30 minis in 30 days completed!

These are the last four minis I finished up. I still have a couple in progress that I will work on next month, but I managed to get 30 painted in July. Not as many 25mm as I had hoped, but I probably have more 15mm unpainted in the drawers, so it was good to get a small dent in the pile. 

The last 4 were a mishmash of figs. A vintage Ral Partha, a Heekin casting, Splintered light, and a Blue Moon. 

This is a 25mm vintage Ral Partha - 01-28b (v3b) -  Gremlin War Party version 3 (fig b). The date on the base is stamped Ral Partha 1979. A lot more detail than the original figures in version 1. I did use a little metallic on his shield,sword, and anklets, and did not coat those with the matte varnish.

The knight is a Heekin casting (actually pewter). Its right at 15mm so appears a bit short compared to the 15 -18 mm range I have been collecting. I got 5 of the knights in different poses and shields. They are not highly detailed, but the poses are very action oriented and the weaponry, armor really has that old school feel. 

Reverse.

Anna Katanic vs the Scarecrow

The female figure is a Splintered Light mini, and the last of four that I painted as Anna. On a tip from my artist wife, I switched to a blue tone to wash the eyes and skin instead of brown, since she is a red head. I think the result was much better in regards to coloring. 

Close up of the scarecrow. Its a Blue Moon casting. 

Anna in focus.

UPDATE

I updated the mini on the right. That was the one I had only a single color for the face because I couldn't get the tone right. Using blue for the eyes came out much better on the first try than the previous attempts with the standard wash colors, so I called it good instead of trying to fine tune it. 

I will get some pictures up with all 30 figures in the next couple of days. 

The problem with redheads ( Anna Katanic )

I received a new color in the mail the other day and have put it to use on the next round of miniatures. I was having problems getting a good flesh tone and a decent red with the inks I had, so I ordered Vermilion Amsterdam ink. It seems to blend better than the flesh tone ink I have. It holds color better when blended with white or brown, and I was able to get a good auburn color after some experimentation.

There were female figures in some of the sets I've purchased and they bear some similarities with each other so I decided to paint them as red heads so I could use the same player character in different games and eras just for fun. 

I also painted a wizard, wraith, and Slayers from Blue Moon .

These are 2 from the Slayers set from Blue Moon, now Old Glory Miniatures. This is the first of the red head, Anna Katanic. This was the first Anna I painted and didn't quite have the auburn hair color down yet (seems a bit pinkish).While the crossbow and lantern make for any interesting figure, the casting of the face leaves a lot to be desired in regards to femininity. The Splintered Light minis that follow have finer facial features, but I also ran into a lot of setbacks when painting them.

These are from the Splintered Light wizard set. I painted them as Anna Katanic and still have one more on the shelf I am working on. The red hair was 2 pts vermilion, 1 part burnt umber and just a touch of naphthol red. I think it came out great, but created issues with the rest of the figure painting.

Red head should equal pale skin. I used a very light skin tone since she is a red head which took a bit of time to figure out a good color mix. It came out good, but I had major issues on shading the face, eyes. The standard sepia wash which works for medium and dark skin tones was too dark. I tried various shades of light brown, light sepia, dark orange and even though I knew it wouldn't work - black. Before I blocked it out it looked like she was wearing sunglasses!

The closest success I got was on the mini holding the crystal ball. The mix darkened the eyes but not too much of the face. The mini with the staff's face was redone four or five times and still couldn't get a result. I went ahead and sealed it, but I will experiment some more and try to go back and finish the last little touch it needs. 

Reverse.

I think the vermilion is a helpful color, and the Slayer overcoat and the Anna's cloaks and dresses utilized the Naples yellow, and were much easier to blend and recreate greens and linens, compared to using a lightened brown, yellow mix. 

A wizard and wraith from Splintered lights. Yes, I know, another gray wizard. The next one will be brown.. I promise. That makes 26 figures painted in July so far. I have 3 others in various stages so I should be able to accomplish the 30 minis in 30 days. 

30 figures in 30 days update - Snakes in the desert

On my quest to paint 30 figures in 30 days (take a look at Brushes and Bases blog) I moved to the desert locale and selected some of the Splintered Light minis I have. I received a new ink color in the mail ( Naples Yellow) and was hoping it would produce a more consistent linen color for my painting. It works okay, and it also makes a very nice grayish green when mixed with black.

The snakes have been primered for awhile so they needed to be done and I also selected some player character typed that have a bit of a desert feel. 

I did quite a variation of color on the snakes, but I think I prefer the tan color and will stick with that for the majority of the ones left to paint. I didn't base the snakes as they are pretty stable without basing, and the elongated base ones would have to fit on a really big washer. 

Snakes reverse.

I threw together the terrain with foam board and some water putty rocks made with an old Woodland Scenics rock mold. The backdrop was painted by my lovely and talented wife, who took a break from painting seascapes in her studio to help me out. 

The men are a mix of heroes, thieves and MU's from Splintered Lights Player Character sets. The cleric in red is a bit out of place for the desert, but I wanted to get one mini painted using the red ink, which I have been struggling with trying to get good colors. The Naples Yellow worked out well for mixing colors for the others, and I used a Sepia tone high flow acrylic from Golden for the washes. 

