Half Elf Assassin

I painted up a D&D mini for my friend Rob from Hero Forge.  This is his rogue from our current adventure with a penchant for killing, and we all just refer to him as 'The Assassin', even though he vehemently denies it.  Recently he's been cursed, nearly had his soul drained by mummies, and fallen out of a burning building.

6MMRPC Final Report

First, the glamour shots of all of the minis I finished during the challenge:

Flames of War Germans

28mm miniatures for D&D

Custom ships for X-Wing Miniatures

Saving Private Ryan Diorama

Six months ago I jumped at the opportunity to join the Six Month Mountain Reduction Painting Challenge, thinking that it would be a great way to force myself to paint what I already have and save some money too.  I managed to stick with the financial rules of the challenge, spending my first Joker at the Historicon swap meet, my earned Joker (for finishing my Historicon army) on a small batch of unpainted Gebirgsjäger from a friend, and my final Joker on a trio of tanks during Battlefront's 33% off Sale last month.  I'm also happy to report that I was successful with some of my goals.  My initial list of planned projects, and their status:

    Partial - Assemble and paint a Great War British army for a commission. (Flames of War)
    Yes - Assemble and paint units to finish my Early War German army for Historicon. (Flames of War)
    Yes - Assemble and paint two entries for the Iron Cross Competition at Historicon. (Flames of War)
    Nope - Start a 1945 Late War German Volksgrendier army. (Flames of War)
    Yes - Paint some minis for my Dungeons and Dragons campaign. (D & D)
    Partial - Paint some samurai minis just because. (Kensei)
    Yes - Paint some custom ships for homebrew X-Wing Miniatures. (X-Wing)

Not too bad, considering the total burn-out I experienced after Historicon.  I achieved four of my goals, started work on two others, and only totally failed at one.

This is what I accomplished in the first three months:
     - Assembled about a platoon of infantry and three tanks for the Great War British. (FoW)
     - Finished four platoons plus more that I needed for my Historicon army. (FoW)
     - Finished two entries for the Iron Cross Competition and won! (FoW)
     - Painted four ships and a terrain piece for X-Wing. (X-Wing)
     - Started building a scale model of a Kawasaki Ki-45. (1/72)

This is what I worked on in the last three:
     - Finished a 7.5cm LG40 platoon for my Fallschirmjäger army. (FoW)
     - Basecoated, filtered, and washed three tanks and fifteen guns for the Great War British. (FoW)
     - Basecoated four Japanese tanks for a commission. (FoW)
     - Painted and based six D&D miniatures, assembled and started fourteen others. (D&D)
     - Painted several small batches of 28mm scenery items. (D&D)
     - Painted and washed the Kawasaki Ki-45, before losing the decals. (1/72)

I started and left unfinished about as many projects as I finished, which goes to show my scattered approach this year.  New games, new techniques, and new scales to try and combat painting fatigue.  

Thanks again to all of those who participated, you inspired me to keep posting every week, even if it was a day or two late a few times.  Special thanks to Dai, who introduced me to this event last year.  I look forward to the next, and I think I'll be continuing the not-buying-anything- until-you-finish-a-project aspect for the forseeable future.

6MMRPC Week Twenty-Five: Animated Weapons, More

Finally something I can call finished!  I wrapped up the Animated Weapons, a Shadow, and an Orc, all from Mantic Games.  They were previously featured here: http://flamesofnerd.blogspot.com/2015/09/6mmrpc-week-sixteen-animated-weapons.html

I used railroad ballast mixed with some other larger rock for the basing, washed it with a Dark Sepia from Secret Weapon, added a drybrush of Vallejo Medium Brown, and then painted the edges Black.  The static grass is a mix of colors from GF9 and the tufts are from CGR.  Didn't take long to finish these once I got back to them.

Orc: Challenge Rating 1/2 Humanoid
Shadow: Challenge Rating 1/2 Undead
Animated Weapon: Challenge Rating 1/4 Construct

Test model for a band of mountain orcs, dual-wielding hand axes.

Extra bits bashed into a stand-in for a Shadow.

Couple of swords, also extra Mantic bits.

Axes!  Animated Weapons are fun!

I also received my dungeon furniture from Mantic Games' Dungeon Saga Kickstarter.  I signed up for these in August of 2014 and I was a bit surprised to see them after all these months, having basically forgotten about them.  The doors and furniture should look nice on the D&D table.

$5 got me two large doors, six small doors, and a pair of iron doors.  All are made from hard brown plastic.

More barrrels and chests!  The chests all have separate lids, tables are nice too.

For $15 I got a Dwarven Throne, two different bookshelves, a weapon rack, a well, a large chest, and a bookstand with a separate book, plus the two tables, four barrels, and four chests from the previous image.  These are molded in a softer brown plastic.

I'm pretty satisfied with these, especially the larger furniture.  I'm glad I ordered two of each set.

I get to chop six D&D minis from the Mountain!

