Category Archives: Miniatures

Movember is Pulp Month!

Movember, as everyone knows, is the month men everywhere grow facial hair to raise awareness of male health issues. Every year, Bob Murch over at Pulp Figures encourages this practice by offering a special, Movember-only miniature (with serious facial accessories) to those who donate to Bob’s Movember Campaign.

I love beards, on dwarfs. On me, not so much. In fact, I absolutely loathe my own facial hair. Several years ago I grew my beard throughout the entire month of November. Two weeks in I was scratching like a mange-ridden mongrel. Three weeks and I was begging for relief. At 12 AM on December 1st I finally shaved off my whiskers and almost wept with joy.

Despite this, I am male, and I certainly support raising awareness of male health issues. It’s been a while since I placed an order with Bob, so I’m painting all my remaining Pulp Figures this month in honor of his Movember efforts. (Also, I promised Dick Garrison I would paint some miniatures with facial hair. Anything, as long as I don’t have to grow it myself.) Although Bob’s figures feature prominently, I’m also painting some other pulp-themed miniatures by other manufacturers. It’s a pulp-themed month-long extravaganza!

Here are my first couple of miniatures for Movember: two masked avengers. (Sorry for the blurry top picture. I can’t seem to get a better one.) These two are part of a set that includes a “Not” Green Hornet and Kato. The guy looks like he could be a “Not” Spider or “Not” Eisner’s Spirit, but the Spirit never wore a cape, to my knowledge, and Pulp Figures already has a “Not” Spider (although I like this one better). I have no idea who the masked lady is supposed to not be, if anyone. No facial hair in this batch.

Up next: some Hooded Minions! Check out the Van Buren whiskers on the guy second from the left! What’s that, you can’t see his masculine beard beneath his hood? Well trust me, it’s there. Honest.

 

Finally, enjoy this video, which is the perfect distillation of Movember, put to song.

 

Neil Patrick Harris is the Tree of Masculinity. Seek his fruit.

 

Coming soon, more Pulp Figures!

 

Insanity Pile Progress

Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 52

Miniatures Purchased: 13

Total: +39

Zombtober Week 4: Repaints and a Classic!

Zombtober comes to an end, and I present my final submission: a group of repaints and a classic Ral Partha miniature!

First up are the repaints: two Horrorclix zombies and two Indy Heroclix miniatures, repainted and rebased for use in the apocalypse. From L-R, a Horrorclix Zombie Patient, a Cheerleader Zombie, an Indy Clix Abbey Chase, and an Indy Clix Tiger Lily.

I like the patient zombie a lot, but the cheerleader is kind of silly. She’s using fistfuls of guts for pom-poms. I am not familiar with Tiger Lily or Abbey Chase, so I had no misgivings about repainting them completely for use as modern survivors. The Abbey Chase miniature could also work for a pulp heroine. Tiger Lily looks like Peter Criss without the armor. Repainting her face was easy, but what was kind of annoying was her T-Shirt. It has some design on it that I couldn’t make out, so I just painted the broken heart over it and I think it looks ok.

But Zombtober isn’t about REPAINTING zombies; it’s about painting zombies. Thus I present some old-school love: a classic Ral Partha zombie I’ve had since the mid 1980’s. He has never seen paint until now, so if nothing else, Zombtober has enabled me to get some long-overdue painting done!

 

Here’s the blogroll  of all the participants in Zombtober 2018!

Brummie, our Zombtober Host!- Brummie’s Wargaming Blog
Pulp Citizen- Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer
Rob Bresnen- Four Colour Super Minis
Kieron-Cheaphammer!!!
Terry Silverthorn- Miniature Mayhem
Ivor Evan- Saturday Mornings
Bryan Scott aka Vampifan- Vampifan’s World of the Undead
Colgar6- Colgar6 and the Infinite Legion of Toy Soldiers
Clint- Anything But a One!
Phil Curran- Dizbusters Gaming Ephemera
Dai- The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted
The Wargames Addict- The Wargame Addict
Dick Garrison- Rantings from Under the Wargames table
myincubliss –Dead Lead Project

 

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 43

Miniatures Purchased: 13

Total: +30

I did a bad, bad thing…

I need to stay off eBay.

I’m supposed to NOT buy any more miniatures. I’m supposed to work on the miniatures I already have. And I was, really. I was doing so well…

And then, last month, I bought the Knight Models Thing. I mean, you can’t blame me. It’s an awesome miniature and I got a great deal on him. I painted him right away. It’s not like he was languishing long in the insanity pile.  And I WILL use him in a game soon.

I thought it was a momentary lapse. But then, I saw this. And I bought it.

