I painted up three more Dino's for my "The Drowned Earth" game. These are the scary Magnosors. With one Alpha male and a couple of females, our adventurous explorers need to be on the watch for these creatures.
I've been all over the place subject wise these last few months but I have to say I really have fun painting up the dinosaurs.
Here are a few shots....
So I am all excited about this historical game called Border Wars: Under a Reiver Moon. One because I am fourth generation Scottish (yep I am one of those people), and second because who wouldn't want to go full gangsta during the Elizabethan period.
Flags of War came out with this a short time ago as a kickstarter, but know you can order directly from them. They plan on adding to the current line, and they just added some Irish recently. I am totally waiting on getting some of those border hounds.
They are 28mm metal models, and right now they have cattle, sheep, etc. (very important for this as that's what a lot of this was all about, cattle rustling). They have a typical Border family, some envoys, and of course foot soldiers as well as mounted. The figures are beautifully sculpted and cast. Very little flash, and the cursed mold lines.
While I waited to get my order all the way from Scotland, I busied myself with Wargames Atlantic's box set of Conquistadors. They fit the period costume and weapon wise, and they are roughly the same size so will mix in well together.
I just got my order a couple of days ago, but I had already finished five foot figures from the plastic box set. Of course before I went to spray a protective coating on them, my hand brushed up against the one holding the sword up at shoulder height and it snapped in half. I wasn't about to cut the arm off and place another and repaint it all over again, so I just took a piece of wire and made a splint and glued it back together again. People won't notice unless I point it out, and I am not trying to win any painting contests, I just want to bloody game.
In the meantime I have a friend (you know who you are) that is making some blue foam terrain buildings for me. I am super geeked.
Here are the five figures I have done.....
The fourth and final figure for my Aristeia! team is Murtair. The original model, while very nice, wasn't what I was looking for in a Werewolf like figure. I wanted him to be full Werewolf or more human form. So I decided on using a proxy figure from Corvus Belli's Infinity game. I chose Wolfgang Amadeus Wolff. I really wanted something in full Wolf form but that was to expensive of a solution to get what I wanted.
The following is a quote from the website about his background:
"Duncan Brewster, aka Murtair, “assassin” in Gaelic, was a shining star in the Caledonia National Dog-Bowl League, the most brutal sport on archaic Ariadna. Elevated to the Olympus that is Aristeia! thanks to his main sponsor, Aura Biochemical, he now triumphs where no member of his species has ever done so before, among the stars.
Trapped in the hybrid body of a human and a wolf-like alien and cursed with a grisly temper, he’s also the frontman of the quantronic-trash band Full Moon’s Dead. But Murtair is also quite the teenage heartthrob and, according to specialized media, has an impeccable taste for art and fashion.
No one can behold his sinuous, predatory movements and not get chills up their spine. It’s like running into trouble after taking a wrong turn in a dark alley. Murtair knows this all too well and exploits it, both inside the HexaDome and out. He’s pure violence molded into a smoking hot bod, and a sure bet for a night you won’t forget."
Here is a picture of the game's model.....
"Upon it sat a shape, black-mantled, huge and threatening. A crown of steel he bore, but between rim and robe naught was there to see, save only a deadly gleam of eyes: the Lord of the Nazgûl... now he was come again, bringing ruin, turning hope to despair, and victory to death. A great black mace he wielded. "
Indeed despair is what I would feel if I were to cross this evils path in the night...
When painting black, you simply can not paint it black. Light reflecting off black can give you all sorts of colors, black grey, black blue, etc. Getting this right on a miniature figure requires patience and lots of blending, glazes, or whatever technique you choose. The trick is to bring it together in a soft way, otherwise you have it looking too stark and you see the reflections and not the black. In other words, too much and it looks grey or blue instead of black.
I am coming to better understand color theory and able to look at colors and know what bottle of paint to grab, but patience and perfecting technique is something that takes a lot of practice.
I think I am getting better, and though my goal is not to be a Golden Demon winner, it is to satisfy myself. I am somewhere in-between with these two models (in softness and starkness) I have posted below, but I am satisfied with what I have done. My gaming table will definitely be better when this model is placed on the field.
I've upgraded and added to my Moorish cavalry and finished my last four this past week. Suffering through an abscess tooth and all. When one doesn't feel good it's hard to focus on your painting, but I muddled through and here are the last four, then it's on to painting camels.
Here is the second addition to my four man team for "Aristeia! The Game". I am using Táowù alternate model called Táowù Mastermind. I love the alternate model as it gives me the feel of the old Chinese Kung Fu movies I watched when I was a kid..... a very long time ago.
He was fun to paint, but white, man oh man, white. I am still experimenting and learning how to do white and not just make it look like I simply spray painted white on it. I need more practice but I am happy with how it came out. Here is a little background on my master of quantum waves.
"He is the knower of all plans, the surfer of the quantum waves and the waters of chance.
Táowù has meticulously plotted out his life with the utmost precision. He has never made a misstep nor failed to take advantage of the missteps of others.
His grasp of the intricacies of social behavior is such that he can unleash Armageddon by uttering a single word.
Táowù is unacquainted with failure because he knows that in show business mistakes are paid for with the currency of ridicule and mockery. All who have accused him of mistakes eventually have no other choice but to admit it was in fact they who were mistaken, exposing themselves to public scorn.
Always keep in mind that Táowù is always exactly where he intends to be and, if he leaves, it’s because he wants to."
[below is original look]
