Killing You With Ugly

To quoth the good book:

      This nightmare creature is loathsome beyond description and has no redeeming features. Its body resembles that of a huge, bloated buffalo. . . (its) neck is long and thin, and perched atop it is a big head uglier than that of a warthog. Its legs are thick and stumpy, much like a hippopotamus. . .In any case, the most horrid aspect of the catoblepas is its bloodshot eyes.
                                                                                 -Gary Gygax, Monster Manual, 1977

Ral Partha Catoblepas, vintage 1988

Ugly is right. Although this Ral Partha sculpt misses out on a few of the nicer details from D.A. Trampier's original art, like the fleshy bits 'round the eyes and the clubby tail, I think it hits a home run in the straight-up ugliness game. More importantly to me, it gave me the golden opportunity to really work on wet blending techniques. Serpent neck blending into hippopotamus armored flesh into hairy warthog bristles. I am very happy with the grey-to-flesh blending on the abdomen. I think I could probably have gone a little warmer with the greens, but I like the "natural" look I have now and I don't want to do anything that might screw that up.

It was a very productive week hobby-wise, as I also managed to prep all of the Otherworld Adventurers and Hirelings that I still have in my queue, along with the first batch of Redbox Games Kickstarter rewards. I finished off this OW ranger mid-week, and he will probably end up replacing the thief mini that my older son uses as his character in Barrowmaze. He's a big fan of the bow here.

And finally, I (admittedly) rushed the paint job on this (honestly) iffy sculpt of an undead dog from Grenadier just to get it off my desk. It's a Cthuhlu mini titled "Hound of Tindalos" and looking it up online, it appears mine is missing a big long tongue. Dunno, but I don't think a big long tongue would improve it much. Maybe a zombie in Barrowmaze will make this his Ol' Yeller. Woof woof.

Hope your own leaden pursuits are ticking along smartly. Take care, brethren.

It's A Swamp Thing-You Wouldn't Understand.

I remember having a discussion with an art teacher back in my younger days, and it was one of those talks that has always remained entrenched in my memory. One of the things that this teacher told me was that it is folly to judge an artist by the works that are widely recognized as being their masterpieces. Truly great artists, this teacher opined, do produce those transcendent, once-in-a-lifetime works, but what makes them great is their consistency. My teacher's final comment on the topic was that anyone who pursues art will, from time to time, produce something great- the masters of the craft, however, produce greatness nearly every time they try.

Why this long preamble, you ask? Because, to put it bluntly: Kev Adams is the man.

I talked last year about how impressed I was with the Goblinmaster's Heartbreaker dwarf line. Now, I get to present my take on his Bullywugs/Boglings, sculpted for Otherworld. Pure awesome. Demonstrating that, even in our little niche art form, consistent greatness sets one apart.

Ribbit ribbit

Loaded with animated character, the set is a good mix of action and static poses. Great little details like pouches, salted fish, textured wood, and those fantastic Kev Adams mischievous faces. Just like the Citadel Night Goblins he infused with a sinister sense of humor way back in the 80's (would those be Kev's masterpiece?), these froggies ooze malice from every reptilian pore. Perfect encounters for a low-level party.

Mwahhh haaaa haaaa haaaa.

Cheers, lead brethren. Thanks for the look.

I Love Me Some Glazed Reptile

As anyone who paid attention to this blog last year probably knows, I spent a lot of 2014 hobby time and energy painting up undead legions for our Barrowmaze campaign. Those painting sessions are finally paying off game-wise, as we've had a couple of cool dungeon crawls mowing through skellies, zombies, etc. One of the things that struck me as ironic, though, was how much Barrowmaze's author, Greg Gillespie, used swamp creatures (snakes, alligators, "boglings" AKA bullywugs, etc) to flesh out his wilderness encounters when travelling to and from the dungeon proper. In an effort to complete my players' experience mini-wise, I have turned my energies now to painting up a few proper bog creatures.

Case in point:

This giant snake from Grenadier will be attacking from a swampy hiding place soon. The stats for giant constrictors are pretty nasty in the original version of AD&D/Labyrinth Lord, so it won't surprise me if things get a bit hairy around the VeronaKid dinner table when he shows up.

Over my standard shaded undercoat, I applied a brown-green basecoat that, once drybrushed and highlighted, looked a bit too brown for my taste. Uber-light green ink glaze to the rescue!

