Halloween Mouslings and Wizard Mini

I've had these three minis for quite some time, all by Reaper Miniatures.  The first two are the "Trick or Treat Mouslings" (#0535, Sculptor G. Van Horne).  I decided I really wanted to paint them by this Halloween, so I did:

The third one is a Reaper Minis wizard I've had for quite a long time, "Catherine O'Mannon" (#02344, Sculptor S. Garrity).  I painted her because I'm finally playing a wizard in a Pathfinder campaign and was rather surprised to realize I had no painted wizard minis. At. All.  Then I realized the only time I've played a wizard since we started using minis was actually a rogue with some wizard levels (that mini is in use again in another campaign).  I've been using this one with just a primer coat, but wanted to get her painted before she got tarnished or the primer wore off:

And of course, here is the requisite pencil shot for scale:

All three minis were painted by me using a combination of Reaper Mini paints and FolkArt paints.  Unfortunately, my desktop computer and thus my photo editing software are temporarily out of commission, so you get to view the working surface in all its chaotic glory.  Yes, all of those paints you see in the background and more were used to paint these.

WIP: Scourge Knight Mini

This fellow is giving me quite a difficult time. His armor is far too cool to paint plain black or metallic, so I'm trying to give him the appearance of fire or glow coming from within. This is my second attempt (yes, the first attempt was just as bad). The effect is still not how I want to it look, plus apparently my hands were exceptionally shaky so I'm going to strip him again (I think he enjoys it) and start over.

If the third time isn't the charm, I'm either going to paint him black and metallic or I'm going to strip him, prime him, and put him in timeout on the shelf until he can behave in a manner more consistent with his alignment.


You might notice his chain whip broke off.  That's because the Chaos Marine he was having a disagreement with had a bolter:

Credits: 
Order of the Scourge Hellknight mini by Reaper Miniatures, #60024 sculpted by Bobby Jackson 
Warhammer 40,000 Chaos Marine with bolter mini by Games Workshop, sculptor unknown

WIP: Dragon

Is it wrong to use a shark's tooth to prop up a dragon's arm?

WIP: Dragon

How long do I have to hold the dragon's butt before his torso stops falling off?

WIP: Reaper Paint Caddy Dividers

My Hubby and I have the entire line of Master Series Paints from Reaper Minis (yes, I mean all 216 colors, not counting the duplicates we have), which came in 3 paint caddies. At any given time, there are numerous bottles of paint in use on one craft desk or another (my oldest has at least 50 out just in his area). When that happens, the paints left in the caddies tend to slide around and get out of order, which makes it more difficult to find a particular color or triad of colors. It's also hard to see what the color in the bottle is when you're looking down at the cap. The caddies come with removable dividers but you can't put as many paints in if the dividers are in place, and the bottles still won't stay upside-down.

My solution, of course, involves yarn. In this case, yarn and plastic mesh, cut into strips and sewn into a ladder-like configuration. I've gotten one of the caddies almost completed:

Row 1 complete: so much easier to see what color it is when the bottle is inverted!

Note 3rd row where some paints are missing but the bottles stay in place.  Boo-yah!

Here's where I messed up and put a "step" on the wrong side:

I got distracted by the pretty colors.

I haven't decided if it's worth putting smaller versions in the fixed pockets near the front of the caddies, but I probably will since I still want them inverted. The bottles don't clog any more than they normally do when stored right-side up. Since they normally clog regardless, I keep a straight pin handy for clearing them.

Painted Mini: Female Gnome

Yay! I finally finished one of the Minis of Doom I thought I'd never finish:

Apparently all I needed to do was actually roll up a character for the mini; this one is going to be a gnomish rogue in a Pathfinder game.

For the curious, this is a Reaper mini, No. 02772, sculpted by Sandra Garrity, painted with Reaper's Master paints.

Mouseguard Plushie!

Guarding the TV with his meager life!

Also, I got the Trick or Treat Mouselings the last time we were at Reaper Minis:

After all, who doesn't need a plushie Mouseling ranger or a tiny Mouseling witch?

Two Painting WIPs I'm Never Gonna Get Right

The first is that dang ninja, after I tried adjusting the highlighting down from stark white to a softer yellow:

(He looks like he's been bombed by a squadron of pollen-laden honeybees)

The other is that dang gnome with the cool armor that just refuses to look like leopard spots:

(She looks like she's either made of stone or has a serious infestation of some sort)

Sigh.

