#fantasy miniatures

[oldschoolfrp]

I did buy some brand new things in the dealer room at Historicon, but of course I also hit Wally's Basement, the flea market / bring-and-buy room. One thing I found there was the Press Gang “Bonus Pack" of 5 Ral Partha figures from the original boxed set of Chaos Wars, RP's 1987 miniature wargame written by Bob Charrette. It's an odd anachronistic mix of historical, fantasy, and sci-fi figures, including one with an AK-47.

On the original 1987 rulebook cover one of the crossbowmen wields an AK-47, in art also used on Ral Partha's 1986 catalog. I have those rules in the "Classic Rules 2.0" version from the 2015 Kickstarter, with the gun replaced by another crossbow on the cover.

I've been assembling some fantasy units to use alongside my retro Ral Partha medievals, and I noticed I'm missing one of the crossbowmen for a unit. I could use a different medieval figure with a crossbow, or add a leader with a sword, but the temptation to fill the project with Easter eggs is too great so I'll be slipping AK man into the ranks.

[oldschoolfrp]

Ral Partha ad for Witch's Caldron, Final Frontier, Galactic Grenadiers, and Caverns Deep, four board games with metal miniature sets (Ares magazine #5, SPI, November 1980)

[rhynerd]

Progress on the warband continues! The basic melee weapon + blocking item (club & buckler by default) warriors are done and ready for battle within the streets of Mordheim! Next will be a warrior with a bow, followed by the scouts.

[tiikerikani]

Jade Warriors

I speed painted these in a week so I could qualify for more swag from the Warhammer shop for the One Million Miniatures thing. Too bad the shop didn't post a picture of my display on their Facebook (yes I'm still annoyed about that).

Anyway, Games Workshop really did a good job with the art direction for their Chinese-inspired faction

Process pictures I guess

Besides the red parts, a few small details, and the bases, it's all contrast paint. 

Kind of had to figure out zenithal priming (though the base layer of dark primer is still brushed on by hand to ensure full coverage)

Took a few hours just to get the base red on lol

I think the transfers went on okay. I did the silly thing where I wet and lifted it off the sheet instead of clipping it out and sliding it directly into position, so for a transfer this large there were probably more bubbles than it could have.

Mostly done test models

Batching time

I found it helpful to make a checklist of the colors and the parts they go onto, in order. Keeps me from getting distracted by spillovers that can be fixed later.

[itdoesabitthough]

dipped a toe in painting fantasy

[tiikerikani]

Aristarch

Para Bellum had a photo contest to show off Conquest miniatures with local landmarks. I'll never win a painting contest but I can take a decent picture. Anyway I'm pretty pleased it ended up on the honorable mentions list.

I am hoping someday I will actually paint a whole City States army but this isn't the color scheme I'm planning for it. It just so happened that I still had the teal paints from the Vigilator capes on my palette (tried to lighten it a bit to match the cupolas on the building :))

[tiikerikani]

Darkoath Marauder (Warhammer Miniature of the Month June 2024/March 2026)

Games Workshop doing mini of the month reruns is kind of funny, I actually picked this up off somebody who got the model the first time around, but Warhammer shop guy thinks I took one last month.

Anyway, there was another painting challenge thing on Mastodon. You were supposed to use the Zorn palette (these 4 colors or thereabouts) and I didn't have a lot of time or energy so I did this up relatively quickly (and I'm totally not placing in the top 3). It kind of goes faster actually when you just have 4 blobs of paint on the palette and you can dip into and mix them around in whatever way to get different colors.

[tiikerikani]

Vigilators

something something capes

Most WH40K isn't really my style but this is like the least futuristic-looking kit when you give them the swords instead of pew-pews.

I just wanted to be efficient but I like that the layers are visible (less so IRL than in pictures). Partly to be contrarian (like it's probably -10 billion points in a painting contest) but also because it emphasizes that painting is done by humans and perfectionism is for elitists.

These are signed, as I do all my pieces that I consider "display level" work (though I really skimped on detailing the swords). But the signature is under the base instead of on the rim so it doesn't distract from the impression of them being a squad.

GW's dominant position has let them basically define what is a quality paint job; I don't even know what this would be by their or professional painters' scales (tabletop+?) and I don't really care (except that I can't call my work display painting in serious hobby circles, i.e. outside of my blog).