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

[DeafNala]

GOBLINS...OH BABY! When I see those Little Old Nasties painted to such a high standard, it's difficult to imagine why they ever stopped making them...other then Grenadier going out of business that is. They are JUST SO BEAUTIFULLY WELL DONE...breath taking work! AND your photography matches your brushwork SUPERBLY!

I'm trying to cut down on my exclamation points & you're not helping matters.

[aggro84]

Love those goblins! 

Nice to see the flesh tones painted in something other than the standard green.

Very nice.

[Timbor]

Wow, some wonderful paintjobs on some cool old miniatures!  Lots of it is even older than me!

[Braxandur]

Those are really good!

I especially like how vibrant your colors look. I always find it very hard to achieve that effect and often have the idea that my pieces turn out a bit dull. Certainly when compared with yours

[Deep One]

I loved it! My favorite topic.

[dijit]

Some lovely paintjobs on some very charming minis.
Duncan

[Funghy-Fipps]

Wow!  Now that's prolific.  It's really nice to see someone breathe new life into such venerable and (now) sadly overlooked miniatures.  They exude so much more character than the bland GW-inspired stuff that abounds these days.  As you point out on your blog, the one-shoe thing is pretty weird, though! 

[m4jumbo]

Great looking work as usual.  Always look forward to the updates to see what you've done with the classics.

[Spooktalker]

Thanks all for the comments! Thanks Admiral, Professor, Mason, DeafNala, aggro84, Deep One, dijit, and m4jumbo!

Wow, some wonderful paintjobs on some cool old miniatures!  Lots of it is even older than me!

Thanks! I'm older than most of my figs but a couple have me beat as well!

Those are really good!

I especially like how vibrant your colors look. I always find it very hard to achieve that effect and often have the idea that my pieces turn out a bit dull. Certainly when compared with yours

Thanks Braxandur! I think there are two main ways to get the vibrancy. Either you build it right in as you are layering (which is what I usually do) and/or you glaze after or in the middle of your layering for added depth and richness. When building in the color, a little of a bright color can go a long way, and my advice is to go for the vibrancy in the middle layers, not the shaows or highlights. You can even make the highlights a neutral color (in fact, that's better imo) and as long as you keep the highlights to a minimal the saturated middle values will be what you come away with as a viewer. "Saturate in the middle" is the idea.

As for glazing, I never used to do it but am using the technique more these days. Just add a tiny bit of ink to matt medium and apply a thin layer evenly, but then build more layers in the middle, avoiding the highlights or you'll tone them down and have to do them again. Winsor & Newton inks are awesome because they are high quality in general, transparent (a must) and best of all, they have both a warm and a cool shade of many colors (several blues, several greens, several reds etc) and you don't find that ANYWHERE else. But any inks will do. I know many like the new gw ones but I haven't tried them (as I'm set already, or I might have).

Wow!  Now that's prolific.  It's really nice to see someone breathe new life into such venerable and (now) sadly overlooked miniatures.  They exude so much more character than the bland GW-inspired stuff that abounds these days.  As you point out on your blog, the one-shoe thing is pretty weird, though! 

Cheers and thanks! Check the blog comments--I've gotten a wealth of ideas re the shoe issue and now I'm very happy I never replaced them. I honestly didn't think I'd be in for such a turn around on the issue.

ok, more coming up!

[Spooktalker]

GOBLINS...OH BABY! When I see those Little Old Nasties painted to such a high standard, it's difficult to imagine why they ever stopped making them...other then Grenadier going out of business that is. They are JUST SO BEAUTIFULLY WELL DONE...breath taking work! AND your photography matches your brushwork SUPERBLY!

I'm trying to cut down on my exclamation points & you're not helping matters.

Thanks DeafNala! Yeah, the end of Grenadier and Ral Partha was sad. I remember I worked in a game store when the big shifts were underfoot. The writing was on the wall already a few years before when Grenadier put out Fantasy Warriors in what I saw even then (I was eleven or twelve) as a clear attempt to "go British" and try to reclaim some lost market share. After a few years the Fantasy Warriors thing was tanking as was even worse ventures like Bladestorm. And then when the great shift to pewter hit Grenadier eeked by for a few more years but it was a shadow husk. As for Ral Partha I feel much less sympathy. Their figures were so terrible by the mid nineties with lifeless maniken bodies and all fringe concepts for D&D... collector stuff ... you couldn't possibly run a game with the ral partha figs we had on the shelf in the mid nineties had we given you the whole lot. Just bad, bad business. Long story short I wasn't actually there in the Grenadier glory days but thank god for ebay and I can make it all happen right now. There are so many wonderful things in the Grenadier catalog.  Thanks again Nala!

[m4jumbo]

Spooktalker, from your blog it sounds like you also have some of the Wizards & Warriors goblins, how do they compare in size to the Dragon Lord goblins?  I assume the Wiz&War goblins are chunkier (ok bigger boned) than the Dragon Lord goblins, but how about height?   I have several of the Wiz&War figs and after seeing how you painted the above goblins, I may have to try and pick some up if they are similar in height.

[Spooktalker]

They are very different in build, that's for sure... why don't I line up some different goblins and snap a comparison pic? I'll try when I get home tonight, or tomorrow.

[eptingmike]

Thank you SO much for all the wonderful pictures of those great figs.  I have wonderful memories of the old Grenadier Gold Line box sets.  I have recently(within the last year or so)acquired the old dwarves box set, the thieves set, and the denizens of the swamp set.  They are such great figures and maybe, just maybe, some day I will paint them!
Thanks again!

[Delaney]

I AM SHOUTING TO GET OVER THE SOUND OF JUST HOW AWESOME YOU ARE.

[Delaney]

Woah... ment to hit preview to see if that would work and hit post..  sorry for shouting