"Say the right words, and we'll take the baby to the castle"...

or in other words: Goblins!

The first batch of my wife's Warhammer Quest goblins is done:

So, this means I'm now only 6 rats, 6 bats, 6 snotlings, and a minotaur away from....

...the halfway point. For just the monsters... :-/

GW certainly packed that WHQ box to the brim!

With these done, I've made a start on the skeletons for my own dungeoneering collection. I've got 5 undead archers with their bones painted. They just need to have their bows and random bits and bobs taken care of and they're done. That'll have to wait until the next painting session, though. The light is going and I need to clear the table.

Covering my bases

Hmm, I'm going to run out of base-related puns if I keep this up...

No big update, just finished the bases for two more heroes:

The left base is for a Fighter character, the old friend of the Barbarian and Dwarf Slayer couple I talked about a few posts ago. The right is for an Elf swordsman (the old GW Aenur Sword of Twilight special character for Mordheim). 
The scripts on the bases actually say something, but it isn't profound or special or anything. I'll leave it to the fantasy-font fanatics to puzzle it out...
I've also got a (again GW Mordheim) warlock that is ready for a base, but I can't decide a design.
I don't just want to re-do another version of the summoning circle of the Necromancer's base, but it needs to be something "wizardy". Then again, the Warlock is a little dodgy-looking, so maybe the visual link with the necromancer could point to the risk of corruption and meddling with dark forces that his calling entails. Hm, food for thought.

Oh, and I primered the skeletons. So once the goblins are done for my misses' Warhammer Quest set, those can get painted.
I really should start giving some serious thought to terrain as well...


Oh, I don't know if I said it earlier, but this renewed enthousiasm for Dungeoneering was inspired by a Kickstarter for a PC game (So much for PC gaming killing of the miniature games, eh?).
Now, I don't usually do this, nor do I intend to make a habit out of it, but I feel I should tell you about this one:

Darkest Dungeons

It's side-scrolling dungeoneering game, where the fact that dungeons are unpleasant places, and confronting monsters in the dark will take a psychological toll on even the staunchest of heroes...
Currently, they're about halfway their 30 days, with some nice extras already unlocked, and a few nice ones still to go. (Personally, I'm really hoping they reach the stretch goal that gets us cinematics in the style of the trailers!)
If you enjoy dungeoncrawling, lovecraftian creepiness and a somewhat darker visual style, a la Mignola and don't mind PC gaming, you should really check this one out.

See you next time, don't get eaten by a grue!

All your base are belong to us!

But these two belong to me!

The milliput had hardened enough, so I made some bases. Rank and file stuff mostly, but these two I want to show off...
The left one is the base for my Undead mob's Necromancer (the plastic one from GW). I scribed in a portion of a ritual circle. The original model had a pre-textured base with a skeleton on it. This means that one of his feet is higher than the other. I was checking how thick an item I should make to have his foot rest on, when I noticed the raised foot makes him look like he is prancing around the circumference of his magic circle. Tadaa, instant fix! :-D
The right base is for the Undead mob's Lich Lord (again GW plastic). True to GW form, this model also had something inconvenient stuck to his foot... A gravestone this time. As the model is intended for use inside a dungeon, this made no sense. Sadly the thing is a bugbear to remove too. So instead, I decided to theme the base around it, make it look like he was standing on the floor of a funerary crypt... So, I inscribed the base to look like a  old time brass effigy on a tomb, with the piece of grave stuck to his foot working as a headstone to this particular grave.
Should look pretty nice once painted, just a shame the Lich Lord's robes will cover up most of it again...

In places deep, where dark things sleep,...

...In hollow halls beneath the fells.

But no Hobbit miniatures, oh no! I'm talking about the murderous hobo lifestyle; adventuring and dungeoneering!
But since both mini's I want to show have something to do with the subterranean realms the lyric quoted seemed apt.

So, here is number one, a Rhulic (aka Dwarf) Rifleman for the Iron Kingdoms RPG:

As the miniature is not of a character I am currently playing, he's as yet unnamed. 
He's is a conversion of a Heresy Miniatures Dwarf Miner/Inventor. I remodelled the original shotgun into a Iron Kingdoms style Repeater Rifle and added a greatcoat.
 I started this conversion some years ago, back in Iron Kingdom's D20 days, to represent a friend's Rhulic Ranger. But I couldn't get a decent greatcoat sculpted on. We have since moved on to the IKRPG 2nd edition with all new characters, so he was no longer immediately necessary. I came across him when sorting through my mini's for Iron Kingdoms and decided to give him another go.
I'm quite happy with him now he is finally finished.

And dungeoneering related miniature number 2:

A nice big barbarian warrior from the tribes around the Seas of Sand in the eastern lands.
He is Hasslefree Miniatures' Wolf (b) with a braided mohawk/topknot added in greenstuff. I've painted him with a darker, more bronzed skintone to appear like someone from the Middle East. He's a big brute of a mini, over 35mm tall, excluding his base.

With him finished, it means two companions are finally together again:

The moment I pulled these out of the parcel, I knew they had to go together, they're just such a characterful duo.
Two adventuring companions, having shared many adventures and perils over the years. Despite, or maybe because of, their obvious and significant differences, they only truly seem to be at ease when the other is near. Rumors have it they may even be lovers, but no-one has yet had the courage, or deathwish, to ask...

