Howdy folks! It's New Blog Time!

Given that my last P&M blog has a) seen a massive drop-off in updates over the last few months and b) consists of a lot of my older/earlier work which is, to say the least, a bit rubbish, I thought it was about time I change things up a little and make a fresh start. A lot of what I do these days goes into showcase threads or the monthly P&M challenge I run here on Dakka, but this will hopefully be a good way to keep everything in one place and hopefully keep me motivated to paint more stuff, as my productivity has declined somewhat over the last year as D&D and video games have eaten more of the free time uni work has left me with.

It's fair to say this will probably be updated a lot less frequently than my old blog was in its heyday, but hopefully I can keep a steady stream of painted minis coming, and I'm always happy to chat about my hobby exploits, so please do feel free to drop in with comments, questions, feedback and all that proverbial jazz... and if you're really bored, ask me about my D&D games!

One last shameless plug, I do do a bit of commission work here and there so if you like what you see and would like something painted, feel free to shoot me a PM!

But that's enough of the word things, on with the pictures!

To kick things off, a mini I'm really rather fond of. A few weeks ago I picked this one up from Mierce Minatures' surplus stock page for all of about £4, and it's a really nice piece. I've actually painted this sculpt before in resin, but this version is in metal and I have to say, I found it a massive improvement to work with; the detail was much sharper after multiple coats, there was no issue with the sword repeatedly breaking like on the resin one and the textures have a lot more bite to them, making things like the cloth effect on the cloak way easier to do. It's also the tiniest bit larger than the resin version, I think, though could still easily fit inside the upper body of a Primaris Marine, Mierce's humans definitely tend towards a less bulky style!



This mini has always reminded me a bit of what a celtic answer to Wonder Woman might look like, so I took some inspiration from that for the red and blue scheme. The snowy/muddy base was done with bicarb of soda (snowda?) and plenty of Agrax Earthshade after the fact, which I think has created a rather nice slush effect that anyone who's experienced a British winter will be all to familiar with...

I think that'll do for now, so for now, thanks for looking, and as always, any thoughts are most welcome!

The blog is dead, long live the blog!

That warrior woman is very well done. Suits your grim style perfectly.

Time to kick off a new project, one which was kickstarted by that great and noble Christmas tradition, watching The Lord of the Rings...

It's been about 3 years since I last painted any LotR stuff, and through a combination of GW's revival of the range this year and the inspiration of rewatching the movies again, now seems like a good time to fix that. Thus, off to ebay I go, and pick up a set of the Fellowship of the Ring in metal, which I still maintain are some of the best licensed miniatures ever made despite their age. The likenesses captured perfectly, the attention to detail is staggering even now, nearly 2 decades later.

So up first, Middle Earth's troublemaker-in-chief, adventure-instigator extraordinaire, Gandalf The Grey, this version portraying his iconic clash with the Balrog at the Bridge of Khazad Dum. Really a test mini, as I have another Gandalf on the desk which fits a little better with the rest of the Fellowship, but still a fun one to paint. I've angled the sword arm down a bit here as well versus the standard pose, gives him a little more momentum.



And second, possibly one of my favourite characters across all of Middle Earth, Boromir of Gondor. In a story full of archetypes and somewhat flawless characters, I've always found Boromir wonderfully human, especially as portrayed by Sean Bean in the movies. It's easy at a glance to write him off as a traitor and a week man, but the context of his fall really does make him sympathetic to me.



As with all the ME stuff I do, I've deliberately kept things fairly muted here to match the aesthetic of the films; the realistic, worn look has always been a major part of their appeal to me. So no real stark highlights, and a big emphasis on textures; the rough, heavy fabric of Gandalf's robes, the smooth leather of Boromir's tunic and armour, the blades shiny but not flashy, these are all things I've tried to bring out here and the sculpts do lend themselves to that.

There'll be a lot more LotR coming soon. Not only have I got the rest of the Fellowship to paint (along with 2 more Gandalfs), but I've been talked into buying the new starter set as well, with the armies of Rohan and Mordor... not sure exactly when I'll have time to get it all painted, but at the very least it's something to keep me occupied until a massive pile of Batman stuff from the Gotham City Chronicles KS swamps me in March!

That's all for now, thanks for looking! Do let me know what you think!

2...decades...? Gosh, but time does fly.

Lovely idea for a project. The minis are looking great already.

Love the Lord of the Rings stuff; makes me want to pull out some of mine and paint it! I look forward to seeing you paint up the rest of the Fellowship!

Very nice.

Love your work as ever - looking forward to a new blog being worked up here!

Love the details and the weathering. They look very real which is what I tend to look for in miniatures. Great job so far and keep posting!

Cheers all! I've really enjoyed going back to these LotR minis. And as such, more!

First up, Aragorn. Oddly, in the Fellowship collection I got, he was the only one in his Two Towers gear, so I do have another one on the way in his ranger coat rather than the armour he picks up at Helm's Deep. Was nice to revisit this sculpt, as I have a feeling it was one of the first models I ever painted.




Next up, Merry and Pippin. Since a lot of the Fellowship are quite drab, I've upped the colour on these two a little bit as befits their personalities. These sculpts are tiny, so the likenesses aren't quite as good (though I think you can still see some of Billy Boyd in Pippin), but they're still very characterful pieces regardless. Left the metals here a bit less clean, as their blades are hand-me-downs from Aragorn rather than well-kept weapons like his or Boromir's swords.


And so we're over half way to the full Fellowship! Already looking rather nice as a group. Legolas and Gimli are on deck next, so check in soon for them, and maybe some Rohan/Mordor test paints as my Pelennor box arrived today.


Ta for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Gorgeous work. These old minis are really something else in my opinion, some of the best stuff GW has ever made. Love the style choices made here. Your skin tones in particular are excellent.

