Grenadier Troll and Reaper Hawk

Here is the classic monster promised in my last post: Grenadier's Troll from the Denizens of the Swamp box set.  I love the gnarly, thin, and long-nosed trolls from D&D's past and I had a good time painting this guy.  The limited palette meant that it painted up pretty quickly too despite the fact that I am an incredibly slow painter.  This is the third mini I've painted from the Swamp set and it may be a while before I get to them, but eventually I'll paint the rest.  

I also recently painted the hawk from Reaper's Animal Companions I pack.  One of the players in the D&D game I'm running has a hawk "animal minion" and this was for him.  It's fairly small.  To give a sense of scale: the base is 20mm. 

More vintage lead and other random minis to come...

Reaper Gremlins II

I found the time to finish up the remaining two Gremlins, from Reaper's four pack.  And here they are:

I sculpted a mohawk out of green stuff for the one on the right and painted some little yellow spots on his ears to make him reminiscent of Spike from the movie Gremlins, just for fun. 

Here's a shot of all four together:

Up next an animal familiar and a classic monster from Grenadier.  Stay Tuned.

Reaper Gremlins

I painted two of Reaper's Gremlins (Dark Heaven Legends 03621) and thought I would share them even though they are from a pack of four.  I realized I hadn't shared any painted minis here for almost two months.  So I am still working on the other two but here is the first pair.

These are fun little miniatures that look similar to Pathfinder goblins.  They are quite small: less than 15mm high from their feet to the top of their head or hat.  Can't wait to finish the remaining two and I've got lots of vintage lead to paint up and share too.  Stay tuned.

Fall and Minis

This is the time of year when, besides getting a Halloween costume together and watching horror movies, I realize I need to base up and prime a bunch of miniatures before it gets too cold.  I always use spray primer and I apply it out in my backyard so I don't have to worry about overspray.  This is something you can't do when it's below 50 degrees Fahrenheit.  So that's what I've been working on and I don't have any newly painted minis to share...yet, anyway.  I do have some in progress that I hope to be posting soon! 

Since I'm a visual-kind-of-guy and it's Halloween, I will leave you with this sweet Lovecraft inspired illustration by Rowena Morrill.(Which I found on one of my favorite blogs: Monster Brains.)

Ral Partha Aerial Servant aka Ghost Butler

I painted Ral Partha's Aerial Servant with Pizza, from their Weird Fantasy line, to represent the ghost of a butler that the PCs in my current D&D game are going to be facing.  Definitely a silly miniature but here he is.  Hopefully the players will underestimate him, evil laugh, evil laugh...

Grenadier Shambling Mound

Here is the Grenadier Shambling Mound from the same "Denizens of the Swamp" set that I posted the basilisk from earlier.

I feel like the photo I took makes my brushstrokes look huge and a bit sloppy but overall I'm satisfied with this mini.  I've always loved plant-based monsters for some reason and I tried to paint him with the cover illustration of the box set in mind.

I tried to use a similar (but slightly duller) coloring under the eyes like you can see in the detail of the painting below.  I'm not sure if that's supposed to be source lighting from glowing eyes or just a coloration in the facial area of this beast, but I went with it.

 More monsters on the way...

The Five Doctors

Here is a group shot of all 5 of the FASA Doctor Who minis which if you've been following along, I just finished.  Thanks for looking! (Click to enlarge)

I've got several things on my painting table right now so I'm not sure what's next...

Doctor Who - Peter Davison

Just finished the last of the five Doctor Who miniatures made by FASA: the fifth doctor, Peter Davison.  As I mentioned previously, he's one of my favorite actors to have played the doctor. He's also the only one I have met in real life.  I had the privilege of meeting him as a kid at a Doctor Who convention in Cleveland, Ohio.  I want to say it was 1986.  So without further ado, here he is...

The striped pants were the biggest challenge with this miniature.  I also think the nose it a bit too large to get a good likeness of Davison.  C'est la vie.
 I'm happy to have all five done after keeping them sitting in a box for so many years.  I will post a group shot in the next day or two!

p.s. If anyone is interested I just redid my non-miniature related art website: www.crazymattreed.com which shows some of my fine art and illustration work.  If you are so inclined, check it out!

Grenadier Basilisk

I recently picked up a complete Grenadier "Denizens of the Swamp" set of miniatures on eBay.  I wanted to paint the basilisk first because the players in a game I'm running were going to encounter one.  Unfortunately I didn't finish it in time and had to use something else but I can still share it with you, the fine readers of my blog.

The basilisk in this set has two of his eight feet propped up on a rock, so I decided to put him on top of a rocky base insert.

After sticking him down, I realized that his feet didn't match up with the base all that well and left a gap.  You can see this gap in the picture on the left.

So I used some green stuff to sculpt some
little rocks underneath him to make it a better fit.










I picked my colors based on his Monster Manual description, which indicates that he should be brown with glowing green eyes.  And here he is....

 

Doctor Who - Tom Baker

I finished painting the fourth doctor as portrayed by Tom Baker.  The fourth and fifth doctors are my favorites so a lot of love went into this mini.  The Ark in Space is the first Doctor Who episode I ever saw and I fell in love immediately. 

 

I was going for the Season 12 costume but I was looking at my Underground Toys action figure for the scarf pattern and realized later that it may have been based on the Season 15 scarf.  Oh well, it's not all that different and it gets the point across.  I also left the pattern off of his vest but that was more of conscious choice.  The way the eyes are sculpted also gave me a bit of difficulty but in the end I'm pretty happy with him.  He's been waiting for me to paint him for over 20 years, so I'm glad I did it.  Just Peter Davison left now.  Expect to see him as well as some fantasy monsters soon.