Reaper Bones 77563 Undead Elf Archer - Palette Cleanser 4

I should apologise to Merlin/Bodvoc; I mentioned last post that I was painting an elf next, well, he is an elf, but an undead one.  This mini is from a set of undead adventurers.  I've already painted the 'dragon man' here, the others include a halfling and a dwarf.

The painting was fairly straightforward.  The cloak was base coated with VEO Heavy Blackgreen, the tunic in VGC Goblin Green, and the bones in VGC Bone White.

I used Vallejo Game Ink Green Black mixed with VGI Green to wash the cloak, and just the green to shade the tunic.  The bones were washed with Army Painter Strongtone wash.

The base colours were reset, then highlighted by adding lighter shades into the base colour.  Other colours, such as the grey leathers, were simply base coated then highlighted. 

I gave the whole mini a drybrush of VGC Earth to dirty it up a bit.  I avoided going to grungy but I wanted him to look as though he'd picked up a fair bit of grime after death.  If/when I try weathering powders he would be ideal for some extra mud.

I'm pleased with the end result, but I feel I was kind of caught between going full on undead grunge and his origins as an elf, a creature of light and brightness.

As with all the Palette Cleansers, I have no particular plans for this mini.  Having finished him I'm wondering about painting the rest of the set as an undead adventuring party for Fistful of Lead, but I'm making no promises. Anyway, he's done now, and so on to another mini project.

More Space Orks

 I've finished the second lot of orks for Fistful Of Lead's Galactic Heroes or possibly Grimdark Future.  The first lot (here) were just straightforward infantry.  For Galactic Heroes I wanted an obvious leader and some sort of specialist. I also wanted some orks with pistols and hand weapons too, so the next batch cover these options, as well as bulking up the carbine armed orks to a GF unit of ten.

The painting process was pretty much the same as before, however my black wash seemed a lot darker than usual, so this stage on the metals and dark leather and black cloth has come out a little dark, but they work, adding a bit of variety to the whole lot. For the large pack holding the machine gunner's ammo (I'm using Grimdark Future terminology here rather than 40K) and various pouches I used a base coat of  VEO Heavy Khaki, highlighted with VGC Rotting Flesh.  I also dotted in the eyes with a bright yellow, otherwise I don't think there was anything different form last time. 

Once again these were fun to paint.  I'm not convinced they came out quite as well as the first batch, but I think they will do. I'll go over the first batch and dot in the eyes, I think it's worth doing. 

I've now got more than enough orcs for a Galactic Heroes crew, and a full unit of warriors plus a hero for Grimdark Future.  I think the next time I paint orks I'll finish off a second unit with pistols and hand weapons and include a rocket launcher to give some heavy support.

Up next is another Palette Cleanser.  It's not a request, but Merlin/Badvoc thinks I don't paint enough elves, and my random dip into the unpainted Bones pile turned up an elf archer. 

Reaper Bones 77047, 77219 & 77219 Barbarians: Palette Cleanser 3

Three for the price of one this time as I'm finishing off these three barbarians.

I did the bulk of the painting a few years ago on holiday (remember when people used to go on holiday?) but never got them finished. I used Reaper paints on them, but I can't remember which ones. I think the skin was done using one of the flesh triads, and I was trying out techniques from the second 'Learn to Paint' kit.

I'm using the current Palette Cleanser as an excuse, or opportunity to finish them, get them varnished and based. Nowadays I remove the broccoli base before painting, adding wire to the legs to grip with clips and act as pegs when attaching to the base.  Not doing so here gave me some problems when it come to the basing.  The broccoli base sometimes means that the mini is standing on a bit of a slope, meaning the feet need a bit of trimming or even some carving of the base to counteract this tendency.

There was some finishing off on all three of the minis, but not too much.  I did try and paint a tartan pattern on the chap with the sword and mace. It sort of works, but the green lines don't show up very well, so it looks more like checks.

It feels good to have these finished.  They can be character minis (or enemies) in RPG games, or possibly even part of a FfoL team.  In fact, a wizard to lead them, and an archer to give some missile support, might be fun to play, I'll have to look for suitable mins for that ready for when the fantasy version of FfoL comes out.

