Reaper Miniatures Dragon Tortoise - 77334

 

This model was actually finished exactly a year ago when I did the Spikeshell Warriors and it's been sitting on my desk because I just wasn't sure how I was going to handle the basing. After spraying up the Water Weird I had a good idea of how to use the airbrush to represent the idea of this dragon tortoise coming out of a marsh or the ocean using the airbrush to blend in some blue, green, and white to give the base some color and have the idea of stomping motion.

Alrighty - the trip with Google's Gemini to create artwork based upon my painting of the model was interesting.  Here's the first attempt...

Well that's interesting - it went for a very solid grey base and what's up with the additional hole that isn't there. So I told Gemini to remove the hole - and not only did it do so - but it killed the stomp of the dragon tortoise's foot...

Okay, well, next I told gemini to add more blue to the base and have the water splash from the monster's foot - it did both and then some - holy heck!...

That's a bit dramatic - kinda like purposely stomping on a puddle to soak a friend standing next to you while in the rain. And the blue - okay - I said add more blue, not turn it blue. This time I told Gemini to tone it down by adding some light blue - some blue-green - and a little less splash. Alrighty, this I can live with...

Notice that secondary puddle is in the same location as the first image - maybe it's having difficulties interpreting the claw's relationship with the base? What's also interesting is that the background became a little bit more off-white with each request/change of Google Gemini - a bit of strange behavior of the A/I.

Thinking in terms of ShadowDark - I didn't want to make this a "true" dragon - their naming of "dragon" has been misnomered because of their size which has been magically derived from the great tortoises of the world. Therefore there's no range attack with a dragon's breath and it doesn't have quite the same level/hit points - but, it's shell armor makes it a force to be reckoned with as does it's bite, claws, and tail. My imagination goes to a dragon tortoise keeps safe a wizard's tower on an island not too far offshore but far enough that ships know to stay clear, else the dragon charges to sink the boat.

Finally we do get to deduct another model from the Kickstarter Bones pile...

Kickstarter paint total 231 + 1 Dragon Tortoise = 232

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...

Wizkids Classic Beholder - WZK90740

 

This was great fun to paint and I used a variety of styles and paints to put this one together.

I started off using Vallejo Xpress Color paint, but through an airbrush. First time that I've tried using an airbrush with the Xpress paints. I did not add flow nor thinner to the paint as I wasn't sure how that would interact with the formula of what Xpress is - so these were pumped right out of their bottles. I also know that usually you can't go lighter with Xpress paints so I started with the lightest first and then layered down into the darker colors (however, an experiment for another day, I think atomizing the paint through an airbrush might work based upon how I saw these colors lay down on the model).

The Xpress colors used through the airbrush were...

1. Imperial Yellow (lightest)

2. Nuclear Yellow

3. Martian Orange

4. Plasma Red

5. Velvet Red (darkest)

I was really impressed at how well the Xpress paints flowed through the airbrush - no hiccups or problems at all whatsoever. Coverage appeared to be really good. I was able to blend the layers together starting at the top with the lightest color and then flowing downwards to the darkest color.

Then I switched over to the Sharpie Creative Markers.

6. Purple on the lips

7. Pink on top of the purple to highlight the gums

8. White on the teeth, they center eyeball

9. Red thin line around the outside edge of the center eyeball

10. Orange thin line around the outside edge of the center eyeball but within the red line

11. Yellow central eye on the center eyeball and struck lines from outside edge to just short of yellow center; then all 10 of the stalk eyeballs

12. White medium dot on all 10 of the stalk eyeballs

13. Black tiny dot on all 10 of the stalk eyeballs and elongated pupil on the yellow eye

14. Grey as a highlight on the black pupil and around the yellow eye

Finally, I used traditional paintbrush and Vallejo standard paints to paint and drybrush the base

15. Black

16. Neutral Grey

17. Stonewall Grey

Asking Google's Gemini to convert the painted model into artwork generates probably the model closest resembling what I painted - it did enhance the eye...

As to ShadowDark stats - as mentioned with the Beholder Zombie, I'd probably use the stats in the core book for The Ten-Eyed Oracle. However, when comparing the stats to the original AD&D monster stats I might make some changes that would make the Classic Beholder unique in ShadowDark. I think the Eyestalks are a good compromise between ShadowDark and the original AD&D ray attacks - many of them are the same. Two attacks that are missing which this Classic Beholder should have would be the anti-magic cone and its bite:

1. the core rulebook has hostile spells targeting The Ten-Eyed Oracle are DC18 to cast and I would replace that with an anti-magic cone from the central eye which I would ShadowDark as filling a double-near sized cube extending from the creature with the antimagic shell spell.

