#30Days30Miniatures - Day 19

My worst day of homesickness since our move hit me today. This Saturday will mark a month since we showed up on the other side of Pennsylvania. For the first couple of weeks we were so busy getting things unpacked, that it just felt like some kind of weird vacation. It didn't feel like we were going to be here permanently. It was just like being at one of the Disney resorts. It was Old Key West, and we were here on an extended vacation.

I think this week it hit me that I wasn't going home. 

So I painted.

I really didn't feel like finishing anything tonight. I had to work late (I always have to work late now), and the wife, kids, and grandparents went to a local park to watch a band play. I wasn't done with work emails until close to 8pm, and the family wasn't expected for a bit longer. 

I started with a pair of undead zombie wolves. I figured that they were close to being finished, so I could wrap them up fairly quickly with another few purple and magenta layers & washes, before doing a white dry brushing over the top. They turned out well, and I think they'll be great adversaries in the frozen wastes of Frostgrave.

But I still wanted to keep painting.

I painted a lich king, some mouselings, a donkey, a Skaven assassin, a pair of wizards. 

I thought a lot, during the few hours I had by myself. About my old house, my friends still back on the other side of the state, the stories we didn't get to tell. 

Our Friday friends & family Chained Coffin campaign that we weren't able to finish kept popping into my head. 

I thought about all my favorite people and places in the world, now so far away. Phantom Games for our Sunday gaming with DCCRPG Pittsburgh. 

The Norwin Game Knights... the club that our family built from the ground up over four and a half years. 

Our living room & dining room, crammed with so many friends that we could barely move. 

I thought about all the people and places that were a little bit of a drive away, but could reach so easily. 4, 6, and 8 hour drives are now 5 hours longer. 

I thought about spending hours painting in December as we mulled over the impending decision about whether to stay in Pittsburgh or move. 

That was my night. 

It's been many of the nights since I've been sitting quietly painting these last couple of weeks. Maybe by the end I'll have figured out some kind of lesson in all of this. Some kind of awesome, "zen truth." The key to the universe. 

Or maybe I'll just have finished a lot of miniatures.

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 18

It's only taken me a year, but today, Day 18 of #30Days30Miniatures, I've completed Evie's all-bunny Frostgrave warband. Back on Evie's 11th birthday last July, I surprised her with a bunch of blister packs full of super high quality Dark Sword Miniatures. The only challenge was that I'd need to paint them, and at the time I was just getting back into painting after nearly nine years away from the hobby. 

I wrapped up three of them last summer, and another one around Christmas. But over the past eighteen days, I've completed the last five with Evie's rabbit thief. 

I kept the thief pretty dark, with a lot of different shades of grey and a brown ink wash. Save for the metal paints (bronze, silver, and gold) there's no other color save for some purple/pink eyes. 

I'm going to have to go look on Dark Sword Miniatures' website to see if there are any other rabbits out there to work on. Overall I really enjoyed painting these ones. Frankly I'm super spoiled on the level of detail. 

Gotta love that cloak!

The ever-dangerous Judge Evie told me that I needed to have these miniatures completed by her 12th birthday, so I was happy to comply. Now I get to watch her kick my butt on the Frostgrave table. She thinks that she'll be battling my all-mouseling warband, but I have a secret weapon being delivered all the way from the UK...

... snake-men!

Who else paints bunnies? 

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 17

I don't think I was ever going to be happy with this miniature.

Tonight I finished another pre-primered WizKids D&D mini. This Human Wizard was picked out by one of my daughters as part of a pair. The other one looked so crappy that it stays in my car as a unit of measurement. I just carry it into stores if I want to work out whether or not certain things I buy for terrain make sense. But it's a hot mess. 

I'd say this one was a few steps above a hot mess. 

Just not a lot of detail to work with. Granted, I probably went too extreme with the shading, but I'm not going back to touch anything up. I think these figures are fine for quick paint jobs to get figures on an RPG table, but if you can spare the money for a more detailed miniature, please do so. These are about the same cost as Reaper Bones, and the Reapers have all turned out far better. 

Oh well. Done, finished, on to the next batch!

What do you do with figures you aren't happy with? 

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 16

Not much to say here tonight, just a minotaur. 

A happy, little minotaur.

This one's mine. My minotaur. In my world, minotaur's are adorned in gold and leather and have red, pinkish, and purplish fur, with a black mohawk. This one's a bit older, so he's got some grey. But that's alright, because he's having a great time tonight getting painted.

Actually, this Reaper Bones minotaur may be my favorite miniature yet from the #30Days30Miniatures challenge. It took several nights to do, and had a lot of great "pop" to its features. Really had a good time with this one. 

Did you paint a minotaur tonight? 