This is awesome and unfortunate. You have me casting sidelong glances at my pile of unpainted LotR models.

<Bonks Para with a copy of the book.>

 Paradigm wrote:
Left the metals here a bit less clean, as their blades are hand-me-downs from Aragorn rather than well-kept weapons like his or Boromir's swords.

“For each of the hobbits he* chose a dagger, long, leaf-shaped, and keen, of marvelous workmanship, damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold"
“Forged many long years ago by Men of Westernesse: they were foes of the Dark Lord, but were overcome by the evil king of Carn Dum in the Land of Angmar”

Second age relics from the wars of the north, recovered from the Barrow Downs. Not hand-me-downs. Makes it a bit more relevant when the Witch-King gets one of them to the back of the knee.

* “He” in this case is Tom Bombadil, not Aragorn.

Pedantic nerding aside, love the work you did on these guys. Do you have your original Aragorn for a progress comparison? Or a pic somewhere?

Wow, Para! Been awhile since Ive been around and your work, while always great, has improved by leaps and bounds! Great looking stuff here, especially the woman in the top post. Looking forward to what you post next!

Thanks chaps!

youwashock wrote:This is awesome and unfortunate. You have me casting sidelong glances at my pile of unpainted LotR models.

Do it! Seriously, they're still some of the best minis GW ever made. Looking at the (old) plastics in the new starter, they're far better than my ancient/rubbish paintjobs had me believing... Looking forward to giving them another go round.

And on a related note, the new Theoden in plastic is a beautiful mini, might be bumping him to the top of the queue once the Fellowship are done.

Nevelon wrote:<Bonks Para with a copy of the book.>

 Paradigm wrote:
Left the metals here a bit less clean, as their blades are hand-me-downs from Aragorn rather than well-kept weapons like his or Boromir's swords.

“For each of the hobbits he* chose a dagger, long, leaf-shaped, and keen, of marvelous workmanship, damasked with serpent-forms in red and gold"
“Forged many long years ago by Men of Westernesse: they were foes of the Dark Lord, but were overcome by the evil king of Carn Dum in the Land of Angmar”

Second age relics from the wars of the north, recovered from the Barrow Downs. Not hand-me-downs. Makes it a bit more relevant when the Witch-King gets one of them to the back of the knee.

* “He” in this case is Tom Bombadil, not Aragorn.

Pedantic nerding aside, love the work you did on these guys. Do you have your original Aragorn for a progress comparison? Or a pic somewhere?

Aha, I'll counter-pedant you by pointing out that these versions are based on the movies, where the Hobbits get their swords from Strider to defend themselves when he leaves, just before the Nazgul attack Weathertop. But yeah, fair point.

I do have the original somewhere, when I've finished up the Fellowship I'll do a set of comparison pics as I've found a fair few of my originals (off the top of my head, at least Aragorn, Legolas, Gimli, Boromir, Pippin and Merry... Gandalf got half-redone a while back and Frodo and Sam I stripped and may well paint as part of this set). It's... quite the contrast, as most of them were done before I even started my old blog!

Got the last few finished today, so for the minute the Fellowship stands complete (though I do still have another Gandalf and Aragorn to do...)

First up, Frodo and the real hero of LotR, Samwise. 'Frodo wouldn't have gotten far without Sam'
Aside from being my favourite character, I think Sam might be my favourite model in this set as well, the likeness is great for the size and the pose captures his stalwart toughness perfectly.


Up next, the Elf and the Dwarf, Legolas and Gimli. Really a set of extremes here, the Gimli model has aged wonderfully with its simplicity but the face on Legolas is showing its age, it's notably chunkier than the rest of the Fellowship which doesn't really suit his Elven stature. Mind you, with the new plastics previewed today you might be seeing new versions of both these characters in the future...


The Three Hunters together:



And with that...
'Nine companions. So be it. you shall be The Fellowship of the Ring'



That's all for now! Thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Next paint 9 Nazghul?

Second that. And some of the twilight Nazgul, as well.

I do have some Nazgul in metal, I could do something with them. Not the Twilight ones though, cool as they are they're long OOP and crazy expensive second hand.

Today, we go from old metals to new plastics, with the excellent Theoden mini in the new starter. Really lovely mini this, as much as the old models are wonderfully characterful the crispness of these new ones is excellent, especially on a mini with very detailed armour like this one.


Mounted version and more Rohan coming soon! Maybe some Bad Guys too...

Thanks for looking! Thoughts, as always, welcome!

I had not seen this one before. He is a marvelous little model. Great job!

Wow, the Fellowship turned out great! I have the plastic versions that came in the Mines of Moria starter, but as they are among the first models I ever painted I'm pretty ashamed of the paintjobs. I'd love to get a set of the metal Fellowship like you've got and do the characters justice.

Theoden turned out pretty nice too. Is the plastic version multipart like a lot of Warhammer 40k's clampack characters or is it just a body and maybe an arm separate?

Saw “Hail to the king”, thought there would be Ash from army of darkness. Tricksie human

While no chainsaw wielding discount store employee was insight, there still was plenty of excellent action to take in. Wonderful work my friend.

Great work as always Para, I've not really looked at the LOTR models in much detail but your painting makes me want some

Strangely I'm getting some Tyrion Lannister vibes from Merry(?), mainly the face.

Nice to see the mew plastic painted up - and good to hear the old plastics still hold up too!

Lovely stuff as always Para

Thanks for the kind words, folks.

It's been a while! Mainly as I've been soldiering on with the Rohirrim from the PF box, and while they're coming along pretty nicely they're not really update worthy on their own. In the last few days, though, I've done up some more impressive pieces, so here they are.

First up is my entry for this month's challenge, the other Theoden from Pelennor Fields. Absolutely love this sculpt, it's really a great example of what the new plastics can do. Great likeness, fine detail, a pose that would be an unbalancable nightmare in metal, a great sense of motion to it. Really one of the best kits GW has come out with in a while.

