cygnnus wrote:

Funny you should ask...

Valete,

JohnS

Does that mean you have actually picked up a brush? Detail, man, give me details!

It's weird. 5-6 years ago, I know I would have looked at those "oldhammer" minis and thought "Yuck!" but now I really find them very charming. I think if you look at modern plastics, you can actually see some of the same facial features (less exaggerated) in the modern models.

Love this blog, so much win. Great work sir.

Da Boss wrote:It's weird. 5-6 years ago, I know I would have looked at those "oldhammer" minis and thought "Yuck!" but now I really find them very charming. I think if you look at modern plastics, you can actually see some of the same facial features (less exaggerated) in the modern models.

I freely admit that my love of these models mostly comes from mostly nostalgia.

Camkierhi wrote:Love this blog, so much win. Great work sir.

Right back at you, sir. Your work never fails to astound me.

Samurai came in third in the poll, so that's what I'm working on at the moment:


This is Oda Nobunaga, from Perry Miniatures. Nobunaga was one of the Three Unifiers (along with Toyotomi Hideyoshi and Tokugawa Ieyasu) who brought and end to the Warring States period in Japan. This model doesn't look like any of the famous suits of armor that Nobunaga wore, so I painted him as a generic leader type.



Uesugi Kenshin was one of the great Warring States-era daimyo. He is famous for his long-standing rivalry with Takeda Shingen and for being a Buddhist monks as well as a warrior. He's most often depicted wearing the cowl you see here, although all of his remaining armor come with helmets.

Perry samurai were, for a long time, the only models on the market, and you can kind of tell working with them. They seem undersized by today's standards, and mold lines and flash abound-- probably because the molds are getting old. Still, these were pretty easy and fun to paint. I have a couple more models half finished, and then I'm kind of at a loss for what to work on next. I may try recruiting my son to help with whatever project I start next. Maybe sonething fantasy...?

Oh yeah, here's a group shot:

Another pair of winners!

I know very little about Japanese history, so these little snippets are fascinating, thanks

Beautiful work Josh . Great inspiration to me in my work ahead of me. Eventually I'll get some of the Perry miniatures and the other brands that you have done to plant inside my army.

The figures are very nicely done- the detail on the armor is particularly eye-catching.

I know of the Tokugawa Shogunate period in Japanese history (I read everything James Clavell wrote) but was not aware that there were three great leaders none as the Unifiers. Was it an amicable process that determined that Tokugawa would be the Shogun, or was it more like the Three Consuls of Rome when Octavius (later the Emperor Augustus) decided that Republic thing just wasn't working out?

Great stuff!

Perry sculpts are still very good despite their "advanced age". Very lifelike and Your paintwork has really brought them alive. Thank You!

Awesome stuff. I really like the variety of themes you cover.

Theophony wrote:Beautiful work Josh . Great inspiration to me in my work ahead of me. Eventually I'll get some of the Perry miniatures and the other brands that you have done to plant inside my army.

There are a lot of options out there for adding variety to a samurai army. I look forward to seeing what you come up with.

Slinky wrote:Another pair of winners!

I know very little about Japanese history, so these little snippets are fascinating, thanks

I minored in Japanese history in university, but most of what I still retain is in snippets. My son is really into history, though, so I find myself brushing up so I can keep up with him.

Meer_Cat wrote:The figures are very nicely done- the detail on the armor is particularly eye-catching.

I know of the Tokugawa Shogunate period in Japanese history (I read everything James Clavell wrote) but was not aware that there were three great leaders none as the Unifiers. Was it an amicable process that determined that Tokugawa would be the Shogun, or was it more like the Three Consuls of Rome when Octavius (later the Emperor Augustus) decided that Republic thing just wasn't working out?

Great stuff!

Thanks. I never read Clavell, but the Shogun miniseries was an Event when I was in junior high school-- that's one reason I'm here now. Tokugawa taking the Shogunate was the exact opposite of amicable. Oda conquered most of Japan by force, but his empire fell apart when he was assassinated. Hideyoshi finished the job, but wasn't able to generate enough loyalty for his heir to take over when he died. Tokugawa essentially betrayed his oath when he tried to take the Shogunate, splitting the country essentially in half. Probably the main factor in his post-war success was his ability to forge alliances. It's a really interesting period of history, with no real bad guys or good guys.

Wirecat wrote:Perry sculpts are still very good despite their "advanced age". Very lifelike and Your paintwork has really brought them alive. Thank You!

They break down when you look at them close enough to paint, but they look good on the tabletop, and even better in units.

complex57 wrote:Awesome stuff. I really like the variety of themes you cover.

Thanks. I like to work on something different every month or so to keep myself from getting bored.

Hey Josh (and you too, Theo), have you seen the Japanese figures that AW Miniatures put out? (Andrew Wilson Miniatures at awminiatures.co.uk). I recently backed a Kickstarter for Napoleonic Highlanders and say his home page- an impressive line of samurai, attendants and foot soldiers. From the Naps that I bought, they should be a good 28mm scale (not slightly big 25mm, like some can be).

I look forward to seeing (and learning) more!

Thanks for the heads up--I hadn't seen those models before. I already have more samurai models than I'll ever use, but not many companies make peasants. I'll have to keep those in mind.

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Hey Josh (and you too, Theo), have you seen the Japanese figures that AW Miniatures put out? (Andrew Wilson Miniatures at awminiatures.co.uk). I recently backed a Kickstarter for Napoleonic Highlanders and say his home page- an impressive line of samurai, attendants and foot soldiers. From the Naps that I bought, they should be a good 28mm scale (not slightly big 25mm, like some can be).

I look forward to seeing (and learning) more!

I’ll look once I’m awake, but thanks for the heads up .

My productivity is way down compared to the last two years. I'm still painting, but I'm focusing of single models rather than units. To wit:




Date Masamune, the One-Eye Dragon, lord of Sendai. He could have been Shogun had he been born twenty years earlier (i.e., contemporary with Tokugawa). This is another Perry model. And like all of the others I've painted, the model is definitely showing its age. I was going to cut off the kazari on his helmet, but decided it would be too much effort to fabricate a new one. This is the last of a set of three commanders (the other two being Uesugi and Nobunaga).




I got this commander from Zenit's Indiegogo campaign. I mounted him on a round base without thinking about it, and in retrospect he'd probably work better embedded in a unit of teppo rather than as an individual. The only thing I dislike more than basing is rebasing, so he stays where he is.




Finally, a shugenja (also called yamabushi), from the same Indiegogo campaign. There are apparently still practitioners of this ascetic discipline, but all the photos I've found show them in pristine white and saffron-yellow robes. I wanted this guy to feel more like a full-time hermit, without access to laundry facilities, thus the drab off-white palette.

Here's a group shot, along with a large farmhouse from Plastcraft:


I'm not sure what I'll be working on this month. More samurai stuff, maybe? I finally played Dungeon Saga with my son-- we ran through the first four scenarios in one sitting, him playing the necromancer and having fun despite losing, so I may go in that direction instead. We'll see.

Nice pieces, Josh! I'm in a similar place- painting singles or small units, or putting a lot of effort into a vehicle, and usually to give a specific technique a try- just for the fun of it. I've got my core armies built I don't have time to game that much, and I'm starting to get tired of keeping up with the Codex changes (all for the good of the game, of course, and not at all designed to make me have to junk half of what I have to accommodate the rule alterations, not at al!).

I'm a fair hand with painting horses, having done a lot of Napoleonic cavalry, but your dapple grey is really outstanding- very nice effect!

Keep n keepin' on, man!

Thanks, M_C. Painting singles and/or small units has become a necessity after the last two years-- I'm running out of storage. It's also been nice to be able to really take my time instead of block painting ten essentially identical models at a time to meet my self-imposed quota.

Thanks also for your kind words on the horse. I don't feel like I've really mastered horses, which is unfortunate given how cavalry heavy a samurai army should be.

Your Date looks good. Instantly recognizable to the point that my kid walking past the screen commented on who it was!

I've been so spoiled on stuff like the Musou games and Sengoku Basara designs it's hard to remember what these guys were supposed to actually look like.

Man, what I wouldn't give to see someone do some tabletop designs inspired by over the top video game sengoku jidai...

 highlord tamburlaine wrote:
Your Date looks good. Instantly recognizable to the point that my kid walking past the screen commented on who it was!

I've been so spoiled on stuff like the Musou games and Sengoku Basara designs it's hard to remember what these guys were supposed to actually look like.

Man, what I wouldn't give to see someone do some tabletop designs inspired by over the top video game sengoku jidai...

Thanks. Date is pretty recognizable-- his only real adornment was that crescent on his helmet. I still wish it had been a cleaner cast, though.

Those video games designs would be fun to admire but hell to paint, I suspect.

Those minis are lovely, I particularly like the cavalryman. I wish I could get some more dungeon saga in, but at least the minis see use in D&D. The base game is really fun to play through and I think easy enough for non-wargamers to get into.

Thanks. With this set, I have more characters that I can ever use, but they are fun to paint.

I agree about DS-- the four scenarios we played were fun, although next time we'll have to try the secret map set-up to make it more challenging. Also, my son is really excited about creating characters based on the Bones models I gave him for Xmas years ago. Maybe he'll finally try painting them...

Fantastic work here Josh.

In all fairness no reason you cant mix some of the characters in with the rank and file.

 carlos13th wrote:
Fantastic work here Josh.

In all fairness no reason you cant mix some of the characters in with the rank and file.

That's what I plan to do, but right now the characters outnumber the R&F. I guess I should do up some more cavalry someday.

Just wanted to stop by and comment on your awesome models. I enjoy stopping by you guys that do the less mainstream model companies and get my fix of what is on offer and out there.

Keep them coming. I am also enjoying your change of pace from regiments to single models.

More excellent stuff, Josh!

My favourite has to be the hermit...

Sorry, not on Dakkadakka much lately, but your new models are fantastic. Love the spotted horse and moon samurai.thrd pictures angle makes him look like he’s riding a unicorn.

Yamabushi looks cool too.

I know what you mean about the basing. ToH has all round basing, but Pike &Shotte has all squared basing . It’s part of my reason I’ve switched over to BtGoA painting temporarily.

Archer wrote:Just wanted to stop by and comment on your awesome models. I enjoy stopping by you guys that do the less mainstream model companies and get my fix of what is on offer and out there.

Keep them coming. I am also enjoying your change of pace from regiments to single models.

I'm enjoying it as well. It's been fun to dig through the Closet Of Shame and pick out cool models just for fun.

Slinky wrote:More excellent stuff, Josh!

My favourite has to be the hermit...

He is a nifty model. Did you notice the giant wart on his left forearm? That might just be a vent that I didn't clean off, but it makes a nice little detail.

Theophony wrote:Sorry, not on Dakkadakka much lately, but your new models are fantastic. Love the spotted horse and moon samurai.thrd pictures angle makes him look like he’s riding a unicorn.

Yamabushi looks cool too.

I know what you mean about the basing. ToH has all round basing, but Pike &Shotte has all squared basing . It’s part of my reason I’ve switched over to BtGoA painting temporarily.

I have been mixing and matching bases for a while now. Most of my samurai are on square bases due to my painting them for Kings of War. More recent stuff is on rounds for Frostgrave/Dragon Rampant. I don't play in tournaments or the like, so I don't feel bad about mixing them up.

One would think that working on single models would decrease turnaround time, but for me that's not the case. I finished this guy in about the same time that, say, five trooper models would have taken:


The tab on this guy says "shugenja," but nothing about his outfit is even remotely Japanese (well, maybe the sandals), so I did him up as a generic wizard. The kanji on his little apron means "wind," but the symbols on his sleeve are just random wizardy runes. While his goatee and pencil mustache are somewhat subdued for a wizard, he easily makes up for that with that magnificent mane of hair.

While typing this, I noticed that his base is unfinished. I'll stick on some static grass later today. Next up, a pack of peasants wielding farm implements, from Perry miniatures.

That is a great figure- you've done very well with him. I particularly like the facial details and the embellishments on the apron and sleeve. I found the same thing- doing singles took as much or more times as knocking out a fire team. Of course, the singles did tend to have more detail worked in....


Great stuff, as always. I am now actively looking for a Japanese Kickstarter to back- literally teetering on the edge of plunging in. It's one of those "but honey, if the kickstarter showed up it means I was _meant_ to get into Bushido!" kind of deals.

More, please!

Nice work on the shugenja. L5R was a mashup of different aesthetics and I am sure that played into how the generic models for the tabletop game.

Meer_Cat you might want to follow Zenitminiatures on kickstarter. They have one kickstarter in fulfillment you may be able to late pledge for (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1372111648/kensei-wargame-wako-vs-namban). They have run several campaigns and the pledge manager usually includes access to most of their existing line at a discount.

Meer_Cat wrote:That is a great figure- you've done very well with him. I particularly like the facial details and the embellishments on the apron and sleeve. I found the same thing- doing singles took as much or more times as knocking out a fire team. Of course, the singles did tend to have more detail worked in....


Great stuff, as always. I am now actively looking for a Japanese Kickstarter to back- literally teetering on the edge of plunging in. It's one of those "but honey, if the kickstarter showed up it means I was _meant_ to get into Bushido!" kind of deals.

More, please!

Thanks for the kind words. I do like this model, even if he doesn't exactly fit with the Samurai aesthetic. If you do decide to start working on Samurai, make sure you post lots of photos.

Alpharius Walks wrote:Nice work on the shugenja. L5R was a mashup of different aesthetics and I am sure that played into how the generic models for the tabletop game.

Meer_Cat you might want to follow Zenitminiatures on kickstarter. They have one kickstarter in fulfillment you may be able to late pledge for (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1372111648/kensei-wargame-wako-vs-namban). They have run several campaigns and the pledge manager usually includes access to most of their existing line at a discount.

Thanks kindly. Most of the Clan War models are quite clearly samurai and/or Japanese-- this guy is an outlier. I'm not complaining-- I can always use another nifty wizard model.

+1 on the Zenit recommendation. I have a bunch from an early Indiegogo campaign. The models are a little on the small side, but they are metal (a big plus in my book) and the casts are nearly flawless.

