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 Syro_ wrote:
Thanks for the retrospective Wirecat. I'm glad you'll still be posting regularly on Dakka. Finishing 80 miniatures is impressive, but those 8 amazing sculpts are more exciting for me. I'm glad to hear you're planning on 8 more sculpts for 2019. Good luck, and I hope you have a productive and enjoyable year.

Thank You, I'll try my best. Therefore I should start somewhere... Let's start from scaven. Another deep dig through nooks and crannies, and here they are - 11 of them! Found a slave driver and an ratogre without a head. No matter how much dust I've turned over, no head... so I've sculpted him a new one.



I will be putting them on round bases, 30mm for single small miniatures and 50 for ogre and weapon crews. These scaven scale quite well with Burrows and Badgers mice and rats (see below) and fantasy can go quite well with some steampunk.



I've also found 4 (thought I've put aside only two to be used as musicians) beastmen gor bodies from GW witha lot of their bits and kit like weapons and shields. If I decide what to do with them, they will be next in line.

That rat ogre really lucked out

 Syro_ wrote:
That rat ogre really lucked out

Whether he has lucked out or in remains to be seen. So far I just hope colors will blend his new head in with the rest of his body better than the greenstuff.

Staying with the remains of the IoB kit, I've finally given my poor griffon his scarf. It was hard to make with flat styrene, it will be harder to paint a good freehand on it. I am also picking bits and pieces of Renedra terrain. Tot good, neither bad - average. Good for saving time, actually. Clip off the sprue, glue, cleanup and it is actually OKeyish in detail...



So, what do I do with 4 GW beastmen...

I've said "four", but so far only three of them found their place around the big drum. My beastmen frequently appear on Kings of War table as orks, so I needed a substitute for War Drum. Mantic model (http://www.manticgames.com/mantic-shop/kings-of-war/orcs/product/orc-war-drum.html) was way too orky and single musician (or even several of them) on a single base wouldn't make the cut. Unfortunately GW provided only horn blowers for their gor and bestigor kits...



Now that should be good enough for a good drumming - or a unit filler if I need it.

Now, Frostgrave gnolls. There were so many great examples of these critters painted on Dakka that I couldn't pass them and grabbed a box... Well, it seems that will be my only purchase of Frostgrave plastics in a long time. Soft details, soft styrene, not every pair of arms well fitting every torso. They are "just good enough", about on par with older Mantic models like elves and orks. Definitely below current Mantic standard. But that will have to do. On the bright side they fit quite well with Alkemy Khaliman, which was half the reason for me buying them. Now these will enlarge my Prison of the Tooth escapees/convicts warbands and generally provide some baddies to fight with (with like in together or with like against, whatever happens). That guy with an arbalest will stand for Hakan (https://alkemy-the-game.com/shop/product.php?id_product=471)...



Finally the second wish was to have a small unit of foot fodder. Think beastmen ungors or goblins... In KoW small units usually fall in three categories - chaff, chaff hunters and opportunity flankers. This will be my chaff for soaking some shooting before main armies come into contact and to force enemy into unfavorable exchanges. Who said tertio?



Who said Alatriste?



I'll need these corners free for some scenery...

Now, to find what i want to do with the remaining two gnolls that didn't fit into the unit as I wanted. Maybe I should make a casualty, on the unit base or as a marker... or more free ranging bandits. And that last gor body...

And - that's enough unpainted fantasy plastic to last me half a year. Maybe some more crappy terrain here and there, but I do not think there will be much to report here until weather allows basecoating stuff (sometime in April, I hope). Till then - last two gnolls and a single gor.



Oh, and there is some slow sculpting too... so maybe I wouldn't leaving this thread completely cold.

Oh, and there is some slow sculpting too... so maybe I wouldn't leaving this thread completely cold.

That last part is good to hear. Seems to me like the perfect opportunity to do more sculpting while you wait for the weather to allow priming

Make hay whilst the sun shines; weather too cold to prime in is Nature's way of telling you to sculpt more! Looking forward to seeing what comes along.

Well, I *DO* have another 70+ Sci-Fi figures to assemble before that painting season, so it is not just hay and sunshine... In fact, I must confess - this week for me was mostly lying flat, waiting for fever to recede.

Nothing to show, haven't even got the camera out of the bag to show You what has become of that monkey terror. But at least I've made my mind.

To assemble and paint
- 16 Mantic dwarves (RPGs)
- 10 Mantic elves (RPGs)
- 5 Mantic basilean men-at-arms (also for skirmishes)
- 3 Mantic orcs (RPGs)
- 1 GW mounted barbarian (just because I have him).

To sculpt
- monkey bomber (I still need a few sessions with him)
- wolfhound executioner (really overdue)
- wolf warband (3 figures)
- bad cat
- good cat
- something big, maybe even Loki replacement for my druids

To get rid of
- 5 GW High Elf reavers
- 1 GW High Elf chariot

Ambitious plan but do-able Hope you're out from under the weather soon!

Hehe, love the Beastmen drum group. Nice.

OK, here is the bomber/powder monkey. He's so far the smallest thing I've sculpted and actually ended up being content with the result. Jaguar statue was smaller but... meh, it is OK for a scenery piece. I'll keep that monkey on my working tray for a while - to make some more dreadlocks, fingernails and patches out of excess greenstuff left from other sculpting. Obviously, there is no chance this little guy will cast without extensive cutting, so he will stay unique.



I am planning having a mortar and a demi-cannon so he may double up as a loader, not just a grenadier!