Pretty pleased with my paintjob too, horses and whites are things I often struggle with so I'm rather chuffed about how Snowmane, his steed, has ended up looking.



And up next, rather the opposite of a heroic king of men, the Lord of Undeath, The Whispered One, Classic D&D uber-bad Vecna. I picked up this mini in Mierce's recent sale after wanting it for some time, and about the time it arrived a friend mentioned that he wanted to use a version of Vecna (basically the Lichiest Lich who ever Liched) in his campaign at some point, so I decided to paint the mini based on his description so the campaign has a suitable epic final boss.

He's been a real git to photograph, so these pics aren't the best, but you get the idea. Originally the glow was a more desaturated blue, but after a chat with the friend I'm painting it for we decided to move it over to a brighter, eldritch green (many glazes later...), which I think has come out fairly nicely. As befits the character, one of his eyes has the same glow, but in these pics it's really hidden by the hood.


That's all for now, any thoughts welcome! Ta for stopping by!

Ooooft.

Nice work on the LotR collection Paradigm, I especially like Theoden (both on foot and mounted).

They both look great, but that cloak on Vecna is really something special.

Wow, mounted Theoden looks amazing! You really did a nice job on him. I knew I liked that sculpt when they first announced it. The only thing keeping me from getting Battle of Pelennor Fields myself is the fact that no one in my local area plays Middle-Earth at all. I already have some LotR stuff squirreled away, but no incentive to paint any of it as long as I've got 40k stuff to paint. Unless a suitable category comes up in your painting challenges of course.

Vecna looks cool too, especially the cloak!

Cheers guys!

Been quietly productive recently, soldiering on with the LotR troops and painting a bunch of minis for my D&D group. But since the last post featured Vecna, I figured it was appropriate to follow up with one of the individuals who faced him at the end of Critical Role's first campaign. And so, here's Arkhan the Cruel, Oathbreaker Paladin of Tiamat, as played by Joe Manganiello.



The mini is actually produced by Gale Force Nine in their D&D Collectors Series and predates the existence of the Critical Role range, but still depicts Arkhan as he appears on the show, having just claimed the Hand of Vecna as his own (his previous, self-removed limb is sculpted onto the base, which is a nice if gruesome touch! ). It's a really crisp mini, was great fun to paint.

Will try and get some proper pics of my D&D party minis soon, but that's all for now. Stay tuned, and ta for looking. Any thoughts welcome!

Brutal looking guy there.

My one suggestion is that the hand gets a little lost in the flame. At first glance I thought it was just smoke coming off the stump.

That's fair. The trouble, I guess, with having a Lich's hand coming out of a Dragonborn arm is it can be a little harder to recognise, so I can see how it blends into the flame a little.

More stuff! As mentioned, I've been chipping away on the LotR stuff, so today's main event is the Mordor Troll.



Painted this guy ahead of schedule to use in my D&D game last week, where he lasted all of 1 round against our Paladin/Fighter's insane rolls. 3 hours of painting, 3 minutes of on-table lifespan. Seems like a fair trade for the ability to put the fear of god into the players by putting this beast down without warning... Pretty pleased with the look overall, really wanted to make the armour look properly beaten and mucky, and I think I've managed that.

Up next, a small group of Rohirrim. Decided not to batch paint so these were all done one at a time, took a while and while they're not spectacular, they're certainly coming out better than my LotR troops of yesteryear (my process back then, as long-time followers of my work will know, was basically base colours and a ridiculously heavy black wash... ).



That's all for now! Ta for looking, more soon. Any thoughts welcome!

Trollface.

He looks great. Sorry he got slapped so badly on his first outing.

That troll looks amazing! I've got one of those myself that I need to paint eventually. Your gritty style suits Mordor stuff well, I think.

Lovely Job on the lotr stuff Para

Ta for the kind words, folks!

More LotR today, this time a couple of minis that I decided to combine into a (very) simple vignette scene, as they don't necessarily fit the armies I'm currently building. One of my favourite scenes in the movies is a little moment during Return of the King where an almost shell-shocked Pippin answers Gandalf's call to fight and joins him on the walls of Minas Tirith, his fear evident but his bravery equally so. He slays a number of Orcs and proves himself, even saving Gandalf from an errant blow at one point. As the wizard himself remarks, in this moment Pippin proves himself as worthy of the armour he wears as any other soldier in Gondor's proud history.

So on discovering that I had both the necessary minis in my 'stripped to be redone' pile, in a very simplistic way I set about capturing this moment. While obviously there's no wider diorama for context, I actually think it's come together quite nicely. I deliberately put them on just about the smallest base that would take both models, to emphasise how throughout this scene Pippin is never more than a few steps from his mentor and friend, and how Gandalf for his part makes a special effort to protect the hobbit amidst the chaos of battle. It's almost claustrophobic in that way, I think it's easy enough to imagine foes bearing down just 'off screen' from where the base ends. The poses too help with this, Gandalf's very open and dramatic, Pippin's more closed and almost timid.

But that's enough rambling words, here's the finished piece:


That's all for now, up next will probably be my next painting challenge entry. Going to try something a little different stylistically this month, we'll see if it works next time! In the mean time, ta for looking, any thoughts welcome!

The fool of a Took does finally make good. Great scene and lovely little figures.

Your work as usual is brilliant and really top tire.

I can't help wish that Gandalf's figure was a little taller. I know that it is not your doing or even possible to achieve, just wish he was a bit taller.

Cheers guys!

I think that they convey exactly the spirit that you intended. Excellent work!

Looks awesome Para

Ta folks.

Couple of Marines today, first I've done in a while actually. I always wanted to paint some of the metal Sternguard, but never got around to it before they went OOP. The other week, though, I managed to find a few at decent prices on ebay.

