Sunday 27 March 2011

Dwarf Cavalry

I'm just about finished the Mantic skeletons I've been working on. The only things left are shield patterns and bases. I'm not sure what I'm doing with the shields, so I've started the next group of figures while I decide. No pictures of the skeletons yet, but I'll put some up when they're finished.

I'm also close to finishing the 54 mm modern crossbow I've been scratchbuilding. I've been spending a lot of time making the parts, so next up is to build the thing. Once that's done, and assuming it looks okay, I can finally start on the modern vampire hunter figure who'll be holding it. I still have a lot of enthusiasm for this project, which given that the crossbow has taken me a couple of months (weekends only), is hopefully a good sign.

Anyway, this week's photos are some more elements of my Dwarf army - Dwarf cavalry. Dwarves and horses aren't words usually uttered together in the same sentence, and finding the models wasn't easy. These six are all very old, bought and painted in the late 80s, early 90s. I'm not sure any but the Irregular ones are still in production.



The whole unit. Back in the old Citadel adventurer days they did mounted and unmounted versions of the same figure. Some of the cavalry is composed of these figures.



Not sure it shows in the photo, but the left foot on the mounted dwarf is a replacement I had to make as the foot was missing on the original model. One of my earliest greenstuff patches :-)

Likewise



is the mounted version and foot of the adventurer from the Introduction. Now that I come to look at them more closely, there are quite a few differences between them. I'm fairly sure, however, that they're meant to be the same figure, although it has been a while.



I think this one also has a dismounted adventurer, but I can't find the unmounted version of him in my collection. Given that I have most of the dwarves from this period that Citadel produced, this came as a bit of a surprise.

Final Citadel one is Gimli from their old Lord of the Rings set (thanks to stunties.com for confirming that). Again, if there's a foot version, it's likely I have it, but I can't find it at the moment.



The final two are Irregular models. They're one-piece models, i.e. riders are not separate figures.







Sunday 13 March 2011

Eolith Selene

Finished the 54 mm Eloith Miniatures Selene figure recently. I still haven't settled on a base for it yet, but the painted figure is shown below.


Front of the miniature


Better picture of the sword


Lots of space on the cloak for a design, maybe next time :-)


Side view showing the shield. It's rather bright, and might have been better with a less forceful colour than crimson.

Fairly happy with the way the figure went together - all relatively uneventful. I had painted a pattern on the bottom of her cloak, but it looked rubbish (uneven, paint wouldn't flow nicely etc.) so I just painted over it with the base colour. I should probably have tried to weather the cloak, but again, cowardice prevailed. If I'd done the cloak, I'd have to have done the boots, and then the trousers... So I stopped :-)

I took great care not to damage the paint while holding the figure, but I still managed to rub paint off the top of her boots on a couple of occasions. It's looking like becoming an occupational hazard with the larger scale :-(

Once finished I looked at it under the Evil Magnifying Lamp of Doom(tm). This is a daylight fluorescent magnifying lamp that delights in finding mistakes. It immediately spotted some paint under her chin and a couple of other spills. It also has the very annoying habit of doing away with all my smooth transitions, leaving everything harsh and chalky.

I'm struggling to decide on a base for the figure. I bought a Gothic arch, but it's too big and completely overwhelms the figure.

I then considered (and am still considering) building something with the Hirst Arts molds I have. That's also stalled, however, as my previous experiment with Hirst Arts' stuff failed for a couple of reasons: I couldn't cast the blocks evenly, so when trying to build something, the tiny differences in height were magnified; painting them was difficult, as trying to cover all the plaster took forever. Note that these were my problems, and many people have created whole dungeons and layouts with the molds, so it's nothing to do with them.

My current thought is a VoodooWorx pedestal that I bought. I like it, with one slight caveat (anyone spotting a trend yet). The problem is that the pedestal is plain, and I'd like some decoration at the bottom so it isn't quite so "clean". If this was a non-pedestal base, it'd be perfect.

I've also been considering making a base from scratch. This would involve rolling out some Milliput (or similar), and cutting the paving stones into it before it cures. I have a couple of bases I'm thinking about making for other figures (again, can't quite find the ones I want), so this approach is more likely to be tried than the Hirst Arts route.

Still, there's no hurry to complete the figure, other than wanting to use the vice that's holding it for another figure, so I'll get there eventually.




Sunday 6 March 2011

Recently finished Zombie Hunters

Finished these guys a couple of weeks ago. They're a selection of figures, including Studio Miniatures, Reaper, Hasslefree and one figure I can't remember who/where I got him (it may have been at a wargame show)

They took quite a while, as I decided to paint them "properly". This included multiple shading and highlighting levels and all the modern stuff. Overall, I'm quite pleased with them, so I suppose the extra time and effort was worth it.



Studio Miniatures Wizard of Oz survivors group. I'm not quite sure why I split them across two different base types, but I don't think it matters too much. Some nice fun figures that will hopefully do well on the tabletop.



Reaper figure (Berkeley). Really enjoyed painting this one. I think her top should have been a different colour, but other than that I'm happy with it. I even added dirt and blood to the trousers and top, which is quite unusual for me. Annoyingly, they don't show up well on the photo :-(



Two Hasslefree figures (Jess and Morgan) next to the Reaper figure. They're quite demanding to paint, as the details are very fine. Makes a nice change to work with realistically scaled weapons, heads and hands (*cough* Games Workshop *cough* :-) ).



I'm not sure if the trousers on Jess are jeans or chaps. I painted them up as chaps, but have seen other versions treating them as jeans. The colour is also far more yellow than I had intended. I used Foundry Buff, but I really need to tone it down if I use it again. I think the Vallejo USA tan that I used on the shotgun guy's jacket (below), would have been a better choice.



closeup of the Hasslefree Morgan figure armed with a pistol



Not sure where I got him, but he painted up well enough. The jacket took about five or six coats before I was happy with the coverage. I tried stubble on both him and the scarecrow figure from the first group. I think it looks okay (looks less harsh on the figure than the photo suggests), so it'll be getting used on more figures.

I now have quite a backlog of completed miniatures waiting to be varnished. Hopefully the warmer weather will let me back into the loft and I'll get them done.