Day 28: Crane Clan Courtier

Back when I was picking up a bunch of Clan War minis I picked up this guy as part of a group of minis on ebay. I've never had much need to paint him since I've never played in a game where anyone played a courtier or social-type character (It's always been Samurai & Shugenja). Plus the Clan War stuff is pretty detailed, so I don't usually feel like dedicating the amount of time it'd take to paint this guy as an NPC.

 Being a Crane Clan character my colors were chosen for me. All that I really had to do was decide where exactly the white & blue should be applied. the Crane sometimes have white hair, but I figured there was enough white on the model already, so I went for black. The scabbard is orange because it's a complementary color to blue, so I figured it'd balance and stand out nicely.

~Muninn

Day 27: Human Paladin

I actually finished this guy several days ago, but didn't get around to editing the picture until today. I got this guy about 7 years ago and hadn't touched it since.

This mini screams Paladin to me, and when I was figuring out the color scheme I decided nothing said "holy warrior" like white with blue. Again I figured a limited palette would be best, since the it'd be more striking that way. The mini is Sir Conlan from Reaper's Warlord line. The Warlord line is a bit bigger too, so sitting right next to the stunty druid he's almost a giant.

~Muninn

Day 26: Male Human Druid

A mini from the old Wizards of the Coast line over a decade ago. I picked it up from a local game store last year because it'd been behind the counter for basically that whole decade, still in its box, unpainted, unloved. Also it was really cheap.

Nobody had bought it for a few good reasons. A) Druid minis tend to look really durpy. B) This mini looks really durpy. C) Durp (sorry, I'm tired). Head to base this mini has some issues. The eighties hair, the face is really flat with oddly placed eyes, the clothing billows out in ways that aren't really feasible, the skull on the staff is ugly as hell, the feet and hands are a lot larger than they should be, and the mini is on the small side (kind of an odd thing to say, really).

I do believe that you can save a bad mini with a good paint job, though. I think I succeeded with the face, but not sure about the rest of him.

When I was looking at pictures of fantasy druids for inspiration I got a little tired of all the browns and greens. Seriously. Apparently there's a dress code once you become a druid. This guy likes a splash of color. You want to give a mini a sense of character, and this guy has it.

The only color that really stumped me was the hair color. I asked my wife for a suggestion & she told me "redhead with a streak of white." Sure, why not?

~Muninn

Day 25: Tortoise Clan Samurai

I know this mini is from the now defunct Clan War wargame, but the only place you can find it is Reaper. I first picked it up circa 2006 when my friends & I started playing an L5R campaign.

Okay, I'll let a bit of my geek flag fly here. The reaper website calls this mini Hyobe of the Mantis Clan, although it's actually based on Kasuga Hyobe, a Tortoise Clan samurai who was part of the Yoritomo Alliance during the Clan Wars. As far as I can find, their part of the alliance disbanded before the Mantis were granted Great Clan status, so Hyobe was probably never actually a part of the Mantis Clan.

I didn't know exactly which clan to identify him as, so I gave him color combinations of both the Tortoise (Blue & Yellow) and the Mantis (Green & Blue). Samurai in this setting are all about  bright colors and recognition, so despite clashing a bit I think he works. Also: Handlebar Mustache.

~Muninn

Day 24: XV25 Stealth Suit

I'm deep in the weeds at the moment.

So Yeah. I'm way behind. It's Tuesday and I'm just now posting Friday, Saturday, and Sunday's minis. I bit off a bit more than I could chew by trying to mass produce a bunch of Tau Fire Warriors from start to finish. I'd forgotten how time intensive it can be to line a white tau mini.

I managed to finish the test mini for my stealth suit unit, but I'm still working on the rest of the Tau. Hopefully I'll have some of them done by Thursday.  Either way. Here's the Stealthy one.

I decided to extrapolate the white & red Fire Warrior scheme for these suits. I figure their cloth undersuits should remain red for consistency with the rest of the army. Then I painted the rest of the mini as dark sub-armor, and white exo-armor to help break up the mini and add some contrast.

~Muninn

Meet the PC: Deva Invoker

One of my favorite parts about tabletop roleplaying is finding, modeling, and painting the perfect miniatures for our party PCs. I've been doing this for years now, and thought I'd share some of these characters with you.

This was another character from Abusepuppy's Acid Reflux inspired D&D game. He was the straight-man in the group. As a "Wrath" Invoker he spent a lot more time in melee, punching things than you might expect. He held up his end pretty well, but iirc he wasn't as strong in the control department. Minions & swarms were kinda tough to handle in that game. 

The mini here is Reaper's Deckard Nightveil, Death Priest. I think the mini was meant to be for an evil character, but with the right paint scheme you can do anything. The trick to making the blue face stand out was to use a muted palette, with warm gold armor to draw attention to the cool color.

