Old school D&D - August 25 - Pig-face Orc Shaman

[m4jumbo]

Looking forward to seeing a completed shot of the Lizardmen, always loved the look of those figs.  Wish I had more of them.

Great job on the Lamia. 

Really enjoying your work.  I have to chuckle when I see your finished figs, then look at the same figs I have from back then when as kids we painted them with Testors paints and brushes that were too large, (or even toothpicks).  I think, "Oh that's what these figs are capable of looking like." 

Very nice work, looking forward to more.

[abhorsen950]

Excellent as ever, good show!

[Andrew May]

Again wow, I've been painting C12 goblins recently so I'm aware of the difficulties that such vintage minis can present to the brushes. Luckily you've talent in your fingers and these fellows really shine, the lamia in particular is outstanding.
Bravo!

[clam]

My favourite thread here at the mo. So many old gems and such awesome paints. Very well done. Have quite a few of these myself, and are very tempted start painting some of them, now.

Keep up the good work, Spook!

[Spooktalker]

Wow, thanks for all the nice comments and encouragement!   Thanks Witchhunter, Andrew, DonVoss, paulvonscott, abhorsen950, Thantsants and manic _miner!

Whats your recipe for bases?  I love the subtle complementary colors on them

Keep them coming!

Thanks Dave! Your own moss bases made me rethink my current approach to my Citadel figs bases... I went through a "moss period" back in the nineties and that's a style that a classic for the ages. Don't be surprised if you see some of mine done like that!

For these D&D figs the main things I wanted was uniformity and fitting in with my Dwarven Forge dungeon. I tried a number of things texture-wise but settled on Sculptamold, which is paper mache and plaster combo I learned about from a train guy named Dave Frary (I have a physical book by him but he's got a blog at http://tracksidescenery.blogspot.com/). I whip up a tiny amount with a little matte medium for extra strength and lay it on as thin as possible (unless I have smaller integral base to massage into the surrounding field, in which case it fills gaps as well as anything).

 I also use flexible concrete patch too, however, and this stuff is one of the most miraculous things around. Learned about it ten years ago from Necromundicon and have since learned you can water it down and use for the most intricate of tasks (including bulking out areas of conversions or scratch build). you can sculpt it with with a wet brush (as you can sculptamold). Can't say enough for what wonderful textures you can get with sculptamold and concrete patch (I'd like to due a larger post about them some time).

The colors are craft paints. I have a couple dark gray and dark gray-browns I use for the base and there's always some raw sienna in there somewhere (turns the gray's green). One of my favorite craft paints is Delta Ceramcoat Hippo Grey, and that's a staple of these bases. Ceramcoat Mudstone and other lighter tones for the highlights.  I like a general cohesiveness and try to paint each encounter together but there's actually a lot of variety to my approach and I tend to drift one way or another at any given time. You can see some are more pale/greenish/bluish and others more yellow/brown. They all tend to look pretty nice in the Dwarven Forge, though, which has some variety in it as well.

Looking forward to seeing a completed shot of the Lizardmen, always loved the look of those figs.  Wish I had more of them.

Great job on the Lamia.  

Really enjoying your work.  I have to chuckle when I see your finished figs, then look at the same figs I have from back then when as kids we painted them with Testors paints and brushes that were too large, (or even toothpicks).  I think, "Oh that's what these figs are capable of looking like."  

Very nice work, looking forward to more.

Hehe, thanks very much, m4jumbo ! I had some failed encounters with Testors. Damn them for marketing that paint to kids!   NOWHERE in any of the model kits I got did it mention THINNING the stuff, and the official Testors brush I had was made of plastic scrub brush bristles! When I got into miniatures I got some acrylics around the same time but not having a blue, gold or silver some testors did wind up on my first set of painted figs (Eldar Harlequins, not exactly an easy choice to start but what I can say, I was ambitious even then ).

As for the lizardmen, I've got 8 of them mostly done so hopefully I can have some more pics soon. They are pretty common on ebay, or at least the two that come in the denizens of the swamp are. The third regular lizardman sculpt you could only get blisterpack and the boss is from the Action Art box but even those turn up. But the trick though is having the patience to lurk on ebay enough to grab enough to go with. I actually collected a whole other set of lizardmen in the meantime not knowing I would have the opportunity to get enough of these guys. And you often get one or two in a larger lot. I like random lots so for me that's not such a disadvantage, but if you buy them singly you often have to pay a bit more (but not more than around $4 for one of these) and/or pay more shipping than is worth it for a fig or two.  Overall though ebay is really half the fun for me. The thrill of the chase, etc.  

My favourite thread here at the mo. So many old gems and such awesome paints. Very well done. Have quite a few of these myself, and are very tempted start painting some of them, now.

Keep up the good work, Spook!

Wow, thanks very much Clam! You know I'm a big fan of your work as well and would love to see your take on these.  

[Delaney]

Yeah, it would have saved us sooo much pain if someone said, thin your paint, load your brush then unload it on some paper so you only have a little on it.
I have pretty much all the documents from 1980 through, and not once is that mentioned!  I was dunking my brushes into the pots!

[dijit]

Not heard of scupltamold or concrete patch before - do you have any links to them?

