I decided that maybe I wanted to get four of my dwarves from last time done soon, rather than just picking away at them haphazardly until they are finished. Such methods result in completed projects, albeit at a somewhat glacial pace. The reason for my sudden alacrity is I want to run a one-shot Dungeons & Dragons adventure for up to four players using pregenerated dwarf characters.
So even though it is a little late in the game, I decided to take up Stepping Between Games’s Squaduary painting challenge as a way to motivate myself with a hideously looming deadline. The idea of Squaduary is you complete a unit of troops and post your progress with the completed squad by the end of February.* In this case “unit of troops” will be an “adventuring party.”
My Squaduary Attempt (Left to Right): Wizard, Cleric, Fighter, and maybe a Ranger.
I had to figure out what I wanted to do with the guy with the musket in a game where I don’t want any actual firearms, so I decided that he’s a wizard who uses it as a prop or “spell focus” (using proper D&D jargon) to cast his spells. A little never-runs-out magic gem powder in the pan, a bit of prestidigitation producing a bit of flame and pow! This time Magic Missiles for everyone! Next time Stinking Cloud! Might be amusing, who knows?**
Now all good adepts will agree that every wizard needs a familiar and it just happens that I have a pack of three gathering dust. I thought the toad most appropriate for a dwarf wizard, though any of them would be fine. Also happens I am partial to toads and amphibians in general so there’s that too.
Oddly, all those little scratches were only revealed by the camera!
I kept our magician’s familiar pretty basic, though I think it’s cute. I thought the gold eyes came out better than they look in the picture, but I want to get this post up so I don’t have time to redo them. I’m sure we’ll be seeing Toad again, since I plan on posting a WIP dwarf picture in a couple of days, so maybe they’ll come out better next time if I’m lucky.
For next time, I am nearly done with Poxwalker #17, and plan of getting a picture of my soon-to-be-completely-and-long-suffering zombie up soon. (Toad will probably put in an appearance then too.) I also plan on a quick picture of my current progress with the dwarves for the Squaduary challenge.
* Or the day before the end of February since we get a bonus day this year it being a leap year and all.
** If the idea proves popular, I might incorporate the idea of dwarf and gnome magicians using staves and wands that look like muskets and pistols while not actually changing any of the game mechanics.
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I like that toad; it looks rather realistic.
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Thank you. I looked at various pictures of toads for inspiration and found that there is a huge variety out there. Some quite colorful and (to my eye) outlandish in a good way. But in the end I decided upon a toad dredged up from the frog pond of my childhood.
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I fabulous toad, toads are awesome 😂. But seriously very nicely done. Funnily enough I printed the dwarves ages ago. But did them in 15mm rather than 28. The STL’s came as a one piece or a two piece that could be printed then glued back together.
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That’s pretty neat the dwarves have been around that long. I’m glad they didn’t require assembly. While I enjoy assembling models, for these guys I was looking for simplicity. Yes, I really liked frogs and toads. Probably because I used to see a lot of them in my grandparents’ cow pond in the summers, when I was a little kid, and getting an appreciation for them. Also vaguely remember raising some tadpoles into little frogs and then letting them go for some sort of summer camp thing back in the ’70’s.
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I agree with John… Nice Toad!
Lol!
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Thank you! Everyone loves a nice toad, I think. 🙂 I’m toying with the idea that our wizard’s familiar has retractable wings (they come out of those lines down its sides) that allow it to do tremendous jumps that mimic flight such that so long as they end up back on the ground or up a tree or something, they can fly over people and have the same movement capability as one of the bird familiars. That ought to be fun. 🙂
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That sounds great, Ann, what a wonderful imagination you have – I wanna be in your game, lol!
I have images flashing before me of toads leaping through the skies, plucking all the insects out of the air with their tongues, and then landing on their Wizard’s shoulder whilst letting out an enormous burp!
Such fun!
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Hehehe, well, John certainly knows his toads that’s for sure. I hope he likes the cat!
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Glad you are joining us, although you have given yourself a tight deadline.
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Yes, it is a bit of a tight squeeze, I agree, but I’m working on them every night while watching tv with hubby and honestly I’m planning on painting them in a pretty basic fashion since other people will be handling them a lot as D&D miniatures. Plus their level of detail isn’t exactly what you’d find in a GW miniature so hopefully they’ll paint up faster. We’ll see. 🙂
(Hubris Mode) I wonder if I can get a little rust monster I got from the same Etsy store done too as a sort of bonus add-on? Doesn’t every dwarven adventuring party need a pet rust monster? (/Hubris Mode)
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Thank you., I love paint challenges. Yes, it is a rather tight deadline and despite working on the little blighters every night I’m only 50/50 on if I’ll get it done by the 28th. Even if the deadline were extended to the 29th, it being a leap year and all, I doubt that would help at all since I going to be running my D&D game that day and nothing can come between me and that! 🙂
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I’m sorry, Ann, but I just can’t bring myself to write “nice toad”! But that is a pretty nicely painted model of a small amphibian you’ve got there! I’ll look forward to seeing your squad finished! 🙂
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I know what you mean … but now that I think about it you did write “nice toad” but I understand that “nice toad” isn’t the same thing as just saying nice toad. But you have to admit, it’s a nice toad! 🙂 Thank you. I’m working pretty diligently on meeting the deadline with my dwarven adventuring party/gang of four/quadrumvirate. I’m planning on getting all of the base colors done by the end of the weekend. I do need to go to the game store and see if they have any Xereus Purple though. (If not I’ll have to reply on Ye Olde Amazon Prime, I guess. I keep wanting to call it “Xerxes Purple, lol.) I want to paint their cloaks purple to make them some sort of purple cloak mercenary company or royal society members (guess maroon would work in this case) or whatever.
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I could maybe just click “like” in future! 😉 Maroon or dark red might work better than purple! I’d have called it for Xerxes Purple as well!
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You wouldn’t want to just do that, you might hurt poor Toad’s feelings. Toad would rather have you wax eloquent on the nature of Amphibian Beauty, hehe!
Yes, dark red might work better but for some reason I have my heart set on purple, though I will probably go with dark red if I can’t get my hands on Xerxes Purple (a far better name!) this weekend. After all, we have a deadline to meet.
EDIT: On the other hand, maybe red would be better, lol. I found this little tutorial that I’d like to try if I can get my hands on the paints I don’t have this weekend.
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That’s a nice-looking, nicely-painted toad, Ann. I do like the fine details on a lot of the models in this line. 🙂
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