I really need to start sculpting more... but the grey plastic is calling me.

powder monkey looks really great. A very dynamic pose with a lot going on. Great details also
I'd love to seem him posed next to a huge cannon, so I hope you do make the mortar.

The powder monkey is a terrific sculpt! The detail is amazing- the fur alone must have taken quite a lot of effort. I can see where this piece would be difficult to cast, but what about making a 3D scan, converting to an .stl file and resin printing it?

_Love_ coming here to see what's new!

Since I still haven't painted anything, let's show some more sculpting. This is the first of two executioner dogs, delayed solely due to my undecidedness. Should he have a sword or an axe? Should his leg be posed on something gruesome or just the first step of the ladder, leading where-every-bad-badger-knows he will end? Should he be putting or removing his hood or just holding it in his hand? Decisions...

Oooh, oooh, pick me!

A) Bearded Axe
B) Foot posed on step or block of wood
C) Hood held in hand

Great work on the sculpting. The ape is fantastic and I love the expression on Poochies face.

It is from a while ago, but great job on the griffon from Skull Pass as well. That is a tricky one to do.

Woohoo! Sculpting! The first executioner dog looks great, a lot of expression on his face.

For weapon, I'm with Meer_Cat with an axe over a sword (although at first thought I wanted a greatsword).
For foot, I was thinking the chopping block or a bloody tree stump
And again i agree on hood in his hand, the face is too good to obscure, but for executioner dog #2 if you haven't made the head yet it would be cool to see him fully wearing the hood.

I'm hoping to see more sculpting

Meer_Cat, Syro_ - thanks for the input. You almost mirror the final version I've arrived at myself. Yep, a huge bearded axe is the right thing, I'll save a greatsword for barbarian. But it will also double as a foot rest. Wood blocks and ladders are a bit too specific, limiting basing options. Hood in hand is perfect - it will bulk the standing foot to a decent crossection.



He still needs quite a bit of work even in already sculpted parts. Cleanup on axe, thicker/bushier tail, details on shirt and some pouches on the belt. But generally the end result is somewhat close. The second dog is still nothing more than a partly done head and a wire-frame skeleton. In other developments - I've managed to undercoat (badly) some sci-fi miniatures, so it is painting time at last!

Nice progress on the executioner dog, it's cool that our ideas were all pretty in line with each other

I agree with Syro- either great minds think alike- or all y'all need to worry that you think like me.

Being an Executioner with an axe, I assume the breed is a Lop-rador?

Long time no update, so I'll sweep some dust from here. All that plastic building has left me a lot of empty sprues, and when I have lots of empty sprues, I usually get some weird ideas. Must be from all the plastic glue vapors...

I need more small and medium scatter terrain that works for 25-54 mm range... Easier said than done, but considering 54 mm is for Badgers and Burrows, which has smallest figures at about 20 mm... it is doable - to some extent. There are very few things from GW I really miss, one of them - goblin town, because if You have ruins and mines, You really need sheds, planks, walkways, platforms and ladders. Well, I'll do them myself, very slowly...



Also a great opportunity to try various recipies for freehand wood grain.



As tall as Renedra broken walls and arches, wide enough to support 2 models on 50 mm bases on the upper level and a single 40 mm base on the lower level.



Too rough for dwarfs, but will do for others.

The newest walkway looks very nice. I like the wood grain on it, and how it comes out on the side in places gives it a nice appearance of having been where a tree branch was.

Very good work on the wood!

Time to add some actual miniatures. That drum crew - I actually like them finished! Not a fan of pink-skinned beastmen (usually), but this time they came out quite well, thanks to - or despite to my fight with Scale 75 paints. Still can't get my head nor hand with them. Nice coat, very matte, but so many problems trying to ink or wash them! It seems easier to mix ink with the paint on the palette and just paint recesses separately than to gloss varnish, wait for it to dry, apply wash, fix the pooling, fix the highlights etc...



I have also tried to do colored reflections on metal - sort of. It does have a tint of color now rather than plain gunmetal or steel, but nothing worth bragging about. Will try it more, on bigger stuff, like men-at-arms shields.



My camera behaves oddly, missing focus in shooting modes without the flash. It is sad because I really prefer using sun - when it is available. Maybe it is age showing, maybe something else. I have swapped to faster lens and shot them again with and without flash (flashed image is on the right).



Now - to sculpt something before turning to gnolls...

Maybe I got tired of painting? Well, I still have a lot of things to build and sculpt. I may even get back into scale modelling...



Anyway, now I plan to waste a week or two on this second dog and see what comes of it. A-and the second set of "scaffolding", and then it is back to space dwarfs.

Woohoo! Back to sculpting! I'm looking forward to seeing it progress

Your sculpting work always impresses me. Great job on the beastmen drummer unit, I like your mixed race beastman army, had a similar idea with some of the alkemy models and my new Pigataur.

Thanks for encouragement, but... things go slow. I'm finding some relief in procrastinating. Right now it is an empty discussion with myself about where his left arm should go - fist to the side, gripping short sword hilt or holding a looped up rope. Last option is much more likely - I don't need yet another hole in the model complicating the mold making. But still I like to "slowly consider other options".



I should also start moving with a second piece of scaffolding that must also double as a small dock and a base for a crane...

Sigh. I've made a bad decision - I've ordered bits and pieces and tools, that should come by the slow boat from the China direct. Hopefully in a month or two... Meanwhile I am doing some small sculpting tasks, like spawning more and more "little-green-gators", pushing forward with a dog and preparing some scenery.

Lovely work on the beastmen, and your scenery bits look excellent as well.