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Nice creepy gribblies. Good colors.

Some lovely stuff on show. Love that red drake.

There are some really nice scukpts for the money in Descent. You are making it hard to resist going full bore into this game. Great job. The bears though a basic color scheme really work out well.

Thanks guys! Sorry for the late reply - I've been distracted by Dark Souls and been ill all week.
Got the villains for this set done. Gotta say I do like the bad guy minis from this set the most of any of the board games - I feel like it gives you a very useful variety of classic monster types.

Duergar:


These evil dwarves are a favourite baddie of mine, though I can't say I am estatic with the sculpts here. I want to do some AoW berserkers up to fill the ranks out a bit, but the colour scheme was the main thing I was testing and I think it's...okay.

Kobolds:


I love me some Kobolds and I'm always happy to add more to my wee clan (got 11 Kobolds now, practically enough for an encounter )

The leader is cool, actually looks like a Kobold adventurer, but the basic warriors (dragonshields) are a bit pants in my view. Too hunched, can't really make much out in terms of their detail and visually uninteresting. What I really want to get my hands on are about 5 of the old Kobold Miner minis, they were awesome.

The titular Ashardalon:




The big bad from my D'n'D campaign of the last two years, this is a really cool dragon mini. I much prefer the design and proportions of the Dungeons and Dragons Chromatic Dragons to what Mantic gave us for DS. However the cool sculpt and design is perhaps let down a bit by a slightly less good cast. Still love it though and happy to have a classic Red Dragon. Really fits well on the base while still being big an intimidating. The light shows up some red splotches on his wings that don't show up under "normal" light, so I might correct that. Also just noticed that I need to tidy up the rock he's sitting on - some of the yellow from his belly ended up on there.

And all the villains together:


I am happy with the way the cultists match the dragon in colours, it helps tie them in as a Dragon Cult. Pretty pleased with the whole lot.

I've done the stupid thing and left the Heroes til last. The hero minis from this set are a mixed bag. I really like the female Dwarf and the Dragonborn Wizard, but the others all have goofy poses and very questionable design choices. I better just power through them to get the set finished.

Next on my list is Descent, but I am starting to feel a bit of burnout due to my rapid pace these last few months. If I can get Descent all finished I might take a break from knocking out entire board games every month to work on some Red Box stuff at a bit of a more leisurely pace.

That is looking fantastic bud, love that toning on the Dragon.

Wow, you are really good at painting dragons. I'll have to up my game.

The grey skin on the dwarfs is a nice touch-- you can really tell that they are evil.

Thanks guys! I was really intimidated by the dragon for ages, so I had to test the scheme out on the drake first.

The biggest question was the wing membranes, but I'm really happy with how they came out. Used all my crimson wash on him though!

Ashardalon and his minions have turned out awesome. You're really cracking through the boardgames, and it's really turning out brilliantly. And now you have another dragon for KoW, etc! (once you blu-tac him down to a base!)

Man, April was somewhat like being run over by a truck. Didn't get to sit down and paint at all. Though that is at least 40% due to getting hooked on Dark Souls 1.

Gonna try and sit down and paint the last heroes from Wrath of Ashardalon today and get back on the horse. Neet to clear quite a few minis this month if I'm not going to let April derail my plans...

Sorry guys! Will update soon.

Glad to see you back. Looking forward to more progress on the boardgame figs. It helps me see exactly what I need to purchase and what I NEED to purchase

Ignore this post, wrong thread

So...long time no see Dakka. April was like being run over by a truck he said, over a year ago.

If you have any interest in knowing where I have been, have a look in the spoiler.



Things have finally calmed down (in the last week of term!) and I've gotten back into painting. I am running a 5th edition dungeons and dragons game for some students, and they're about to start the wonderful module "The Forge of Fury". I have minis for pretty much everything except the Roper on one of the sublevels. I figured a stalagmite with a mouth and tentacles couldn't be too hard to sculpt so I bust out the milliput and got working over a core of cork. I used a wooden bead for the eye and paperclips to make the tentacles. The teeth are the tips of swords taken from a Wargames Factory Celts sprue.



I actually found Milliput pretty nice to work with, easier than Green Stuff at least for this sort of work. Painted him up today and he came out pretty nice! Proud of the eye in particular, first time I've gotten that effect to work out well. Might give him an earthshade wash to dirty him up and bring out the detail a little, though I think he looks alright as is. Working on a Beholder next, seeing as the feckin' Gale Force 9 one is lovely, but 50 quid.



Glad to be back anyhow Dakka!

That Roper is delightfully gross.

Welcome back to Dakka!

