Some More WIP Stuff...

I am rebasing some minis I painted a very long time ago (hence the dubious paintjobs on some of them) for various purposes, as I now want to use them for Sellswords & Spellslingers.

The Heresy Vampire below has lived a haunted life - first he lost his head, and then, recently he had a metal bear fall on him, damaging the paint on his left sleeve, so in addition to finishing his new base I have to reconstruct the paintjob...

This bunch is waiting for a black undercoat, but I am not going spray them, until I have finished painting that blasted female Barbarian for Lea's Sellswords & Spellslingers party!

With my current mojo and speed, I shall probably not paint more than one or two minis before 2019 - unless I focus on models I can speed-paint with block'n'wash or drybrushes. December is a bitch to get through when working every second weekend, and still having kids around, methinks...

SS&SS: Lea's Party so Far

I am getting the hang of my new Canon - found the White Balance settings, which meant an instant enhancement of photo quality!

This is Elfham and Sigga, ready to go adventuring as soon as Tinre, the Barbarian Shieldmaiden, joins them.

I am not going to finish the Barbarian until the LAF OSFPP has come to a conclusion, but in the meantime I am working on a few other very old pieces of lead to use in Sellswords & Spellslingers as well!

SS&SS: Lea's Alter Ego

I finally put the last finished touches on Sigga's base today, and with her, the first mini for Lea's Sellswords & Spellslingers party is now ready.

I found this Hasslefree mini quite challenging to paint; Kev White sculpts wonderfully, almost photo-realistic, and it means that one has to be very precise with the brushes, as even the smallest mistake lights up like a Christmas tree.

Well, I am not quite content with her, but I think I managed to make her look all right, after all.

Lea chose the colours, apart form the rawhide boot and arm protector, and it was up to me to try to meet her demands. As I feared (a month ago!), my initial take on the cloak was too light, and I had to repaint it.

I await Lea's verdict when she returns home from school this afternoon.

SS&SS: More Characters Ready for Painting

Three different minis, three different manufacturers, all possible contestants for a position in a warband for Anna, should she decide to play with Lea and me (and, perhaps, Ulolkish).

The Hedge Witch is from Red Box, Ladgerda from Hasslefree, and the War Dog is from North Star's very useful Frostgrave range (I don't play Frostgrave, but the minis are great for many purposes!).

They are going into the 'primed' box for storage, until it is time to paint one or more of them, as I have plenty of pending projects at the moment.

Finished Assembling Ladgerda - Cleaning WIP

I got the sword cleaned up and attached to the Shieldmaiden today.

I tried to remove the moldline running through her face, but it is very hard to see in real life, so I have to wait until I have primed her to see if it is still visible.

This photo reveals some flash on her shoulder that I have missed, and I shall have to get the diamond needle files out for her again tomorrow (tonight is Eurovision Song Contest night, so I doubt I shall find more hobby time today).

From this angle, the shield rim looks okay, although I did not do any work on it, yet, but maybe I shall also have to give it a grind...

A slightly unfocused photo from her left side.

I think the 'lump' in front of her chin must be part of her right shoulder - it is definitely not some flash on the shield rim, although it could look as it at the first glance.

Ladgerda WIP

I made a bit of progress on the Shieldmaiden today. I still need to clean up and attach her short sword, but all in all I am content with the state of affairs.

Something I am not quite content with is the moldlines revealed by these pictures.

I thought I had filed away the one running through her face, and I had not noticed the one on the shield rim before.

I wonder if I can fix them without breaking the bond of the superglue holding her foot to the washer base; otherwise I shall of course just glue her on again, it is a bit annoying, though.








Here is a pic from a slightly different angle.

I shall have a look at those moldlines later this evening or tomorrow, depends on my mood - I have had a rather frustrating afternoon in the garden, trying to set some mole traps, but unable to find a proper tunnel under the molehills (they all seemed to be at the end of a tunnel), and failing to get a fallen tree leaning on a branch of another tree to come loose and onto the ground (the branch it is leaning on could suddenly snap, and the tree fall onto and kill smebody, so I have get it cleared away). I need to sharpen my chainsaw-chain, so I can cut up the trunk in smaller pieces, but that is definitely not going to happen before Monday, at least, andmore likely Tuesday, as the forecast speaks of rain.

Shieldmaiden WIP

I have begun cleaning and assembling 'Dynamic Haleth' from Hasslefree. It is going to be readied and painted as a side project, but I expect it to find use in an SS&SS warband (maybe Anna's if she decides to join Lea and me in some Family Gaming, as the mini we chose for her Viking character when trying D&D could use another Shieldmaiden companion), but I also intend to expend my Viking army with a unit of Shieldmaidens, and this one is a good beginning.

Of course, she will be usable for a lot of different games, so the time invested in her should be well spent!

