Bringing up the guns

As I mentioned at the tail end of my last post, the next step in my Imagi-nations project has been to put together some artillery for the Elabrüners. This has finally been completed--as anticipated, these were not the easiest fellows to paint. They are the Waterloo 1815 Austrian Artillery 1859, and PSR's dubiousness is pretty justified--there are some flaws with the poses, and I did not have the time to try to de-warp the cannon wheels. Still, like most figures they look a bit better with some paint on them:

Three views of the new artillery piece

And with the acquisition of this gun, I know have examples of each unit type on each side! Time for a review:

From left to right: light infantry, artillery, command, cavalry, line infantry.

More Occiterran cavalry are next, then more Elabrüner cavalry... and then I might finally be ready to play a game with these guys! (And there may be some terrain-building along the way as well...)

Rally round the flag(s)

February was not the busiest month for painting, though there was plenty going on on other fronts. (At some point February became the month when all my friends have birthdays? When did that happen?) Anyway, what time I've had has been spent adding some officers and flags to the armies of Occiterre and Elabrün.

The designs were something I came up with quite early on, and part of my intention then was that they'd be relatively easy to paint. Turns out freehanding a relatively even tricolor was a little more difficult than I thought, but here they are at last (in varying stages of completeness):

A little bit of a closer look at the Elabrüners:

And the same for the Occiterrans (the fleur-de-lys are gilded, but it's a little hard to tell):

Both sides' standard-bearers are conversions; the Waterloo 1815 Austrians have a flag with an awkward molded-on design, where as the Emhar French lack one of their own. I made my own with some paper and brass wire.

Not sure what I'll end up working on next--some Elabrüner artillery is theoretically next in the queue, but the cannon wheels have some warping that I haven't decided how to deal with. There's a strong possibility I'll procrastinate by doing something else instead...

Derro Trio

The notion of gathering a team to explore the slowly-thawing ruins of a once-great city seems a little on the nose today, given the blizzard that's currently hitting the East Coast. None the less, here are the latest additions to my growing band of adventurers--a trio of rather grumpy-looking dwarves.

(OK, technically they're listed as "derro," which in D&D are some demented subspecies of dwarves, but I did not bother to look this up before painting them, and thus they lack the distinctive coloration of derro. So--dwarves.)

First, we have just a regular Derro, apparently one of a set of three, though I didn't end up with either of the other two. I had a bit of fun doing his hat. He doesn't seem particularly heavily armed or armored (just some sort of hook/club thing and some rope) so I'm thinking he'll be a rogue or thief.

This guy is the Derro Leader, a little more heavily armed than the first. He's kind of asymmetrical; his left arm has some sort of padded protection and a thick leather glove, while his right arm is bare except for an oddly-shaped buckler. In Frostgrave terms, he'll probably end up as a Thug.

And here we have the Derro Mage. His pendant strongly suggested an eye, so that's how I painted it. Between that, and his demon belt-buckle, his Frostgrave role may be a Summoner.

And here are the three of them together! The Derro Leader's scale armor is a little more apparent from this angle. All in all, I had fun with these guys--as Bones go, they didn't have too much extraneous detail, and their somewhat exaggerated features give them some character. I ended up playing around with some unusual color choices as well, especially with the first two.

I have some more Bones in my queue, but I think I'm ready for a change of pace--my next goal will be to get some officers and flags painted for my 19th-century imagi-nations...

Librarian and Barbarian

Finished two more of my stock of Reaper Bones in the last week or so. The first was "77089: Halbarand, Cleric" who initially caught my eye due to the book that he has chained to himself. (Or perhaps that has chained itself to him?) In any case, I ended up using the book as a theme of sorts, styling his cloak after a leather book cover, his surcoat some pages with writing, and his breastplate decorated a bit like an illuminated text. I'm thinking he may see action as a Sigilist in Frostgrave...

The second was "77199: Thund Bloodwrack, Barbarian". I'm not sure why I originally picked this one out--possibly with the notion of using him in the D&D campaign I'm playing in at the moment. He's a rather odd-looking fellow with a tiny head and a huge sword--not exactly my usual style. (And his wide-legged stance required an oversized base.) I decided to go with a similarly over-the-top paint scheme...

Yes, I painted him red. It seemed like a reasonable idea at the time. And rather than making his fur cloak the usual wolf/bearskin, I decided to try for something a little more... exotic. The shading and stripes on the tiger skin were probably the most interesting part of this guy. I'm actually pretty pleased with how he came out--painted, he seems a little more a character and less a caricature.

Next in the queue will either be some short unsavory fellows, or possibly a return to Elabrün...

Catching up with 2015

While 2015 was a very bad year for posting on this blog, it was actually not the worst year for painting. For the most part, I worked on my two 19th-century Imaginations armies, but a burst of productivity in late November saw me finish up a number of Reaper Bones plastic fantasy figures.

This paladin has actually been sitting around mostly complete since 2013, but I finally got her based:

This alchemist had been sitting half-painted for a similar period of time. The various bottles were probably the most fun part of this one:

I tried for a sort of seedy, unshaven look for this two-weaponed fellow, though it might not come through so well in the picture:

This lady ended up giving a rather fierce glare. I decided she was wearing some sort of tight leggings rather than painting her outstretched leg bare:

 As for my Imaginations troops, here are some Occiterran infantry in progress. I've been using the Emhar French Infantry for these guys:

A couple of shots of Elabrüner Uhlans on my painting table (originally Lucky Toys Austrians). These are not the most inspiring figures when seen on the sprue, but I was fairly pleased with how they painted up. I had to carve away some of the weird lumpy "grass" from around the horses' feet, and I used wire lances with paper pennants in place of the ones provided.

These Occiterran artillerymen were completed sometime in late 2014 or early 2015. They started off as ACW Union troops.

 And here's a few shots of all the units I have completed so far: