Doctor Who and the Long Wait

Sorry for the long wait between posts (more than a month), but I've been super busy.  My goal is to post once per calendar month at a minimum.  Anyway, I managed to find a few hours to paint another one of the FASA Doctor Who miniatures that are on my painting table.  This time it's the second doctor, Patrick Troughton.

I've got to say I'm pretty happy with this mini.  It was my first attempt at any kind of plaid.  I tend to avoid doing any freehand on miniatures so I was worried, but I think I'm ok with how it turned out.  I even added some low contrast stripes to his handkerchief, that are a little hard to see in the picture, but that I think look pretty decent.  His hands look a lot more boney than I might want but overall, I like this little guy.

Most of the things keeping me busy are probably not of interest to the readers of this blog, but one thing I spent a few hours doing was the painting of an orc shaman seen below, that I sent in as part of WOTC's D&D Art Test.  I didn't labor over making something that I thought was what they were looking for, as much as I just had fun making a sort of spot illustration/character study.  I thought I would share it here, just for the heck of it.

Unfortunately I'm still pretty busy with more serious art projects, and other less exciting things, but hopefully I'll get back to the pile of lead and post more here soon!

Gamma World Eating My Time

It's been almost a month since I've posted anything here and it's mainly because I'm running a Gamma World campaign right now and preparing material and miniatures for that has taken up most of my
gaming/miniature-related time.  I just finished rebasing and slightly touching up or throwing a wash on a bunch of pre-painted heroclix and horrorclix miniatures for that game which you can see below.  Now that I'm done with that task, I should be getting back to the vintage lead which is meant to be the focus here.  Stay tuned.

Doctor Who and the Planet of Giant Ticks

So I just finished painting two miniatures: Doctor Who (the first doctor as portrayed by William Hartnell) and Asgard's Giant Tick (FM62).

This Doctor Who miniature was made by FASA in the 80's to go along with their Doctor Who RPG.  The minis were licensed to RAFM in the U.S. and Citadel in the U.K.  They made miniatures of the first five doctors, and they are all primed and ready to go on my desk, so expect to see the rest of them in the near future.  I got these as a kid and was always afraid to paint them, for fear of not doing them justice.

I'm not sure why they gave him so many rings.  I only remember him wearing the blue one.  Unfortunately in this picture the two on his left hand kind of look like warts or something. They look better in real life but maybe I should use an actual metallic paint on them.  I used grey mainly because I didn't want them to stand out too much.

The Asgard Giant Tick has some great texture on it but it really is kind of a lump of lead.  Like a deer tick, it has no eyes.  That being said, I think a giant tick would be one of the scariest monsters to run into, what with it's hideous appearance and blood-sucking abilities.  As far as I know the only other Giant Ticks available are the ones from Otherworld which do look pretty great.
 

 

 In other related news, I got a copy of the Journal of the OSFMapa that I mentioned in my last post.  It was a really fun read and I learned some things about old school miniatures that I was previously unaware of.  Again I encourage you to join us so you can get a copy of the next issue!  Email Scott at oldschoolfantasy (at) gmail (dot) com for more info.  

Update: OSFMapa now has a blog and a website where you can learn more about it.

General Update

So January was a busy month for me and I don't have any newly painted minis to show yet, but I will soon!

One of the things I did this past month was contribute to a new amateur press journal: The Old School Fantasy Miniatures APA or OSFMapa.  I wasn't really familiar with the APA concept before I saw this post on Mike's Blog: Swords and Dorkery, but essentially it's a printed zine that one needs to contribute to in order to get a copy to read.  Only a few extras are printed.  I'm not sure yet what I think of that format because it has such a limited readership, but I'm really excited to see what the other members have contributed when the first printing comes out sometime this month.  The reason I am bringing this to your attention, dear reader, is to encourage you to join the group as well.  If you are interested in vintage miniatures consider joining the group and contributing an article to the next issue.   We could use a few more miniatures junkies like you.

Archive Wink Dog

So here is Archive's "Wink Dog" painted in some slightly wacky colors.

For reasons I can't explain, the first time I saw this mini I wanted to paint it purple and pink.  There's a lovable goofiness about this piece that just made me want to go with that color scheme.  

I painted it with these colors despite the fact that I'm assuming this was supposed to represent a Blink Dog from Dungeons and Dragons.  In fact, I didn't realize it at first but the pose is very similar to Tom Wham's illustration of the Blink Dog from the first edition Monster Manual.

I love that they added a horn and a row of spines on his back, turning this into another creature entirely.  I'm  more likely to use this in a game of Gamma World than D&D.  Even if I had gone for a naturalistic color scheme I probably would have shot for something reptilian rather than anything like a dog.  

Thanks for visiting.

Teen Wolf aka Tommy the Wolf Man

Took a break from holiday stuff to take a picture of my most recent mini: Tommy the Wolf Man from Reaper's Chronoscope line, or as I like to call him, Teen Wolf!  Not sure I'll ever use him for gaming (Gamma World perhaps?) but he's just a fun miniature.

I'll be getting right back to vintage miniatures with my next post...

Asgard Wererat FM4

I really like the oddness of this miniature.  A wererat that is more rat than man.  He's like a big rat with a human face instead of a humanoid rat walking on two legs like we are more used to seeing.

He had some unfortunate mold lines that I did my best to deal with and he was tough to photograph for some reason.  I feel like all miniatures look better in person than they do in a picture but this one more so than usual.  I hope you enjoy seeing him.  More fun stuff to come...

Here is the 50mm base for the next mini I'll be posting.  I used Instant Mold and green stuff to make a copy of a Dark Age base insert.  The main reason I did this, rather than just use the insert as purchased, was to take a little of the vertical height off of the insert.  (With the added bonus of being able to use it again if needed.)  I have found that Instant Mold works really well for this this type of thing.   It is very easy to copy the relief surface of something that is flat on the bottom and use it on a base.  Stay tuned...

Asgard Minotaur FM15

Finished up this Asgard Minotaur figure.  It's hard to see in my previous post but his limbs have a very mottled texture.   Rather than fight with it I tried to give him a sort of shaggy fur texture.  I'm not sure I'm entirely satisfied with it but I think he looks ok.

This wasn't the first time I had painted male genitalia, I did go to art school after all, but it is the first time I painted them on a miniature.  I think anatomically correct monsters are both more comical and more frightening at the same time.

Archive Goblin King

Finished painting that cranky little Goblin King:

Wasn't sure if I should use metallic paint on his crown but I think it turned out ok.  I do love this little bugger.  The Asgard minotaur is still in progress...