Blue's Year End Re-Cap. 2015...what a long strange trip it's been!

As with many Oldhammer Bloggers this seems to be the right time to review the last twelve months and take a look at what I was able to accomplish and perhaps look to set some goals for the coming year.

I'll look at things in fairly broad categories:

• Painting
• Gaming
• 2016 Goals

Attack of the Krackatoans! The Fishmen Cometh...

Howdy all,

As I mentioned in my last post I've been working hard to try to clear the many half finished projects that have occupied my painting desk for months.  One of the long lingering projects has been a group of figures from Dragon Bait Miniatures called the Krackatoans.  These are wonderful fishmen that would fit right in to pretty much any fantasy setting...and like most of the DB miniature figure line they are infused with some of that tongue-in-cheek humor that we all love about "Oldhammer" figures.  I'm really considering using this group as a Frostgrave warband as well....:)

Joe at Dragon Bait is one of the nicest guys you can deal with in our community and he was nice enough to send me a set of these miniatures before they were released.  They are now available through a crowd funding campaign on Indiegogo.  What I love about Joe's campaigns is that he has the figures in hand and ready to go...when the campaign ends he sends your figures to you...no long waits.  Joe does it right. Please go take a look at his offerings...I find that supporting small figure producers like DB is very rewarding and can add some very unique minis to your collection that look great on the table.

Lets take a look at the whole batch and then we will look to closeups of each individual.

Wood Grain Technique

Howdy all,

Yes...I am alive...I've just fought through a week long flu which has had me completely debilitated (boo hoo...poor me).  I'm finally getting back on my feet and actually did some painting last night for the first time in many days.

Anyway, after I posted pictures of the Dragon Bait Miniatures Executioner set that I painted up recently I received a couple of requests for information about how I did the wood graining on the chopping block.

Luckily I took a series of pictures of this figure while I was painting it in hopes writing up a longer "how-to" post.  That post never materialized...but now I can use some of those pics for this quick demo.

My technique for wood graining is all about contrasting colors and texture...and applying these colors with short quick motions....and this is true for large surfaces like this block as well as narrow spaces like along a bow stave or weapon haft.

Here we go.  I started with coating the entire block with Vallejo Model Color 872 Chocolate Brown.  Nothing fancy here...just lay it on thick enough to cover the Dark Gray primer.

Dragon Bait Miniatures Executioner Finished!!!

Howdy all,

Now that the holidays are settling out its time to catch up with some ongoing projects in the blogosphere.  Don't worry...I'll cobble together a Year End Wrap Up for 2014 at some point...but I feel its important for these things to ..."ferment" for awhile.

Anyway...on with the reason for the post.  I've managed to finish up the Executioner set sculpted by Tim Prow from the ongoing Dragon Bait Miniatures Indiegogo Campaign. Here is the entire set and we will look at the components in more detail below.

Dragon Bait Miniatures Executioner and helper...WIP

After I finished up working on Johann (pic forthcoming once I finish his base) I turned my attention to working on some of the Dragon Bait Miniatures from their ongoing indiegogo campaign.  https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/dragon-baits-second-28mm-fantasy-campaign

In particular I've been slapping paint on the executioner figure and his halfling helper. I'm really loving these Tim Prow sculpts.  

So before I left for my Christmas holiday back in Ohio with my parents I managed to get the flesh and black cloth areas finalized.  I'm not sure how well the shading on the black will show up on these iPhone pics but here is the current status of these two figures.

Work will resume in these as soon as I am back in VT after Christmas.

Be sure to stop by the Dragon Bait miniatures indiegogo campaign page and offer your support if you want some character figure to use in you Dungeoun adventures.

Cheers,

Blue

What's on Blue's table now?

Still nothing finished to show off yet...so I wanted to give you an idea of what will be coming in the near future.  I'm pretty excited about the figures I have in my painting queue right now. For once it's a rather eclectic mix of different races and types of figures which I hope will help with keeping my motivation up.

The first thing I have to finish up is another copy of the fantastic Johann sculpt that is available from Clam's Ewal Dvergar Range.  This one is going to a long-suffering client and I'm anxious to get it back to its rightful owner.

I have also been asked to paint a few figures for the Dragon Bait miniatures Indiegogo campaign. This is the second campaign by Dragon Bait miniatures and once again will be offering a lot of interesting and humorously old school style sculpts.  

I have agreed to paint the dwarf inquisitor... who definitely has that van Helsing feel to him.

Then there is the halfling scout...who has a great country bumpkin thing going on.

I will be also working on the small vignette of a executioner and his halfling compatriot who is luring the next victim to their death with a tasty doughnut.  I am particularly excited about these figures from the campaign...I just love the sculpts...which I believe are by Tim Prow.

This set comes complete with a block and a basket with a couple of heads already in it.  Just genius!

Next I have my entry for the Oldhammer forum's community war band. This is a very old-school citadel sculpt that makes me laugh because this archers quite pudgy!  I forgot to check his name before I glued him in...I think this is Edwin...?

Another odd duck figure I have ready to go is one of the really early citadel slotta Elfs...Gildor?  Who I will be painting up for thebinman's Averland warband.  You've got to love his Elvis style hair do.

Next up is the one remaining 5th edition Bretonian Squire with bow that I need to complete my unit.  The group has been languishing at 17 for the last year...it took me awhile to acquire another copy of this specific sculpt...so it will be nice to actually finish this unit off.

Finally I also have these fantastic mid 90 Perry sculpts of Bertrand and his compatriots. Obviously styled after Errol Flynn's Robin Hood movies and just loaded with bags of character even for relatively "newhammer" figures. These will obviously be becoming character models for my Bretonian army.  I've had them for a while now and I'm very excited to finally get them painted.

So you can expect to see all of these figures again in future posts hopefully in various stages of progress.

Of course I still have the Knights to finish that I showed earlier as well as half a squad of Orks that need their final coats of paint too!!.  My work schedule should finally be opening up a little bit as we approach Christmas and I hope to be quite productive during my downtime.

Cheers for now,

Blue

Dragon Bait Miniatures...a New Indiegogo Campaign with an OldSkool Feel

I just decided to jump onboard the new Indiegogo campaign that Orlygg recently discussed on his blog here...Dragon Bait Miniatures.  I really like the look of the Greens that are now on display...and knowing the Kevin Adams is doing the sculpting allows me to feel confident that the remainder will be just as nice.

My little group of gamers have really been enjoying some low stress dungeon crawling over the last couple of months...but sadly most of the hundreds of figures I already have don't really fit well in a dungeon exploring roll.  They look too much like soldiers!  I think that these will give a much better representation of characters for these types of games.  The concept art and displayed greens show a very oldskool feel that doesn't take itself too seriously....I mean a Halfling Barbarian...with a turkey leg...how can you not love that?!?!

Lets take a look at some of the greens that Kev has produced....

Here is the aforementioned Halfling Barbarian and an excellent looking Cleric.

And here are a few of their other freinds and co-workers...all look fantastic IMO.

I'm quite excited to give these a once over with the hairy wand when they find their way to my castle...

Cheers,

Blue