The glaze really pulled the different highlight shades together and made the snake feel a whole lot more reptilian, to my eye anyway.

I also added a few blue and purple spots of ink glaze to the base, which is an old King's Minis trick from way back. I think it does add a nice sense of interest to an otherwise boring green-and-grass type of basing.

Cheers, lead brethren. Hope you are all well. Thanks for the look.

Year of the Monster

Well, 2015 is off to a very nice start hobby-wise, as I managed to get two monsters done after the champagne buzz wore off. A beautiful cockatrice sculpt from Otherworld and a cool frogman from Ral Partha (currently available as "Inchon" from Ironwind Metals) who will fill the role of slaad in my collection. Two nice big checkmarks in the "D&D Creatures of Note" done. Happy days.

Speaking of D&D, my family Barrowmaze campaign finally made it down underground to do some real dungeon-delving (at last!) which gave me the chance to, at long last, break out my new dungeon tiles. These were printed out from the Skulldred site, attached with spray adhesive to black foamcore, and cut out in lots of standard shapes for geomorphs. Easy to do and I think they make for a great tabletop dungeon crawl when combined with a few choice items from the old GamesWorkshop Dungeon Tiles, which are widely available as pdf's on the web.

Our adventurers trek through the mud and bog of my tea-laden board enroute

The first "real" dungeon room of Barrowmaze, complete with scratch-built block and tackle

Oh no! Not the old "portcullis drop and skeletons-in-a-closet" trap!

I hope your year is off to a smashing start as well, leadpeeps. Take care.

Rabbit, Rabbit

Happy New Year to all of you out there in leadland. To kick off 2015, I put the finishing touches this morning on what I was working on when I was so rudely interrupted by the greatest miniature of all time. Today's lead candy comes from the talented and long-toothed hand of Tony Ackland, he of "Grandmaster of Chaos" fame:

King F'yar of the heinous Kwae Karr orcs

Here's Citadel's TA3 Arcane Monstrosity-Orc War Wyvern, which got re-used as part of the Blood Bath at Orc's Drift scenario pack. He'll get added to my modest greenskins warband for use in larger games of Skulldred.

In the D&D campaign, the family made an interesting choice that I wanted to document here before it escapes my memory. On the way back from the barrows, the party was attacked by crocodiles. The two hirelings/meatshields were both grievously injured (poor Ardo got his leg bitten clean off) and ended up having to be stretchered back to town. When the party arrived back in Helix, they were stopped by the guild master who revealed that the priest of the only shrine in town had been found murdered while they were away. The family decided to turn detective and investigate. . . not rest and recuperate from their brief trip into undead land.

They made their way to the nearby town of Ironguard Motte, where the cleric of the much larger temple revealed that the rubbing they had secured from the barrows was virtually worthless without a means to translate it. . . a means that can only be found back in the tombs. No closer to determining the murderer, they hired a couple of experienced men-at-arms and headed back to Helix.

One of these days, we'll get to the dungeon. . .

Hope you are all well. Take care and thanks for the peep.

First Blood

The morning of September 3rd dawned crisp and cold. A dry wind stirred the dead leaves as our fearless adventurers set off from sleepy Helix and headed out into the wet marsh of the Barrowmoor.

Lots of footprints being left in the soggy soil in these parts

 Led by the intrepid thief Balton and the hired local guide Ardo, our little group trudged through the mud and muck for several hours without event. The elf maiden Deirdra, the de facto brains of the party, marched in the middle of the column along with two holy men of St. Ygg, brothers Hengist and Fregrid. They were accompanied by the strange gnome Oddjob, whose vocabulary is limited to his name and nothing else. Remains to be seen what he is capable of. Bringing up the rear was the other village hireling "Cougar" alongside the group's norseman fighter, Fjell.

Fjell illustrates the danger inherent with a skirmish-level "charge" maneuver

A couple of hours outside of Helix, disaster struck (already?!) as the party was attacked by a small swarm of stirges. The first two swooped down at the foolishly-charging Fjell and immediately drained the brave Norsemen of several quarts of blood. He dropped like a stone, unconscious. The rest of the party was able to chop up the monsters without further casualty, and brother Hengist bandaged Fjell to staunch the bleeding. One of the party's precious Cure Light Wounds spells later, Fjell was back on his feet, but weakened, and the group decided to press on.

