I Smell a Rat! | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 12)

Finally wrapping up this series about 3 months late...

I will make the last entry into this series short. Rats (especially Giant Rats) are a staple vermin in any fantasy setting.

As with many of my 'mobs' and generic baddies, these have been basecoated, ink washed, drybrushed with 1-2 layers of highlights, then details added.

Dire Rats/Giant Rats - All of the individual rats are actually sci-fi vermin--Necromunda Mutant Rats. The Giant Rat Swarm (the large base in the back) are from an unknown company.

Rats - All of these figures are from GW. They are originally from Mordheim, Basic Hero Quest and WHFB minis.

To see the previous posts in this series, see the following links:

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | 

Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11

Grin and Bear it | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 11)

I love bad puns... and I'm really bad at them!!!  

Today I present a quintet of bears.

1. A plastic toy bear (early 00s)
2. A D&D Miniature Dire Bear (mid 00s)
3. A plastic toy bear (early 00s)
4. A metal bear miniature from "I Don't Remember Co." (late 90s)
5. A WHFB Wood Elf Animal Handlers bear (late 90s)

Short and sweet today. Thant's all today folks. Ta ta!

Motley Crew | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 10)

I think this series is getting a little long in the tooth. I will be ending it shortly and present the remainder of my Fantasy RPG Figure Collection in a different way.

First of we have some felines...

1. A pair of D&D Miniature Guenhwyvar (mid 00s)
2. This is a Saber-tooth Tiger, but I don't remember the foundry that made it (early 00s)

The Saber-tooth is the only one I painted. I don't remember if this was for a generic encounter or painted specifically for a player. The photo does not do the figure justice. All the interim shading steps are lost--There is a dark base coat, an ink wash, followed by 5 successively lighter highlights.

Next we have a variety of small four-legged mammals...

1. A trio of Boars; foundry unknown (late 90s)
2. A D&D Miniature Fiendish Dire Wolverine (early 80s)
3. A D&D Miniature Fiendish Dire Weasel (mid 00s)
4. A quartet  of D&D Miniature Celestial Dire Badgers (late 80s)

In this group, the Boars are the only figures painted by me. Nothing special here... they look in RL pretty much like they do in the image.

To see the previous posts in this series, click below.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9

Air Superiority | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 9)

A smorgasbord of flying thingies!

Can't have too many flying pests to annoy an adventuring party with. This installment of my RPG Figure Collections focuses on small flying creatures.

This is a GW Vampire Counts Bat Swarm.

A flock of GW Warmaster Carrion

These are actually sci-fi creatures. I based them of fantasy (square) bases as I wanted to bolster my selection of monsters for D&D. They are fGW Necromunda Ripper Jacks.

Lastly, here is a selection of various familiars--A hawk, cat, owl, and eagle.

All but 2 minis were painted within days of each other about 10-12 years ago. They were speed painted (and based)--Base cote, dry-brush hi-light, and ink wash... done! It took a total of about 2 hours from primer to matte cote for the lot. 

That all this time. To see the previous posts in this series, click below.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8

Cold Blooded | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 8)

'Ere we gots ssome snakeses and ssome ribbiterz...

A small group of reptiles and amphibians. Although, these don't come into use too often. 

Not much to say about these guys. The only ones I painted are 2, 4, 8, and 9.

1. A D&D Miniature Giant Grog (mid 00s)
2. This is a wood sculpted toy/trinket (early 80s)
3. A D&D Miniature Giant Grog (mid 00s))
4. A GW Talisman Toad (late 80s)
5. A D&D Miniature Displacer Serpent (mid 00s)
6. A D&D Miniature Fiendish Snake(mid 00s)
7. A D&D Miniature Iron Cobra (mid 00s)
8. I no longer remember where this mini came from (early 80s)
9. And #8s partner (early 80s)

Thats all for this post. Hope you come back again!

To see the previous posts in this series, click below.

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7

Man's Best Friend | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 7)

This is a short one today. Dogs and a beast of burden are up next in my collection series.

Only a few figures to show off this time around. The donkey was included as it seemed to fit here best.

