Ogtober 26: Mantic Kings of War Ogre Sergeant Kitbash

An Army Starts with a Single Mini

Not in every case, of course, but I do like to try out an army's 'look' before plunging in and building lots of stuff.

This gives me the opportunity to experiment with uniforms, skin tones and even basing. 

Once I'm happy, I'll make a start on getting a playable force ready.

This is yet another issue I found with my Trident Realm; I never really got the right look.

I mentioned recently my plans for a small ogre army and showed the kitbashed Ogre Sergeant I built. She was the test mini for the ogres. I was trialing the red skin, the fancy armour and the basing. 

And here she is, fully painted and ready for action.

Ogre Sergeant 'come and get it'

Rear view

'and my axe'

The kitbash was simply a matter of selecting specific components from the two ogre sprues. I wanted her to look like she's issuing orders rather than wading into melee, hence the large axe resting on the shoulder and the empty right hand.  Initially I tried having her holding the top of a shield with that hand, resting it on the ground, but the bits didn't quite work. The shield, with modelled on hand removed, looks ok slung on her back, but in the end I decided to leave her shieldless.

I might at some point add a skull to the open hand, giving an "Alas, poor Yorrik" vibe, but maybe that's a bit too philosophical?

For reference the components are: head ALT1, body A1, right arm E2 and left arm E3. I suspect I'll be using those arms again to make more leader type ogres.

Painting the Sergeant 

Clothing, armour and equipment were painted to try and indicate that she's wealthy and successful. She has good gear and looks after it; none of that rust covered filth that certain other ogre-analogues might have. 

The skin has a base coat of Vallejo Game Color Terracotta, highlighted by adding in VGC Hot Orange, ending up with just the Hot Orange.

The armour starts off with a basecoat of Chainmail Silver rather than the darker Gunmetal that I usually use. I washed it with Army Painter Dark Tone rather than the Vallejo Game Wash Black that gave me issues on the Unholy Knights. To emphasise the shiny armour look I highlighted with Vallejo Model Air Silver, which gives a much brighter effect than the standard Game Color paints. This could be neater, and I'll work on edge highlighting on future minis. 

A Bit About the Basing 

I put her on a tactical rock, partly so she stands out from the rank and file. I've done this before, usually using bits of slate, but I found some nice thick chunks of bark and decided to give them a try*.

The rest of the base was done to look like arid land. I suspect they'll see most action against Bodvoc's new Empire of Dust which have desert bases to match his desert mat, but I'd like them to look not too out of place on greener tables.

I found a good arid base tutorial on YouTube from GamersGrass and adapted it.  I used a mix of Chinchilla Dust and grout spread around the rock. In future I might add a little filler (spackle) so I can shape it a bit more. I used the recommended Citadel Technical Martian Ironearth for the cracked earth texture, then sealed everything in place with thinned Mod Podge. 

The rock was painted with VGC Beasty Brown  along base with (thinned) VMC Iraqi Sand, then everything got a wash of Army Painter Brown Wash. 

Then I drybrushed with the Iraqi Sand and finished with VMC Pale Sand.  

I chose what I thought were suitable tufts, to suggest that this is just the edge of the desert; I'll leave the dry sands to Bodvoc's undead.

I really like the finished result, but I think I've missed the target of making it fit on standard tables. Ah well; I'm certainly sticking with it, though I might look at adding a few more tufts.

What's Next?

I've a good number of Ogres to build and paint, in fact I've just built a regiment of ogre warriors with sword.

Basic Warriors

There's also a regiment of Red Goblins, but I haven't decided if they'll be Spitters, Sharpsticks or Rabble, so I'm leaving (most of) them for a while.

I've also got another addition; a pack of three Crocodogs. 

Certain Ogre units can have these as an upgrade, so they'll make nice little tokens to show this. 

I certainly don't have any other plans for them. No. Absolutely not.

And of course there's Orctober to work on as well.

So that's the first mini in a new army done. Ogres certainly take longer to paint than humans or orcs, but I'll need a lot less of them. I'll probably use five Ogres to a base for some Hordes. I might even try two Ogres to a Regiment if I can find something suitable to bulk out the bases. 

I've got some thoughts for that. 

* Natural materials need sterilising before use; the normal method is to bake them for half an hour or so.  But I tried something a bit faster (and using less energy). I put several bark chunks in a microwaveable tub on top of wet paper towelling. This was microwaved for 2 to 3 minutes; the steam sterilises the bark (hopefully). I dried them off in the oven as it was cooling down after use, then left them to cool. 

