And Just Like That... Three Months Go By!

 

Apparently it has been three months since my last update. There has been a bit going on lately. For one, I had some down time due to a thumb injury...

I have also done a bit of travelling (survived a tornado near Chicago, an earthquake near LA, and less dramatic visits to Palm Desert/Joshua Tree NP, and Miami) for work. On the topic of work, I have also made a significant career change and taken a new job. To be honest... I've also been a bit uninspired lately. I think my head has just been elsewhere with everything else going on. Really, I'm not terribly good at keeping up with this blog lately either.

But there has still been painting going on, though no real gaming.

I wasn't very successful with my "Five Months From Painted Factions" but I did make some more progress. I built and painted some mutants!

I also painted Ambassador Khan Cern. He has no patience for your shenanigans.

Following up on my previous Five Bananas entry, I purchased my crew. Just tonight I started putting a bit of paint on them. More to come on that soon. "Soon." Like maybe in a few months again?

For now, I have also returned to painting the mercenaries that I had started working on before my thumb injury.

On the fantasy side....

Satyr Art Studio zombies...

...and some old Ral Partha zombies.

The middle figure is my D&D character, if the family D&D campaign ever gets started. Nettie Coldwater, middle-aged empty nester forest gnome turned druid. This is the second time I have painted this figure from Reaper Miniatures. The one on the left is the "stock" figure, and Nettie was converted a bit to more accurately reflect my character. The dog on the right was painted previously but I was thinking that it would be interesting if she brought her dog along with her.

Random daemon. Daemonette. Had the figure, figured I would paint it for my mixed-daemon horde. 

D&D figure, Grick. 

Dwarf With No Name.

Giant flies/stirges.

Painted a couple of tiny bunny toys, inspired by the Black Rabbit of Inle.

Fungus infected ant swarm.

I was fortunate to live within the path of the recent total eclipse in the US. I could not get a good pic during the total eclipse, and really didn't want to spend that brief time messing around with my phone trying to take pics instead of fully enjoying the experience. But here's the closest thing -- I got a couple of decent pics of the approach to totality.

New Year New...?

2023 ended not with a bang, but a whimper. But over the last week of the old year and the first week or so of the new year, I did get a little painting time in. 

I did some more painting and basing of "unaligned chaos daemons." I've been thinking about that idea since I received the Drachenfels figure a few years ago. It/he has long since been painted, and I even (finally) finished the novel! Lately my mind has turned back to the idea of chaos as chaotic, like in old Moorcock novels & early fantasy gaming. Not a bunch of organized, uniform creatures.

This will be a slow, ongoing project. I'll just keep adding any odd figures that seem like they belong as I continue to work on other projects.

Since I started this entry a week or so ago, I've added some more. Most are actually for a potential D&D campaign, but I feel they will fit the chaos vibe. The undead gnoll things I just got because I thought they looked cool. :)

The ochre jelly is homemade from some wire and melted hot glue, similar to some I did previously with different paint. The flameskull is just a plastic skull with some crudely sculpted flames. I liked the floating skull thing I did the same with a Bones cow skull painted blue. The rest are soft plastic D&D figurses

I also finally painted a pair of figures to represent our current two dogs. I had one but had been searching for the other for over a year before painting. On the left is Moji-Tater, our Corgi-Sheltie mix. He's the youngest. In the center is Cookie, a shelter rescue dog who we think may be a mix of Boxer & Border Collie. On the right is Sasha aka "Muffin Butt", another shelter dog who passed away almost 10 years ago. She was a German Shepherd-Husky mix. Cookie was the tough one to find, but since I was recently looking at D&D figures I found a pack of three dogs, one was a pointer with a pretty close body & head shape, but I had to cut off the ears and re-sculpt them to fit the real thing.

I've also painted a few sci-fi figures of mixed quality & complexity. The first is an Eru-Kin and jagual figure from Knightmare Games. I will be using Eru-Kin for K'Erin in Five Parsecs From Home. You can almost rearrange the the letters to shift between teh two names. Maybe the apostrophe is for the "u"? This one will be a member of my crew. 

I also finished the space goblins/Malig from Alternative Army's Ion Age range, which will serve as pirates in Five Parsecs. I painted a test figure earlier in 2023, but never got any further until December. One more faction down, and another month of "Five Months From Painted Factions" under my belt!