1. A Mordheim Dog from GW (late 90s)
2. 1 of 2 war dogs from a set by Grenedier I think (late 80s)
3. A very old GW donkey. It came with a small cart. I added the green-stuff baggage (late 80s)
4. 2 of 2 war dogs from a set by Grenedier I think (late 80s)
5. This is either a GW or Reaper dog (early 00s)

I wish I had about 10 dogs in total (for RPG purposes) I always seem to need more than I have.

Let me know if you have any question or comments about this series. Any suggestion on how to improve them is welcome too.

If you like this article, see below for the previous articles in this series:
Part 1: Wagons Ho!
Part 2: Constructing Elementals (part 1)
Part 3: Constructing Elementals (part 2)
Part 4: Giants Among Us
Part 5: Have Horse, Will Travel
Part 6: Bark at the Moon

Bark at the Moon | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 6)

Here's the next installment of my RPG figure collection. Going through all these figures in various qualities of paint are beginning to inspire me to re-do some of them.

Unlike the horses in my last Fantasy RPG Figure Collection post, I do know the companies that produced these figures.

1. 1 of 4 wolves, part of a Grenadier Orc Chariot seen in this post (late 80's)
2. 2 of 4 wolves, part of a Grenadier Orc Chariot seen in this post (late 80's)
3. A D&D Miniatures Dire Wolf (mid 00s)
4. Freki, one of Leman Russ' personal wolves from GW (late 80s)
5. A D&D Miniatures Winter Wolf (mid 00s)
6. 3 of 4 wolves, part of a Grenadier Orc Chariot seen in this post (late 80's)
7. A GW Goblin Wolf Rider wolf (early 90s)
8. 4 of 4 wolves, part of a Grenadier Orc Chariot seen in this post (late 80's)
9. Geri, one of Leman Russ' personal wolves from GW (late 80s)
10. A GW Goblin Wolf Rider wolf (early 90s)
11. A GW Goblin Wolf Rider wolf (early 90s)

There have been a few times when I considered re-basing the D&D Miniature figures into my standard basing style. But the main reason I don't is that I have this crazy idea that I will actually play D&D Miniatures!!

That's all for my wolves. Next up are dogs. 

If you like this article, see below for the previous articles in this series:

Part 1: Wagons Ho!

Part 2: Constructing Elementals (part 1)

Part 3: Constructing Elementals (part 2)

Part 4: Giants Among Us

Part 5: Have Horse, Will Travel

Have Horse, Will Travel | Fantasy RPG Figure Collection (part 5)

I have done these kind of posts before, but decided to give them a proper name! Behold the "Fantasy RPG Figure Collection" series!

None of these figures are painted to an exceptional level, and only a few are painted to what I would consider (now) as table top standard. I don't remember the manufacturer of each figure, but they are likely a mix of Grenadier, RAFM and Reaper.

1. Random horse, came with rider (early 00s)
2. My first horse figure, came with rider and standing version (early 80s)
3. My second horse figure, came with rider (mid 80s)
4. Random horse, came with rider (early 00s)
5. One of a pair of "adventurer's horses", came without rider (mid 00s)
6. PC's horse, came with rider and standing version (late 90s)
7. One of a pair of "adventurer's horses", came without rider (mid 00s)
8. Female PC's horse, came with rider and standing version (mid 90s)

The reason these horses do not have riders attatched is because I primarily use (and re-use) them as steeds for PCs and NPCs. I'll either place the character's mini next to the horse, or add a label with the rider's name on the saddle.

Horse number 6 was the only horse that had its rider painted.

Here are the past articles in this series:

Part 1: Wagons Ho!

Part 2: Constructing Elementals (part 1)

Part 3: Constructing Elementals (part 2)

Part 4: Giants Among Us

Giants Among Us

Another post in my Retro series. This one includes minis painted by me and a number from my Dungeons and Dragons Miniatures collection. There is a GW knight in each picture for scale.

This giant skeleton is a Grenadier miniature that I have had for years. I painted it up during my D&D campaign about 8 years ago. I added a downed hero on the base (origin unknown). The base is a little weird--I added a "green slime"  in the middle of the base for some reason.