This is a Grenadier boxed set, circa 1994, that contains a full-blown game and “Future Warriors” miniatures sculpted by Nick Lund. It’s basically cops vs. gangers in the future, very Judge Dredd-ish.

I thought I was pretty familiar with all things Grenadier, but this one caught me by surprise. I’m a big fan of Grenadier and of Nick Lund, but I never saw this before. I never knew it existed. I’m not sure if this came out over here in the States or if it was only a European release.

It’s pretty much mint. The miniatures have never seen paint. In addition to them, it includes the rules, reference card, tokens and even dice. It even has a mail-in card for a subscription to the Grenadier Bulletin, as well as two copies of the  Bulletin, which seems to contain miniature previews, painting tips and scenarios for the Fantasy and Future Warriors lines. Cool!!

I feel guilty.

Oh, well.

Zombtober Week 3: Don’t be such a Killjoy…

Week three of Zombtober is upon us, and I present my submission: Killjoy, from the Wyrd Miniatures Malifaux line.

This miniature is the original metal version of Killjoy, a large-size character from the Resurrectionist faction. I don’t play Malifaux, but I love some of their miniatures. Killjoy has since been resculpted in plastic. I prefer this version, but YMMV.

Anyway, Killjoy is supposedly a zombie, but to me he looks more like a Barker-esque cenobite or perhaps a murder-golem. (Is that a thing? It is now.) He’s definitely a killing machine, and his corpulent size implies he eats what he kills. So I decorated his 40mm base with some appropriate bodies and body parts. I even “sculpted” some entrails and viscera out of green stuff and piled them at his feet. Gross, huh?

He was pretty fun to paint. His base is GW Rakarth Flesh, highlighted with some Ivory and washed with Nuln Oil, Agrax Earthshade and some Athonian Camoshade. Then I used a heapin helpin’ of Blood for the Blood God and Nurgle’s Rot, two technical paints that enhance the gore quite nicely.

Since I don’t play Malifaux, I guess I could use him as a “boss” zombie, perhaps the focus of an entire game, once I decide which zombie rule set I like best. I’ve tried All Things Zombie, but it wasn’t my thing. I enjoyed No More Room in Hell, and even wrote a three-part After Action Report on this blog; but now I’m looking for something a little more “realistic”. I bought Osprey’s Last Days, but I’m reading some not-so-great reviews, so who knows?

Here’s the blogroll  of all the participants in Zombtober 2018!

Brummie, our Zombtober Host!- Brummie’s Wargaming Blog
Pulp Citizen- Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer
Rob Bresnen- Four Colour Super Minis
Kieron-Cheaphammer!!!
Terry Silverthorn- Miniature Mayhem
Ivor Evan- Saturday Mornings
Bryan Scott aka Vampifan- Vampifan’s World of the Undead
Colgar6- Colgar6 and the Infinite Legion of Toy Soldiers
Clint- Anything But a One!
Phil Curran- Dizbusters Gaming Ephemera
Dai- The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted
The Wargames Addict- The Wargame Addict
Dick Garrison- Rantings from Under the Wargames table
myincubliss –Dead Lead Project

 

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 42

Miniatures Purchased: 13

Total: +29

(The Progress Queue took a slight hit this month as I gave in to weakness. More on that in an upcoming post.)

What time is it?

Last month, while unwisely browsing eBay’s listings, I stumbled across this Ben Grimm miniature:

Therefore, ladies and gentlemen, I ask you again: What time is it?

I think we all know what Mr. Grimm would say.

Knight Models is a Spanish company that makes those terrific (and hugely overpriced) miniatures for the Batman Miniatures Game. (I splurged and bought a Killer Croc, because I really liked it.) For a brief time, they had the license to produce Marvel miniatures, too. I very much covet their Hulk model, and I would love to get one. But man, are they pricey on the secondary market! Most eBay listings for the KM Hulk start at around $75. That’s a shitload more than I want to pay for ANY miniature. (I don’t pony up that kind of cash to GW; I’m not about to give it to someone else, either.)

This miniature of Thing was listed on eBay for $25 with free shipping. It was mint in the box. I bought it. I’m glad I did.

First off, he’s huge. At 75mm, he’s way bigger than a Heroclix Thing. (I find the Heroclix “big guys” to be kind of small, but YMMV.) More on that below.

He’s a three-piece casting: the legs, body and left arm. The miniature required some filing and filling with green stuff to fit together properly. Not a big deal, but it was an essential step. I primed him black.

I based him on a 40mm Micro Arts Studio urban base and gave him his first basecoat: Citadel Ratskin Flesh for the orange rocky skin, and P3 Exile Blue for his speedo.

Here he is completed. I highlighted  his skin with Citadel Macharius Orange and a drybrush of Fire Dragon Bright, before giving the cracks a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. His trunks were highlighted with Vallejo Prussian Blue and Reaper Dragon Blue.