I'm blown away by how you did the facial details too, just like Meer_Cat. The hair and especially the eyes look so natural.

That wizard guy looks awesome!

Appreciate the tip on Zenit Miniatures- I'll be scoping them out!

A couple of weeks ago, my son and I tried playing Ronin (from Osprey games). Our first game was samurai versus sohei,and the second was my samurai versus my son's ikko ikki. At the time, I didn't have anything to represent under-armed and under-armored peasants, so I ended up ordering these guys direct from Perry:




As always, Perry samurai are nice, if dated, models which are showing the wear on the molds. Still, they do the job and were simple to paint. Here they are with a small farmhouse from Plastcraft:


Up next, some more Ikko Ikki models. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

That's quite a horde of angry peasants!

How large do forces tend to be in Ronin, is it a skirmish game?

The peasants are revolting!

They're also in rebellion!

I'm assuming your filthy rabble are metal, correct?

I've been quite tempted myself to pick up some of the Plastcraft scenery-their new colored styrene fishing village terrain in particular for the fact that I don't have to paint all the buildings!

Slinky wrote:That's quite a horde of angry peasants!

How large do forces tend to be in Ronin, is it a skirmish game?

I think all Osprey games are skirmish level..All of the ones that I own are, anyway. Ronin seems to be set up for about ten models per side, but you can build a squad with as few as four samurai or over twenty peasants.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:The peasants are revolting!

They're also in rebellion!

Ha!

highlord tamburlaine wrote:I'm assuming your filthy rabble are metal, correct?

I've been quite tempted myself to pick up some of the Plastcraft scenery-their new colored styrene fishing village terrain in particular for the fact that I don't have to paint all the buildings!

I don't have any of their colored buidlings, but the ones I have work well enough. Maybe I'll pick some up next time I talk myself into ignoring my buying moratorium.

Those peasants look good, they definitely fit the bill for what you needed, good choice. What do you think of Ronin so far?

Thanks, Syro_. I don't have a lot of non-combatants in any of my various collections, so these guys were a new experience for me. That said, I appear to have slid back into earth tones. I may have to pull out some old Harlequins or something just to paint brighter colors.

Ronin feels like a pretty good game so far. We have only used the basic rules, so no special attributes for leaders, no banners, and no objective-driven scenarios.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
That said, I appear to have slid back into earth tones.

But You are doing them so good! A really nice paint job!

I agree with Wirecat, plus earth tones are the only cllor scheme that really makes sense for peasants. I'd still enjoy seeing you work on some Harlequins, or anything else for that matter
Glad Ronin seems good so far, I hope you enjoy it.

"And these, Sire, are the uncommon folk...."

Oh, I know that drab colors are to be expected for these models, but I can't seem to stay away from the browns and greens. See also: all the elves, Chaos, and Frostgrave models I've been sharing. I have another set similar to these in the works, along with the islands and shipwrecks from Dreadfleet (I will play this game at least once before I die!). After that, I may well pull out some Harlequins just to brighten up my painting space.

It's been a busy couple of weeks. I have managed to find painting time in the mornings before everyone else is awake (one of the advantages of being an early riser, I guess), but wasn't able to take photos until last night:


These guys look a lot like the peasants I shared last time, but are in fact from Perry's Ikko Ikki line. The guy with the helmet is also wearing armor, but you can't see it from these angles. Sorry about that.



Two more from the same set. I didn't bother painting their eyes this time, as they aren't sculpted very well and would just turn out ugly. This is pretty much a universal feature of Perry samurai. They work just fine on the tabletop, though.



The last two of the set. I based the guy on the right on a painting from one of my many, many Osprey books. Both of these models are wearing fundoshi, providing us all with a nice view of their buttocks. I felt a lot less like a creep painting these guys than when I was working on the Chaos Thugs from many months ago.

Last up, some more Dungeon Saga stuff:


These guys were actually finished a couple of weeks ago, but I kept forgetting to photograph them. All I have left in this set is the orclings. My son and I have been playing through the first set of scenarios, and he's getting more devious as we go along-- he actually tricked me into making a bad move, costing my heroes the game on Sunday. That made me so proud.

Finally, a little battle scene:


I have another big project very nearly finished-- I hope to show it in the next day or two. As always, comments and criticism is welcome and encouraged.

Excellent figures all around! I can see what you mean about the fineness of the Perry castings- but you've done a great job of detailing the faces with the washes you used in spite of all. And I get a history/cultural lesson at the same time- winning!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
How do you get the grass bunches stuck onto your bases like you have here? That's something I want to do to break up the monotonous flatness of my stuff.

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Excellent figures all around! I can see what you mean about the fineness of the Perry castings- but you've done a great job of detailing the faces with the washes you used in spite of all. And I get a history/cultural lesson at the same time- winning!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
How do you get the grass bunches stuck onto your bases like you have here? That's something I want to do to break up the monotonous flatness of my stuff.

Thanks for the kind words. Perry models in general are pretty nice for blocks of troops, but their age makes them less suitable for characters, IMO. Thankfully, there are a lot of alternatives to choose from.

The Ikko ikki movement was one of several apocalyptic movement from around this time, but they stick out for their militarism and resilience in the face of the daimyo.

I use self-adhesive grass tufts from Tajima1 (I use their ebay shop), but there are any number of makers in the US as well. I should probably be using a little more scatter on bases, but as I think I've stated before, I really dislike basing.

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 Meer_Cat wrote:
Excellent figures all around! I can see what you mean about the fineness of the Perry castings- but you've done a great job of detailing the faces with the washes you used in spite of all. And I get a history/cultural lesson at the same time- winning!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
How do you get the grass bunches stuck onto your bases like you have here? That's something I want to do to break up the monotonous flatness of my stuff.

Thanks for the kind words. Perry models in general are pretty nice for blocks of troops, but their age makes them less suitable for characters, IMO. Thankfully, there are a lot of alternatives to choose from.

The Ikko ikki movement was one of several apocalyptic movement from around this time, but they stick out for their militarism and resilience in the face of the daimyo.

I use self-adhesive grass tufts from Tajima1 (I use their ebay shop), but there are any number of makers in the US as well. I should probably be using a little more scatter on bases, but as I think I've stated before, I really dislike basing.

Once again awesome looking and inspiring models. I need to get back into my Test of Honour figs . Our FLGS is carrying Test of Honour again, they are moving to their new location, same intersection, just a much larger storefront. They are going to try and start running a league, if I can get off of this stupid night shift I might actually get to play it .

DS stuff looks good. I sold all mine off when I was having a clearout, starting to regret it a bit.

Still, if Heroquest 25 ever delivers, all will be well


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot to say, the Japanese are also top notch again

Theophony wrote:
Once again awesome looking and inspiring models. I need to get back into my Test of Honour figs . Our FLGS is carrying Test of Honour again, they are moving to their new location, same intersection, just a much larger storefront. They are going to try and start running a league, if I can get off of this stupid night shift I might actually get to play it .

I agree, you should get back to ToH stuff-- you inspired me to revisit my samurai, after all! That said, I'm really enjoying your Gaslands work as well. I guess what I'm saying is that you should keep on hobbying.

Slinky wrote:DS stuff looks good. I sold all mine off when I was having a clearout, starting to regret it a bit.

Still, if Heroquest 25 ever delivers, all will be well


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Forgot to say, the Japanese are also top notch again

Thanks kindly. I have been enjoying DS now that we've finally gotten around to playing it. I find myself wishing that I had checked more carefully, though, because I appear to be missing one of the expansion rule books, despite having received three full sets of the models for it.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Now, I present a sight rarely seen by mortal eyes. Prepare yourself to be shocked and amazed should as you gaze at

MyFLGS still has multiple copies , very prominently displayed trying to still sell at full retail . But if you mean a set fully painted and being played....that I have never seen.

Wow, what you have hidden in the spoiler looks really great, and so good on the table. Do I even want to ask how much time you put into finishing it and making it look that good?

Great stuff Josh, liked the battle pic it was like a preview of Nioh 2

Theophony wrote: MyFLGS still has multiple copies , very prominently displayed trying to still sell at full retail . But if you mean a set fully painted and being played....that I have never seen.

One of the shops I do mail order from has at least one copy, so the game itself still exists. I'm pretty sure that painted Dreadfleet sets are rare--four-leaf clover rare. Actually playing Dreadfleet? That's a myth, like Bigfoot. No one has ever actually played Dreadfleet.

Syro_ wrote:Wow, what you have hidden in the spoiler looks really great, and so good on the table. Do I even want to ask how much time you put into finishing it and making it look that good?

Individually, the ships took me about three or four painting sessions each. All the terrain I did assembly-line style over the course of a week or so. Overall, the project took seven years, mostly due to disinterest on my part.

JoeRugby wrote:Great stuff Josh, liked the battle pic it was like a preview of Nioh 2

I don't know what that is, but I'll take it as a compliment. Thanks!

Congratulations on finishing it, no matter the time. Some things just not come together well... But great You did it!

Thanks, Wirecat. Given the open-ended nature of this hobby, it is nice to be able to say "I'm finished" every once in a while.

This week, I'd like to share some models for Frostgrave. First up, a couple of thugs:



Pretty basic but essential models for the game. The lamp looks pretty bad up close, but it will work on the tabletop.

Next, a treasure hunter:


I'm trying to use brighter colors with these guys, but I keep sliding back into these muddy browns and greens.

An archer:


I like this model's toque.

A man-at-arms:


I decorated his shield with a Howling Griffons transfer. The black lines are supposed to be battle damage-- it didn't work.

Overall, I like this kit. They aren't top of the line models, but they fill gaps in my collection of mostly heroic warriors and such. I opted not to paint their eyes, as they only have little slits where their eyes should be. I'll revisit this kit again, next time using the metal conversion parts from Northstar's Legends of Robin Hood kit. Next up, though, I have the last models from the Warlord of Galahir expansion for Dungeon Saga, as well as some surprise guests from the ancient past.

Edit: I forget to post a group shot:

Those look cool! I particularly like the archer.

Very nice little gang you've got there! I'm paying particular attention to your method of using washes to give nuance and character to the face (I haven't given up painting eyes yet, but I'm willing to try other methods, too). Very nice work there, also. I remember guys using that technique on Napoleonics back in the day when 25mm's were _really_ 25mm! Faces were much too small (and there were far too many of them) for the old boys to paint, so they did something similar to what you've done.

Great work!

ZergSmasher wrote:Those look cool! I particularly like the archer.

Thanks. The Frostgrave soldier sprue comes with a lot of nifty, characterful options, so it's easy to build cool models.

Meer_Cat wrote:Very nice little gang you've got there! I'm paying particular attention to your method of using washes to give nuance and character to the face (I haven't given up painting eyes yet, but I'm willing to try other methods, too). Very nice work there, also. I remember guys using that technique on Napoleonics back in the day when 25mm's were _really_ 25mm! Faces were much too small (and there were far too many of them) for the old boys to paint, so they did something similar to what you've done.

Great work!

I did the faces on these guys (and on the Perry models from a couple of weeks ago) using the same techniques I learned in White Dwarf magazine twenty-odd years ago-- base color, wash, then highlight. If the models actually had eyes, I'd paint them, but there just isn't anything in those pits on their faces.

I like the Frostgrave plastics because they have so many options to customize them to your liking. I dislike the Frostgrave plastics because there are no instructions so I don't know how to match the accessories to the bodies to make them fit right.

It gets even more fun when you start tossing various other Frostgrave kits into the mix.

With the exception of the snakemen, most of the other kits are pretty compatible. Heck, even the snakemen can work with a little creativity!

I'm about half tempted to start tossing Oathmark bits into the mix and see what I end up with...

A nice bunch of models - Reminds me of the old Empire Militia kit in some ways.

DarkSoldier wrote:I like the Frostgrave plastics because they have so many options to customize them to your liking. I dislike the Frostgrave plastics because there are no instructions so I don't know how to match the accessories to the bodies to make them fit right.

These guys, as well as the Cultists I have assembled waiting for some attention, took a fair amount of dry fitting to get right. I snipped quite a few arms off the sprue getting these guys right.

highlord tamburlaine wrote:It gets even more fun when you start tossing various other Frostgrave kits into the mix.

With the exception of the snakemen, most of the other kits are pretty compatible. Heck, even the snakemen can work with a little creativity!

I'm about half tempted to start tossing Oathmark bits into the mix and see what I end up with...

I'm looking forward to kitbashing a few of these sets. Be sure to share photos of your Oathmark guys!

Slinky wrote:A nice bunch of models - Reminds me of the old Empire Militia kit in some ways.

I was thinking the exact same thing as I worked on these guys. I have never owned that particular kit, but now I wish that I had.

You're not missing all that much, Josh. The minis were not very good quality at all. These Frostgrave figures look to be much nicer.

These (Frostgrave soldiers) are really good. No matter the age this recipe in Your hands produce a pretty result! One day these kits will make me fail Willpower roll and get them.

Great job josh, love the colour palette you get into your fantasy minis, looks really natural but also has some colours there than green n Brown.

Red Harvest wrote:You're not missing all that much, Josh. The minis were not very good quality at all. These Frostgrave figures look to be much nicer.

Really? I've never seen them in person, but they look pretty nice in photos. Ah, well, it's not like I need more models.

Wirecat wrote:These (Frostgrave soldiers) are really good. No matter the age this recipe in Your hands produce a pretty result! One day these kits will make me fail Willpower roll and get them.

Thanks, Wirecat. If you play any kind of fantasy skirmish game, I recommend these models. They are supposed to be compatible with all of the other Frostgrave plastixs, so even a couple sprues from different sets will give you some nifty models to work with.

JoeRugby wrote:Great job josh, love the colour palette you get into your fantasy minis, looks really natural but also has some colours there than green n Brown.

I'm really going to have to dig out my old Harlequins someday, just to brighten up my painting desk...

