Easter Gremlins from Wyrd

Ok, the guys over at Wyrd miniatures have been smoking something strong this time, and what they've come up with is some special minis just in time for Easter:





It turns out that Easter minis can be pretty awesome. And why let Scibor have all the fun?

Cake Toppers that go together

Here's one of the latest cake toppers that I've created. This set is meant to go on different levels of a tiered cake, hence the bride and groom are looking down (and aiming) at the zombies.

Privateer Press posts first colossal 360

Privateer Press has just posted the first 360 for one of their Colossals, along with their gallery photo and the price they're projecting for it.



I'm a little surprised to see that a colossal comes with some little mechanikal solos. I suspect that they'll arc lightning back and forth to the stormwall.

The price is now known at $134.99. That's higher than anything I've seen from Privateer Press, but the mini is larger than anything they've released also, and as far as giant resin minis go, you could do worse for the money.

Also, they've given us a comparison photo for scale.

Caverns of Roxor

Ok, my last two posts were Super Dungeon related, so I kind of thought that maybe I should write about something else.

Then, Sodapop unveiled their SDE expansion at GAMA.

Well, we don't actually know what any of this means (all we have is photos of the boxes, and the minis they were showing off at Gencon last year). But it looks like they're going to have boosters in addition to large boxed expansions. And I'd definitely like to try a game with multiple Dragon Clutches.

Four small boxes and one large one. The box you can only half see in the picture can be seen in another blurrier photo too:

Fur Effect

A fur effect essentially means adding texture to a flat surface. There are plenty of minis of animals that use non-textured surfaces to depict areas where fur or hair would be short (horses, for example). Adding texture to these surfaces can make a mini quite a bit more dynamic. For example:



To attain this effect, I used a sort of basic base-shade-highlight approach, only all of the areas of shading/highlighting were invented as I went.

I started out with a medium brown (P3 Idrian Flesh which I tinted slightly toward purple in order to make the brown seem brighter). Then drew short lines of fur onto him with a thin brush in a much darker brown color (something like P3 Umbral Umber or Battlefield Brown). This is your shading layer, so while you are adding in these dark lines, make sure to also put this color into the areas you'e like shaded on the finished mini.

When drawing these lines, follow the musculature of the mini. Super Dungeon minis don't have as detailed musculature as some other lines, but here you can see that the lines follow the muscles on his arms. More over, there are places on the mini that suggest tufts of fur (on his arms and beard, for example).

After that, it is time to highlight up. This is done using the same short line method, but now you should be using a lighter color. For this mini, I used the base color, then did several layers adding in more and more of a yellow-white to the mix (combined with the purple, this helps the brown seem brighter).

As you add more layers, treat this like most highlighting. Cover a smaller area with each pass, and highlight towards raised areas. The biggest difference here is that rather than blending the layers together, you are simply adding short lines as you go. The last pass, I actually just went around the face and hit the highest raised areas.

That's about it. As I use this technique more, I'll come back and update this write up with new insights.

Angry Bear! (it must be exclaimed)

Ok, I knew I had to get a copy of Super Dungeon Explore when I saw the Angry Bear mini.

One thing about Super Dungeon Explore minis is that they're not as detailed as many lines. It is actually kind of like having a blank pallet in front of me, and I could do anything I want with it.

So, I decided to add quite a bit of detail myself. The most obvious is the fur- I used a technique that used to be popular on Rackam's Wolfen.

But also, I added details to emphasize his anger. The gums showing, and red beneath the eyes were things that I felt brought out something in this mini that I hadn't seen in other paintjobs of him.

So, I guess the moral of the story is that it is a lot of fun to paint outside the lines, and it becomes easier to do when there aren't all that many lines to start out with.



And he might spend a little part of the game as a druid: