Knight with Banner

 This weekend, we got dumped on with snow. Of my 25 years living in southeast Tennessee, I have never encountered so much snow. About 10" of snow. The temperature in approaching zero degrees F didn't help. Houses around here are not build for this sort of weather. 

The wife and I watched a lot of TV, but you can only watch so much. So, I retreated to the "soldier room" as it is called by my kids. I did start working on some more ships, but I ended up painting some fantasy figures

My fantasy world is occupied by a number of holy orders. One of which is the Knights of the Holy Chalice. I wanted to make a pseudo-religious, icon-ish banner to lead the faithful into battle. Gemini AI to the rescue! 

Banner depicting Saints Kimberly and 
Angela receiving the holy chalice from on high

I played around with different poses and styles and settled on a sort of Bayeux tapestry look. I thought about giving the ladies halos, but I thought it might be too sacrilegious. I printed them off in various sizes on my school's color laser printer and later did a little touch up with paint to bring out some of the features like the cup and the faces. If I could do it again, I'd make the bottom a little longer below the feet.  I have to say that its not too shabby.

Happy Close to New Years!

 In retrospect, it has not been an active blogging year. Could be due to a lot of things. I think one of the contributing reasons is that I wanted to focus my blogging efforts in posting after action reports instead of constant works in progress. Oh well. It is what it is.

A few end of the year odds and ends

Before I left for what might be our last annual Christmas trip to Chicago, I painted up these Eureka Miniatures orcs. I may have mentioned Eureka and a post long ago when they first came out with their line of 18mm fantasy. They seem to be first company to go gung-ho on the 18mm size. Early reviews said they were more like 20mm and didn't mix at all with other lines, so I never bothered to order any. Recently, there was a posting on the Facebook 15mm fantasy group that showed some of their orcs so I gave them a try. 

Here is a comparison shot of various manufacturers of orcs:

Left to right: 15mm dice, two Eureka orcs, Ral Partha
Europe (Demonworld), two Splintered Light Miniatures.

All seem to be compatible. The Demonworld orc has a cartoony head with a big lower jaw that looks like a throwback to Citadel orcs. 

Finally, the painted up version of the gunboat I showed in my previous post. 

Trip to Chicagoland

This year, my son joined my daughter and I to roam around downtown Windy City. It was a pretty warm day. Like last time, we had to visit the expensive stores on North Michigan Avenue, and we did stop at the three-story Starbucks for coffee (just what the world needs, right?). 

First we paid homage to the Bean in Millennial Park. It has an official title, but like many other structures in Chicago, the locals name things what they want. 

Afterwards, the kiddos were hungry for some lunch. Last year, my daughter and I went to have deep dish pizza, but we had that the night before. We ended up eating at a way overpriced Korean corndog place. They were good, but not $50 for the whole meal good. 

Massive $12 cheese pull

Me along the Chicago River standing next to a bust of the first non-native permanent settler, Jean Baptiste Point du Sable. Boy, do I look short and fat!

My kids, part 1. Behind them is the Wrigley Building. Corporate headquarters of the Wrigley Company, currently is still the largest maker of chewing gum in the world. Across the street from it is the Tribune Towers that was also built in the early 1290s. Interesting side, embedded into the lower facade of the Tribune Towers are famous bricks and stones from around the world. For example, there is a chunk of stone from the Great Pyramid in Giza, and one from the Great Wall of China. 

My kids, part 2. Here they are standing in front of the Marina towers, formerly known as Marina City. It was built in the mid-60s as a combination luxury apartments and offices. I got to go up there once as a kid. My parents had some friends that lived there. I remember listening to a Beatles album while my parents and friends drank Manhattans. 

Christmas market. In Chicago, its held every year in the plaza in front of city hall. Another famous large work of art is the Picasso Sculpture that is located on the plaza. It doesn't have an official name. Built in 1967, it was the subject to a lot of ridicule as people did not know what it was and found it too weird. But times have changed and its one of the iconic structures of the city. 

 My kids part 3. The Christmas Market is not very big and it was very crowded, considering it was December 23. But we got in, looked around, and had our dinner (brats and deep fried cheese curds...I snuck in a beer), which was much cheaper than lunch. I almost bought a cool beer stein but decided not to.

Kimangela

 I found this 15mm at the bottom of the pile. I have no idea who makes her, but folks on the 15mm fantasy Facebook page think it might be Battle Valor games. She was painted by committee, namely two of my colleagues at school, Kim and Angela, who decided on the colors including the hair color. 

For some reason, she has a mask on top of her head. It reminded me of the Loki mask from Jim Carey's movie The Mask. I painted it gold and then gave it a green wash. Hopefully, it will not have the same effect on Kimangela that it did on Jim Carey when he put it on over his face.

Battle with a Beast

 

A Hornblower shield maiden confronts an Andrewsarchus from Khurasan Miniatures. Boulder scenic made from dried up Play-Doh.

More Barbarians to Rage With

 A new line of fantasy barbarians came out from Mace Face Miniatures. It is their Hornblower shield maidens. I am not sure why they are called hornblower. You do get a lot of horn blowers in the command pack. 

