Brains to Burn

I present two classic D&D monsters here. A Mind Flayer from Dungeon Encounters 1 and a Grell from Dungeon Encounters 4. There's a few of these packs on the Splintered Light website which contain a lot of the staples. The only issue is that gathering groups of certain monsters would involve multiple sets.

So the Mind Flayer... well I saw the robes and cloak and thought of Dr. Strange. I think the scheme works, it's got that rich arcane vibe. The Grell was very quick to paint up with only three major elements, brain, beak and tentacles. Both sculpts are easy to work on and the Grell is just so pretty. Whether they'll see play is another matter.

The Ancient and Dusty Dead

These are from my increasingly depleted Greater Undead set. I've got a few vampires/wights and necromancers left but the common archetypes have all been used up.

Not an overly difficult bit of painting, splash some yellows and browns on, wait, then a quick and dirty wash sees them finished. My only regret is not going with a desert base on at least one of the models. I'll keep an eye out for a Egyptian style necromancer to add to the group.

Disclaimer: The central figure might actually just be a severely wounded, heavily bandaged man desperately seeking assistance rather than an ancient, undead ruler.

Goblin High Command

My goblins are reinforced by some command types from Splintered Light's Goblin warband. 

Firstly, on the far left, a wizard in patchy robe, perched on a rock and festooned with amulets. I did consider a Night Goblin colour scheme but, again, any combination of 15mm mini, black clothing and my skill level would make for a poor finish. The second and third are leaders of some sort. The burly spear-goblin is straightforward enough but the running goblin with severed head is a great, animated pose. 

Stylistically, there's something about most of the Splintered Light goblins that suggest they are a cut above the usual green hero-fodder. The musician and standard bearer are in keeping with that style, well-equipped and warmly dressed. The flag could do with an icon but that's a job for Future Me as I don't think I've got the skills yet.

When added to my stash of painted goblins, this batch gives me another full size Dragon Rampant unit.

Dragon Rampant: Battle of Bail Eantua

My miniatures have been seeing regular action in a Pathfinder campaign for the past few months but as a wargamer at heart, I needed to try something a little grander than shuffling them across a quick-wipe hex map. As it happened, I had a friend willing to playtest Dragon Rampant.

We present the isolated dwarf settlement of Bail Eantua. Generally, the bearded folk are found below ground but these lumber camps are not uncommon in the Old World. The dwarves have been gnawing away at the forest for some time and, amid reports of shadows in the trees, people have started to vanish.

Some of my Dark Ages and WW2 terrain is repurposed for the cause. I was concerned that the table was a little too heavily forested but it seemed to work out well.

Determined to root out any threat to the relentless march of progress, the local Alliance garrison has arrived. The force is led by a Wizard (Elite Foot-Spellcaster) who has brought his bound Fire Elemental (Greater Warbeast) with him. The local human regiment (Heavy Foot) has been joined by a veteran dwarven militia (Heavy Foot).

With the interlopers approaching an ancient boundary marker, the arboreal guardians rouse themselves to action. The force is led by a Grand Ent (Cunning Greater Warbeast). His troop consists of a trio of Dryads ( Invisible Scouts), Treemen (Elite Foot) and Forest Wolves (Lesser Warbeasts).

Some teething problems with the rules handicap the forest folk for the first few combats as we were rolling six rather than twelve dice for their attacks but we manage to plough on to a satisfying conclusion, regardless.

The battle opens as the human regiment marches bravely into the sacred clearing, lay into all about them and are slowly reduced at great cost to the forest folk. They finally break and are encouraged off the table by some ranged fire.

The Fire Elemental takes heavy damage in a running battle with the wolves and falls back. The guardians of Nature hold the centre briefly but as the Wizard advances it becomes clear that the forces of the forest folk are spent and the Ent and Treemen are wiped out. The surviving wolf wisely flees.

By this time, the Dwarfs, having spent the game marching very very slowly through the woods find themselves called on to earn their keep. The Dryads have been playing a dangerous game leaping forward and shooting in a bid to bring down the heavily damaged Elemental in the enemy rear. The dwarves catch them in the open and their axes make short work of the willowy pests.

