Why so angry? Wrath of Kings

Here's a some figures from the Wrath of Kings line by Coolminiornot.

I had to match the concept art for colors, so those choices were not my own.  They definitely were not what I would have gone with, since they were mostly the same value of dark or light.  I was tempted to try and do some tattoo designs, but that was not on the art :-(

Taking flight: Gwaihir finished!

OK... here are some views of the completed Gwaihir!  For those who don't know, I have a few work in progress posts that show how I converted this piece as well as painting process.

Since the last WIP post, I worked mostly on the highlights.  I also did some more work on the darkest darks.  

The base got a lot of work, as I tried to finish off the casualties and the rocks.

The balance of warm and cool colors also played out with the highlights, and with those deepest darks. I mixed a deep terracotta color with a black to line the edges of the feathers where the lights were cooler, and the opposite with the warm lights.

I did decide to toss in some bloodstains on the rocks, the casualties.  There was also a little bit on the eagle's talons.

Be Quietus... something from Dark Age Games

This Quietus figure from the Saint Johan faction gave me a chance to do some classic NMM technique on the sword blades.  The kind of swords I have done lately have not give me the opportunity to do things like the spectral highlights in the center of the blades.

One key little secret to helping yourself get nice results on things like these sword is to file down the sword edges to as sharp a pint as possible.  I use a hard rubber jeweler's block with my tiny files to make this possible.  Pressing the file against the block keeps the sword from bending!

I used shadow grey, a dark brown, Astronomicon grey, and even a bright pink to paint the blades.  I used the dark brown to shade the lower part of the blades to reflect the ground.  The pink on the upper half was a warm/cool contrast with the Shadow grey (still with a hint of purple, though!), which would make that upper "sky" facing part of the sword pop.

Sweet Potato has found a new friend to play with!

Reaper variety... always fun!

I have talked with many folks who run RPG games about how handy Reaper minis have been through the years.  There really is something for everyone!  And the cost levels are such that you could still do a group of "bad" guys to plug into a scenario, encounter module, etc.

Since many of them tend to be one piece or 2 pieces, they are pretty sturdy, and can take a lot more abuse.  RPG players seem to be much rougher on their minis than wargamers.

Whether it's townsoflk, town guard, or evil characters, it's always a good time doing that search for just the right miniature to fit that certain character.

I don't get to paint those as often as I would like.  Most of the ones I have painted lately have been for Lord of the Rings, if you can believe that.  They have also made good Blood Bowl minis, for reasons of that toughness I mentioned earlier...

Well, enjoy, and I will see you all later tonight!

Calming my Finecast rage... Raging Heroes!

Many of you will recall the post I did a few weeks ago about my favorite new miniatures... Raging Heroes!

I was extremely impressed by the quality of the sculpting and the casting.  Both the metal casting and resin casting were top notch.  To me, the high quality of the resin casting in particular makes certain other much larger companies efforts almost laughable.

The Vestals, as they are called, have very small and unobtrusively placed vents and gates, which have been the bane of my existence lately.  You can see them here.

Many wargear options are available.  I set myself up with a unit of five that will be going in a Venom.

I put them on some bases to see how they would look (this was very exciting!)

The poses are very dynamic, as you can see, but they are not so hunched over, as has been an issue with other companies.  You don't have to have them be leaning almost face down just to show movement!

Here are a few individual minis:

I was still able to get pins into the feet, which was pretty amazing.  The resin has resilience and strength.

I was really surprised to discover that I didn't have to scrub these figures down with soap and water to remove mould release!  I could even apply regular paint right to the minis.  Again, another plus!

I will continue to post updates on these ladies, as well as other miniatures available from Raging Heroes!  Check them out!

Altdorf in F-Cast

Unfortunately, the "F" in Finecast does not stand for "fantastic".  Frustrating would be the very kind and generous term.  I realize that people across the galaxy have been railing and grousing about this product since the day it crashed down upon our heads.  However, I must blow off a little steam here before I start putting pin vices through my brain.

One could understand that a new product could have 'issues' right off the bat.  

It has been a very long time now, with plenty of chances for improvement.  That has not been the case.  Everything that has come to me in the last month has been worse than the month before, and the month before that.  Truly shocking.  It does not have to be this way.

Tonight, which we are on the road, I will be doing more prep work on my shipment of Raging Heroes resin figures.  By themselves, these minis are nothing short of amazing.  When you compare the quality of those figures next to F-Cast, that "F" stands for something even less 'flattering'.

OK, sorry for the rant.  There will probably be many more.  But there will also be more pictures of minis!  

Reaper Elven Guardian

Here was a fun little vignette that I did a while back, using a Reaper figure.

The rocks were made from sculpey, using Cathy's technique of pressing real rocks into the unbaked sculpey.  Some dried foliage finished it off...

An example of SE-NMM, or Sky Earth Non Metallic metals.

Some more close ups...