Continuing the theme from last week, here are some Frostgrave cultists:


After assembly, I had a hard time deciding on a color scheme. The Thaw of the Liche Lord book doesn't have any photos of these models, and GIS mostly gave me blacks and reds. The only illustration featuring cultists in the book is a painting, in which the looks look like burlap or sackcloth or something like that. In the end, I painted their pants and shirts using a palette similar to the soldiers from last week, and made their coats and hoods the dark browns you see here. I figured that, as cultists, these guys mostly hang around with everyone else in FG until it's time for culty activities, when they put on their uniforms and get to work. I didn't use a single wash or glaze on these guys, just good old fashioned layering. The torch in the first photo turned out terribly, and will need to be revisited before I put these guys away. The two-handed axe in the last photo came from the Solider sprue, so I guess they really are cross-compatible. In addition to these guys, I finished off these little pests:


These orclings for Dungeon Saga came already attached to the base, which makes them playable out of the box but difficult to paint. I ended up slicing them off the base so that I could paint them separately. Not much more to say about them, really. This just leaves two of the heroes to finish this particular set. As always, here's a group shot:


The cultists are apparently trying to torch this little rice paddy, while the orclings are defending it? The paddy is scrap MDF, spackle, static grass, Realistic Water, and strip tufts that I picked up for this particular project. I'll have to make a couple more for the next time we play Ronin.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged. Dungeon Saga heroes and some Old-nadier models.

Cutlists? Is that because of their love of cutlery?

For someone who doesn't like basing, your bases are just getting better and better, they really set the models off nicely.

And that terrain is simply brilliant - Well done!

JoshInJapan wrote:

Wirecat wrote:These (Frostgrave soldiers) are really good. No matter the age this recipe in Your hands produce a pretty result! One day these kits will make me fail Willpower roll and get them.

Thanks, Wirecat. If you play any kind of fantasy skirmish game, I recommend these models. They are supposed to be compatible with all of the other Frostgrave plastixs, so even a couple sprues from different sets will give you some nifty models to work with.

I've already got some of their metals and was a little disappointed by their smallish size... then told that later blisters had a bit of a scalecreep. OK, got 20 of their plastic gnolls, will start with them next year (looking closely at what You've did!)

JoshInJapan wrote:Continuing the theme from last week, here are some Frostgrave cultists:

This would have benefitted so much by a forced directional light shading from his torch... or a darker flame on that stich - he is darkfuming!

Love those cultists. Nice work.

Slinky wrote:Cutlists? Is that because of their love of cutlery?

For someone who doesn't like basing, your bases are just getting better and better, they really set the models off nicely.

And that terrain is simply brilliant - Well done!

My basing is super simple-- white-glue-and-sand, painted and drybrushed, with some static grass and scatter. I still hate doing it. I'm pretty proud of the rice paddy, though. I have enough scrap MDF for at least three more plots, although I'll probably do at least one as vegetables instead.

Wirecat wrote:

JoshInJapan wrote:

Wirecat wrote:These (Frostgrave soldiers) are really good. No matter the age this recipe in Your hands produce a pretty result! One day these kits will make me fail Willpower roll and get them.

Thanks, Wirecat. If you play any kind of fantasy skirmish game, I recommend these models. They are supposed to be compatible with all of the other Frostgrave plastixs, so even a couple sprues from different sets will give you some nifty models to work with.

I've already got some of their metals and was a little disappointed by their smallish size... then told that later blisters had a bit of a scalecreep. OK, got 20 of their plastic gnolls, will start with them next year (looking closely at what You've did!)

This would have benefitted so much by a forced directional light shading from his torch... or a darker flame on that stich - he is darkfuming!

I have the metals for both the gnolls and barbarians, and they are a little larger than the plastics. I've never had much success with OSL, but I might give it a try on this guy when I repaint his torch.

insaniak wrote:Love those cultists. Nice work.

The cultists are nice models. I'll have to see if they scale well with ME Broken arms for post-apoc cultists.

Lovely stuff as always Josh

At my son's request, I bumped these two models to the front of the queue:



These are, of course, the Glade Warden druid and Salamander fighter for the Dungeon Saga expansion The Warlord of Galahir. Since this expansion re-uses the elf and dwarf hero models from the original DS, this particular set is complete and ready to play. Here's a group shot, composed by my son:



I also managed to finish these three models as well:





I have had these three models since 1980 or thereabouts, shortly after I started playing D&D, and they are pretty close to the first models I ever bought. They come from Grenadier's Advanced Dungeons and Dragons line. I never really liked Grenadier's human-sized models-- Ral Partha did them much better-- but in my old age, I have come to appreciate these guys a lot more. Their hands are grotesque, of course, but the flowing robes were easy to paint and highlight, and they have "character," which is what we old guys say when we like older, somewhat crude models. They look like Magic Users, and they'll fit quite nicely with the wizard's apprentices I painted way back when. I'll have to see if I can't get in some Frostgrave over summer break.

Next up, more Dungeon Saga, unless I get distracted. As always, comments and criticism are welcome.

Those magic users *DO* have character though. I'm liking the middle guy with the smoke the best.

You don't really see wizards with the conical hats anymore do you? Very much a fantasy trope that seems to have fallen out of fashion.

Was the Salamander in the Warlord expansion? Is it plastic or resin? My Dungeon Saga stuff got flipped before anyone else knew better and I don't even know what I sold in the end.

I've been tempted to track down a reasonably priced copy, if only for painting purposes or using the figures for other games.

Great job getting the dungeon saga expansion finished Josh.

The smoke on the wizard has come out awesomely

I'm really enjoying your work on the Dungeon Saga minis, and I'm looking forward to the more you're planning on doing. I also have to agree with everyone else, the green wizard with the smoke trail coming out of his staff is great.

I really like those old-school wizards! The bright colors and slightly cruder sculpts give them a lot of character. One of my hobby goals is to eventually paint some minis that are older than me (which those wizards are by a few years), so maybe I'll have to see what I can scrounge on eBay or something, or get lucky at a garage sale.

highlord tamburlaine wrote:Those magic users *DO* have character though. I'm liking the middle guy with the smoke the best.

You don't really see wizards with the conical hats anymore do you? Very much a fantasy trope that seems to have fallen out of fashion.

Was the Salamander in the Warlord expansion? Is it plastic or resin? My Dungeon Saga stuff got flipped before anyone else knew better and I don't even know what I sold in the end.

I've been tempted to track down a reasonably priced copy, if only for painting purposes or using the figures for other games.

Both the Tree Warden and the Salamander came in this expansion. Both are board game plastic, which means that mold lines got zero clean up before painting. They turned out well enough to game with. DS itself is a fun little game. The Uncharted Dungeon cards and the design-your -own hero rules that came with the Adventurer's Companion make it a pretty solid beer-and-pretzels game.

JoeRugby wrote:Great job getting the dungeon saga expansion finished Josh.

The smoke on the wizard has come out awesomely

Thanks, it's nice to be able to say "I'm done" every once in a while. The smoke looks kind of gnarly up close, but the effect works at arm's length, so he'll work on the tabletop.

Syro_ wrote:I'm really enjoying your work on the Dungeon Saga minis, and I'm looking forward to the more you're planning on doing. I also have to agree with everyone else, the green wizard with the smoke trail coming out of his staff is great.

Smokey the Wizard is the clear winner in this set. It's hard to tell, but the smoke is coming out of a little cauldron at his feet. I assume he has his apprentice haul it around for him.

ZergSmasher wrote:I really like those old-school wizards! The bright colors and slightly cruder sculpts give them a lot of character. One of my hobby goals is to eventually paint some minis that are older than me (which those wizards are by a few years), so maybe I'll have to see what I can scrounge on eBay or something, or get lucky at a garage sale.

Thanks, I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. Your "minis older than me" sounded intriguing but all of the pre-1970 models I've found so far have been pretty fugly...

Thanks for showing the three wizards. I first saw the blue and thought that looks familiar. Since you were talking about frostgrave miniatures I wondered if someone was just copying the min. It's good to see people working on the old stuff. I need to crack open my old miscellaneous case and see which of the three I still have. Yours are definitely better painted than mine.

Holy Moley Josh! Serious blast from the past. I remember painting that magic-user with the crystal ball way back in 1979. I'm going to say your paint job is better than mine was*. I still have the cleric 'turning' and the bard from that line. I lost the wizard some time ago.

Ral Partha did indeed have much nicer minis. And then there were minifigs...

It made my day, to see those Magic-Users. Thanks for that.

*I only have one example of my painting skills from back then, the 'lesser orc with axe' from Grenadier. It's not pretty.

Love seeing that old lead. Wonderful stuff.

The Dungeon Saga minis are sweet too.

That middle wizard is one of my old minis as well!

Terrific work- there is no school like the old school! I think I like some of these great older pieces so much because back in the day there was so much junk floating around- and without the innerwebz, no way to see it short of ordering! Finding a good manufacturer was as much luck and art, as science. You've painted these guys up just swell.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words. My son really enjoys "snooping" (his word, not mine) in my many many boxes of unpainted and/or poorly painted models, allowing me to rediscover some of the stuff that I've acquired and subsequently forgotten about. For those commenters who also have these old models lying around, how about posting them for the rest of us old guys to enjoy?

This week, the work on Dungeon Saga: Infernal Crypts continues:



These are Lesser Abyssal warriors, the basic troop type for this expansion. Every bad guy will have a variation on this paint scheme: AP Chaos Red, highlighted up to AP Dragon Red, various light browns for straps and stuff, all with a dark brown glaze to tie it all together. About three hours of work, broken up by breaks for coffee and for interesting scenes in Predator (my go-to painting movie).



Hellhounds. Painted with the exact same technique as the Warriors. It's actually kind of zen, painting the same models nine times in a row.



Did I say nine times? I meant twelve times. These are the Abyssal Guard, the elite troopers. Their weapons are still bendy, even after giving them the boiling water/ice water treatment. Their ankles straightened out nicely, though.

Here's everything together:


The LED strip on my photo box isn't working, so I had to rely on external lighting and the gallery's auto-adjust feature. Hopefully I can get the lighting issue sorted out for the next update. I'm currently working on the two heroes for this set. I hope the have them ready to show by the end of the week. In the meantime, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Lovely as usual.

Better than usual. Lovely and lively reds! A bit tropical frog-like, but thats good too!

Very nice and vibrant, they will look great lining up against the heroes in a DS game

Summer vacation is winding down here. My family went down to Kyushu to visit the in-laws, while I stayed for a couple of mandatory continuing education seminars and to watch after our aging dog. While they were gone, I caught up on my Marvel movies, and did some painting:



These are the two new heroes for the Dungeon Saga "Infernal Crypths" expansion. The battle nun has really, really long arms.



Three Succubi from the same set. As always with models like this, I felt a little creepy painting their butts and thighs. Also, R. Crumb seems to have designed these particular models.



Lower Abyssal Flamebearers. I actually sat down and watched a bunch of tutorials on Youtube before I painted the fireballs. I think they turned out well.



Speaking of fire, here are some Efreets. I'm pretty happy with the flames on these models as well. The secret seems to be applying a red glaze over all the layers to bring it all together.



Molochs, big ogre-sized demons. With everything else in this set, I did some minimal layering with a dark brown glaze over the whole model, but these guys were big enough that I could get by with just layering/highlighting.



Tortured Souls. These guys aren't demons, so I went with a completely different palette for them.



Finally, Drech'nok The Destroyer, the Big Bad for this set. I painted him using the exact same colors and techniques as everything else. All these models came pre-assembled, and this guys wings were very much in the way. Also, the wings make him so back heavy tat he falls over all the time. I may have to heat him up and bend him forward at the ankles to balance him out.

In addition to all these models, I finally had time to break out and paint up a bunch of resin terrain I got in a KS last year:


This was a whole lot of hobby work, and I'm just a little burned out. I think I'll give it a day or two, and then start something else. Dreadball, maybe? As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Wow, Josh, you are in the middle of a seriously productive period, with no drop off in quality, and some real stars in there too! Top notch!

Thanks, Slinky.

After all that red-and-black, I thought it was time for something a little more varied. I settled on some crewmen for Ghost Archipelago:


It was a little difficult at first to decide how to approach these guys. At first, the only pirate-looking character I could think of was Captain Hook. Then I remembered that he has a whole crew. This first guy is based on Sharky, one of the henchmen on "Jake and the Neverland Pirates," a show which I enjoy watching (with no irony) with my son. This next guy:



...was inspired by Bones, another henchman from the same program. I kind of wish I'd thought of this before I assembled these models, as there is a different head on the sprue that would have worked better, but which I put on a body without a vest. Ah, well, he's certainly colorful.



I gave this guy stripey pants because pirates wear stripey pants.



This guy has the head I shoud have used for Bones up there. He also has some fabulous MC Hammer pants.



This last guy has the simplest outfit on the whole sprue. I had originally planned on giving him a black or dark brown or black beard, but the off-white undercoat I use under all my skin tones contrasted nicely with the Indian/Pakistani tones I used, so I went with this grizzled salt-and-pepper look instead.

Here they are all together:


But wait! Here are some more models, this time not painted by me.






These Frostgrave barbarians were assembled and painted (almost) entirely by my son. We started them at the same time that I assembled the Frostgrave soldiers I shared a while back, but his at-the-time-eight-year-old attention span meant that it took until last week to finish them. He chose all the colors, and I managed to restrain myself from doing much clean-up on them. He remains particularly proud of the hammer-and-dagger double wield, and the giant wart on the spearman's head. Here they are all together:



Up close, they are pretty sloppy, but at arm's length they are perfectly serviceable troopers. If/when he is able to focus for 30-40 minutes every day, his production will speed up, and thre may be a chance to finally get ahead of the Closet Of Shame.

Finally, a little battle scene:


About the time I finished the crewmen, my son decided it was time to assemble two more sprues worth, so my faithful readers can look forward to ten more piratey guys in September.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

That was good thinking on using existing color schemes. That's really impressive about the freehand stripes on the one guy's pants. The gray beard turned out great, and was a good choice. I'm also extremely impressed with your son's painting of those minis. They have a unified color scheme and are very skillfully painted. As a teacher I've gotten quite a few 8-11 year olds interested in miniatures and tabletop games, but none of them have painted a mini as well as those.

