This is the end...

...the end my friend.

So, these are the last heroes in Forgotten King wave 1.

For much of these heroes, I followed the art from the card. There is also a mini boss here, included because I did not want to have an update of just one figure...

Ninja Cola is a hero version of Candy's sidekick. This is widely considered to be 'broken' because it breaks the rule of having the same stat for attack and defence. His Japanese theme goes along with...

...Kunoichi Candy. I realised, after uploading this image, that the shadow on her face makes her eye look deformed. I assure you that this is not the case. 

The Thundervale Huntress was a bit of a pain to blend the green of the hair, but it turned out ok. She does have the tattoos from the rt of the flanks of her horse body (forgot to photograph them). 

Brave-Mode Candy is the hero that has Never-Lost Cola as a pet. The model (and art) is somewhat unremarkable, except for her face and hair colour, so I made sure the eyes are very prominent. 

Princess Emerald is one of the 5 princesses that prophesy says will defeat the Dark Consul. This princess is a sharpshooter that is certainly not based on Caitlyn from League of Legends...

The Mistmourn Shaman is actually from the Mistcoast Warband box but I included him here with the heroes. I love the huge voodoo mask her is wearing and the little vodoo dolls - a very thematic figure.

The Royal Warden is straight from Brotherhood of the Wolf and his costume is very evocative of the costumes from that film. From the art, it is hard to tell if his coat is red or blue, but I chose blue and think it was the right choice.

Fae Alchemist, oh how I hated painting you! There is so much busy work on this miniature that, in the end, I just blended much of it into the main colours so as to bring out the theme of the miniature better. The potions were achieved with washes over a coat of white (the 'glass' is a white/blue mix).

The Questing Knight. The photo makes him look much more pink than he actually is... but, yes, I did do him a pale red/pink colour (he wears pale red armour in the art). I did bled it like NMM and think it turned out really good; it looks much nicer 'in the flesh'. Oh, this is obviously the knight from Ghouls and Ghosts - he should have had an alternate figure of a man in underwear...

The Wandering Minstrel was painted in muted colours to bring out his hair and his eyes, as that is certainly the focal point of the figure. I think it came out really well.

Shadow-mode Candy is the evil counter part to Brave-mode Candy and they even have a very similar costume on. She does not have red skin in the art, but, as she has horns, I imagined that she was a devil version of Candy. I think the skin tone and white hair make her look visually striking.

So, there you have it; all the Forgotten King wave 1 painted. After a year. Much too long, but its done now.

See you in the next update.

Crossover the road my friend...

Time to show off the Super Dungeon Explore - Relic Knights Crossover miniatures.

There are 5 heroes and a mini boss. I don't play Relic Knights so I don't actually know who any of these characters are so I dont have much to say about them. When it came to painting them I just followed the art as I did not know which colours I could change and get away with it (not knowing the characters). 

They are quite nice miniatures though, so lets take a closer look.

This is Kasaro-To, the mini boss monster. Obviously inspired by the Oni; a Japanese demon or ogre. 

Calico Kate with a huge bomb,

Kisa is some type of cat lady.

Princess Malya is obviously some type of animal hybrid, but I don't know what.

One Shot with her blunderbuss.

And finally, Sebastian Cross with a huge mace and a sword; some type of knight.

So, there you have, the Relic Knight crossover miniatures.

See you in the next update.

Dont forget the little guys...

I have grouped all the smaller pieces together in this one post.

The chests. I went for a plain brown wood effect on these chests (the previous ones I did were multi-coloured, see the end of this post). I think they look just fine in plain wood.

I have represented all 3 kinds of Boo Booty in Forgotten King; Biter, Grinder, Bouncy. 

The Squirrels. These are mostly airbrushed with the armour being doen with a brush. Search for them down a pair of trousers near you!

These Giri are also mostly airbrushed with detail finished off with a brush. 

