Shadespire: The chosen axes

Did the dwarves quite fast. I just wanted to get them to the table, and I have too many projects atm so wanted to get them over with. I like the models though and quite pleased with the overall look even with the simple paintjob.

Warhammer Underworlds: Shadespire

Been painting my warbands for Shadespire lately. Right now I have 3/4 done, so here they are in the order that I painted them.


Garrek's reavers:

Sigmarines: 
 

Sepulchral quards:

Had fun painting these. Normally I hate painting units but since each model is different it wasn't that bad. Check out the game Shadespire, it has been a lot of fun! Fast and tactical, great game to play against your friends and it has awesome miniatures. :)

Kingdom Death - Monster: Manhunter

Very fun model to paint! I like the abs, veins and all those little details that were fun to paint. I decided to give it some elevation as I think it fits the pose very well.

On the board:

Didn't take a lot of wip-pictures with this one, but here he is unpainted and based:

Not much to add, great model.

Thx for looking!

Rising from the ashes with Kingdom Death - Monster (Core game)

Been painting my copy of Kingdom Death lately so decided to take some pictures and post them. So let's get to the chase in the order that I painted them in:

Starting survivors:

These were fun models to paint and I tried different ways in painting each of their skins. I'm not too fond of the face-bases myself to be honest as I think they are a bit boring if used universally. And let's face it, there's other stuff on the ground as well in the world of kingdom death: grass, gravel, trees, stumps and all kinds of foliage.
I decided to use face-bases on the initial survivors, but for others I went with a pretty basic gravel/stone -harsh bases with some random faces thrown in the mix. (I made copies of the face-bases with greenstuff and cut individual faces off for the bases).

For a while I also thought about just leaving the monster bases black, but when I got to the phoenix I realized I need to do something. They just didn't feel "finished" to me and the tree stump that phoenix has felt so out of place on a plain black base.

White lion:

Pretty basic miniature to be honest. Rather easy paintjob done mostly with the airbrush. I wish the lion had an "angrier" face, to me it's just rather boring. Made some intestines etc on it's mouth to gruesome it up a bit. (This involved dipping a hair in gloss-varnish with paints mixed in). :p

Screaming Antelope:

As much as I am a fan of KD:s miniatures, I really don't like this model all that much. It's my least favourite from the core games miniatures. It's "just an antelope" with some gore thrown in the underside. Rather quick and easy paintjob as well, I just wanted it out of the way.

Butcher:

Nice sculpt and a rather fun model to paint. Went with a green armour that I did mostly with an airbrush, which I then highlighted and glazed a bit. Used a lot of airbrushing on the lanters on it as well, even though I didn't take pictures from it's back where most of them are.

Phoenix:

Phew, this was a handful to get painted. (let alone assemble, the individual hands on the wings were a nightmare). I assembled the model all the way before painting it so it was a hard model to move. Ended up using a lot of turn-table with this one while painting.
Wings are mostly done with an airbrush by using multiple passes of different colors. Also used washes and some very light drybrushing in the end.
I really like what the elevation with the base did to the model. It looks a lot more menacing and I think the posture fits a lot better as now the angle is better when it has a model in front of it. (It has a bit of a hunchback).

But all in all it's an awesome model, the detailing is just superb.
I got an extra phoenix by backing the first KD, but I don't see myself building and painting it anytime soon, it was such a big project to finish. :p

Models on the board:

Some pictures that I quickly took with some of the models on the board, so you can see how they blend in and look in an authentic environment. :p

Closing arguments:

 I have more on the way as well. I finished the Manhunter but I decided to keep this post just about the contents of the core game, to not confuse anyone new. Will post the expansions as separate updates as I finish them.

I also fully magnetized the rawhide armor set -survivors but I haven't painted them yet. Took some wip pictures as well.

Stuff to look at to in the future as well (that I have, but haven't painted yet):

- Dragon king (wip)
- Flower knight
- Lion knight
- Dung beetle knight
- Lonely tree (wip)
- Random promotional miniatures
- "KD 1.5 stuff: Gamblers chest -once it ships".

Will probably be focusing on some of the survivors next to get enough done to play the game fully painted.

Thanks for looking!

ps: Sneak peek at the setup (not very hightech as I had plenty of sunlight so no need for the spotlights):

Hot Toys 1/4 Batman TDKR (QS001) review

Back with a bang!

I ventured to a new territory lately and got my first Hot Toys -figure. I'm a big fan of the Christopher Nolan's batman -movies, so once I noticed this figure I just had to have it. So here's my review on the figure, and my overall impressions on these HT figures.