6MMRPC Week Twenty-Four: Please Stand By

I went and bought Fallout 4 last Friday and the digital world has affected my analog hobbies since.  The game has been super-awesome so far.  That said, I did manage to get a litle bit of work in before the Bomb dropped, as it were.

I got an initial wash laid down on the Great War landships and guns, and also put a panel wash on the Ki-45.  I also started to base the D&D minis I worked on a few weeks ago, just need to do a few highlights, some pigments and tufts to finish them.  

Slow progress is still progress, I guess!

Another hour and these should be done.

I also received a large shipment of parts for my Mustang, might see it back from the body shop by the end of the year.  I was able to take advantage of a great sale at my old haunt, Sacramento Mustang.  

6MMRPC Week Twenty-Three: Random D&D Minis WiP

In another case of short-attention-span hobbying I spent the week working on a Star Wars RPG I just started running and checked out the local Renaissance Faire on the weekend.  I was able to squeeze in a few hours of painting on Sunday and put the first licks of paint on some Reaper Bones minis I bought last year.  I like all three of these sculpts quite a bit.  I also started on a donkey and wagon I picked up at about the same time from Otherworld Miniatures. (fantastic sculpts, though a bit on the pricy side)

A Halfling Assassin, a Necromancer, and an Elven Pirate walk into a bar...

Three weeks left to the Challenge, lots of work to try and finish!

6MMRPC Week Nineteen: D&D Terrain Scenery

I finished the Dungeons & Dragons scenery bits from Baueda that I primed last week, and worked on a few other things as well.  No zombies though.

These were pretty simple to paint up, I airbrushed them with Tamiya colors and then painted the details in with Vallejo acryllics.  A quick thinned-down wash of Secret Weapon's Dark Sepia, a drybrush of Vallejo Iraqi Sand, and a quick spray of Matte Varnish seaded the deal.  These should look nice mixed into the other items I painted up several months ago, or in the back of a wagon.

All of these are from Baueda except for the large chest on the right.  Got that in a pile of bits at a swap meet.

I also got some work in on the Great War landships, masking and painting their identification stripes was a pain, so many rivets and other odd bumps wouldn't let the masking tape settle.  I'll need to touch them up later.

I hope to get these finished up this week.

 I even got the base color down on the Ki-45, though it came out a bit green.

Making some progress on several fronts!

I finally get to check something off as finished!  Three piles of terrain taken off of the Mountain!

6MMRPC Week Eighteen: Some More Great War WiP

A few days late this week due to a power supply failure, but I have a little bit of work to report.  Not as much as I wanted to get accomplished, but a cold will do that.  

I managed to finish assembling and priming all of the weapons for the Great War commission, the male sponsons for the Mark IV landships, four OQF 18 pdrs and their caissons, seven Vickers HMGs, and four 3" Stokes mortars.  I also primed some bags, boxes, and chests for Dungeons & Dragons scenery.  

Great War bits from Battlefront, except for three Peter Pig Vickers HMGs.  D&D bits from Baueda.

 I plan (plan!) on airbrushing the Great War armor and weapons now that they're all primed this week.  I also want to get some other WiP items finished off and get these bags and chests knocked out.  The Ki-45 is also ready for paint.

While organizing my hobby space I stumbled across an old binder full of old gaming stuff, mostly D&D and WEG Star Wars character sheets.  I even found my first ever character, a 2nd Edition D&D Cleric named Red Bear, and realized it had been 21 years since I created it and rolled my first dice in anger.  I even found four survivors from my first set so long ago.

My first D&D charcter is old enough to drink...

6MMRPC Week Seventeen: Skeleton Warriors WiP

In preparation for October I finished assembling these skeletons.  I wrote up a little side dungeon for my D&D group and these will be the main enemy in an abandoned keep in the hinterlands of the Sword Coast of Faerun.  One of them will be a leveled Big Bad at the end, the former officer in charge of the now cursed keep.  These have been partially constructed for months, but with the holiday coming it's time.

Skeletons are Challenge Rating 1/4 Undead, the leader will be a Challenge Rating 2 Undead.

These minis are really cool, I wanted the bits-of-rusted-armor look for them.  I think they're Kings of War from Mantic.

The officer.  These plastic minis came in multiple parts and let you swap arms, torsos, etc.  Options for weapons too.

October is almost here!

6MMRPC Week Sixteen: Animated Weapons WiP

This week I mostly worked on continuing projects, cleaning mold lines from the Great War British, and masking the Ki-45 in preparation for airbrushing.  I also was able to get a few easy minis for my 5th Edition Dungeons and Dragons campaign painted up, just need to do the bases still.

First up was the Animated Weapons.  These are a Challenge Rating 1/4 Construct and I simply used some spare plastic weapons from a sprue of skeletons I built up previously.  Mounted on some push-pins and quickly painted and washed.