That looks fantastic, really nice work, I quite like Milliput myself. You have definitely captured the vibe of the beasty. Looking forward to more from you, Welcome home.

Haven't played D&D is ages, and I don't remember ropers, but THAT is awesome none the less.

I had a very good time reading through the whole thread just now and i am glad to see you are still updating it! I really like that last creepy beast, the eyeball especially.

Josh: Thanks, he came out really well just due to being quite an easy project. But I'm delighted with him.

Camkierhi: Cheers! I am also looking forward to getting back into some hobbying.

Theo: Thanks! Ropers pretend to be stalagmites and then sort of trap players with their tentacles, which exude a strength sapping poison. They are intelligent, and if you are entertaining or interesting, a Roper might keep you alive before eating you.

amazingturtles: Thanks, really glad you enjoyed the thread despite my dodgy photography. I'm delighted with the eyeball too.

I've started work on a new project and made quite a lot of progress. One monster that everyone knows from Dungeons and Dragons is the Beholder. Floating orbs with 9 eyes that each have a different magical effect, they're a classic monster. I love them, though every time I've used one in an encounter my players have ganked it within a round or two.

The problem is, your options for getting beholders are limited to very expensive, brittle resin Gale Force Nine models (which are lovely) or buying the also very expensive Wizkids blind buy boxes, or looking on Ebay for old Prepaints. Beholders go for a lot, and I wasn't too keen on paying that much for what are mostly kind of shoddy sculpts. I mean, I can manage a shoddy sculpt myself, so I've decided to try!

The base for this sculpt is a polystyrene ball and some paper clips:


Then I embedded a wooden bead in it, stuck it with a bunch of paperclips cut in half and twisted into shape, cut a big grinning mouth into it with a craft knife and slathered it in milliput.


I tried gluing the smaller beads on with a hot glue gun, but it didn't work that well, so I ended up holding them in place with milliput. I worked on the position of the eyes to try and give him a dynamic pose, and he's sort of looking in all directions including behind, which I am happy with.






I figured the mouth might be a little boring with just teeth, so I sculpted a tongue to loll out of one side. I like the idea of Beholders having large, muscular tongues for some reason, and using them to probe objects to manipulate them, given they don't have hands.



I left all of this to dry and came back the next day to do the eye lids for each of the eyes. One of the eyestalks needed fixing too because it's a bit wonky for whatever reason. The tongue also fell out, I guess it needs to be secured with glue.


The next bit was very fiddly - I had to cut the tips off some viking spears to act as teeth, and then manipulate them into the milliput "gums" I had made, while also fitting the tongue into the mouth. It looks okay in the end, though I was hoping for more "gummy" looking gums!


So he's pretty much done, I thought. But then I looked at him and realized he's devoid of texture. I reckon if I don't put some texture on his body he will look much more obviously home made, so I started making little flattened rounds of milliput and sticking them onto him. It's a cheap and easy way to add detail, and I've since totally covered the rear half of him (very tedious!) but it looks pretty good now that it's done and adds some interesting texture to the model. I've left the face bare of scales to allow it to stand out, and the eyestalks, and I think the contrast between the scaled areas and the more loose and blobby flesh parts will work well.


Still left to do is mounting him on a base, probably on another paper clip. I also want to sculpt the base to look like dungeon flagstones, since that is where he will most likely be encountered. Any suggestions as to how to manage that would be appreciated!

For a paint scheme, I was thinking of painting him green in the same way as the Dungeon Saga Dragon earlier in the blog, and then picking out the scales in turquoise, because that worked really nicely for the dragon. I am then torn over whether I will copy the Roper eyeballs, which I think would look great and really complement the green colour scheme with some contrast, or if I should paint the "whites" of each eye and then give each iris it's own colour. I'm hesitant to do that because I think I might mess up the execution, and I know I can manage the red-roper-eyes already.

But I'm very pleased with how he's coming along. A simple enough thing to work on because it's a weird spherical beasty and no one cares about the proportions or whatever, so I can get away with the fact that I am a total novice sculptor and it still looks reasonably good!

That's very impressive! beholder's are a lot of fun, i'm actually surprised that there aren't more models of them out there. the rounds as texture was a good idea

the face reminds me a bit of the one from the hitchhiker's guide books

Great looking beholder, at least in my eyes .

As for flagstone bases, Dr. H just showed how he did his on his primaris marines in the last week or two. Simple and effective.

Wow, if you look into its eye, you really can see Beauty.

Someone ought to let her out. Beast is getting worried.

It's nice to see someone else painted Wrath of Ashardalon D&D figs. I missed seeing them the first time through this blog.

Nice work on everything.

Remember, every roper is named Norman or Audra.

