From StuartL - Unleashing the 3D Printed Demons

Hello again.

I'm steadily (and very slowly) pushing on with my to do pile. There is still no chance of me getting the vaccine anytime soon as the roll-out here in Japan is incredibly slow.

In the meantime I have painted up my first 3D printed minis. A friend of mine recently bought one of these modern marvels and printed up some figures for me. I have to say that I am impressed by the quality of the minis.

I'm trying to put together a collection of Samurai-era Fantasy models to use for Saga: Age of Magic and saw these Oni figures online. My friend was kind enough to print them out for me. They are from a designer called Artisan Guild and they are very nice indeed. The two headed chap above is on a 50mm base, as is the black fellow below. The red boys and girls are all on 40mm bases, so you can get an idea of scale.

These figures have all been printed on a resin printer, so I was dubious at first as I really, really don't like working with resin. Thankfully my friend had done most of the clean-up work after the printing and I just had a few odd supports to trim off. The detail is really good and the figures went together perfectly on the first try. Unlike traditional resin casting, there were no bubbles and no warping to be seen. A couple of the models have very faint lines where the printer didn't quite line things up perfectly, but they are barely noticeable once painted.

The figures are all very characterful and are great for skirmish type games. I would still prefer plastic for more rank and file, mass-battle games, but I'm sold on the benefits of 3D printing. Sadly due to the number of chemicals and the smell they produce I don't think my wife will ever let me get a 3D printer myself, which is probably for the best. Having the ability to produce armies of minis from home will eventually lead to me having to buy an extension (or two) for my house.

I'll keep plugging away at the lead mountain. Finger crossed there will be more to come from my painting table soon. 

From StuartL - I'm Still Here

Um... It's been far too long since I last posted. Sorry.

Over the past few weeks, I have been busy with hobby stuff, just not really very much painting. I've been assembling minis and drafting up army lists (handily doing double duty as shopping lists) and all of the other things that go into this wonderful hobby of ours. I have done some painting, but my inner Squirrel has had me start a batch of minis, get distracted, put them to the side, start another bunch and so on. Thankfully some of those batches have started to get close to completion, so I do have something to post today and a bit more to come sooner rather than later.

This cyclops is from Reaper Minis' Bones range and it was a very easy paint job. Which is actually kind of depressing as it has taken me far too long to get done. He's quite a chunky fellow and stands about 50mm tall.

At some point I'm probably going to use him for D&D, along with all the other RPG minis I have painted over the past year and a bit that my group has been socially distancing.

From Curt: Commonwealth Figures for 'Moonstone'

I'm getting my first vaccination soon, so I thought I'd blitz along and get a few more submissions in before I have to bow out. 

While muddling around online this winter, I came across this wonderful boutique game called Moonstone. Being instantly charmed, I duly pulled out my credit card to snap up the base set (and well, perhaps, a few additional figures 'fell into' the order to give a nice round number).

The basic premise of the game has 2-4 competing factions battling each other over a 3' x 3' playing surface to dig up valuable moonstones which, true to their name, can only be found at night. The factions, or 'Troupes', are 3-6 figures strong, and are composed of humans, faeries, goblins, fauns, giants, etc. The scenarios last only 4 turns, which makes for a rollicking, fast-paced game.

The figures for the game are cast in very fine resin and are amazing in their over-the-top character. Charming, silly and sometimes grotesque, the figures definitely tap into the visual style of Brian Froud, Arthur Rackham and Jim Henson. When you look at them you can't help but think of creatures featured in Labyrinth, The Dark Crystal and Legend.

That being said, being a bit of a mutton-head, I'm debuting this project with the rather boring human faction first, whereas I should have kicked off with the much more whacky goblins. Oh well, you should be able to get a visual sense of what the figures have to offer, and hopefully it sparks you to visit me again over the next few weeks to see some of the other factions.

The humans largely compose the Commonwealth faction. They have a very Grimm's Fairy Tale, Renaissance German look about them. The four characters I present here are: 

Baron Von Fancyhat

Eric the Squire

Friar Flavius

Each figure has various abilities and a signature move during combat situations. Most of these are very much in-spirit of the character and often hilarious. For example, Friar Flavius' signature move is 'Spank'. It does no damage to the opponent, but he gets 'healed' for his efforts. It fits perfectly for this fellow in his S&M gear and spiked paddle (the pink 'combat slippers' were an inspired afterthought).