[Spooktalker]

Yeah, it would have saved us sooo much pain if someone said, thin your paint, load your brush then unload it on some paper so you only have a little on it.
I have pretty much all the documents from 1980 through, and not once is that mentioned!  I was dunking my brushes into the pots!

Hehe, at least I had White Dwarf around the time I started painting miniatures in 91 and there was some good advice from Mike McVey in there around then. Although for some strange reason most of my figures from that period have all three primary colors on each.  

It was mostly the plastic model kits I tried in the eighties that I'm bitter about. I could build the plane or ship or Jabba's palace just fine even at the age of seven or eight but come paint time the thing just got ruined, and it really is Testors's fault.  

Not heard of scupltamold or concrete patch before - do you have any links to them?

These are American products. In the states Sculptamold is easy to find in the local art shop or online at places like Blick:
http://www.dickblick.com/products/amaco-sculptamold/

Concrete patch, and I should say pre-mixed concrete patch, can be found at the "home improvement" stores like the evil Home Depot, where it costs $7 bucks for about a quart or $20 for a near-lifetime supply (I went for the latter I love the stuff so much   ). It's gray and gritty and when cured it has a little flexibility but is extremely tough and sticks to just about anything like a son of a bitch (better than glue in many cases). I'll try post pictures at some point. I learned about it from Sean Patten on what was one of the first awesome miniatures sites I've been coming back to for over a decade now.  Necromundicon. (That's a link btw--why are links the same color as the text?? It's really bad for usability and would be an easy thing to fix with css, webmaster, if you're reading this   ). He has a good description and pic of the stuff here: http://www.ironhands.com/10tools.htm.

[Spooktalker]

Today some essential encounter groups you should find in every functional D&D miniatures collection: giant rats and centipedes. Anyone can paint a few adventurers and big monsters and an NPC or two. The real dream is to be able to roll on the wandering monster chart and whatever the result be able to pull out the figs.   These guys included I'm up to at least 8 encounter groups painted and many more are in the works.

They're Heritage Dungeon Dwellers figs, circa 1979.

Check out the blog post for more commentary!







Manufacturer: Heritage Miniatures
Line: Dungeon Dwellers
Catalog title: Giant Rats & Giant Centipedes
Catalog #: 1267
Release date: 1979
Date painted: 2010

[DeafNala]

VERY NICELY DONE! Those Little Critters bring back some fond memories of other times...considering what the present time is like, that is an excellent escape.

[madmike]

These are excellent, thanks!

I gave away most of my collection many years back now. Wish I had not as I am having to start again now that the remaining old geeks are back together for Runequest and T&T, plus my son in law has stated a new D&D campaign.

This means both my wife and I are busy painting again, playing catchup for replacements to those mini's I stupidly gave away waaaay back in 1989.

[Spooktalker]

Thanks Nala! I like to rekindle the past but still believe the best game experience is yet to come! Twenty years of gaming and it's never been better. 

Thanks madmike! 1989 was when I was just getting started, or actually just before. Sorry some figs got lost along the way but glad to hear you've picked up a brush and are back adventuring! Hope you'll share some pics here!

[madmike]

Thanks madmike! 1989 was when I was just getting started, or actually just before. Sorry some figs got lost along the way but glad to hear you've picked up a brush and are back adventuring! Hope you'll share some pics here!

Thanks for that.

My first wife considered model making and gaming to be childish and stupid. Those were dark days indeed, looking back on them.

I posted up a pic or two of my SO, Lori's Ral Partha Amethest Dragon that she painted. It was her second Dragon painting project at that time. (She loves Dragons!)

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=34498.0

She is busy painting a few more mini's at the moment before going on a break from painting.

I will have to take some pics of what we have done so far...

Please keep up your pic posting in your thread, love seeing all these. Brings back great memories!

[Spooktalker]

Thanks for that.

My first wife considered model making and gaming to be childish and stupid. Those were dark days indeed, looking back on them.

I posted up a pic or two of my SO, Lori's Ral Partha Amethest Dragon that she painted. It was her second Dragon painting project at that time. (She loves Dragons!)

http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=34498.0

She is busy painting a few more mini's at the moment before going on a break from painting.

I will have to take some pics of what we have done so far...

Please keep up your pic posting in your thread, love seeing all these. Brings back great memories!

Cool you guys can share the hobby. My girlfriend loves seeing what I do but we keep hobbies separate and that's what works for us. Whatever works! The amethyst dragon looks great and look forward to seeing more from you guys.

Quick update here on the lizardmen. They're almost done with just some straps and jewelry and eyes left.

[madmike]

Nice Lizardmen!

Eyes are my main weakness at this point. As I normally build braille scale armour and aircraft (1:72), figures are too small for painting of such details, so a wash shadows out the eyes and looks fine. But in "bigger" 25mm miniatures, eyes are more visible. Practice makes perfect though.

Finished painting a grenadier Female Paladin last week and was quite taken aback at the size difference between true 25mm and the more modern 28mm + "heroic" scale  of the Reaper miniatures available today.

I did though, purchase some more grenadier figures from Mega Miniatures over the weekend including a Mindflayer.

Not sure when I might go back to model kits at this point!