Miniature painting: my first attempt

A few weeks ago, in the Hot Deals forum on BGG, there was some discussion about the closing of The Game Castle - a FLGS in Anaheim, California. They were selling almost everything for 75% off. I noticed this announcement pretty early and informed my friend, AC, who you will recognize as one of the players in my roleplaying group. AC is a very serious RPer, but is also into every other kind of game. I told him about the closing sale and he went over multiple times to nab roleplaying books for himself. I asked him to look for some Reaper Dark Heaven Legends miniatures for me, and cited specific examples of the types of figures I like.

Travel back in time with me a few years:

I had recently joined an AD&D 3.5 campaign for which the DM wanted us to use miniatures. I took a trip out to The Game Castle, when the store was still located in Fullerton. I was looking for a miniature for the D&D game. While browsing the minis, I found that I preferred the style of the Reaper Dark Heaven Legends series. I found three minis representing three totally different types of characters so that I would have a selection when it was time to create our characters. These minis included a thief with a grappling hook, a bard, and a wizard.

I ended up using the bard mini for the D&D game. A few months went by and we were moving out of our apartment to a new home. Somewhere in this move, the thief and wizard minis were lost. I had the bard in my dice bag apart from the others. To this day, I have no idea what happened to the other two minis.

Back to the present:

I wanted to acquire a few more minis because they're both:

A. cool to look at
b. useful for fantasy roleplaying

So, Adam came back from a trip to The Game Castle with a load of discounted minis, most of them the exact figures I had used as examples. Talk about an attentive friend. Among these miniatures was a replacement for my lost thief figure. (Off topic: while AC was at The Game Castle, he also nabbed me a handful of Nodwick comic books I was missing. w00t!)

I decided that I wanted to try my hand at miniature painting. I like painting in general, although until now, my experience has mostly been decorating home-made didgeridoos and custom islands for Pirates CSG. I also did some custom tile mods on a few Maelstrom tiles. Now it was time to try miniatures. They look cool as they are - detailed metal figures. But with paint, they can look even cooler and more realistic. Also, if other players have colored minis (AC uses pre-painted D&D minis), the metal looks out of place.

So, I decided to do my first experiment using the thief figure. This figure is called Kurff the Swift and was sculpted by Sandra Garrity, who seems to do most of the best Reaper minis I've seen. I like this figure because he is wearing a cloak and carrying a grappling hook. It looks like he's out in the shadowy streets preparing to scale a castle wall or something.

I took pictures at every step of the painting process to share with you. The first thing I had to do was prime the figure. The only product I could find at the local craft store was a can of gray spray primer. I sprayed all the figures at one time, all in a row. Here's what Kurff looked like after a couple coats of primer:

When I paint, I use relatively inexpensive acrylics. They're easy to mix and dry quickly. Here are the brushes I used for this project:

That one in the middle was the most important one. I picked it up new for this project. It's finer than all my other brushes - a size 10/0. It seemed to do the trick.

Since the most prominent feature of this figure is the cloak, that's where I decided to start. I don't know a lot about miniature painting theory, but this seemed like a reasonable way to begin. I mixed up a dark gray and applied it to the whole cloak. It was tricky to get back into the crevices beneath his arms. I had to use my finest brush. Here he is with his cloak painted:

Next, I gave him a brown shirt with gold trim and pants his pants an even darker brown for some variety.

It was tricky trying to maintain a balance between dark colors (he'd want to avoid attracting attention) and variety of colors to make him interesting to look at. I didn't want to make him wear all gray, so I used browns. When I moved onto his boots, I used yet two more shades of brown. I'm not sure exactly how I blended each brown, but they were each different enough for my taste. I gave him a black belt with a gold buckle, a brown knife sheath, a sandy-colored money pouch, a reddish knife-handle, and a blue sapphire on the end of the knife handle. I would go back do alter some of these colors slightly with shading later. I also added a tiny reflection on the sapphire by creating a very white blue and carefully placing a single miniscule dot. I also colored and shaded the grappling hook at this time.

Now it was time to paint the rope. I mixed some colors together to form a yellowish brown color to give the rope a hempish look. You can see that I also darkened the gold of his belt buckle during this time.

The next phase included a lot of detailed steps. First of all, I used a very dark gray to shade the folds of the cloak, both front and back. It gave the cloak just a bit more character. Then, I used a light sand color mixed with some pink (and maybe something else, I can't remember now) to arrive at a suitable skin tone. I carefully painted his face inside the hood of his cloak, and his tiny fingers. I mixed up a reddish brown which I applied to the bit of hair sticking out the top of his hood, then dabbed his eyes with a super small dot of brown. Then, I created a dark reddish color to thinly line the crease of his mouth, creating the appearance of shadowed lips. Finally, I had to deal with the brooch holding his cloak closed. Here, I decided to spice things up by adding color. In my imagination, I decided that this was one feature he wasn't concerned about, but was pleased to display. The brooch was a golden item of value which he was proud to have possessed by his craft - complete with a sapphire in the center, to match the hilt of his trusty dagger. I dabbed a tiny reflection onto the jewel in the brooch, as I had with the dagger earlier. I may have done some other shading during this phase, but here is how he looked at this point:

All that was left now was to paint the base. I decided it would be cool to have him standing in a bed of gray, pebbly ground outside the castle wall he was preparing to scale. I started with a black or really dark gray. Then, I used lighter and lighter shades, dry brushing over each previous layer with a lighter color, until I was down to a few sparse light gray highlights. So, now he was pretty much done. I verified that I was pleased with all the shading and that there weren't any really obvious splotches or goof-ups.