This is a sample from the mixed weapons, archers, and command packs

I suppose that shield maidens is a good description. They have a nordic vibe to them as they are dress for cold weather. They appear to be ever so slightly smaller than Copplestone's barbarians. They are very well sculpted with a lot of detail. I have no idea who sculpted them, but they do resemble the style of the Copplestone barbarians. My only issue with them is they have a lot of flash or the little bits and squiggles of metal attached to them. I spent a hour or so last night cleaning up some of the figures. 

Other news

Ion of Archduke Piccolo put out some neat, easy to use rules for WWII naval battles. Ion's rules and the ships that he made triggered a major sense of nostalgia. Back in my high school days, my best friend Mark and I would have these epic naval battles using slightly modified rules from Avalon Hill's Midway game. Mark even built fleets of very simple but effective ship models out of mostly balsa wood and cardboard. Using the various paper ships that I have made, I might have me a battle using these rules. I may even get back into the ship building business. 

Finally

A picture of an imperial knight from Ral Partha Europe (DemonWorld)

More Test Shots

I did some more test shots using my light ring on 15mm fantasy figures. They are better lit, but still look like crap in close up. They seem to loose their depth and three-dimensionality and look like they are poorly painted pictures. 

I look a picture of Baron Henri of Emoree awhile ago, but I thought I'd add a few more. For entertainment purposes, the barony of Emoree is a large county in the kingdom of Zarnagol. After the king of Zarnagol was killed in a final climatic battle, Zarnagol was plunged into civil war as many of the lords of the land did not recognize the king's infant bastard son as the legitimate heir to the throne. They were more against the child's mother, a powerful sorceress, who declared herself the royal regent. Conflict has died down over the years with little resolution as to who is to be king. Those who opposed the illegitimate heir pretty much do what they wanted and pay little, if any, lip service to the regent. The child is now 16, and with is mother's urging is trying to unite those loyal to him and make him the true king. Baron Henri fully supports the young heir, but many of his neighbors to the east, oppose him.

Baron Henri and his entourage. All are
Demonworld minis expect the knight on
the baron's right who is a Khurasan mini.

His household men-at-arms.

Slightly different angle.

The Baron's court wizard Zandu. Flanking him
are the Baron's battle champions. 

I threw up a brown background for the fourth picture. It seemed to have darkened them a little without hiding parts of the figures in shadows, which is what often happens without a light on them.

 

Test Shots With New Phone Light

 In one of my many endless quests for perfection, I recently purchased a ring light for my phone. My photos of figures always look like crap, and its often due to poor lighting. It was all of about $9 at Walmart, so I though why not take a chance. There are my results:

The first test shot. This was done using the light and natural daylight. 

 In the evening, I did two comparison shots. First shot is my normal way which is to adjust my Ott light to light up the figures. The second is Ott light + phone ring light.

Typical workbench light

With the phone ring light attached

I sent the pictures to a friend of mine and asked which he thought was better. He preferred the one with the ring light attached. He thought the other looked more garish. Of course, he didn't have the actual minis in front of him, which could bias his opinion. Also, I didn't tell him which was which in terms of the lighting used. He did say that the mounted elf and the orcs where I used the ring light were very shiny looking and wondered if I had used gloss paints. For the elf, yes; I had not sprayed it flat yet and a lot of washes dry glossy. For the orcs, I had already deglossed them. They seemed shinier than the elf especially the banner.

The quest will continue. 

Fantasy Painting Challenge VI: Orcs, Part 1

 This is the only post of the latest fantasy painting challenge. Its not a work in progress post because they are done. 

It was a last minute challenge. Even though my friend proposed another challenge, neither of us seemed overly enthusiastic about it and it almost seemed like it didn't matter what we painted. I was still in the armored warrior mood after painting those fighters, so I picked orcs. A whole bunch presented themselves on the Reaper website, but a set of two stood out (those are the two in the middle of the pictures). I then fell in love with a rather fetching female half orc, so she had to be included. In my order, Reaper threw in a freebie plastic orc archer. So, my buddy is getting four orcs. Here they are:

The creative juices really got flowing once I got them from Reaper. It took me about a week to get them done even with my usual limited amount of free time. 

My challenge was to try to make the armor and weapons rusty. I was somewhat timid and didn't heap on the rust colors, but between using a brown wash on top of the usual one I use for iron-based metals and sparingly adding tiny dots of various shades of red-brown did the trick. 

The part 2 of this challenge will be my friend's interpretation of the orcs. 

Checking out 3D printed 15mm from Etsy

 There are a lot of interesting miniatures out there that can be printed, but until I take the plunge and buy my own 3D printer, I need to buy them pre-printed. I have already bought a lot of mostly aircraft, but lately I've been looking at fantasy figurines. Etsy seems to have a lot of shops that will print off figures, but most are in the 28mm to 32mm scale for TTRPG or in 10mm that is the latest craze. I came across one shop that had the license to print off various files and was willing to print off those pesky 10mm at 15mm. Unfortunately, I lost the packing slip and I can't seem to find the shop on the website. All I remember is that they are out of Poland.