The rest of the trip to the barrows passed without incident, and the vast field of mounds spread out in front of the party. The group headed toward a mound topped by a single obelisk, as brother Hengist's purpose was to take a rubbing of the arcane script engraved there.

Brother Hengist copies the sacred script while an enormous Christmas tree looms in the background

Their mission's purpose complete, the party made the conscious decision to SPLIT UP AND EXPLORE THE VICINITY. I should say here that my family (i.e. the PC's in this adventure) are all pretty new at this. . .

One of the two groups quickly located the entrance to the large, "main" barrow, and peered down into the darkness. . .

I meant to ink that stupid "stone" door frame, dammit. Sigh.

Luckily, the group wised up, discretion got the better part of valour, and they all decided it was time to go. Good thing, 'cause as they were packing up, the silhouettes of a rival group of tomb robbers appeared through the mist, and started heading right towards our party.

Ruffians and ne'er-do-wells as far as the eye can see

Time will tell if they can make it back to Helix in one piece. And we haven't even gone into the dungeon yet. . .

Christmas holiday rules! Cheers, brethren.

Wilkommen en Helix

The party got a little acquainted with their new home, the village of Helix, this afternoon.

Helix. . . now in 3D

Using Zhu's incredible map of the burg, I laid out all of my card buildings from the old Citadel "Blood on the Streets" pack, along with a handful of farm-style resin buildings that I have had since the early days of my hobby time (still dusty!).  The inimitable Dave Andrew's incredible watch tower stands in as the local wizard's ramshackle home at top right.

The board is half of a two-piecer I created a few years ago for Skulldred. A few years ago, Delaney King of King's Minis had a great tutorial about using used tea as a ground base for scenery (I can't locate the article now, otherwise I'd link ya to it). It takes a LOT of tea to cover a 4'X4' board, but the over caffeination is well worth it. With a little flock and a bunch of watered down PVA mixed in, it creates quite the grassy (and muddy) knoll.

Town Square

Wizard's Tower, complete with heinous fashion statement

These guys don't realize it now, but they aren't going to live much longer

A little shopping, a few hushed conversations over an ill-lit tavern meal, some travelling monks looking to hire some muscle to head off into the moors around the town. . . things progressing.

Enjoy your holidays, lead brethren. Roll some dice!

And So It Begins

The family and I kicked off our Barrowmaze campaign this afternoon. Pretty much just background info, familiarization with character sheets and equipment, etc. so far, but it is very nice to be back playing again instead of just painting. As much as I love the creation part of the hobby, it gives it all a sense of purpose when dice start rolling and decisions start getting made. Yeehaw.

On the painting table this week, I was able to bang out two quick and dirty projects. The first were the next three dwarf crossbowmen. All three are from Reaper, and all three set new standards for the term "28mm Miniature." Huge, huger, and insanely huge.

I also think I found a fairly decent answer to the question "What should I do with these minis from that lot deal that I don't think I will ever want to paint, and all of these silly hex bases?" Answer: put 'em together and turn 'em into statues for using as dungeon scenery, of course.

Pretty much all of these are either duplicates or extras, and my guess is we all have a pile of these lurking in the shadows of our lead piles, no?

That's it for the first week of December. Hopefully my next post will feature pictures of dungeon delving in action. Cheers, lead brethren.

Busy Days

The last few weeks have been a wonderful flurry of hobby activity for me. I feel like I have my mojo going very strong again, for the first real time since I stopped painting for other people.

Right after my last post, I started in on DM prep work for the family's upcoming delve into Greg Gillespie's Barrowmaze. After studying Greg's maps and keys for the dungeon, I knew that it was going to be a challenge to adapt it to a miniatures-based dungeon crawl. Greg's maps are very well designed and layed-out . . . but building them as a floor-tile dungeon would be next to impossible because they are so cramped. I took Greg's designs, cut a whole bunch of floor tiles downloaded from the Skulldred site and mounted them on foam core, and then re-laid out and re-keyed the "major" encounters to match the rooms and passages that I could easily build. It will make for a slightly less realistic dungeon lay out, for sure- but I think that it will be a lot more playable as a tabletop game. I plan on posting pictures of the games, as I know some of you have expressed an interest in Barrowmaze.

