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aku-chan wrote:Nice job on all the Oathsworn minis!

It is kinda sad that their sensible attire makes them so unusual.

I agree. The Dice Bag Lady stocks all sorts of sensibly-dressed figures, but I wish more models like this were available.

shasolenzabi wrote:Those gals are indeed wearing sensible dungeon crawl shoes! not a single stiletto to be found, amazing!

Nice paint work btw!

Thanks!

Awesome stuff Josh.

You really hit it out of the park with the adventurers

Thanks, dude. The models themselves are nifty enough that I want to put in a little extra effort on them.

All sensible adventurers come equipped with a 10 foot length of rope for GM baiting shenanigans as well......

50 ft ropes or you only have enough with which to hang yourself

Awesome minis lately! I love the line of sensible adventure ladies. Keep up the good work, you've done a bang up job there.

Those are amazing, and i want them now. i spend so much time looking for not awful female minis and these are perfect.

and the painting you've done with them is just about perfect as well.

Thanks, everyone, for the kind words. I'm not wholly certain that I deserve all the praise, but it's certainly nice to hear.

@amazingturtles: If you're looking for fully-clothed and -equipped female models, I suggest The Dice Bag Lady.

This week's production is five more models from the Sensible Shoes 2 Kickstarter:


This is another rogue. I decided to paint all of her armor as leather, as befits a D&D thief. She's getting ready to throw that dagger, which is kind of hard to tell in these photos- really dynamic models defy 2D photography. Naturally, she has a coil of rope, but strangely no bedroll.



This one is a monk. I based her colors on GIS images of Shaolin Monks. I'm actually quite proud of the oranges and yellows. I'm not entirely certain about her staff-- it looks like an ornate table leg or something, rather than a long wooden stick. Note the rope, once again.



Here's a halfling sorcerer. I had originally planned to do her in greens and yellows like all my other halflings, but partway through I got bored. After some Googling, I settled on blues instead. Because of the cloak, we will never know if she is carrying rope or not.



And now, a barbarian chieftess (is that a word?). I based her palette on illustrations in an Osprey book (Rome's Enemies 2, if you're interested). The shield probably needs some kind of freehand design, but I'm no Azazelx...



Last up, a paladin. I don't have much to say about this model, as she's mostly armor and therefor not particularly challenging. No rope for her, but she does have a bedroll. I can't imagine she'll get much sleep wearing all that armor.

Finally, a group shot:


I'm pretty much done with this project for now. There are a few more models in both sets, but they don't fit thematically with this bunch. I remain impressed with Oathsworn's work, and if they do a third set of female adventurers, I will likely got those as well.

Next up: Frostgrave gnolls. I have the first five assembled and greenstuffed, and I hope to have them Gessoed tonight. As always, watch this space.

Thank you very much for the link to the dice bag lady, there's a lot of really interesting stuff there! I may be spending money in the future.

I like those minis. Daggger throwing Rogue especially. If my Shelf of Shame were not already groaning under the weight of so much unpainted metal... Nice painting too.

Ah, here is the original equipment list for D&D (yes, the original original, from the LBB called "Men & Magic") under the spoiler, for your viewing pleasure...

Awesome. I really like the pose of the Paladin.

EDC

amazingturtles wrote:Thank you very much for the link to the dice bag lady, there's a lot of really interesting stuff there! I may be spending money in the future.

Her international shipping rates are dirt cheap as well.

Red Harvest wrote:I like those minis. Daggger throwing Rogue especially. If my Shelf of Shame were not already groaning under the weight of so much unpainted metal... Nice painting too.

Ah, here is the original equipment list for D&D (yes, the original original, from the LBB called "Men & Magic") under the spoiler, for your viewing pleasure...

Spoiler:

Remember too, than no matter what weapon you used, you only did 1d6 damage with it. You had a lot of characters using just daggers as weapons. Except Clerics. They would buy a 10' pole and cut it in half to make 2 staves, since you couldn't buy just a staff.

It's not like I need any more models myself, but sometimes it's just not possible to say no. Plus, I like to support this kind of product-- there's enough Frazetta/Vallejo cheesecake out there, not enough of this. Also, that equipment list predates even my D&D career. Thanks for making me feel young!

