Green Dragon and Space Bug

Just a little painting lately. Green dragon and space bug.

Five Parsecs from Catching Up

It's funny, I've been planning and painting and rolled two separate crews (1st ed. & 2nd ed.) but still haven't played! I've been thinking about the game a bit lately, and how there's a of off-table development involved and I think that's appealing to my currently limited time & space for gaming.

As a result, I've been looking at catching up with my plans and posting of my progress!

First off is this beast. I've been painting a lot of random creatures, personalities, and 'bots that aren't necessarily part of the Five Parsecs rules, but I plan on making some modifications to make it my own campaign after a bit. I just sometimes see (or accidentally obtain) figures and really want to paint them and use them! This was painted many months ago, but I realized I never posted it here.

Some but not all of these were posted here before. These are my "eternals". I have both fantasy and sci-fi versions of each figures (mostly just basing differences.) They are from left to right, a/the Geier, one of my own sculpts that was briefly in production at a small manufacturer; the avatar of Death, a figure of complex and interesting history but now available from Ral Partha Europe; the avatar of Life, an unassuming figure and perfect foil for Death, from Reaper Miniatures; and lastly, Kev, a self-portrait limited edition sculpt by Kev Adams from Wargames Foundry. Somehow I ended up with two Kev figures. One acted (appropriately) as a hero in my now-gone goblin army for many years. Since I had another, I recently figured I may as well paint him up find a role for him in some sci-fi games!

Lastly, some recent figures. I'll be using these as Abductors for Five Parsecs. I was going to leave them out of my games, but saw these Reaper Bones figures at very affordable prices. But I was underwhelmed by the bent poses (tried fixing them with heat & ice water several times), soft detail, and difficult mold lines. I ended up doing a fairly quick paint job on them just to get them over with because I couldn't muster any additional enthusiasm for them. The photo is a bit rough, they do look half decent other than three of them leaning at awkward/unnatural angles.

Almost forgot, I narrowly avoided the Orks in Alabama not long ago...

New Shroomfolk

A little while ago I picked up these three 3d shroom prints. Found some time to paint them recently, pretty happy with them -- prints and painting.

I occasionally think about getting a 3d printer, but I hear it is "a hobby in itself." Plus there are plenty of traditional cast or plastic/resin minis to keep me occupied. But some of that 3d printed terrain that's available.... mmmm.

June OWAC Skaven (Leader) and Skavenslaves

This is the way the challenge ends
Not with a bang but a whimper.

For various reasons, I limped across the finish line for this year's Old World Army Challenge. Not a great year for me. This Grey Seer did turn out pretty well, even if it was the only figure I painted all month.

Last month I painted half of the slaves I had intended to paint, but at least the quantity was lucky number 13!

Due to landlord shenanigans, I lost use of the basement for painting and gaming, and have had to pack up and move most of my stuff into storage. Hopefully temporary, but not sure. The Skavenslaves were painted outside, which looks pleasant but is very difficult on my old eyes.

OWAC April - Clan Skryre

This month's entry is up at the Old World Army Challenge site. I used my wild card month to paint mostly Skryre troops/monsters/contraptions.

Pics below, but click the link above for the full entry.

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A comparison shot of the new (red) Satyr Art Studio jabberwock with the old ones from Ral Partha & Citadel.

Families and Dragons

Last year I had a bit of eBay drama that left me with a headless dragon. I didn't want to let a classic sculpt go to waste, so I made do with a substitution. :) He looks so sad, I figured I'd give him a pet dog to help cheer him up. Not sure where I got teh dog from.

Body & wings are old Tom Meier sculpt from Ral Partha. Head is a spare from the Satyr Art Studio trolls.

Speaking of dragons, I've been on a bit of a roll with them. Yet another old Tom Meier/Ral Partha dragon. Cold drake, more specifically. This one is a repaint of an old figure from my childhood.

I also finished the whole owlbear family. Mama had to go through some reconstructive surgery. I has to sculpt a new beak after dropping her and half of the original broke off. Owlbro & eggs are from Westfalia, the rest are 3d prints I received for Christmas, sculptor unknown.

Speaking of families, I've had these two Reaper half-orcs partially painted on my table for a couple of YEARS. I recently was inspired by the idea of them being a family of successful merchants dealing in exotic wares. Figured they also needed a kid (forget where I got them from). Pet and caravan coming soon. But right now I'm stuck on colors for dad's clothing!

