[Log] Workshop 5 - Hobby Holder

In December, I received a production sample of the Hobby Holder. The Hobby Holder comes from a Kickstarter project that I backed late last year. I was lucky enough to try it out before my actual pledge arrives. Overall, I am very happy with the product and plan to be using it for most of my miniature paintings.

[Log] Workshop 4 - Magnetized Transport and Tray

I have been thinking for a while now on a custom system for storing, transporting, and displaying my miniatures. Over the past years, I browse through the internet looking at others' custom storage and transport systems. In addition, I considered commercial storage and transport system products. This got put on the sideline when I backed a Kickstarter project for a modular transport tray. In short, that campaign failed to produce a product. So I am back to working on that custom system.

My work in progress modular transport system for my miniatures.

I decided that my custom system will all have some type of magnetic receptive surface since all my painted miniatures have some form of a magnet placed underneath its base. The image above is my work in progress modular transport container.

[Log] Workshop 3 - 6" x 6" Tiles, Texture Samples, and Custom Tray

In the first two Workshop logs, I wrote about my first time experience using texture stamps and casting molds. In this log, I show the completion of 6" x 6" tiles that were made using both a casting mold (Your Board Tile Mould) and a texture stamp (Flagstone). They were painted with a gray color scheme with varying amount of sand or dust covering portions of the floor. I am quite happy with how they came out, but not sure if they will be used as I had originally intended - as dungeon tiles. I planned to write a [Workshop] entry on how I made them and also an [Archives] post.

Four 6" x 6" Flagstone Tiles. The top left  tile was an attempt to delineate the 1" squares.

[Log] Aristeia! - Overview

The eight characters from the Aristeia! core box

Aristeia! is a board game released in November 2017 that I hope to completely paint the miniatures as new content is released. There are 8 miniatures in the core game and there will be an additional 16 characters through four expansions in 2018. The first expansion is called Soldiers of Fortune and the second expansion is called Smokes & Mirrors. There will also be alternative metal versions of the characters to be sold in blister packs. These are described as skins for the characters like online games calling different outfits of a character. Maximus gets a gladiator outfit with an expected release in January 2018.

[Log] Warhammer Underworlds - Shadespire Overview

The two core Shadespire warbands were undercoated and the first two expansions were desprued.

This log is intended to keep track of my hobby work with the Warhammer Underworlds game system. The Underworlds game system was released in October 2017 with the Shadespire subheading. So far four warbands have been released:

[Log] Ninja All-Stars - Part 1, Overview

This log is for everything related to Ninja All-Stars, a cute competitive team combat game. Up to 4 players can play against each other pitting a small team of ninjas, onis, and/or ronins against one another. The rule book puts emphasis on the game for league

In my quest to collect everything for Ninja All-Stars, I ended up getting a lot of extra copies. I plan to use those extra copies as a future painted gift and also to experiment with different color schemes.

Painting the miniatures for this game will likely not start anytime soon. This first entry, though, is a compiled list of the components I currently have, what I am still looking to get, and what I have been working on.

[Log] Workshop 2 - Working with Casting Molds

Some basic building blocks from casting

Casting molds that I have are mostly from Hirst Arts. I also use Happy Seppuku "Your Board Tile Mould" for casting board tiles (in combination with texture stamping). Below are some video instructions from Hirst Arts on using their Casting Molds

[Log] Rail Raiders Infinite - Double-Dollars and Bases

For Rail Rail Raiders Infinite, I have been working on the Double-Dollar coins, determining the best way to remove the miniatures from their bases, and researching what type of base texture to use for this sci-fi western game.

Double-Dollars

Unpainted and Painted Double-Dollars Tokens

My first goal was to paint the Double-Dollar tokens, the currency and victory condition for winning in the Rail Raiders Infinite game. These coins have a considerable amount of detail that is somewhat hard to distinguish and appreciate in its unpainted form. A simple paint job really brings out the details. The mmber on the coins were painted with a lighter/brighter color compared to the rest of the coin.

[Log] Workshop 1: Working with Texture Stamps

I have used "Log" entries to detail my experience of painting miniatures to completion. This [Log] Workshop entry is different from previous ones as it collects my thoughts on practicing and experimenting with techniques and materials. The Workshop posts differ from This and future [Log] Workshop posts provide more first hand experience, for better or worse, of me trying out things differing from Workshop posts that provide easy reference and more "polished" instructions to obtain a desired result. In other words, a [ Log] Workshop entry will usually be posted before the corresponding [Workshop] entry, similar to [Log] entry posted before an [Archives] entry.

In this first [Log] Workshop entry, I go over my experience on the materials I have used with Texture Stamps.

[Log] Rail Raiders Infinite - Outline

This is the start of my project log for Ninja Division's Rail Raiders Infinite. This is a space western competitive board game, pitting raiders (gray miniatures) against each other for loot on a space train. To impede the Raiders are the Lawbots (blue miniatures).

For the most part, the miniatures and overall aesthetic is quite adorable. The rules are not overly complicated making it more accessible for a gaming group with a wide age range. Thus, even before I received my Kickstarter pledge for this game, I decided to prioritize painting the game pieces to play with the nephews and nieces.

Those that pledged for the complete product line received a total of 70 miniatures with 32 unique sculpts (20 Raiders and 50 Lawbots). Below I outlined the order I will attempt to completely paint all the Rail Raiders Infinite gaming components.

[Log] Dungeons & Dragons Wrath of Ashardalon - Part 2, Heroes Overview

First layer of paint applied on these adventurers.