2. a bite attack +4 for anyone silly enough to get within close with 2d4 damage

And finally I would restrict its movement to 1/2 near - the original beholder was a slow moving tank of a monster - it hovered a few feet above the ground and slowly obliterated everything in its path.

Final thoughts - I posted a pic of the front image to a local game store Discord and someone mentioned it reminded them of Cheetos. So this new ShadowDark monster is now named Hot Cheetos and upon its untimely death it explodes in a fireball as if the spell was cast on a natural 20.

Reaper Miniatures - Eldritch Demon - 77113

 

This model expanded my Sharpie experiment - just like Sir Conlan, I decided to use the Sharpie Creative Markers with the paint brush tip. It's an interesting pack / marketing decision made by the Sharpie folks. The nub tips actually have the same 12 and then another 12 more colors in what I think they call earthen colors. However the paint brush tip has only the primary colors with the exception of green.  Picking up the pack of Sharpie's gets you 12 colors to play with...

1. Blue
2. Purple
3. Pink
4. Red
5. Orange
6. Yellow
7. Black
8. Grey
9. White

and then I left the greens for the end - instead of primary green you get...

10. Blue-Green
11. Cool Green
12. Yellow Green

A minor pain from my perspective is that Sharpie doesn't actually name the colors - however, they do have a nice cap system with the color but if they ever do expand the line, it would be nice to have color names.

This model had been sitting on the bench for quite awhile - I originally had it painted a goblin green body with medium brown wings - the paint was airbrushed on with extra paint remaining in the pot from other painting projects. It wasn't really doing much for me and this Sharpie set has a bunch of greens so I figured this was the perfect experiment.

The three greens were used as follows... blue-green on the body and the wing structures - cool-green on the wing membranes - yellow-green to pick out the details around the body and the belly. Mentioned previously but it's easy to see, the paint is very opaque which was great to cover the airbrushed paint. However, sometimes it would be nice if just a bit of bleed/transparency was there to blend - the AK's are similarly very opaque.

A bit of Google Gemini magic and we have a Eldritch Demon for a VTT session...

What do we do with what is essentially the aspect of an elder god making its way to the material plane through space and time (tampered just a bit because I do have Reaper's C'Thulhu which is twice the size - a true LV20 beast). How about a large bit of demon, some dragon, a bit of brain eater, and finally some gibbering mouther (elevated) for anyone near the beast.

Finally we do get to deduct another model from the Kickstarter Bones pile...

Kickstarter paint total 230 + 1 Eldritch Demon = 231

Reaper Miniatures - Sir Conlan - 77200

 

I used this Reaper Bones model for a bit of an experiment - it had been sitting on my desk with a coat of light blue paint over it from some leftover paint from airbrushing the ocean hexes. It's also a Bobby Jackson sculpt which means it has some nice flow to it as all of his sculpts are awesome and would work well for this experiment.

I wanted to use only the Sharpie markers on this as well as some acrylic metallic markers I found on Amazon (Pagather 24 Metallic Acrylic Markers). I've been playing around quite a bit with the AK Interactive markers but they do tend to be a bit messy and I wanted to give the Sharpies more of a go. However, the Sharpies are very limited in color - so now I have 24 metallic colors (too many to be honest). 

This was a lot of fun and super easy. The blue cloak, the grey shield, the black straps were all Sharpie. The gold armor and the silver sword were the Pagather metallics. Like wow, that was simple. I did need to go to the AK's for the dark skin on the face. May need to see if the Pagather's have more colors to supplement the Sharpies. 

The Pagather acrylic markers were interesting - they're dual tipped with the brush tip on one side and what they called fine tip on the other which was more of a ball tip like the Sharpie bullet tip version. And like the Sharpie bullet tip version there wasn't a shaker ball and no instructions to shake. However, the brush tip acted and looked exactly like the Sharpie brush tips and the paint flowed quite well from the tips. I was accurate enough with the tip to get the gold chain going down and carefully follow the lines of the sword through the cloak.

One more test... I don't normally spray Bones models because they're so soft that the paint doesn't chip like a metal model would. However, I wanted to give it a go and see if there was any adverse effects on the model like what happened with the Vallejo Xpress Color paint on the Wizkids Raging Troll.

I gave it a pretty solid coat of Testor Dullcote and there was no reactivation or disintegration of the paint. Looks the same...

Time to bring the model into Google's Gemini and convert it to artwork for your VTT sessions using AI...

Now for some ShadowDark goodness for Sir Conlan. As he's designated as a Paladin which isn't in the core rulebook, let's take from the Monsters a combination of the Knight and the Acolyte - then give him a couple bumps in level...

Finally, this does count against my giant kickstarter pile (it is going down). 

Kickstarter paint total 229 + 1 Sir Conlan = 230

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 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.