Amazingturtles: Cheers, yeah, the supply of beholder minis is pretty limited. I mean, if I can sculpt one, then surely there's plenty of third parties that can do it.
Theo: Cheers!
Red Harvest: Thanks! I really enjoyed reading your blog and looking at what you'd done with your D'n'D minis. One of the inspirations for this blog in fact!

Finished texturing the beholder, and I think he's looking pretty sexy.








You might notice he has a stick up his arse, that's because the wire I was using was too flexible and wobbly, and I needed something firm to hold him by while I paint him. I am thinking of mounting that onto a flying base and then milliputting over to make the flagstone texture. But he's looking pretty good right now and I hope I can paint him up before I go on holidays to Brittany on Monday!

Last night I mounted him on his flying base and slathered on some milliput which I then scraped some flagstone patterns into with my sculpting tool. I figure it looks okay, though the rough edges might need some sanding off. I was trying to get it close to the Dungeon Saga flagstones.



The barbeque skewer I am using as a stand is pretty firm now, but it was wobbling a lot before the milliput set, so I forsee some problems there. But I'm gonna spray it now anyhow, and hopefully I'll paint it this evening. Quite looking forward to that! This is my first complex scratch build and attempt at sculpting along with the Roper. I'm happy enough with it- obviously it's messy and could be improved but I'm glad I overcame my nervousness and gave it a try. I'm going to try some more things in the future like Gricks and Twig Blights, stuff where accurate humanoid proportions are not needed and the details are forgiving.

My aim is to eventually have a fully painted monster manual. I'm actually quite far along!

Nearly done painting the Beholder now, just need to let various washes dry and then do his teeth. Overall pretty happy with how he is turning out - he does look quite goofy, but I think he also looks kinda cool in an old school sort of way. I think my players will be impressed when I plonk him on the table in a game, and he's instantly recognizable as a beholder.






These are just some quick WIP snaps, I'll get the proper set up and lighting for tomorrow, but it's late here right now.

The Roper is pretty cool, but that Beholder is just bloody amazing - from build to paint, and the eyes on it are outstanding. I also like the effects like the glistening tongue as well. Really nice work, mate!

Congratulations on the nuptials, but condolences on everything else from the last year. 2016 wasn't a particularly good one in many ways, and lots of 2017 have been pretty bad. Regardless, it's good to see you back here and that you're in decent shape.

Thanks for the warm welcome! Yeah, 2016 sucked apart from the getting married part. This year I've refused to clean up the aforementioned colleagues mess. Which sucks for the students, but means I might have the headspace to actually pursue my hobbies!

Thanks for the warm words about the Beholder too - I'm well pleased with him, particularly as he and the Roper are my first experiments in scratch building. It's a lot easier to get away with it with weird monsters like that which don't have defined proportions, but I'm fine with cheating like that to get some experience.
Here are some better pictures, with his teeth painted:





(I had fun posing him so he's looking behind himself as well - I hate when every eye on a beholder is looking in the same direction! Also happy with how the warty texture on the back came out, considering it was such a low skill technique)



So you can see he's a little on the large size, perhaps verging on "Huge" in D'n'D terms, but I think it doesn't matter and the players will be suitably intimidated when I plonk this down in front of them.

Very happy with this, can't wait to use it, though it's likely gonna be a while before I get a chance to! I'm off to Brittany for the wedding anniversary for a couple of weeks, and then in Ireland until the middle of august, so after this burst of productivity this blog is going to go quiet again, but I'll be back - I've piles of minis to paint yet!

That is magnificent bud, really brilliant.

https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/eye%20beast/latest/77043
$4 just saying

I think yours is quite a bit bigger and more unique though, it looks awesome

Roper too! A triumphant return, plus grats on the getting married part.

Cheers lads! Hah, yeah I know about the bones mini. Unfortunately they are hard to get a hold of here in germany and customs can be a pain in the arse if ordering online. I might make a big order yet though-they've some great options.

He turned out splendid. Great eyes, and i kind of like how he looks both a little cheery and very creepy at once. Makes me wish for a chance to play some dnd or similar

Yeah, I think he looks kinda goofy but I knew he would, and Beholders are sort of inherently goofy.

On the D'n'D front, I was motivated to sort him out because when I run intro games of 5th edition I like to give the players a lot of choice, so I tend to give them an option between various jobs.
They can be heroic and help people in trouble, mercenary and just go for money, or head to the big nearby dungeon and see what's in there. So far, every group has chosen to go poke around in the dungeon first.

I use Barrowmaze for the dungeon because it's an awesome low level megadungeon, and, well, a Beholder is required for that dungeon