After studying the random monster tables for the various environments, I decided I was a little light in the dungeon vermin department, so I picked up a couple packages each of Fire Beetles and Giant Scorpions from Reaper and painted them up one evening last week. Again, since they are destined to die in droves, the paint jobs are quick and basic, but I was pleasantly surprised at how decent they look. Especially considering that these are Bones minis, and barely broke the $10 mark for the whole group of twelve. Definitely a good value.

Everyone's favorite gland donators

Roll save v. poison or die

About the same time that I ordered these guys, the Red Box Games kickstarter was wrapping up, and I was a pretty big backer of that project. The minis that Tre sculpted during the last few days of the campaign as stretch goals were so good that they drove me to search around the inter webs looking for older minis he had sculpted. I came across this great Not-So-Little-John priest type from Reaper, and fell in love. Readers of this blog will certainly know of my weakness for beer guts on minis.

Gotta love scale differences

He is joined here by a Dwarf from WOTC's Chainmail range. This guy is way too big to use in my WHFB Dwarf army, so I mounted him on one of the flagstone bases from Fenris and he will ultimately be a PC in Barrowmaze. I think the rest of the family will be rolling up new characters fairly frequently, as the dungeon is pretty deadly. The color scheme for his armor (yellow and black) was inspired by my older son's favorite soccer club, Borussia Dortmund (he happened to walk into my painting room wearing his jersey just as I was gazing at the mini trying to figure out how to paint him up). It was a nice excuse to use my favorite yellow painting technique again- a dark ochre base shaded with a heavy flesh wash and then highlighted up by adding in bone white. The cleric will make guest appearances as an NPC. I have an inkling he may be drunk fairly often. But just look at that whoopin' stick!

Hope you are well, wherever you might be- enjoy the last of your turkey sandwiches if you're on this side of the pond. Cheers, all.

Undead. . .tober

Seems like every different WHFB race and their mothers are being celebrated this October. I just happen to be in "I really need to start getting stuff done before the end of the year" mode right now, and the undead minions we need for Barrowmaze just happens to be my own lucky chosen project du jour.

Zombies from Otherworld, a "Doombringer" from Studio 2 (he'll play the role of Revenant for us), a couple of wights from OW, and a quite-nice-if-a-tad-smallish wraith from Dark Sword.

Happy trick or treating next week, leadheads.

Back in Black. . . err, Bleached Bone

Whew. It's been a while. Three months can really fly by in blogland, eh?

It was quite a summer of discontent for me, hobby-wise at least. I spent nearly all of my free time from June through early September working on these doors and portals for my commission painting client:

This project was enough to break me- I have hung up my mercenary brushes for the time being, as there is simply not enough time anymore in my life to paint for someone else. I have way too many projects of my own that I really want to get through, and having the feeling of commitment to painting someone else's stuff has turned my hobby into another job.

But no more.

In a flurry of excitement after I mailed the doors back to their owner, I dove headlong into my own minis and just put the final touches on the wonderful armored skeletons from (who else?) Otherworld. Sculpted by the one and only Kev Adams, these fellers are insanely characterful, old school, and really fun to paint. My admiration for that company grows with each batch of their minis I finish.

Attack of the stripy shield brigade

I was so sick and tired of painting brown and stone after all those portals that I had to paint these guys in a riot of color, at least for me. Ochre, brick red, Prussian blue, and dark green are my four go-to colors, so that's where these ended up. Again, this was so fun and so reinvigorating to do.

I hope to continue getting through my projects. I used the proceeds from the portal job to buy one long-term dream mini of mine. What is it? Stay tuned!

Happy hunting, brothers in Pb.

Bring Out Yer Dead

Just a quick update from the hobby table for me tonight. Put a very quick paintjobby on this batch of zombies from Redbox Games over the weekend. Certainly nothing to crow about, but since these guys are destined to be mowed down in droves over and over again in Barrowmaze, I figure they'll forgive me. I've become pretty enamored to the glowing-eyes-means-scary-undead concept- this time it's a nice eerie green shade to go with their green-grey skin.

Hope your own leaden acquisitions are going swimmingly. 

Something Old, Something New

Greetings, all, from the land of sunshine and orange juice. Today I bring good tidings of reconditioned lead.