Hopefully they'll be fine, especially after being sealed.

The resultant material is quite brittle, so I dripped superglue on it to bind any loose bits, then gave it a coat of Mod-podge. 

Wildspire Miniatures Bandits and Oozes

This is the final batch of the Wildspire minis for now, I'm saving the giant for something a little different. 

The final lot (apart from that giant)

Bandits

Firstly, yes, awful mould lines. I confess I'd got a bit complacent regarding mould lines and model clean up. Perhaps, also, I was rushing as I got towards the end of the box.

Once I started painting I realised just how obvious they are, particularly on the right hand.

If the colour scheme looks vaguely familiar, I based it on the Cultists. I even gave them red bandanas, though this was a nod to the Redcloak bandits in the Lost Mine of Phandelver adventure; the fact that the Cultists' hoods are also red is a happy accident (or is it something more sinister?).

They are good minis (or would be with proper prep), looking suitably furtive; actually I think they look more like they are picking pockets rather than demanding money with threats. Detail is certainly better for painting than the Unholy Knights.

The bandits - watch your pockets

Ooze

If you check the Monster Manual you'll find Gray (sic) Ooze, and Green Slime is a hazard in the Dungeon Master's Guide. No Green Ooze though. 

However, Wildspire's stats make it clear that the Green Ooze is simply a recoloured Grey Ooze.

Lovely though the translucent green is, I'm far more likely to want a Grey Ooze or four, so I decided to paint two as Green Oozes and two as Grey Oozes.

Green Ooze 

The painting was pretty much the same as the Acid Elemental. I tried to be a bit more careful with the wash.

Green Ooze

Grey Ooze 

The Ooze was base coated with Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal Gray, then I added a few brown blotches (they are supposed to blend in with stonework). The whole lot was drybrushed with VGC Cold Grey and Stonewall Gray.  I think the hints of brown make them a bit more interesting.

And Grey Ooze

Once matt varnished I used Vallejo Gloss Varnish on all the oozes to make them look wet.

These are really good minis, possibly with more detail than the subject merits.

There's a nice bit of detail on the underside of the head? pseudopod? tentacle? Some sort of mouth possibly. Maybe for feeding? It's not obvious from the above picture, so here's an upside down close up.

Detail on the underside

So that's it, apart from the giant, which I've already started painting (probably for Kings of War).

These have been a fun project, and are a great addition to my RPG minis. I'm pleasantly surprised at how well I've kept focused on the project. This is probably because there was a lot of variety in the set, and sticking to just four minis at a time kept up the impetus. 

I'll post a summary of my thoughts on the set, and also look at the rest of the range shortly. I just want to get a group photo done. 

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant 

Wildspire Summary

Wildspire Miniatures Gas Serpent, Imp Hulk, Unholy Knight

Another batch of three different sculpts, and we're nearing the end of the set.

Eleven more minis

Gas serpent

There are only three of these in the set. Why? I've no idea. 

Still, they look nice, and should be fairly easy minis to paint. 

When I painted the Air Elemental I thought the same technique would work fine for these. However, after checking the free PDF, (and realising they are called Gas Serpents, not Vapour Serpents) I wanted something close to a turquoise-ish colour, but still preserving their translucent nature.

As an experiment I tried Army Painter Speedpaint Prismatic Bolt. The serpents have wispy vapour trailing off them, and I wanted this to look a bit different.  So I gave the snakes themselves a coat of the Prismatic Bolt and finished off with the Vallejo Game Wash Pale Gray for the vapour. 

The bases were finished off with Vallejo Game Color Cold Gray.

Gas Serpents, bound to be useful somewhere

Imp Hulks

Next up were the four Imps, or rather Imp Hulks, explaining the bigger size. 

I went for red skin here to match the Monster Manual imp. 

Over a prime (I used Vallejo Surface Primer German Green Brown, but it doesn't really matter what colour, though perhaps not black) I painted a base coat of Vallejo Extra Opaque Dark Red mixed with a bit of black for a really dark red. This was then drybrushed with VGC Red Gore, then Blood Red, Flaming Orange and finally Hot Orange.

Final details were an opportunity to add some extra spot colours, so yellow eyes, grey claws and a poisonous looking green on the stinger on the tail (love that VMC Livery Green).

The drybrushing did get a bit tedious, but the worst part by far was painting the base while trying not to get grey on the imp (not always successfully).

Imp Hulks

Unholy Knights 

I've been looking forward to painting these since I first saw them, they look suitably impressive foes.

