Thursday, January 21, 2016

Dungeon

I was finally able to get some pics of my very small dungeon.  I'm using Hirst Arts cobblestone wall and cracked 1" floor tiles.  I have been looking at other people's dungeons and trying to find something that would work for me.  I decided to go with this style as I like the way it looks.  I plan to use these pieces for HeroQuest, Advanced HeroQuest, or any other dungeon crawling game.  This was the real reason why I wanted to start painting my orcs and goblins.



The last pic is an exploded view to show the pieces I used.  In the future, I plan to use larger pieces.  The hallways will be one piece not two.  The tiles are glued onto some black foam board, then everything is coated in Mod Podge, which I found out is just water downed white glue.  I then spray painted everything black, then painted the floor and walls.


I was originally just making random pieces with no plan at all.  When I tried to arrange them into a functioning dungeon I realized that I needed a plan of attack.  This is what I would like to eventually make.

Here are some action shots.
This isn't where I parked my car...







Justin








Tuesday, January 19, 2016

Medieval/ Crusaders

Prior to buying my Reaper Adventurers, I was planning to have my orcs/goblins fight some medieval humans.  After looking at figures from what seemed like everywhere, I decided to focus more on  the 2nd/3rd Crusade time frame.  I wanted my humans to be in chainmail not in full plate.   This did narrow down the choice of figures.  I eventually decided to go with Black Tree Miniatures as my base core group.  I was tempted by Fireforge Crusaders, Conquest's Normans and Perry Miniatures Crusaders.  Fireforge was a little too late and Conquest and Perry were a little too early for my liking but they might make an appearance after I convert them to my liking.  The fact that Black Tree was having a sale on their figures did help sway my decision :)  I now plan to use them in skirmish games against my orc horde when they are not fighting in a dungeon.  Any C&C is welcome.  




Monday, January 18, 2016

New Adventurer #8 and #9

Just finished a male adventurer in a suit of armor.  His armor looks similar to a female warrior (a few posts down) that I have already painted.  Maybe they were both sent by the same Lord to handle the "nasty business" of killing orcs and their like.



Here is #9  a no nonsense merc.
His pose is a little weird, but he was fun to paint



And the group picture



Justin

Sunday, January 17, 2016

British Commandos Update

After I initially posted the pictures of the commandos over at LAF, some mistakes were pointed out and have now been corrected.  The uniforms were too brown and have now been given a wash to tint to a more greenish/brown color.  The handle/ changing handle was painted wood color, and the knit cap was painted a muted green.  I think they look so much better now, but that's just me :)


Justin

Thursday, January 14, 2016

Random painted items

Towards the tail end of 2015 I started to do something new, commission painting.  I've always thought about doing this but the idea never went beyond that, an idea.  Then one day I was looking at some figures, which I do a lot now that I think about it, and meandered over to the Black Tree Design site.  I've been eyeballing some orcs and goblins (see previous post) and some Crusaders for a while now and decided to take the plunge and buy a pack or two....just to test the waters :)  While on the site I saw that they were looking to update their store to have colored pictures of their figures.  Now I don't think I'm a great painter, but I don't think I'm bad either.  At least my wife tells me they look great :)  So long story short, I threw my name into the bag and they sent me some figures to paint.  My first commission.
 They sent me some WW2 Russian Sailors and some Naked Viking Beserkers.  Which I unfortunately forgot to take pictures of in my rush to sent them back when I was done.  The next batch I was sent were some WW2 British Commandos with Bren guns and a Fantasy mounted Shadow Elf.  I have to admit it is a nice change of pace to paint something completely random.  I did remember to take pictures this time.... I'll let you figure out which is which :)






Any C and C is welcome.

Justin

Wednesday, January 13, 2016

Another Dwarf Adventurer, #7

Here is another addition to my growing band of adventurers.  He is from Reaper Miniatures.  He definitely looks like he means business with two axes and all that armor.  Any C&C welcome.



Justin

Sunday, January 10, 2016

A dwarf warrior

I finished a dwarf warrior for another adventurers band.  This one has more Viking influence than my previous adventurers.  He is a Reaper Bones miniature.  Not sure how I feel about the bendy plastic.  One thing i did learn is that you do not use spray paint to base coat the mini.  It never dries but stays tacky.  If you use brush on paint then everything is ok.  I don't know why the figure looks shiny, it must be a trick of the camera.


Any C&C is welcome.

Justin

Friday, January 8, 2016

Adventurers

Here are the promised adventurers.  They are all Reaper miniatures.  I knew some Reapers were large but these figures tower over my "normal humans".  I guess heroes are larger than life :)  I have about 25 adventurers all total.  They will be used to fight my orcs and goblins in the dungeon.  I'm going to have to paint some more soon.  With just the 5 of them, I fear that they bit off more than they can chew.

Male Elf Warrior


Female Human Warrior


Male Human Bard


Female Dwarf Ranger

Male Human Wizard



Any C&C welcome.
Whew...two posts in two days!  I feel dizzy and need a stiff drink :)

Justin

Thursday, January 7, 2016

Orcs and Goblins

Well I guess "soon" means the new year :)  Well lets kick 2016 off with a bang!  I finished up most of the orcs and goblins, only have 8 orcs and 16 goblins to go.  I plan on using them as my main villains for my adventurers to fight.  I've also finished my first batch of said adventurers.

Anyways, onto the pictures.....

Ral Partha Troll


Black Tree Orcs

Black Tree Orcs

Warhammer Fantasy Regiment Orc

Fantasy Reg. orcs with new heads and weapons

Same as above, but with 90's GW plastic orcs with spear arms and a Battlemaster orc

Battle master goblins wit new arms, center is original
Black Tree goblins, love the guys


GW snotlings and Alternative Armies goblins

The recently painted gang
size comparison




The troll is from Ral Partha, the larger orcs are from Black Tree Design, the other orcs are from the old Warhammer fantasy regiment box from the 80's.  I swapped out the weapon with weapons from my bits box.  The heads are old GW plastic goblin heads with shaved down noses.  Some orcs from the Battlemasters game floating around in the group too.  There are some goblins from the fantasy regiment box (the ones with a bow), also a lot of goblins from Battlemasters.  I just swapped out some arms to add variety to a single pose figure.  I also painted up some Black Tree goblins, they are the old Harlequin miniatures.  To round out the hoard, I have some GW snotlings and some Alternative Armies goblins to act as lesser goblins.  I wanted to stay away from the green skin as that never made any sense to me.  If the are grown from fungus then wouldn't they be the color of mushrooms?  I for one have never seen a bright green mushroom.  I wanted them to look real, or real as orcs and goblins can be.

The back story that I made up for them is that the larger orcs (great orcs) were part of a war host that lost a large battle.  They were a small group that saw what was about to happen and ran away before they were killed.  The orcs were followed by the other army (a human crusade like army, pictures to follow soon) till the great orcs found a cave in a mountain range to hold up in.  After exploring the cave they found an entrance to a forgotten mountain fort/under castle (pictures to follow).  Here they made their base and started to raid the countryside.   Over time orcs, goblins, lesser goblins, and a troll joined their raids and now there is a small army living in the ruined fort.  This has caused a lot of problems for the local officials as the raids have gone from a nuisance cattle raid to a full out assault and sacking of villages and towns.  A reward has been posted for anyone who can remove this threat.
This has caused adventurers to flock to the area in the hope of claiming the large reward.

Let me know what you think of the figures.  I'll get the adventurers posted in a few days, hopefully :)