Here’s the Fantastic Four from the early Clobberin’ Time Heroclix set. As you can see, Thing doesn’t look too bad.

But HERE is the Knight Models Thing with the rest of the Heroclix FF. Much better, don’t you think?

I plan on using the Knight Models Thing in any supers game where his large size doesn’t obviously conflict with other models of similar scale; in other words, I wouldn’t use this KM Thing in the same game I use a Heroclix Hulk (that would just be dumb) Instead I’ll use the ‘clix Thing for that.

There are presently two Knight Models miniatures I desperately want to acquire: the Hulk and Solomon Grundy, both seemingly impossible to find for sale at a reasonable price any longer.

I’ll keep looking, though…

 

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 41

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +40

 

Zombtober 2018 Week 2: Felicity meets the zombies!

It’s Zombtober, and I’m getting a late start. I missed the first week. Therefore, I worked twice as hard this week to get my submissions in. I decided to do a bunch of zombies and a survivor to catch up.

These zombies are from Reaper’s Bones line. You get all 5 in a pack for 7 bucks! They’re all pretty good sculpts, I’m particularly fond of the second one from the left and the one all the way on the right. These were the first miniatures I ever underpainted after priming; meaning I gave them all a light drybrush of white over the black primer before adding the colors. It was a technique I was unfamiliar with, but now that I’ve tried it, I can say it works terrific at picking out the detail on models, allowing me to easily see where clothes end and skin begins. It even picked out the wounds and bite marks the zombies have, making painting them easier. I’ll be using it again. My eyes aren’t getting any better with age, so any help is a good thing.

What do you do when you’re outnumbered five to one? Have the right tool for the job. This minigun should be just what the doctor ordered… This is Felicity, from Hasslefree. She’s one of the “not-Mystery Machine crew”; basically she’s Daphne from Scooby-Doo with a minigun. As cool as that is, I decided to paint her differently and not stick to her regular colors.

Here’s a quick shot of Felicity in action.

Next Sunday is my next Zombtober submission. Hopefully I’ll get some other stuff done before then, though, so watch this space!

 

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 40

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +39

 

Here’s the blogroll  of all the participants in Zombtober 2018!

Brummie, our Zombtober Host!- Brummie’s Wargaming Blog
Pulp Citizen- Eclectic Gentleman Tabletop Gamer
Rob Bresnen- Four Colour Super Minis
Kieron-Cheaphammer!!!
Terry Silverthorn- Miniature Mayhem
Ivor Evan- Saturday Mornings
Bryan Scott aka Vampifan- Vampifan’s World of the Undead
Colgar6- Colgar6 and the Infinite Legion of Toy Soldiers
Clint- Anything But a One!
Phil Curran- Dizbusters Gaming Ephemera
Dai- The Lost and the Damned and the Stunted
The Wargames Addict- The Wargame Addict
Dick Garrison- Rantings from Under the Wargames table
myincubliss –Dead Lead Project

Saga’tember Coda: The Remaining Heroes!

Between some small projects of my own and my participation in Zombtober this month, I’ve managed to finish up all the miniatures from Dungeon Saga: The Dwarf King’s Quest. (Of course, I still have all the dungeon furniture and doors to do, but those can be done here and there as time permits. The main thing is all the miniatures are officially done!)

There are four heroes in Dungeon Saga: Orlaf, the Barbarian; Madriga, the Elf; Rordin, the Dwarf; and Danor, the Wizard. I painted Rordin already when I painted the undead Dwarf King and his Revenants, so that only left the other three.

Here is Orlaf. I really didn’t like this miniature much until I painted it. For whatever reason, I just wasn’t impressed with the sculpt or the overall character concept. Now he’s grown on me somewhat. I painted him close to the “official” look, with only minor differences.

Next is Danor. I completely scrapped the “official” paint scheme for this model, as I hate the way it looks. This is the only model in the entire set that I primed grey, as I knew early on I was going to paint him predominantly yellow. I based him with Citadel Tau Light Ochre, then highlighted with Averland Sunset, Yriel Yellow and finally, Mold (a light yellow from Reaper). I was going for a similar yellow/white color scheme to Merlin, the wizard from the Gauntlet video game of my youth. At the very end I decided to paint his belt purple for some contrast.

Last, we have Madriga. I considered painting her completely different from the classic “elf ranger with a bow” green and brown. I was toying with painting her cloak a deep orange and going for an autumn color scheme, but I said screw it and just painted her as you see here. I wanted this project to be over.

Here’s a shot of all three.

And here’s a shot of the three plus Rordin, the Dwarf.

Onto other things. I need to get my first Zombtober stuff ready to post this weekend, as I’m already a week behind!