Nice crew! And now I must go burn all my modeling supplies- for an eight year old has a steadier hand than me (and better color coordination)!

Really well done, both of you!

Great job by you and the kid

That is awesome! And great figures too.

Love the fantastically colourful pirates!

And those are some darn good minis from an 8 year old.

Your boy has some pretty decent skills with a brush already, it seems. It's great that you are encouraging him! I look forward to seeing more of his work in your blog, not to mention more of your stuff too.

Thanks, everyone. The boy has really enjoyed hearing all your comments. I wish we could find more time to sit down and paint together, but there just aren't enough hours in a day, and sadly schoolwork comes first. Still, he hasn't slacked off entirely, as we'll see at the end of this post.

About the time I was finishing up the GA crewmen I posted last time, my son decided that we needed to assemble ten more for me to work on. Here they are:


Another guy with stripey pants, this time in browns. I got the idea from a photo of a cheap Halloween costume that came up on GIS. The other guy is dressed in more standard sailor colors.



The guy with the club has two-toned pants, but I couldn't get the effect right on those MC Hammer pants on the archer.



Not a lot to say about these two, they're pretty simple all around.



These two, along with the axman above, and the two in the next photo were the second batch. I usually work in sets of four or five to keep my production levels up while allowing me time to do justice to the models. The first set all had pretty vivid colors, these guys are closer to pastels. Also, I gave them tanned caucasian skin, while the first batch have much darker skin tones. I find it nice to vary the appearance of my models where I can.



Even hardened sea dogs like these want a bit of color. I feel like the bald guy needs tattoos on his head, but I'm not sure I could pull it off. Here's the whole crew together:


They're standing on an island, one of about ten that I'm working on as free time allows. I plan to make walkways to connect them, allowing me/us to game in a little archipelago.

Finally, a couple of models from my son:


These are Ralarat strikers from the REbs team for Dreadball. He wanted a DB team of his own for his birthday, and while I tried to steer him towards one of the many unpainted teams I have hidden away in the Closet of Shame, this is the one he settled on. He decided to paint these as poison arrow frogs, with blue as the uniform color for the team. I did the eyes, but everything else was him. They are a little sloppy in places, but you can't tell at arm's length,which is a pretty good measure in my book.

Next up, I hope to start working on some Shieldmaidens from Bad Squiddo. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

The boy is really picking up some of your talent. I like the poison dart frog look, and arms length is definitely a good judge in my book too. It’s one of the things I hated about posting pics initially as close ups showed stuff I otherwise wouldn’t notice.

Pirates are looking great. Even scurvy dogs need a splash of color in their outfits.

Good stuff also your island is a useful desert hill as well.

Your new batch of pirates is looking good. I always enjoy how well you make the striped and multiple color pants. plus the color choices as well. Your son did a nice job too, choosing poison arrow frog colors was clever.

Nice additions! If pirates can't be flamboyant, then Captain Jack Sparrow has taught us nothing!

Thanks, everyone. I had a lot of fun with the crewmen, and my son really gets a kick out of all of your comments. Of course, being only nine means he has a limited attention span, and hasn't picked up a brush since we finished those two models.

It's been kind of slow going for me on the hobby front. As autumn approaches, dawn is coming later and later, and our one remaining dog seems happy to sleep in, meaning I lose about 10-15 minutes every morning due to my own laziness. Still, I managed to get a start on the shieldmaidens from Bad Squiddo:


I tried to keep to a simple palette, based on what little I know of historical vikings, as well as keeping their shields simple. I might try something a little more complex on the next set.



I was a little leery of the eyes on these models. Unpainted, they looked huge, almost like Deep Ones, but they turned out pretty well once I slapped some paint on them. They kind of remind me of Jes Goodwin eyes, at least in terms of how easy they were to work on. This one has crazy eyes, but only from this angle. I don't know why the shield looks so green-- it's yellow and black in real life.



I can't decide if I like this one or the previous one the best.



This one is my least favorite from this set-- the pose it a little stiff and uninteresting.

Here they are all together, along with some scatter terrain for Ghost Archipelago:


The LED strip on my little lightbox is acting weird, and I'm having a heck of a time getting a good lighting setup. Sorry for that. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Very nice group- the simple pallet is extremely effective taken in the aggregate. Of course, it helps that each individual figure is very well done too....

Those are lovely.

I love the fact that the shields look so realistic, not the normal clean blocks of colour

Meer_Cat wrote:Very nice group- the simple pallet is extremely effective taken in the aggregate. Of course, it helps that each individual figure is very well done too....

Thanks kindly. I based the colors on the illustrations "The Vikings" from Osprey's Elite series, so I can't take full credit.

bbb wrote:Those are lovely.

Thanks *blushes*

Slinky wrote:I love the fact that the shields look so realistic, not the normal clean blocks of colour

The shields are really really nice. The wood grain is crisp, and each individual board is distinct as well. I'm half tempted to try to get a few packs of just the shields to use with other models.

Speaking of other models, I cranked these out over the last three or four days:


These are Berzerkers, also from Bad Squiddo's Shieldmaidens line. They were really easy to paint up, being essentially brown from head to toe.



The same Osprey book I mentioned above says that berzerkers were also referred to as "wolf skins," so did this one in grey.



Although these models show a lot more skin than most BS figures, I'm willing to overlook that because of how thiq they are. This one looks strong enough to have killed the bear whose skin she is wearing. It doesn't who in this photo, but she has a sort of sprts bra-looking thing under those paws.



Another wolf skin. She has that single forelock hairstyle and a really big axe. Another nice thing about these models is that they are all single-piece metal castings, so no pesky assembly.



And one more bearskin. Unlike the previous sets,the eyes on these models are tiny, and I very nearly skipped painting them. The eyes turned out quite badly.

Next up, some armored shieldmaidens, and possibly the Oldhammer skaven gutter runner that I picked up in a trade. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Too much brilliant work, excellent stuff. So much win going on. Last bunch gave me a warm fuzzy feeling, remind me of playing Age of Mythology. Great stuff.

These shield maidens you have been doing are cool. I like the paint jobs.

Continuing with the theme for the month, here are some more Shieldmaidens:



This set are all Hearthguard with Swords. I breifly thought about giving them more ornate designs on their shields, but decided that my freehand skill weren't up to the job, especially over the wood grain. I'll ask you to pretend that I got the angles right on this shield.




This shield turned out much better. I had a lot of trouble doing the eyes on these models, thanks to the noseguards on the helmets. Normally, I do eyes last, right before basing/sealing. In retrospect, I should have done them with the rest of the faces, so I wouldn't have to worry about messing up their helmets. Live and learn, I guess.




The eyes on this one are invisible thanks to the eyepiece on the helmet. It's also my favorite from this set.




The pose on this one is kind of stiff, but she has the best hair of the lot.

Finally, a special guest:


Mantic's Dungeon Saga, particularly the character creation rules, really fired up my son's imagination. After blowing through almost all of the little character sheets that came with the Adventurer's Companion, he pulled out a notebook and came up with rules for Ratmen. Even now, months later, he remains enthusiastic about them, so I've started collecting Oldhammer Skaven. This guy is more proof-of-concept than anything, but he was a fun little diversion. I'll have to work these guys into the rotation.

Finally, a group shot:


Next up, some Mantic ogres. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

That rat has no chance. Never mess with Norse women, they are the reason the Viking went and did their pillaging and other activities elsewhere....because that was the only time they got to be in charge.

Excellent work on the ladies. I’ve admired some of those sculpts, but since I don’t role play I wouldn’t get much use for them.

Excellent Ratman.

Excellent work on the shield maidens and the Skaven.

If you have need of some Skaven shout me.

How is Dungeon Saga, I have been eyeing it up a fair bit lately and keep coming back to it.

And just saying, but scrolling through your blog I had a deja vu moment and then remembered having a similar sight scrolling through the blog of that guy with the ultimate fantasy table, loads of beautiful models pro painted. Honestly mate don't knock yourself, you are getting very, very good.

Theophony wrote:That rat has no chance. Never mess with Norse women, they are the reason the Viking went and did their pillaging and other activities elsewhere....because that was the only time they got to be in charge.

Excellent work on the ladies. I’ve admired some of those sculpts, but since I don’t role play I wouldn’t get much use for them.

I'm not a role-player either. I started collecting fully-clothed female adventurer miniatures as part of my one-man campaign to add diversity and representation to this hobby, and the more I buy and paint, the more I've come to like them. I have enough for a couple of Frostgrave warbands, and pretty soon I'll be able to play Dragon Rampant with them (play should be in air-quotes, given how rarely I actually play anything).

Llamahead wrote:Excellent Ratman.

Thanks. It helps that he's a Jes Goodwin sculpt

Camkierhi wrote:Excellent work on the shield maidens and the Skaven.

If you have need of some Skaven shout me.

How is Dungeon Saga, I have been eyeing it up a fair bit lately and keep coming back to it.

And just saying, but scrolling through your blog I had a deja vu moment and then remembered having a similar sight scrolling through the blog of that guy with the ultimate fantasy table, loads of beautiful models pro painted. Honestly mate don't knock yourself, you are getting very, very good.

I may take you up on the offer of skaven. I'll have to see if I can maintain my enthusiasm when I finish the ones that I have.

Dungeon Saga is a nifty little game. The rules are pretty simple, and each scenario plays in an hour or less, including set-up. There are rules for playing cooperatively against an AI card deck, but I've not tried them yet.

Also, thanks for your praise. I'm never going to be Golden Daemon/Crystal Brush level, but I am happy with how I'm progressing.

Wow, I really like those berserkers. They look like they would be perfect for Paleo Diet. I think I may have to get some in the future when I have steady income again.

Lovely stuff Josh

Just catching up, those Frostgrave warbands are awesome. Love the Cultists especially. And you are doing a great job on those Dungeon Saga miniatures, I am a bit green with envy particularly when I look at how well you have done the succubi and the salamander!

Barzam wrote:Wow, I really like those berserkers. They look like they would be perfect for Paleo Diet. I think I may have to get some in the future when I have steady income again.

Thanks. I'm not familiar with that game, but I've seen you reference it in your own PM blog. Is it worth checking out?

JoeRugby wrote:Lovely stuff Josh

Thanks, dude.

Da Boss wrote:Just catching up, those Frostgrave warbands are awesome. Love the Cultists especially. And you are doing a great job on those Dungeon Saga miniatures, I am a bit green with envy particularly when I look at how well you have done the succubi and the salamander!

Thanks. I didn't do anything particularly complex with any of those models, but I'm pleased with how they came out.

Dude... you’ve been going nuts painting for years, but now you’re out-painting me in Skaven!?!? Dunno if I’m ever gonna live down the shame...

Valete,

JohnS

 cygnnus wrote:
Dude... you’ve been going nuts painting for years, but now you’re out-painting me in Skaven!?!? Dunno if I’m ever gonna live down the shame...

Valete,

JohnS

Well, if you want to catch up, you know what to do. You haven't forgotten how to hold a brush, right?

I really liking the bad squiddo Range, it’s nice to see a selection of female models that are not all T&A, even he ones that show more skin are not sexualised. You do them justice mate especially found of the double axe bead lady.

 carlos13th wrote:
I really liking the bad squiddo Range, it’s nice to see a selection of female models that are not all T&A, even he ones that show more skin are not sexualised. You do them justice mate especially found of the double axe bead lady.

Thanks. I'm a big fan of Annie's "mission" to get more, non-cheesecake minis on the market.

I took a little break from the Shieldmaidens this week:


I was planning to magnetize the arms so I could field them as either boomers or shooters (using the KoW terms), but they came with four sets of handcannon arms and only two of heavy crossbows. They took a long time to paint, mostly because everything about them is so big, I think. After this, I have exactly one more pack of shooters, and then three or four Oldhammer metal ogres and that's it. It feels weird to be this close to finished with something.

Next up, more Shieldmaidens!

Cool ogres , Annie just started up the female samurai Kickstarter, I’m tempted, but only a few models really catch my attention. Especially the dogs in armor and the knee whackers.

Thanks. I'm a member of the very exclusive group of gamers who like Mantic ogres because of, as opposed to in spite of, their tiny, knock-kneed legs.

I already back Annie's KS. The only klunker I see is the models eating noodles, but the rest will fit in a warband or army somewhere.

I looked the kickstarter over- man, you guys are making it very hard to stay on the straight and narrow and not branch out into yet another theme! Those figures are terrific!

 JoshInJapan wrote:
It feels weird to be this close to finished with something.

Dude! Do you want to DIE!?!?! Buy some more stuff for the hoard of unfinished projects!

Great stuff as usual.

 bbb wrote:

 JoshInJapan wrote:
It feels weird to be this close to finished with something.

Dude! Do you want to DIE!?!?! Buy some more stuff for the hoard of unfinished projects!

Great stuff as usual.

I said "something," not "everything." I know better than to tempt fate like that.

Catching up on a couple of weeks posts - Love the shieldmaidens again, the simple shield designs really worked again IMHO, and the Mantic ogres look great too, definitely one of their best ranges aesthetically.

Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes the Mantic Ogres.

They're honestly my favorite of Mantic's Kings of War lines, and probably in a very close second to my favorite Ogres, only being beaten by Mierce's offerings. A shame they weren't in hard plastic but the current material serves them well enough.

Interesting skin tone choices. Anything that separates them from being just humans, but bigger and more primal.

Those shields that you mentioned, the bit about more ornate designs? What you did is far closer to what I've seen done with those sorts of shields on various Germanic forces-- Saxons and such. Very nice work on some cool minis.

You need to get enough painted up to make a shield-wall.

Looking good Josh, congrats on being close to finishing

Slinky wrote:Catching up on a couple of weeks posts - Love the shieldmaidens again, the simple shield designs really worked again IMHO, and the Mantic ogres look great too, definitely one of their best ranges aesthetically.

I agree wholeheartedly. I have always wanted to build an army of ogres, dating way back to WHFBv3, but the metal ogres at the time were too expensive for teenaged me, and the later fat plastic Mongolians just didn't appeal to me. I like these both for the look and the price.

highlord tamburlaine wrote:Glad to see I'm not the only one who likes the Mantic Ogres.