I'm still on my Frastgrave kick. Here are a bunch of photos of Gnolls:




















These are all from the Frostgrave Gnolls kit. They turned out well enough, I suppose. The box proudly, prominently declares them to be multi-part, hard plastic models. It may be my age, it may be the fact that I just finished painting a really fun set of models, it may just me being contrary, but I'm not entirely sure that HIPS is the panacea that so many gamers believe it to be. These models, just like the Enforcers I painted a couple of months back. look pretty good directly from the front or back, but details sort of blend together from the side and between their legs. While they may be multi-part, there are only so many ways to can pose a humanoid body without making the model look like a contortionist. These models also suffer from the same problem that GW Gors have:


The ball joints for their necks allow for a lot of variation in head position, but leave a necessary gap around the base of the skull, making the model look like it's wearing a cheap Halloween mask. I ended up using kneadatite to build up their manes to cover the gap. It works well enough, but it adds about 30 minutes to the painting time.

Here's a group shot:


They turned out a lot darker than I had planned. I will try to lighten up the palette on the next set of five.

Lovely work on the Gnolls there Josh. I have to agree that the neck joint isn't great but you've done a great job in fixing it.

I think plastic is so well considered mostly because it's cheap and easy to work with. Metal and resin minis are often better looking and more detailed but at extra expense. When it comes to 25mm to 32mm scale I personally prefer metal or resin by a long way for skirmish games and characters but for large blocks of troops or rank and file in platoon/warband sized games I really appreciate the cheapness and ease of construction that plastics offer. Small scales are almost universally better in metal, the minis need some weight to them in my opinion.

Looking good. I like the Gnolls, even if the plastic kits are mono pose to a certain extent at least plastic is alot easier to work with for conversions etc. I wouldn't want to go back to metal only models.

EDC

Don't get me wrong, I understand the utility of plastics in building KoW or WHFB-sized armies. I just don't see them as the be-all and end-all of modelling. A monopose metal model can offer just as much, if not more) dynamism as a multi-part plastic. I'm going to plow through all these plastics, and save the metal gnolls as a reward for perseverance.

I look forward to seeing what you do with those metal Gnolls, from what I've seen the sculpts are absolutely excellent and should look pretty damn good when painted.

Very cool loving the oathsworn minis - great sculpts on those!

love the gnolls as well not a monster you see that often anymore it seems like, speaking of D&D days

Lovely stuff Josh

Nice work on the Gnolls. I have 3 Gnoll Archers from the D&D board game. I think they might be larger than the Frostgrave ones though. Any chance of a photo showing the scale? por favor.

Thanks for the kind words, guys. Here are some more gnolls:






On this set, I lightened up the colors on their clothes, while keeping them dingy. I also lightened their skin tones a bit, but you can't really tell in these photos. Did you notice that their manes and snouts are darker than the rest of their faces? I didn't think so. Note also that the last two are carrying stone axes. By special request, here is a scale shot with one of my son's WIP Ultramarines:


If you ignore the difference in base thickness, and if you imagine the gnoll standing up straight, the two are about the same height, although the SM is decidedly bulkier (as one would expect from a GW/Citadel model). I seem to recall that gnolls in AD&D are supposed to be ogre-sized. I imagine they scaled down the kit to make it compatible with all the other Frostgrave plastics. Finally, a group shot:



I have five more plastic gnolls assembled and based, but I sliced open my index finger last night while making dinner, so I'm not really able to sculpt their manes. This will probably the be last models I finish in November. I'll try to get a photo of everything I have done this month. Next up: more gnolls! Including heroes! Hopefully!

Those gnolls are great. The natural poses, the colors you've used, eveything is good.

Not bad! I really like your female adventurers, great paintwork on sensible minis.

The gnolls. Hmm. I like what you've done with them, but at the same time I think you've talked me out of getting some. At least to use for gnolls. I dunno if they always were, or even are now, but the D&D gnolls I'm used to are more like 7+ feet tall and pretty beefy. These guys look more like goblin sized gnolls. Some kind of dogmen or beastmen.

Thanks for sharing those, i've been having trouble finding good photos of them. I'll have to do some thinking on what I could actually use those for, but for gnolls I'll probably have to stick with reapers semi-oversized variety.