First up, a bolter Vet in the colours of the Blood Ravens, a Chapter who, despite never having played much Dawn of War, I've always had a soft spot for. I really enjoy the palette of muted red armour and off-white accents, which I find a bit easier to bend to my style compared to, say, the brighter red of the Blood Angels.



Next up, a Sergeant in the Imperial Fists colours.


One of these will be my entry into the challenge this month, at the minute the Fist is in there but I'm considering swapping him out for the BR, I just think it's a little neater. Any thoughts on that?

That's all for now, ta for looking!

LOTR minis suit your style better than I would have guessed, they look awesome!

That BR is great, but I'd have to vote for the Fist. Overall just more dynamic, and that face is incredibly well done.

To be fair, I think a lot of where my style ended up came out of LotR, which I was painting stuff for long before 40k or Warhammer. To me, those movies remain the pinnacle of taking a fantastical setting and portraying it in a way that's totally believable, so my focus on grit, texture, narrative and realism probably comes at least in some regard for my love of that. I guess it's come full circle now I'm back painting LotR these days!

A little more LotR today, my entry for last month's Challenge which will be up for voting soon. I actually spent most of April painting up the boardgame pieces from Gotham City Chronicles, so this was a bit of a last-minute entry, but actually one I'm rather pleased with.

After painting the two plastic Theoden minis from the starter set earlier in the year, I fancied going back to the original metal version and I think it's probably my favourite of the three from a paintjob perspective. Things like the scaled armour and the sword are certainly less sharp on the metal, but I think this face is probably the most characterful and I just love the pose. I went a bit brighter on this version with the red and green, which I think does a lot to make the mini more interesting.



And while I'm here, I'm going to be utterly shameless and do a little plug for my other blog, where I write about storytelling in D&D/RPGs in general. There's not a ton on there yet, but more coming in future so if that's your sort of thing, maybe give it a look.
https://roleforinitiativehome.wordpress.com

That aside, I'm hopefully have some more pics to show off soon (for some reason, I'm having a nightmare photographing the Batman stuff), until then thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

I don't think you've gone too far on the colours - pitch perfect, if you ask me, mate.
Loved your Mordor troll, btw.

Cheers Graven. I must admit I enjoyed working with the brighter colours, and over a white rather than black primer.

It's something I've been doing on the Batman minis recently and I think I'm getting the hang of it, my old BMG minis look like grey blobs compared to the more colourful, comicy Gotham City Chronicles stuff and I'm pretty pleased about that. Maybe not enough to switch over full time, but it's a nice skill to be picking up, gives me some more options when it comes to making certain minis stand out a bit.

Speaking of Batman, you got any plans to paint up the new BMG starter you reviewed the other week? I'd love to see those minis painted up, they look really cool.

I have so, so, so much BMG to paint it's a crying shame. But I do have a plan, actually: I'm going to start on Bane stuff, as I've never tackled much for the Big Fella except the old Arkham one.

Well if you ever need a hand... I know the feeling though... I've committed to painting up all of GCC, which is 180-odd minis even without whatever's going to turn up in the Season 2 KS next month. Playing BMG again has been good motivation though, I'd forgotten how fun it was, and adding a bit of RPG-esque flair with narrative asymmetric win conditions and playing 'in character' has improved it no end.

Looking forward to seeing what you do with Bane and co.

Paradigm wrote:Well if you ever need a hand...

Don't freaking tempt me. I have literally every Harry Potter miniature primed but otherwise unpainted...

Theoden looks fantastic, the color choices really make for a great looking mini.

Theoden looks great!

Ta chaps!

Continuing my theme of experimenting with some brighter colours, I picked up an Empire general at a local toy store yesterday (must be old stock, he was at the back of a shelf under 2 basing kits and a template set!) and applied the techniques I used on Theoden to something perhaps a bit better suited to the cleaner, brighter look. I've always liked the Empire aesthetic, and this mini was great fun to paint.



Thanks for reading, any thoughts welcome!

That cloak is lovely, excellent hues!

Very nice mix of colours, well played sir.

Ta chaps.

Back to 40k, or rather, 30k, today, with a conversion/repaint of my old Betrayal At Calth Chaplain. He was originally done up as a Raven Guard Vigilator, but after a weapon swap and reprime, I set about re-imagining him as Sons of Horus Captain. I've always loved the SoH colour scheme and painting that sort of teal/cyan tone in general, and I've recently been trying to refine a method for a strong purple, so it was a good scheme to practice both of those on.

Tried to be a little more precise with the weathering than usual, though he's still plenty mucky and dinged up as, well, the Horus Heresy didn't fight itself! And also because there was a bloody great glue mark from the original conversion that needed covering over, and a spot of battle damage is always good for that sort of thing!


That's all for now! Any thoughts welcome, cheers for looking!

That's awesome. The purple looks almost electric against the weathered armor.

Very good, the bottom of the cloak especially.

Cheers guys!

The Captain is such a boss, great work dude. I love the General's cloak too!

Lovely contrast with the purple.

Great work on the captain, really like the purple color of the cloak. Perhaps a foreshadowing of their chaos/Cthulhu inspired heritage. At least in my mind.

Agreed, excellent job on Dantius. I really like the way the trifecta of white, purple and red makes the miniature pop. Good work on the LOTR miniatures as well.

Fantastic purple on the Son there. That could make an awesome color scheme. Great stuff here. Really impressive highlighting and shading skills across the board.

Cheers for all the kind words, folks!

I seem, like an off-brand Picasso, to be stuck painting a lot of the same colours at the minute! Today's mini is another in teal and purple, after many, many attempted other Kharadron schemes. I love the idea of steampunk sky-pirate dwarves, but these minis are a surprisingly fiddly to paint and it took me what felt like forever to get this one in a state I was happy with. Got the rest of the gang to do, hopefully they'll be slightly quicker.