Lastly, my slacker painting from this week. First is Orbus, a sentient sphere of what appears to be some sort of plasma like matter. No one knows for sure. Orbus is literally a pearlescent bead on a stick. I didn't even paint it. Just drill a hole, make a base, and glue it on the stick. Next to that is the second of the two D&D nothics that came in the pack. One is for D&D, the other I thought would make a good sci-fi alien or mutant. Super quick paint job, mostly just abase coat, wash, then a few details. I almost want a whole squad of them now.

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 the 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 had 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!

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.

Supporting Characters 01 - Alt Trader

Since I am finally diving back into retro "Alt Trader" sci-fi with my 2021 Old World Army Challenge Eldar and finally painting up some Meat Hating Robot Pirates, I've started thinking about the larger setting. Not too large, mind you. But enough to give some context and purpose to my project.

 

So I've got a general concept of a far corner of the galaxy occupied by the Imperium. The border along the Void, a vast and theoretically empty space. Starting to get an idea for a couple of locations. One planet in the border region, nominally under Imperial control, but administrated in a semi-feudal style manner. Another being a large independent space station (Carcosa) in the uncontrolled Void.

I'd like to start collecting some "supporting characters" for the settings and (hopefully) future games & campaigns. Some will be generic, some will represent specific recurring characters. This is all a bit similar to my fantasy project, but smaller. For now I'm keeping it vague and working with what I've got...

 

 

Like these two freshly painted chaps. On the left is a Grenadier figure, (c) 1990, with the base stamped M423. I think it may be an old fantasy orc...? Not sure, it appears to have horns on its head. I would love to know the provenance of the figure.. But for me, the whole look seemed like a good fit for supervisor or senior tech in a dock. On the right is a figure I got at the Oldhammer Day 2016, I think he was sent to our group from someone who provided him for one of the UK Oldhammer days. I'm sure someone else can help shed some light on the provenance of this figure as well. A very Wez looking tribute to Road Warrior and the tome of Rogue Trader.

I also based/re-based a few figures for use in the new project/setting:

 

I'm currently digging through my old figures and online sources for more "supporting characters". Suggestions for figure sources are welcome. Looking for that old Rogue Trader & '70s/'80s sci-fi aesthetic, but open to a lot of other stuff too.

Upsized Giant

My first completed Drewtember figure is the recently released cloud giant, a tribute to the old Ral Partha figure by Tom Meier -- which happens to be one of my favorite oldschool miniatures. Both together, Drew/Satyr Art Studio on left, Tom/Partha on the right.

 

Besides painting, one of my joys has been the enjoyment of our modest gardens - both flower and vegetable. At times it's a bit of a train-wreck due to the neighborhood wildlife and neighborhood fungus plague, but we've managed to pull through. The most plentiful of our "crops" has been one of the basil plants that's grown to an insane size, and three hot pepper plants. I've been making and freezing (or giving away to friends) pesto made from the former, and recently I've been experimenting with hot sauces for the latter. This past weekend's production, in addition to the painted giant:

Drewtember

In recent years I've jumped onto a lot of painting challenges. I just finished my second Old World Army Challenge. Most of the rest are monthly challenges like Orctober, Deadcember, etc.

After a painting slump in August, I'm working up some motivation for September. I just received the Satyr Art Studio tribute to Tom Meier's old cloud giant figure. I've also received Lempo the giant forest troll from Sandstorm Miniatures, and the trollwives & trollkids, also from Satyr, a few months ago. All sculpted by Drew Williams. Thus...

Drewtember!

I know... Even more contrived than most of the others. Whetever. I have a bunch of his recent sculpts, I'm going to challenge myself to paint them this month. Good enough for me. ;)

Trollwives & Trollkids

Cloud Giant next to his inspiration from Ral Partha.

Lempo from Sandstorm Miniatures. As much as I hate to do it, one arm will need to be painted separately.

Maybe a bit hard to see, but the tiny baby birds in the nest in Lempo's antlers have their beaks open ready to feed while (presumably) mamma bird looks on. Little details like this are one of several reasons why I'm a a huge fan of Drew's sculping.

Oldschool trolls & giants on my desk? I'd better replenish my stock of 'shrooms.