De[ad]cember

The end of the year is nigh....

Ominous eh?

Okay, maybe not. Goodbye 2015, hello 2016 - I turn 40 later this new year, now THAT is ominous!

My Kickstarter rewards from the last Red Box Games Kickstarter arrived along with a set of their lovely zombie models and I've been painting furiously during my week off (Which is now at an end, I go back to work once more on the morrow - another ominous moment.). This set of 9 undead are all individual sculpts and great ones too, which was great and all are on the gore-lite side of zombie, which was also somewhat refreshing, but also made for painting to be a quick and simple affair. I'm not really inclined to put amazing amounts of effort into low hitpoint badguys as they'll probably spend little time on the tabletop in my rpg, being so easy to kill! (again)

Group shot - lots of shambliness and minlessness about this lot. Which i like very much.

Really like these sculpts - far more creepy side of zombies captured in contrast with the typical goriness and violence that other manufacturers produce like say, Mantic or GW.

These are all seem best suited to a fantasy environment due to their attire seeming rather poor and peasant-like.

And all bald and incredibly scrawny, which indicates less violent deaths, and probably more virus/disease-based endings for these poor souls.

Now I think about it,  these zombies will also be perfect for use with the recently released Dragon Rampant (Currently on sale, cheap! Click the link to see details.) rules set by Osprey Publishing!!! (Their fantasy version of their awesome Medieval/Dark Ages skirmish rules set, Lion Rampant - also currently on sale, cheap!)

 Also got this crossbow wielding fellow finished for my Frostgrave project. He's a rather old Citadel Miniatures (I think) orc, with exquisite detail sculpted throughout I think. I've painted him up in my Hobgoblins scheme rather than a typical green due tot he fact that orcs in my settings are of the pig-faced variety.

Lovely determined expression on this one.

A pouch of bolts and a nice hand axe hanging from his belt. Thought the red grip on the axe contrasted well with the brown leathers and purple jerkin.

Sheepskin seemed the more believable choice for his furs - sheep are easier to "hunt" than wolves or bears.

Lastly and again for my Frostgrave project, I slapped some paint on this 1983 TSR warhound. A fun and very simple sculpt and I decided he'd be a Doberman. At least that was what I was going for.

Per-dullcote, so the grassy loose pieces are long cleaned.

And a little out of focus on the face in this one, the chainmail also looks more defined in real life.

Not sure I'll get in another post before the New Year comes around proper, though I am working on my final two character miniatures for my rpg campaign, which will allow me to commence running it in the next couple weeks or so! (I'll be sure to leave an account here if there's any interest.)

Happy New Year to you all - I hope hobby-wise, it's a fruitful and fun 366 days! (It being a Leap Year and all.)

- Dai

Tally Ho!

It's Christmas eve and today I present a figure that I'd painted a couple of weeks ago as a Christmas gift for my stepfather.  But he sometimes stops by to see what I've been up to here, so I didn't want to ruin the surprise.  

The miniature is by Warlord Games from their Bolt Action range and is depicting a WW2 RAF pilot who has been shot down. Typically stoic, it seems the fellow is remaining cool enough under pressure to enjoy a bowl of navy cut.

And that's that. There's been plenty other painting done but I've been taking a break from posting, so I'll be sure to show off my work this weekend.

 Merry Christmas all, I hope Santa brings you brushes and shiny new toys for your unpainted mountains!

End of the Challenge

On June 1st the 2nd 6 Month Mountain Reduction Painting Challenge commenced with all sorts of rules and so forth in an effort for blogging hobbyists to try to get rid of their unpainted piles of metal and plastic miniatures and pledge to try not to make purchases during the duration and make their backlogs bigger.

The 1st Challenge (Last year) saw me largely painting my 15mm Flames of War Canadian platoons and I feel I did pretty well as far as limiting purchases made. This year... was different - I had different projects to get done and most in 28mm. In the end I think I painted up around 90x 28mm figs and around 30x 15mm. Not great considering I've had 6 whole months to get stuff done, but it could be far far worse. I think also I ended up about even with projects completed and new purchases made. Maybe a little off even, with more purchases made - but certainly not horrendous.

It's been a fun 6 months and a busy one and I'm happy with the work I've turned out and look forward to the next Challenge.

During the last week of this Challenge I did get work done! An archer that can be used for both my Frostgrave warbands and future fantasy rpg gaming.

I think she's a late 90's early 00's Reaper mini. 

One day I'll come back to this one and add a little freehand to her cloak as that is one large boring space.

I also painted up a couple of skeleton archers for my upcoming rpg campaign. To account for extra majicks required to get a skeleton to shoot a bow, I felt the bows themselves would need a splash of sacrificial blood too. No idea how those quivers are sticking to their hips though - maybe more of the same majicks?

These are the old late 80's GW sculpts saved from my bits box. I had glued them decades ago, so  hence who the one on the left has crap looking shoulder joints.

No pic makes a blog more interesting, than that of skeleton bootie.

 Lastly, got these Saxon Slingers done. They are initially to be used for my Dark Ages (Lion Rampant) project, but I'll also be utilising them for Frostgrave as Archers or Javelineers. Simple sculpts, simple paint jobs.

And that's that. So much crap going on in my work life with Union nonsense, it's hard to feel up to painting right now. Hoping that it all sorts itself out and that the membership vote goes smoothly on Friday - wish us luck!