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.

15mm Wizard and Barbarian

I've painting a whole lot of fantasy figures lately. I think these two were from the old Rank and File miniatures, which were made by Ral Partha and went the way of extinction along with Ral Partha's own 15mm line. I probably should have taken some pictures of them with some other 15s for comparative purposes, but they look a little taller and heftier than the other 15s I have.

I am particularly happy with the barbarian. After probably about 40 years (!) of trying to get the shading and highlighting of skin down for half-naked barbarians right, I think I've hit on a formula that I am happy with:

1. Base coat of some sort of middle flesh. I've used both a craft paint flesh color, or Army Painter's Barbarian Flesh

2. Paint all shadows with a slightly thinned down Burnt Sienna.

3. Highlight with Vallejo's Basic Skin Tone

4. Apply a wash of Army Painter's Light Tone wash. I've experimented with Army Painter's other washes, but the others seem to make everything a little too dark.

5. If need be, re-highlight with the Basic Skin Tone, but only the most raised points and slightly thin down the paint.

6. Once dry, spray with a clear flat. Lately, I've been using Krylon's clear flat and its seems to do just as good a job as Testor's Dullcoat at much less the price per size of can. The flat spray along with the AP wash seems to help pull and almost blend together the various shades and highlights.

I didn't think I would, but I find that I like the flat finish on the metallic parts of the figures.

I am chugging along with the fantasy figures, but I think I'll take a break and will soon have another microarmor test battle. I think I am going to try out Cold War Commander.

Rangers of the North Part 2

I've had a little free time in the evenings this past week, so I got some hobbying in. I was planning to work on my rivers, but I can't decide what materials to use to make the banks. Its coming down to plaster, or caulk. So, while I pondered this issue, I cracked open the paint bottles and painted up a few more rangers.

First up, a Splintered Light Miniatures figure from their Warriors of Nature range:

I should have stuck a ruler behind all these figurines, so you can compare sizes. They are a little small, about the size of the Chariot Miniatures rangers, and more slender. Not overly complicated, but very nicely sculpted.

Next is a different Demonworld Miniatures ranger from the one I showed in Rangers, Part 1:

He's got a Robin Hood thing going on. Maybe I should have added a mustachio a la Errol Flynn. The Demonworld figurines are bigger than the other lines, and this guy really seems to reflect that.

Finally, there are these rangers from a company that I now found out, thanks to the Google+ 15mm Fantasy community called Rank & File Miniatures.

They were produced by Ral Partha and came out at about the same time (as I recall) as their Battlesystem 15s. Apparently, their molds were destroyed along with the Battlesystem 15s...thank you Wizards of the Coast....not!!!

Rangers seem to in a variety of poses. Few of them actually fire their bows. They tend to be causal about things as seen above. Maybe that's part of the ranger mystique. What's with the whole mask thing? I am not sure why they need to hide their identities. Again, the ranger mystique?

Here is a group shot to compare sizes:

I will probably finish up this series with the remaining Splintered Lights left to paint, some Peter Pig wood elves that seem more ranger-like than elf like, and then the results of how I decide to base them.

Rangers of the North Part 1

"An increase in blog posts is directly proportional to the increase in hobby activity."

--Me, 12/05/2014

I've been getting some time in at night to work on hobby stuff over the past two months. One of my goals is to whittle down the huge pile of 15 mm fantasy figures. I pretty much grab things and try to paint them up.  Recently, Splintered Light has been putting out a line of RPG characters. One of which is their Warriors of Nature. It consists of combination of rangers and barbarians, with two druidy-looking dudes for good measure. It inspired me to paint up a big collection of rangers that I have accumulated over time from various companies. Here are some of the first ones finished so far:

Demonworld Miniatures

The dude above is a Demonworld ranger from their Empire group. Now that Ral Partha Europe has taken over the line, you can buy smaller sets of them rather than the complete sets, which were pretty darn expensive. There are several poses, and this is one. He is wearing what I perceive to be scale armor, which is a nice alternative. They seem a little larger than the others, particularly Chariot Miniatures, but it doesn't bother me that much.

Chariot Miniatures

Chariot Miniatures

Next up are two rangers from Chariot Miniatures. These are now made by Magister Militum. They come in two poses as seen above. They are a little on the small side compared to other manufacturers like Demonworld, but again, its not dramatic enough to be that big a deal. All of the manufacturers that make rangers both in shooting and not shooting poses. I will show more of the non-shooting poses in another post.  

Grenadier

I am almost certain this last is a single figure from Grenadier, which I painted a couple of months ago. It was from their barbarian mammoth model. There were two passengers, the archer shown above and a spearman. I showed off the mammoth in a previous post. Mirliton has yet to make the barbarian line of Grenadier 15s, if ever. I remember when Mirliton took over that line, there were a lot of groans in the 15 mm fantasy community especially about the pace of production...basically non-existent. I guess I should be happy that they have put out the ones that they did. The war mammoth they do sell on their site is not the same as this model. I have nothing against Mirliton. Their medieval line of 15s is fantastic. I just feel that if you are going to take over an existing line, you should manufacture the whole line.

Anyway, back to the above figure. He and his comrade did not look barbarian enough for me. I still have not figured out who to man the mammoth. I did like this guy and thought he'd make a good ranger/hero type. All my fantasy characters are mounted singly. I will probably include his spear-wielding buddy as a ranger, but a part of the rank-and-file. 

Husband & Wife Dungeon Crawl Team

Hingus and Hinga, dungeon crawl adventurer team:

Hinga on left, Hingus on right

Hinga is a Ral Partha figure.  I painted her several years after Hingus, so there is more highlighting and shading on her. You can't see it, but she's wearing a small backpack. She's no beauty queen, but she makes up for it in personality and joie de vivre.

I got Hingus out of a bin of miscellaneous fantasy figures at a Little Wars convention back in the early 80s, and paid 25¢ for him, if that.  I haven't a clue who made Hingus because I filed down the bottom of his base for stability, but I think I saw him once on a web site that identified him as a Empire of the Petal Throne miniature. He looks pretty cool as a generic semi-barbarian fantasy warrior.

I'm coming to the conclusion that if I could, I'd take all my pictures of my miniatures here in my office. Even though its florescent lighting, its a lot better than at home. There are never any harsh shadows on the figures, and I rarely need to do any color correction on the photos.

Old 25/28mm Figures and a Camera Test

Left: Citadel dwarf, Middle: Ral Partha Magician, Right: Essex knight

My daughter recently got a iPad for her birthday from her grandmother. We decided to try out the camera on some figures. You be the judge on how well they turned out. Other than crop and reduce the file size, I did no Photoshop magic on them.

I brought these three oldsters back with me from Chicago this past summer. I know the manufacturers, but have no idea what the catalog numbers are on these. I am pretty sure that the Ral Partha magician was out of a set. No, that's not highlighting on his sleeves and chin, he's just pretty banged up.

A Blast from the Past

Here is an example of my earlier painting skills:


It is a Ral Partha magic-user figure. I made a quick look through the web to see if I could find the catalog number, but no such luck. Ral Partha was probably my favorite miniatures company. I still have some of their early ones from the 70s. I was really bummed out when they went out of business.