A single wolf flees into the brush, mournfully howling a tale of utter defeat. Another tract of the great forest is opened for logging.

Rules-wise, Dragon Rampant seems perfect for my purposes. The games are fast, book-keeping is minimal and I can use any models in my collection. The table space required is quite modest which pleases me as I tire of setting up 6x4s. I'm already looking at my Undead, Goblin and Elf stockpiles and composing lists.

Goblin Grunts

The poor huddled masses of many a fantasy setting, I've devoted some attention to my goblin grunts. These are from the Splintered Light Goblin Warband. They will provide the rank and file for my Goblin war party.

The Yellow-bellies have survived in their ancestoral region while their larger brethren and rival tribes have been hunted to extinction by adhering by their most sacred code: A good run beats a bad stand.

Nothing new to report here, the sculpts are as the others I painted previously, slightly smaller than other sculpts but detailed and free of any blemishes. I tried painting them in the traditional dress of their people (brownish rags) but the dirty yellow is more appealing.

Random Assortment

The first model is my work and was a leftover from a previous Dark Ages project. He's a Celtic farmer from Corvus Belli's Celtic Civilians pack which, as far as I can tell, is no longer in production. I had the old Asterix comics in mind as I worked. 

My girlfriend took an interest in painting so I handed over some models into her tender care. The four models on the right are hers. The first pair are from the Splintered Light Greater Undead set and the last two are from Ral Partha's Wood Elf Warband.

The second and third will see action as witches of some kind. I've worked up stats for Wailing Hags below but they are subject to change. I really liked the garish colour scheme on her elven warriors. It would never have occurred to me to go with blue hair and green robes or red hair and blue armour but the colour choice really works well.

Ghoulish Zombies

I've mixed manufacturers here. The third, fourth and sixth are Ral Parthas. I went back to the Southern Death Cult pack and plucked out the zombies. The rest are Splintered Light ghouls from the Greater Undead which could work reasonably well as zombies. The respective styles of both manufacturers is pretty apparent here.

I have to say that these battered undead have the best effort to reward ratio when painting. Green tinting over grey on the skin, brown on the scraps of cloth and some blood effect here and there.

I must say that I prefer the Ral Parthas to the Splintered Lights but your mileage may vary. The central figure is my absolute favourite. Look at him! Lurching forward, axe jammed in skull, gripping his precious handful of flesh.

The Howling Ack

These are actually the wolf mounts from the Splintered Light Goblin Warband. The goblin wolf riders didn't really call to me so I skipped them for the time being.

I was going to go with a plain grey but thought a little research couldn't hurt. It turns out that wolves have very distinct patterns of colouration with dark backs and shoulders being extremely widespread. I did my best to give them that natural colouring and I think it came out well. The mouths have been painted but as the pictures show, the details don't pop. I'll leave them for now and see if inspiration strikes later.

Slimes

So... let's quickly gloss over this joke of a post. Both models are from the Splintered Light Dungeon Encounters 3 set.

The problem with fighting slimes and oozes is that you're never quite sure if they're dead or playing dead.

Goblin Hunters

These three chappies come from Splintered Light's Goblin Warband. Nice mix of foot goblins, characters and cavalry. There's also an ogre in there as heavy support.

The bushes rustled as the beast stepped carefully into the clearing. Its nostrils flared as it took in the air. As it lifted its right forehoof to step over the rocks, three barbed black arrows appeared along its flank. It stumbled once and fell dead.

They're a lot better equipped than some of the goblins in the pack and I chose to view them as elite troops. Their clothes are thicker with a few more furred ruffs, they're carrying more pouches, belts and equipment than the grunts and the fancy bows mark them out as a cut above the norm. These guys are a bit chunkier than I've come to expect from Splintered Light.

I went with a yellow colour scheme for the goblins as I quite like the old hooded Bad Moon look and drab browns combined with my painting would really stifle the sculpts. The grunts and commanders will be painted up soon.

Dwarves of Delveholme (Part 5)

 And now we come to the end of the road. These are all from the Dwarf Treasure Hunting Party.