First up is a quick blast from my not-too-distant past. I've never been a huge fan of Chaos, much preferring to play good guys normally, but a couple of years ago my older son and I were playing a LOT of Delaney King's Skulldred, and I managed to put together this little war band to use in that game. They are all fairly common Citadel Chaos baddies from the eighties- figures I am sure you are all very familiar with, so I will spare any further discussion of where to get them. The standout here for me is the unmasking mage in the middle- that is such an inspired pose. I feel fairly certain that I read that that is an Aly Morrison sculpt- fantastic.

Next up is my most recent addition for my (very slowly) growing dwarf force. When I saw this figure listed for the first time on eBay, I was immediately struck by the Kev White-esque balance in the pose and the interesting visored helm. I am pretty sure that this is a more recent Ral Partha sculpt (please correct me if I am wrong) and I wasn't disappointed in the least when he showed up in person. Really nice details throughout, and I love the larger-sized crossbow on this model.

I got a few more Otherworld NPC's done this week- this time it's a couple of men-at-arms and a wee gnome thief/illusionist. They are all from OW's current range and highly recommended- the two fighter types are particularly well sculpted and have some very cool little additions like wood grain on their shields and rivets on their armor. Very well done.

And finally, my most recent commission job was this mostly resin Wizard's Den. No idea on the manufacturer here. The alchemist's desk was a fun piece, and you gotta love those anatomically correct demons; every thing else here was a bit unremarkable, but I suppose it will make some room in my client's dungeon a bit more interesting.

That's all for me this time around. I have a topic I am dying to write about, but family demands and no time and blah blah blah. . .

I hope you are well wherever you are. Thanks for the peep.

C'mon . . . Gimme a Quickie

I'm finding that the last few rounds of commission jobs have really sapped my hobby ambition. I told my client I needed a wee break, thinking that I could take a couple weeks and make some serious hay on my collection, but I am having a hard time finding the desire to head back into my paint cave. I keep telling myself that this is a hobby, this is my free time, so I am not going to fight it- but those damn little lead men keep looking at me with those sad eyes making me feel guilty for not providing the gentle caress of my Windsor & Newton #2 . . . sigh.

I did find a few hours earlier this week when my blood was up and I banged out a couple of "quickie" projects: first were some more undead for my Barrowmaze / Otherworld D&D project. These ghouls arrived from OW a few weeks back. Painting them was a very simple matter; over my standard grey undercoat which I pre-shade with Army Painter Dark Tone and then give two highlight dry brush shades of light grey and lighter grey, I gave these fellers a bluish-grey base coat which had been mixed heavily with water and matte medium; I'd guess probably about 1 part paint to 1 part medium to 2 parts water, giving me a nice grey milk on the palette. Using very thin coats, I hit each of them twice; just enough for the pigment to give the basic color to the mini while allowing the shaded undercoat to shine through. I gave them each two highlight coats, adding increasing amounts of bone-white to the mix, first hitting all the raised areas and then for the final highlight pass, I just concentrated on giving the minis a highlight coming from a light source directly overhead. I used dark red to outline the blood, and then highlighted that with a fire-engine red color just in the center of the red, to hopefully give the impression of blood drying on the ghouls. A quick, heavy wash of Army Painter Strong Tone, and then gloss-then-matte varnishes, and done. Probably an hour and a half total painting time for three more fell fiends of undeath:

Who's been eating the nail polish again?

The second mini was even easier. I picked up this Rogue Trader-era Sensei from Steve a few weeks back, and he was already painted. From the pics Steve had on his eBay listing, I figured I would probably strip and repaint him, but I was very pleasantly surprised when I saw him in person. The details were nice, the base coats were very neatly applied- so I decided a simple re-base and mild augmentation were all that was needed. After taking him off of his old skool grit base and clipping off his slotta (gasp! the horror!), I refitted him on a modern lipped resin base with a sweet diamond deck finish, and then added a couple of quick highlight layers to his base coat. Two or three glazes to deepen his armor and cape colors, and viola! Sensei Fonzarelli is ready to smite a galaxy near you.

OK- hold that pose, and on three, say, "Cheese!"

I should probably, some day, try to do something with that face. That grin is. . . very disturbing. The face sculpt doesn't appear to be all that detailed, though, so I think the original painter did what he/she could, and I am not about to strip off all those cool checks just to find out that that grin is gonna be there regardless of how many times it gets repainted.