Yarnblobs in Waiting and Updates

I realize it's been awhile since I posted; I've been working a lot of overtime lately and haven't had time to do much of anything fun, let alone post about it :-(

However, I did buy more yarn, just waiting to be turned into yarnblobs as soon as I have enough time off to get out the winder and swift:

I also found these cuties at my LYS, made by Serendipity Needles:

Yes, they're black sheep, and yes, they have little tails (tho, no legs: can't have 'em running off to school with Mary and that other lamb, you know). I probably won't actually use them since I knit almost exclusively with circulars, but they're just so cute staring at me from the pencil cup :-)

Meanwhile, my darling Hubby bought me the full set of Master Series paints from Reaper Minis, and more Warhammer 40K minis. Before the overtime started, I'd detached one of the sets so I could put it in a baggie for later assembly. In my efforts to show my brother-in-law what they looked like, I tried to hand him one of the spare heads, but I dropped it and it rolled out of sight and into oblivion. As they say, heads will roll. Counting on Murphy's Law to help me, I thought my cats would manage to find it. So far they've found screws, stitch markers and dust bunnies, but not the missing head. Good thing it was a spare.

Meanwhile, my Hubby also got me a new camera (Canon Powershot Sx130) and bag, and a portable studio thingy that folds up into itself so I can photograph minis and stuff. So, no more pictures on the game mat. I had to RTFM (read the friggin manual) to figure out how to shoot close up, and I also have a couple of tripods now so my shaky hands won't mess up the pictures. So far, this is as good as I've gotten, but I'm workin on it:

Tough Week for Knitting (and everything else)

As the title says, it's been a rough week: my mother-in-law went into the hospital last Friday and passed away around 5 AM Wednesday morning, so besides everyone feeling very sad, there's also been a lot of scrambling to get things handled. In the midst of all that the kids have been exchanging the mystery virus, for which the doctor says there's no treatment. I also had to work late Monday and Friday to try and get caught up after missing several days from all this. As one might suspect, I've not gotten much knitting done. I also missed the painting contest. Our heads are still spinning with things that have to be done, but we're trying to take it one step at a time.

Meanwhile, here are the roses, chocolates and teddy bear my Hubby sent me for Valentine's Day:

A little blurry; taken with my cell phone

I left work early Tuesday and didn't go back until Friday, but the roses were still fresh and the chocolates and teddy bear still waiting for me :-)

Reaper Painting Contest

Thanks to fellow blogger LadyArgent for posting that Reaper Minis is having a Winter Painting Contest. I admit I've had painting on the backburner for awhile; my January Ninja is not complete, though thanks to some helpful suggestions by fellow mini painters, I have some ideas on how to improve him.

Meanwhile, we have this contest thingy now. My first thought was that I'm not really a good enough painter to even bother entering this thing. Since then, I've been mentally chewing over what they said: "Be fun and clever." Somehow I managed to connect this to a gnome mini I've been wanting to paint that previously didn't come out right and has to be scrubbed down to the metal once or twice. While I was working on the hex blankie this afternoon I brought the mini with me so I could think it over, and indeed I've come up with an idea. Right now she's just primered, so I won't post pics of it here until I have some of it done. Here's Reaper's pic of the unpainted mini, sculpted by Sandra Garrity:

What you can't see in the photo is the cool little helm she has hanging on her belt behind her left arm. It's probably my favorite feature of this mini, which is why I want to paint it well. With all the great painters on Reaper's forums, I probably won't even "place" in this contest, but that hardly matters. I feel inspired to paint again, and that does matter. Thanks, Reaper!

Ruby vs. the Hairdryer

Recently, my teenage daughters talked me out of my hair dryer. I was using it to dry paint on minis; they wanted to use it for *tsk* hair. Bah!

Anyway, the one I let them talk me out of was full-sized and had multiple heat and blast settings. While great for human hair, even the low settings would blow a plastic (e.g. Warhammer 40K) mini right off the counter. I couldn't tell you how many times the Termagants went flying despite a lack of wings.

Having recently started painting again I realized I really did need another dryer; flying minis aside, having the girls tote it up and down the stairs was both time-consuming and problematic. So, off I went this past Saturday to Sally's on a quest for a smaller dryer, perhaps small enough not to blow my Warhammer 40K Chaos Space Marines off the counter once I start on them. Granted, they have jet packs, but that's still no way to go.

Fortunately, Sally's had just the thing, pictured here with a Reaper mini I painted for our current campaign ("Ruby") and a pencil for scale:

Being somewhat of a nerd, I was skimming through the little information booklet that came with the hair dryer (in case there was anything useful in it; scuze me while I look for my pocket protector) and found this little page of helpful styling hints:

I will admit that occasionally, when blow-drying a mini, I am amused at the thought of drying their hair, which inevitably fails to waft in the breeze, even with a styling tool:

My youngest casts "Summon Styling Tool IV"

Ruby does not appear to be quite as amused, however:

"I'll never tell you where I hid the gems!"

Ruby, however, is metal and thus not likely to go scooting across the counter with anything less than a shop-vac set to blow. Instead, I tested the power settings of this little dryer against one of the plastic WH40k Chaos Space Marines. He bravely stood his ground on the low setting; the high setting made him do a bit of a moon walk, but at least he didn't go flying off the counter:

"Wow, can you outfit that with a laser sight?"