SS&SS: Painting Lea's Party WIP

I have begun covering Tinre and Sigga with paint. Lea has had some saying regarding the colours, especially for her 'alter ego', the spellcasting Sigga. I fear thet I've started the cloak a bit too light, though, I shall have to ask Lea what she thinks...

Sellswords and Spellslingers: Progress on Lea's Party

Tinre, Elfham, and Sigga, now are ready to be painted. Tinre and Sigga were primed alongside the Sharpe's Rifles models and the demon, all three were glued to cork handles, and left to let the glue settle completely before being handled again.

Sellswords and Spellslingers: Potentially Anna's Party.

I am not quite sure, yet, if Anna can be tempted by SS&SS, but never the less I have begun picking some minis that might be acceptable to her. For now, this is a side project, as I have plenty work to do on Lea's party, the Argonauts warband, Sharpe's Rifles, and my own party.

Sellswords and Spellslingers: Working on Lea's Party

I have cleaned the barbarian, done some basing work on both the companions. The glue on the barbarian is not stable; I think I shall have to get some superglue tomorrow (being unused for most of a year my last bottle has dried up completely).

Sellswords and Spellslingers: Preparing a Party for Lea

Lea has expressed interest in playing SS&SS with me, so I have dug out these three all-female minis for her first party (never mind the Greeks).

The 'Barbarian Queen' will get a proper washer base when I have cleaned her up.

We have not fleshed out the characters, yet, maybe we shall have time for that this coming weekend.

I think I should get the 'dynamic' version of that mage, somewhen, but it will have to wait until I have to get some other stuff from Hasslefree.

Hasslefree: Harem Girls

I ordered these two for use as employees in the Dragon Lady's establishment. I have the Dragon Lady on the pain(t) station for the Back of Beyond Painting club at LAF at the moment (although I shall   probably not find time to finish her until after Horisont VIII), and of course I also need to either buy or build the premises on which she resides, but I thought I might as well right away get a couple of girls to entertain the guests.

I got these two as freebies (apart from the flame thrower Daphne). and although somewhat in theme with the two above their equipment/attire makes them more fitting for a modern (or maybe Post-Apocalytic?) strip club, so they may have to wait quite a while for the paint brush.

Hasslefree: Shieldmaiden - For Blood Eagle and SAGA and...

I included this dynamic shieldmaiden miniature in my recent Hasslefree order. Not much to say about it; I expect to include her in my Blood Eagle Viking warband later this year (if I get around to it - lots of ongoing projects that also need attention at the moment)-

Hasslefree: Meddling Teenagers

I have been wanting to get the meddling teenagers sets from Hasslefree for quite a while, and about a month ago, I finally took the plunge and ordered the two sets along with a few other bits and bobs I want for other projects.

The first set consists of the four unarmed  (if a Book-toting Velma can be considered unarmed, that is...) protagonists, and the centerpiece of the team, the Great Dane.

The second set consits of the same characters, buit now in a 'post-apocalyptic' mode, and armed in a manner befitting to survivors of a zombie outbreak, or the likes.














Among other freenbies, I got an alternative version of Daphne, carrying what I think is a humongous flame thrower, and that might come in handy at some point.

I expect to use the team when re-booting my zombiecalypse (Dead Walk Again) gaming somewhen during the coming winter/spring (along with getting some of the Versatiles urban ground tiles from Multiverse Gaming, and some buildings to go along with them.

I shall paint them in pairs, one unarmed version and one armed, like Fred below, so I can play both mystery scenarios and outright survival fests.

RPG Fantasy Vikings: Main Characters Based.

I started working (somewhat delayed, compared to the original plan) on these yesterday, and I actually did something that I thought I would never do; I put minis intended for slotta-bases on washers instead.

On the Red Box shieldmaiden I sawed off only half the tab, in order to make the finished mini sit a bit higher on the base, and thus seem taller.

The Hasslefree sorceress had all but about ½ mm of the tab removed

I tried out my recently acquired Loc-Tite brush-on superglue, btw, and it seems a HUGE step forward from the bottles with a long thin shout that always clog up or let the glue dry hard in the bottle.

D&D RPG Fantasy Vikings Project: More Character Minis Arrived!

In the mail today, these two VERY nice sculpts from Hasslefree (I'm pretty sure the male wizard is an ex Red Box mini, btw).

Neither exactly 'viking' in style, but the female is going to be the avatar of my youngest offspring who is playing young apprentice of the settlement's Vǫlva.

Anna and Lea play the daughters of the local Hersír, so the slightly exotic attire of Lea's character can be explained by her father bringing home some stuff from overseas expeditions.

The wizard I plan to use as an arch enemy, threatening the settlement and general area with vile creatures from a lair somewhere in the surrounding fjöll.

Shot from a slightly different angle:

All that remains now is to clean up the models and get some paint slabbed on.

I shall start work on the two main avatars somewhen this week.

I just started in a new job today, and I feel rather chewed up, but I hope to be able to get back to the workable tomorrow afternoon after work.