Some pics focusing in on individuals and different angles.

This brings me to 20 figures completed for the month of July. I need to bear down next week to finish strong and hope to have at least one mounted 25mm miniature completed in the mix. 

Servant of Sauron test mini.

I had 2 of these minis before I got the full set so I decided to paint it as a practice piece before starting in on the new set of nine. This is 1751b of the Servants of Sauron set from Elan merch. Cast by Heritage for Elan merchandising with the release of The Lord of the Rings by Bakshi in 1978, it is one of the nine in the set. 

Reverse.

This mini was primered with grey. I then shaded with Vallejo black, and highlighted with Vallejo off white. ( Both air brush paints). A dark grey wash of acrylic ink was applied, then final edgeing with white. I used Naphthol red ink for the eyes.  

 

I will study the results for a few days and then decide if this is the method I want to use for the full set of the Nazgul. It is similar to the one I used on Fell Helm, just darker.

Splintered Light 15mm fantasy minis

These figures are from the Splintered Light Dungeon crawl and RPG series. A mix of Player character sets and Encounter sets I have magic users, fighters, thieves, thieves painted like rangers, and some trolls. This dungeon crawl series really covers a lot of bases as far as OD&D style is concerned.

Two trolls, a thief, a wizard, and a fighter in scale mail with a halberd.

I made the terrain scenery with 1/4 foam core, and used the texture rollers and foil ball for the floors and wall texture. A quick stain and some woodland scenics foliage.

I focused in on each of the minis 

The trolls are straight off the AD&D Monster Manual front cover and it's nice to see miniatures being made like that. I stuck with the front cover paint scheme.

A wizard and a thief ? ranger?

Painted figure count for July so far is 11. I have quite a few in different stages - primered, preshaded, and such so I should be able to keep pace. I also have some 25 mm I will be getting too. The texture  rollers work really well on the thin foam core, but the patterns are more for larger scale than for 15mm. 

Wight and Hireling finished

These are 25mm minis from the late '70s. The Grenadier came in a box set and the Heritage was purchased online separately without a blister pack. 

To the left is Grenadier Hireling 2004c Pack bearer with coin chest. I really like the boots and equipment on the figures in this box set. They really have much of the equipment on their person as we had written down on paper for our characters when we began a dungeon.

To the right is Heritage Dungeon Dweller Wight 1276a. This was sold in a blister pack along with a wraith that looks quite similar to some of my Elan Merch ringwraiths. 

These were painted in inks although I did use a Tamiya weathering powder ( Rust ) on the hireling chest. It came out ok, but I have some better weathering powders still packed away in my model railroad that I may have to locate.

OD&D rule book set completed

I've been wanting to complete my OD&D rules set for awhile and I received the last one in the mail last week. No rares in my set, and the majority of them are in the fair to good range if they were to be classified. They have been numbered, some notes written in them, a few charts highlighted or underlined, in other words, they are the workhorses of rule books. Paged thru, argued over, well used and well loved since 1977 when the first of them was purchased.

I got the white box set ( box is gone) in 1977, and then thru trades, gifts and saving up spending money I  managed to pick up supplements I thru IV in a couple of years. 

I know Swords and Spells isn't technically a supplement for OD&D, but me and the guys I gamed with it considered it Supplement V and if you said you had all the books ( a huge status symbol to own all of them), then you better be able to produce "Supplement V" too. 

I've searched off and on for Swords and Spells for years, but the pricing was always way too inflated, especially since the book is for use, and not a collection. Last week I picked it up on ebay for a sensible price and now I can cross that off the list and move on to Chainmail. 

One guy in our group had Chainmail, but after reading thru it, most of us never implemented a lot of it - at the time is was more technical than we needed, and although it was present at most of the sessions, it was rarely referred too,yet it was the primary guide for the "house rules" we established for our play. I still would like to get a copy, so I'll keep looking and maybe get lucky. 

Vintage Ral Partha mummy

This is from Ral Partha's Personalities and Things that go Bump in the Night collection. Listed and pictured as 01-020 in Lost Minis Wiki, it is also listed but without a picture in my 1978 Ral Partha catalog as ES-20. I just recently purchased this, and with no date or code on the base plate I can't tell if this mini was from '78 or if it is an update.

I painted this with inks, and was surprised at how well the details came out from the wrappings. With just the primer coat on, it didn't appear to have too much relief on the wrappings, but as the painting progressed, it began to pop as variations in color were added. The left arm, unfortunately, is cast a bit thicker and lacks detail. I'm not sure of the reason behind that, but it's a shame as much of the wrapping is quite good.

I don't do any base detailing on my minis (just a personal preference), however for this one I may add some grit or a rock or two. It seems like that would add quite a bit to the fig overall. 

I have a wight and a hireling carrying a chest that I have had primered for awhile. Yesterday I brushed in highlights and shadows on them. 

Brushes and Bases blog has started a 30 figures in 30 days project and I'm going to follow closely and try to keep motivated to see if I can get 30 minis painted in the month of July.