, 20% flow, and 20% thinner. I had to increase more flow and thinner. 

Overall not bad - it was a good practice model to enhance my skills.

The conversion to artwork by Gemini is okay - it really lost the amount of blue that's in the model. I had to ask Gemini to add some back in - the final result...

Here's my ShadowDark Monster Index Card...

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...

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...

NextLevel Miniatures - Runed Gateway

 

This is an awesome miniature and a blast to paint. Again, I used the AK Interactive Playmarkers for this and I was quite pleased with how it turned out - mostly because it's a paint style I'm learning.

I started off with Light Green on the outer part of the magical portal and I wasn't particularly careful because of the opacity of the paint, any mistakes would just be painted over. I grabbed Black and ran that through all the stone lines throughout the entire model including a thin line between the stone and the Light Green of the magical portal - except for the line break between stone and portal I again wasn't particularly careful. Then I used Medium Blue on the inner part of the magical portal edging along the Light Green. Finally, I used Dark Grey on all the stones being careful not to go into the black grooves.

That setup all the base colors. I think used Light Green and carefully dripped paint into the runes. Next I took Light Grey and did a bold "edge" highlighting on every stone including the lines on the base stones. That took care of the stonework. Next was Light Blue giving the magical portal depth. The last step was a Dirty White on top of all the energy bolts and within the Light Blue lines to give it more depth.

Wasn't sure that I wanted to base the item, but I think it was a good choice for stability purposes - particularly during the game when everyone is knocking stuff all over the table.

Taking that into Google's Gemini to get some artwork for your VTT sessions...

For giggles I asked Gemini to enhance the artwork - not sure if it's "enhanced" or not - up to y'all to decide - it's interesting...

NextLevel Miniatures - Nosferatu

 

A classic vampire from the folks at NextLevel Miniatures. I thought about switching back to brush and bottle paint but I've been in a groove with the AK Interactive Playmarkers as well as the Sharpie brush tip markers so I thought I'd give it the ol' college try on some of the details.

Zombie Skin for the head. White on the teeth. Yellow Sharpie on the eyes. Then there's an inner collar of Purple and an outer collar of Red. The, and I had to google this one one, jabot collar was done in Dirty White with a Gold brooch The protective jacket Black sitting on a shirt of Red and finishing into a cloak of Purple. Pants were Red with Black boots. Then I fought with the gold marker on trimmings.

So here's my first real negative of the Playmarkers - I had the Gold brush split - so instead of a single point I now have two and I don't know what to do about it. I tried using water to rinse the brush and then a paper towel to wipe it clean before re-priming. Didn't work - a little bit better, but not what it needs to be. Which is a real shame because I was having great success with Gold on previous models.

Into the Google Gemini A/I blender and that's exactly how I was intending to paint the model...

No ShadowDark card on this one - just use the Vampire straight out of the book on p.260 - he's a badass as is.