~Muninn

Day 23: Striking Scorpion

In truth, I'd intended to paint a ton of Tau this week. Sadly I didn't get them prepped in enough time to do what I wanted. I should still have a few this week though. Instead, I've been blowing through some Eldar Aspect Warriors.

I actually bought this Striking Scorpion on Thursday. I needed another xenos that I could paint quickly and this mini was primed and for sale on commission at my local game store. I picked it up & finished him a day later.

Unlike the Dire Avenger, this guy fits with my homebrew quite nicely. I purposefully replaced the typical yellow accents with gold for a fairly petty reason. I'm an Oregon State alum, and I can't bring myself to field a unit adorned in Green & Yellow.

Regardless the mini came together nicely, and I'm quite fond of the metallic tweak I made. Who knows, if the next month's Codex shows the Striking Scorpions to be a great asset I might have to complete a whole unit.

~Muninn

Day 22: Dire Avengers Exarch

The kids didn't really cooperate. So this guy took longer than anticipated.

I saw this mini one day in my local game store. I really liked it so I bartered a bit for it. Never really did anything with it until now.

I'm not particularly happy with the back banner since it was rushed, but once I get a bit of time I'll fix it & paint a design for it. That being said, it's a pretty solid mini. I don't know if I'd ever actually use blue Dire Avengers, since they completely clash with y own homebrew Craftworld, but I do like the motif. It also occurs to me that this is like my third red, white, & blue mini this month.  Apparently I'm patriotic.

~Muninn

Day 21: Dark Reaper Exarch

Okay, so I'm a few days behind but I'm catching up. Tuesday's mini is the 2nd Generation Dark Reaper Exarch. Out of the three different Dark Reaper lines this one has always been my favorite. The old ones just look old, and the new ones have a weird egg-head that I can't get past. The new heads look like they'd be perfectly at home on a Lego body to me.

I started painting this guy years ago. I'd free-handed a Tim Burtonesqu swirl design on his gun, but I started to detest it. Instead of fixing it or starting over I moved on to new minis and shelved him. No time like the present to finish it up though. To make things easy on myself, I just got rid of the design. I'll probably go back and reehand a few skulls or the Aspect symbol on the gun just cuz that would look good.

One fun thing. It isn't as noticeable in the picture, but I found a decent way to make a nice warm purple color without using the or Warlock Purple. I just painted a standard progression from Lich Purple to White Scar, and hit it with a red wash. It looked surprisingly good, and should be simple to duplicate.

Should have Wednesday's mini up in a few hours as long as the twins cooperate.

~Muninn

Day 20: Ork Nob

If you've been in the hobby for a few years you might remember when Assault on Black Reach first came out. The corresponding White Dwarf came with a free sprue of minis consisting of a Terminator & a Nob. I painted up the Termi as a Fire Angel and left the nob alone until yesterday.

I wanted him to have a biker-esque quality so I stuck with darker tones, like with the pants and boots. Also thought it'd be neat to have his green skin to stand out, so I decided to use a muted palette. The only other actual color (other than silver metal, black & white) are the bone colored teeth & nails and the leather straps (I used a more reddish brown so the green would pop a bit more). Overall I think he's decent, but certinly isn't going to make me go out & start an Ork army.

~Muninn

New Eldar Codex releases

There's been some new and exciting information circulating around the net regarding the June Eldar release. Not the least of which being the reveal of the enormous Wraith Knight construct.

First off is the Codex cover. Unsurprisingly, it's awesome. 

 I don't expect to buy this book, but it sure is pretty.

The other big pic is the Wraith Knight himself. 

It's big & badass.  I really look forward to seeing how people will pint it. Also, just look at it compared to the Riptide. Here's a shot I found comparing them side by side. It looks to be about 30% taller which means it'd be around 9-10".

I'll be interested to see its stats, and its price tag. Given the size I'd wager it'll cost about the same as Baneblade.

~Muninn

Day 19: Alaitoc Pathfinder

I'm not going to lie. I have no idea how I came by this mini. I don't know if I bought it, or traded it, or if it was given to me, but it's been kicking around my boxes for as long as I can remember. I really like the new Ranger minis, and I'm kinda "meh" on the older ones, so I've never had a real good reason to paint this guy.

I don't ever plan on actually using this guy (unless I get into some Rogue Trader game or something) so I figured I'd paint it up as a traditional Alaitoc Pathfinder. Blue & Graveyard Earth look really good together & paint really easily, so it seemed like the best way to go. I think he turned out pretty good for only having a few hours of paint in him.

~Muninn

Meet the PC: Bastion, Tiefling Paladin

One of my favorite parts about tabletop roleplaying is finding, modeling, and painting the perfect miniatures for our party PCs. I've been doing this for years now, and thought I'd share some of these characters with you.