The pets themselves. I think these turned out pretty good and it helps that the models are awesome as well. Look at the facial expressions on the goat and the chicken!

Though Neverlost Cola is actually connected to Brave Mode Candy, I included him here because he is a pet (and we allow him to be used in games without Candy). I saw someone else paint the compass like a coke bottle cap (it actually is meant to be that, anyway) and could not resist to the the coke logo on the back! Obviously, it says Candy Cola, not that other rip off brand!

So there you have it, all the little guys. Heroes next.

See you in the next update.

Not the foggiest idea...

And the second part of the Mistmourn Coat warband; Salt and his mist faeries.

So, lets be straight, other than Salt these models are the exact same ones out of the Caverns of Roxxor expansion (which I painted, HERE). However, the colours do give them a different feel (these are meant to be made of mist, instead of fire). I painted them all in the same shade of blue to give them a uniform look and put a darker blue on the 'salt' elements of the models (similiar to the art, but not exact as it does not use the same blue to tie them all in).

The Salt Pillar spawn point; mist swirling around a pillar of salt. Enough said.

The Sorrows. I loved these when they were fire and I still love them now they are mist.

The Mist Hounds. These were a pain to paint when they were fire and they were a pain to paint as mist. There is lots of texture on the model that really does not go anywhere; it just abruptly starts and abruptly ends. And they are in a strange pose (very top heavy). They look better as mist than they did fire, in my opinion. 

Salt, the miniboss of the Mistmourn Coast. I actually think this is a great model, from his Cyclops eye to his moving around on a pillar of salt. I painted his bracelet aquamarine to continue the water theme throughout the model. 

Lots of pets and other ancillary bits to post soon.

See you in the next update.

Who's that trapping over my bridge?

I present the first half the the Mistmourn Coast warband: the Trolls.

I'm just going to say that these models are a good fantasy take on the classic Norwegian troll and I appreciate the style they went with here (particularly the tribal/native look) and I really like the way this warband turned out.

I chose to follow the art as the green skin/orange hair is a good contrast. As any of the yellow-based colours are a pain to paint, it actually took many coats and mixing to get the hair as bright as it is.

On with the close-ups.

The Tribal Stone I painted as a simple slab with simple glyphs, mostly following the art. The trolls were originally simple folk that were native to the Mistmourn Coast and have become twisted by the fae that moved here (led by Salt, see next update for them).

I love the pose of these Ghostfire Warriors, the raised shield and sword ready to strike to defend their homeland. 

The Spirit Walkers are the most primitive looking and so have the least metal (except jewellery) and most skin tone. The only thing I don't like on these models is the leaves; I would have preferred feathers to give more theme/contrast. I suppose I could have painted the leaves autumn brown, but that would clash with the gold colour too much. Que sera.

Finally, the Mistmourn Cheiftain. I do like his pose, it must be said. He does have the shock of orange hair behind his headdress, but I failed to take a pic from behind (not sure why...). The disc on his sword matches his warriors shields, which I did as a sun theme (as the tribal stone has a sun being worshipped); this all differs from the art but ties it all in thematically, in my humble opinion.

Salt and his boys will be posted later today when I have time.

See you in the next update.

Its just another day in this man's army!

Time to look at the other warband in the Forgotten King core box; the Chimera, who are led by the Forgotten King himself.

The warband are all military that have been twisted into animals; platypus, frogs and rabbits. And they look great.

First is the Bramble Knight spawn point. I painted the knight as actual armour that is covered in mold and verdigris. I think they look ok and you can tell that it is the knight armour you are meant to notice, not the brambles.

Next is the Billmen (see what they did?). I simply followed the art on these and did the armour with green tabbard colour scheme. I like their faces; menacing, yet at the same time, comical (they are platypus, afterall). I did all the armour as NMM and I think it looks pretty good; its actually not that easy to make grey look metal while still maintaining a cartoonish look. As long as it looks like armour, right?...

The Frog Knights are my favourite; frogs in plate armour riding brightly coloured birds, what's not to like?!