Pretty happy with how he's come out though, while with AoS stuff I tend towards a bit of a brighter, cleaner style, I really wanted this guy to feel battered and rugged, a pirate down on his luck.

More Underworlds coming soon, I've got the Sylvaneth and some Nighthaunts almost finished. In the mean time, thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Your teal and purple period is making for some great looking minis, this guy really exudes character.

What a great model. And with such a delectably gritty paintjob. Love it.

Lovely take on a very quirky fig!

Ta guys! I do really like the model itself, it's exactly the kind of mad that AoS facilitates so well.

Really liking that kharadron. Very cool selection of colors.

Another dwarf today, though tragically sans balloon. Probably the busiest model in the Overlords set, but a fun one to play with some metallic weathering while carrying over the same colour scheme from the boss man.


Hope to have the rest of the gang done shortly, and to finish and photograph the Sylvaneth and Nighthaunt warbands as well. Also got something very different indeed coming up shortly, so stay tuned for that.

In the mean time, thanks for looking! Any thoughts welcome!

Hmm. It's very good, but I have a question: is that skin or a mask by the uncovered eye? I think a little warm skin tone would sit nicely to balance it out.

As per the sculpt, it's a full face mask with a lens like a SM helmet. Doesn't really come across in the pics, but there's an elevated ridge around the eye itself, it'd look really odd painted as skin.

I do think that the full-face masks are probably the weaker point of the Kharadron aesthetic, as it doesn't leave any opportunity for adding a dash of skin tone to the palette, but it'd look really weird to paint any of the mask areas as skin because in the flesh (no pun intended! ) the mask detail is all very pronounced and raised. It'd just look like they'd glued some skin to the outside of their armour, sadly...

Gotcha. Makes sense. Mind you, skin masks...

Paradigm,

Very nice dwarves you have finished there.

Cheers,

CB

 Paradigm wrote:
Also got something very different indeed coming up shortly, so stay tuned for that.

I'm intrigued and looking forward to it.

I love this color scheme and I really like what you did with the metallics, particularly the brownish tones and the striations. Also, I think it worth mentioning that the base is fantastic, mind sharing a bit about how you made it?

Hah, I can't take credit for the bases, all the Warhammer Underworlds stuff has really nice sculpted bases.

well you painted them nicely

Great work on the KO so far, that scheme works really well. I'm also digging your painting style, it's sort of sketchy but also really accurate. Makes me think of nice concept art pieces.

[Insert scrolling yellow text and a suitably rousing John Williams theme here]

Yep, I've finally caved in and bought into Star Wars Legion... I'd held off since its launch because of the slightly strange scale, a lack of faith in PVC minis and FFG's game design that I really don't get on with, but I saw the core set on sale last week and I couldn't really help myself... The first two concerns at least were very quickly allayed; while not on the level of GW plastics or metal, the PVC minis are easily better than those I've had from the likes of Mantic, Steamforged and such, and the scale really isn't that big a deal when I'm not actually mixing them with any other stuff. Still not really a fan of the rules, but I'm working on an alternative SW skirmish game that's actually coming along quite nicely as a substitute.

Being the easiest things to paint in the core set, I started with a squad of Stormtroopers. Aesthetically, I have a real soft spot for the lived-in look of OT-era Star Wars (and especially Rogue One), so I decided that rather than go pristine white, I'd muddy these guys up a bit (a lot)... nothing at all to do with the fact it's a great way to disguise slightly messy white, hones guv! I think they've come out pretty well, for the very simple 4-paint process I'm using. The second core set squad are duplicate minis, so I might add some squad markings to them, but I wanted to keep these first ones in the classic plain armour.


Naturally, the core set wasn't really enough to satisfy my lack of impulse control when it comes to SW (*looks at his multiple replica lightsabers...*) so I had to pick up a few more sets. Thus, the boys in white get some backup in the form of the galaxy's deadliest (or at least best-dressed) bounty hunter, Boba Fett. Absolutely cracking mini, had a real blast painting him up:



On the flip side, a devious network of spies, assassins, saboteurs and terrorists.. I mean, the Good Guys! Naturally, the rebels take a little longer to paint per mini than the Stormtroopers so I'm a bit behind on them, but I've got a squad started (though looking at this pic, I need to revisit a couple of the faces and neaten them up). As with the Stormtroopers, I'm planning to avoid duplicates with different paintjobs, so this squad gets ROTJ Endor camo gear while the other will probably get Rogue One style tan/grey/blue fatigues.






Had to paint that sculpt up as Captain Rex now that it's canon he survived to fight on Endor. And if that doesn't sound familiar, your homework this week is to watch 5 seasons of Clone Wars and 4 of Rebels!

Finally for today, the Rebels also get some backup, with a captured AT-RT walker. Still a little work to do on this, but it's definitely getting there, I think.



That's all for now, more SW soon though as I've still got a good pile of stuff to get through. In the mean time, ta for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Well. This is epic. I agree about the system, not a fan, and worried about how it will port to the new marvel game. Loving all the stuff but the stormtroopers are just the mutt's nuts.

Stormtroopers are great. Rebels are great. Everything is great! Seriously though, nice work all around but the stormtroopers especially. White isnt easy to do but you nailed it.

Never will I be sad to see a well-painted Boba Fett. And that Rex is an awesome touch.

Incredibly excellent paint jobs.

Thanks all.

The Stormtroopers are actually super-simple to do. While the conventional wisdom always says to do white from grey or off-white, I found that wasn't giving me the very stark Stormtrooper white I wanted (at least, not without hours of effort per mini) so instead I literally just worked with white and black. Full process below if anyone's interested, it's mainly about being fairly neat and keeping the white fairly thin.

Thanks for sharing your recipe. I have also seen people use contrast white on these. But I guess that would give a less stark white, if you know what I mean

Well, it's been a while! But now I'm back, having finally managed to finish up my dissertation, get a ton of painting done and wrangle my camera back into shape after it decided it liked eating memory cards!