Here is a trio of Hill Giants and a Rock Giant. The four of them are from different companies and bought many years ago. They were painted around 10 years ago. The bases are my "deluxe" treatment from that era.

Behir and a pair of Fiendish Tyrannosauruses

A pair of Treants

I included a GW Treant in this shot. You can see the other "Treemen" figures in my collection in this post.

A Warforged Titan and a huge Fire Elemental

The mini versions of the titanic creatures are based on 50mm GW monstrous creature bases. Yoiu can find the rest of my Warforged/Iron Golem and my Fire Elemental collection here and here.

A Pit Fiend, a Bluespawn Godslayer, and a Glabrezu

A pair of Nightwalkers and a pair of Bulettes

A pair of Cloud Giants and a Storm Giant

A pair of Fomorians

Fire and Ice

We end the collection with a quartet consisting of: A Frost Giant, King Snurre (a Fire Giant), a Fire Giant Forgepriest, and a plain old Fire Giant. 

I don't know if these kind of posts are of any interest. But I ride the fence between role-player and war-gamer and between hobbyist and collector. In all cases, I like eye candy on the table. These models, figures or toys help to create such a scene.

Constructing Elementals (part 2)

In a brief part 2 of this article, I showcase my constructs, or golems.

This trio represents a clay, wood, and stone golem. I believe all three are Reaper minis. All three are mounted on GW 40mm square bases and have my basic painted sand/ballast/pebble basing.

This quartet of iron golems are from two different sources. The first and third are from the D&D Chainmail line (the one that predated their CMG line) and the second and third are Mage Knight figures. All of them have been based on GW bases (25mm and 40mm) and have a similar basing style.

Constructing Elementals (part 1)

Today is a few pics of figures I painted about 10 years ago. They represent the 4 elements or Earth, Water, Air, and Fire.

You may notice in the following pictures that some of the figures are pre-painted. Yes, I said it! I have no shame in admitting that I bolster my own painted D&D monsters and NPCs with pre-painted figures.

Back when I started our 3e D&D campaign (14 years ago), it was the first time as an adult that I had been GM. One consequence to that was that I had a very limited collection of D&D "bad guy" figures. I had plenty of orcs, goblins and other Warhammer FB creatures, but none of the other standard D&D monster fair.

So I began amassing figures. This created a ton of work-load in the painting department. To offset that, I would incorporate the new at the time D&D Collectible Miniatures Game (CMG). Not only were they already painted, but there were many races and creatures that weren't even available in metal.

Another source I used to make monsters was HeroClix. That was another CMG relatively new at that time. How do super hero figures fit into D&D you ask? Well I will point out a few examples below. There is a skeleton in each of the shots to help show scale.

Fist off, we have my assortment of Earth Elementals specific to the Ent lineage. This collection comprises of 3 GW Treemen, 4 GW Dryads, and 9 WotC Twig Blights (made specifically to coincide with the first 3e module "The Sunless Citadel").

Next we have a trio of more traditional Earth Elementals. The two on the right are Reaper figs (I think). Not sure if it counts as a conversion per se, but I sculpted and painted the bases to look like the creature was made from the ground it is standing on.

The left most figure is a HeroClix Man-Thing re-based and re-painted.

This is the assortment of Air Elementals. The back three are from Reaper. The bases have been sculpted and painted to be part of the figure.

The front row are figures from the D&D CMG line. 

Water Elementals are next. You will likely be surprised to find out where the front two figures came from. They are from a HeroClix Auquaman figure--It is the wave he stood on. I simply snapped him off and glued the "wave" to a new base.

The left and right most figures are from Reaper to my best recollection. They have also had their bases made to match the figure.

The lonely little guy in the back is a D&D CMG mini.

Lastly we have the Fire Elementals. The row of 6 figures in the back are Reaper and double as Wall of Fire or elementals if I am running short--Hey! Can't have too many Fire Elementals!! 

In the middle row we have a Reaper, HeroClix and Reaper fig. As with the other Reaper minis above, the bases have been made to look like part of the creature. The HeroClix figure is a Human Torch. 

The front row comprise two HeroClix and two D&D CMG minis.

