Dark Elf Dice Miniatures

[darkelfdice-miniatures]

This week I painted a classic Ral Partha Giant skeleton released back in 1987 -- the year I graduated from high school :)

[darkelfdice-miniatures]

I needed a change of pace from the undead monsters I've been painting recently for my D&D campaign and decided to paint a Beholder as a palette cleanser. If you're interested, you can read more about the project on the Dark Elf Dice website here. Happy adventuring :)

[darkelfdice-miniatures]

Warhammer Chainrasps: Work In Progress

These were originally eBay rescue models (I have ten in total), and I envisioned painting the horde in a dark, Gothic manner to help accentuate the creepy/horror vibe of the sculpts. That said, I find myself struggling with a grimdark aesthetic -- my painted miniatures never seem to stand out on the tabletop (just turn out looking brown and drab).

That's why I broke down and used one of my tried and true favorites -- bright fluorescent green. I still have more to do with this WIP, but I think the green gives a ghostly look and helps balance the darker tones -- not to mention that the miniatures now have a better tabletop presence. Not my original idea going into the project, but that's one of the best things about miniature painting -- discovering something new and unexpected.

[darkelfdice-miniatures]

Warhammer Terrorgheist

I needed another boss monster FAST for my D&D campaign and painted up this Terrorgheist. I took about 3 hours to paint the model and I detail the entire process here.

[darkelfdice-miniatures]

I painted a Warmachine Trollblood to use in my Sunday D&D game. My daughter made the starfish out of Sculpey clay.

[darkelfdice-miniatures]

I painted a witch for my D&D campaign. She was supposed to be "wicked", but the color scheme I used doesn't give off evil vibes.

[darkelfdice-miniatures]

I had fun painting this one -- actually, I have fun painting just about every miniature, but this one was special :)

I needed an important NPC for my Sunday D&D session. Prior to the party's journey to "Necromancer Island" (see my previous post), the group had to travel to Candlekeep to find information at the library. There they met Lady Miriam Fontaine, at age 22 the youngest member of the Avowed -- the revered scholars of Candlekeep. Disaster strikes! and now Lady Miriam is elevated to the position of Keeper of Tomes while the other Avowed are sickened and dying by an evil magic curse (*cue ominous music*).

Lady Miriam is actually the "Jolie, Female Scribe" miniature by Reaper. I sell both the original metal version and newer sio-cast plastic version in my Dark Elf Dice store. I'm an old school, metal mini snob, but plastic miniatures are starting to grow on me and I opted for the sio-cast version (the production process and end result of plastic miniatures is SO much better now than it used to be). Anyway, I could talk for hours about the manufacturing process and history of making miniatures, but I'll save that for future posts. Back to Lady Miriam...

Lady Miriam isn't your ordinary, stuffy old scholar/professor. She's young and enthusiastic and is a researcher and botanist. She's more at home roaming the countryside looking for rare species of flora than cooped up in the library keeping office hours (though she does enjoy spending time in her laboratory running experiments and writing in her journals).

Because Lady Miriam enjoys working outdoors, I wanted to give her a tanned complexion. Besides her skin tone, I didn't give a whole lot of thought beforehand in regards to the color scheme for the rest of the model. I made color choices as I went, and the entire process was a stream of consciousness, organic experience. This "make it up as you go along" process is relaxing and it's great fun to "go with the flow" without any preconceived notions. I really liked how she turned out, particularly the blue shade of her dress with yellow trim (I usually don't paint a lot of blue, and tend to favor teals, purples and greens).

Notes: after taking pictures for this post, I realized that I missed removing a mold line on her neck. Ugg! In real life it's really hard to see, but sometimes I get so eager to start the painting process I rush through mini prep work.

Also, I should note that I removed the miniature from her original, integral base. I re-based the model because I wanted a bigger base with bigger floor tiles.

[darkelfdice-miniatures]

WIP Need a boss fight miniature for tomorrow's DnD session. The party has traveled to "Necromancer's Island" (yes, I know -- not a very original name lol). They're searching for a portal to access a pocket dimension in order to complete an important quest. This week has been crazy with a capital "C", so I needed something quick and easy...

I pulled this mini from my pile of potential (it's a 3D print I bought on Etsy a few years ago). I can't remember its exact name, but it's suitably creepy and fits the vibe of *insert ominous music* "Necromancer's Island."

Primed black. Drybrushed with a light coral. Airbrushed from beneath with translucent purple ink. A kiss of translucent sepia ink from the sides. Viola.

Went with a blue sword (instead of my typical fluorescent green), because I thought the blue would contrast better with the coral/sepia flesh tones. I think it works well. Used Dirty Down rust effects on the chains. Just need to finish the base (some texture paste and pigment powders) and it should be finished for tomorrow's battle. Not too bad for 2 hours work and will give the party something unusual to fight.