Don’t call me knife ear – Elladan Elf Ranger

Another Monday, another showcase. As promised this week a good friend and long time companion of Elliwyn enters the stage: Elladan Elf Ranger by Reaper Miniatures. This week’s focus are worn leather effects.

Bravery comes in all sizes – Elliwyn Heatherlark

Another week, another showcase. This time Elliwyn Heatherlark, a female gnomish fighter by Reaper Miniatures, but with a twist: She got some serious problems with human-headed snakes. So read on to learn how a Zombie turns into a Nure-onna.

Fiery Balls – Chaos Toad Sorcerer

You just want to go for a walk in the swamps, and guess what? It suddenly rains fiery balls! Joke’s on you, foolish adventurer! This is Bufo territory. You knew there was something odd about the little shrunken heads hanging in the trees. Well, lesson learned and that new look sans eyebrows and hair really suits you!

This weeks showcase features Reaper Miniatures Chaos Toad Sorcerer cast in Bones Black material! Oh my! But fear not, that stuff is actually really good. I also painted this chap using exclusively my new set of Kimera colours. So you get a miniature, material and paint review in one! Oh, naturally I will also tell you all about the paint job and that sickly green swamp base he is standing on.

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They hunger – Vampire Thrall

This week’s showcase features a slightly converted Mantic Ghoul. A head-swap made him into a vampire thrall. He also looks a bit like edgy Yoda in his teenage years, but that is incidental. So buckle up and I give you some pointers regarding the conversion, paintjob and basing.

Cleave him to the brisket! – Gruff Grimecleaver

Avast ye you lily-livered landlubbers! This week’s showcase features Gruff Grimecleaver sculpted by Jason Wiebe. Pirate dwarves are few and far between, but this one was definitely fun to paint. I will elaborate a bit on the base, as I carved the ship planks texture right into a plastic base. After all I am no son of a biscuit eater! Naturally paints used will be covered, too, and a simple technique to depict smoke plumes. Savvy? – Then all hands hoay!

Stick and Stone – Nienna Elven Ranger by Reaper Miniatures

Back on track dear readers with a new post. Life is busy with a toddler, who would have thought! In any case, today I would like to showcase a heavily converted Reaper Bones Miniature Nienna Elven Ranger.

I’ll cover my cloth texturing technique, paints used and finally give some sculpting advise. Enjoy!

Vlad Dracul – The curse of Immortality

It took several years, but finally my slightly converted Judas Bloodpsire by Reaper Miniatures is finished. Why did it take me so long, you may ask? Well, I was stuck with his fancy headdress and only recently found a solution to depicting the pearls. I also got a new miniature called James. He is extremely well cast and keeps us quite busy. So despite a creative draught and a new baby in the house, I managed to get some hobby time in.

I will elaborate on the headdress’s construction, colours used and last but not least show you the results of my new ring light and smart phone photo setup.

The Menhirs of Gelosul – a tutorial on standing stones

After a long hiatus I return to the blogosphere with a new tutorial. A full-time job, moving countries and the advent of a baby boy did somewhat reduce my hobby time to almost zero and only slowly I get back into a rhythm of late night hobbying. Nevertheless work continues on my forest themed gaming boards.

In this post I focus on making standing stones from scratch, a staple in any fantasy game, but also interesting for the historical wargamer. Making some ancient menhirs for the gaming table is a fairly simpel affair. You won’t need fancy supplies or exotic materials. So come along and explore ancient sites deep inside the forest.

Shaped by time – Wind-swept rocks for your gaming table

Your desert themed gaming table features dry lake beds and areas of deeper sand. So far so good, but this time we go vertical. Just as promised we will focus on large wind-swept rocks in this installation of the arid terrain series. The rocks are suitable as stand-alone pieces and can be freely placed on the gaming table. Depending on your design choices they can serve as inaccessible line-of-sight blocking terrain or be climbed by miniatures to give them an advantage. Naturally integrating the rocks into a larger structure or modular gaming board is a possibility, too.

Per usual illustrated step-by-step instruction will guide you through the process and scenic photographs will provide examples of how these rocks can liven up the gaming table in combination with the other pieces we built in this series. So take a pick and chisel and come along, but mind your step.

Sand in your shoes – A tutorial on arid rough terrain

Arid terrain still preoccupies my mind and we shall not stop at dry desert lakes. Instead, in this second tutorial of the series, I would like to focus on the ever useful rough terrain, or in this specific case a terrain piece that features deeper sand. While you could depict rough terrain with a stretch of land filled with rocks and thorny bushes, I felt it would be much more interesting and challenging to depict an area that features fine, wavy sand, where with each step your troops or characters sink deeper, adding to the exhaustion of sun and thirst. I did also add some weathered rock outcroppings and sparse vegetation to round the piece off.

As always a list of the materials you will need for this build is followed by easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions. Work in progress pictures will illustrate each step and naturally I won’t break with the tradition of including scenic shots of the final piece. So put on your pith helmet, fill your water bag and follow me once again to a harsh desert environment that offers much more than featureless stretches of land to the modelling enthusiast.