As I mentioned last post, the weather has delayed my finishing of a couple of projects, in fact, as I post this the gloss varnish is drying on the next mini project.

Small Scale Star Wars for Fistful of Lead Galactic Heroes

Now I know I've already painted up some of the old 28mm WotC Star Wars minis for Galactic Heroes/Fistful of Lead, (here and here), but while continuing to excavate the lead pile I found some old  smaller scale Star Wars minis. I remember collecting these, probably in the 90s, and sticking them to 20mm washers for use in the Star Wars RPG.

The minis are 20mm and have an acceptable paint job. They were released in packs of nine, later eight, or in threes alongside vehicles. These vehicles were of no consistent scale, though I find I have a couple of speeders that seem about right.

Fine, but certainly not anything worth doing anything with, given that I've already got the 28mm minis, and lots of them. Then I saw a picture on the Fistful of Lead Facebook page, 15mm sci fi based three infantry to a stand*. But I knew these were no longer in production, and I didn't have enough. A search on evilbay suggested I wasn't going to be able to get any more.

Then I found another box of the micro machines, and remembered that they were called that! Evilbay does have some, and I reckon just a few more would see me right.

Prequel Trilogy minis

Imperial forces

Rebels and Others

Fortunately Merlin/Bodvoc likes the idea, and so here we are, this is my Classic Era Imperial force. We'll use the standard Galactic Heroes rules, treating one stand as one mini. Troops are based three on a 40mm base, the Specialist has two minis on a 30mm base, and Leaders and Galactic Heroes are individual minis on 20mm bases. 

We aren't going to get much more for this project. I probably have enough of the Echo Base rebel troops and rebel pilots to make an opposing force, and if I see some more Stormtroopers, it would be nice to have more options, plus I have another Galactic anti hero to lead them.

I've also got some Phantom Menace minis, but not really enough to do the forces I want. The Battle for Naboo will have to wait.

Anyway, on with the painting. I had hoped to simply add a few highlights, but some of the minis, the Stormtroopers in particular, had bad mould lines, especially across the helmet. Removing these left a stripe of dark plastic, so I decided to start these from scratch. I used the same method as the Clone Troopers, and despite the smaller scale, it seems to have worked fine. 

The two Imperial Navy Troopers were given a drybrush of VEO Heavy Charcoal on the uniforms, the boots were given a base of Charcoal and then a black wash, and the helmets, originally a gunmetal colour, were painted black. Faces were VEO Dwarf Flesh with an Army Painter Flesh Wash and highlights picked out with VGC Pale Flesh. 

Darth Vader was given a light Charcoal drybrush, then a black wash on his inner suit. The original paint job used gunmetal for the chest plate, so I redid it in black. 

The Imperial Officer had his boots and gloves painted Charcoal, then washed black, the uniform was perhaps the most difficult bit of the whole project as I couldn't decide what colour to paint it. Research suggests that Imperial Naval officers wore uniforms of at least two different shades. In the end I went for a colour that mimicked the minis original colour, a mix of VEO Heavy Charcoal and VGC Khaki, mixing in more khaki for an overbrushed highlight. 

Leader, Specialist and Galactic Antihero

These have been a fun project, I'll try and scrape together enough extra Imperials for a second force, or at least give me some options.

The weather has delayed finishing minis recently, though I've kept up with the painting.  I keep my surplus basing materials in the garage, and its just been to cold to venture in for long, at least not without full Hoth protective gear.  I wanted a finer grade of sand for the bases and didn't have any in my normal stash.  Similarly, varnish, especially gloss varnish seemed to take an age to dry.

Both Bodvoc and I have puzzled over the bases, after all, there could be an enormous range of planets to be fighting on, not to mention space ships.  In the end, a fairly neutral sand seemed to cover most options.  Not ideal, but it will do.

*I understand these are actually for the forthcoming Big Mechs version of FfoL, another game I'm looking forward to playing.