A while back my buddy Abusepuppy ran a game inspired by an oooold webcomic, "Acid Reflux." It was supposed to be a tongue-in-cheek romp about a group of adventurers coming across a previously unknown God. I enjoyed the encounters, but we couldn't get a good handle on the actual roleplaying portion. We had one super-comical character, and one super-serious character, so there was a bit of disharmony.

For my part, I played a Tiefling Merchant Prince turned Paladin. He abandoned his family and name, taking up the moniker "Bastion" instead. He was a bit more serious, so I probably contributed to the cluttered roleplaying. Regardless I really love the character concept, and if I ever get the chance I'd like to revisit him. Maybe once 5th edition kicks into full swing. Assuming Tieflings are a playable race that is. I hope so.

This mini didn't actually exist while the game was going on. It actually came out a few weeks after we cancelled it. I liked the character and the mini so much I had to get it. This is Vaeloth, Hellborn Paladin by Reaper. This is another one of my favorite character minis (the Celtic Knotwork symbol of Avandra on the shield is one of my favorite parts). The sword is actually the first time I tried that coloring technique, so it looks rough to me, but I don't want to try to fix it & make it worse in the progress. Either way, here's hoping I get the chance to use it again in the future.

~Muninn

Day 17 & 18: Word Bearer Chosen (#2) and the Masque

Alrighty, here's another two days worth of minis. Pretty much the same situation and paint scheme as all the others. I do rather like this Chosen. He's really characterful with the horns and ribcage.

I've had the Masque for a few months now. I chose it as a prize for one of the painting competitions. I don't really have any intention of using it as the Masque itself (her rules aren't all that great), but I might just use it as a Herald.

 I have my own Daemonette scheme, so I tried to duplicate that motif. The pink is a little lighter than the 'nettes, but she's a character, so I'm good with that.

This means Chaos week is over & Xenos week begins.

~Muninn

Day 15 & 16: Chaos Cultists

More days, more minis. This time it's a pair of textile-challenged cultists from Dark Vengeance and their leader. I ended up being too busy to paint Wednesday, so these are for the last two days.

I gave the cultists slightly different palettes, just so they didn't look like complete clones. I tried to make one look a little more like a military type, and gave the other one a crazy, joker-esque grin. The hair was done with a few washes of Agrax Earthshade. 

Since the cultists are going to be followers of the Word Bearers I'm using pretty much the same palette as the Chaos Marines and using patches of the deep red in each of their outfits to tie them together as a cohesive group, while keeping them looking patchy & piecemeal.

See you tomorrow

~Muninn

Day 14: Word Bearer Chosen

Why should Daemons get all the attention? Tuesday's mini is a Chaos Chosen from the Dark Vengeance box. Since I have an extensive Daemon army I decided to turn these guys into Word Bearers. They make frequent use of daemons & cultists as shock troops, so who better to have as allies for a daemon army?

One of the great things about this paint scheme is how quick & easy it is. At the start of the day all the mini had on it was a base coast, & a single wash. Past that all it took was a few layers & some highlights to bring it home. I'll probably paint a few more minis from the DV box since I've had them primed for quite some time now.

More tomorrow.

~Muninn

Day 13: Plaguebearer(s)

Today's post is a bit late. I painted yesterday, and into today, but given the scope of today's entry I'm pretty sure you'll understand.

Here we have nine finished plaguebearers. The skin was already finished, but everything else needed to be started. I kinda felt disenfranchised by the daemon army following the new codex release. I figured I'd push myself & wrap up the whole unit in a day. It took a while, but I got them done.

I'm really happy with how they came out. The one thing I might change is the coloration on the heads. I used washes so they'd look a bit faded out & to make the task faster, but it doesn't look quite right to me. I might have to add a spot wash of Athonian Camoshade for some contrast & to tie them in with the rest of the minis.

~Muninn

Day 12: Herald of Khorne

Inquisition week is over, and when the inquisition leaves, Chaos week begins.

Late last year I was looking for bits & pieces to go along with my Chaos Daemon army, & I found this classic Bloodletter champion in a local game store. He's big, burly, and looks like he's starting to transform into a Greater Daemon. What better to represent a Herald?

My other bloodletters all share the same color scheme, so I extended that into my Herald. Instead of a regular mane of black hair going down his back I gave it a fire treatment. Hopefully that gives it a bit more of a "Balrog" feel. Now he stands a good head above the rest of the 'letters, so he should be a standout on the table.

More Tomorrow.

~Muninn

Day 11: Inquisitor

Mother's day was this weekend, and since I'm married to a new mom, I figured I'd spend more time with her than with my minis (what's happened to me priorities?). Basically this meant that I missed a day of mini painting, but I'm all caught up now.