And while I promised more Star Wars, and there will be some coming soon (and a few more bits in my gallery already), today is all about another pop culture titan, DC Comics. A couple of weeks ago, Knight Models had a massive sale to celebrate their tenth anniversary, and I may have gone a bit overboard in diving into the DC Universe miniatures game. I'd dabbled with the rules in the days when KM still had Marvel rights, but since then I've been Batman all the way until now. But with the sale, some better value box sets anyway and me finally having a bit of spare time and money, I have gone, to resurrect the tagline of the ill-fated Justice League movie, All In.

Was a bit of a wait for the order to actually come through, but on Monday the package arrived from Spain and a few days later, Things Have Been Painted! Two box sets and a couple of extras so far, in the form of the Justice League and the Legion of Doom.

The former:






And the latter:







Not bad for 3 and a half day's work... In terms of style, I went for a fairly middling point on these, keeping the brighter colours of my other Batman stuff but going for metals over NMM and such to give them a slightly more realistic feel. Mostly painted in their usual/current colours, with the exception of Aquaman where I decided to go for the blond hair and orange armour of the 90s era version over the movie look. Pretty pleased with them on the whole, though these larger pics are showing up the odd issue.

More to come shortly, still got the Darkseid/Apokalips box, Doomsday and the Titans for Batman, so stay tuned for those! As always, ta for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Graven told me you’ve been expanding into the DC stuff. I just picked up the Lexcorp box this morning. Assembled and primed now. 3.5 Days your faster than flash.

What’s your opinion on the resins, mine had a ton of flash and bad gate spots.

I’ll have to look more in depth at your models later for feedback, going into an interview now.

Possibly fast, possibly just got too much time on my hands at the minute!

I'm in two minds on the resins. On one hand, yeah, cleanup and assembly was a pain on some of them, and some parts are just way to spindly to work well (WW's sword, Aquaman's trident, both would break in a stiff breeze). And yeah, KM still have a thing to learn about where to put gates and joins (under the chin is an common and irritating one)!

On the other, as gaming pieces I do enjoy the fact that they're lighter and less prone to chipping, and some of these would be very precarious in a heavier material (the reason I never got some of them in metal).

I feel the detail is broadly equivalent to the old metal, so that's much of a muchness, it's really the practicality of using them on the table versus the pain of getting them prepped in the first place. And to be fair, some of the issues would be as bad or worse in metal.

I'll keep an eye out for your Lexcorp minis.

3 days...

Stellar work. Hard to pick a favorite. But it's Sinestro. Maybe. At least until you paint Darkseid.

Really fantastic. Will you be playing the game? Your take on Cheetah is especially awesome.

Wow, that DC stuff really turned out amazing! I'm not a huge DC fan but I'm really liking what I'm seeing in here!

Ta folks.

@youwashock: Sinestro is one of my faves of this lot too, came out just how I wanted. Also really pleased with Grodd and Aquaman, they likewise came together exactly as planned.

@Graven: Yep, will be getting some games in soon, my regular BMG opponent is back in town soon and we're planning a bout or two. I'll try and remember to get some better pics of Cheetah, she's a little out of focus in the group shot... Was a weird one to paint, spending ages blending up the gold tone only to then cover it in the spots and lose most of the effect!

Well I'm liking it. Or just jealous

Over a month later, but the adventure continues! Been painting loads, but getting really paranoid about my pics of the results, hence no updates! But in any case, here we go, got to post them at some point!

First up, Kingdom Come Superman, for my brother/main DCU opponent. Love this mini, it's got a bulk to it in a way that the BvS one doesn't (he looks really weedy compared to the BvS Batman). Given that Kingdom Come is the seminal work of Alex Ross (for my money, the greatest artist working in comic books, look him up!), I tried to adopt a similar style here, very bright highlights and a little more painterly. And of course the greying hair and black/red chest symbol, the defining look of this older, more weathered Kal-El.


Up next, because this post has something of a theme, another Superperson! This one being Superboy, a cloned telekintic replica of the man himself... Unsurprisingly, he's from the late 80s and as such, required by comic book law to come with stompin' boots, a cool jacket and shades. Big fan of this mini as well, he's got a great sense of attitude that is a little cringeworthy in a way that's perfect for this character.


From the same era of 'Superman's dead, who else can we stick an S on' and possibly my favourite of the Supermen to follow that iconic event, Steel. An ordinary man inspired by Superman's sacrifice, he builds what essentially an Iron Man suit, grabs a cape and a big ol' hammer and sets off to live up to that ideal. Of all of them, definitely the most worthy to wear the S, on account of not being a psychopathic robot or an attention-seeking punk.


And lastly for the Supermen, the newest addition to the lineup, from a weird and surprisingly good run in Action Comics where one Superman was dead but the old Superman was back and in the mean time, Lex Luthor decided to do a bit of Kryptonian cosplay... Conversion from the stock Lex model, added the cape from Doctor Fate and a spare crest from the Superman mini. Might need to revisit the highlights on the armour, not too happy with it, but the conversion worked out really well.


The Supermen:



But that's far too much good guying for one update. Someone needs to put these do-gooders in their place, and who better than the Lord of Apokolips, Darkseid, and his loyal lieutenant Steppenwolf?




That's all for now, more coming soon though (hopefully, just need to get some decent pics after dozens of attempts )! In the mean time, thanks for looking, any thoughts welcome!

Oh wow dude, these are fantastic.This will look like a term paper if I start listing everything I love about these, but you're in top form on every mini. Bravo Paradigm!

Oh boy, oh boy, Darkseid! (for heaven's sake, compose myself)

Ahem...they all look great. Love that you used Ross' style as an inspiration for KC Superman. I think it was quite successful.