Red Dragon

The first big dragon I painted when I was a kid was a Grenadier red dragon. That figure is long gone, but it was the inspiration for painting this old Ral Partha/Citadel dragon that I bought from eBay last year and recently repaired (broken tail). A bit monochrome, I'm tempted to go back and touch it up a bit. But here it is for now.

Since I've been dabbling with painting dragons again the past year or two, and I'm not sure all of them have made it here, I think I may set up a dragon gallery. I should do the same thing for my giants. And update the undead galleries... when I get the time!

Hill Troll

 

It's been a while since I painted any trolls. I had wanted to collect a set of the later Citadel C20 trolls, but never got very far. I recently managed to get the hill troll, though, and painted it up right away. Halfway there!

Ogres and Fungus and Ooze

Some odds & ends I've painted recently.

A couple of ogres...

One more shruman...

Experimenting with homemade oozes based on other people's blogs...

And some more Shroomfolk. The two on the left are supposed to be "snow golems" but I thought they would make good puffball style mushroom creatures. 

...and one more with a bit more color.

Rats & Fungus

Skaven - Old World Army Challenge VI

As teased previously, I am participating in the Old World Army Challenge again this year. I can let the rat out of the bag now and fess up to painting the verminous Skaven this time around.

You can find my January entry pics and texts at the OWAC site. Group photo below, more at the link.

https://oldworldarmychallenge.blogspot.com/2023/01/zerotwentythrees-january-skaven-130-pts.html

Shrumans

I recently learned there is a new-ish series based on a similar premise as my latest miniatures sidequest. I will have to check it out if I find some time. But with as little free time as I get, I'd rather paint, or game, or get outside if weather permits.

At any rate, I've been developing a backstory within my Althammer setting as I've been building and painting the little critters. I've also got some ideas for some other fungal-themed figures I'd like to try sculpting. What I would really love is to play some games with other human beings and make use of all this worldbuilding and modeling and painting.

At any rate, the Shroomfolk thing is getting out of hand, which isn't a bad thing. Below are seven more shruman figures. I have one more on the painting desk. After that, I need new host miniatures to infect. The old Citadel zombies (and some militia bits) have been working really well. I'll need to find some more and/or some alternate figures.

And one group shot of all of them together!

More 'Shrumans & Shroomfolk

 

Two more 'shrumans painted. I definitely like how these have turned out and will be making some more. I only have a few more zombies worth of bits from the old kit left. Will need to find some other bodies/parts to use after that.

And here's a group shot of all of the Shroomfolk so far.

Owlbro

As 2022 got busy, I slacked off updating this blog and various ongoing threads at the Lead Adventure Forum. I still shared pics on Instagram, and occasionally on a couple of FB groups. But those social media outlets have been less than satisfying.

So I'm aiming to get back to the blog and LAF more.

Part of my atonement, apparently, is catching up. I recently shared a photo of Owlbro's new family, but now realize I never shared Owlbro himself! He's a resin figure from Westfalia Miniatures. I'm honestly not even sure why I bought an Owlbro in the first place. But it was a fun figure to paint and looks pretty cool. And, per the Christmas update, he now has a family.

Ach! It's Them! The 'Shrumans!

 First two 'Shruman test figures.

I'll write more later, but the basic idea is to apply the real world zombie ant fungus to humans (or former humans....) in a more whimsical way in a fantasy setting.

A Little Bit in the New Year

Failed on my End of Year/New Year entry. I'll get back to that and do it right. I've been busy & stressed out.

For now, here's a few things I've worked on latelyish.

Chaos familiar. I didn't fully appreciate how well the face was sculpted until I painted it. The whole range of familiars is really great. I've got an incomplete (half-ish?) set. Maybe I should collect the rest...

Santa brought Owlbro a family. :D

I just couldn't leave the figure alone. Too much color on the scythe. This time I'm really done. No more touch-ups...

Random new development.... 'shrumans. These are the first four.

The 'shrumans will compliment Fried's Shroomhost. I also painted the two big bruisers in the front last week. Would like to get a couple more, as well as some more variety of 'shroomfolk.

Sneaky OWAC teaser.