After priming I painted all the metals in VGC Chainmail Silver.

Then I did the cloak; black of course, starting with black and then shading up with VEO Charcoal.

The armour and cloak were washed with Vallejo Game Wash Black, which I keep forgetting is a bit too good at covering detail, especially when that detail is rather shallow. I tried to bring back some of the highlights with Silver 

I took the opportunity to vary the colours on the other bits of fabric to help with identification on the tabletop. Then I picked out a few ornamental bits on the armour and sword in VGC Tinny Tin, Brazen Bronze and finally Shining Gold.

The skull was painted pretty much the same as my old school skeletons. There isn't really much detail on the hands, so I painted them as leather gauntlets.  But that looked dull, so I dotted in some VGC Bonewhite and White to give the impression of fingers. It's not my neatest, but it doesn't look too bad.

The whole lot got a wash with Marine Juice, which pretty much covered the highlights on the cloak, so that got another drybrush with Charcoal Gray to bring them back.

I found the Knights less fun than I thought. I was continually frustrated by the lack of detail, so my usual base coat - highlights - wash technique wasn't that effective.

Still, they're done and they're ok. I'll probably use them as Wights or perhaps some sort of undead boss monster.

Unholy Knights

So another batch done, and relatively quickly too.

The collection is growing nicely and I'm very pleased with my progress.

What's Next?

Well, only nine left. I'll get the remaining Medium sized minis done soon and I have plans regarding the giant so I'm saving her for later.

I do have a summary post looking at the whole set and the others available coming soon.

Not many left

I'd also like to get a bit more scenery done to take advantage of Dave Stone's Season of Scenery challenge.

And there's my Undead to return to.

And I'd like to do some more Kings of War stuff too.

I'm not short of options.

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant 

Wildspire Miniatures: Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Here's another batch of twelve painted Wildspire Miniatures. 

The next batch

Werewolves

The next dip pulled out the werewolves.  

These certainly look the part, bipedal wolf-like humanoids with fragments of clothing. Otherwise they have no equipment. 

It made sense to approach these in the same way as the Dire Wolves, so I prepared them the same way.  

As previously noted, they have visible gaps where some of the arms were glued in place, but similar gaps on the Ghouls seemed OK, so I left them. 

I used exactly the same colour scheme for the fur as the Dire Wolves; although the later are small for the official creatures, I think they look just right for a lycanthrope in beast form.

Then I painted the torn clothing with Speedpaints, carefully choosing lighter and darker shades. 

And the next morning I looked at them and I really didn't like them. 

Poor paint choice

The colours look too garish, and there's no real contrast. There's nothing wrong with the fur, so I left that alone and went over the clothing.  I added highlights to the skirt? thing and painted the shirt? With VGC Khaki, highlighting with Bonewhite then Off White. Finally it got a shade of Marine Juice. 

Much better. 

Four finished Werewolves

Giant Worms, or Baby Purple Worms

Next was the Giant Worms. The sculpt is very reminiscent of the Monster Manual picture of a Purple Worm, and Wildspire's own stats PDF suggests they are essentially mini Purple Worms.

They had quite obvious mould lines along the belly. I removed these with a flat file, then used a triangular file to restore some of the lost details. In some cases this left a gap running up the belly segments, but I imagine the worms take quite a bit of damage as they burrow through rock.

I gave them pale bellies using the same method as the Naga. The upper side is a base coat of Vallejo Game Color Hexed Lichen, highlighted by mixing in VGC Warlock Purple and then Squid Pink. No exact ratios, I just used three dollops of the paints on my wet palate.

To tone down the rather pink highlights and add a bit more definition to the underbelly I gave everything a wash of Marine Juice. 

The various spikes were black, with a dot of Vallejo Extra Opaque Charcoal as a highlight. The disturbed earth on the base was painted with various browns and greys.

Baby Purple Worms

Wild Boar

I'll admit that I wanted the Wild Boar to be brown, based on the rather muddy boars I've seen in the Dales.

Wild Boar, what colour?

This also informed my choice of greys for the Wolves and Werewolves so they'd contrast nicely.

A Google search suggests that most boar are closer to dark greys and black, but never mind.  It's fantasy after all. 

I used Vallejo Surface primer German Green Brown and then gave them a thinned coat of VGC Terra trying to leave the belly in the primer colour. While it was still wet I then worked in Beasty Brown  along the haunches and back. I then added Scorched Brown, which simply gave a disappointing muddy colour. I finished off with black along the spine. Yes, I know it's pretty much the same patterning as the wolves, but I think it gives a reasonably believable animal look, spoilt only by my impatience with the Scorched Brown.