Awesome work, the conversion turned out great. KC supes looks boss, he's lethal in game though so watch out. Really like what you've done with Darkseid's base too. Welcome to the superverse!

Thanks for the kind words, folks!

@youwashock: Darkseid was a fun one to work on, a great big beast of a mini. Not as chunky as Doomsday (coming soon) but a refreshing change of pace from all these tiny, super-detailed regular size folks.

@Graven: Yeah, Elsewords Supes seems way better than the BvS one, and the extra power on the KC version is super scary! Darkseid's base is just GS and cork, but I just figured the Lord of Apokolips looked very out of place on cobbled streets (have I mentioned how much I hate those bases in general? )

Forgot to mention that amongst all the DC, got Han Solo done for Legion for last month's challenge.

Those supermen look great. And yeah, Superboy is very late 80's/early 90's, he almost looks like an early Image character. Although, not enough pouches for that

I really like those DC miniatures, all completely new to me in terms of the sculpts and the characters. Darkseid and Steppenwolf look especially cool. The body suit on Darkseid is especially well done and I really like the tones of blue on him.

What has been your issue with photographs? Has it been the overcast weather or just personal doubts?

Painting miniatures isn't like dusting crops, boy

Thanks guys!

@ListenToMeWarriors: A lot of these are somewhat on the obscure side, in fairness. I did enjoy painting Darkseid's blues a lot, the bigger surface meant I was basically able to take the same method I used for the Superman on the last page and really refine it.

With the pics I think it was possibly just in my head, I'd be really happy with how a mini turned out only to then take some pics that didn't look nearly as good, and then I'd get bogged down in noticing tiny flaws and such. Must have taken hundreds of pics in the last month with all sorts of lightbox/lighting/background setups and not really been happy with any of them!

As I say, probably just getting hung up on stuff that isn't actually noticeable to anyone who didn't spend ages staring at these minis, so I'm going to at least try and be less pedantic about them and get some more updates coming faster.

I think you did Alex Ross proud with that Superman. I hadn’t seen that model yet, now he’s on the list for whenever I get moving with my DCU stuff. Also top notch with Jr. Supes.

Ta. Would definitely recommend it, it's easily one of my favourite DCU models I've done so far, a real joy to paint. Also comes with regular and Red Son crests, so you don't need to do him as the KC version (though as Graven said, if you get to playing that variant is crazy good )

Howdy all, it's been a while! How are we all getting on with the End Times?

I've been gone, but not idle, mainly not posting much because I was really struggling to get decent pics of a lot of what I've been working on lately, and doing a lot of tabletop quality stuff for DnD rather than my usual efforts. But with a new light box on hand, I've photographed a few of my recent projects, and I'm going to be making more of an effort to be more active in here again.

Up first, a whole flock of dragons. These are all from the Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures/Pathfinder Deep Cuts line, which are really rather excellent. Really good quality pieces, a decent size (those are 75mm bases, so Huge in DnD terms) and at £11-14ish a pop, very reasonably priced. Would definitely recommend them over similarly priced offerings from Reaper Bones, for instance.

Up first, and probably my favourite, the black dragon. The purple wings were a request from my current DM for his campaign, but something I think really works to give it a more magical and dynamic look.


Next, a white dragon. I do enjoy the raptor-esque design that DnD white dragons have, and this model really evokes its predatory nature.


And last of this batch, a more experimental one. Possibly to be used for a Fey or Fairy Dragon, this one was done using washes over a silver basecoat, and I'm really pleased with the look I achieved.



Slightly unrelated, by linked by virtue of being a Big Wingy Thing, here's what would have been my entry for the Pile of Shame challenge, butt was too big to fit in my old light box. This mini has been on the to-do list for well over a year, and was the piece that kickstarted this phase of painting some larger pieces. One of my all time favourite sculpts from GW, a real highlight of my LotR collection.

The Witch King of Angmar


Next time, a Demon Lord that makes this lot look scrawny! In the mean time, ta for looking, welcome back and as always, let me know what you think!

Heck of a comeback post. Lovely work on all the dragons, and the Nazgul is tops. Just supremely cool.

Unfortunate you were unable to get the Witch King of Angmar photographed for the Pile of Shame challenge - he looks very nicely done. Did you highlight every individual scale?

Outstanding, as always. The white dragon is my particular favourite, both sculpt and paintjob.

Cheers folks!

@Arakasi: Nah, just the magic of a lot of very light drybrushes and thin washes. When you've got a nice sharp texture like that, I find that's often all you need to get really nice definition. Likewise the wings, all just light drygrushes and then glazed to be smoother. The rider himself is the only bit more traditionally highlighted.

That's a nice bunch of dragons and the big wingy thing, great work!

Cool dragons dude

Thanks guys!

In addition to the Nolzur's stuff, I've been painting a fair few minis from the D&D Collector's Series from Gale Force 9 recently. Across the board, these have been lovely minis to work on, a resin that's not too brittle or too soft and just some really nicely designed pieces.

Up first, the Fire Giant Lord. a hefty old chunk of resin that is moderately terrifying on the tabletop (I speak from experience after taking a Critical Hit from this thing in our last game... never lost that much HP in one go before! )

Following that, some characters that are smaller but no less epic and imposing, the Dark Order led by Arkhan the Cruel. For the uninitiated, Arkhan is basically Dragonborn Thanos, an oathbreaker paladin intent on freeing the dragon godess Tiamat from her prison in the hells... Yeah, he's A Lot!


But all of this looks insignificant in the face of today's last mini, if the word can even be applied to something this massive. Baphomet, King of Beasts, Patron of Minotaurs... I absolutely loved painting this, it's a hell of a model and possibly one of my all-time best results.


That's all for now! Cheers for looking.

That is an impressive spread of minis. Baphomet demands attention and praise, of course, but I am having a hard time not choosing the snapping turtle w/ a mallet as my favorite. Great stuff!

