29 May 2015

King of Old and a Swarm



I counted up my Mantic skeletons and discovered I will be one base short of having a nice round number of units. So I painted up an old Citadel figure to use with them, as a leader type figure, along with one of the "emerging" skeletons from the Mantic sprues.




I also dug out an old (already painted) set of swarms to accompany the undead.



23 May 2015

Mantic Skeletons - First Set

Painted up my first group of Mantic skeletons. They are a mix of the regular ones and the Revenants, which I thought look too similar to the regular skeletons to warrant use as some other troop type.

They are OK models for the price. I'm not a huge fan of Mantic's figures in general. But I was more optimistic with the undead after seeing photos online. Once I got them in person, and now after I painted them I am less impressed. Some of the detail is very shallow and just doesn't show up with the paint. Some of the poses are a bit awkward (a few of them reminded me of the Warlord Celts,) including the way some of them were holding their weapons. I'm not really a fan of the "expressive" (cartoon-y?) skulls, either. They're not horrible figures. And they might look better in mass numbers. I'm just not a huge fan so far.

They're also a lot smaller than I expected. They look OK next to the ancient Germans I'm using as "undeadish" and should scale up OK with Perry WotR figures that will end up on the opposite side of the battlefield. But they really look miniscule next to GW and other fantasy figures. This wasn't entirely unexpected, but the difference is more noticeable than I had thought it would be. (At least on the painting/photo table -- I'll have to see how they look on the gaming table.)



18 May 2015

Should Know Better

I've been doing this for a very long time. I should know better. But it's a very humid day, and here on my desk is my first batch of Mantic skeletons & revenants... covered with "fuzzy" primer.


17 May 2015

Basic Table Done

I ended up going a little oldschool with the paint scheme. I've been digging some of the Oldhammer aesthetics I've been seeing around various fora & blogs lately. I did run out of green paint before I had planned on finishing, though.





One of the collateral benefits of terrain projects is that I get to grind some green paint into cheap brushes, which gives me a new batch of tall grasses to use for bases and other terrain pieces.








15 May 2015

New Table WIP

I've decided to start working on a gaming table in the attic. After (far too much) consideration, I decided to go for a quick & easy solution first, with the option to switch to one of my more complex ideas later. This has several benefits: I will get a decent gaming surface in play pretty quickly, and everything can be "upgraded" in phases. So before I started overthinking, I picked up the minimal basics while I was running some errands today: one more set of cube shelves and two flush hollow core interior doors. Next step will be to texture and paint them. I've already got the glue & sand from a previous project.

Here's a couple of pics of them in place. Please excuse the mess. I'm still in the process of cleaning, unpacking, setting up & organizing the attic. My painting/sculpting table off in the opposite corner, on the left side of the second photo.





08 May 2015

Undeadish Cavalry

It may seem like I'm on a painting rush, but these have been mostly done for quite a while. I just finally wrapped them up the last two nights. First group of Undeadish cavalry.



06 May 2015

Skeletal Elite

Finished the first small unit of skeletal elite. Only two fit on a base, which is fine. As long as they appear to have the same "mass" as the other formed units, I'm OK with that. I ended up going back and "dusting" the bottom of the robes, and giving the the edges of the armor & weapons a bit more detail. I like the way they turned out, and think they will look good with the army. I may do another set like this at some point in the future. But I've still got plenty of other stuff I'd like to get done first.






I have been re-thinking the "good guys." I already have some metal (Front Rank, Grenadier, Perry) and plastic (Perry) late 15th century medieval figures that I am considering using as my starting force of militia/levy/men-at-arms instead of my old WFB army. I like this idea for a few different reasons. The landsknecht style figures can still be introduced later on as mercenaries, and I can continue to paint them as my mood dictates.


For now, I should probably finish up the Undeadish and skeletal cavalry that are still sitting on my painting table first, though.

01 May 2015

"Eye Could Use a Little Hand With This"

The hand & eye were part of a 3d printed designer toy I customized for the release show at Rotofugi Gallery in Chicago next week. He's a little bigger scale.  ;) Just finished him up & put him in the mail.