In this update, I go over my plans for each of the five heroes in Wrath of Ashardalon. So far, I have given a base coat to all five heroes. There  seems to be a scale issue with the heroes, especially with Vistra and Keyleth. Proportionally, Vistra the Dwarf is much larger than both the Dwarf hero in Castle Ravenloft and the Duregars in Ashardalon. For me, the scale of Vistra seens more suitable as a stout human and I think I will use the model as a human rather than a dwarf fighter. The elven Keyleth, on the other hand, is rather petitite compare to the other heroes. Anyways, here is the paint scheme I plan to paint these miniatures, Below is the paint scheme I plan to go for each one:

[Log] Dragon Tides - Overview

To be very honest, I did not have much interest in the Dragon Tides game. I specifically purchase this game to get the Bruce Lee figure for Yashima. Since I have the Yashima cards for Bruce Lee, I thought I might as well get the figure for him instead of using the cardboard token. Like Yashima, the figures are larger than most of the 28-35 mm scale miniatures I have. Strangely, the Dragon Tides figures are slightly smaller than the Yashima miniatures. I do have some interest to get the henchmen models (not made yet from what I can tell) to replace the tokens, but seeing how the kickstarter of this project is not running too well, I am leaning toward not collecting any more models for this game. It all depends on whether my family enjoys playing this game or not. There is a total of 8 figures (4 dragons, 2 mini-bosses, and 2 bosses based on the scripts in the game) in the core box game:

Unlike Yashima in the green colored plastic, the Dragon Tides model are slightly smaller in scale and in a white color.

[Log] Yashima: Legend of the Kami Masters - Overview

Yashima: Legend of the Kami Masters, made by Green Brier Games, is a card-based board game with an east Asian fantasy theme. To be honest, I decided to purchase this product for the miniatures, thinking that they would fit well with my other miniature collection of 25-35 mm scale. Not only could I use them in the Yashima game, but also for role playing and skirmish games. Unfortunately, these miniatures are a lot larger than the miniatures in my collection. On Green Brier Games website, the Yashima products were tagged as being 30 mm in size. The bases are indeed 30 mm wide; however, the miniatures are approximately 10 mm larger than those in my collection (50 mm from bottom of base to top of head). So these miniatures won't be used outside of the game for me! My own mistake for not researching on the miniatures more carefully. Reading through the rules and looking at the cards, it looks to be a game that me and my family would enjoy. So here is the start of a log for the models in this game.

8 masters from the core game and first two expansions (Deep Woods and Icy Peaks).

[Log] Battle Masters Chaos and Destruction - Part 5

Work in Progress of the Orc Warriors

Now that I am returning logs back to being an overview of progress, here is what I have left to do with these old Battle Masters miniatures.

[Log] Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft Monsters & Villains - Part 2

Rat Swarms done! next up Wolves and Spiders

The Rat Swarm models were completed within the first week of August. That makes 8 models in the Castle Ravenloft game completed and 35 more to go! Next up on the painting table will be either the Wolves or the Spiders. For the three wolves, I want to paint each one of them with a different fur coat color. For the spiders, I am leaning toward a black base and each of one of them having a different design on the back of their abdomen. The next updates will contain background research on both wolf fur coat and spider markings.

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[Log] Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft Monsters & Villains - Part 1

37 Monsters and Villains from Castle Ravenloft Board Game

This series of log entries list my plans and references to help me complete my painting of the remaining miniatures in the Dungeons & Dragons Castle Ravenloft board game. Last year, I finished painting the 5 heroes. What remains to be painted are the monsters and villains.

[Log] Dungeons & Dragons Wrath of Ashardalon - Part 1, Overview

Wrath of Ashardalon miniatures

This series of log entries list my plans and references that will help me complete my painting of the miniatures in the Dungeons & Dragons Wrath of Ashardalon board game. This is the second board game in the cooperative Dungeons & Dragons adventure game system. There is a total of 42 miniatures in the box set: 5 heroes, 7 villains, and 30 monsters (10 types, 3 of each).

[Log] Alain and Oriana - Part 2

February 1st, 2016 to February 15, 2016 - Here is quick update to what I have done on Alain and Oriana. Work on these was temporarily halted as I put the time into completing the Battle Masters Chaos Archers. Going to take the time to finish these two models now. Base coast was painted onto most of the different parts of the miniatures.

Front View...

[Log] Battle Masters Chaos and Destruction - Part 4

February 20th, 2016 to February 25th, 2016 - This past weekend I finished painting the remaining Chaos Archers--the champion and 4 individuals each wearing attire showing their devotion or infinity to different Chaos Gods. With the first batch of archers, I varied skin color with mostly brown to yellow flesh tones. This second batch, I tried varying skin color with mostly reddish skin tones. Overall, I am pretty happy with how the figures turned out. I had ten identical figures and was able to make each one a little bit different through sculpting and paint scheme. I definitely see many areas I can try to improve on,  Two of these areas I will paid extra attention to is: 1) Have more patience and pay attention to details when sculpting putty onto a figure; 2) Work on greater details on the face, for example. better eyes and adding eyebrows.

Finished painting!

[Log] Battle Masters Chaos and Destruction - Part 3

February 1, 2016 to February 19, 2016 - Since the last update, I have added shading and highlights to all the chaos archers' attire. I then focused on each archer's skin and hair individually, completing the skin of 5 archers. Having so much of their skin exposed, the archers allowed me to better study and practice painting a wide range of skin color.

Archers placed from dark skin color to light skin color