Flintlock

So there you go, four 'heroes' from the Commonwealth, ready to battle it out for some precious moonstones. I'm working on the Goblins next, so please feel free to drop by my blog to see how I'm getting on with this project over the coming weeks.

-Curt

From Curt: Fire Ember Kobolds for D&D

In my previous post I introduced our original party of D&D adventurers from 1980. From that, my friend Gary and I have decided to amuse ourselves by playing a small campaign which will serve as the prelude chapter for our doughty heroes.

So, for their first adventure, I thought I'd start them off with some classic, old-school, low-level dungeon villains in the form of, yes, you guessed it, Kobolds!

So, with Kobolds in mind, I had to find some figures that could fill the ranks. This was a little difficult as I didn't really like many of the dog-faced versions, preferring the more draconic look.

To the rescue came this boxed set from Epic Encounters aptly titled the 'Shrine of the Kobold Queen'. 

With this set, not only do you get a good sized batch of Kobolds, but you're also treated with an additional monster (a Basilisk!), an excellent adventure and a two-sided play mat - a terrific value! (I say in my best car salesman voice)

Out of the box, they came in bright red, moulded hard plastic. The sculpts are pretty characterful, well-defined and a pleasure to paint. Below is a sampling of the twenty miniatures from the set. 

Kobold warriors with bow and spear & shield. There are eight of these in the box, giving a nice base for the mob.

Fire Ember Snakes with Kobold rider. There are four of these in the set - Giddyup!

As I wanted to get them on the table for play, I didn't shilly-shally around with a lot of fine detail. Lots of contrast paints and a few highlights - Bam! Done.

Kobold Kleric

Kobold Champion

One of the two Kobold Assassins

Magma Belcher Basilisk(!) and Kobold handlers

Yep, a poster-child for mirrors and Pepto Bismol, this guy barfs lava AND can turn you to stone. So, definitely not recommended as a house pet.

Mother Krangor

As to points, I'm scoring the 14 rank and file Kobolds as 20mm foot figures and the Basilisk as the equivalent of a 20mm gun. Mother Krangor and the Fire Ember Snakes I think are around 40mm. So, that gives me a grand total of 99 points. This, added to the 30 points of my other two posts, will give me 129 points, enough to exceed my 120 point target. Hooray! This is especially good, as scuttlebutt has it that my age group is getting called up for the jab soon.

That being said I hope to have another couple of entries up soon!

- Curt

From JohnS - First Post - Yes, It's been a busy few months

Hi all, it is difficult to believe that this is my first post in this Challenge as I was very enthusiastic about the idea. Apparently everybody in Australia decided they needed new paints, brushes and miniatures about 5 minutes after we started this challenge. Work has been a bit frantic.

I started these ten Dwarf Ironbreakers to follow on the few I did in AHPCX and to round out the unit to 30 for WHFB 8th edition. My plan was to quickly knock out these simple paint jobs and move on to building some ancients. There are Carthaginians calling my name.

Well, best laid plans and all that. I work for War and Peace Games down here in Australia and we have just been slammed. So much so that the last thing I wanted to do after packing hundreds of paint orders is play with more paint and figures.

Anywho, life is returning to somewhat normal, I even got to play outside in the sun for a couple of hours today.

I hope you like my little chaps. I may give them a run in those new Oathmark rules, I have some sabot movement trays somewhere. In the meantime, I'd better get to those Punic types I bought back in March and haven't opened yet. Cheers

From DrQ: a Dwarf and a Tortle

Sorry for the late posting for the week. My city has been interesting the past few days—nothing like riots on top of a pandemic!

In any case, two small offerings for this week. First up, the Reaper Bones version of Pathfinder's iconic ranger, Harsk:

This is one of the first generation Bones minis, so the detail isn't nearly as crisp as it is with the later formulae. Still, he painted up alright.

Second is a kit-bashed tortle merchant I made from bits from Super Dungeon Explore and a Reaper Bones. The tortle is from the Caverns of Roxor box, and the pack is off of the Dreadmere Tortoise. The banner is a 3x5 card that has been hardened with super glue.

My plan is to use this little guy as a traveling merchant NPC in a future D&D game. My hope is that a tortle with a few high-power spells will be beefy enough so that a murder hobo party doesn't just kill him and grab his wares. 

Stay safe!

