The most wonderful time of the year!

I've been very scatter shot on my painting for the last couple of weeks (lots of Suicide Squad coming soon though...) but I wanted to show some non-painting I've been doing.

Last year in the late fall I first got into Frostgrave and joined a number of Frostgrave groups on Facebook.  One of the things that really stood out with the Frostgrave groups was how much they re-purposed non-miniature products as scenery.  Everything from birdhouses to aquarium features to Christmas village dioramas got used for Frostgrave.  Some of it wasn't great and it was obvious that the main appeal was that it was cheaper than conventional hobby scenery but some of worked really well.

The other day a friend of mine posted some street lamps that he had gotten and it made me think I should bust out some of the stuff I've acquired the past few months and share what (in my opinion) cool stuff can be had on a budget.

First up the thing that really got me to start considering this a year ago; trees.  There are loads of retailers that carry trees for Christmas village dioramas this time of year and last year I made the mistake of waiting too long to get some and by the time I circled around to it they were sold out everywhere.  This year my wife remembered that I had been trying to get some and one one of her trips to Michaels to get yarn got me a bag of trees.

This bag was $29.99 sticker price but basically went on to the shelf marked at 50% off so it actually cost $15.

Here are all the trees spread out and to give you some idea, those small trees in front are basically 1" tall so this is a lot of trees for the money.  I'm pretty sure that anything short of a full forest on a 3'x3' table can be done with one bag of these trees.

Also given that I play the undead for most fantasy games I figured Halloween clearances might have some options for me and they did not disappoint.  Again Michaels was the big winner with coffins, headstones and a cemetery fence (not shown).  Unfortunately I left the fence (which is really cool) at a friend's house so I don't have it to show off.

These packs were $5.99 at full price but by the time I bought them they were 60% or 75% off (I can't remember) so for some scatter terrain they're pretty good.

The only downside with the Halloween pieces is that they are a little big (only just a little) and they're unique looking enough that buying multiple packs isn't as appealing as for the trees.

Last but not least back to the place I started.  When I saw Tod's street lamps and I had just gotten the Suicide Squad starter for Batman which means I need a pile of street lamps.  Unfortunately by the time I decided to grab some my local Michaels was sold out but my daughter wanted a few things from the Dollarama and they had some lamps that look perfect to me.

These were $2 per pack (so super cheap!) and to be honest the reason I only bought 5 packs is because they only had 5 in-stock.  When I'm on the road over the next week or two I'm going to hit up other Dollaramas in my area and see if I can find more.

Well there you have it.  I think this stuff works great and it was really inexpensive which leaves more money for toy soldiers.

-Jay



  

Extra Skeleton Creeps for Super Dungeon Explore

I've still got 4 miniatures left to finish from my Stilt-Town Zombies set for Super Dungeon Explore but I had a day off today so I wanted to get a larger batch of figures painted from start to finish.

To supplement the sets I already got last weekend I picked up the ghost manor tile set for Super Dungeon Explore.  The tiles came with 12 extra 'creeps' (which are the low level grunts for Super Dungeon Explore) which I painted today.

The Rattlebones as they are called are pretty basic figures, just skeletons that are wearing pants.  With the ghosts and the zombies I'm getting pretty close to having a starting force for ...something? done.

I think tonight/tomorrow I'm going to transition back to some more traditionally scaled undead models for Ravenloft.

-Jay

The good doctors (2 of 2)

Our second doctor can legitimately lay claim to having once been an actual medical doctor but as his areas of interest have changed I'm going to assume he has allowed his medical practise to lapse.

Although Strahd Von Zarovich is certainly Ravenloft's most iconic personality a close second and in many ways the P.O.V. character for much of the background in the original Ravenloft campaign setting  is Doctor Rudolph van Richten.  For those of you not familiar with Ravenloft van Richten is basically D&Ds version of Van Helsing from Dracula.

There was previously a van Richten figure in one of the D&D pre-painted miniature sets but to be honest he seemed a bit off the mark.  He was a bit too action-hero in his pose for an older man and also had a cape that was proportioned like Nibbler's cape from Futurama.  This new figure (by Gale Force 9) combines some features that make van Richten look his age while also updating his clothes to fit with the current D&D/Pathfinder aesthetic of layered leathers and adventuring gear.

I'm really a big fan of this figure not only for his intended purpose but again much like my updated Professor Vitale model it gives me another reasonable looking figure for a wizard who doesn't simply look like he wears his Gandalf cosplay to go adventuring.

-Jay
 

The good doctors (1 of 2)

I've been working on two "doctors" for fantasy-themed games tonight, although in both cases their medical qualifications are somewhat dubious.

First up is Reaper Miniatures Plague Doctor for Pathfinder.  I believe this figure was for one of  their earliest Adventure Paths but I was tardy to the party so I'm not sure which one.  If any of you know what adventure module uses this wicked figure please fill me in, it seems like something I'd like to use.
Anyway I figured I'd stay away from the traditional dark colour palette for figures like this as it seemed excessively sinister, whereas the image itself felt like it conveyed that enough on its own.

I don't have any immediate plans to use this figure but I've been considering circling back to Frostgrave with a more evil warband than last time so I thought he might make a good Apprentice or Apothecary.  I also had thoughts that at some point I could find myself running a Ravenloft adventure where a figure like this could come in handy.

Speaking of which if all goes to plan my next doctor will be very well known to longtime Ravenloft players.

-Jay

Zombie....specialists?

Adding to the assortment of Stilt-town Zombies today are two of the less common zombie variants.

First up are the Prowler Zombies.  These guys are very similar to the basic zombies I painted the other day but are a bit more dynamic looking.

The Pudge Zombies are the figures that actually convinced me to start doing the chibi figures.  As I mentioned earlier one of my thoughts going into this was that the stuff that had a more Hotel Transylvania vibe would be appealing to Zoe, and the Pudge Zombies remind me of a cross between the zombie bellhops and Frankenstein from that movie.

It was nice to get these done, I'll probably be taking a break from the Super Dungeon Explore stuff for a couple of days while I work on some figures that I need for my current D&D game.

-Jay

Post-Halloween chibi zombies!!

When it comes to hobby deadlines I'm starting to think I might be allergic to them...

I got the first 6 of my 10 assorted Stilt-Town Zombies for Super Dungeon Explore done!

Much like the ghosts these figures are pretty basic but I really enjoyed them.  They have some nice texture and detail but certainly don't feel over-done.  I'm enjoying the chibi-aesthetic more than I originally thought I would and I'm now seriously considering making a Frostgrave warband out of the heroes.

-Jay

Androida

Today's addition was a quick repaint.

Androida was one of the first Pulp City models I painted as she came in the mixed hero starter box.

She could also make a decent Jocasta stand-in if you were playing a Marvel game of some sort.

Ultimately Androida was a bit of a one-off for me.  As I mentioned the original Pulp City starters were mixed faction boxes with the good guys have 2 "Blood Watch" characters and 2 "Heavy Metal" characters.  Although I liked Androida and Iron Train the rest of the Heavy Metal faction didn't really appeal to me so they've just been hanging out not actually getting used for anything.

Who knows?  With more Pulp City on the Horizon for me maybe Androida can get a second (or would this technically be the first?) renaissance.

-Jay