Time for another painting blog - and only a few short weeks since the last one!

For GameBlast25 I needed a WWII era train set - preferably a military one. Originally I was looking to buy something that I could just use without any prep but that didn't work and now, I was getting close to the date of the event!

Instead I quickly looked for alternatives and settled on getting something from Sarissa-Precision.
They sell a WWII train bundle  which was exactly what I was looking for. I also bought some additional track, foolishly thinking I might need some extra but the bundle comes with plenty of track - easily enough to hold the entire train.

The train comes a flat packed kit of card and MDF (I think?) that required a lot of assembly and some painting.
To be honest it was a bit more of a crafting project than I was hoping for - particularly with the deadline looming.

This was the first time I was doing something like this and I was on a deadline too! I found that the carriages were pretty tricky to create and I made quite a few mistakes, especially early on.

The kits are fairly elaborate and even come with features such as spinning wheels when constructed correctly. However, since I was painting so fast I found once I'd painted the wheels, they got stuck.

​Lacking the time to do a proper camo paint job, I ended up spraying them army green and finishing with a military shader all from Army Painter. There was a bit of a cleaning up afterwards.

I'm not sure how I feel about the results, I definitely could have done better - there's lots of gaps and mismatched edges, don't look too closely at the photos!
On the other hand, the flaws give it them a sort of lived-in, battered quality.
I think it looks passable and they're there to be played with, not looked at.

Sarissa also do a European style train bundle and since I can be a glutton for punishment, I may pick that up when I'm more 'cash-rich' and see if I can do a better job with a bit more experience, time and patience.

Time for another painting blog and only 2 weeks after the last one!

All of these figures were painted for GameBlast25 which I ran back in February

​These figures below are all ones I have painted before but I needed duplicates.
Short Round and the pilot figure are from Pulp Figures while Tintin and the Continental Op are sleuths from Copplestone Castings gangster range. 

The elf on the left is a plastic figure and comes from WizKids Pathfinder Deep Cuts range and obviously from a D&D styled figure, she was used to represent Tauriel from The Hobbit movies as she was the best matching figure I have.

On the right is a recognisable, excellent Sallah figure from the pulp range at Crooked-Dice and is part of the Stalwart Sidekicks blister pack. 

Three time travellers, also from Crooked-Dice.
More excellent figures from Crooked-dice. I was worried they might not like right but they look recognisably like what they're meant to look like.

All the following figures are from the Kiss Kiss Bang Bang range at Artizan Designs.
They all have a 60's flavour and were used for the part of GameBlast25 adventure that took place in 1969.
They are very well sculpted and were enjoyable to paint, with enough detail to keep them interesting but not so much to become overly fiddly.
They are also just generic enough to be usable in a 70's game.

It's only been a week since my last painting blog - something's gone wrong with the world!

I have more scenery to blog about, this time some scenery from Crooked Dice.

Below are some pillars they produce that come in 3 sets of 2 pieces each. They're pretty standard looking and thus, were painted as pretty standard stone which led to a quick turnaround.

Crooked Dice also produce a 'monolith set' which have a weird fantasy theme and can double as unsettling looking pillars.
There's obviously more detail here which consequently took longer to complete but I'm happy with the outcome and look forward to making players feel apprehensive when they encounter them.

Finally, here are a pair of 'dungeon arches', also from Crooked dice.

They're pretty standard arches, fairly nondescript and could be used as arches for almost anything.
They're also a standard stone colour which were quick and easy to paint.
They felt a little wobbly when being handled so I based them to improve stability. I'm not sure it was the right decision since it'll now make them harder to store.

I do also have one small criticism though -  which is the gap between the 2 pillars on the arch is not quite 50mm or just wider. Yes, it's a minor grumble but not being able to slide a 50mm based figure through one of the arches niggles me a little bit.

That's it for now.
​Hopefully I'll be back with painted stuff to blog about soon.

It's been more than 6 months - so it's time for another painting blog! This time about terrain, dungeon tiles specifically.