Finishing off with dark grey snout and trotters, and suitably off white tusks and they were almost done.

Not the most interesting minis, but not that boring

So twelve more minis painted.  

The Werewolves gave me problems with the Speedpainted clothing and the Worms were tricky, simply because I struggle painting purple (they actually came out a lot better than I hoped).  The Boars are a bit dull, but OK. I very rarely use boar in my games, but painting them has given me some ideas for some Old School minis that I'll one day get around to painting.

What's Next?

That's 40 minis painted, so I'm two thirds of the way through, counting that massive Giant as one (I'm sure Gimli would approve).

Seven of the remaining minis are translucent plastic, so that should speed things up a bit.

Just twenty left to paint

But I'd like to get some of my other ongoing projects back on track, so I might intersperse the remaining twenty with some other stuff.

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant 

Wildspire Miniatures: Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

I'm enjoying painting these Wildspire Miniatures, so here's twelve more.

Since painting the previous minis I've downloaded the PDF of stat blocks from the Wildspire website. There's artwork to accompany each creature, which helped me interpret the detail on some of the minis.

The next batch

Cultists 

A good example of me benefiting from seeing the artwork.

The unpainted minis are busy. There's a lot going on, with texture on the legs, which I thought might be straw, giving a sort of 'Straw Bear' vibe, for the legs at least. There's something strange going on with the belt too, and the head is covered with some sort of fringed hood.

Well the picture makes it clearer (it's not straw, it's a fur fringe along the top of the boots), although the detail doesn't always transfer well to the mini.

In the end I came up with my own interpretation. I chose to paint the fringed hood as hair with a hood on top. Close examination suggests that this wasn't the intention (unless the cultists have really long nasal hair - yuk).

I chose to ignore the gloves and treat them as bare flesh with the cuffs being some form of strapping. The manacles help sell the effect.

Painting was straightforward. I aimed for dull coloured clothing, but emphasised the cult elements with bright red.

I wanted them to look like ordinary folk who occasionally put on the red hood, ritual belt (and perhaps the sacred Ugg Boots) for 'club night'. "Honestly dear, it's just a group of lads getting together for a drink or two and some singing and dancing". Maybe the manacles and leg irons are explained away as percussion, or perhaps it's a stag do?

They are certainly not my favourite minis in the box, but I've grown to like them. The 'prison accessories' suggests that they may be worshipers of Torog, which fits nicely into my current D&D campaign.

The Cult at large

Harpies 

These are one of two flying creatures in the set. They look pretty straightforward, though it might be tricky getting the brush in behind those wings.

They were the worst minis so far for mould lines, particularly along the arms and legs. A combination of knife, file and wet and dry paper (thanks Dave) reduced them somewhat, and I suspect my earlier difficulty trimming them might be due to dull blades.

I approached them as standard female minis, so VGC Dwarf Flesh, AP Flesh Wash, reset, then Pale Flesh for skin tones. Various mostly light colours for the tunic, with some extra detail added to add extra interest.

I did the bird sections afterwards, using Desert Yellow, highlighted with Khaki for the bird feet. The colours were based very loosely on vultures, but there isn't really enough detail to give them fancy wing feathers, it's more just a suggestion of texture.

I'm finding the slightly smaller scale a little difficult to paint when there's fine detail, such as the faces. I've made a fair stab at these, but I'm used to a more exaggerated style of sculpting. There's no chance of me doing more than shading the socket for the eyes. 

It's nice to see harpies wearing sensible clothing, and having bird's feet for both hands and feet is a nice idea.

Not exactly a choir of angels

Ghouls 

More mould lines. A file removed the worst of these.  There are also noticeable gaps between the arms and the shoulders; I relied on a large amount of primer to partially fill the gaps, which seems to have done the job.

The feet are only partly detailed, as if the ghoul is paddling in liquid. Is that why they're called 'puddle bases'?

So I don't forget, they were basecoated Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Gray (quite a greenish grey) following with a drybrush of VGC Stonewall Gray. The result is a reasonable light greenish grey, but I wanted something a bit darker and less wholesome. 

So they got a wash of Army Painter Military Shade. Pretty much any greenish colour would do, but I like the fact that it isn't too bright.

Then it's simply a case of doing the remaining clothes to add a bit of individuality to the pack.