Hot Toys is a company that makes high-end figures as collectibles. (these are not the kind of toys you get for your children to play with) :) They have several licenses to different movies, and lately they have been pretty focused on figures from the Marvel and DC -based movies. (such as Batman, Avengers, Iron-man, Spider-man etc, you get the picture). Most of their figures are on a 1/6 scale and pretty much all of the figures are "limited edition", meaning they are sold only while stocks last (and some of them sell out pretty fast).

2013 HT released this 1/4 quarterscale figure from the dark knight rises, which pretty much sums up all of the three Batman -movies with Bale as Batman. This figure is mostly sold out by now, but I managed to get one "mint in box" through a collector from sideshowfreaks, which is the site for collectors. 

ps: Some vendors still sell this figure through ebay, but they are all imported and sent from China. So in addition to the already high price be prepared to pay customs/tax -fees if you end up ordering it from there to EU.

Here is how I have mine displayed at the moment:

Box and inserts

As my first impressions for a Hot Toy -figure, I was blown away by the quality. The packaging is top notch and even the box itself is very cool.

ps: missing a banana for scale, but believe me it's big! :p

Inside the first layer you have the figure and the different hands etc in a shape-cut foam where everything has it's own place:

Second layer with the accessories and the base:

 Underneath all this is the cape nicely tucked away:

Figure

1/4 scale has some upsides, as it gives more room to little details. Like the texturing on Batman's armor (check the chest), which is a really nice touch:

Head alternatives

With the figure you get three different heads. First you have your Bruce Wayne aka Christian Bale -head, which is sculpted and painted just spot on. The detailing is amazing. There's even veins in the eyes, slight stubble in the chin and minor imperfections on the skin.
I don't think you can top this for a figure:

Then you have your second head with the cowl on and four different faceplates for expressions. Head is held on by a magnet. The eyes have the PERS-system, which enables you to adjust the pupils how you want them to. Both eyes have their own adjustment so you don't have to worry about getting a crosseyed figure.
With these faceplates comes my only nitpick with this figure: they are not held on very tightly. They won't fall off on their own, but they do come loose very easily if you tap the head on something.

The different expressions:

Then you have your third head, which has the LED-eyes representing the nightvision. It has a few batteries and a small on/off -switch inside the head. And yes the batteries are replacable.
Same facial plates also work in this head of course.

Accessories

Next stop, the accessories. And boy do you get a lot of them with this figure. First there is the utility-belt, which snaps shut from the behind. All of the pouches are held on by little clips, so you can attach/remove them as you please. The pouch on the left actually opens, and you can slide a scanner out. (just to point out the amount of detailing again).

Grappling gun comes with a holster, which you can attach to the belt, and the gun snaps on/off it. Gun also has a removable clip, removable hooks on the barrel and the slide moves back and forward.

Then you have your big gun, which is the "stickybomb -gun" from the movies. The gun is assembled from two different pieces by sliding them open and rotating some parts. You also get two clips so you can attach the pieces to the utility belt on the back.

Next up is the EMP-gun, which collapses and has LED's upfront. Batteries are stored in one of those canister-looking things in the hilt.

Then you have your batarangs (3), and as a nice touch I believe they are actually made of metal.

Bunch of other accessories, like the drill that goes in/out and collapses with a hinge so you can hold it on the belt. Then there is the "spiky ball" which I'm not really sure what it is :)

Also a nice addition for displaying-purposes is the three masks that you get:

Figure comes with a scenery-stand, which holds the figure firmly. Only negative thing though is that the rocks are actually almost always on the way, so they limit the posibility with this stand. But the paintjob and detailing is again very good.

 

Posibility seems to be very good, the joints have a lot of articulation and you get a bunch of different hands with the figure (fisted, open hands, gun holding hands etc). I personally prefer to display the figure on very static poses though.

The cloak was a pain in the ass to put on but once you do it's held on tight. I like the stock-cape, it's made of nice fabric. It doesn't drape very naturally though so I can see why some prefer to get a custom made cape done. But for now, I don't feel the urge. :) 

If you don't like the cape you can also attach the backpack/armor instead, which you can see in the second insert-picture (in the middle).

Overall I am very happy with the figure. HT:s figures are not cheap but they make the highest end figures in the market so you get what you pay for. And they make great display-pieces if you are into this film/geek -stuff. :)

I'll leave you with a few more shots, hope you liked the review and the pictures!

 

TabletopCop