Heekin pewter minis painted.

 These are from the Heekin Pewter 15mm range of medieval figures, and medieval fantasy range. They are pewter and have a more substantial weight to them, similar to lead. Not a lot of crisp detail and the legs, arms, shields and weapons are thicker than the Splintered Light or Old Glory minis I usually purchase. Still, I really like them as they are well posed, and have an old school feel to them in the vein of Custom Cast miniatures. 

There is another knight with an axe on the painting table and a few more in the range that I didn't purchase - archer, standard bearers, etc. Unfortunately there are only 2 types of halfling minis. If there were more of either style of them I would definitely load up. The halfling with the cape would be perfect in a LOTR setting and the other halfling with chainmail could fill out a 15mm wargame unit. Unusual to see the chainmail on a halfling mini. 

I played around with making a wash and used a drop of gloss medium, a drop of flow aid, 3 to 4 drops of sepia or black ink, and 20 to 30 drops of water ( depending if I'm pin washing or just drenching). The gloss medium in the mix seems to be working at holding the ink in the cracks fairly well. 

I bought 3 of the Heekin treasure chests and painted them one each ( gold, silver and copper). I dread working with metallics as you can probably tell by my consistent weapon color of grey with a black wash.

These minis tend to be a bit pricey - $1.75 each, but they are pewter, and while simple, are an interesting find for me. I think anyone doing a 15mm dungeon crawl or 1 to 1 RPG would find them useful and entertaining. 

The Doctor is in! (15mm plague doctor conversion)

 I've searched quite a while for a 15mm plague doctor mini, but only found them in larger scales, so I found a couple of likely candidates in my mini pile to try a conversion on. It's taken the better part of 2 weeks of planning, cutting, sculpting and such, but I have finished one and another one should be done by next weekend. 

This was initially some kind of wizard or monk, so he got his beard shaved, a lobotomy ( half the head whacked off ) and I added an upper shawl, plague doctor's mask with goggles, and a hat. 

I used Aves Apoxie for the sculpting on this mini. At this time I'm finding it easier to work with than the Kneadatite (green stuff). I may revisit his paint job as the beak of the mask doesn't stand out as much as it would if it was leather colored. Unfortunately because of the pose with the left arm, I can't get a good side shot of the beak either. 

All in all it was a pretty fun conversion and if the second one gets finished I may do a different style of paint job. This guy should add some creepiness to the gaming table for sure. 

Skeleton sculpts and centipede ready for paint.

 Spent the day making some skeletons for scatter terrain for dungeons. Debated on whether to just squish some 15mm skeleton miniatures I already have painted and mounted, but decided to try to sculpt some even though I have difficulties with making skulls. I focused on skulls and rib cages as they are at least somewhat recognizable as bones. 

I still have one that needs to be painted. I like the one without the base, but I don't think it will be very durable.

I also finished sculpting my centipede last week. I added the last details and then primered and overpainted in white. Still deciding what color to paint it.

Dungeon floor tiles and sculpting a centipede.

 A busy month so far. I painted some of the goblins from Splintered Light. These are from the Hell Pumpkin tribe and I will use these in dungeon play so they will be mounted individually or in small groups so I can place the correct numbers on the game area quickly and take away casualties easier.

 I also built some dungeon tiles. There is a lot of info on methods to build them, but since I replaced a 3 season room floor,  I had some left over cuttings of vinyl tile. This is LVT with the sticky back. I didn't use any glue, just cut to shape, peel off the bottom layer and stick the foam on it. I apply the texture roller, then paint with liquitex titanium white. Once dry, a quick brush over with a heavy wash then wipe away excess and let dry. Very quick and very cheap and pretty effective.

Blick had a sale this weekend, so I picked up some Golden High Flow acrylics, and a kit of Aves Apoxy to try my hand at sculpting a mini, a centipede of sorts. 

A member of Lead Adventure Forum posted his work (really top notch!!) on a Carrion Crawler that was the inspiration for this centipede. I was very happy with this first attempt at sculpting a mini, although the clay sculpting I've done for terrain castings in the past definitely helped. I have added teeth, mandibles to the holes at the sides of the mouth and an extra shield layer to finish the head. I have some gaps to fill and then outside tommorrow to primer it. 

Full roster of minis painted in July

A mix of 15mm and 25mm. For August I need to get some more lower level 15mm dungeon creatures painted, run the graveyard game scenario that has been set up for ages, build some dungeon terrain, and consolidate my solo rpg information.