I did manage to add a little detail to the face, but I'll admit the teeth were largely guesswork. 

I'm pleased with the ghoul skin tones,  I'll definitely use something like this on any future ghouls I paint. I might even redo some of the WotC minis I started for the Master Forge. 

The ghouls

What's Next?

Well, that's 28 out of 60, so nearly half way, although the giant is probably worth quite a few of the smaller minis, by weight alone if nothing else.

32 to go

I'm still enjoying painting them, partly due to doing just four at a time, and knowing that I can pause or stop any time.

Looking ahead, there are some that I'm not thrilled about, but the advantage of the random dip (I get my wife to do this, so there's no avoiding the selection) is that I can't pick and choose.

I'm saving the giant until the end, but that still gives eight different sculpts left, two of which are more of the translucent plastic.

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant 

Wildspire Miniatures Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

The next four minis are all Large. While it doesn't make much of a dent in the number of unpainted stuff, in terms of volume it's more significant. 

Four big beasties

Naga 

This is pretty obviously a Dark Naga, as shown in the 5th Edition Monster Manual. 

Preparation 

This time I had a go at the mould lines. They don't cut very well, but they do sand down with a file. Whilst not as bad as Mantic's old 'Restic' material, there were still some 'crumbs' that needed removing with a brass wire brush. I have since had some helpful suggestions (thanks Dave Stone) and will be trying wet and dry paper.

Then it was a case of washing and priming (Vallejo Surface Primer Light Gray).

Painting 

The Monster Manual picture shows the scales very very dark blue with red patterns, possibly chevrons? The front (or belly) is a very pale colour. 

I started with the belly, highlighting up from Vallejo Game Color Khaki, through Bonewhite to Off White. Initially I planned on giving it a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone, but I was happy enough with the results without that.

The back was painted VGC Night Blue, but a look through older Monster Manuals showed Dark Nagas are black with red stripes. I think the recent artwork was simply using blue to highlight the black. 

So it all got a wash of 1:1 Vallejo Game Ink Black and Vallejo Xpress Medium.  This darkened it down, but still left a bit of a blueish tint as a highlight. 

This was drybrushed with VGC Night Blue then VGC Ultramarine, paying particular attention to the fancy scales around the head.

The red was a base coat of Vallejo Extra Opaque Dark Red, highlighted up through Red Gore, Blood Red and Hot Orange.  I used the different scales to define the stripes, I avoided doing any stripes on the lower body.

Then it was the final details, eyes, teeth and spines, and done. 

Trust in me

Stripes on the back of the hood

Acid Elemental 

This was a lot simpler. 

After washing, I used Vallejo Game Ink Green to emphasise the deeper areas, then VGC Livery Green drybrushed as a highlight. Unfortunately, the ink has pooled in certain areas and run off others, resulting in a rather scrappy finish.  The base (translucent green) was painted VGC Cold Gray to match the rest of the Wildspire minis. 

The drybrushing has brought out the detail of the face rather well, something that is less obvious in real life, (a rare example of a blogger claiming the photos are better than the real thing).

Vivid green acid elemental

Rear view

Earth Elemental 

I wanted this to look like a collection of rocks, so that meant a variety of colours.

After the usual clean up, wash and priming, German Green Brown again, I picked out different rocky shapes in, variously, VGC Terra, Desert Yellow, Stonewall Gray and VEO Charcoal.

Then the whole lot got a wash of AP Strong Tone.

Once everything was dry, I drybrushed with VMC Iraqi Sand, then Pale Sand, emphasising the face.

One of the rocks has a sort of spiral carved on it, so I picked out this, and the eyes, in VGC Enchanted Blue, with a thin line of Glacier Blue to make it pop.

I did add a bit of green ink to represent moss,  but I'm not sure it really adds anything. 

Mister Rock

The rear of the elemental

Air Elemental 

I'd planned to approach the Air Elemental in the same way as the Acid Elemental, but I wasn't happy with the results on 'Old Heartburn', so I kept this much simpler.

A wash of thinned Vallejo Game Wash Pale Gray. That simple.

I think it's turned out rather better than the Acid Elemental. 

I might give a very light drybrush of white, but I'm not rushing, it might spoil the mini.

Air Elemental

And from the back

Thoughts 

This is a nice group of minis and I'm mostly pleased with the painting. 

The exception is the Acid Elemental, the pooling of the wash and some less than subtle drybrushing don't do it any favours. Shame, it's a nice mini too, even if it's a bit obscure. If it were cast in yellow or red plastic it would make an interesting Fire Elemental. I suppose it could be magical green flame? 

