Hammer Time

Pictures of the completed Koschei green went up last night over at Fractured Dimensions' Infernal Minions of the Outer Planes Kickstarter. Wow! I wouldn't change a thing. A fitting homage to some cover art from long ago:

There are differences to be sure; hopefully enough to avoid a future cease & desist letter from whoever holds the I.P. rights (WOTC?). Even should that happen (as it did with campaigns from Dark Platypus and Center Stage) a little tinkering (i.e. name change) should fix the problem (knock on wood).

That said, I am enthusiastically backing this project which has entered its final 36 hours. Brett at FD had plenty of outstanding greens ready to go even before the campaign kicked off. The stretch goals that have been unlocked, as well as those that remain, will result in some amazing minis once turned over to Paul Muller's capable hands.

Summertime Blues

Things have been pretty slow around the paint cave lately. That being said, I have finished one mini recently: Otherworld Miniatures' type II demon. The blue and olive scheme seen here was inspired by a Hugh Jamieson illustration. As for the miniature itself, it's a great example both of OW's commitment to quality and Paul Muller's flair for sculpting the denizens of the underworld. More on the last point later.

 The olive paint didn't behave quite as expected. The first time through I shaded by adding dark brown and highlighted by adding Reaper's Bloodless Skin. This looked OK in terms of light vs dark but a bit weird otherwise. I suspect that by adding a warm brown to the shadows and a cool zombie flesh-tone to the highlights I had violated the rules regarding color temperature.

Long story short, I glazed away most of my work with the original base color (GW Death World Forest), shaded with a cool color (P3 Coal Black), and highlighted with a warm (Reaper Bronzed Highlight). Big improvement.

As for the wisdom of photographing an olive miniature against an olive background, I throw myself on the mercy of the court.

 

 

 

 

Returning to the talented Mr. Muller, I am currently backing Fractured Dimensions' Infernal Minions Kickstarter. All the new sculpts made possible thereby will be sculpted by Paul Muller. The campaign has entered its final week and, while it long ago hit its modest funding goal, it's been barely sputtering along for a while now.

WARNING: URGENT APPEAL TO FOLLOW

I urge anyone who shares my appreciation for Paul Muller's work to check out the Kickstarter. Look past the ho-hum concept art and general complexity of the page and focus instead on the amazing greens already completed. Then consider the potential for even more if a few additional stretch goals are achieved. 

There's good value to be had at the $95 backer level and above. Please, give it a look.

Crunch Time

I have pledged on the Otherworld Miniatures forums to paint at least one OW miniature per month throughout 2013. I haven't missed a month yet but my on-time performance has been nothing to write home about.

Punctuality is not one of my virtues it seems (at least within the realm of miniature painting).

Pictured above are some minis intended for May & June (hoping to get a jump on next month). From left to right they are: a cleric/monk from Gamezone, a gnome from Center Stage, A medusa from OW, a demon from OW, and a cyclops from Heresy. The cleric/monk & demon will be paired up for May while the medusa and cyclops are meant for June. 

The gnome is the odd-man-out. (or is that odd-gnome-out?)

A great little Patrick Keith sculpt from the recently concluded Torn World Kickstarter. I removed his integral base and sculpted a replacement. A lot of detail in a confined space on this one. Should be fun.

Center Stage's current Tome of Horrors Complete campaign is picking up steam as it nears its end. The work of sculptor Drew Williams has been especially impressive. Check out these WIPs.

Nice. They may call them tsathars but they look like bullywugs to me. Hopefully CSM gives Mr Williams as much work as he can handle.

Fiend Folio On Kickstarter... Almost

Ah, Kickstarter. The perfect outlet for me to rid myself of unwanted cash.

I'm backing Center Stage Miniatures' current Tome of Horrors Complete Kickstarter campaign. I'm unfamiliar with the ToH series of books that serve as the source material, but seemingly the first volume is chock-full of refugees from the Fiend Folio and Monster Manual II. The prospect of some new minis of old Fiend Folio favorites (flumph included) is too good to pass up.

Some of the artwork appears to be re-interpretations of the originals, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. The before-and-after of the jaculi serves as an example: a fair difference between the two but I like them both.

I'm keeping a close eye on which sculptors will be involved on which minis and am mindful of the fact that I already have conversion projects in mind for some of the subjects involved (and I do like conversion projects).

This campaign has real potential. Definitely worth a look.

Meazel Muster

The meazels are done and ready for their moment in the sun (which from a meazel's perspective is not necessarily a good thing). I may be the world's slowest painter so this took longer than it should have, but things went smoothly enough and I'm pleased with the results.

To date I've shied away from painting anything that required metallics or NMM (swords, armor, etc). Given my preferred genre of miniatures, that's a problem. With these three I got the chance to try painting NMM copper using the techniques outlined in an excellent tutorial at Sprocket's Small World. I had to substitute a couple colors but wound up at my destination all the same. You know, I believe I could learn to like this NMM thing after all.

 

 

These guys are covered in pustules. Lots and lots of pustules. Angry red pustules to be precise. From previous adventures with red paint, I feared that painting red over green without first laying down some white would result in dull maroon pustules. Pustules are never a good thing, but the dull maroon variety should be avoided at all costs.

I avoided the white undercoat and tried highlighting with a mix of red and a flesh-tone as suggested on Laszlo Jakusovszky's DVD. Worked like a charm.

Now for some mug-shots: