The End of the Line

It was not the first time he had seen the dead rise from their graves. Grubs fell from the flesh they had feasted upon as the winds of death gave a mockery of life to the cadavers. In their center, sipping from a golden chalice, was the creature he had came here to slay. "Vell, Vell, Vell. Bonhart I presume?" The creature removed the chalice from his lips and wiped away a spot of dark liquid. He said nothing, placing a bolt in his crossbow and readying his machete. "I've heard you are not very talkative" it smiled, revealing supernatural fangs, "That is quite okay, you don't need to speak vhere you're going". As the last syllable left the creature's mouth the dead surged forward to bring Bonhart down.

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    This is "Viktor" from CMON's Rum and Bones: Second Tide board game. Clearly a Van Helsing/Bloodborne/Solomon Kane inspired model, I purchased him in a heartbeat along with many other miniatures from that line as part of Miniature Market's recent Memorial Day sale. I really love how this turned out and I'm especially proud of the base which I learned how to do from this video by Eons of Battle on YouTube. You might not be able to notice it, but the foliage by his foot is just tea from a teabag. I use this technique regularly for foliage on my bases. In my world this is Bonhart Von Volkvan, a merciless bounty hunter and monster slayer who is currently contracted to hunt down one of my players...

    Another miniature from Rum and Bones, this one is "Aurelio Voltaire". I really enjoyed experimenting with a different kind of base and was going for making it look like he's either on a wooden dock or in a tavern somewhere drinking to his latest exploits. I didn't really think about where he fits into my world, settling on naming him Captain Jack (real original, I know).

    The last of my Black Plague player miniatures! This one is Nelly and it felt really good finishing out a part of the Black Plague box. I still have about thirty or so more zombies to paint but they're easy to paint. I'm predicting by the end of July that I'll be finished with the Black Plague box and that will be a load off my shoulders as well as my pile of shame.

    Finally, here's another Rum and Bones miniature, Renfield the Bloodcrazed. I've never ran Curse of Strahd or Ravenloft but if I ever do, this guy is going to be Strahd von Zarovich. My favorite part of this miniature is the metallic red armor inspired by the blood knights of warhammer fantasy. I love how easy it is to make the metallic red armor using contrast paints over a basecoat of metallics. I base the metal in black, then metallic silver, and then hit the highlights with a shinier silver. Then all you have to do is put on a coat of GW's contrast paint, I opted for flesh tearers red. Super simple and it looks great.

    I painted these guys, some zombies from Black Plague, and then some Yithians from Chtulhu: Death May Die over the past two weeks. One thing I need to work on when it comes to painting is not biting off more than I can chew when I lay out my painting for the week or two ahead. I ended up doing that and used up the last of my black spray paint on some of my miniatures which resulted in their primer being way to gunky and obscuring a lot of details. I wanted to give these miniatures the paint job that they deserved though, so I ended up stripping them and then re-priming them. I also tried out a new technique where I applied a zenithal highlight by dry brushing progressively lighter shades of gray onto the black undercoat. I'm really not sure if you can tell the difference between this method and a typical zenithal highlight but as always it's good to experiment!

     Yesterday night our DnD campaign had our third session where the players rescued Volance the alchemist college student from the Schneckhölz. Unfortunately, Pale Face died when the party was ambushed by an Eisenfusseler and so they brought his disemboweled remains to the town where his father was immensely saddened. It seems that Pale Face, despite being a social outcast amongst the town, was still regarded as one of their own and his death brought a somber note to the Beltane celebrations. Nonetheless the festival began and after five rigorous events, Plat the dragonborn sorcerer and Lucera the wood elf monk were crowned summer king and queen! The party rogue, a former Elven slave by the name of Zevran, also made a killing off of bets he placed. The whole town then retired to the Beltane bonfire where they overheard many rumors: horrors abound on the valley road, political turmoil in the capital to the south, and the Elven homeland being prey to greedy human companies seeking moonstone. The next day the group awoke and conducted Pale Face's funeral and then set out from Aufglück to the East, where it seemed the most adventure was to be had. I'm excited to see where there adventures lead them!

    Not sure what I'll paint up this week right now, but I think I'd like to give some cool enemies for my players to encounter next time we meet. Until the next post!