The companion set includes both Fire and Water Elementals. I might use it as some sort of Acid Golem, or maybe a colony of Green Slime?

The Naga is a lovely mini, clearly recognisable as a Dark Naga, albeit with fancier scales. I enjoyed painting it.

I thought the Earth Elemental was a dull looking mini. However, once painted, I really like it.  The detail of the different rocks was lost on the bare plastic, the washes and drybrushing bring it out. 

The Air Elemental was the simplest paint job. The wash has obscured some of the translucency, but it makes it easier to see the details. 

I'll be using this method when I do the 3 Vapour Snakes. 

What's Next?

In terms of the Wildspire Miniatures, that's 16 down and 44 to go. All the remaining ones, bar the Giant, are medium sized, and there's some more translucent plastic still to paint. 

I'm still using the random dip method, I wonder what will be next?

16 down, 46 to go

The Background

You'll notice that I've added to the background set up.  The two platforms come from the Crooked Staff Community Challenge from a while ago.  They give me a large area of height to stand minis on, and the darker colour of the wood is a good contrast for light minis.  I wish I'd had it when I photographed the mummies

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant 

Wildspire Miniatures: Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves Painted

In my last post I mentioned that I recently got a set of Wildspire miniatures, specifically the Classic Creatures Expansion 1. 

I've begun the process of painting them, here's my first batch (about a week's worth of fairly relaxed painting).

Twelve painted Wildspire minis

Four Bugbears

Most of the monsters in the sets come in fours, nicely building up a collection and giving me a manageable number to tackle at any one time. 

So I randomly dipped into the box and came out with Bugbears.

Preparation 

These four were washed, there was quite a bit of mould release agent on them, then they got the hot water treatment to straighten the pole arms.

There are some mould lines on them; not awful, but visible. I did try removing them, but I'm not that familiar with the material (PVC?), and it seemed to tear rather than cut cleanly, so I left them. 

Then a priming coat of Vallejo German Green Brown Primer.  I considered giving them a lining wash and white drybrush, followed by Xpress/Speedpaints, but the detail looks a little shallow in places, so I'm sticking with more traditional methods. 

Painting 

The fur was Vallejo Game Color Plague Brown, which was then drybrushed with a 1:1 mix of the Plague Brown and Vallejo Model Color Pale Sand (the result looking so much like VMC Sunny Skin, that if there's a next time, I'll just use that).

The darker fur was Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Sienna, applied first as a thinned coat and then, as that was still drying, neat over a smaller area, especially the head. This gives the effect of the dark fur fading. I picked out some of the tufts of fur with VGC Beasty Brown to highlight.

I tried to give the equipment a mixed look, after all, bugbears scavenge their gear, so some of the pauldrons are leather (brown or black) and one is metallic. They each have a cloth 'skirt' for which I used different colours to identify individual minis. They also have bits of what I thought looked like a gambeson. So those were a dirty canvas colour, rather like the dwarven crossbows I painted a while back.

Metallic areas were given a wash with Army Painter Dark Tone, then everything was given a wash of Marine Juice/Sonic Tonic.

To lift them a bit after the wash, they got a very light drybrush of VMC Pale Sand.

Finally, I picked out eyes and teeth as best I could.

Finishing 

I wondered about basing. Normally I'd remove minis from their bases and rebase on clear acrylic, but this seems to go against the spirit of these 'cheap and cheerful' minis.

In the end I went for a light colour, VGC Cold Grey. Hopefully they'll look okay on stone dungeon floors and in more natural surroundings.

I may texture them with sand at some point.

They were finished with a coat of matt varnish.

The four bugbears

Four Mummies

Having rather enjoyed painting the four bugbears, I took another dip into the box and drew out the mummies. 

Now there's not much to these.  They certainly look the part, shambling corpses wrapped in bandages, but there's nothing really special about them. 

Preparation 

As with the bugbears, these were washed, given the hot water treatment (some of them had gone from undead lurching to drunken staggering) and primed with Vallejo German Green Brown Primer. 

Painting 

They were pretty simple to do. Drybrush of VGC Khaki, then Bonewhite and finally Off White. 

I wanted to do more than that though, so I squinted hard and imagined that some of the preserved flesh was showing in gaps between the bandages (rather like the Heroquest Mummies).

I've seen mummies in museums (including, gloriously, as a child, Tutankhamun) and the flesh tends to be a dark brown.  But that would have looked a bit too much like deep shading on the bandages, so I went for a dark grey instead, VMC Dark Blue Gray.