Wonderful work Paradigm.

Cheers,

CB

Cracking work, especially on all the big things.

Cheers guys!

Before I went silent for a few months in here, one of my main projects was a great big pile of DC miniatures. Since then, I've done plenty more, so while most of these were not painted too recently, with the new lightbox I've taken advantage of the larger area to do some group shots of where the collection is at.

Up first, most of my Justice League roster. There are a few who aren't here, this is the solid majority of my hero collection.


The most notable new model there is the Rebirth Wonder Woman, so here's a few shots of her. Absolutely brilliant mini, though I did find her 65mm base a bit big so scaled it down to a 40mm.


I also worked on getting a near-complete Bat-Family painted up, using a lot of minis from the Gotham City Chronicles board game. I play DCU far more than Batman these days, but it's nice to have the full-ist set. And if you don't know why Clayface is there, the Rebirth Detective Comics run is brilliant and has your answer!



And on the other side of things, my villains, broken down into their various teams.







\



And again a couple of solos, as these two don't really fit anywhere.





There we go, up to date on the KN stuff at last. More D&D stuff coming up soon, in the mean time, thanks for looking, and any thoughts are of course welcome!

Everything looks SUPER!

But seriously, there is so much to like here. Marvel, Adam, Barda, Darkseid, Cheetah. Awesome collection.

Breathtaking work! Are those GCC Croc and Bane figs? Love how comic colourful everything is. Very impressed.

Yeah, Croc, Bane and Harley are GCC. I've also use the GCC Ra's Al Ghul for DCU, but forgot to stick him in one of the group shots.

(Mister Miracle is also a repaint of The Vision, because damn KM and their repack boxes with only one nee model in! )

Lovely work there. Particularly impressed by the group shots of the JL and Bat-family.

Now that's what I call an update Love Nightwing and Deathstroke in particular, but so much great work all around!

Finally caught up on your blog, and you've been busy! DC stuff looks great, but I really wanted to comment on your Witch-King of Angmar on his Fell Beast. You really nailed that one, with giving different tones of gray on the beast and its evil rider, plus the flaming sword looks good too! I myself recently picked up the Pelennor Fields box as I'm hoping to jump start Middle Earth in my local area, so maybe I can see how I do on that model sometime soon.

Progress continues! Only a couple of minis today, but rather unique ones.

First up, monster slayer, gruff man and subject of possibly the most irritating song in a TV show ever, Geralt of Rivia. The model is by Brother Vinni (I bought it via Etsy, but I believe you can also get them on ebay or via his own store), and it's superb, a lovely clean resin cast that captures a great likeness of the titular Witcher as he appears in the third game, The Wild Hunt. Little on the spindly side, especially the sword, but no worse than some of KM's DC minis. Went for some more accentuated colours and a lot of texture work in the paintjob, makes him a bit more interesting than the brown/black leathers he usually wears while still honouring the look of the game.




And on a similar theme, Video Game Dad Of The Year 2018 and all round angry fella, Kratos, based on his appearance in the (frankly stunning) God of War reboot from a couple of years ago.Having murdered all the gods of Greece, Kratos tries to settle down in a more norse setting, only to find that basically, ancient gods are dicks wherever you go. Cue much axe throwing, head stomping and the genuinely moving story of a single father learning to deal with loss and family. The mini is actually one I designed myself using Heroforge, before purchasing the STL file and having it 3d printed in resin in the UK. Much faster, much cheaper and much better quality than ordering from them direct, so if anyone wants a link to the printer I'll happily pass it along. Pretty pleased with it overall, it's not a 100% perfect replica of the character but easily recognisable, I think.



That's all for now, more Witcher coming soon and who knows what else? Ta for stopping by, any thoughts welcome!

Both absolutely glorious, but Kratos edges it for me. And yeah, shoot me a pm about your Heroforge shenanigans...

Witcher looks better than the tv character . I watched the episodes so far, reminds me of how I enjoyed Hercules, Xena and other shows when I was younger. Unfortunately those shows are hard to watch now.

Never played God of War, but he looks very much like the commercials I’ve seen. Well done.

I think you really nailed Kratos' look.

Cheers, folks.

@Theo, I keep going backwards and forwards on whether I actually enjoyed the show, it was technically really well done and a few of the episodes I loved, but a couple I found really dull. I do like Cavill as Geralt though,and I do think I'll get on better with the show's next season, now it's all come together. It is indeed charmingly old-school at times, I agree.

While I'm here, anyone know anything about cameras? I'm looking to upgrade my current one with a budget of around £4-500, so if anyone has any recommendations in that sort of price range I'm all ears. Mainly interested in ease of use and image quality rather than all the bells and whistles.

 Paradigm wrote:
Cheers, folks.

@Theo, I keep going backwards and forwards on whether I actually enjoyed the show, it was technically really well done and a few of the episodes I loved, but a couple I found really dull. I do like Cavill as Geralt though,and I do think I'll get on better with the show's next season, now it's all come together. It is indeed charmingly old-school at times, I agree.

While I'm here, anyone know anything about cameras? I'm looking to upgrade my current one with a budget of around £4-500, so if anyone has any recommendations in that sort of price range I'm all ears. Mainly interested in ease of use and image quality rather than all the bells and whistles.

What the Witcher needs is a cross over with Joxser (spelling? Xena’s comic relief guy)

Cool Witcher and angry dad, tho I’d only just got the song out of my head now it’s back again :(

Please can I get the 3D print link too

Nice work, Good to see you putting paint down.

Nice to see a mini that you have designed yourself, both characters look great. I especially like the warpaint on Kratos.

On the previous page all of the superheroes/ villains look amazing, especially striking in the group shot with the various primary colours on show.

Kratos looks great, and a really fun use of Heroforge. Thanks for sharing!