Monster May(hem) 2023

    Looks like another May has passed us by! I can hardly believe it. Was planning for more, but with some travelling and tending to a backyard that hasn't seen much in lawncare in the passed two decades or so, it just wasn't in the cards. I hope Keith won't mind if my candidates for next year have a small head start (they were painted in May). As an extra kneecap to any progress I made, I accidentally broke off an arm on one model, so even, right? Painting a monster outside of May would be sacreligious, how dare you suggest that!?

Here are my entries for this year.

Nightwalker (Wizkids)

        Wizkid's monsters are very well done, good detail, and reasonable price. I prefer Reaper Miniatures for any smaller models. No real play for the Nightwalker, I liked it so I bought it, was thinking of using it for Reign in Hell, but it's base is double the size of all the other miniatures I have for it.

Rancor (Star Wars IA: Jabba's Realm)

    My partner gave me the Jabba's Realm expansion for my birthday... in 2017. Haven't played in sometime, would really like to get the core box and this expansion painted up and on the table again. 

    This rancor is the famous beast that resides the pit below Jabba's throne. Or at least, that's what the set implies. Witches of Dathomir are force sensitive warriors that ride rancors into battles, I painted mine to be owned by one of the sisters, giving her mount a tattoo after fierce battles together. Which brought me to my next idea, painting several Rancors with mounts. Imperial Assault can be played as a competitive tabletop game, so they could be fielded as an army. However, this Rancor is sold only in the Jabba's Realm expansion, a costly endeavor for what would most likely be a passing fancy. With a quick Google search though, it looks like someone has made a rancor with a rider in STL form. That's one step closer to my rancor army, haha! 

Size comparison to dandelions in my yard

    There you go, my meager entries into Monster May(hem) this year. I had two more miniatures planned, a fungal giant and a colossal skeleton. Yes, it's a skeleton, but it's big! Like a giant's or ogre's skeleton! Those count as monsters right?!

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I have a Reign in Hell warband almost finished off to show, just need a few highlights. For June, it will be time to finish off all the mostly done miniatures kicking around on the desk before I jump into the Season of Scenery for this year.

Human Barbarian and Tortle Monk

    I am back for two entries for the Paint An Adventuring Party Challenge. Moving forward, I might just be painting up characters without the backstory. I find that I am quite slow at writing them up and posting them. Not only did I fall off the proverbial challenge wagon, but then fell off a cliff, hitting every jagged edge on the way down. Cut me some slack, I got a mini human to look after.

    May's entry is a human Barbarian from Reaper Miniatures, Galdor the Barbarian. He is a metal miniature, that I probably picked up when Dragon's Den was clearing out their Reaper models to make room for Wizkids. Working on using different colours for skin tones like Leadballoony Warcry Spire Tyrants. Don't think I got very close to his, but it was refreshing to try green and yellows for skin. 

Ack! Where did these spiders come from!

    June's entry is a Tortle Monk from Wizkids. A tortle was a homebrew race for 5th edition, but looks like the stat line can be bought on D&D Beyond now. I enjoyed painting the yellow robes, not a whole lot to paint but I might have to give it a try as a primary colours. The Wizkids minis come in twos, that might be a good colour for the second Tortle in the set.

     I find myself more fond of painting Reaper Miniatures for the amount of character they have in their models, I am attributing this to the style they are going for, more factory friendly and less life in their sculpts. Wizkids are good for a quick paint job, already being pre-primed. On paint runs to Comic Readers, I would usually pick up one or two of these when they were a bit cheaper around $5. Now that they are closer to $7-8, I mostly just grab a monsters as I don't find the humanoid models as detailed. That said, I do have a few kicking around that will appear during this challenge.

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I complete some more giant spiders, and Blackstone Fortress cultists. The latter of which have been sitting on my "abandoned heap". It was the last thing I was working on before moving to my current house, lost in the shuffle and buried under other more fun projects.

Voronwe Fenzana

    

    Clearspell was a continent of prosperity, coveting knowledge over all else. Wizards were regarded with reverence, the council would look to their sages before coming to important decisions. Voronwe was one of the high wizards who would seek out esoteric tomes, experimenting with arcana knowledge that most thought was lost to the ages.

   Financed by the council, Voronwe, along with his pupils set out to seek such a tome. Long ago, there was a great war between the elves and lizardfolk that dwelt in the dark caves to the east of Clearspell, much of the magic of that era had been lost for centuries. These caves had been vacant for generations, which emboldened the adventurers. Delving deep into the caverns of the reptilian foes, this was not the case. For their service to their dark god never ended, nor their hatred towards the elves. Clawed feet were heard as their search found them in their ritual chambers. Voronwe desired knowledge, not a battle, they quickly picked up any tomes that might be useful and left. 

    Returning to Clearspell, Voronwe was eager to study the ancient knowledge. Once opened, the book was enchanted with a spell, a relic of the age of war. Voronwe could feel his body changing, becoming frail, gaunt. He looked to see that he had be transformed into a liche. Cursed to harvest souls of the living to have eternal life.

