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 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. 

Son of Snakes and some scorpions.

Still working on the big wall terrain piece, but I had alot of figures come in so I took a painting break. Some I got last weekend and was able to paint a few. Splintered Light 15mm sons of snakes with spears and five crypt scorpions by Essex (I believe). These are a great addition for my desert adventures in addition to the mummies, skeletons and Sons of Annubis I already have. They have yet to get the flat varnish coating. I painted them with inks and the snake mini came out really well with the shading technique I've been using.
I may have gone overboard because I also ordered egyptian villagers and some African porters ( to work as excavators on archeological digs), and some mounted Tauregs from Old Glory.

Son of Snakes with scorpion

reverse.

I forgot,,, I also got some camels!

Have to finish the right side and lower ground, paint and add foliage.

New finished figures

These are 15mm figs. The MU with the flame is from Splintered Light miniatures and the slayers and pumpkin head scarecrows are from Old Glory ( Blue moon mfg ). The slayer with the cross and stake had a cast line that took me two tries to correct and I ended up mangling the face a bit. All were painted with Amsterdam inks.

Bayne Felder

Padre Jahn

Ethbert of Cull

Vale Rhana

Posing primered pieces

I brought up some 15mm Blue Moon minis and some of my resin cast terrain from the basement storage. They've been primered for awhile but never painted. The round outpost was a freestyle piece I made to practice some sculpting techniques so it definitely isn't some type of standard fortification.
I have a few more shapes and sizes of trees, but I'll have to dig around for them.

I purchased the minis from Blue Moon ( Now Old Glory). The set of Slayers have really good detail and is an interesting mix of poses and personalities. Some of the werewolves were 2 piece figures ( separate head) so you can do a bit of positioning and the arms and legs are thick enough to adjust the shape.

 I actually managed to bring up some rinse water for my brushes, but that is the extent of my progress.... very pathetic!! I really, really need to get started.