On the extreme right, we have a... barrel, painted in honour of a friend's RPG character who was a master of hiding in plain sight. On the extreme left, we have the jauntiest dwarf sculpt ever, you can actually hear his chirpy Hihohiho-ing as you look upon him.

The second and third are a pair. We have a heavily laden pack pony (Bill, is that you?) and his callous owner. The dwarf is a good sculpt, the pony is a great one.

The fourth model is amongst the finest in the set, absolutely fantastic sculpt, everything about it draws the eye. I love it.

The Dwarves of Delveholme (Part 4)

I present more Splintered Light dwarves. The first three are from Dwarf Adventurers, the last two are from Dwarf Treasure Hunting Party.

I find the first model slightly amusing as he's clearly skinned a teddy bear at some point and now wears its fur with unjustified pride. The second model had a cultist vibe about him so I went with a sun-worshipper icon on his chest. The third model has a face that screams drunken oaf. The nice bronze age helmet, ragged cloak, exposed belly and pose combine very nicely. All three are easy to paint and rich in detail.

The last two are the standard hewers and carriers. I enjoyed the mix of colours across all the dwarves. I think the fifth model is a little too garish but as usual, good enough is enough for me.

The Dwarves of Delveholme (Part 3)

Hi-ho, hi-ho, it's off to work we go. - Traditional dwarven folk song.

We've seen mostly armed dwarves in my last few posts but the ratios are reversed here. The first dwarf is from Splintered Light's Dwarf Adventurers set, all the others are from their Dwarf Treasure Hunting Set.

The warrior is fine, a piratical sort but the rest came out really well. Really, really well by my standards. I was able to play around with some gnome-esque colour schemes, everything just worked, colours all clicked and I really enjoyed every second of my painting time. Used a mix of washes for the lantern and it came out exactly as I wanted.

Sculpt-wise, I'm very impressed by the Treasure Hunters, every sculpt is a good one, none jump out as proportionally "off" or weirdly posed. Thankfully, I've got about half the pack left to paint.

The Ice Heart Cult

"Hans... uh... are we the baddies?" - Guy wearing a skull as a mask.

I wanted to paint a little group of baddies so went a-digging through the stockpile. These are taken from Ral Partha's Southern Death Cult, a mix of robed cultists and undead. I pulled out all the models with skull masks for the project. Again, very solid sculpts, very detailed with an old-school 80s aesthetic. Exactly the style I like. The leader, on the far left, has a nice series of glyphs running along the seams of his cloak which reminded me of Teclis and Tyrion, back in the day.

The Cult of the Ice Heart are a group of ritualists obsessed with the destruction of the world as we know it. Their goal is to plunge the world into an eternal winter and earn the favour of some manner of eldritch elemental force. Despite the name, they can generally be found in temperate climates.

These actually flew straight off the painting table. After basing and washing, I used blue ink on the swords to give a magical effect which looks good but leaves me a bit nervous about messing with the glyphs on the blades as any paint applied is unlikely to blend well into the shading of the sword. The wash is too heavy but we'll come back to them at some future point. They'll certainly serve as they are.

The Dwarves of Delveholme (Part 2)

A second batch of dwarves from Splintered Light. The fifth dwarf is from the Dwarf Treasure Hunting Party, the rest are all from the Dwarf Adventurers set.

I find the pose on the first model to be a little bizarre, it's as if he wants to show off all his weapons at once. Paintjob is acceptable. I am very proud indeed, of the second model. I even managed to paint the eyes and the tip of his cigar. The eyes were... very difficult.

The third model is a female dwarf bringing some badly needed gender balancing to the group. She gives off a Valkyrie vibe. Similarly, the fifth model is somewhat unisex. She came out very well and can serve as anything from Ranger to Assassin.

I was less happy with the fourth model and he looks even worse in the photo with some manner of strange waxy finish visible. Boo.

Spectre, Spirit and Spook

Whether improperly buried, having had their resting place disturbed, unfinished business or plain old stubborness, these folks have not passed on.

