Orko

New year, new project, as Orko is the inaugural mini in what I hope to build as a Masters of the Universe (MotU) Project.

Before continuing I just wanted to apologise to other bloggers for not commenting on your posts in the past couple of months as I have been in something of a hobby slump on the painting side of things.

So a new project eh? Simply put - yes! MotU is one of my grail IPs along with DC Comics, Marvel Comics, G.I. Joe and Star Wars. I see FFG are doing an excellent looking game with Star Wars Legion, but I don't have the appetite for mass-battle painting, so I am passing on that, but recently I have started to look at options for MotU and when more have materialised, a plan was hatched!

This mini is a Halfling Wizard from the excellent Heresy Miniatures. Although not an exact likeness of Orko from the 80's MotU cartoons (and soon after made into an action figure when he became a popular character), he was close enough for my needs. Like most characters made into action figures, Orko's look has evolved over the years, and so I took some hints from a few different versions in painting him. Strangely enough, I probably like the character more than I did as a youngster when he lacked the cool factor of He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela et al.

I bought the mini years ago and he sat in the minis pile for far too long. When I finally tackled him, Orko was actually painted quickly by my standards, in a couple of sittings yesterday afternoon. The only change I made to the mini was to snip away the long hair it had at its back. Unfortunately the paint-on varnish came out a bit shiny but I can live with that (weather too poor to use my usual Purity Seal).

I have a few other minis on order to represent other classic MotU characters, and I have already started gaming plans, which has involved writing a game and I think I will find a use for that dungeon terrain I showed in a post a couple of months ago (which could be tunnels beneath Castle Grayskull, Snake Mountain or Castle Eternia).

Quarter 4 Painting & Year End Hobby Review 2017

Quarter 4

Another hobby year comes to an end, and to be honest it has felt like a bit of a mixed twelve months personally, so I am hoping to use January 2018 as a fresh start.

Outside of my own hobbying, it has been great to see what other bloggers have done over the year, especially in the annual Zomtober outputs - well done to everyone.

This year I managed to paint 62 minis across 10 ranges/projects, a bit of a drop against 2016's 67 minis painted. The beginning of the year saw Knight Models drop its Marvel license (or be dropped by Marvel - speculation varies as to which of those is the case), curtailing my SMG and MUMG projects. After a slow start to the year things picked up, but I had no motivation to paint in December which felt like a missed opportunity, but I really can only face painting when I do feel sufficiently motivated.

I only managed to play 13 games, mainly because I am no longer playing or painting BMG, which meant my usual four or five tournaments attended in a year was only one in 2017.

Quarter 4

I have added to my terrain this year, although a lot of it hasn't been blogged; I have built more 4Ground stuff including Valian's Stables which my thoughtful wife got me for Christmas and which was tackled over a few sessions. A post of that will follow soon-ish.

In February I left Pulp Monsters after a few years of partnership and working to develop the game and its characters. There were a few reasons which lay behind this decision, but it was the right one for me and I wish the Maciej and the Pulp City game and range well. I also started serious work on developing my own Kitbash Games products which I hope to release as low-cost books via Wargames Vault in time - this is taking longer than planned, but I have gotten to a stage where I need to teach myself some new skills to progress. On the industry side of things there have been a couple of set-backs, mainly due to people not doing what they had committed to. On the plus side, I have started work on an editing polish for supplementary material for an existing game which is an interesting job and should be finished in January (at least on my part).

My painting in 2017
I once again set a high-end target of 60 minis for the year and again thankfully exceeded that. I think I'll be setting the same target for 2018, and will be adding in another new project (since my Knight Models projects are on hiatus for now), which will be in a new scale for me -1/35!

Quarter 1: 7 minis
SMG (Spider-man Miniatures Game): 5 minis
Pulp City: 2 minis

Quarter 2: 22 minis 
BMG: 11 minis
GI Joe: 5 minis
SDZA: 3 minis
Other Supers: 2 minis
SMG: 1 mini

Quarter 3: 14 minis 
G.I. Joe: 13 minis
Tooth & Sword: 1 mini

Quarter 4: 19 minis 
Chibi Fantasy: 7 minis
Tooth & Sword: 5 minis
Zombies: 4 minis
28mm Fantasy: 3 minis

Dragonlock Dungeon Terrain (Fat Dragon)

I have wanted my own dungeon terrain set for years. I have taken a look so many times at Dwarven Forge's glorious products but have held back because there is seemingly always a set I want that is out of stock or out of production. Recently though I stumbled on an alternative which seemed to fit my needs and wants - a hobby win!