When I got to the head, it seemed to be partially unwrapped, with a bit of hair and the jaw showing among the bandages.  I tried to make these features stand out, simply to give a bit more interest.

Four shambling mummies Four Dire Wolves My next dip pulled out the Dire Wolves. These have a lot of definition on the sculpted fur, so I tried using Speedpaints. Preparation  After washing - no hot water treatment needed this time - I primed in white. Then they got a lining wash of 1:1 Army Painter Dark Tone and Vallejo Xpress Paint Medium. Finally they were drybrushed white, to approximate a zenithal undercoat. Painting  I wanted them to look like the Citadel wolves I painted back in 2024; greys shading up from a pale belly through darker flanks and finishing with a very dark colour along the spine. I started with a 1:1 mix of Army Painter Speedpaint Holy White and Runic Gray on the belly, face and legs, then, while that was still wet, just Runic Gray on the outside of the legs, particularly the tops, and the flanks. I let this dry before adding coats of Runic Gray and Gravelord Gray, then straight Gravelord Gray. Once that had dried, it was a Gravelord Gray and Grim Black mix. Finally just Grim Black.  Each coat covers a smaller area higher up the body, until the final coat is just a thin line along the spine.  This doesn't match any particular animal that I'm aware of, but I feel that it does look suitably lupine (if I do the boars, I'll give them brown fur in a similar fashion).  I then switched to more conventional painting for details such as the eyes and teeth.

Four Dire Wolves

So are Wildspire Miniatures Any Good?

Now I've painted some of the set, I've a better idea.  I'll do a full proper post if folk are interested once I've painted a few more.  Who knows, I may even get the full set painted this century.

Pros

I like these minis. I've certainly got nicer D&D minis, but not at anything close to this price. They paint up well, and having just four of them is a good number for me to tackle before I lose enthusiasm, almost like the 'palette cleansers' I used to do back in 2021.

They're recognisable for what they are (well, assuming you know what a bugbear is), and I'm sure they'll go well on the table top.

After painting both bugbears and mummies with traditional techniques, I was pleased how well the Speedpaints worked on the textured fur of the wolves; I'll be looking out for opportunities to do this again.

Cons

If I'm being critical, the detail on the bugbears (and other humanoids, but I'm looking at the 'bears here) faces isn't great, though I think I've managed to at least hint at teeth and eyes.  If you're a stickler for correct equipment, bugbears should have shields and use morning stars, though it would certainly be easy to swap the polearm blade for an appropriately spiky weapon head.

The mummies are dull, though this is more a case of the subject matter.  Mind you, even just adding weapons would have made them more interesting.

They all seem a bit small compared to modern RPG minis, which  have got larger over the years.  I would imagine that the bugbears would scale nicely with the first lot of bugbears in the WotC pre-painted line, but I don't think I've got any left for comparison.

The worst issue with size is the Dire Wolves.  In D&D they are large creatures, and have been for multiple editions.  These are on medium bases, though they certainly take up a lot of space on those bases.  It might be possible to rebase them, but that's beyond the scope of this little project.

Whats Next?

I've plenty of stuff I should be painting and building now the D&D adventure is done, but these made a nice little diversion.

This group of 12 minis is 20% of the box, by mini count.

I shall continue to dip in and paint them in groups of four in between other stuff.  I'm keeping track on the photo on the box lid.

Keeping score.  12 down, 48 to go

Wildspire Index

Wildspire Introduction

Painted Bugbears, Mummies and Dire Wolves

Painted Naga, Acid Elemental, Earth Elemental and Air Elemental

Painted Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

Painted Werewolves, Giant Worms and Wild Boar

Painted Gas Serpents, Imp Hulks and Unholy Knights

Painted Bandits and Ooze

Painted Giant 

The Final Mini from the Master Forge

As promised last post, here's the Sand Creature. 

It sort of reminds me of the SFX in The Mummy (not the original B&W version) with the face leering out of the sand.

The Sand Creature 

From the side 

and the rear

It's a WizKids Mage Knight Pyramid mini, and has long been part of my RPG collection, rebased from the  'clix' base onto a GW 40mm round. However, for the adventure I wanted it on a 50mm clear base, and the painting needed some attention too.

Mage Knight minis use colours to differentiate between different power levels of the same mini, and this had parts of it painted blue.

