Keep your stick on the ice

Some of you may remember the Magnificent Egos Frost Paladin that was posted recently.  Here are some shots of the base!

This was made of carved Sculpey clay.  I used a series of muted grayish blues, followed by a watered down coating of realistic water to give it a bit of a shine.

And here's what it all looked like together!

This was one of the bases created in the "Ice and Crystal bases" video, one of 12 basing videos done for the Painting Pyramid series.

Part one: The Draahk are coming

The creature feature continues from Raging Heroes!  These amazing beasts are the Draahk, and they are just as fearsome as the Stingray riders.

This is a very interesting Musician!  I think a lot of enemy units will not be enticed by the sound of that instrument to remain and fight. :-)

No unit is complete without a Battle Standard!

Finding just the right color scheme for these incredible minis will be just as challenging as the Stingrays...

While the Draahk are rooted on the ground, they are no less dynamic than the Stingray riders.

Here's another angle on the musician.

As I mentioned in previous posts, these figures will benefit greatly from the multibasing style of Kings of War.  No struggling to rank up heavy cavalry with swords and shields poking out at all angles.  Now I can spread them out a bit, and even allow the viewer to get a look at the sides of the figures too!

That aspect is even more important when you factor in how active these poses are.

Once I read through the KoW rulebook and the army lists, I can get  better sense of what to do with these.  Given the way breaking works in that system, I am not sure I want to make large units of these.

With the way my luck is, one wound will break them!  Again, this will still depend on what I see in the unit listings.

This concludes part one.  More images to follow in part two, including a nice group shot of all six riders together!!

Something from Scratch

This is a blast from the past, a figure that I sculpted almost 12 years ago.  It was meant to be a sculpt of Eowyn for my Lord of the Rings army.

I have some images here of the original sculpt, and a few other painted versions:

http://wappellious.blogspot.com/2012/05/scratch-sculpted-eowyn.html

I was just learning how green stuff worked at the time, and casting a figure was definitely a skill that would have to be learned the hard way.

To make this a little easier, I tried to make the pose as simple to cast as possible.  Even then, it proved to be very difficult.  The experience, among other things, persuaded me to be a painter instead.

Obviously, technology has changed in many ways, making sculpting a far more viable option.  Who knows, there may come a day when I get to sculpt more often. However, I will always be a painter first!

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/321918998909?

Draconic Paladin

This very fun miniature was created by Minx Studios.  It was cast in resin.

She is standing on one of my favorite marble/tile bases... a design that I just love. :-)

It's featured in this video that I made for my Painting Pyramid series:

http://www.kingshobbiesandgames.com/James-Wappel-s-Marble-Tiles-and-Cobblestones-p/jwmarble.htm

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/-/321918176835?

War Avatar

I have only painted a tiny handful of Avatars of War figures over the years.  Not sure what this one is called, but it's the first one in quite a while!

As you can see, it was painted to match a number of other manufacturers in theme.  It joins the Privateer Press, Reaper, Red Box Games and Mierce miniatures that are all a part of the same group.

That has been a tremendous challenge, especially when the figures rotate in and out over many months.  All you have are pictures and memory to work from in many cases.

Time to Die

I know that I have painted this Reaper figure a few times over the years, but I had a lot more fun with it this time around.

I've been using the earth tones and muted colors so much since the return to fantasy style figures and Steampunk, I felt like I could try out some interesting combos here.

Oh yeah... and the bark bases make a nice wild rocky landscape for her to stand on!

Reaching Out

This is another of the older set figures from Dark Sword.

Many of the figures we originally obtained from Dark Sword were boxed sets based on original paintings by Larry Elmore.  The tradition has continued over the years, as other fantastic artists have provided inspiration for fantastic miniatures!

She's also here:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/321917207982?ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1558.l2649