From DrQ: A Wizzard Tower

My work this week centered on a scratch-built, trash-bash wizzard (sic!) tower. The core is made of a shampoo bottle. I then covered it with bricks of foam core that were hot glued in place. The tiles are craft foam. The whole thing was covered in a mix of Modge Podge and black paint before painting with a final layer of only Modge Podge at the end. I find this makes for pretty resilient terrain.

Survivor Marie Claude here is provide for scale. Here's a more accurate idea of scale (though less dramatic). 

I'd include more pics; but to be honest, the a tower is rather the same on all sides.

Stay safe!

From TomM: Hootington the Barn Owl

It has been a long time, honestly to long, since I threw myself on the excellent figures of Oathsworn's Burrows and Badgers range.

But with the recent release of their campaign expansion (mine is in the post as you read this), I started working on the figures again.

And let me tell you a little secret: Guardians of Ga'Hoole is my guilty pleasure, I think after the Lord of the Rings trilogy and Aliens, that is probably the movie I saw most in the past years.

You see, I have a thing for owls, and ever since the first Kickstarter that launched the game, I have had the Barn Owl in my first order.  It just took scandalously almost 1.5 years before I painted him.

I think though I got him a nice three layer colour scheme on both an earthy brown for the feathers on the outside, and a light grey for the inside.  The armour was done in a golden colour to add some variation in the scheme.

I love this model, and it is the one figure I won`t allow Noshi to claim to put in her warband when we play this again in the future...

From JamesM: 10mm Fantasy Camels

Forgive me oh great blue mountain top dweller, for I have sinned.

It has been 6 weeks since I last lifted a hairy stick, and I have taken a place in this challenge and contributed nothing.

I offer up, in penance, some teeny weeny camels.

These are 10mm Pendraken Mhadists, bought for a AHPC Challenge Island entry and sadly left unloved. I have painted them as part of my 'For Joshua' 10mm fantasy project. These chaps will be joining my human knight force. One base armed with sword and shield, while another with lance/spear.

A minor honouring of Dave D and Martin C (Dave because they are camels, Martin because of the smell).

The plan for the project is still that it tour some of the UK shows and be used to generate money for the charities which supported us following the loss of our son Joshua. However, the world going mental in the last few months have forced me to rethink the schedule on all of that for a bit!

Shall I repeat my sin, now I am back on the wagon?

I have reviewed my workspace and cleared the clutter to a few bits I want to get done, thus removing some of the forbidding weight of the lead mountain which was crushing my will to continue. I have even ordered some new hairy sticks. Further production is (almost) guaranteed.

I have not been totally idle, instead turning my hobby time to prep. As such, I have the below models almost ready to go...

Some may even be done before July.

From TomM: Frostgrave Illusionist

With the Frostgrave rules being free to download from the Osprey website a while ago, I decided to (finally) really take the plunge and make good work of the band I wanted to print for this game.

It also contained the solo rules, so I might actually play one or two of the scenario,s (after printing up the foes as well) and try to convince Noshi of the game on top.

Of course, this means my band needs a leader, and that is a wizard of a specified school.  Harking back to my DnD games of years ago, I went for the illusionist school of magic, as I always thought them the most dashing and reminded me of my preferred Blue magic decks back then in Magic: The Gathering.

The model is one from the awesome Michael Zavala sculpts, all free on Shapeways to download, as will be most of the collection I`m creating for this.  Not a shabby figure if you ask me for about 5 eurocents in materials...

I also printed out a Dagger Tree found on Thigverse, and, inspired by A Song of Ice and Fire's wyrdwood trees, painted it a reddish hued white.

Now just to consider wether I`ll be making Dungeon Tiles as well for this game...

From AlexS; anti depression (125 pts)

Hello to all! My name is Alexi and I had a paint depression. But you wrote me wonderful comments, gave good tips and just words of support. In addition, I watched your work and they inspired me. And here is my result of the exit from depression:

The first I painted a bone golem. He suited my mood. And it was both interesting and easy to do.

Then I relocated the cavalrymen whom I made during the year before last the challenge. Unfortunately, the time for large games with large bases passes, most of the games are small strikes for the pigsty. Therefore, I made the cavalry individual bases.

Many said that it is necessary to color the cowboys to get out of the depression, and I will do it!

Many said that it was necessary to paint civilians in the 18th century, and I did it!

But I still could not paint the African warriors. But still I came out of depression. Thank you all so much! This challenge was a great idea!

Paint miniatures and not get sick!