New Etsy Listing- Lesser Beholder

The beholder's been around since the inception of D&D, and is one of the most memorable and long-lived of the monsters which were created with the game. This particular sculpt (technically called a Spectator) is a brand new one, only, as I recall, available for the past week or so. It was packaged along with a pair of even smaller Beholder kin- which while I have yet to list these (and I may not), I'll go ahead and stick at the end of this post.

The color scheme may look a little familiar, as it's the same tones I used on my Doctor Who Zygons. I was concerned at first that it might look a little too lobster like on the caraprace, but it turned out looking really well.

I wanted the tongue and mouth to stand out, and so I painted these a pale, almost corpse-like white. The eyes were inspired by a handy array of concepts in an art book from the LotR films- I have a feeling I'll be referring back to that when I eventually paint this figure's larger cousin!

I tried to differentiate elements of the casing by painting the horns and eye stalks a more reddish tone- it does help to break up the monotony of the armor.

The base is very simple- I just painted the bottom of the clear plastic support a medium grey. I find I often prefer that to a more elaborate set-up, largely as it makes the model more easily transferable to different settings.

And the smaller version! I've grown pretty attached to it, as I really like the disgruntled expression on its face. It's only about the size of a standard human's head, and would work well for a familiar. I've got another of these, which will probably get painted a blue or purple.

As always, check out the Etsy listing here.

New Etsy Listing- Frog Shaman

Bullywog, Grippli, Squog- call them what you will, frogmen have been a part of D&D since 1981's Fiend Folio, although I'd imagine that the Old One Tsathoggua (which also inspired one of my favorite DCC patrons, Bobugbubilz, the Demon Lord of Amphibians) played a role in games before that. This particular frogman sculpt is Mudcroak, Squog Shaman from Reaper Miniatures.

I painted him up as a Strawberry Poison Dart Tree Frog, as I liked the contrast between the red body and blue limbs. He does, however, have some pretty fearsome teeth that few tree frogs possess. Also, the gear he has seems more like that one would find around a coral reef- while frogs don't (to my knowledge) live there in this world, these must have adapted to salt water.

He's also got a fair amount of suitably shamanistic gear- ranging from sacks and dried grass to a pufferfish on a driftwood stick- well prepared to face meddlesome PCs...

This sculpt, along with a pair of warriors has been on my painting pile for a couple of years- I'd had trouble deciding when I purchased them how, exactly, I should paint them- I ran across a picture of some Poison Dart frogs recently, and decided it was high time they get completed.

They'll also go well with another figure on my stack- Reaper's Coral Golem. Perhaps the shaman has awoken his tribe's coral home to defend against attack, or as part of a small-sized force for Frostgrave's Ghost Archipelago.

Be sure to check out the miniature on Etsy as well!

New Etsy Listing- Wraith

This miniature is a striking sculpt from Reaper Miniatures, transferred fairly recently to the Bones line. I prefer a much more realistic minimum to my sculpts than some of Reaper's miniatures, but this is a great, simple, classic wraith.

And, in this case, a simple sculpt deserved a simple paint job! It's just a plain black cloak, animated in the approximate shape of a floating humanoid. All the crevices and folds in the cloth were enjoyable to layer, and I'm pleased with the resulting tattered appearance.

If I had one qualm about the miniature, it'd be that my primer/black basecoat is a touch glossy compared to the grey middle and topcoats. This does give it something of an ethereal look in person, though, and is simply different than how I originally envisioned it.

Check out this miniature and other listings on my Etsy Shop!

Draconian Empire

The Draconians- a race of honor-bound, hierarchical reptiles- and uneasy allies of the Earth's Empire! They first appeared in the Third Doctor adventure Frontier in Space, when the Daleks (aided by the Master) attempt to start a war between the Draconians and the Humans to weaken them up prior to an invasion. They are some of the better designed creatures to emerge from the classic show, and were purportedly Jon Pertwee's favorite alien as he could interact with them much more believably then, say, a Drashig.

First is the Draconian Lord, wearing a green gem showing his status in the Emperor's court. This pose is based on a still of the Draconian ambassador to Earth, but interestingly has the design of a court official on the shoulders.

These miniatures are, as usual, from Warlord Games' 36mm Into the Time Vortex line. They're some of my favorite sculpts thus far in the line, the textures and folded robes really stand out and add interest to what could have been a pretty dull looking release.

Classic Doctor Who creatures are far from the easiest to paint! The mix of often dull tones, bad quality images and confusing prototype materials make difficult even figuring out what, exactly, the costumes looked like to begin with. I wound up taking a slight liberty with the Draconians' cloth robes- they were much darker (a satin in the case of the soldiers seen on the left) in the show, but a lighter tone made for a much better looking figure.

These wound up looking pretty good! I'm pleased with the effect I achieved on the scales in particular- it looks pretty much spot on.

This batch of miniatures are now available for purchase on Etsy- check out my shop for larger pictures and custom orders!

New Etsy Listing- Female Wizard

I got a new Etsy listing up yesterday, the first in a long while. This particular miniature is from Wizards of the Coast's recent Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures line, and was packaged together with another I posted a couple years ago. I like the more realistic sculpts seen in the NMM line, in particular the females- they almost remind me of the simple style seen on early TSR miniatures.

I used the same colors on her dress as my recent Eowyn miniature. I've recently grown to like a heavy contrast between my base color and highlight. You can see this most clearly on the hair, which started as a dull dark brown.

This cloak is pretty much the opposite- with a soft, layered transition between colors. It's the first time I've used this color as a highlight on a large area, and I think it goes well alongside the sharper contrasts elsewhere on the figure.

I enjoyed painting the spell effect like a meteor of sorts- a burning red with a smoky purple tail. The book also got an intricate pattern of words and images, meant to evoke the spell sections in the actual D&D rulebook.

Take a look at my Etsy Page for more prepainted miniatures and custom order information!