Now that he was finished, all I needed to do was coat him with a protective layer of sealer. Fortunately, I already had some landscape glue/sealer which is designed for use with miniature terrains and such - I had used it to seal my Pirates islands. So, I took Kurff outside and sprayed him.

After the first coat, I decided he needed more. I couldn't tell if he was completely coated. So, I took him outside a few days later and sprayed him again. After this, I considered giving him another coat, but he looked pretty good, and I didn't want him to look too shiny and thick with sealer, so I chose to leave him with two coats. I can only hope that holds up. The ultimate goal is to keep it from getting the paint scratched off easily. We'll see what happens.

So here is the completed Kurff, finished drying and ready for use:

And for kicks, here's another pic - an outdoor shot of Kurff in action:

All in all, I'd say the final product is a big improvement over the original metal look. I'm pleased with the outcome. Next up, I'm working on a sweet-looking elvish archer.

Thanks for reading!

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #6

Having dispatched the noggits in the rain-dripping room, the party searched the next hallway. At the end of this hallway was another dark, dusty room. Rwake stepped in first to examine the room. Hidden among the dust were tiny sparkles of gold, strewn all about the floor. In the center of the room was a large stone table - the resting place of an ancient dagwir (big beastly humanoid) knight. Elros and Leo came up to join Rwake just as the dagwir rose up as a zombie, ready to defend his tomb. He prepared to attack Rwake, javelin in hand, spiked mace at his belt. Below you can see the party heading into the room. J forgot his LEGO dude, so for this session he borrowed a little mini from AC - a mini that well represented J's little Lufan character.

Rwake is always first initiative-wise because he has the highest alertness. He immediately used his "Vital Spot" stunt to give himself a free +2 to his next attack. Elros, having just entered the room used his Empathy skill to assess the dagwir's motives, but failed. We had a laugh because the dagwir's motives were pretty clear - javelin ready to throw and all. On the other hand, AC is really skilled at doing the unexpected, which makes the roleplaying experience better for everyone.

Leo ran past the others, quickly pulling out and launching two daggers at the dagwir zombie. The dagwir rolled a -1, but used a fate point to invoke one of his aspects, giving him a reroll, which came up even. He took 4 stress from Leo's daggers grazing him.

The dagwir let his javelin fly at Rwake, who took a meager 1 stress. Rwake quickly pounced onto the dagwir hoping to get a knife in him, engaging the dead knight in a grapple. The dagwir took 2 stress from Rwake's knife. Careful to avoid hitting Rwake in the low light, Elros stepped forward and lunged a stab at the dagwir's knee - Elros rolled 8, Dagwir rolled 4: the dagwir took 4 stress, which rolled up to 5 since he already had taken 4 stress earlier.

Leo took this time to run around to the opposite side of the room for a new vantage point. I hadn't decided on a difficulty, but he rolled a +2 ("Fair" in Fate terms), so I called it a success.

The dagwir, with Rwake in his grip, rolled using his zombie melee skill, achieving a -2. Using another aspect (and spending a fate point) to reroll, he came up with a +1 on the dice, which added to his Average (+1) skill and his Acid Spit stunt (+2) gave him a +4 total. He opened his mouth and spewed a vile stream of acid aimed at Rwake's head. Fortunately for the tribesman, he also rolled a +4, barely managing to get his head out of the way, avoiding the acid attack.

Rwake spent his next turn successfully swiveling around, effectively placing the dagwir between himself and Elros. From his new angle, Elros slid his sword blade under the leather straps on the zombie's shield and sliced them, with 7 shifts on his roll. This was a good experience for us because had had so few opportunities to resolve maneuvers. Elros used his shifts to kick the shield aside and place a 1-round aspect on the dagwir: "Where's my shield?" For those learning the SotC system, this is called a "fragile" aspect - it wears off rather quickly. Temporary aspects that hang around longer are called "sticky".

Now that the dagwir had an aspect on him, the first tag of it was free, which Leo took. After a poor initial roll, Leo used his "Trained by Sporren" aspect to reroll the dice. (Sporren was the character played by Llama in our first ever Fate adventure - he was a knife throwing master. J wove that character into Leo's backstory, which was very cool.) The dagwir struggled against Rwake, trying to secure his now shield-less side, but Leo's sidearm knife throw was perfectly aimed, causing the dagwir knight another 6 stress.

The dagwir then broke free of Rwake's grasp and swung at him with his large spiked mace. Rwake rolled, adding +2 using his "Oratune, King of the Jungle" aspect to boost his defense. After all, Rwake would have avoided animal attacks several times in his days as a jungle master. That gave him enough to avoid taking damage from the dagwir's blow.