The mini I intended for Saturday is one of my favorite Inquisitors GW has ever put out.

I feel like Inquisitors should stand out as interesting individuals, so I went my own route on his color scheme. If anyone remembers the original Neverwinter Nights games, one of my favorite armors was one you could dye blue with gold accents (In the third expansion I think). I didn't realize he was going to have a dusky skin until I painted on a layer of "Dark Skin" as a base for a lighter tone. It just looked right, so I went with it.

I don't have a name in mind for him, but I'm thinking Juris (my character's name in NN, also a Latin root meaning "of law") 

I'll post Sunday's mini shortly. The beginning of Chaos week.

~Muninn

Meet the PC: Bo'bika Thri-Kreen Knight

One of my favorite parts about tabletop roleplaying is finding, modeling, and painting the perfect miniatures for our party PCs. I've been doing this for years now, and thought I'd share some of these characters with you.

The final complete Dark Sun mini was played by my friend Havok. His character's clutch (family) just died, and Thri-Kreen have a genetic predisposition to join into groups, so when he was thrown into jail alongside the other PCs it was meant to be. The unfinished mini was Roshko's (again), although it was about halfway done by the time the game died.

The mini is a converted Zizzix, Mantis Warrior by Reaper. You can't tell very well from the photo, but the weapon has two stone axe-blades that Yorrik fashioned from scratch.

Overall I enjoyed my first GMing experience, and could see doing it again once D&D 5th edition comes into full swing.

~Muninn

Day 10: Hospitaller

Here's another blast from the Inquisition's past, the Ordo Hereticus Hospitaller. I didn't have a Witchhunters army, but that's never stopped me from buying a mini I like, and I really liked this one.





















As with my Fire Angels army I'm pretty fond of the Bone/Red paint scheme, and I thought it'd fit really well with this mini. GW's has Black armor, but this feels more apothecary-esque to me.

~Muninn

Day 9: Stormtrooper

The latest offering is another long-time member of my bits box. Back before Kasrkins took over the top spot these were the Stormtroopers of choice. My roommate in Japan had an extra  one, so I was happy to take it off his hands.

I'm fine with the traditional Red/Black/White inquisition motif, but I wanted to try out a new blue color combination (Incubi Darkness, Thunderhawk Blue, Fenrisian Gray). So instead of going for the traditional scheme I decided to make him look like a British SAS (namely, from the FPS Counter Strike).

I like it. It's simple & realistic looking, but still stands out on the table. More tomorrow.

~Muninn

Day 8: Acoloyte

Back when Grey Knights first came out in the early 2000s Coteaz came with a whole retinue. One of those was a regal looking acoloyte. I bought this guy specifically for the book at the end of his staff. I clipped it off and added it to a Dreadnought I was converting for my Grey Knight force. He's been sitting, incomplete in my bits box until this week.

I went ahead & pinned a veteran space marine's banner pole to the top of the staff & it seems to fit nicely. One cheat I use all the time is drawing texts on scrolls. I use a .005 black Micron pen to literally write over scrolls. It's a great way to quickly add scrip marks to banners, pupils, or simple tattoos.

~Muninn

Day 7: Jokaero

Today's mini is a relatively new addition to my collection of minis. I always knew I wanted a Jokaero model, but wasn't compelled to get one until I heard their metal versions were being replaced by finecast (Yeah, I'm one of those guys). I made sure to order mine before the switch, and finally found the excuse to paint it up.

I'm satisfied with this guy, considering the amount of time I had to work with, but he's by no means my best. I relied a lot on washes, and I'd say it's slightly above table-top. If I were to fix one thing it would be the hands and feet. Looking around the web at what others have done I see a lot of people extending the flesh tone into the extremities, and I think I prefer that, especially given the fact that they blend into the gray gravel base. Maybe I'll go back & fix it at the end of the month.

~Muninn

Day 6: Imperial Assassin

By the way, the intended theme this week is "The Inquisition."

For a while back in the early 2000's GW had a really neat bits ordering system going. You could get some fun, tough to find minis just by cruising their website. It's how I got my Female Commissar, my quasi-limited edition Captain, and today's mini a rogue Trader era Imperial Assassin. I was living in Japan at the time, so this guy was shipped to me there.

Back when I did the first May Challenge I let the folks on Warseer decide if I would paint a Kasrkin or the Assassin. They picked the guardsman, so I figured this would be the year I'd wrap up this guy.

Of course it'd be traditional to paint this guy black, but where's the fun in that? I have two black assassins, one white one, so the next choice on the Inquisition color wheel is red. I thought about making the shoulder armor and back piece silver to break up the red a bit, but I think the drastic shading breaks it up enough so that the color doesn't all blend together.

~Muninn