Tag Archives: dwarves

Poxwalker #17 (MAGAPPXWLKR-XVII)**

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I decided at long last to finish up my poor, long-suffering friend, good old Work-in-Progress Poxwalker #17.  I guess it needs a new name now since this zombie is a WIP no longer.  How about Mechanical Arm Green and Purple Poxwalker #17 or MAGPPXWLKER-XVII to use something approaching a more official-sounding Death Guard designation?

Not sure why the silly cat felt a need to wander into the picture.

I didn’t tread into too much new territory with my newest minion, though the belly tentacles sort of went through various shades of purple and blue and purple again.  Oh, and of course I continued my usual practice of putting a ton of work into getting some small, fiddly, inconsequential detail just so, only to cover it with snot, grime and blood.  So there’s that.*

OTOH, toads and Nurgle go together like peanut butter and pus.  Yummy!

I continue to pick away at my four dwarves and hope to get them done by the Squaduary deadline of February 28th.  It is going to be a close thing and right now I put my chances at 50/50.  I am working on them every night though and even if I don’t make the deadline I’m going to continue to prioritize getting them done because I want them for my D&D games.

Speaking of painting challenges, I thought maybe I’d do one or two of my own this year because … why not?  I was thinking of something along the lines of next month being March Marauders and Might where the theme can be miniatures that are either singular, mighty heroes and monsters, such as a giant or a space marine hero/captain/whatever, or marauders in the sense of being despoilers, bandits or invaders.***

A very broad theme indeed, I think.  More on that next time if I decide to do it.  If so, I have a group of six Etsy bugbear-looking things with maces and halberds that seem pretty suitable, and if I’m feeling really squirrelly there is always the Abandoned Lonely Bloat Drone. that continues to languish away in my miniatures case.

Death Guard Symbol 125 wide

* In this case it was the little tri-lobed Death Guard amulet thingie depending from a cord on its loincloth.  I took great pains with getting the red and white bits just so.  I’m not sure if I should try again or not with the amulet on the next one (the yellow loincloth and black leather belt twin of this one) and then unsuccessfully try not to obscure my work again?  Knowing me, I probably will and regret it!  After all, a true mark of a good Chaos Noble is the fact that when “nothing else works, then a total pig-headed unwillingness to look facts in the face will see us through.”

“I am 100% certain I’ll finish those dwarves by the 28th!”

** Hi John. This is the mandatory, pseudo-official Nurgle warning so as not to spoil that period of time you block out each day (or several times each day?) for your tea and baked goods-related activities!

*** They can be good-guy invaders or bad-guy invaders.  It matters not so long as the blood and paint both continue to flow.

Squaduary Dwarves WIP Update (and cat)

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A quick update:  I’ve been picking away at my party of four dwarves that I’m working on getting done by February 28th for the Squaduary painting challenge.  I jumped in a bit late but I’m enjoying working on the project a bit each night so I’m hopeful of completing the challenge in time but we’ll see.

I think the familiars want to eat each other.  My money is on the toad.

I’m still putting basic colors on the dwarves, though I have gotten another familiar done in addition to the toad from last time.  So now our musket-toting wizard can team up with either a toad or a cat now!  I went down to the game store today and picked up some paint.  I want to try out the little red cloak tutorial from Warhammer TV.  I haven’t encountered many cloaks with the orks, daemons and such I’ve painted in the past, so this should be fun.  Fortunately, these cloaks and cowls look pretty easy.  Perhaps they’ll make me brave enough to someday tackle that Changeling miniature that has been lanquishing in my to-do pile for a year or more!

So the challenge ends on the 28th, and I hope to get a final picture up by then. Between now and then I plan on putting up a picture of poxwalker #17, who is finally done.

Paint Cat says, “Work harder not smarter!” ™

 

Squaduary and Toad Familiar

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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.

Organic Ink 2 … and Dwarves

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I was quite pleased to receive my author copies of Organic Ink, Volume 2, a poetry anthology from Dragon Soul Press.  I’m happy that the editors decided to include a bunch of my poems, including a longish one that I was hoping would find a home: “The War of the Jar.”

Yep, it’s February and the Christmas stuff is still up.

I read some of Hesiod’s work as a child and that was the second place I had heard the Pandora’s Box myth.  (I think the first place might have been Rocky & Bullwinkle.)  A few months ago, I happened to be in the middle of re-reading the bit about Hesiod’s five ages of Man in his Works and Days when I decided that it would be fun to write a longish poem set in the third or “bronze” age, and work in a somewhat different version of Pandora than the one I read/heard about growing up.

I’m thinking of doing some other Ages poems.  There is going to be an Organic Ink Volume 3, so if I’m happy with whatever I come up with then I’ll give them first shot at it since they were kind enough to print the first one.  That, and it would be fun (if I can pull it off!) to have all my Ages of Men poems appear in the same series of anthologies.

Thinking the one on the left is a wizard who casts spells from his enchanted blunderbuss!

I haven’t been playing Warhammer 40K, so I haven’t really felt much of an urge to paint more miniatures for that game in awhile.  I have been playing Dungeons & Dragons lately, so I decided to try some of those and ended up with these dwarves off of Etsy.

I wanted miniatures that were inexpensive and had some detail, but were still pretty basic and not hard to paint.  They had to not be fragile, which means being resin they can’t have thin bits that easily break.  (Especially since other people would be handling them.)  These guys at $9.99, including shipping, for a pack of six met all of my expectations.

The dwarf with the beer says, “Hey, you did say this was an adventuring PARTY!”

I’m not sure if these guys would fit into anyone’s upcoming painting challenge, but I am going to try and get the top four dwarves done this month or during March at the latest.  I am thinking of running a one session D&D game where a bunch of dwarves explore a dungeon, and the characters will be based off of these miniatures.

I also bought some goblins, bugbears and some other stuff from (I think) the same seller on Etsy.  I’ve primed the dwarves since I took these pictures and will prime a rust monster when I get home later today.

Next time I plan on getting the third issue of The Dragon Egg Gazette out.  After that, perhaps I’ll have some painted miniatures to show off.