 

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 34

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +33

Saga’Tember’s end: Zombie Trolls and Shaman

It’s the last day of Saga’tember, and I managed to get three more miniatures in just under the wire. This time it’s the undead trolls and the troll shaman, Hoggar.

I must admit I was a bit daunted by the zombie trolls. They’re big miniatures and they will draw a lot of attention on the table, so I didn’t want them to look crappy. I was unsure what color to paint the flesh, but I decided to YouTube it, and I came up with Como Pintar’s method. I ended up deviating from it considerably, but he gave me the basics. His video is in Spanish, but if you don’t habla Espanol, don’t fret. He was nice enough to include English subtitles.

I should say that I followed his instructions, but I got a very different base color than he did. I opted to highlight with Rakarth Flesh before the final highlight of Bone. Also, I discovered a new favorite paint: Citadel’s Nurgle’s Rot. This is a technical paint that simulates greenish putrescence very well; it basically looks like yellow-green snot. It dries shiny, so it looks appropriately gross.  I used it on the flesh around the open wounds on the trolls and Hoggar and I think I’ll use it more often when painting things that are, well…rotting.

Here’s Hoggar, the zombie troll shaman and the last villain in the base set. I don’t know what the hell is up with the picture, but he looks a LOT better in person. I’m actually really happy with how he came out, but looking at this picture, it seems I just slapped some paint all over him and called it a day. I didn’t.

Lastly, a group shot.

That brings an end to Saga’tember. All in all, I did pretty well. I managed to paint 23 out of the 26 miniatures in the box. All I have left are 3 more heroes, and of course all the doors and dungeon scenery. I should easily be able to finish everything long before Christmas, which was my goal. Still, without this month’s challenge project I doubt I would have painted any of them!

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 30

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +29

Saga’tember: (Mostly) Dead Dwarfs!

For my third group of miniatures for Dungeon Saga: the Dwarf King’s Quest, I decided to focus on the dwarfs.

There are two dwarf revenants in the game, basically undead dwarf warriors who serve their undead Dwarf King, for whom the game is named. I decided they would likely be clad in similar raiment, as they are soldiers, after all. I opted for green.

Then there is the eponymous undead Dwarf King himself, Grund (not a very dwarflike name, but whatever). I’m pretty happy with the way he turned out. I really like the miniature, too; much like beards, big blocky hammers just seem to go with dwarfs.

Here’s a shot of the king and his soldiers. Speaking of beards, I think it’s great that dwarfs keep theirs even after death, when the rest of their face is just a skull. It’s also worth noting that only after death would a dwarf EVER tolerate rust on his weapons or armor.

Finally, I completed my first Dungeon Saga hero: Rordin, the Dwarf. I don’t have a problem with the miniature per se, but it’s not that exciting a pose. Also, his hammer head is bent, and even though I tried to straighten it about 6 times, it went right back to the bent position. Annoying, but not really the end of the world, considering how much I’m likely to actually play this game.

Up next: (undead, not Russian) Trolls! I’m hoping to get them done by the end of the month, which will leave only the remaining 3 heroes and the dungeon scenery left to paint. Wish me luck!

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 30

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +29

Saga’tember: Zombies and Necromancer

It’s 2/3 of the way through the month, and I finally have my next batch of Dungeon Saga miniatures to post. At this rate, I’m unlikely to get the whole set finished by month’s end, but I won’t have much more to do and I should be able to finish the base set by the end of the year, in between my other projects.

This time around, I decided to focus on the zombies. There are four regular zombies, and two wearing armor.

I have to say that I’m really not a fan of most of these Dungeon Saga miniatures. Not because they look particularly bad, but because they’re fragile. Many are misshapen, and despite many attempts at reposing them, they tend to stay that way. Thankfully, Mantic seems to be aware of the problem, so only one foot is attached to the base. This allows you some measure of control to reposition the model before gluing the other foot down. This straightens the model’s posture, which is a good thing. But it doesn’t help with bent weapons or arms at all.

In addition to the zombies, I painted another bad guy: Mortibris, the Necromancer. Once again, I ignored the “official” Mantic paint colors in favor of my own classic necromancer color scheme that harkens back to the days of my old-school Warhammer undead army. I like how he came out, but I wish the picture was a bit more in focus.

This week, I didn’t buy any more miniatures, but since I’m keeping a year-to-date total (or at least a running total since I decided to start keeping track), I’ll include my earlier purchase. That miniature will be painted soon, hopefully by the end of the month…he’s just too cool to put off.

Up next, however, I’ve decided to focus on one of my favorite painting subjects and the namesake of this game: Dwarfs!

Insanity Pile Progress

 Miniatures Painted Thus Far: 26

Miniatures Purchased: 1

Total: +25