Lot of nice work, keep it going

I like the gnolls, from every angle except side-on, where the plastic moulding shortcomings you pointed out are so visible

Lovely paintjobs, though, good muted natural colours.

amazingturtles wrote:Those gnolls are great. The natural poses, the colors you've used, eveything is good.

Thanks, although I can't really take credit for the poses. Only two of the torsos come separate from the legs, and the shoulders aren't ball joints. I suspect that more than one box of these guys would get repetitive really quickly.

GrimDork wrote:Not bad! I really like your female adventurers, great paintwork on sensible minis.

The gnolls. Hmm. I like what you've done with them, but at the same time I think you've talked me out of getting some. At least to use for gnolls. I dunno if they always were, or even are now, but the D&D gnolls I'm used to are more like 7+ feet tall and pretty beefy. These guys look more like goblin sized gnolls. Some kind of dogmen or beastmen.

Thanks for sharing those, i've been having trouble finding good photos of them. I'll have to do some thinking on what I could actually use those for, but for gnolls I'll probably have to stick with reapers semi-oversized variety.

Lot of nice work, keep it going

Yeah, these gnolls would probably work as Ungors or something roughly human sized, though.

Slinky wrote:I like the gnolls, from every angle except side-on, where the plastic moulding shortcomings you pointed out are so visible

Lovely paintjobs, though, good muted natural colours.

They work well enough at arm's length, but up close they do start to show their faults.

 JoshInJapan wrote:
I suspect that more than one box of these guys would get repetitive really quickly.

Well I guess I'll be finding out whether that's the case or not as I'll be needing a second box at some point to complete the units I'm throwing together for Dragon Rampant.

Potential boredom inducing repetition aside that's another really good looking group you've got there Josh.

Well, Nick, I'm following your blog with interest. As for now, I'm enjoying these models well enough.

It's the last day of the month, so I guess I should share a photo of everything I did:


The adventurers outnumber the gnolls rather significantly. Also, here's everything I did in October:


I suspect that the halflings won't make it out of the dungeon this time.

My pledge for December is to finish all the half-finished stuff I have hanging out in my painting area: six Mantic ogres, 5 plastic gnolls, 5 metal gnolls, a Magnus conclave, and ten more ax orcs to finish off a regiment. Plus whatever else I have forgotten about. My goal is a clean slate for 2017.

Nice. That's a good haul completed minis for the last 2 months.

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
Nice. That's a good haul completed minis for the last 2 months.

EDC

Thanks. I'm well on my way to achieving one-model-a-day, although I had hoped to get up to an even 400 for the year. I probably should have done more KoW stuff.

After slicing my finger open last week, I was unable to work with kneadatite for a few days. Thus, I moved some metal gnolls up in the queue:


This is a gnoll templar. He's a good enough model, but the scultping/casting is a little crude, especially after the heroines I did last month. There are pits on the underside of his ax blade, and some grubbly bits that may be the result of damage on the mold. Also, the details are a little shallow all over. He easily passes the arm's-length test, though.



This is an apothecary, although I will probably use him as a wizard. I tride to do some OSL on the skull, but I think I'll go back and redo it as blood or something.



This is a tracker, but my son suggests that he should be an apprentice. I like this model, but the position of his right hand made it a b**ch to paint.



Finally, a couple of hyenas. Their eyes look tiny in person, but huge in these photos. I'll have to go back and give them pupils.

Overall, these were fun, simple models, but the QC was a little off, I think. Also, they are significantly larger than the plastics:


Finally, a group shot:


I'll try to take the next set of photos from a lower angle. Next up: more plastic gnolls!

Great work in the last month or more since I've been mostly-absent. The Orcs and Gobbos look great, the hobbitses look very much like the old GW style, which definitely has it's charm when painted as nicely as yours are, and the adventurer party really looks the part. I have to agree with Archer - the rogue really stands out amongst the others - though frankly they all look very cool. Bodacia/Merida from the second batch also looks really good and stands out to me. I might need to pick one of those up for my own Celts.. (yes, I'm typing as I read through the post in another tab...)

Those plastic Frostgrave Gnolls manage to look better than I'd expected them to.

I'll have to update the Tale of Gamers thread with your insane output, but I'll hold off on that for now. I've only just finished the hard yards at work and 7-day weeks doing stuff at home all weekend, so I'm easing myself back into painting and blogging to start with.