They're honestly my favorite of Mantic's Kings of War lines, and probably in a very close second to my favorite Ogres, only being beaten by Mierce's offerings. A shame they weren't in hard plastic but the current material serves them well enough.

Interesting skin tone choices. Anything that separates them from being just humans, but bigger and more primal.

They were originally supposed to be grey, but Vallejo's shadow grey is a lot bluer than I thought at the time, and the Payne's Grey glaze that I use really brings the blue out. That said, I'm happy with the color, and it's easy to reproduce.

Red Harvest wrote:Those shields that you mentioned, the bit about more ornate designs? What you did is far closer to what I've seen done with those sorts of shields on various Germanic forces-- Saxons and such. Very nice work on some cool minis.

You need to get enough painted up to make a shield-wall.

I have a total of eight armored and eight unarmored shieldmaidens. Not quite enough for a shieldwall, but plenty for a larger skirmish game like Dragon Rampant.

Syro_ wrote:Looking good Josh, congrats on being close to finishing

Thanks. I may bump the final few ogres up in the queue just so I can say that I've finished them.

Winter is approaching. The sun is coming up later and later every morning. The air is crisp, and sometimes downright cold. Our dog, being old, is not so insistent about his morning walk in this season, which means getting up at 4AM takes a little more effort from me. This, in turn, means my painting has slowed down considerably. I have managed to get a few models done:



Inspired in part by Theophany and all his Test Of Honor models, and in part by a 30-minute-a-day challenge via a Facebook group, I pulled out some Zenit models that have been sitting in a box for years. I'm planning on using these guys as a Koryu buntai for Ronin. I based this guy's outfit on a screen painting of a samura in traveling gear that I found via GiS. The eyes on this model (and the rest of the models in this set) are little more than slits on either side of his nose, so I feel blessed that they turned out was well as they did.




Holy crap, this guy looks horrible in these photos. He's much better in person, I swear! This guy is a sword master or something-- I couldn't find him on a cursory search on the Zenit website-- but his outfit looks more like a Noh or Kyogen actor. The big, wide field of light blue on his back was bugging me, so I tried to add some heraldry. It ended up looking like a poorly-applied patch. Also, zenit uses a really soft alloy, so this guy's sword is really bendy. I expect it to break off some time in the near future.




Another zenit model, this time a student at the fencing school. Every model that I've shown so far has come with a fiddly little bit to glue on-- the first guy's hat and swords, the second guy's hands, and this one's sword hand. It came with a sort of ball-and-socket joint at the wrist, and it looked really ugly until I hit it with some Plastic Putty. It still looks kinda weird, but only if you look closely. The stripes on her hakama were inspired by an iaido uniform. They look much straighter at arm's length.




This last one is a very old Dixon miniature. The proportions are chunky, but she fits in thematically with the other three.

Here's a group shot:


Not my best work, but not my worst, either. Next up, some Shieldmaidens that got put on the back burner for these four.

I love the first guy, really wish he didn’t have the swords as he would be a great civilian. The colors are great on all of them, but like I said the first one really is my favorite out of the bunch for some reason.

Great Job Josh

They all look good. I know those Zenit minis can be a pain with their random fiddly bits. I think the fencing student is my favorite. The stripes on the hakama add to it. I might need to borrow those color choices...

My problem with Japanese clothing is the absolute paralysis I get when it comes to deciding on colors. There's just too many options, and despite how garish it may seem to us these days, chances are someone probably wore a horribly mismatched outfit like what I paint back in the day.

How does Ronin play? I have the rule book, but every time I try and sit down to read it my eyes either glaze over from too much text or just stare at the pretty pictures....

They look excellent, love all the Japanese stuff flying about Dakka lately, really nice change and the models have a real depth about them. Not just another soldier, each is a little character.

Theophony wrote:I love the first guy, really wish he didn’t have the swords as he would be a great civilian. The colors are great on all of them, but like I said the first one really is my favorite out of the bunch for some reason.

I agree, he is the best of the bunch. The browns are nice and drab, like a wandering swordsman would wear.

JoeRugby wrote:Great Job Josh

Thanks!

highlord tamburlaine wrote:They all look good. I know those Zenit minis can be a pain with their random fiddly bits. I think the fencing student is my favorite. The stripes on the hakama add to it. I might need to borrow those color choices...

My problem with Japanese clothing is the absolute paralysis I get when it comes to deciding on colors. There's just too many options, and despite how garish it may seem to us these days, chances are someone probably wore a horribly mismatched outfit like what I paint back in the day.

How does Ronin play? I have the rule book, but every time I try and sit down to read it my eyes either glaze over from too much text or just stare at the pretty pictures....

The stripes were a b*itch to paint. I figured I could just follow the pleats, but the brush didn't want to cooperate. Ronin is a pretty good game, I think, but we haven't played enough for me to really wrap my head around the rules. There is a fair amount of customization available to higher-ranked models, and there is a sort of gambling/bluffing aspect to melee, that I need to figure out better. In the end, it's an Osprey game, so the investment is minor, assuming you have appropriate models in your collection.

Camkierhi wrote:They look excellent, love all the Japanese stuff flying about Dakka lately, really nice change and the models have a real depth about them. Not just another soldier, each is a little character.

Test of Honor seems to be blowing up, which is inspirational without breaking the bank, considering how many samurai models I already own.

Here are some new models:


More shieldmaidens from Bad Squiddo. This time, they are Hearthguard with axes. Unlike the last batch, I painted their eyes before their helmets, so they turned out much better.



No eyes to paint on this one. I tried something a little fancier with the shields this time around. I think they turned out well.



I got even fancier with this shield. I'm not entirely sure it's historical, but it came up on a Google search for "Viking Shields," so I'm saying it counts. It's autumn here, so it seemed appropriate to use some of the Leafy Shrub tufts I've been sitting on for so long.



My son eanted to help paint a shield instead of doing his homework. He calls this design "The Sword of the Gods." I added the black lines. Also, he finished his homework, so it's all good.

Here's a group shot:


A couple of days after I finished these, my son decided that it was time to work on some Frostgrave and/or Ghost Archipelago models for use in Kings of War:Vanguard. He assembled some Snakemen, and instructed me to work on Barbarians. I hope to have those ready to share within a week.

Looking good Josh. Any chance we can see some large group shots of say all your shield maidens, all your samurai, etc?

I'd have to unpack the shieldmaidens, but here is a photo of a "game" my son and I played back when he was much younger:



Here we see the samurai surrounding my KoW orc army. My son likes to stack the odds in his favor...

Just a nudge, but the seven samurai just went on preorder from Warlordgames. £35 for 7 metal figs and gaming accessories seems pretty good.

 Theophony wrote:
Just a nudge, but the seven samurai just went on preorder from Warlordgames. £35 for 7 metal figs and gaming accessories seems pretty good.

On the one hand, they are neat models and would fit with the Koryu guys I posted last week. On the other hand, I have spent a whole lot of money on models in the last two months. Conclusion: I will probably have to wait for general release.

Thanks for the battle pic Josh. Looks cool. That is funny how much your son wanted to stack the odds I've been on the receiving end of that too

 Syro_ wrote:
Thanks for the battle pic Josh. Looks cool. That is funny how much your son wanted to stack the odds I've been on the receiving end of that too

He's a lot better about it now. When we play Dungeon Saga, he prefers to be the Overlord, even though the odds are stacked against the evil player. He still likes to see the good guys win, though.

I've managed to finish quite a few models in the last week, but I didn't have time to photograph any because of a school trip. First up, some Frostgrave barbarians:


About three weeks ago, my son decided it was time to work on his Lizardman army. We assembled a dozen plastic Saurus from an old WHFB starter and a sprue of Ghost Archipelago snake men. At the same time, he decided that I needed to work on some more barbarians at the same time. His models have stalled at the priming stage, but I got these guys finished. This crossbowman has one of the few beardless heads. His hair in not really the same color as his fur stole. I need to work on my lighting set up.



I like this guy's Conan helmet, but I wish I had gotten his left hand to line up better.



The barbarian sprue comes with two shields. This one works great with all the viking shields I've been doing for the Shieldmaidens that I've been sharing. I'm a little surprised at how good his eyes look in these photos, given how terrible they look in person.



This guy has the other shield from the sprue. The freehand raven turned out well enough, I suppose. Also, not the bushes-- it's autumn here, and in Kyoto (where we went for the school trip), the trees are this same vibrant orange/red/yellow. In spring, I'll probably switch back to green basing for everyone.



This guy's shield came from the Ghost Archipelago crewman sprue. I used essentially the same colors that my son chose for the barbarians he painted a couple months ago, so they should mix in well.

After the men here, I decided to work on some more shieldmaidens:


These archers are the last of the infantry that came with the KS. I went with more muted colors with this set to help tie them into the barbarians. Their eyes were really, really hard to paint.



I really like the pose on this one.



Look at how thick their bows are-- they are as big around as their arms. They must have one hell of a heavy pull.



This is the only one of this set whose eyes came out to my satisfaction. I wonder how much protection she gets from that studded apron...

Finally, a group shot, along with a bit of scatter terrain made with Grabblecast trees on a Miniature Scenery scatter base:


As always, I welcome comments and criticism. Thanks for looking.

Terrific work- what a great group of figures! The eyes are great, what you have here is what I'm trying to get to. Very much like the colorful fall leaves/bracken on the bases, but wonder if a bit of wash or points of color in the otherwise very green grass might help? To add the look of fallen leaves or grasses going sere?

The basing is very nice as is though, I might be suggesting adding lipstick to the Venus de Milo!

Basing is really great as said above. Love the orange foliage. The braveheart facepaint is awesome too .

Those barbarians and shieldmaidens look wonderful. Colour choice is spot on, the eyes absolutely set them off, and I love how you have done the patterns on the shields with the "wood grain" showing through. Awesome stuff.

Yet another great bunch of minis, really great work.

Great looking barbarians, and I have to repeat what so many others have already said: the basing really looks nice

Hi, everyone. I hope you have all had/are having a wonderful holiday season. Christmas here is even more commercial than back in the US, but we still had a lovely time here at home. New Year's is much more important, and we'll be celebrating that in a few days' time. I've been keeping an eye on everyone's P&M blogs, but haven't had a lot of time to comment on anything. Painting has slowed down, but I did manage to knock out some more models. I photographed them yesterday, but the camera on my cheap android phone refused to focus properly, so I had to find and charge my old iPhone instead.



I have spent quite a lot of money on new models this year, despite playing very rarely, and yet I still find myself drawn back to Oldhammer stuff. This batch of elves had been soaking in alcohol for months before I got to them. This one has a javelin, which was an option way back in WHFBv3 or so. I have only ever had this one, though, so he never say much action.



I have enough copis of this model to field a small legal unit of them. The shields on every model in this post came from a Kickstarter for shields compatible with Oldhammer models. No more huntig for plastic shields for me!



Wardancers were always my favorite unit the any version of the Wood Elf army. I gave this guy some warpaint, but have no idea where that spot on his shoulder came from.



Another wardancer. I tried to model his warpaint on David Bowie's Alladin Sane look, but the face on this model is too long, thin, and craggy for my meager freehand skills.



Two more essentially identical wardancers.



Finally, a wizard. Did you know that Jes Goodwin only sculpted to male wizards for his wood elf line? And that one of them was only available with the Attack Chariot? The dress on this model didn't come out quite as white as I'd planned, but I'm happy enough with the results.

Last, a group shot:


This will probably be my final post for 2018, so the numbers in my sig will be my final count for the year. I currently have some very old Chaos Dwarfs in the works, and after that I think I'll try to kitbash a ranger for Rangers of Shaow Deep. Happy New Year to you all!

Elves look great. Particularly like the Wizard and the white robes look great to me and the ear dancer with the massive sword.

A kickstarter for compatible shields? That sounds like a great idea.

Absolutely love those Wardancers. The guy with the 2-hander, no shirt and the chainmail pants is one of the best in the range.

Beautiful oldhammer elves, and as usual your bases are fantastic. Enjoy the coming new year .

Nice job on the Elves!
Mohawk Elf is my favourite, even if he is wearing a chainmail onesie.

Those figures really take me back- I didn't know the background on the Jes Goodwin wizards. I have several of these, but none painted to this standard. And I think the 'David Bowie' wardancer came out very well.

Archer wrote:Elves look great. Particularly like the Wizard and the white robes look great to me and the ear dancer with the massive sword.

A kickstarter for compatible shields? That sounds like a great idea.

"Eardancer" may be the best typo I've ever read. That's what I'm going to call these guys from now on. There have been a couple of KS for shields, which delights me to no end, given how expensive the old plastic shields get on Ebay.

youwashock wrote:Absolutely love those Wardancers. The guy with the 2-hander, no shirt and the chainmail pants is one of the best in the range.

I like this guy a lot, as well as the other guy in this pose wielding an axe. Fun fact: I once based a Champions character on this model.

Theophony wrote:Beautiful oldhammer elves, and as usual your bases are fantastic. Enjoy the coming new year .

There's not much to the bases, just sand from the garden and some tufts. Those do all the heavy lifting.

aku-chan wrote:Nice job on the Elves!
Mohawk Elf is my favourite, even if he is wearing a chainmail onesie.

Imagine how much it must hurt to walk on chainmail boots for th entire battle.

Meer_Cat wrote:Those figures really take me back- I didn't know the background on the Jes Goodwin wizards. I have several of these, but none painted to this standard. And I think the 'David Bowie' wardancer came out very well.

Thanks. The model turned out well enough once I gave up on the facepaint.

So winter break began for everyone on Friday afternoon. I finally mailed off some Christmas presents, cleaned the bathroom, "played" a couple of "miniatures games" with my son (he lined up all my elves versus my undead army, we rolled high-low for combat and he won with almost n o casualties!), and found time to finish these guys:


I started buying Chaos Dwarfs to field along with my Warriors of Chaos/Beastmen army (back when everything Chaotic was part of the same list), and had enough for a single unit of thirty or so. That sat in their box, unpainted, for many a year until, in a fit of efficiency/madness, I sold them off as part of an attempt to rationalize the backlog. I regretted doing so immediately and deeply, and continue to do so to this day. A couple of months ago, a fellow on the Oldhammer Trading FB group was offering some for a reasonable price, so I snapped them up.

