Gaslands terrain

 I like to pop into my local dollar store every now and then to see if there is anything new that I can use gaming projects. Some crap found takes some imagination and skill to make into cool. Other stuff is almost good to go right out of the box. I scored these little garages for $1.25 each at the Dollar Tree.

Auto Services garage 

                               Front:

Back:

Car Repair lift

Front:

Back:

Car Wash

Front:

Back:

All three linked together:

They came molded in bright primary colors and with some washes could have been used basically as is. I decided not to go that route so before assembly I sprayed all the individual parts flat black. After that dried I dry brushed them brown then grey. Then applied all the stickers. After assembly I gave them a wash of burnt sienna. To finish them off I added a dry bush of silver.

A nice little project for a Saturday afternoon. 

Thanks for checking it. See ya next time!

Citadel Vampire

 Welcome back! So, according to the title above we’ve got a Citadel vampire here. Specifically C18 Night Horrors Vampyre with Runesword as per the January 1988 sales flyer (thanks Suff of Legends). Vampyre with a Y? Why? I don’t know. And runesword? I don’t see any runes on it. Really could be better described as “fancy shaped sword”. Another example of the wacky sense of humor Citadel used to have? Maybe, maybe not but I do miss those days.

This is actually the second version of this miniature. The first sculpt was released a couple of years earlier in the Night Horrors range. It had a different head and weapon.

The skin was a fun adventure and tone was something that I hadn’t tackled before. I wanted it to be unique and quite pale. I based with Reaper 09038 Rainy Grey. Then shaded with Reikland Flesh Shade. Highlighted with the Rain Grey and then the tippy tops were hit with Army Painter Matt White WP1102. The reddish color around the eyes and mouth is Vallejo 72.093 Skin Wash. The hair is Vallejo Model Color 70.811 Blue Violet base, shade is Vallejo Game Ink 72.087 Violet. Highlights with Blue Violet and then Matt White. Seemed to work well to make the hair pop. The robe (skirt, dress, whatever it’s 2023, I don’t judge) was painted with Vallejo Game Color 72.106 Scarlet Blood. Shade was thrown on with the Violet ink. Highlights where Scarlet Blood then second highlight was that same red with some Vallejo 72.034 Bonewhite mixed in. This has become my go to recipe for red as it seems to work very well. The armor was painted P3 Thamar Black first (I like this black as it reminds me of the old flip top Citadel Chaos Black). Then coated with Army Painter WP1130 Plate Mail, shaded with Nuln Oil, hit with the Plate Mail again then some Army Painter WP1129 Shining Silver. The metal parts where then ran over with a very watered down light blue ink. Which I think gave the metal a neat effect. 

What do you think?

More Grenadier Goodness

 Back again with another classic Grenadier. She is Half Elf Maid with Sword (6007j) from the Fantasy Lords box set, Dungeon Raiders 6007. Sculpted by Andrew Chernack.

She came to me through a friend that found a box of miniatures at a flea market. Said box contained a few vintage Citadel, but was mostly Grenadier and Ral Partha. A great lead haul and a great gift from great friends! It really sparked my interest in the old Grenadier miniatures.

       

       

Her shirt and shield unicorn were based with Vallejo 70.942 Light Green, washed with green ink, highlighted with the Light Green and then a second highlight with some bleached bone mixed in. The boots and pants were based with Vallejo 72.038 Scrofulous Brown. The boots were shaded with a burnt sienna wash, the pants received 72.034 Bonewhite highlights. For the belt and back ribbon I used 70.811 Blue Violet as the base, shaded with violet ink, highlights with the Blue Violet, then second highlight with some Bonewhite mixed in. Her skin is 70.815 Basic Skin Tone shaded with Reikland flesh shade.

All in all a fun miniature to paint with cool dynamic pose. I left the top of her integral base exposed and sculpted some flag stones into it with a thin layer of green stuff. They didn’t really come out in the pictures. If I was to do it again I would probably paint the shield unicorn with the Blue Violet. There are a couple of things I missed, namely her earring and some details on the belt. 25mm scale plus these old eyes just aren’t what they used to be. I might be trying a magnifying glass in the future.

Thanks for stopping in and checking out my blog… I've got some more stuff I’ll be posting up soon.

Grenadier Clerics

What is this lunacy? Nothing for months then two posts within a week? If anything, I’m erratic. Anyway, let’s get to it.

What we have here are two Clerics from Grenadier Julie Guthrie’s Personalities. They are from my friend’s collection, purchased in blister back in the day from what was then our local game shop: Newton Hobby Center.
 They were originally supposed to be painted as a commission but he has so far refused to take them home.

846 Armored Cleric

                                Front

Back

891 Adventuring Cleric 

                               Front 

 

                                Back

As far painting I’m pleased with the armor. Metallics can sometimes be difficult as I’ve found that different brands have different viscosity. This is important because you can’t thin metallic paint without losing it’s metallic quality. So far I’ve found that for my painting style, Army Painter metallics have the perfect viscosity without thinning. The other thing that I’m very pleased with is my growing use of glazes. I painted the the shafts of their maces with Vallejo 72.034 Bonewhite (“real” artists would call buff? I will forever refer to it as Bleached Bone), then glazed with burnt sienna ink. And the shadows of the cloaks were glazed with Reaper 09038 Rainy Grey after painting them white. The cloaks are something that I will use again as it makes these goody goods look good!

The rope on the Adventuring Cleric was a real pain to paint as Julie got a little too fine with the detail. I shouldn’t complain though as these are some very nicely sculpted miniatures that in my opinion can hold their own against any others.

I realized after taking these pictures that I hadn’t finished the rims of the bases. After that they will surely see some action against the evil undead!

Da sound of da police - slap chop style

 So I tried my hand at the latest painting style craze that has been sweeping the internet by storm for the last year and a half or so. Slap chop.

A trio of city guard from Reaper Miniatures. Hmm…the results are amateurish at best. How I did it was prime black, dry brush brown, dry brush white, glaze on the colors. Grey was used for the metal parts. They took about 45 minutes each which is really fast for me as I am a slow painter. I don’t plan on using this technique, especially on my vintage Citadel and Grenadier miniatures as I definitely get better results from layering, washes and glazing, etc. The city guard look decent from a couple of feet away which is fine for table top gaming.

Archaic Abodes - wip edition

I don’t normally do work in progress posts, but I figured my blog should have SOME content. I am working on stuff and my little space on the internet is supposed to be documenting it after all. Starting on left bottom and going clockwise we have: farm house, low house, dairy, tavern and water mill.

I have gatehouse and tall house completed. Shack, shed and store are in process too. Santa Clause is going to bring me an airbrush this year so painting should go a lot quicker!

See you soon!

Table set up

 Yeah so, embarrassingly no content over the last like six months? I don’t know how long it’s been. So to get the juices flowing again I got out the table my buddy grim_dark66 made. I threw some terrain and miniatures on it just for the fun of taking a picture.

I ran out of day light so this was the only usable pic I got. There are some miniature and buildings that have not been featured on the blog yet so they will be coming up soon.

More posts soon, I promise.