I ordered these various foot troops.

They seem a little on the small side, but I will make a comparison once I've removed them from their stilts and base them. My big worry with all these printed miniatures is the possibility that things like thin weapons will get easily broken. Maybe some day they will make a printer resin that is like what Reaper Miniatures uses for their plastic figures that is reasonably hard but more flexible. 

As I recall, they weren't all that expensive compared to some of the other Etsy shops that sold comparable minis. The delivery time from Poland wasn't that bad either. Lately, some of the orders I've made from the UK seem to take forever. 

I will paint some of them up and see how they match up to existing 15s.

Four Swords for Hire

 I got these a few months ago from Alternative Armies. They looked interesting and I thought my paint challenge buddy might like them for a Christmas gift. Well, I still have not mailed them to him. 

Interesting is that they are metal, but look like that maybe the masters were 3D printed as they have very fine lines on their bodies. The last guy, the one with the axe and dagger, reminded me of Cillian Murphy of Oppenheimer fame.  Mr. Murphy is not blonde, but it seemed to work for me. 

Fantasy Painting Challenge V: Callie, Female Rogue with Bow, Part 3

 My challenger has sent me his submission. As usual, my photos do not do his work justice. 

I think the two snake men (Yuan-Ti, in 5e D&D) are from Wizards of the Coast. I always seem to paint any snake skin green, but he did his in a brown. I bow to his color choice as he is a herpetologist.

His interpretation of Callie is slightly different from mine. What is notable is the bow. He decided to make the last fourth of each end metallic. 

The scenic base as usual is excellent in my opinion. Nothing complicated to detract from the figures, but gives a nice impression of the situation that Callie finds herself in. 

Fantasy Painting Challenge V: Callie, Female Rogue with Bow, Part 1

I seem to be on a roll with the posts lately! Is it the free time? I didn't know I had any. Best not to question it. 

Anyway, a few months back, my buddy who I have these painting challenges with wanted to do another. I was sort of hesitant, but I agreed so long we didn't have to build any elaborate terrain to go with it.  I got to pick the figure. I settled on Callie, the female rogue with bow.

Unfortunately, she did not come with a stand. Reaper Miniatures are like that. Some do, some don't. They should really mention that on their web site for each product. It has been a slow start, mainly because I couldn't decide what to paint her. I settled on a red outfit with a gray cloak. She's a rogue, not a ranger.

I have not gotten too far with her. the cloak is gray due to the primer. Like a lot of either fantasy or scifi miniatures, there are costume pieces on the figure that I am not sure what they should be painted. In this case her knee and shin guards. Perusing the internet, some folks painted them leather, others metal. I went for metal. I found this base in one of my junk boxes. I wasn't crazy about it, but it did the job. I covered the base with green stuff putty. 

I felt she needed a companion, so I got her a wolf.

Last Father's Day, my son got me a Reaper dire wolf made out of plastic. It is better sculpted than this one, but it is way too big when next to Callie, plus he'd kill me if I painted it and gave it away (bad daddy!).  I didn't have a base that seemed to fit the length and width of the wolf so, I cut one out of this thick polystyrene plastic used for mounting posters. It's thickness matched Callie's base height. This plastic is tough but I can cut it with a utility knife and rounded off the edges with sand paper. The wolf also got green stuff smeared onto the base.

Next up is to paint them and then decide on what to put on the bases. I am thinking of getting some of those fake leaves. H-m-m-m, between the wolf and the leaves, maybe I am making her into a ranger after all.

A Better Photograph?

 Just after posting the last one, I thought that at least lighting issues are due to the white table fooling the light meter. These camera phone have nowhere near the sophistication that even an old, film SLR camera did...at least that is my opinion. The only thing handy was the back of a paper pad. It seems like the Battlesystem Dwarf is still pretty dark. Its hard to say if its really any better, but at least it is a comparison of the three manufacturers.

L to R: Battle Valor, Ral Partha Battlesystem, and Demonworld

Fruits of My Labors: Dwarves

 After taking those awful pictures in my last post, I decided to give my office a try. It seems that for some reason, even though I have neon lighting, I seem to get better pictures here in my office. This time around are Dwarves. They are a combination of Ral Partha Europe (formerly Demonworld),  Battle Valor Games, and even an old, original Ral Partha Battlesystem figure. 

Dwarf guards (Demonworld)

Dwarf heavy infantry (Battle Valor and RP Battlesystem)

Battle Valor on left, Ral Partha Battlesystem on right

Ruger Ironblade

The photos still aren't that great, but they are better than the ones I took of the Orcs. I guess I am not much of a miniatures photographer but I don't have the time or money to buy fancy equipment to take better pictures. 

Comparing the three manufacturers, they really are not different in size. For some reason, my mind keeps thinking that the Battle Valor are taller. They just seem a little more portly than the other two. They just have to lay off the beer and sausages. Again, this is the results of continuing to  paint down the lead pile, and all of these are mounted singly so that I can theoretically game with my son.