Well, that about wraps it up. In part 2 of this article, I will finish off by showing my Golem collection ("Constructing" Elementals... get it? Yeah, really bad).

I can't put my finger on it, but what ever reason is, I am OK with using pre-painted figures for D&D encounters. However, I would never do so (without some sort of converting and re-painting) for a PC or a WHFB/WH40K army.

RPG Mobs - Rak'gol WIP

Here is a proof of concept for a group of Rak'gol figures I will be converting. I am using a HeroClix Brood figure as the base. The finished models will be boxier and less "lizard-like" than illustrations in Rogue Trader: The Koronus Bestiary, but I think they will make a good representation.

Another angle 

The pieces were fiddly enough, I was having a hard time using poster-tac to hold everything together so I glued this one together. I intend to dremel out sockets for the "legs" for a better fit.

I have already sourced enough Brood figures and Tyranid bitz to make 16 Rak'gol in the various ranks depicted in the rule book.

RPG Mobs - Dark Eldar WIP

Here is another installment of the series showcasing the models I have put together (past and present) for our role-playing games. In this installment we have Dark Eldar...

Third Edition Boxed Set Dark Eldar

I recently and secretly painted up some bad guys for our GM. I wasn't sure if these would be used in Dark Heresy or Deathwatch, nor when they would appear.

Well they just popped, so I can share what I have done so far. These showed up in our Deathwatch campaign as a twist to the mission we were deployed on, so we were not tooled up for them!

I don't have the most recent DE Codex nor was I able to get a hold of more current DE bits. The sprues only had slinter pistols, rifles and cannons, so I looked at some of the models on GW's site for weapon variation ideas.

These were built with RP'ing in mind and not wargaming, so I wasn't trying to make proper squads, but here is the rundown of what's what:

• Warrior w/ Splinter Cannons x3
• Warrior w/ Splinter Rifles x10
• Warrior w/ Splinter Pistols/CC weapon x3
• Sybarite w/ Hand Flamer/CC Weapon
• Sybarite w/ 2-Handed Axe
• Sybarite w/ Dark Lance
• Sybarite w/ Agonizer and Poisoned Blade
• Dracon w/ Hell mask, Poisoned Blade, and Psychic Energy

I wish I could have also made 1-3 models each from the other unit in the DE range, but I just wasn't able to.

The paint scheme turned out much brighter than I intended. Since this project was a quickie and possibly-one-use-mob, I wasn't up to edge highlighting these models. Instead, I chose to dry-brush. Unfortunately, I was too liberal with the base coat and covered up almost all of the black. I intended to go back with some washes to darken up the armor, but I ran out of time.

I will still finish up the last bit of detail before boxing them up for long term hyper-sleep.

RPG Mobs - Genestealers

This is the first installment of a new series entitled RPG Mobs. On occasiona, I bang out some baddies for our PC's to fight. They usually aren't anything spectacular as I aim for low table top quality. However, I think there will be something of interest, weather it be older models, creative mods/techniques, ore something else. Enjoy!

L: Cut in purple detail and washed
R: Primed

These are Genestealers from the 1st and 2nd edition Space Hulk sets, and from Advanced Space Crusade. I love the original paint scheme and set out to try and quickly replicate the look. We are using these for a series of Deathwatch missions (clearing out a Space Hulk... WOO HOO!!!)

I started with a can of spray paint from the local hardware store. I wanted a light blue-grey and what I found is perfect! After the primer dried, I added in the purple areas. Unfortunately, the spray paint was semi-gloss and I had issues with painting over it. The next time I will try hitting it with a clear matte-cote before painting.

Next, I washed the entire figure with a 4:1 mix of black to blue wash (I used GW's Badab and Asurmen). When that was dry I hit all the claws and teeth with a tan--Eventually, I will highlight that with Ivory. Lastly, the tongue.

The entire brood

Overall, this went very quick. As for basing, I will probably use "granny grid" and plasitcard to create a simple tech-deck.

That's about all I have to say about these guys. Although, I may not be able to prevent myself from adding a little bit of highlighting to the blue and purple before I call this project done.

Hope you enjoy this series!