This is probably my laziest paintjob yet. These are taken from the Splintered Light Greater Undead set. I had played around with a variety of greys and greens on a test model (now awaiting stripping) but the GW Nihilakh Oxide is perfect for the ghostly blue. Three ghosts done, in about as many minutes.

Looking at the pictures, I'm trying to remember if I did anything different with the central ghost as he looks a little better than the others.

The Dwarves of Delveholme (Part 1)

Among the stockpile, there's about twenty-odd dwarves awaiting some attention, between warriors and civilians. The first and fourth models are from Splintered Light's Dwarf Treasure Hunting Party. This is a great little pack which seems to draw a bit of inspiration from The Hobbit, note the mini-Gandalf above.

The second and third models are from the same company's Dwarf Adventurer set, which cover all the roleplaying classes.

The last dwarf is from Ral Partha's Questing Heroes. The scale mismatch is actually disguised by his armour and he blends in perfectly.

The "Gandalf" looked a bit plain in his initial plain grey robes so I gave him some orange trim. I had Rincewind in mind as I did. Must keep an eye out for a suitable wizard mini for that particular gentleman.

The armoured dwarves are quite straightforward. Paint metal, wash metal, great success. The photo has highlighted some little areas that need retouching though.

The civilian with the torch really let me happily mess around with colours as there were a lot of little details to pick out. There's something very satisfying about the Treasure Hunter sculpts, more of those on the way.

The Dead Don't Rest

These are both from Splintered Light's Greater Undead set. Their minis tend to be a little smaller than the Ral Parthas but beautifully detailed all the same. They do classify the various types of undead found in the pack on their website but a fair amount look like vampires to my untutored eye. I pulled the two that best suited my purposes.

Brought to an untimely and unjust end, the revenant has been granted a single year in which to take its revenge on all foes. This include those which ended its mortal span and those who get in its way.

On the left, I've adapted one of the better-dressed bloodsuckers as a revenant, a ghostly spectre of righteous vengeance. While the face came out well, the clothes were a bit bland. In fact, the blues and grays were so drab that I had to give him bright red gloves to stop the eye sliding right off him. Still, it's a neat paintjob and I really like the final product. The pose also has a quality about it that appeals to me.

The children of the night are often credited with a certain courtly demeanour but some argue that the feral vampire is a more accurate depiction of their true nature. On the right, we have one of these bestial vampires. A fair-minded man could probably argue that he's a ghoul. I chose to use this particular model for the simple reason that he appears to be scratching his unmentionables and his hair reminds me of the Aliens! guy of meme-related fame. He also brings up images of a dirt-encrusted feral vampire about to start loping towards its prey.

The Wandering Heroes

Do you know of any treasure around here? *slap* Where are the rest of your tribe? *slap* Who is your leader? *slap* Are there traps ahead? *slap* Do you have any information that will advance the plot? *slap* - Every adventuring party's initial contact with the local goblinoids.

I've got a bit of a hankering to paint some 15mm Fantasy for use in various RPGs. Where better to begin the great work than with an adventuring party, the wandering band of looters, vandals and murderers that sit at the heart of the genre. The models are all Ral Partha from the Questing Heroes set. They're nice and chunky with crisp, deep detail and paint up very easily.

The first model is a Paladin, Sir Quintus. His silly little goatee and dramatic posing really manage to imbue him with a sense of pompousness which fits perfectly with those god-bothering moralists.

Secondly, we have the Elven warrior, Darin Gentleleaf whose various ornamental gems nicely echo the High Elf army of my youth. She could be any of the martial classes. I regret that the eyes are left untouched but my skills are not quite there yet. It's not quite as noticeable/off-putting in the flesh, I swear.

The third is a messianic wizard, The Mighty Glot, with a suitably glorious mane and beard. My shoddy work on his eyebrows makes his brow look a bit off in the picture but it's a good mould, I assure you. There were some ill-advised efforts to tint the staff, hair and hands here but otherwise, I'm happy to field him. 

The last mini is, by far, my favourite of the batch. He looks like the archetypical hard-bitten warrior, veteran of a hundred grubby wars. I went with a Gaelic-esque colour scheme and it came out very well.