Here are dungeon tiles from Modular Realms, a small British business that have been painted.

What's so special about them? Well, the tiles are magnetic and snap together in an incredibly satisfying way!
More than that - they can be rotated, turned and twisted in pretty any way desired and will still snap together in a way that seems to taunt the laws of magnetism.
However, when you play with the tiles for a little bit, you'll discover this is achieved by having magnets on spinners inside the tiles which will correctly align as needed.
It's clever stuff.

​Painting them was a little bit more of a mission than I expected due to using having to also use a black ink wash (As well as a normal black wash.) to emphasise the gaps between flagstone but ultimately I'm happy with the results.
I also used the 'sponge method' as espoused by Annabelle, owner of Modular Realms for highlighting instead of the usual dry brushing. It was something I'd not done before and was a bit stressful but as stated above I'm happy with the results.

One of the other great things about Modular Terrain is that it's double-sided!
There are various different combinations of terrain that are available (When not out of stock!) and I bought the flagstone/wood combo.
Conversely to the flagstone side, the wooden sides were dry brushed.

There are also a number of double sided cobblestone styled tiles which can be used as... well cobblestones or walls.

The two rooms below were put together in literally seconds and wont easily come apart.
​Fantastic!

​If you look at the Modular Realms website, you'll see a lot of interesting ways to use the tiles.
​
Finally, it all comes wrapped up in a neat package that uses - wait for it... magnets to hold it closed (Magnets FTW!).

I think personally I might have preferred more 2x2 tiles than 3x3 as I've found a lot of dungeon maps use double-width corridors between rooms and they'd have found use there.
And while I understand why the cobblestone tiles are the size they are to retaining size  compatibility, I'm 50/50 about using them as walls because they're a bit too tall for my preference.

These are minor quibbles though and overall if you don't mind a little effort to paint them (And I didn't.) they're worth considering, I think these are excellent and I'm looking forward to using them (Which hopefully will be soon!).

Finally, I'll add that I backed a recent kickstarter which adds differently shaped and themed tiles as well as dressing to the mix.

It's been 6 months so I guess it's time for another blog about painting stuff!

​I've managed to varnish a few figures.

Trolls ahoy! The troll on the left is from Reaper Bones while my memory about the dude on the right is a little fuzzy, he's definitely a lead figure though, possibly from Reaper too?

Both the ogres below are from Reaper Bones​.
The guy on the left is a fairly big figure and the bigger Reaper Bones figures are always good, I like how he turned out.

This giant croc is yet another Reaper Bones miniature.

These 2 dwarves come from the Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures range.
It looks like these 2 dwarves might be 3d printed and designed on computer. They're a little fiddly but I like the poses although it makes them tricky to store.
I'm also happy with the outcome, even though in the photo they don't look great.

Another slightly fiddlyplastic figure is this female assassin wielding twin daggers from the Pathfinder Battles Deep Cuts Unpainted range from Wizkids.

Run to the hills.
Metal iron maiden figures from Bad Squiddo Games.
Not a millimetre of visible skin on these figures which made them about the easiest figures to paint!

3 Beggars from Midlam Miniatures​.
​Not sure if they're originals from Midlam or from a older range.

4 WWII era Soviet soldiers from Artizan Designs.
I actually painted the vast bulk of these several years ago but at the time ran out of bases for the last 4! They've lingered in a drawer... until now.

These are male and female cultist from Bob Murch's Pulp Figures range.

I can't remember where these cam from, they were put on bases ages ago!
My gut is telling their vampire hunters from West Wind range but I can't be sure?
Despite being vampire hunters (I think!), they look pretty good as more cultists to join the Bob Murch figures.

Right. That's it for now.
​I'll post another blog in 6 months!

Some more varnishing has been done!
Other than the last 2 figures, everything was painted by mid-February but a mixture of being busy and bad weather meant that I didn't get a chance to varnish anything until Thursday past.