I thought at first that this model was topless, but on closer examination, he's wearing a Joel Schumacher breastplate. Ah, well, at least he has a magnificent beard.



The casting sculpting on these guys is very much of the era, so they are a little more rough than the elves I posted last week. They make up for it with funkiness, though. Check out his guy's Salvador Dali facial hair. Also, I painted his one visible eye, but of course it's almost impossible to see, even in person.



My son pointed out that this guy looks like a regular, non-corrupted dwarf, so I gave him a green beard. His lower lip is painted in AP Necrotic Flesh, as well.



Another suit of armor with the beard sticking out. It turns out these little tanks are pretty easy and fast to paint.



Then there's this guy. On the right, he's just a bunch of armor. On the left he has a furry arm and a goat leg, and he carries some sort of goblin skull staff as a weapon. That's more like it.



And finally, the best model in this lot. I guess he's supposed to be a berzerker, but he looks just like Sweetumsto me, so that's how I painted him. I tried to give him crazy eyes, but of course they look fairly normal.

Here's a group shot:


I put them on 20mm square bases because they are most likely to see action in Vanguard, assuming we ever get around to playing. I enjoyed these guys so much that I have another set based and primed. They'll have to wait until after New Year's, though. I hope everyone reading this has a Happy ( and Safe) New Year.

Nice little warband you've got there.

White robes on the wizard actually make me see it more as a priestess. Which kind of fits for wood elves.

Referencing something from the previous page about the commercialization of Christmas in Japan: There are not that many Christians in Japan, AFAIK? Would most Japanese have a different view of Christmas?

Ancient Chaos Dwarfs! Awesome as usual, Josh. Good stuff.

Burning the midnight paint to the last minute. Good job on dealing with the unpainted pile!

M.

Brilliant work. Quite a year from you. Love this batch. Sweetie especially.

Love, love, love the old Chaos Dwarfs. I plan to start my own Chaos Dwarf army next (if I ever get through the Necron grumble, grumble) but mine aren't the full of character ones you have here or even the big hat guys or yesteryear. Mine are the current forgeworld version and I think they lack a little Chaos.

Lovely oldhammer minis here. Those old Chaos Dwarves are SO much better than the later ones in my opinion. The big hats and OTT stuff really ruins the more modern designs, makes them look like walking wedding cakes.
Your paintjob on these guys is exactly as it should be for evil Dwarves.

Great looking chaos dwarves there josh , your knocking out these oldschool figs right and left. I have a couple of the chaos dwarves that have bazookas and platemail kicking around somewhere.

Red Harvest wrote:Nice little warband you've got there.

White robes on the wizard actually make me see it more as a priestess. Which kind of fits for wood elves.

Referencing something from the previous page about the commercialization of Christmas in Japan: There are not that many Christians in Japan, AFAIK? Would most Japanese have a different view of Christmas?

Thanks. I was kind of going for a Galadriel look on that elf. Re Xmas in Japan, I imagine all the trappings came over during the occupation, and the gaiety offered some relief from trying to survive postwar deprivation. Now, it's very much a family holiday if you have kids, a dating holiday if you don't.

bbb wrote:Ancient Chaos Dwarfs! Awesome as usual, Josh. Good stuff.

Thanks. I have always had a soft spot for these little guys.

Miguelsan wrote:Burning the midnight paint to the last minute. Good job on dealing with the unpainted pile!

M.

I got my 大掃除 done early, so no one complains when I do hobby stuff during the day.

Camkierhi wrote:Brilliant work. Quite a year from you. Love this batch. Sweetie especially.

Thanks. I didn't reach one model/day, but I think I made up for it with all the terrain.

Archer wrote:Love, love, love the old Chaos Dwarfs. I plan to start my own Chaos Dwarf army next (if I ever get through the Necron grumble, grumble) but mine aren't the full of character ones you have here or even the big hat guys or yesteryear. Mine are the current forgeworld version and I think they lack a little Chaos.

I think the best way to build an army of these guys is to start back in 1986 when they were still cheap. I spent almost $100 on the dozen-or-so I'm currently working on, and I just can't justify an army's-worth of models at that price.

Da Boss wrote:Lovely oldhammer minis here. Those old Chaos Dwarves are SO much better than the later ones in my opinion. The big hats and OTT stuff really ruins the more modern designs, makes them look like walking wedding cakes.
Your paintjob on these guys is exactly as it should be for evil Dwarves.

I never did like the big hats, they were just too cartoony.

Theophony wrote:Great looking chaos dwarves there josh , your knocking out these oldschool figs right and left. I have a couple of the chaos dwarves that have bazookas and platemail kicking around somewhere.

I have a set of bazookamen in the queue. I had two back during my selloff madness, but no one seems to be selling them, at least at prices I can afford...

It seems that all the cool kids are posting retrospectives in their P& Blogs, so I'm doing the same. First up, January:



January was a big sci-fi month. I cranked out a bunch of Battlezones while the family was away visiting relatives. I have a bunch more of those Broken models, I should get back to those.

February:



After the BZ the month before, I was still in DZ mode. I like the models, and I'm pretty sure it's a solid game, but I still can't seem to actually play. Maybe I'll break out the old AI deck and try solo during winter break.

March:


More Mantic stuff, plus a "commission" for a friend.

April:


I seem to have gone on a combined Frostgrave/Oldhammer kick in April, along with slogging through some goblins for Dungeon Saga.

May:
I don't seem to have tagged anything in May...

June:


I went on a little Samurai kick, probably after my son and I tried Ronin. He wanted more peasants, and I rarely object to getting new models....

July:


And then it's back to Frostgrave, with a few DS models thrown in. I'm still pleased with how those old Grenadier wizards came out.

August:


I had a week to myself in August, so I cranked out a bunch of resin terrian and most of a set of DS abyssals. The Ghost Archipelago crewmen were a request from my son, while the barbarians were painted by him.

September:


Some more crewmen, and some Bad Squiddo shieldmaidens.

October:


More Bad Squiddo, and some Ogres. I think I have two more packs of these Mantic Ogres, along with a few random Oldhammer ogres, and then I can call this army finished.

November:


My numbers seem to have dropped quite dramatically as the years wound down. The samurai/swordsmen were inspired by a painting challenge in the Feudal Japan Wargaming FB group. The shieldmaidens were me wanting to get that particular project finished.

December:


December was an oddly productive month. More Bad Squiddo, some barbarians to accompany them, and finally some Oldhammer models. My final tally is 220 modles, plus three sets of Osgiliath ruins, Great Cthulhu, two Japanese peasant farmhouses and a rice paddy, and a whole bunch of resin Frostgrave terrain. I know better than to set goals for hobby stuff, because then it's no longer a hobby, but I hope to have a productive 2019. Thanks to everyone for reading and commenting all year, it really helps inspire me.

Top notch year, Josh, and the oldhammer elves and chaos dwarfs round it off nicely

Continuing the theme from December:


These Chaos Dwarfs paint up really quickly, being mostly armor and beard. I'm trying for a bronze effect on the armor plates, and I'm generally pleased, but on this guy it blends in too well with the horns on the helmet.



For those models with shields, I'm trying a glowing/molten Chaos Dwarf rune theme, but I need a better yellow paint for the innermost stripe.



I originally painted this guy's cloak red with white trim, kind of like you'd see on a portrait of a European nobleman, but he ended up looking like Santa Claus. This turned out better, I think.



Apart from the curved sword and the spider on his helmet, this guy looks a lot like an Imperial Dwarf.



This guy is super plain, but I did his thigh-high boots.



I wasn't sure if this guy was wearing a hood or a helmet, so I painted it as a skull instead. The glowing red eye effect didn't work at all.

Finally, a group shot:


Working on these guys, I was reminded on perhaps the worst part of painting dwarfs of any type-- their stumpy little legs make it really hard to decorate the bases. I actually finished this set a couple of days ago, and have cleaned, assembled, based and primed the five Mantic Abssal Dwarf Immortals I got with their first KoW kickstarter, but managed to get distracted by Rangers of Shadow Deep, and am currently kitbashing a couple of rangers using the various Frostgrave kits I have lying around. My wife and son are away visiting her family, so I'll be catching up on movies and hobbying for a week-- hopefully I'll have something to share in a day or two. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged. Thanks, as always, for looking.

Lovely stuff, Josh, so much better than the later big-hats in my opinion.

Oooh...the little guy in the green cloak is such a classic figure. Like a mini Death Dealer. Love it.

Slinky wrote:Lovely stuff, Josh, so much better than the later big-hats in my opinion.

I never liked that generation of Chaos Dwarfs. I get that they were trying to give them a unified look, but the Babylonian/Assyrian thing just didn't work, IMO.

youwashock wrote:Oooh...the little guy in the green cloak is such a classic figure. Like a mini Death Dealer. Love it.

Thanks, he is a nifty model.

This time, I have a few Abyssal Dwarf Immortals from Mantic.






They came free with my rewards for the first Kings of War kickstarter. They're kind of boring models, sadly-- ornate but hard to read armor, identical weapons and shields, and only four different heads for five bodies-- the last guy has a head from the Dwarf Command sprue. One thing I like about these older KoW models with the integrated bases is that the models are designed to fit inside the footprint of their bases so they can rank up. Not so important for a skirmish gmae, but for rank and flank not having to assemble the unit like a jigsaw puzzle is a big plus.

Next up, I have a few models assembled for Rangers of Shadow Deep. I have tomorrow all to myself, so I hope to have at least a couple ready to show.

Are you going to dip your toes into Vanguard, Josh?

M.

 Miguelsan wrote:
Are you going to dip your toes into Vanguard, Josh?

M.

That's the plan. I like the rules, and I have a ton of painted models I can use. The problem is finding players.

Thanks for the great retrospective Josh. You did a lot last year, months of great paint jobs. It was also fun seeing those 3 grenideer wizards again. The chaos dwarfs are looking cool.

You had an excellent 2018 modelling, wonderful work, so much win.

Love these guys, tons of character.

I realized just yesterday that it's been over two weeks since I posted anything. As the man once sang, it's been a long, cold, lonely winter. Our dog (we're down to one) has been perfectly happy to sleep in since the first snowfall, which in turn leaves me without the impetus to drag my butt out of bed at 4AM. I'm still painting, but at a much slower rate than usual.


With the release (and my subsequent purchase of) Rangers of Shadow Deep, I've been focusing on models for that game. I built this guy using a FG Cultist body with a head and arms from the Legends of Sherwood Forest conversion pack (from Northstar) and a plastic cape from the FG Soldiers 2 sprue. I was going to use him as my Ranger for RoSD, but decided the model is too similar to the Aragorn models than my son decided to use. I field him instead as Robert Eagle Eye, my archer companion. He was originally named Robert Eagle Eyes, but he lost an eye to a permanent injury in our first game...



This is another model from the Soldiers 2 sprue, along with an axe from the GA Crewmen sprue. Her skin turned out much darker than I had planned, but I'm happy with how she turned out.



Another model from the same sprue. Every time I put a shield on a model like this one, I feel like I should paint a freehand design. Then, when the laughter subsides, I slap on one of the Howling Griffon insignias that I printed ten years ago. It took me a couple of tries to get the eyes right, and I'm still not happy with them-- she looks deranged. Looking at the photos, I realized that I forgot to paint the straps and stopper on the potion bottle. I'll have to do that before I pack this one away.



Yet another female soldier model, with accessories from the Barbarian and Cultists sprues. I tried to give her crazy eyes, but they turned out pretty normal. Strange how that works.

RoSD is a scenario-driven RPG-lite sort of game, and the starting rangers and companions are relatively weak. For the first couple of scenarios, they have to fight a lot of vermin:


These giant rats were included in the basic pledge for the first Reaper Bones KS. Reaper keeps having Kickstarters, and I come this close to giving in every time. I stop my self by periodically opening the Bog Box of Bones stored in the Closet of Shame-- the mound of white PVC is enough to dissuade me. That said, there's still a lot of useful stuff in there, including these guys.



The second scenario involves giant spiders and web cocoons containing survivors, corpses, or dead bodies. I built the webs according to a tutorial I found on YouTube, and bought the spiders (and flies for a later scenario) at a ￥100 store nearby. I really enjoyed making the cocoons, even though they didn't turn out very well.

Here's everything in a little battle scene:


I've been really enjoying this game, and the inspiration it has given me to work on little bits of scatter terrain. Hopefully I'll have more to share in the next week.

The lady with the shield reminds me of those hats you get in Neverwinter Nights that look a bit daft but have big bonuses. All looking fantastic, and for not being very productive, you have been ...well....very productive.

He is back from the snows! Nice to know you are still fighing the good fight against the grey horde.


M.

Those web cocoons look like mutated pastries of some sort. In a good way. Fantasy terrain should be unusual looking. The character models are quite characterful, and nicely painted. Perfect for RPG minis.

Re the battle scene. Reminds me of a line from the old D&D Holmes blue book. Here we are, "The tunnels form an endless maze and there is no end to the rats."

Do you have any flying bases for those flies? Or even mount 3-4 of them on clear plastic rod and then on a 40mm square to have a fly swarm.

What kind of dog? I now have a Jack Russell Terrier puppy. ( the 'real' kind of JRT, not the short-legged version.) There is no sleeping in with one of these guys. OTOH, speaking of vermin, The squirrels that have been growing fat and sassy this winter feasting at my bird feeders are soon in for a very, very rude surprise.

Camkierhi wrote:The lady with the shield reminds me of those hats you get in Neverwinter Nights that look a bit daft but have big bonuses. All looking fantastic, and for not being very productive, you have been ...well....very productive.

I'm not familiar with that game (or any non-analog game, really), but I think I understand. Also, I'm running out of storage for all these finished models, so a slower pace is fine for me.