Rwake then thrusted his knife in, causing 2 stress to the dagwir. Elros, the quick and ready swordsman managed a successful stab at the dagwir's chest, causing him 3 more stress. Leo, seeing another window of opportunity threw another knife sinking it into the dagwir's abdomen, causing 4 stress, which rolled up to 8. And the dagwir just kept fighting, as the undead are wont to do.

The dagwir now turned his attention to the Laani swordfighter, Elros, who easily blocked his swinging mace, achieving defensive Overflow. This Overflow will apply as a +1 to Leo's action when we begin next week's session.

AC played his role very well in this session, thinking outside the box, and testing various aspects of the game, giving us some laughs along the way. For this reason, I rewarded him with a fate point.

Fate: Dark and Stormy report #5

Another Friday, and another session of Fate. This week our goal was to finish this scene in which the PCs have been battling two noggit raiders.

When we left off last week, Leo had tripped and subdued the enemy we've been calling Noggit A. I spoke online with some other Fate GMs and they told me this block action (reactive tripping) really isn't allowed in the rules. Since I didn't want to look it up at the time, I had simply ruled that Leo could trip the retreating noggit. So, the noggit conceded, throwing down his weapon, as Leo jumped on his chest to hold him down. The noggit spoke to Leo in his native tongue, which sounded to Leo like just a bunch of growly nonsense. Leo didn't bother trying to communicate with the noggit. Instead, he tied his arms up so he couldn't pull anything fancy. Here you can see Leo sitting on the surrendered noggit (miniatures not to scale...):



Rwake was the first to make an attack. He had to pick up and load his blowgun, which I counted as a supplemental action, giving him a -1 to his attack roll. *THWIP*! He blasted a poisoned wooden dart across the room, connecting with Noggit B's hand. We spent the next few minutes as a group discussing how the poison ought to play out. A couple players went flipping through the SotC book looking for how poison works, and others talked about how it could realistically play out. In the end, we did what the book made it sound like we ought to do, but we still weren't sure. So, the potency of Rwake's poison beat the Endurance of the noggit. He took no stress, but did take a moderate consequence of "Poisoned". You may remember, he already had a minor consequence of "Slow movement". Discussing it later, Llama and I now have a better idea of how this should play out in the future. Below, Rwake shoots his blow dart across the room at Noggit B, who is engaged in combat with Elros. By the way, that miniature of Rwake was designed by Llama himself. Whenever we roleplay, he designs his own minis out of clay, which is very cool. After all, the more everyone invests in the game, the more fun it is for the group.



Elros took this window of time to pull a tricky sword stroke, rolling a nice +6 total, disarming Noggit B. The javelin the noggit was holding flew through the air, its tip landing in a hole in the grate in the middle of the room. After a couple seconds, the javelin had slipped all the way down the drainage shaft, out of sight. Having taken two consequences, Noggit B was now ready to join his raiding buddy in surrender. He threw his shortsword on the ground and dropped his arms, offering concession to Elros with empty hands. Elros borrowed a length of rope to tie the hands of this noggit as well. Below, Elros launches his disarming move against the now poisoned noggit. You also get a nice close-up view of some official Fudge dice (Fate is built on Fudge). Another tasty photograph taken by J (Leo's player).



Having both noggits now tied up, the PCs spent a few moments debating how they ought to deal with their prisoners. Rwake, uninterested in the negotiations, left through the northern door to scout out the next hall, from which the noggits had entered.

Leo and Elros took time to search the noggits for valuables. Over his armor, Noggit A wore a standard belt. On top of that belt, he wore another belt, loosely placed - clearly not intended to be practical. Leo decided this must be a valuable item and took it from the noggit.

Before this adventure, I created some little treasure cards. I drew some sketches of the items, scanned them, then added text in Photoshop. The belt that Leo acquired now was called the "Belt of Lifting". It allows the wearer to gain a +1 to rolls when lifting or carrying weight. I'll have to post an item card for you to see at some point. I'm really into little things like that. In our last game, the GM had a map for us that he had created, as well as drawings of places we went. He also had some other items he gave us that were images printed on paper. I'm a very visual person, so I like seeing pictures of things like items, just to see how cool they are. I always loved looking at the pro sketch art in the D&D manuals.

Leo went down the hall to follow Rwake (who had also gone and fetched the magical orb of light from the southern hallway). Elros was left with both noggits in the dripping room. Noggit A got to his feet and ran down the southern passage. Noggit B looked as if he wanted to do the same. Elros, acting on his good side (which fits the character's goals), sliced the ropes on the noggit's hands and bid him leave. AC explained to the rest of us that he figured he ought to leave the noggit on somewhat friendly terms just in case "the whole noggit army was waiting in the next room". A series of jokes and laughter ensued over the situation and we decided to end the session. Next week, the PCs have the choice to examine the next room at the end of the hall, and another narrow passage heading to the east.

One final photo J took - his bag of dice all spilled out. You can see a variety of dice, including a Magic: The Gathering countdown die, some Fate point counters on the left (Go pieces), and two sets of Fudge dice in the background. Thanks to AC for sharing his stash of Fudge dice with the group each week.