The 12 skeletons below are all lead figures from Midlam Miniatures. They're pretty standard designs but there's nothing wrong with that, I thought they were perfectly acceptable and the sculpts were good, especially since I was looking to bulk up my skeleton count and they were reasonably priced.
They were undercoated with a Army Painter bone coloured spray to make the painting quicker. The simpler figures such as archer and two-handed sword skeleton were quick to paint but some had a lot more detailing that needed quite a bit of re-undercoating before painting. So in terms of quick painting turn around. it was a bit of a mixed bag.
Overall though, I'm happy with the results.

EDIT: So whilst looking for something completely different I discovered that these skeletons were originally produced by the now defunct Metal Magic Fantasy back in the 90's when I was starting out painting!

The next 4 figures are cavemen from the Reaper Bones Black range.
Since they're plastic, the sculpting for their fur clothing can be quite thick, luckily though, that isn't readily apparent and overall they look pretty good. I like how burly they are.

Finally, the last 2 figures are definitely not Lara Croft and Alice from Resident Evil - specifically not Alice from the Resident Evil: Extinction movie.
Both done for a friend, Tim.

They're both lead models, now produced by Hayland Terrain.
Initially from the now defunct Studio Miniatures, they're both good sculpts though.

However, they were triply stressful to paint.
Originally I thought they were out of production and if somehow damaged would be very hard to replace.
They were painted for 'somebody else' which is something I'm not used to doing.
They were referencing 'real' sources which I needed to replicate.

Having said that, I still enjoyed doing it and am happy with the outcome.

So, I've finally gotten round to varnishing some of the ground vehicles that I painted for use in pulp/WWII settings. Some were painted over 18 months ago!
I didn't choose the best day for it - it could have done with being a few degrees cooler!

Still got the water vehicles to varnish.

Looking at the results, it would have been better to have used an airbrush but I don't have the money/space/experience for one. So it is what it is.

All models are 1/56 resin and come from Anyscale Models.

These scenery pieces all come from Iron Gate Scenery and a little unusually, I painted them for someone else, namely Tim. As I rule I don't paint for other people, all minifig painters know it can get a little stressful.

The varnish has dulled-down the colours a little - especially the metallics on the treasure pile. They are intended for use as additional scenery for HeroQuest though and will be handled a lot so varnishing seems prudent.

The scenery seems to be made from fairly high definition 3d printing, look closely however and the 'grain' is visible but it's not really an issue though, the quality is good enough, especially for scenery.
Design wise they're a little unremarkable but again, it's scenery - for use in a game which is good enough.

Been nearly a year since I posted on this blog, I haven't forgotten about it, promise!
I also haven't touched a paintbrush since February this year.

Got some undercoating done. This is going to be the first time I've painted fantasy figures for at least a couple of years.
Just done the undercoating on these, they're all Reaperminis.

Hopefully I'm going to varnish some of the stuff I've actually painted in the last year!

The morning's heat tired me.
Lunchtime's spotty rain dissuaded me.
Finally, this afternoon's muggy climate irritated me.

Despite this horribly changeable weather, I managed to do some undercoating.
These are the last of my pulp vehicles - unless has some forgotten stuff lying around, which is entirely possible!

2 boats are MDF kits that come from Warbases.
The other is resin from Ainsty Castings.

All vehicles are 1/56 resin and come from Anyscale Models.

Again all vehicles are 1/56th scale from ​Anyscale Models.

That's plenty of stuff to be getting on with for now.

Easter gave me the opportunity to construct another level of Hobbyzone modular paint racks.

The open spaces beneath the drawers allows me to 'hide' the paint pot clutter a lot better now. Although, to be honest; a number of those pots are probably 'dead' and need removing.

Part of the problem with last year's level up was while it gave a lot of storage, paints had to be moved away from the drawers to open them, now they drawers are a level higher, the paints won't interfere with the opening.

I think that I'm done with levelling up, I don't think there's any more practical reason to add more levels.