Thursday 31 January 2013

Werewolf: The Beast Among Us

I saw Werewolf: The Beast Among Us at my local Walmart one weekend, and told myself to check it out online when I got home.  I usually do this in order to prevent me from wasting money on a crappy movie.  However, everything I read about the movie online was relatively positive so I thought I'd give it a go.




I really enjoyed the Victorian horror feel to the movie (a European setting from the looks of it).  The characters in the movie were all well portrayed and well acted.  All of the "good guys" were distinctly different, with the arrogant aristocrat who threw the silver knives really standing out.  Of course, the plot was a bit silly, but I was prepared for that.  It is also quite gory, with body parts and blood all over the place - definitely not for the squirmish!




Overall, a very good campy movie!  I was pleasantly surprised by it and would recommend it to anyone who enjoys B movie horror in a Victorian setting.

Sunday 27 January 2013

Spray Disaster!

So I was putting some Dullcote on my latest batch of painted miniatures, and when I look at them the next day, there's these little white specks on them all over the front!  ARGH!!!  I've never had that happen before - I've heard of other people having things like this happen to them, but never me.  Oh well, I guess it was about time it happened to me.  Anyways, I've cleaned them up a bit, but you can see some of the flecks still on the pictures.



This is one of the two Yeti that I like from Reaper - Yeti Warrior (14582).  I painted him in a grey colour, mainly because I wanted him to blend in with how I painted my Copplestone Yeti a long, long time ago.  I also figure that he would be grey/white to blend in with the snow and rocks in Tibet.  The base is a 40mm Snow Terrain base from Model Display Products.




Here's a funny one - Reaper's Sasquatch (50011).  I picked him up in case I wanted to run a bigfoot scenario, but based him in snow so he can stand in as a yeti in case of an emergency.  The base is from the same company as the Yeti's above.




When I saw this guy, I thought he'd be perfect for a cultist assassin.  It's actually Elnith, Astral Reaver Monk from Reaper (03540).  I tried about five times to do the pentagram on his chest, but it ended up looking like a big red mess.  I finally got it on the sixth try - it's not perfect but good enough to calm my anger!  :-)




To continue on with my terrain trend - it's a tiki totem.  I know it's the wrong geographic location, but I'll probably use it with my Amazon Indians.  The tiki is from a game I came across at Barnes and Noble (when I was shopping in the US) called Big Kahuna.




There's lots of plastic tikis in the box, and I just based and flocked them on some MDF.

Sorry for the crappy miniatures this time, hopefully my spraying skills will return to normal next week...Pulp Figures!

Sunday 20 January 2013

Amazon Indians and Crates

This week it's a bit of a weird mix - Amazon Indian Archers from Copplestone Castings and a few terrain pieces in the form of crates (and barrels). 

The Amazon Indians are part of Copplestone's High Adventure range of miniatures, which I love. 




I did an assembly-line paint-job on them and I think they turned out alright.  The base was filled with white putty and painted green, with some static grass and tufts put on the top for good measure.  I'm thinking of a Amazon Expedition adventure in the future, so I picked up the Amazon Indian Chief blister as well as some Tupi Warriors and Archers.  They are all prepped and based, but it's a bit of a grind to plow through them all so they'll be done intermittently.

Next up is some terrain I finished a while ago - some crates to be used as an objective (or just scenery).




These are from a line of model railroad accessories from Hamm River.  I picked up the "Freight Pack" of 60 items at the bottom of the page.  A fellow blogger recommended this manufacturer, but I can't remember who - sorry! 

The castings were pretty good, with a bit of clean-up required.  On going to the page again in order to get the link, I see that they've got up some new products!  Hmmmm...looks like I may have to pick up some more stuff next month, as I've gone through my wargaming budget this month already.

While I was there, I purchased a rowboat as well - we'll see how that turns out!

Monday 14 January 2013

Mummies and a Reporter

I managed to get some painting done last week - I went with something I could get done quick and easy, as I didn't have all that much time.  Cue the entry of Reaper's mummies...



I put them on lipped bases, filled the base in with white putty and did a quick paintjob on them all.  I think one of them had a sword, but I don't like my mummies having weapons, so I hacked it off.  Now he looks like he's ready to punch somebody. 

I also finished up another miniature I had half done, Reaper's Muckraker (59034).




I was looking for a Victorian-era reporter figure, and really liked the way this one looks.  I didn't spend too much time on him, but really like the way the cobblestones turned out.  I've never done it multi-colour like that before.  I picked up the base from Model Display Products.

I've got a lot of miniatures in the works, and my order from Pulp Figures arrived last week and I've been prepping them up.  I've never painted any of them before, but am looking forward to getting some Yeti explorers done!

Sunday 6 January 2013

Cultists and Ticks

I managed to get a lot of prepping and basing done over the holidays.  Also, I was able to finish off a few Reaper cultists and ticks.  I had the cultists half-painted on by table for a long time, and finally bit the bullet and finished them off.  I don't know why I took so long in getting them done, as they were quite easy to paint.






The cultists are Reaper's Townsfolk: Cultists and Victim (03312), without the victim.  Oh, I almost forgot about the fire in front of them.  I meant to take a picture of the fire with the tents I posted previously.  It's a pewter fire from the Lord of the Rings minis - the Weathertop boxed set, set on a mdf base.  The cultist in the middle is Reaper's Aglanda, Herald of Razmir (60136).  I don't know what she's supposed to be in the Pathfinder universe, but I'm going to be using her as a cultist leader.  I painted the base (from Model Display Products) with some paint lines of it, to represent a ritual circle.

Sometimes I like to paint something different - when I saw the Prarie Tick Queen I knew I just had to paint her! 




Along with her are some Prarie Ticks, which I just drybrushed to get them done quick.  They were fast to paint and gave me something different to paint, instead of the same old humans.  I really like how the eyes came out on the queen.

Tuesday 1 January 2013

Year End Review and 2013

2012 was a good and bad year.  The start of the year began with some health and work problems, both of which were way better by the end of the year.  Around mid-year, I started this blog as an encouragement to keep painting, and I'm very glad I did - I have painted more miniatures in the past half year than I have in ages!!! 

I'm thankful for all of the fellow bloggers out there who post their painted miniatures on their blogs and show their battle reports and miniature adventures.  Without them, a blog done by myself probably wouldn't have surfaced.  I look forward to seeing what everyone I'm following comes out with in 2013!

In late April/early May I'll be moving into our new house, which is currently being built.  I look forward to having a permanent man-cave and should have a lot more room to play around in!

Here's a few Renedra tents I've finished:






Plans for 2013 are:

  1. Keep painting the Gothic Horror-themed figs
  2. Playtest the horror ruleset I've been working on for my company, Harwood Hobbies
  3. Finish my accounting course asap and get out of my current job
  4. I'm considering starting and Indiegogo campaign to get the miniatures I had sculpted a few years ago into production and put onto the website.  All I'm lacking is the funding for production, so shouldn't cost too much to finish off.  I think this will be a go for 2013, but will have to finish my course first to get the time to do this.
  5. Work on my 15mm Assyrians - I've started this and hope to have all of the miniatures completed by the end of the year
  6. Try to keep a budget of $50-75 a month on miniatures

We'll see how I do in 2013 and feel very hopeful about this upcoming year.  I hope everyone has a good 2013!!!