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 15

Bring out the musketeers!

For today's #30Days30Miniatures post I've got a Dark Sword Miniatures rabbit duelist, and their counterpart from the Reaper Mouseling line. Even though the two of them may face off at some point on the game table, they were trained by the same master and therefore wear the same colors.

As always, I was dazzled with how the Dark Sword rabbit turned out. Great detail, a lot of fun to paint, just a solid piece.

I think the hat's my favorite part. While this is a great duelist or musketeer, I thought he could also count as a Final Fantasy Red Mage.

Less happy with the mouseling, mostly because of its eyes. One is WAY higher than the other, and therefore he looks goofy from straight ahead. I tried to fix this and really didn't do a good job. But it's okay otherwise.

This is the "bad side."

Here's the total pile so far. Day 15, and 23 miniatures completed. 

Show me your figures!

Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Seven

Under a Weirdling Sun

Peril on the Purple Planet is an epic DCCRPG box set devised by +Harley Stroh. The adventure is a hex crawl, so player characters get to explore a completely open and lush world. Characters must discover artifacts, make alliances, battle terrifying worms, and sustain the deadly sun's rays if they are to ever make their way back home.

Care to hear about this week's banishment? Read on!

Previous Tales of the Banished

• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part One
• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Two
• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Three
• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Four
• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Five
• Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Six

The Banished

• Marc
• Nutbiter, Manimal 
• Andy
• Ssof Rehtaf, Cleric
• Paul
• Dukdiv/Dee, Kith
• StarRider, Wizard
• Alex
• Nicodemus, Thief

Banished to the Purple Planet - Part Seven - The Rock Awakens

Judge's Note: I just want to point out two things about this session. First, you may notice that Nutbiter is now a player character. During his first official episode as a Glowburn co-host, I gave Judge Marc a gift: the gift of a manimal character for the Purple Planet. Admittedly there is an ulterior motive here, in that I'd like to see how this Mutant Crawl Classics character class operates in Dungeon Crawl Classics. For mutations, Nutbiter has 4 arms, plasticity, and molecular integration. So, an extra attack, fast runner, can stand tall and reach out, and can heal. 

The second thing is that The Rock Awakens is a friggin' brutal and badass adventure that is laden with death: pure death. Death everywhere. Thankfully the party had Ssof the Cleric with them, but don't play around when adventuring in this city. 

And be especially careful around three headed giant adders. 


Day 8

• The session begins at 12:40am, game time, with 10 hours of travel on the party's skiff.
• The party rests through the night, so they can explore the skiff in the morning. 

Day 9

• Bright and early in the morning the party prepares to enter the great alabaster city. 
• They notice that the walls are low enough to enter from any point. 
• The ruined city is separated into four quadrants. Along the northern edge is a great, black stone "wave" that stretches out over a full third of the city's lost buildings.
• Three buildings are left standing, including an old temple, a great tower, and a bizarre triangular building along the northern edge.
• Six floating devices hover about high above the triangular building.
• When the party enters the city they first have to contend with a patch of quicksand. Fortunately, Nutbiter is on point, and his legs are super stretchy. So when he gets sucked down into the sand, he is able to stand up a full 15' higher than normal. 
• Ssof used his magic hammer "Fairy Stomper" to detect changes in the ground, leading the party around the sand.
• The party noticed that the use of Fairy Stomper caused a minor earthquake. In fact, any magic used caused some kind of quake.
• Heading east, the party came to one of the main roads intersecting the city. To the north they heard a voice chanting. To the east was the old temple. 
• It seemed that all of the buildings that still stood were propped up by stony vines that rose from the ground below. 
• When Dukdiv tried to cross the road, four stony vines attacked him. 
• During a brutal battle with the stone vines, Dukdiv was almost killed, and Nutbiter lost his molecular integration power for the day. After freeing the party's Kith, the party fled to the east.
• Nutbiter climbed on top of the temple, and Ssof climbed Nutbiter's leg to be on top of the building as well.
• Dukdiv and Nicodemus tried entering the front of the temple, and all hell broke loose as a pair of giant, three headed adders attacked. Dukdiv was struck down again for the second time, and Nicodemus soiled himself and ran after taking a snake bite. 
• Nicodemus climbed atop the roof, and the party regrouped. Ssof cast Sanctuary on himself, then went down to heal Dukdiv. 
• Again, the party tried to enter the temple, but this time Nutbiter was felled along with Dukdiv. At least they killed one of the snakes. 
• The team got Nutbiter out of there, but Dukdiv got dragged off by a snake. It was back on top of the roof again to regroup for a second time.
• StarRider the Wizard showed up to assist, led the team into the temple, and Magic Missile'd the remaining snake (who was pregnant) with one hit.
• Unfortunately the snake had already consumed Dukdiv, so he wasn't coming back. 
• Nutbiter skinned the snake, and instantly StarRider noticed that the inside of the snakeskin read like a spell. One of the spells was Patron Bond for Azi Dahaka.
• Given the powerful magicks he used to destroy the pregnant giant three headed adder, StarRider felt a special connection with Azi Dahaka, and was able to instantly attempt the bond.
• StarRider knelt down, and consumed several of the remaining baby snakelings that were flopping around from the exploded giant snake. Once his eyes became snake eyes it was clear: StarRider was now fully bound to Azi Dahaka!

