D&D Minis - Francis and Friends (part 3), now with added Foes!

I've finished off the Francis model I started here.  All that was left was varnishing to protect the paintjob and replacing the integral base with a clear acrylic disc.  I've talked about my rebasing here.  For softish plastic like the old D&D Prepaints I'm happy to paint them on the old base and simply cut it off once everything is finished.  The black plastic even gives a bit of a shade effect for the soles of the boots.  With other minis, especially metal ones, I prefer to remove any base before painting, drill and add wire pegs and then paint, basing using the pegs to help the mini attach to the base after varnishing.

The completed Francis

Francis now has some finished friends to accompany him.  Firstly here is Torrin, the half-orc barbarian and ex-gladiatrix.  She is one of the new Wizkids unpainted D&D character minis, in this case Female Half-orc Barbarian.  She was a fairly straightforward paintjob.  Torrin's player requested mostly brown clothing, which I interpreted as lots of different shades of brown, from a reddish chestnut to a very pale tan.  I gave her a red cropped top to add some brightness.  I'm not quite there yet with the skin tones; this is only the second orc/half orc mini I've painted with a grey skin tone and I think it needs a bit more highlighting.  The hair could do with a lighter final highlight as well, perhaps, as the mini tends to look a bit dull, especially at a distance.  It's a nice mini, though a little slender after looking through lots of Reaper bones.  The winged boots are a nice touch and I'm sure her player would welcome a suitable magic item.  I took the liberty of painting what I'm sure are supposed to be greaves as flesh as she looked a little over-dressed for the description I was given.

Nalia the Dragonkin Sorcerer provides the arcane magic for the party.  She is a metal mini from Oathsworn miniatures in their Sensible Shoes range.   Another nice mini to paint, though removing the integral base reminded me of how nice plastic minis can be to work on.  Her player requested muted colours with a nod to a chromatic dragon's colour somewhere.  We toyed with both the eyes and the 'hair tendrils', but in the end the flame seemed easiest to do and most noticable.

Just so the heroes don't have it all their own way, here are some monsters I've recently completed.

In Teramarr, Dragonkin (that world's name for Dragonborn) grow throughout their lives.  Older Dragonkin tend to be larger, and there are even tales about some Dragonkin having wings long ago.

Skeletal 'Dragonman' from Reaper Bones.  The base is the same size as Nalia's above so he was clearly quite a bit older when he died.

This is a repainted Mage Knight mini.  The base is 30mm rather than the 25mm bases above, so it's a pretty impressive mini.  I used the same light undercoat and green wash technique that I tried on the Kings of War wraiths here.

More Undead nastiness.  The Minotaur skeleton is another Reaper Bones mini

Finally a Kobold Inventor.  I talked about possibly converting one from Reaper's last lot of Bones kobolds (they've changed the design for the latest releases in Bones 4 - again) when I got some of the little critters painted here.  However, while going through a box of the old D&D Prepaints I found a couple of Kobold Trapmasters.  He has a very limited two colour paintjob, and he has a crossbow on his back, but I thought with a bit of work he might make a fun inventor.  I removed the bulk of the crossbow and covered the rough bits with a greenstuff backpack.  There was some greenstuff left (isn't there always?) so I gave him a sphere on his belt.  This was originally going to be a clay flask, but the colours looked too much like the skin, so it became metal.  I'll convert and paint up the other one sometime, but it's unlikely I'll need many.

It may not be obvious from the above pictures, but I have two main approaches when painting these minis.  Character minis and important NPCs or boss monsters usually get a full shaded and blended paintjob.  I'm still working on my blending techniques, and I admit I have quite a way to go, but it's fun to do, if time consuming.  Monsters get a much quicker technique based on how I do my 15mm (and 28mm) armies:  Basecoat, extreme highlight then a wash.  The wash (I tend to use a mix of three parts Army Painter Strong tone to one part AP Soft tone) adds depth and shadow and makes the contrast between the basecoat and the highlights less obvious.  It's also a lot quicker, a good thing given how many minis I have to paint.  I should also add that a sensible choice of undercoat, where relevant, can save time too.  The kobold was given a light brown undercoat which also served as the basecoat for it's leather armour.