I painted over these bits with Vallejo Game Color Terra, then drybrushed with Vallejo Model Color Iraqi Sand and then gave the whole mini a drybrush of Pale Sand. Very easy.

It's certainly not the most spectacular mini I've ever done, but it did the job.

I'm slowly assembling quite a few elemental themed creatures, and while I've no immediate plans to use them, it's always good to have them.

Minis for the Master Forge

If you've read the earlier D&DF2F posts, you'll know that I had to change the focus of the in person session. What was going to be a pleasant ramble in a delightful Feywild valley became a tense exploration of an abandoned dwarven forge.

Fortunately, I was able to source a lot of what I needed from my collection of pre-painted minis. 

I still used some newly painted stuff or pre-paints that I added detail to and rebased to match my collection.

A fine selection of creatures

Valley Trolls 

Three jolly trolls

Three troll backsides, sorry, back sides

These trolls are Reaper Bones minis, and are pretty good representations of D&D trolls, to my eyes at least. I dug these out of my unpainted Reaper Bones box (it's a very big box).

They were originally planned for the Valley; indeed I've acquired a few more of the same design in different poses, so I've a good selection of trolls now, should I need them.

For the game session I was going to repurpose them as Scrags (aquatic trolls), but the heroes avoided that encounter.

Painting was straightforward; a liner of 50:50 Army Painter Dark Tone and Vallejo Xpress Medium to pick out the details and give something for paint to adhere to, then a white drybrush.

Then a series of Army Painter Speedpaints and VX paints. I kept the colours simple, and I'm pleased with the results.  

They might not get any table time this time,  but they'll come in useful in the future. 

Constructs 

A recurring feature of the Thunderforge Clanhold and the Master Forge is a variety of constructs made and used by the dwarves to help in various tasks.

Kluku

Delightful

Many of these had already been defeated or avoided, but the party, especially Harrow, have adopted Kluku, the dragon construct. 

I used an old WotC prepainted Young Copper Dragon mini.  I gave it a Strong Tone wash, then a drybrush.  I picked out a few details in copper, gold and silver to make it look like an assembly of different components rather than a living creature.  

Forge constructs, ideal for smithy work

There are also some forge constructs, designed to help with the heavy manual work. These are WotC Hammerers.

I did the bulk of the painting many years ago, they appeared in The Mines of Dhur, a 4E adventure I wrote as part of the long campaign. 

I added a few extra details and shading. Unfortunately I couldn't rebase them as I've run out of clear bases.

Elementals

Much of the danger in the Master Forge came from elemental creatures. I use the World Axis cosmology, as developed for 4E, for my current 5E campaign*. The individual Elemental Planes, with associated Para-elemental stuff has gone, replaced by the Elemental Chaos. 

This meant that I didn't need lots of gates, cracks, portals or whatever to bring different elements into play, just one McGuffin linking the material plain to the Elemental Chaos can create all sorts of variety.

Further, I don't have to be tied to just one element; different elementals can turn up, though in practice I'm not sure how well that came across.

I already have loads of elemental type miniatures from WotC and Reaper. These generally got used as is, and I took far more than I needed.

The following minis did get a bit more attention.

A xorn

Zzkk Slth

Zzkk Slth is a xorn; Xorn are one of D&D's wierder creatures,  looking like rocky barrels with three legs, three arms, three eyes and a gaping maw. It's certainly not something that's easy to proxy.

Fortunately WotC produced at least two different versions.  Zzkk Slth met the party a few weeks ago and wandered off after being given some bronze symbols of Baphomet to eat. 

I gave him a more varied colour pallet and painted in the eyes (black on the original mini). I painted the teeth and claws like steel, after all, it eats metals, so it's bound to have teeth that look a bit different. 

I didn't get a picture of the Sand Creature (presumably some form of Earth Elemental), but I'll get that posted soon.

So that's the minis I painted for the game.  I'm sure they'll see more use in the future, thus adding to my painted RPG minis.  some of them might have limited use, but all of them are nice to have done.

Mini Studio?

As you can see I've used the Master Forge scenery as a backdrop. 

I've been wary of doing this sort of thing in the past as I've wanted to fit everything into the light box and didn't want too much extra stuff to distract the eye (or the auto focus).  But I think this works,  helped a lot by very bright sunlight to illuminate everything, so I'll be experimenting further.

*This mismatch of game world and game edition seems to be feature of my campaigns. 

I ran 3/3.5 and 4E campaigns in Mystara, originally designed for Basic, Expert, Companion etc rules, so it makes sense (???) To use the 4E setting for 5th edition.