Reaper Fantasy Scenics Ritual Circle and Statue

Reaper Bones 4 has a Fantasy Scenics segment that I'm working my way through.  Today I've got the Ritual Circle and The Statue.. which also includes a small ruined temple.

For the Ritual Circle I thought I'd go more towards a horizontal Stargate or Portal since more of my scenarios would find that useful. Transiting models can stand right on it.

First its a black Primer coat then the red lettering with Blood Red (Reaper (R)) and a Drybrush to Highlight the edges of the lettering with Fiery Orange (R).

A quick Drybrush of the whole model follows moving through Cloudy Gray (R), Sky Gray (R) and Solid White (R).

Then the Washes. Blue (Secret Weapon (SW)) in the circle center and inner Surface of the Arc Structures then Sapphire around the outer edge of the circle and on the outer side and crevices of the Arc Structures. The coverage of these was intentionally uneven and the edges blended. Once completely dry Solid White (R) was dry brushed near the cracked details and to create some sense of motion across the main circle. The edges of detail on the Arc Structures were treated the same way.

The sandy earth areas were washed with Flesh (SW) and Dry Brushed with Sunny Skin Tone (Vallejo (V)).

For scale you can see a WiP Wood Elf from Atlantis Miniatures.

The Statue and Temple were treated similarly to the Ritual Circle but use a lot more colors. The floors got some of the same Flesh (SW) as a glaze in places to show the effects of traffic and time.

The Pillars have glazes of Blood Red (SW) and Green (SW) and are re dry brushed with Solid White (R) in an effort to represent some of the more complex Marbles and other stone types used in temple construction.

The Statue itself got a wash of Blood Red (SW) and The Robe of Verdigris Light Green (SW) before getting a final dry brush of Solid White (R).

Both of these models are intended as regular to heavy use game scenery so I avoided putting in details like weeds and leaf accumulations in favor of simple and durable in hopes that they wear better.

Our Atlantis Miniatures Wood Elf WiP has returned to provide scale.

Speaking of the Wood Elves. Here is a WiP shot taken just after the red lettering was started on the Ritual Circle.

These have had color blocks and shading done but not yet highlights or fine detail. I'm using a lot of blue and purple to shade to give some verve to the green base color. I'm painting the bases at the same time as the model to see if that helps to get a camouflaged feel but maintain enough separation to keep them from actually disappearing into the base. Early days on these.
 

Atlantis Miniatures Wood Elves WiP

 

I'm really excited about these Wood Elf minis from Atlantis Minatures. They are part of a Kickstarter fullfillment so might not be up in the shop yet but they historically move pretty quickly from Kickstarter to regular product.  Very nice and kinda rare!

The models came with an assortment of bases. Some are fully detailed resin some are beveled plastic rounds. There was a good supply of basing bling to add details like forest critters, mushrooms, vines, big stones, and the like. This really inspired me to dive into the greenstuff and get to sculpting!

There are four different types of mounts in the set. A giant elk for the Male Warlord, a big panther for the Female Warlord, large Stags, and smaller Deer.

There are male and female versions of all the elves so this will make for a very thematic, and very scary, wood elf Kinband Warparty. You'll be seeing more of these soon but I wanted to say these are not your kinder, gentler type of "Wood Elf"... they are more like "Feral Elf"... many have horns themselves... they look like the sort of merciless forest guardians that might even eat any trespassers they find! They are gonna be fun! 

Raging Heroes Holy Blades All-Stars

Raging Heroes has had a few regular releases that expand on the TGG Kickstarter offerings.  Its very nice to see them working outside the massive Kickstarter format.

The Holy Blades All-Stars are a group of female Paladins that I'll use for warbands in Vanguard, Mordheim, and Frostgrave.  I'll also get a lot of mileage out of them in some RPGs, especially High Fantasy in the vein of Dragon Age.

 The Models were pretty clean and the resin has crisp detail and is just flexible enough to make handling them easy.

 The Models are very light weight and several of the more dynamically posed, the Standard Bearer in particular, were prone to falling over if the terrain was at all uneven, or the table was bumped, so I added a 1" (25mm) steel  washer to the base and now they are super stable.

 The flag staff of the Standard Bearer is holding up a huge, otherwise unsupported, banner and I'm afraid that it will eventually break during handling.  I'll probably try to replace it with a brass rod or similar if that comes to pass.

Painting wise the banner is not finished.  I'm going to add some patterning and images to it after we get on the other side of the big move.  So its mostly just concept at this point... playable but not really done!

 I experimented with a different way of doing armor and started with Tire Black (Secret Weapon) over the standard Khaki primer/white dry-brush foundation.

This was then dry-brushed with Engine Metal (Secret Weapon) and edge highlights were Necron Compound (Citadel) then lining with Tire Black thinned 50% with Glaze Medium (Vallejo).

 The rest of the color scheme is kind of traditional for warrior nuns and I viewed them as an Order of Paladins that specialized in fighting the Undead and so are equipped with a lot of tools for the consecration/reconsecration of burial grounds so that the Necromancers could be stripped of their access to the mortal remains that fuel their endless hordes.

 With that in mind there is a lot of gold on these models.  I tried to make the embroidered cloth of gold details have a different texture to the ecclesiastical tools that are meant to be metal.  To accomplish this the gold cloth is entirely non metallic while the tools etc... are done with regular metallic.

 The gold cloth is Iron Oxide dry-brushed with Sun Yellow (Reaper) while the metals are Brass Casings (Secret Weapon) washed with 50/50 Flesh Wash (Secret Weapon) and Glaze Medium then spot highlighted with Shining Gold (Citadel)

Whites are layered with the Reaper Bone Triad (Dirty Bone, Graveyard Bone, and Splintered Bone) and lined with diluted Soft Tone (Army Painter).

Lots more to do and the packing is accelerating!  I'm hoping to get some a few more Raging Heroes, Lead Adventurers, Hexy Shop, and RWBY figures done before the end... fingers crossed!

Tabletop World Fisherman's House

Its no secret that I really like Tabletop World.  I'm super excited that they are doing a new line of Heroic scale "modular" buildings.

The demise of the old square base 20mm=human standard made me look at what to plan for in future. The current poplar base size is a 30mm round lip base which is more like a 35 mm.  This has a huge impact on terrain bits, like this one,  that were scaled around 20mm standards. 

I'm still putting stuff on 20mm squares but I also have interest in the new size bases and the associated games so... looks like I'll be going down that rabbit hole anyway!

 This is not quite complete.  I'm packing for a move of house and many of the finer details... like seagulls and hanging fish, have been left off while others like the dock rails and fish hoist are stuck on with Blue Tac.  There are enough fiddly bits on this that I may end up doing magnets to attach the parts most likely to be knocked off during handling... but that is not today!

You can see the differences between the first picture, where I used models with 20mm square bases and the following pictures with 25mm rounds.  The newer style skirmish and RPG bases are even larger so I think it'll be worth the effort to update some buildings to have larger interior spaces.

 The 'for scale' models here are (top) from the Bruegleburg: A day at the fair from Lead Adventurers and the rest from The Order of Vampire Hunters board game.

As with all the Tabletop World stuff the interior is detailed and fully accessible.

 Some of the smaller detail bits. 

House second floor.

 Roof with integrated balcony door.  The new line will feature operating doors and view through windows.  Many of the new game systems use some version of true line of sight that is a bit stymied by these solid windows and permanently closed doors.

Blue roof weathering.

The Order of Vampire Hunters Cain, Dallas, and Ash from the Kickstarter Exclusives.

Lots more to get done before the pack out so back to the desk!