Fat Dragon Games have designed a range of 3-printer files branded as Dragonlock, and I found an eBay seller printing and selling the tiles under agreement from Fat Dragon Games. I ordered a couple of bits to see what they felt like in hand, and happy with what I received, I ordered a load more.

The eBay seller I found is 3dhorizons (click for link) and he has been amazingly helpful and has been very communicative.

Most tiles are 2 inches by 2 inches, and walls are 2 inches tall. The coolest feature may be the clips which lock tiles together to stop stuff sliding apart - a very good idea IMHO. The clips can be seen in the second picture (the orange things), although I didn't use the clips when I laid out the terrain in these pictures.

I painted them up by spraying them with car primer (less than one 500ml can did 25 pieces forming 23 tiles). I then roughly dabbed on some dark grey paint, some splotches of washes, then did a fast and rough dry-brush of 3 lighter greys, one which was a creamy brown-grey (Vallejo Stone Grey).

The lintels holding the doors in place can be removed, so I popped the doors out to paint them after all the preceding painting was done, mainly to keep track of them while doing the main tiles!

There is some evidence of the the 3D printing process in the grain, but I can live with that. You can lightly sand the tiles before painting, but frankly I couldn't be bothered (life is too short), and there was no need to wash them first - they took the spray undercoat well enough.

I have already ordered a second batch, including a nice mix of new tiles, and have plans for a third. I really like this stuff, and cannot wait to game with it. Of course, now I want some sewers for supers of Victoriana gaming....

Ghosts (Chibi Fantasy)

While recently working on my 28mm Fantasy Project, I have also been doing a bit of painting in parallel on my Chibi Fantasy Project, because, as I am sure many would agree, a hobbyist can never have too many concurrent and incomplete projects!

This group of Ghosts was painted really quickly, over a couple of hours, with the painting kept super-simple to help boost my overall outputs, and they have turned out pretty much as I wanted. I think they will work well with the other Chibi Fantasy stuff I am pulling together. The minis are from a booster pack for the Arcadia Quest board game.

I am hoping that getting these done will spur me to finish some more of the Tooth & Sword range, but as ever the hobby muse will take me where it takes me!

Van Halfling (Heresy Miniatures)

This mini was painted alongside the Zealot Wizard but finished a few days later. I have had this mini for years, sitting in the pile of unpainted stuff. I don't think I had any particular project in mind when I picked him up, I just thought he looked ace.

When I embarked on my 28mm Fantasy Project I dug Van Halfling out of the pile and set to work on him (meanwhile ordering lots of bits and bobs from across the interwebz - it will be an eclectic project in terms of manufacturers!).

Van Halfling is by Heresy Miniatures and comes with three right arm options including a flaming torch and a scroll. I love the the idea of a Halfling inquisitor/witch-hunter, and that will fit the emerging world populated by the various adventurers of the 28mm Fantasy Project. I imagine that he has been cast out by the organisation he worked for and is now allied with other adventurers as he seeks to redeem himself by hunting the things which lurk in the dark. And witches, no inquisitor can overlook some witch-hunting.

Wizard (Zealot Miniatures)

I have had a painting slowdown this month, so I am glad to post something up after what feels like too long a break.

I grabbed this Wizard from Zealot Miniatures as I have started to assemble a small range of generic fantasy miniatures for a rules set I am working on. Unfortunately for him, Brummie (click for link to his blog) has also been ensnared into the emerging project...apologies mate!

The mini is pretty simple so was a nice starting point for me for this project. There are some super sculpts lurking in the Zealot range which I like more than this one, so I am looking forward to getting around to tackling those in due course. We'll be mixing in a few ranges as the project progresses.

Character wise, I am thinking he is Werner Greyspell, a journeyman mage who has thrown his lot in with a disparate party of adventurers seeking their fortune. While riches attract his allies, Werner seeks arcane knowledge to elevate his powers. Each adventure takes him closer to that goal.

Shambling Zombies (Tooth & Sword)

This is simply a group shot of my ten Shambling Zombies from the Meridian Miniatures Tooth and Sword range. I wanted a picture of all of them together so I could link from the T&S page I have set up at the head of the blog.

Five were painted this year for Zomtober, while the original five were painted in 2015.

Coming up I hope to start painting some more Adventurers soon to battle against them!