Dungeons & Dragon's Adventurers

Over the last few weeks i've been working on some miniatures to make up the adventurers in my upcoming 5th Edition Game. I'll be running the game for seven of my friends next weekend, and it seemed like it would be a missed opportunity if I didn't use miniatures for the game!  

I'll take some photos and share how it went, until then I can't share which monsters i'll be using (as those friends read this blog) but you can see here the Adventurers here.  From right to left they are, (Back Row) Human Wizard (Sage), Human Barbarian (Outlander), Wood Elf Cleric (Soldier) and (Front Row) NPC Oswald the Overburdened (The Fighter's servant), Dwarf Rogue (Charlatan), Human Fighter (Noble) and Half Elf Bard (Spy).

Avatars of War Barbarian

I've taken a break from painting Bones miniatures, I still have a ton to work through but unfortunately there wasn't a figure that I felt represented this particular player's character.

Originally I wanted to paint Scibor's Extremely Barbaric Barbarian but Wayland Games couldn't get one even after weeks of trying so I had to come up with an alternative.  I didn't want one wearing a lot of armour as this is supposed to be a Level 1 Dungeons & Dragons character and one of the features of the class is 'Unarmoured Defense'.

I searched for quite a while to find the right model and finally whittled my options down to the Avatar's of War Barbarian and the Hasslefree's Akos the Scorned.  I was so tempted to get the Hasslefree miniature, its got a fantasticly dynamic pose, is of exceptional sculpting quality but in the end I felt Akos didn't fit in very well to the rest of the party.  I'll still be getting the Hasslefree miniature when I can though, its just too good a miniature to pass up.

This miniature has a lot of skin and I mixed a base coat of 50/50 Elf Flesh and Dwarf Flesh and built up layers of progressively lighter flesh tones over that.  I was tempted to paint the metal parts in a Non Metal Metallic technique but decided to keep it simple.  One trick I used which worked very well was with the eye.  I painted the white (only one eye is visible) and put the black pupil in the side of the eye.  This makes him look like he's suspiciously looking to his left.  If I had put it in the middle he would have looked a bit unfocussed I think.  

I hope you like him!

Reaper Bones Anirion aka Raistlin Majere

This isn't Raistlin Majere from the Dragonlance series of books and adventures. Honest.  He just looks quite a bit like him!

This is actually Anirion from Reaper but he holds such a resemblance to the complex magician from the Dragonlance books I couldn't resist painting him to match.  I didn't quite go as far as giving him pale gold skin but he has similar robes and shares the same white hair and crystal topped staff.  I did a lot of blending on the robes both on the red and blue sections prior to adding the gold runes.  It started with quite a dark Scab Red then progressed through Blood Red all the way up to Lava Orange, needless to say there were quite a few layers between the three colours.

Once the blue hem was finished I debated whether to add the gold runes or not as I was a bit concerned I'd mess it up and ruin all that blending work but I think it worked ok.

Games Workshop Plaguebearer

Over the last couple of days I've been working on two more figures for my upcoming Dungeons and Dragons 5th Edition game.  If you haven't had a look at the new version I highly recommend it, they have managed to capture the feeling of adventure with some straightforward rules that encourage role-play and simplify combat without making it boring.  Anyway enough about that.

For my players, STOP READING NOW!!!

For the rest of you, this miniature is a plastic Games Workshop Plaguebearer, now I don't like Games Workshop much for various reasons but sometimes they have the miniature that fits the role I need filled and this is one of those occasions.  I needed a new one eyed monster called a Nothic and the choices were very limited.  

I could have bought one of the D&D Miniatures but they are difficult to find and expensive compared to the cheap Plaguebearer.  Its also much more scary I think and for the encounter it'll be used for that's going to be important.

I used Citadels Technical paint, Nurgle Rot for the first time on this model and like all the other Technical paints I've tried this was excellent.  In fact these technical paints are the best thing Games Workshop have done in the last ten years in my opinion. 

I used Rotting Flesh as a base with a Blood Red wash over the boils and intestines which were painted a light pink.  The Nurgle Rot was then layered over the open wounds and boils to build up a real gloopy mess.  It dries slightly translucent and very shiny and looks extremely unhealthy.  I love it.

The sword I wanted to look like chipped Obsidian so a black base with a sharp white highlight seemed to do the trick, I might gloss varnish the sword to make it look more glassy.

Overall I think he looks like you might catch something nasty just by looking at him.

Reaper Bones Halbarand the Cleric

This is another character for my upcoming Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition game.  I've painted him as a Tempest Domain Cleric. 

I tried a new technique of basing the armour with Kommando Khaki building up successive layers of white, unfortunately the photos don't really show this very well.  My only available time to photograph my miniatures at the moment is during the hours of darkness (which sounds much more sinister than it is) and its messing with the lighting quite a bit.

The cloak and surcoat come out ok although they are a bit shiny even after a coat of Anti-Shine.

I'm waiting for a delivery of my next character, a Barbarian from Scibor you can see in the photo, i'm going to base him on a regular 30mm base for tabletop and i'll paint the giant head as a display base for when he's not being used. 

So while i'm waiting for him to arrive i'll be painting a Chaos Plaguebearer next for a secret mission!

Bones Oswald the Overladen

Have you ever had a real look at your Dungeons & Dragons character's equipment list?  The spare sword, the two winter blankets, the cooking pot, half a dozen torches and a lantern, all those extras that every self respecting Adventurer (aka Mobile Murder Machine) needs to survive in style?

Well if you have you might want your very own Hireling to follow along after you carrying your possessions, who knows he could do your laundry and cook your meals too if you needed him to. 

With that in mind i've painted my latest Bones Miniature, Oswald the Overburdened.  I used to have a Citadel miniature similar to this one many years ago who was holding a torch and even had a kitchen sink tied to the top of his pack, I might have to see if I can get another.  I rather like the idea of my adventurering party being followed around by a gaggle of peasants like in Monty Python's Holy Grail.

Anyway, painting wise he was fairly straightforward, individually each part of the model is simple but the sheer volume of different items to paint really put a strain on my pallette.  I only have so many browns afterall and this fella has a ton of pouches, barrels, wooden handles etc.  Overall i'm happy with him, I hope you like him too.  

Bones Turanil, Male Elf Paladin

I took to calling this one the Pretty Boy Peacock Elf while I was painting him, the shield design is so different to most that you see it was a bit intimidating to start with, but once I began it was really easy to paint the peacock and deceptively easy to just keep adding more and more highlights.

I wanted to echo the peacock colours of vibrant blue green and gold in the rest of the model but the green was too much and made it look a bit undefined,  I like to keep my colour schemes fairly simple as I think they have more impact that way.  I free hand painted the wood grain on the inside of the shield which worked out better than expected and the gems on the sword came out nicely too but the face didn't translate too well into the Bones material and some of the detail was lost, not enough to affect the usefulness of the miniature though.

Actually, this is another character for the 5th Edition D&D game i'm going to run so the player will have to be happy with it too I suppose.  With his large shield and longsword and heavy armour he's clearly a Defensive Fighter,  so will add some much needed control to the battles i'm going to throw them into.  I have to dmit i'm really looking forward to having the whole group of seven heroes painted and together for a group shot.