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Thanks guys!

Really like the Griffon and Prince. The base is really incredible, the posing of the Skaven really captures a sense of panicked movement.

I like the alternate Griffon skin pattern. Did you simply stipple the spots on or was there more to it?

I just painted the white/grey on as normal, googled some pictures of snow leopards, then replicated that pattern. It was mostly stippling, with the spots getting larger/having clear middles towards the back.

Can smell the Skaven musk of fear from here lol. Really nice work on that Gryphon

Gryf dio is Amazing. Good Job on this vignette

Yup, that is an excellent mini diorama you have there. Like everyone else I love the snow leopard griffon, an inspired choice and equally good choices on the particular clanrats as well.

Nice to see a bit of fantasy in your log too.

Thanks everyone! I chose the snow leopard and grey eagle scheme in an attempt to emphasise/contrast with the warmer gold armour and purple cape, as in his previous incarnation (gold armour, lion and golden eagle colours) the elf himself tended to get a little lost in a sea of brown/yellow/gold. Glad it worked!

@:Thraxas: plenty of fantasy stuff to come! Not only am I still working on the elves/Skaven, but I also have the Wrath of Ashardalon board game coming soon, so there'll be all kinds of orcs, beasties, cultists and many-tentacled gribbly things on the way... And, of course, plenty of heroes to set about slaying them...

Few more NMM elves today, a command group of Lothern Sea Guard.

Banner:




Musician:




Champion




Not 100% happy with each of them, but I think they come together as a whole well enough. The pics also aren't helping, they've come out rather grainy for some reason.

That's it for today, thanks for reading and as ever, any thoughts welcome! Tomorrow the D&D board game should arrive, so expect more soon!

I cannot see any issues with them myself, the NMM looks great and I really like your colour choices. They truly look like High Elves fit for the End Times.

Are the round bases in preparation for the rumoured "New" Fantasy or have you got plans to use them in some other system. It will be good to see some D and D stuff as my knowledge of that is severely lacking.

I like the HE a lot, keep up the good work!

I guess the issues are hard to see unless you know where to look; having stared at them a lot over the last few days I notice a few variations in colour or rougher areas that just bug me a bit.

The round bases are there simply as I can't stand square bases! If 9th pans out as a skirmish game then I'll seriously look at properly rebuilding this army, if not then they'll at least look better on display and can used for various other games.


I'm not overly familiar with D&D myself, but the combination of a nice range of minis and solo play rules (and stuff to use with Dungeon Saga when that comes out) got me to pull the trigger on the board game dungeon crawl.

Hey! A lot here since I last checked in. I really like what you've done with the War Griffon and rider. As others have said, the mini-diorama looks great and the fleeing skaven really work well with the implied motion of the mount and rider.

I also like your work on the High Elves. They;'re very effective, and I think the basing texture across the elves works well also.

The sea guard look great. I really enjoy your darker and slightly sinister paint job on the elves.

High elves continue to impress, keep it up

Nicely done, huge elf fan myself and have heaps of them sitting unpainted in a corner tucked away. Loving the NMM, what made you opt for that as opposed to true metallics or just regular metal paints? Flexing your painting muscles or is it closer to the aesthetic you mentally envisioned?

Thanks everyone!

@ONI: the NMM was done a) just to see if I could, and b) because with these elves I wanted to try and emulate the look of the artwork and imagery that first got me into WFB, things like the Island of Blood box art and various novel/army book covers. NMM just lent itself better to that than metallics, I think.

I'm now in an odd place regarding NMM; in the past I've never really had much time for it, but the more I do huge more I realise that (for this kind of cleaner High Fantasy stuff) it actually works better than normal metallics, as it's easier to create contrast with colour and push the highlights further than I ever could with metallic paint. So while I'm still not 100% in love with it, for certain types of mini I think it will end up becoming a staple part of my arsenal.

In other news, the D&D game will not be arriving as planned, as the both places I've tried to order from decided to tell me on the day it was due to arrive that they don't actually it in stock, despite listing it as such on their websites Very helpful! At this rate, I'm either going to have to order it from yet another place, or wait for the last one to get it in (and they haven't said when they'll do that, Just that they were 'having difficulty' getting it). It looks like it'll be a least a week either way, so I'll have to find something else to paint in the mean time...

Bummer. Good luck in your search!

I do hope that one of the companies was not W*****d games! That is a bit rubbish, but it does give you a bit more time to clear some stuff from the "to do" pile.

Nah, it wasn't them! one was an Amazon seller, the other was actually the Book Depository, who are typically reliable. And literally as I type this, I've got an email saying they are now posting it first class, so in theory all is now well.. It just annoys no end when stores list stuff as in stock when it isn't; I don't mind waiting, so long as I know I'll be waiting.

Rant over, back to looking forward to more stuff to add to the to do list (which, as it stands, is about 3 feet high... I may have a problem...)