Two Short Swords and a pair or Hand-Axes.  These will be used to ambush unwary adventurers!

I also painted up a cloak that can be used for several different monsters, but will first be used as a Shadow, a Challenge Rating 1/2 Undead.  Also made from spare bits and painted quickly.  The final mini is a plastic Orc from Mantic, I think.  I wanted some orcs on the cheap and couldn't source the Reaper bones at the time I ordered these.  Orcs are Challenge Rating 1/2 Humanoids and are commonly found raiding the lands of more civilized races.

The orc is armed with two hand-axes and is the first of a small warparty I have planned for the campaign.

That's it for this week!  Hopefully I can get these finished up by next time and even get some paint on the Ki-45.

6 Month Mountain Reduction and Painting Challenge- I'm In!

Last year my friend Dai participated in the first 6MMRPC and was able to make a pretty signifiicant dent in his lead mountain and I couldn't wait to jump into the next challenge.  This year they decided to start a bit earlier, so to avoid the holidays.  Here are the rules:

1. No purchasing of new miniatures, except if you use a Joker.  You get three Jokers to use on a miniature purchase.  Can be a blister pack, an eBay bundle, or a single figure.  The only exception is if you need to buy a single figure to complete a unit.  In addition, you can earn additional Jokers by completing an entire project, complete with starting, WIP, and final pictures.

2. Gifts do not count against you.  Holidays, birthdays, and gift cards given to you do not count against you.

3. Paint, terrain, and hobby supplies do not count against you.

4. At least one hobby-related blog or Instagram post a week.

5. Zombie-related stuff during October is encouraged.

http://historyspiderweb.blogspot.com/2015/05/alright-everybody-its-time-for-2nd.html

I've got a few projects to work on, for Flames of War I have a Great War British commission force for my friend Sam to finish, I'd like to get a few more Early War options completed for my Fallschirmjäger, and I'd like to at least start on some 1945 Volksgrenadiers.  I also want to complete a few projects for the Iron Cross competition at Historicon.

I need to build a 7.5cm artillery battery, a 3.7cm PaK36 platoon, Ketternkrad transport, and a few more command stands.

I have about six platoons of guns and infantry to build, plus three tanks for Sam's Great War British.

I also want to keep working on my Dungeons and Dragons minis for my seldom-run campaign, paint up the Kensei stuff I bought for feudal Japan, and paint some modified Star Wars minis for home-brewed X-Wing.

Just a sample of the Reaper minis for D & D.  My wife's mage, Paola's barbarian, and a shifty thief.

Some models I kit-bashed for X-Wing.  A modified YT-1300, an Imperial Patrol Ship, a Shuttle, and a Scout Ship.

Some of the feudal Japanese Kensei minis I bought a few weeks ago.  Samurai are awesome!

Really looking forward to this!  

Cragmaw Bugbear and Goblins

Painted these up for a D & D campaign I'm running for some friends.  All minis are from Reaper's Bones line, soft rubbery resin.  Cheap, about $2-$3 a mini, but the mold lines are a bit annoying to clean up.  The resin is so bendy a file doesn't really do much.  Easy to do conversions though!  Crossed 10 minis and some terrain items off of the Lead Mountain list.

Klarg, leader of a band of Cragmaw raiders, and his pet wolf, Ripper.  Had to mount ol' Klarg here to a large base.

I decided to color-code minis to designate which classification they fall into.  Brown for Beasts.

Yeemik and her Goblin minions.  These are from Reaper's Pathfinder line, I just loved the look of these guys.  I swapped some weapons around and did some simple modifications to individualize the Goblins.

Elakin Endrunikaar, the group's Wood Elf Ranger.  After seeing the goatee I had to make a Green Arrow knockoff.

Paola's Wood Elf Rogue, she's still trying to come up with a name.

Some bits and junk for the grid map we use for dungeons.  They're plaster casts I got from someone on eBay for cheap.

Storage Shelves

My friend Tom gave me some old media storage shelves and I decided to convert them into storage for my smaller non-Flames of War minis, mostly X-Wing stuff.  These had previously lived in boxes piled in a corner of my hobby area and I figured it was a perfect time to get them out and put them on display.  I went out and found a used TV stand at a thrift store and bought a third identical shelf unit from Walmart to give me enough matching material for extra shelving, then purchased some shelf pegs at Lowe's.  For less than $50 I now have plenty of space to display my X-Wing, Dungeons and Dragons, and associated terrain items.  I also have plenty of space for future purchases, such as Star Wars Armada, etc.  I may look into having some glass panels made for doors.

I mounted the two shelf units to the top of the TV stand and cut the third unit up to add extra shelves in the center and in both units.  

Plenty of space to expand my already extensive X-Wing collection, plus room for lots more.

Tom also gave me a fourth, smaller unit that I mounted to a small drawer unit I use to store my unbuilt models.  I was able to bring all of my hobby supplies out of boxes and put them in reach of my painting desk.