Cool mini, though. Definitely a needed addition to my RT Adventurers.

Sweet dreams, lead brethren.

My Kingdom for More Earthtones

Well, that was fun.

After several very long weeks, I was able last weekend to put the finishing varnish coats on what can only be described as "the country's single largest collection of corpse models in miniature." My original count of 43 was actually off a bit- turns out it was 48. And that number includes a few minis that feature multiple "bodies," meaning that I am fairly spent on painting dead guys now for a while. Here's the family portrait of the bunch; nary a healthy, strapping young warrior amongst them:

1000 internet points if you can spot the AD&D reference

And with the (eventual) posting of said family portrait, it means I also get to share a few of my own collection, painted as usual using excess paint on the palette in between base coats. I am continuing to plug away at the wonderfully sculpted Otherworld adventuring party, destined to visit a barrow near you in the future.

Barbarian, Thief, Acrobat. . . no, wait. . .

When I added these three to the rest of the group I already had done, I noticed something rather striking- I am getting quite addicted to earth tones in my old age. It probably serves me right- my first painting attempts way back circa '96 were Space Marines daubed in in bright, lemon yellow power armor with fire engine red shoulder pads. Quite an evolution to my new style, which is brown, dark brown, tan, and more brown:

Perhaps I should just start buying my brown paint at Home Depot

Man, I love that fat friar. There are simply not enough fat human miniatures in my collection, and I resolve to remedy that. I am starting to think that all your super-hero looking skinny dudes are a thing of the past. Give me some girth for adventurin' wif.

And finally, one little parcel of Ol' Skool Citadel. I mentioned way back at the beginning of this blog that I was going to try to adhere this year to a "five out, one in" method in an attempt to thin out my lead herd a bit. Back in February, after finishing my first few dwarf crossbowmen, I "rewarded" myself with this little gem from the mid eighties- the "Dwarf with No Name." He'd been on my most wanted list (no pun intended, but hell- I'll take it) for years, and very serendipitously popped up for a steal on fleabay just as I was looking for a bargain. In a sort of homage (a concept that seems to be poppin' up more and more these days in the Oldhammer movement, no?) to a childhood fave Friz Freleng, I went with a version of this Citadel classic decked out as Yosemite Sam:

I'm the hootenest, tootenest, shootenest bobtail wildcat in the west 

It's probably been done before, but when I saw that pose, this was the only paint scheme that made sense to me.

I hope this finds you well, wherever you may be. Happy leadhunting.

Just Keep Leading That Horse to Water

How to not maintain momentum? Blog about it, I reckon. . .

As soon as I finished that last post, I started a new commission project- "Dead and Dying" is how my client marked the box. Forty-three (!) figures of deceased adventurers. I won't be sharing those until I reach the family portrait stage- I have managed to get through about half of them at this point, with lots and lots of bloody corpses still on the queue.

As for my own collection, I have managed to squeeze out another three Otherworld minis:

Lantern Bearer, Female Ranger, and Meat Shield (AKA Linkboy) checking in

The fantastic Mr. Zhu convinced me recently to check out the amazing Barrowmaze for Labyrinth Lord/original D&D. Although I decided not to back the crowd fund they recently held, I did spring for a pdf of the first module, and boy- it is good. I mean really, really good. So I am now targeting the Christmas holiday 2014 to start a new rpg campaign with the family. I have about had it with all of the bookkeeping that is required to play Pathfinder, so getting back to basics with an ol' skool dungeon crawl through crypts and barrows should be fun.

That leads us to this weekend, wherein I banged out the first batch of skeletons speed painting style. This box from GW was just sitting around my leadpile waiting to be painted up. I would have preferred a few more unarmed skeletons rather than ones bearing swords and spears, but beggars can't be choosers. Wifey was nice enough to sculpt up the broken flagstone bases for me as she is far more handy with the modeling clay and knife than I am. . .

Speed Painting Techniques, Ho!

I'll slowly work in a few more adventurers in the coming weeks/months, along with some OW undead I have been slowly acquiring. Like I said, I have several months still to get them all done before the Barrowmaze Complete book comes out, and then it will be time for the dice to hit the table.

Hope all is well in your neck of the woods.