Quotes

"Get him boy! Go get him boy!" - Nicodemus trying to command Nutbiter. 

"You should write Harley Stroh a very stern letter about how Manimals from Mutant Crawl Classics ruin Peril of the Purple Planet." - Alex

Alex - "Gonna give it the old college try. [Fails die roll]"
Judge James - "Did you go to community college?"

"The view up here's pretty nice!" - Ssof to Nicodemus and Dukdiv getting attacked by snakes. 

"Suddenly climbing the dog's leg doesn't seem so bad." - Andy

"This game has literally become Tremors." - Judge James

"You know, you should've called me sooner." - Starider to the rest of the party. 

In Memoriam 

• Dukdiv/Dee - Devoured by pregnant 3 Headed Giant Adder

Legends of the Great SCOT 

The Free Company successfully completed the Great Sunken City Omnibus Tour. Care to find out about their previous quests? Follow the links below to greatness...

• Perils of the Sunken City, Part One
• Perils of the Sunken City, Part Two
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part One
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Two
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Three
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Four
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Five
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Six
• The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, Part Seven
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part One
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part Two
• A Gathering of the Marked, Part Three
• Return to Slither's End
• Lair of the Mist Men, Part One
• Lair of the Mist Men, Part Two

As always, Die Rodney!

#30Days30Miniatures - Day 14

Not even to the halfway point yet, and already up to 21 finished miniatures! 

This morning I woke up determined to knock out a pair of figures before setting my brushes aside. An uphill battle, since we've got a busy day ahead of us. Jen's uncle is in town, and we're going to be taking a trip up to Valley Forge to do some tourin'. Then, after dinner, I've got our monthly Dungeon Crawl Classics Purple Planet campaign scheduled.

So here's my first offering for Day 14: a Reaper Mouseling fighter. This cute little guy has an acorn shield and a tiny banged up sword. I went with bronze for the shield, just because I like the way the metallics have been looking after a brown ink wash. 

For the rest of the figure, I changed up how I did the fur. For many of the furry creatures I've done a lighter base coat and then filled in with a wash. But the fur on this figure was so fine and shallow that I didn't want to ruin it. I decided to use a dark grey undercoat, and then drybrush with white on top. Gave the miniature a brighter look, which I may do again for one of the Dark Sword Miniatures rabbits.

My second figure has been in my collection for well over 15 years: a Games Workshop Flaggellant for an Imperial army. I bought this dude for my Mordheim Witch Hunter warband years ago, but just never got to painting him. 

Unlike the mouselings and rabbits, I have all these old Imperial miniatures primed in black instead of white. So the coloring is definitely darker, but I think its fitting. I will say, painting those books is hard! I don't know the best way to do parchment, so I tried a base coat of white with a brown ink wash. It turned out "okay" but that's about it. The rest of the figure is okay though, and it was a really fun miniature to paint. 

Flaggellant in your face! Kind of like an evil Santa Claus, right?

Along the way today, I also did some washing of my rabbit and mouseling duelists, worked on the Minotaur, and did a tiny bit of work on a wizard and a rabbit thief. I'm thinking I'll wrap up the rabbit duelist, but we'll see. I planned on finishing him today, but I found that the wash was drying faster on the Flaggellant, so I went in that direction for the wrap up. 

Obligatory picture of my painting station! I've posted a few of these, but I thought I'd talk about my "must haves" for when I paint.

• First, I need my paints, and all of them are kept in one of Jen's old Proactive boxes from college. The fact that the cardboard box is over 20 years old is just crazy at this point! That's a lot of painting!
• I like a strip of cardboard for wiping off excess paint or putting my mixing stirs. 
• Mixing sticks/stirs/stuff.
• Some paper towels, including one that's kinda damp.
• A pair of cups:
• 1 DCCRPG cup
• 1 Gary Con IX cup
• A mixing tray.
• A big platter to protect from spills and stuff.
• A lamp
• A big red white and blue plastic tablecloth. Murica! 
• Some brush shampoo for afterwards.

Day 14. What are you painting this weekend?