Miguelsan wrote:He is back from the snows! Nice to know you are still fighing the good fight against the grey horde.


M.

I'm still surrounded by snow, but I simply choose not to be defeated by it.

Red Harvest wrote:Those web cocoons look like mutated pastries of some sort. In a good way. Fantasy terrain should be unusual looking. The character models are quite characterful, and nicely painted. Perfect for RPG minis.

Re the battle scene. Reminds me of a line from the old D&D Holmes blue book. Here we are, "The tunnels form an endless maze and there is no end to the rats."

Do you have any flying bases for those flies? Or even mount 3-4 of them on clear plastic rod and then on a 40mm square to have a fly swarm.

What kind of dog? I now have a Jack Russell Terrier puppy. ( the 'real' kind of JRT, not the short-legged version.) There is no sleeping in with one of these guys. OTOH, speaking of vermin, The squirrels that have been growing fat and sassy this winter feasting at my bird feeders are soon in for a very, very rude surprise.

I've been thinking about flying stands. I'll probably stick some wire in some of the many, many Mantic bases I have lying around.

We also have a Jack Russell Terrier-- long legs, short hair, and an endless appetite. He doesn't do well in the sub-arctic temperatures we get here, so he's perfectly happy to climb under the blankets as long as I'm in bed, and just as happy to stay there after I get up.

Great job as usual Josh

Thanks for the kind words, JR, but I think your recent output puts me to shame.

I'm still plugging away, slowly but surely. Here are the last two models from the FG warriors 2 sprue that I started oh so long ago:


Just a couple of generic soldier models. I really like the Robin Hood hat on the crossbowwoman.

Remember the archer model I showed last update? I based him on a body from the FG cultist sprue. While assembling him, I also threw together a few zombies:


The undeady parts came from the cultist sprue, but the bodies are from the barbarian and soldiers sprues. Say what you want about these sets, the intercompatibility easily outshines whatever other limitations they have.



The guy on the left in this photo is all from the cultist sprue apart from the head, which is a Mantic ghoul head. The guy on the right is a barbarian body with undead bits added.



This guy gets three photos only because I couldn't get his sword and face to both show up in the same photo. He's all cultist except for the head, which came from the Ghost Archipelago Crewman sprue. I sliced off his nose and drilled out his eyes to zombify him.

As you may recall, I've been focused on Rangers of Shadow Deep for the last three or four weeks. I have enough models to play pretty much any scenario, but I find myself lacking terrain. I painted up this stuff for Mission Two, Scenario One in the main rulebook:


In this scenario, the rangers have to sneak over a bridge and past a gnoll camp to get to the watchtower. The bridge is balsa wood, the tents and bedrolls are toilet paper over cardstock/balsa wood, and the fire is hot glue. It turns out that there are a lot of YouTubers out there building stuff for D&D, and I'm getting a lot of inspiration there.

As always, I'll close out with a little battle scene:


As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Next up, more Rangers stuff (probably).

I always enjoy your stuff Josh, but it was especially fun seeing the combination of models, and scratch builds for a scenario. Thanks for including the battle scene at the end, it's the icing on the cake

Great looking models all around Josh . I’ll need to check into the RoSD game, skirmish games are really the new fad it seems, and with little time to play in everyone’s lives I totally understand.

Syro_ wrote:I always enjoy your stuff Josh, but it was especially fun seeing the combination of models, and scratch builds for a scenario. Thanks for including the battle scene at the end, it's the icing on the cake

Thanks. You and your nifty D&D work have inspired me to try this kind of project.

Theophony wrote:Great looking models all around Josh . I’ll need to check into the RoSD game, skirmish games are really the new fad it seems, and with little time to play in everyone’s lives I totally understand.

RoSD is essentially low-powered Frsotgrave, so if you like that game I recommend this one as well. A big plus for me is that it's fully cooperative, so I can play with my so without worrying about winners or losers.

Lovely stuff as usual Josh.

Lovely be the action shot

Really liking the latest batch, very creepy actually.

The terrain is looking great as well, you may have to put a battle report together for this Rangers of Shadow Deep. I am keen to see it in action.

Love the terrain, great stuff!

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. I'll try to put up a battle report the next time we play. Speaking of which:



The mission we're currently playing involves gnolls taking over a watchtower. I have lots of gnolls, but needed a flesh golem for one of the encounters. This guy comes from Bad Squiddo's Last Sunset line (for Dracula's America). I thought about giving him a patchwork of different skin tones, but my initial attempt looked ugly. For the same scenario, I also needed a lot of indoor scatter terrain:



This stuff is all from Mantic's Dungeon Terrain Crate. Lots and lots of brown. After finishing these, I started on the Wizard's Study set:


Lots and lots of books. I had to use the flash on the last photo because all the little gubbins were too deep for my light to reach. Here's the golem perusing the library:


With this stuff done, I think we're ready to try the next scenario. I'll try to have more photos of the game this time.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Great stuff.

Great Stuff as usual Josh.

Love the Bookcases, whats you recipe of the wood?

I like the wizard study stuff. I wonder I they de-mold the bookcases with all those deep in details. Nice paint job on all, as usual, I especially like the flesh golem

Nice scars on the golem!

Love the scatter terrain, very atmospheric without overshadowing the models.

Does the wizard terrain crate fit with the dungeon saga stuff size wise? It’s all looking great.

Llamahead wrote:Great stuff.

Thanks. All that brown was pretty boring to paint, but the end result is worth it, I think. One always needs more stuff on the table.

JoeRugby wrote:Great Stuff as usual Josh.

Love the Bookcases, whats you recipe of the wood?

Black gesso primer ->Delta Ceramcoat Dark Chocolate base color-> overbrushed with Delta Ceramcoat Spice Brown (a red-brown)-> drybrushed with Golden Craft paints golden brown-> a heavy glaze of my homebrew dark brown wash. Pretty simple and not all that time consuming.

Syro_ wrote:I like the wizard study stuff. I wonder I they de-mold the bookcases with all those deep in details. Nice paint job on all, as usual, I especially like the flesh golem

All the potion bottles and skulls and stuff are part of the same mold rather than being glued in after. I'm amazed the bookcases weren't warped out of shape.

aku-chan wrote:Nice scars on the golem!

Thanks. It's just AP chaos red in the recesses. The model does most of the work.

Kid_Kyoto wrote:Love the scatter terrain, very atmospheric without overshadowing the models.

I know, right? Now that I'm finally working on them, I'm glad I spent the money on the KS project.

Theophony wrote:Does the wizard terrain crate fit with the dungeon saga stuff size wise? It’s all looking great.

The bookcases look almost identical. I pulled out some of the DS stuff I had finished for some touchups (so they match this batch) and some matte varnish (so they aren't so sparkly). I'll take some photos for comparison when I get them done.

Fantastic dungeons abound here, that lot looks amazing.

 Camkierhi wrote:
Fantastic dungeons abound here, that lot looks amazing.

Thanks, Cam.

It's been kind of slow going for the last couple of weeks. I have managed to get a few more pieces done:




These come from the same Terrain Crate set as the bookcases, which is to say the Wizard's Study. Lots of brown and bronze, with a few splashes of color here and there. The candlesticks are going to fall down a lot without some Bluetac on the bottom. The pile of books is a separate piece, and will also require adhesive to keep it in place. There are still a few little pieces left in this set, and those may or may not get finished this weekend. After that, I kind of at a loss for what to work on next. I may have to spend sometime digging around in the Closet of Shame until something catches my fancy.

Those are beautifully painted!

Brilliant - Love the pool and mirror especially, something about them just looks "right"

Yep, those are really great , love the pool, mirror is also a nice piece.

Thanks, everyone. I'm quite pleased with how well the little scrying pool turned out. Fun fact: when I took these pieces out of their bag, I thought the scrying pool was a platform of some sort, and originally started painting it upside down.

I think that my next project will be some of the many Mantic models I got with my Vanguard KS pledge. I have the first four Northern Alliance models started, but I decided to finish these three first:



From left to right, these are the tracker, barbarian, and thief from the Frostgrave soldiers 2 set. Nothing particularly fancy about any of them, but they'll work on the tabletop.

Those are a bit better than 'tabletop', I think. And the basing is terrific- as per your usual!

I like the thief figure the best.

Lovin' the dungeon decor. Much nicer than the papercraft stuff I was planning to use if I ever DMed again.

Frostgrave minis are nice character type pieces. I see them as useful for just about anything.

And they're well painted, of course.

That is some great terrain - especially the mirror for some reason. The quantity is also impressive.


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The year in review is really neat too. My favorite is the female samurai with monkey. That is a great paint job on a great figure.

Great Stuff love the magic pool thing

Meer_Cat wrote:Those are a bit better than 'tabletop', I think. And the basing is terrific- as per your usual!

I like the thief figure the best.

Thanks. There's noting particularly special about the basing- just some leafy tufts that I've had forever- but it works.

Red Harvest wrote:Lovin' the dungeon decor. Much nicer than the papercraft stuff I was planning to use if I ever DMed again.

Frostgrave minis are nice character type pieces. I see them as useful for just about anything.

And they're well painted, of course.

I have a whole bunch of files for papercraft dungeon stuff, but assembling it all numbs my brain. I'm really happy that Mantic made all this stuff so I don't have to.

kestral wrote:That is some great terrain - especially the mirror for some reason. The quantity is also impressive.


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The year in review is really neat too. My favorite is the female samurai with monkey. That is a great paint job on a great figure.

Thanks. The mirror came out darker than I'd originally intended, but it works. Makes it seem more magical, i think.

JoeRugby wrote:Great Stuff love the magic pool thing

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with that piece as well.

For a (very slight) change of pace, I finally broke out some of the Vanguard minis I picked up in the KS. I decided to start with Northern Alliance:


This guy is the Huscarl, a human warrior. He's supposed to be on a 25mm square base, but I went with round so he fits in with the Frostgrave barbarians. I thought I took a photo of his back, but apparently I was mistaken. It's a shame you can't see his face and the little tiny eyes I painted--I need to get a second light source for my lightbox.



This is the Ice Kin Hunter, an elf archer. Again, I painted the eyes but they don't show up in this photo. I think I would like this model better if it weren't for the boob armor and battle pumps she is wearing. Note the repeated color palette-- the faction has elves, dwarfs, humans and naiads, so they need something to unify them. I'm going with lots of leather and yeti pelts.



This is the half-elf berzerker. Same palette as everyone else so far, plus a bare midriff and lots of leg. That's no worse than any of the old Citadel wardancers I've been painting, so I won't complain. I will complain about the very tiny contact surface-- I had to pin her to the base. She would have benefited from an integral base like Mantic used to use.



Finally, an Ice Naiad. I'm not sure why fish people would live in the frozen north, but apparently they do. I did the armor in golds rather than silver, but otherwise used the same colors as everyone else so far. Did you notice that her neck didn't fit into the socket on her torso? I had this problem with every model in this set. After failing to get this one to fit, I ended up trimming all the little pegs off the others. They went together much better that way.

As always, a group shot:


I have three snow trolls from this set about one more painting session away from being finished, as well as some very small terrain features for Rangers of Shadow Deep. Hopefully I can share them this weekend. As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Hanging out to see the ice trolls. I really like the natural look of these four (as natural as green hair and blue ice weapon can be). Makes them usable in almost any game system.

Your photos of the latest four don't seem as steady or clear as your usual photography. Did you change something in your formula?

That furniture looks awesome Josh, and I love the Northern Alliance stuff. Your productivity is off the chart with all this stuff!

Your frostgrave stuff is really pushing me to put mine together at last. Really inspiring stuff!

Archer wrote:Hanging out to see the ice trolls. I really like the natural look of these four (as natural as green hair and blue ice weapon can be). Makes them usable in almost any game system.

Your photos of the latest four don't seem as steady or clear as your usual photography. Did you change something in your formula?

I find myself using earthtones more and more. Every once in a while, I consider pulling out some Harlequins or something just to work with bright colors again, and then go back to browns and greens.

My photos look terrible because I'm using my new(ish) cheap Android phone instead of my very old iPhone. The iPhone's camera is much better, but it's getting more difficult to use as it ages. I may have to break down and get a real camera sometime soon.

Da Boss wrote:That furniture looks awesome Josh, and I love the Northern Alliance stuff. Your productivity is off the chart with all this stuff!

Your frostgrave stuff is really pushing me to put mine together at last. Really inspiring stuff!

Do it. Frostgrave (as well as its related games Ghost Archipelago and Rangers of Shadow Deep) is a really fun game. It's a lot like playing old school D&D, without all the scenes of attempting to seduce the barmaid.

Like what you did with the northern alliance guys and gal, but that spear/trident is excellent

Theophony wrote:Like what you did with the northern alliance guys and gal, but that spear/trident is excellent

Thanks. It's just drybrushed, but it turned out well, I think.

As promised, here are the Ice Trolls:



In my KS pledge, I got three of the starter sets, meaning I got three of these trolls. There are only two different heads, as you can see in these photos. I used the same colors as the smaller models I posted last week-- they apparently skin the trolls and wear their hides, as well as fighting side-by-side with them. I wonder how the trolls feel about that...?



This third guy has a different weapon (a big rock), but I didn't want to repeat faces. I gave this guy a leftover Ogre head, with some kneadatie hair added to cover the gaps. Speaking of gaps, this guy's upper body is subtly different from the other two--so subtly, in fact, that it took me a long time to figure out why it didn't fit the legs, even with hot water bending. I ended up building up his waist with even more kneadatite. I gave this guy orege fur in honor of Sasquatch, but darkened him up a bit to fit with the rest of the warband.

In addition to these guys, I cranked out some giant fly holes:



These are needed for a scenario in Rangers of Shadow Deep. They are made of a 40mm round base, a 25mm Mantic round base, some filler and static grass. Also, I made a house:


It's just foamboard and balsa wood. I was inspired by this YouTube video , but it didn't turn out as well. At least I know I can do this now, so the next one should turn out better.

As always, no update is complete without a battle scene:


As always, comments anc criticism are welcome and encouraged.