Voronwe needed to gain the favour of the lizard gods, Sess'innek, a demon lord, if he was to reverse his current form.

    This model is the Liche & Mummy from the D&D Wizkids, they are alright miniatures for the price. I prefer Reaper Bones with their harder plastic. Not the most fleshed out backstory, hopefully I can take a bit more time for the next one and also post it on time!

Darcy Rothchild

 

    

    This doesn't looks good, already late on Character of the Month. This is February's Character of the Month. I just needed some sunlight for a quick photo which seemed to take me all month to remember to do. Not as stylish as last month's photos, but time seemed to slip away on me.

    As a Dutchess of a small province,  Darcy Rothschild, fit in well enjoy enough. Her teenage years were filled with learns on etiquette, royal lineage, courtship and all the other mundane aspects of being part of an oligarchy as well as fencing, horseback riding and archery.

    Up holding diplomatic relations with other provinces saw her travelling throughout the land. On a visit to the capital, Yarmouth, she disguised herself to blend in with the locals, secretly desiring to learn how to handle seacrafts. If she was ever caught, she would be outed from the royal bloodline, being a service that is thought to be beneath her. Darcy craved adventure and to have her own crew aboard a Galleon.

    Aboard, the Stoic Defence, she met Kaxire. A tiefling who showed her essential skills in navigation, sea warfare and sword fighting. Darcy learned it was life or death out on the sea, pirates play for keeps. Darcy became close with Kaxire, she didn't want to leave her second life and Kaxire was the only one that knew about her other life. The Dutchess had to keep up appearances, so she had to leave, but told Kaxire she would be back, giving her a sending stone to keep in touch. How long would Darcy be able to keep up this facade?

    Darcy Rothschild is a human fighter for this character of the month. The figure is a Wizkids Wave 4 Pirates, they do come with a very slim disc for a base, but I wanted to make the characters of the month on similar round bases. 

Next on the Hobby Desk 

    Character of the Month for March! Should be finished painting in time, haven't started a background for them yet. I will also have a March summary for games and painting I have finished. 

    

October Wrap Up

October has been a bit slower for games. but I did get a few things done for painting.

With it being October, I was going to do some zombies and skeletons for the season and run some type of Song of Blades and Heroes for my friends or family. With little interest, I didn't really pursue this idea for long. 

Instead I painted up some of the Slaad I had, the bigger one is a blue slaad inspired by this picture.

These Slaad are a range of challange ratings for D&D, from 5 to 9, making them a pretty good challenge for any seasoned adventuring party. 

One of the members on Hunters of the Warp facebook page posted on a WIP Wednesday his 3rd edition Dark Eldar models. This post made me a bit nostalgic of my first "army", I didn't really have much money when I started playing Warhammer. My buddy, Pilon, picked up the 3rd edition starter set that featured Dark Eldar and Space Marines in it. He would lend me the Kabalite Warriors in the box and I bought my own wyches to paint and play. Not the most competitive force, as with modern Eldar, you definitely need some fast transport vehicles to protect your modestly dressed masochistic elves.

Eventually, Pilon did give me the kabalite warriors, but I did sell them off awhile back. A few years ago I did start buying metal wyches to make a Dark Eldar Kill Team. 

Weapon loadouts have changed quite a bit since 3rd edition.

For these five I picked out what I felt looked cool, but this doesn't make much for Kill Team (or probably not 40k) as the Agonizer is for Hekatrix only. The Shredder isn't an option anymore, but could count as a Phantasm Grenade Launcher (again Hekatrix only). I guess that gives me options for loud outs.

I'd run these wyches as such:

Leader - Hekatrix - Agonizer, Splinter Pistol - 11pts

Specialist - Zealot - Shardnet and Impaler - 11pts

Non- specialists

Wych - pistol and hekatarii blade - 8pts (as the Shredder isn't an option)

Wych - pistol and hekatarii blade - 8pts

Wych Fighter - Razorflails - 11pts.

Total: 49pts

Hope to add some Kabalite Warriors that I picked up from Ebay, once they get here.

Money shot.

I have also finished up all the Necromunda barricades & objective marks that I bought with rules and some templates off eBay earlier this year.

As with last year, I will be doing Minivember, creating a list of 30 models to finished off by the end of November. Last year, I didn't quiet complete the challenge. These year's list has quiet a few Character models, which might slow me down a bit. I hope to complete some units that I painted last year, focusing on full scale Warhammer instead of Kill Team. 

New to this year though, is that I forced convinced Rachel to finish off some of her models. When she discovered just how many mouslings she has mostly finished or finished without a base, she wanted to get them done and minivember might give her the motivation to get it done. She also has her Warcry Sylvaneth and the expansion Scythe figures to complete a 7 player Scyche set. (which we have had talk of starting a Rise of Fenris campaign in the future)

My list is mostly Eldar, Skitarii for Crusade and Daughters of Khaine for Warcry.

I'll most likely post updates on my Instagram, and any finished models on here once I get them done.

Next on the Hobby Desk

Minivember updates, if you want to join in just pick out your own figures that have been haunting your hobby desk and get them done!