The Death Knight Poses an Important Question, while his Mooks Look On

When I posted my fantasy Star Wars entries a few weeks ago I didn't have the files for the not-Stormtroopers, so I just ran with what I had ready at the time. Nevertheless, it somehow just felt wrong, not having the classic White Bucketheads mucking in with their nasty overlords, so when I managed to chase down the STL files, I quickly got them printed and painted-up to add to my collection of villains.

These are the crossbow-armed versions of the Troopers. For additional variation, the talented folks over at One Gold Piece also offer a sword and shield set, along with a polearm-equipped squad. As we're now on the clock for the end of the Challenge, I decided to stick to the missile armed flunkies as they seem to have that iconic, hapless mook-with-a-blaster look about them (yes, they will be re-rolling any hits in our future games).

I primed the Troopers black and then oversprayed them using Krylon Ivory, which I think gives the armour a nice, smooth, satin finish. I then used an assortment of Contrast paints to pick out their gear and weapons. I wanted to keep them fairly high-contrast, to trace back to the iconic source material, so I kept it all very stripped-down and simple. 

As to the Death Knight, again, I didn't see any reason to overthink him too much. I kept his paintjob fairly minimalist, just using some colourshift colours on his spooky enchanted blade and working up some contrasting highlights for his gloss black armour.

It was fun going back to painting renaissance style 'puff & slash' for the Rebel prisoner's uniform. Funny, working on him made me a little nostalgic for my Italian Wars stuff - I may need to do-up a few more Landsknechts to quash those silly romantic notions. :)

These guys being so high-contrast, photographing them was a bit of a nightmare (one of the inherent limitations of my older iPhone camera). Anyway, I hope you can get a sense of what they look like.

Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt

10mm Wood Elves

I needed a change of pace from the Tomb Kings, so I thought I'd try something a little different by starting a force of 10mm Wood Elves.

These are all 3d prints from Forest Dragon. They're really lovely models and an absolute pleasure to work with.

First up, we have a elven General astride a Forest Dragon. At first I had it simply mounted on a base, but it seemed like it needed something a little more dramatic. So I carved out a piece of blue insulation and modelled it to represent a portion of an escarpment, or perhaps a hilltop. 

I had a bit of fun playing with Colourshift paints from Greenstuff World, especially with its wings.

Next we have a unit of spearmen, all arrayed for battle in their serried ranks. 

Ultimately, I'd like to get a two or three more of these done, along with scads of archers, but that will have to be for another time.

Here is a regiment of wood elf cavalry. 

Not very hard-hitting, but will be good for skirmish tactics and harrying the enemy's flanks.

Another unit of cavalry, but these chaps are mounted on elks (I really enjoyed working on these models).

Here's a moot of Tree Ents striding purposefully into the fray. 

One of the fun things with 3d printing is that you can play with the scale of the models and create mirror images of them. So I varied the size of the Ents to reflect their maturity and age. I also put in a few archers and some Dryads to help provide a sense of scale.

A massed unit of Forest Dryads on a double-depth base, with a few Tree Ents shepherding them along. Think Helm's Deep, or the Birnam Wood at Dunsinane.

I know it's sort of hard to discern which is what in the photos. It makes a bit more sense in person as you can clearly see the Ents keeping everything moving in one direction.

Thanks for dropping in to take a look.

- Curt

Klaus and Raegan in the Turnip Patch

 

I've been on a real fantasy kick these past few months and so here are a couple more characters for 'Moonstone' along with a long neglected piece of terrain for them to frolic in.

This turnip patch is an old chestnut from the sadly closed 'Architects of War'. Like many of their wonderful terrain offerings, the field is a fairly substantial piece of resin, nicely detailed, with white metal fittings for the foliage. It was an easy build, finished with a quick skim coat of Liquitex to fill in any gaps, primed brown and then drybrushed up to fit with my other pieces from them. Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy.

Next, I also have a couple more characters to add to the Moonstone collection. This time it's two Faun, Klaus and Raegan. 

The background story for this pair is that Klaus, being sort of an awkward fella, was teased mercilessly as a young faun by all the other kids. Well, teased by all except Raegan. Taking pity on him, the young Leshavult priestess placed him under her wing, keeping him safe and taught him how to protect himself. They now work as a fearsome duo, with Raegan operating as a spell caster, while Klaus runs interference, wreaking havoc with his big-honkin' flail.

I kept the colours fairly limited to mostly earth tones, so both of these painted up quite quickly.

As you can see, Klaus DOES NOT need more cowbell.

Here we see the the floaty Raegan, casting spells, ensuring Klaus remains a happy and healthy murder hobo.

Thanks for dropping in for a peek!

- Curt

 

Additional Units for the Tomb Kings Army

Hello Folks!
Here are a few more units for my 10mm Tomb Kings army. Similar to my previous group, these are based-up for 'Monsters & Magic' a fantasy variant of 'To The Strongest'.

All of these are venerable GW metal castings which are a real joy to work on. Sure, 3d prints are great, the variation is welcome, but my lizard brain can't help but enjoy the substantial heft of a nice-sized base of metal castings. This all being said, I did include some 3d printed statuary to add a little set-dressing to the bases.

A couple units of skeleton archers

A regiment of undead cavalry

A unit of bolt throwers

A flock of Undead Carrion Flyers

...and a handful of Tomb King leaders to keep the whole horde-of-bones shambling in the right direction.

Combined with my first submission, this should provide me with a decent enough core to play with. Here's a group shot of what I've managed to get done this Challenge. I'm pretty pleased with the progress so far.

I have a few more Tomb King units primed and waiting in the wings, but I feel the desire to work on another race in this setting. Hopefully I'll have more on that later.

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Thanks for dropping in for a look!

- Curt

'A long time ago in a dungeon far, far away...'

Hi All,

I've been a big Star Wars nerd ever since seeing the first movie as a kid in '77.  So when I discovered that my friend Kawe over at Westfalia Miniatures/One Gold Piece had done a brilliant range of fantasy not-Star Wars minis I knew I had to give them a go.

First up are our doughty heroes. These seven adventurers will be very recognizable as: The Apprentice, The Princess, The Old Master, The Smuggler, The Bugbear, The Butler Construct and the Trashcan Construct. 

Then we have our iconic arch villains, with The Liche Lord and his Honour Guard, and the terrifying Death Knight.

I actually had a print fail on the Death Knight where his sword didn't properly resolve. So I replaced it with some plasticard, doing a sort of anime thing with the shape of the blade. It's a bit of a bodge but I actually don't mind it.

The other fun thing about these being 3d prints is that it allowed me to scale up the Death Knight to be a little more imposing.  David Prowse would be pleased, I think.

Thanks for dropping in for a look. Have a great day!

- Curt