The ice trolls turned out well.

Scratch building terrain is very much a matter of practice. So is painting, come to think of it. It's very much a learn by doing activity.

Some quick washes, say of dark brown, into the roof, and the timber frames, and maybe the stucco, and then a light drybrushing would do wonders for the look of the building. And take less than 5 minutes. Not including time for the washes to dry.

Trolls look excellent
Not sure how fly holes look compared to real life , and I’m not going to google that .
Terrain piece just gave me some inspiration to make a building, so great job there as well.

Very nicely painted trolls Josh, those are some scary looking dudes

Can't see anything wrong with that building bud. Looks pretty good to me.

Rest all looking great as usual.

Red Harvest wrote:The ice trolls turned out well.

Scratch building terrain is very much a matter of practice. So is painting, come to think of it. It's very much a learn by doing activity.

Some quick washes, say of dark brown, into the roof, and the timber frames, and maybe the stucco, and then a light drybrushing would do wonders for the look of the building. And take less than 5 minutes. Not including time for the washes to dry.

Thanks. I did put a wash over all the balsa and the stucco, but the wood didn't darken as much as I'd hoped, and the stucco does need a drybrush. I'll go back over it and post photos of the results.

Theophony wrote:Trolls look excellent
Not sure how fly holes look compared to real life , and I’m not going to google that .
Terrain piece just gave me some inspiration to make a building, so great job there as well.

It does feel weird to say "fly holes", but that's what's in the book. Please make a nifty building so I can copy what you do.

Syro_ wrote:Very nicely painted trolls Josh, those are some scary looking dudes

Thanks. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out.

Camkierhi wrote:Can't see anything wrong with that building bud. Looks pretty good to me.

Rest all looking great as usual.

I see nothing but problems with the building, but I built it more as proof of concept than anything else. Next time, I'll draw up some plans first and make sure everything fits together better.

I got some nifty PVC sheets the other day just before reading your blog, so I have a concept, just this weekend has been bonkers, but maybe in the A.M. .

Also doing a proof of concept is the way I usually start on buildings as well.

The trolls look great! I really like the warmer colours you have chosen for yours, really suits the minis. The headswap is really well done too, I would not have noticed if you had not pointed it out.
RE terrain, the main thing is to get stuff built. I have a horrible habit of amassing stuff for terrain builds and then sitting on it for ages as I ponder techniques, and I think ultimately you can only really get good at any of this stuff by doing it. I think your piece looks grand, I think the wood is a difficult thing to work with until you are used to it. Your next piece will improve on it, no doubt!

Let us know how Rangers of the Shadow Deep pans out. Atm I only have a D&D group, no one to play wargames with, so I am really curious about RotSD.

Theophony wrote:I got some nifty PVC sheets the other day just before reading your blog, so I have a concept, just this weekend has been bonkers, but maybe in the A.M. .

Also doing a proof of concept is the way I usually start on buildings as well.

I've been working with foamboard and balsa, mostly. I have another building mostly finished, but the thatched roof is taking forever.

Da Boss wrote:The trolls look great! I really like the warmer colours you have chosen for yours, really suits the minis. The headswap is really well done too, I would not have noticed if you had not pointed it out.
RE terrain, the main thing is to get stuff built. I have a horrible habit of amassing stuff for terrain builds and then sitting on it for ages as I ponder techniques, and I think ultimately you can only really get good at any of this stuff by doing it. I think your piece looks grand, I think the wood is a difficult thing to work with until you are used to it. Your next piece will improve on it, no doubt!

Let us know how Rangers of the Shadow Deep pans out. Atm I only have a D&D group, no one to play wargames with, so I am really curious about RotSD.

Thanks. As much as I love Frostgrave, I can't bring myself to paint something that wouldn't fit in a more temperate setting. I figure these Northern Alliance guys change colors to match the season, kinda like rabbits.

RoSD is kinda like Old School Dungeons and Dragons, without all the talking to old guys in taverns. The rules aren't very crunchy, but the "swinginess" (is that a word?) makes for some very tense moments during the game, and some very entertaining stories after.

I may have mentioned this before, but Frostgrave is probably my favorite game of the last ten years. Everytime something new comes out, I have to pick it up, even if I don't really need it. Case in point: Plastic Wizards:


The box comes with two sprues, each with four bodies, about a dozen heads, 20-or-so pairs of arms, and lots of nifty gubbins. I based this first guy's paint job on The Blue Raja, but reduced the bling because I didn't think I could pull it off without making the model really ugly.



I originally built this guy with screaming bearded face, weilding a sword and staff. After finishing all the exposed skin, I decided I didn't like that particular set up, so I popped off the head and arms and rebuilt him. Originally, he just had an open book in his left hand, but I thought that lacked oomph. I then broke out the kneadatite and had him summoning an eldrich monster, kinda like Sanloss here:


I figure I'll use them as Wizard and Apprentice in the same warband. Finally:



If you have the option to build a guy with a fez, you are required to take that option, IMO. I originally planned to paint him like Uncle Stan from Gravity Falls, but black on black doesn't work so well on the table top. The skull is from the wizard sprue, with kneadatite ectoplasm to make it look like a summoned monster. It looks better at arm's length than up close.

Finally, here are all three together:


I have one more unfinished model from this sprue, but building the spell effects takes time, and I'd rather not rush it. I hope to have him, along with one more building, finished this week.

As always, comments and criticism are welcome and encouraged.

Looking good as usual Josh, you have quite the collection of painted wizards with these three joining the party.

Brilliant kit isn't it. I've been having fun with my set as well.

Great stuff as usual, Josh. And kudos for basing a wizard off a character from one of the most underappreciated movies of all time.

Lovely job on those three wise men Josh! Bringing the gifts of eldritch horror, balefire and skull this Frostmas.

The wizards look like a lot of fun.

I'm in a similar boat- I don't need much of the new Frostgrave stuff, models especially, but I keep gobbling them up.

If only those plastic wizards would show up soon on our side of the pond...

I just popped down to the local game store to see if they had any based on this post, sadly not yet! Might order them the next time I am ordering a bunch of stuff.

Lovely as usual, Josh. Green stuff tentacles came out great!

Great wizardry action there Josh

Syro_ wrote:Looking good as usual Josh, you have quite the collection of painted wizards with these three joining the party.

Like most hobbyists, I have more wizards than I can ever use for any game or system. But that's fine by me, because wizards are cool and fun to paint.

Llamahead wrote:Brilliant kit isn't it. I've been having fun with my set as well.

It is a nifty kit, isn't it. And since it's compatible with all the other (male) FG sprues, I can build 20-30 more wizards with all the bitz!

bbb wrote:Great stuff as usual, Josh. And kudos for basing a wizard off a character from one of the most underappreciated movies of all time.

I loved that movie when it came out. I never did read the comics, though.

Da Boss wrote:Lovely job on those three wise men Josh! Bringing the gifts of eldritch horror, balefire and skull this Frostmas.

Ectoplasm and sanity-blasting monsters are the reason for the season!

highlord tamburlaine wrote:The wizards look like a lot of fun.

I'm in a similar boat- I don't need much of the new Frostgrave stuff, models especially, but I keep gobbling them up.

If only those plastic wizards would show up soon on our side of the pond...

Supposedly, there is a hobby store somewhere that acts as the official distributor of FG in Japan, but I don't know where it is. Even if I did, Japan prices plus shipping costs would work out almost the same as ordering direct.

Da Boss wrote:I just popped down to the local game store to see if they had any based on this post, sadly not yet! Might order them the next time I am ordering a bunch of stuff.

I hear that FG stuff is hard to keep in stock.

Slinky wrote:Lovely as usual, Josh. Green stuff tentacles came out great!

Thanks. If I were a better scratchbuilder, I would have added suckers, I think.

Theophony wrote:Great wizardry action there Josh

Thanks!

Syro_ wrote:
Looking good as usual Josh, you have quite the collection of painted wizards with these three joining the party.

JoshInJapn wrote:

Like most hobbyists, I have more wizards than I can ever use for any game or system. But that's fine by me, because wizards are cool and fun to paint.

So true! Speaking of which I have 4 more wizards coming in the mail to join my collection (or five if you count the dwarf ranger that looks way more like a wizard with his staff and hood.)
Though your collection is both more painted, and more well painted than mine

Just got into Frostgrave myself. Good inspiration here!

Syro_ wrote:

Syro_ wrote:
Looking good as usual Josh, you have quite the collection of painted wizards with these three joining the party.

JoshInJapn wrote:

Like most hobbyists, I have more wizards than I can ever use for any game or system. But that's fine by me, because wizards are cool and fun to paint.

So true! Speaking of which I have 4 more wizards coming in the mail to join my collection (or five if you count the dwarf ranger that looks way more like a wizard with his staff and hood.)
Though your collection is both more painted, and more well painted than mine

Spoiler:

Thanks for the kind words, and thanks for the photo. It would be fun, I think, to pull out and photograph sets of models like that, but I dread having to put them all back in their boxes afterwards...

GunnarL wrote:Just got into Frostgrave myself. Good inspiration here!

Thanks. FG is a great game, especially if (like me) you don't care too much about balance and winning and stuff. Have you checked out Rangers of Shadow Deep, by the same creator?

Between the normal Golden Week holidays and the abdication of the previous Emperor/ascension of the new Emperor, the country is in the middle of a ten-day holiday period. Naturally, I've been decidedly unproductive hobby wise, although I did pull a lot of weeds in the yard. Still, I managed to get a few things done:


I posted photos of this building a while back, but was unsatisfied with how the wood looked. Digging through my supplies, I came across a bottle of cheap stain/lacquer from the ￥100 store. It didn't work very well as substitute Quickshade, but it did the job here, I think. You can see white spots where I applied too much hot glue, but let's all ignore those, OK?



I decided to try a thatched roof after seeing a video by The Crafting Muse. The building itself is all balsa wood-- I made the planks by scoring balsa sheet along the grain-- and the thatch is sisal twine. It was real slow going at first, and even when I got the hang of it, each "layer" of thatch took about 20 minutes. The effect works well enough, but I'm not sure I want to spend that much time on one building ever again.




Finally, a little animal pen. Again, all balsa wood, except for the base, which is a hunk of MDF leftover from a Miniature Scenery set (I used a similar piece to make a rice paddy a while back). I went with an aged wood look on this building, as I assumed the houses would be better maintained than this building. Finally, a group shot of my little farm:



Add in a little scatter, and I think this will work for a few different games.

Wow, 4 hours on that thatched roof? I love thatch, and want to do one in real life as well as some thatched roof terrain, but I'd never be that patient. Love the fly holes - now I need some!

Very nicely done- and the finished buildings are certainly suitable for a variety of settings. I know the feeling (like the four hour thatched roof job) you get started trying something new, it takes longer than you figured, and you've got too much invested now to stop! But the final look is fantastic, very realistic- worth having done at least once.

I like your farm. Your thatched roof looks good, and the time it took is understandable, it takes forever to make them

Great looking buildings , I need to steal the animal shed/lean to looking piece idea.

Thanks, fellows. To be clear, though, the thatch took a lot longer than four hours. The first slat alone took over an hour, as I tried to figure out what I was doing. I spent about two weeks worth of hobby time on the roof, with some painting and modelling thrown in to break up the monotony. Next time, I'll try to find some teddy bear fur instead.

After spending all that time on the thatched roof, I find myself slowing down. I did manage to get a few models finished:



These are the Frostgrave barbarian wizard and apprentice. They had been sitting, based and primed, in my "to finish" pile for a long, long time, and I finally just forced myself to finish them. They turned out pretty well, I think. The apprentice has an ugly mold line right over her right eye. I tried to disguise it as a scar, but you can't really tell in this photo. I need to get a second light source.




And here's the fourth wizard from the Frostgrave plastic wizard sprue. Originally, this guy had a beard and was carrying a staff in one hand and a sword in the other. It looked pretty crappy, so I switched out heads and gave him a set of jazz hands. My son suggested that he should be summoning a giant eyeball. The bald head and pointed beard reminded me of Ming the Merciless, and I did him up in red and gold because of that. I remain impressed with this particular sprue. As always, here's a group shot:


Also, I've decided to enter the latest League of Extraordinary Riveters contest. The theme is "Food for Thought." While cleaning up after a game a couple of weeks ago, I took another look at the scatter terrain I cranked out for Rangers of Shadow Deep a while back, and was thoroughly unimpressed. I've decided to revisit some of those pieces, and this contest is the perfect chance. Here are some of the raw materials:


It's going to be a campfire, with some sort of beast roasting on a spit. I'll try to post WIP photos periodically. Feel free to give me encouragement!

The figures look great as usual Josh. But I'm more excited about the LoER announcement. It's great you'll be joining us in the competition. Also looks like those animals are from the "Terra wild animals" tub, am I right?

 Syro_ wrote:
The figures look great as usual Josh. But I'm more excited about the LoER announcement. It's great you'll be joining us in the competition. Also looks like those animals are from the "Terra wild animals" tub, am I right?

Thanks, I'm glad to be a part of the comp, as well. The animals are from "Animal Land," a set of cheapo toys from the ￥100 store. I haven't decided which to cut up for roasting yet, but I'm leaning toward the giraffe.

Love the eyeball-casting wizards!

Valete,

JohnS

Eye see what you did there.

The guy conjuring the eyeball is fantastic .

I shudder to think what that giraffe will be...

Totally agree on the dude casting Bigby's Really Icky Eye. It doesn't actually do anything but really grosses out the other guys (save vs paralysis or lose an action)

Mordenkainen's Judging Stare? Opponents suffer -1 to all rolls, due to being uncomfortably stared at.

Love your work as always, pure brilliance with the eyeball. Really great.

And welcome to the competition, looks like a fantastic idea, really looking forward to seeing where you go with it.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
I shudder to think what that giraffe will be...

Totally agree on the dude casting Bigby's Really Icky Eye. It doesn't actually do anything but really grosses out the other guys (save vs paralysis or lose an action)

If he fails to cast the spelldoes that mean he suffers from Eye-strain? I’ll get my own hat thanks