There is a third member to this little adventuring outfit, a mutual friend who joins them from time to time, but he resides still in his little plastic baggie... A grizzled older warrior, also from Hasslefree.

Oh, and the prop for my son's costume is finished, but still needs final fitting and pictures taken, it will get a post all of its own later this weekend.

A Costume for my son.

In the part of the world/country where I live, it is just a little under two weeks until Carnival*.
Since my wife sews with some skill, and I have my modelling and wargaming skills, my son is utterly convinced anything is achievable costume-wise...
 This year he initially wanted to go dressed as a Space Marine. In the interest of my mental health, our household budget and his comfort during the day (hardshell costumes suck!) I managed to convince him this wouldn't be feasible.
So he decided to be a character from his favorite video game instead...
...with all the props.

The moment my wife heard his choice she firmly declared: YOU are going to do all the other stuff, I'm only doing the clothing!

So there I was...
Anyway, here is the main prop, as it stands now:

 Can you guess who my son will be dressed as?
Some more clues: His more popular brother is a plumber. They both love spaghetti and facial hair.

See you again when this contraption is done!

*: Carnival around here is a big costumed festival with parades, parties, for the adults lots of booze and idiocy, and lots of loud music of generally abysmal taste and quality made just for the event. It was traditionally a big party before the start of fasting and abstinence until Easter. These days, the majority of the populace, regardless of faith (or lack thereof) unite in celebrating the feast in a big way before totally ignoring everything about the fasting and abstaining...

Taking selfies...

Self bows that is!

The archers that will accompany my brave Knight are done:

Once again, hackjob painting table photography....

Good fun to paint, though I got a bit hasty with their hosen at the end. But then again, they're only mooks, they can't expect to get the same star treatment the shining hero leading the retinue got.
These are old late-90's GW Bretonnian figures, to which I've added nylon thread bowstrings (attached with superglue and plentiful cursing!) and styrene nocked arrows on the two aiming figures.
I really wish the Perry twins would sculpt and release some more figures to match this style and era. Their Agincourt range is close, but just a few decades later.

To complete the Knight-with-no-name(-yet)'s retinue, I still have 5 spearmen (including a bannerman) and a squire to paint. That will have to wait for the time being as the bannerman is only holding a long stick at the moment, and the squire needs greenstuff shenanigans to make the foot version match the mounted more closely.

But more importantly, this means there will be two single figures on the painting roster next! I'm already looking forward to it. It's just nice to be able to mess around with paints and odd mixes without having to worry about consistency or repeatability. Just go with the flow.

One place has already been claimed by a tough looking dwarf in greatcoat carrying a repeater rifle. (Yes, a figure for use in IKRPG. I'll tell you more about him once I start painting him.) No pics yet as figure in nothing but black primer is no fun to see (or photograph).

This is my boomstick!

You all were expecting Ash, weren't you?

Well, these guys take the expression "boomstick" a little more literally:

Yesterday I finished my first batch of Iron Fang Pikemen, but I din't have the right light to photograph them anymore. They were a bit of hard work to get painted, I had to go back and fix a white haze that turned up on the red. No idea where it came from, I think the weather somehow affected the way the paint dried (My painting room has become a bit chilly this winter, so I paint in the living room, but I store my painting gear, including half-painted mini's in the painting room...)
Plus, they are basically 3 colours, red, brown and metal. It took some perseverance to keep going at such large and repetitive expanses of similar shapes and colours.
But I made it through. Now to gather the courage to start on the next batch of six, including the unit leader, bannerman and officer. I'm not sure if I'll keep them as one painting batch, or split them up in 3 grunts and 3 "specials". Right now I'm leaning towards painting them as a group of six; it means I only have one more batch of pikemen to get through, I can hopefully maintain some painting interest by alternating grunts and specials in the assembly line, and I reduce the risk of getting stuck with a painted unit that has unpainted officers....

Oh, here is the rear of this batch:

 Hardcore nutters in heavy plate, wielding bombs on long sticks, what's not to like about them?

Oh, to maintain sanity, and enthousiasm as the painting of the pikemen ground on, I also sidestepped into these guys:

The first part of Sir Yet Nameless his retinue. These are his archers. Sire Nameless and his retinue-to-be are part of my larger Warhammer Quest/Chanson de Geste/Dungeoneering/Fantasy Skirmish project.
At this point the wash on their cowls was drying, livery, leathers, faces, bows and grey metals are done. I still need to paint their hose, arrows and fletching, and copper/brassware bits and paint the bases before they are finished.
The two metal ones (sword raised and the guy with the horn) are lovely sculpts by the Perries, from GW's old (and by me, much missed) Bretonnian range. Accounting for their age, and single piece nature, even the three plastic ones aren't all that bad.

I find batch-painting the less enjoyable aspect of painting for wargaming. To keep myself enthousiastic about painting,  with every batch finished, I  "reward" myself with getting to paint a single individual miniature. Recharge the batteries, as it were.
So, once the archers are finished, I'll have two batches achieved, which means....TWO individual figures to paint!
Not sure yet, what those will be, but I'm already eyeing a few of my primed figures. Good chance they'll be figures that can be used for the Iron Kingdoms RPG, or maybe a Warmachine solo as these have all passed my converting and prep bench lately... Then again, I may just rip something out of a blister at the last moment.
Gotta keep things interesting...