I really like how these turned out; the birds are nice bright vibrant colours and the frogs have some decent cartoon-NMM plate armour on (which you can see in the second shot). Great models and it shows in the painting (I think, anyway).

Grobbit Executioners are killer rabbits (where is a Holy Hand Grenade when you need one?). I followed the art mostly, painting it all purple with contrasting white rabbit fur (skin?) and maddening red eyes (like some psycho bunnines from Wartership Down). I love the theme of these models (and all the chimera, really).

Bashful Boris is no Balou; the only bear necessity he will give you is a club to the head! He is the miniboss of thie chimera warband. I like how crazed his face is and I tried to bring that out with the colour and position of the eyes. Another great model.

And last we have the Forgotten King himself, the main boss of the core box. I am not certain what type of creature he is meant to be (if any, maybe just a twisted fae). A note on the colours, the art has green OSL all over him and his back in purplish shadow; making it very hard to tell what he looks like. So I picked my own colours. I imagined him wearing a lords/wizards robe but, since his banishment, he wandered with a brown cloak pulled about him until he regained his power.

Thats how I see it, anyway...

I also modelled a bolt of power coming from his hand; could not resist considering how his hand is positioned.

And there you have the 2 core warbands. I have the kickstarter add-on warbands to post next (maybe tomorrow now).

See you in the next update.

Poison Ivy

What have I been up to in the time since my last post? Good question.
We finished the WFRP Lichemaster revisit game, I just never got around to writing the rest up (we had a great time). And then Kingdom Death happened... which will have to be a post in and of itself because Oh My God is that game worth the wait and the price of admission!

Anyway, on with the point of this post. For the last year I have been painting Super Dungeon Explore: Forgotten King kick-starter stuff for a commission. I have the game myself and... its... not great. But, there is a fan project called Lootimeter Mode (google it) that makes the game great again.

As I said, it has taken me a year to do this project, which is 6 months longer than I intended. But Life happens and for much f the past 10 months I have really not had much time to paint as I usually would. Things are settling down now though and I have been painting again the last couple of weeks.

But my friend across the pond has waited plenty enough, so on with some pics!

First, the Kodama (plants).

I really like these models and they were the first ones I painted (way back in the mists of time, now). 

I airbrushed the base colours first (especially for the leaf tips) and then painted with a brush.

Some close ups follow.

I like the way these Mooks turned out and the blending with the airbrush, though fairly simple, is effective n these. I did their shields like bits of carrot top, it seemed more appropriate than wood and it fits in the the next ones...

The Turnipheads are actually holding big carrots. I originally painted them to have turnips but it did not look right with the rest of the colour scheme, so I changed it. I like them with carrots because the thing looks a lot more like a carrot than a turnip (which is round). But I suppose 'Parsniphead' does not sound as good.

I actually really like the colours on these wisps; I went for a lighter shade for their 'skin' than on the artwork. They are great models with my only criticism being that the 'hair' leaves are moulded a little bit flat (it all wild and sticking up in the art).

The Old Growth Hallow spawning points. I followed the colours on the art but did not really do any object-source lighting on them like in the art because a) I don't think it looks right with SDEs 'cartoon' look and b) I would probably mess it up...

FEED ME, SEYMOUR! The inspiration for Sprout and King Sprout is clear. I tried to make Sprout fairly mundane and with muted colours so that when King Sprout hits the board the contrast is sharp and he looks dangerous (he is). I did tie them together with the colour of the body and the blue roots.

Finally we have Trent, the Kodama miniboss. I painted him so that the green of his eyes and mouth stand out the most, followed by the brambles around him. The photo does not quite capture the colours, but the moss is a different shade of purple 'in the flesh'. The purple wood ties into the spawning points.

And there are the Kodama warband, the first of the core box warbands. 

Next will be the Chimera.

See you in next update (which will be in about an hour or two, as I have everything painted...)