Well, good news that Book Depository is coming through for you there. Which one of the games did you end up going for in the end?

Went for Ashardalon in the end, I think it had the nicest overall selection of minis. I do like a lot of the stuff in Drizzt, not so keen on Ravenloft, and I've yet to see the contents of Temple in any detail. That might end up the second one I get, though.

Just the one today, and the first LotR I've done in a while: Balin, Son of Fundin, Lord of Moria





And Hobbit-Balin vs LotR Balin. In the words of his brother Dwalin, "by my beard, you are shorter and wider than last we met!"


The pics have come out a bit dark, but then he is quite a muted mini compared to my recent WFB stuff. It's a shame that the other LotR Dwarf plastics are pretty poor, as otherwise I'd be doing him a Warband to lead. At some point, I may grab a few more Hobbit dwarves to accompany him, as they are nice (if expensive) minis.

As ever, any thoughts welcome! Cheers for looking!

Fantastic work Para! Just caught up with those high elves. Like others have said the NMM is looking great.

Balin is looking good too. Think I prefer the LotR version. Did you use NMM on them too? I can't tell anymore

Cheers mate!

The LotR Balin has NMM on the armour and axe, and on the gold detail on the cape (though that didn't come out too well). It was an experiment in seeing if I could do NMM without compromising the muted/realistic look I aim for on LotR, and I think it worked. Even when it is more subdued like this, I think I'm able to get better contrast and a cleaner finished with NMM.

And yeah, I do prefer the older mini as well. It may well be less accurate to the dwarf aesthetic the Hobbit set up, but working with the limited material they had at the time I think it's a really nice mini. Sadly, I don't the Damn they released at the same time, and he's now either OOP or Finecast (or both). I do keep an eye on eBay, but no luck yet!

Balin looks great, as does Balin. The Hobbit version has more character while the LotR version feels much more like a Lord, though somewhat Generic.

The question is - I guess - which one will be your Balin?

I really like the difference between the two. Almost like an everyday outfit and then the ceremonial armour you would expect a king to wear. Pity it didn't work out for him. I always like Balin. Paint on both sets the tone of each well I feel.

Thanks guys!

I think for any gaming purposes, LotR and KoW, the older, lordly and axe-swinging Balin will be the one that sees use. Hobbit Balin is nice enough as a character mini, but that film version of him is less badass warrior-king, more Wise-Gandalf-Dwarf.

It arrived!

Yes, after two weeks of postal procrastination, Wrath of Ashardalon turned up on Saturday. Turns out it was worth the wait, as many of the minis are really nice, the components are all good quality, and most importantly, the game itself is good fun, even running solo (although team up games are more fun, it must be said!). I may do a more complete review at some point if there is any interest, but for now, here are the first painted minis from the set.

Unimaginatively, I started with the heroes. First up is the human Cleric, probably my favourite of the hero minis (although he must have some giant blood in him somewhere, as he's a full head taller than anyone else!). Not sure if the face mask is a deliberate feature of the sculpt or just the result of a mould slip, but either way it inspired me to go with a sort of Greco-Roman look on him. His pick was swapped out for a Dark Elf weapon that is just a bit more lethal looking:




Next up is the Elf Paladin. I've seen worse faces on minis, but only because she has no face (and not much of a left hand either), so ib took the easy way out and just painted her lower face covered by a cloth mask.




Next, the Dwarf Fighter, who is among the better ones in terms of detail. Surprisingly bulky for dwarf, what with the bear skin and cape, but still notably shorter than humans.



And lastly the Half-Orc Rogue, who is either evading some attack or just tripping over his own feet.



There is also a Dragonborn (lizardman) mage, but he needed quite a bit of chopping/replacing to get him paintworthy, so he's not done yet.

But what are heroes without something to fight? The first baddies I tackled were the Kobolds, who are absolutely tiny and not overly detailed, but they painted up quickly enough.




Each of the monsters in the game is controlled by an AI card that lists their actions depending on various circumstances, and these nasty buggers' first instinct is to run off and get some mates rather than fight, so you can quickly get overwhelmed if you don't handle them fast. Their leader is also rather hurty, the boss of the first adventure/level.


I've yet to beat him, as this game is pretty fiendish; if the hordes of monsters don't get you, the falling boulders, poisoned traps or pouring lava will. It may, in fact, be the tabletop equivalent of Dark Souls...

That's all for today! Not really on par with my other recent stuff, but they look decent for board game pieces, I think. As ever, any feedback welcome! Thanks for reading!

Oh, and on a side note, I'm putting together a list of Bones minis to expand this set, and have a bit left in the budget, for another half a dozen single minis or a couple of bigger onss. For those that have any Bones (from either KS), are there any real standout minis that look particularly good/are nice sculpts/are just impressive pieces?

Those are some great looking models para! I really like the claw hammer on the cleric, not a weapon you usually see.

I like the Kobolds. Have had a soft spot for them ever since Deekin in Neverwinter Nights.