Random Fantasy Bits...or are They??

    A Forest Spirit from Beldolor Studios is cornered in the woods by a swarm of giant spiders

Sticking with my pledge this year to alternate current projects with batches of "clearing out the lead pile," So, I came up with this small group of figs to paint up. The spiders are from the Wargames Atlantic Giant Spiders plastic kit. The towering Forest Spirit deer thingie is a 3-D mini I picked up from Beldolor Studios last summer. I can see them getting used for various fantasy games. The Forest Spirit is bizarre enough I can maybe slip him in as an alien in my Majestic 13 games. Maybe...what do you think?

    Plastic giant spiders - a kit from Wargames Atlantic that is NOT easy to assemble...at least for me!

Anyway, assembling miniatures has never been my thing -- one of the reasons that I prefer metal. I pulled out the two sprues of the spiders that I picked up from Firelands Games last November (they sell sprues individually, as I've mentioned her before), and went...ummm, whaat? How the heck do I put these together?? I guess I am not the only one who has wondered that, though. There were a number of instructional videos on YouTube on how to glue them together. The one by the British-sounding guy even seemed a bit peeved at all the critics of the box and mentioned it one or two times during his tutorial. He felt that it was unwarratned that Wagames Atlantic got some heat because there were no instructions included!

    Assembling difficulties aside, they are really cool plastic models that hopefully are not too fragile

Personally, nothing about assembling the two larger spiders was intuitive to me, and I paused my way through the video and did my best to follow along. I screwed up a bit on the legs, but they look good enough, I imagine. I did modify it a bit, though, and decided to pin the two halves of the spider's body together. That was just too fragile of a small, flat connection point for me. Still, it was about an hour and half's work and the two Shelobs were glued together and to the plastic base. The four little ones require no assembly, a fact that the video narrator seemed awful proud of! For that matter, neither did the 3-D printed Forest Spirit. I shudder to think how many parts a plastic kit of that figure would require!

    Big ones look grotesque and menacing while these little guys look just plain creepy - heebie jeebies!

I spray painted all seven of the miniatures in Krylon Fusion Acrylic Black Matte, and followed up with a 50/50 of water and acrylic black paint. I then went online and Googled images of spiders, a process which can give you the heebie-jeebies if you look at too many pages! I was looking for inspiration for a color scheme, and honestly didn't find one that I liked from nature. So, I decided to dry brush the all black spiders with a medium gray. I liked how they looked, but knew they still needed some color. I examined the miniatures more closely. I ended going with the striped pattern simply based on the modeling of the figures. The colored bands are raised joints or surfaces on the legs. I decided to do those in various colors and hopefully they would look nice. The nasty looking talons on the end (and their fangs) I did in a bone color to stand out more.

    Elevated view where you can see the big ones' multiple eyes -- okay, heebie-jeebies here too!

I do have to admit that, occasionally glancing over to my left as I was painting, and seeing the ones I'd finished the stripes on, did give me that "Gaaahh!" moment. I took that as proof they were looking creepy enough. Doing the color outlining on the head and around the eyes was the trickiest part. Luckily, I had just bought a new detail brush and the tip held up nicely for this work. I did the eyes black, and for the larger spiders, added in little dots of red to prove to the world that they are indeed evil, repulsive creatures...ha, ha! I put a brown wash on the talons and fangs. That meant I was done except for the flocking. That step was more fiddly than normal because my brush had to swipe in underneath the bodies and between the too many legs of the spiders.

    In the end, I was happy with how this big guy came out, though early on, I wasn't 100% sure

For the Forest Spirit, I wasn't 100% sure what colors I wanted to use. I decided to make it deer-ish. Not exactly like a deer, because it is quite clearly not one. However, I wanted it to not simply be random colors like purple and yellow or anything. So, I went with the brown color palette, with tans, oranges, and such. I used the highlighting color to tie everything together so the various tones looked like they actually belonged together...unlike the clothes that some people I know wear! 

As I was finishing the Forest Spirit, I sat back and looked at it. I thought it was just "okay" -- not great. I began to wonder if I should get creative and give his fur a pattern or something? Like stripes or giraffe-style splotches? In the end, I decided not to go to that extent. Perhaps I should have, though. I'd be curious to hear what folks think about it. I bought it kind of on a whim as it was in Beldolor's "misprint" bin at Origins Game Fair, where I have seen them the last two years. After I did the final brown wash, I feel it tied the color scheme together even more and I am reasonably happy with it.

        Another look at the drama in the forest better showing off my new photographic backdrop

I am not sure when these figures will see the tabletop, but they started the year in my unpainted pile and now they're done! Woo-hoo!! Expect more one-off batches like this from me this year, if I follow through on my pledge to reduce the lead pile. Speaking of which, other than with Miniatures, I am doing fairly well on the Painted vs. Acquired in 2026. But don't get cocky, kid! I go to my first convention of the year this weekend. And you know what that means....purchases!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 49

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 21

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 2
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 24

First Batch of Warhost 28mm Elves Completed!

    My next army for Dragon Rampant -- Wood Elves, using Warhost's 28mm metal figures

I am now officially on my way to painting up my second army for Dragon Rampant, 2nd Edition. I purchased these Warhost Elves from Badger Games awhile back and really like how they look. Definitely very Tolkien style elves -- or at least Peter Jackson's version of them! No punk rocker elves with mohawks here...ha, ha! I'm painting them in batches of eight because, well, they come in blister packs of four figures. Sure, I guess I could mix packs together to be able to do my more comfortable six at a time, but since the bulk of the army is foot figures, groups of eight shouldn't be too bad. I hope!

    I really like these sculpts -- very much in the line of how I envision 'Tolkien elves' -- not GW ones!

After cleaning the figures of the very little flash on them, I epoxied them down onto their bases. It was nice to be able to skip the "messing with weapons" step here. Of course, they're archers, so you have to expect they're going to come with their bow and arrows cast on! I proceeded straight to the priming stage with my usual Liquitex White Gesso -- thank you, Jason, for introducing this to me awhile back! It does a nice job of providing a good surface for paint and even hard-to-cover-with colors work well with a first coat most of the time.

    It looks like green is going to be the operative color for my Wood Elves -- I have a dozen-plus shades!

And speaking of colors, I decided that green was going to be my operative color for my wood elves. I pulled out every green I owned and lined them up on my desk. Then I went into my closet for my overflow or restock paint collection. I pulled out new ones that looked like a slightly different shade and weren't represented on my paint racks. Once the lineup was done, I closely examined the miniatures. I noticed they appear to have an inner long-sleeved tunic and a long, flowing outer vest. I decided that with this batch, I would use lighter shades for the inner tunics and darker shades of green for the outer ones. Yes, it was going to be green on green "blend into the woods" plan! I decided that any accents or equipment colors would be painted in various shades of brown and tan. At least that is how I am envisioning them at this stage!

    Most of the figs have helmets and half of them have scale or banded armor which I painted gold

First, though, was the flesh. I painted their skin with a much paler flesh tone. I still used the ruddy wash I normally put over Caucasian skin, but I made sure it was a light application. I liked how it looked after it dried. It was still paler than my standard humans, but the wash gave definition to the folds and shadows on the face and hands. I had thought about not doing the wash at all, but didn't want my elves to look like they were corpses! Plus, my all-time favorite Tolkien artist, the Brothers Hildebrand, doesn't portray elves as ghoulishly white-skinned. In their paintings, elves always have a healthy flesh tone. Hopefully, these figures end up replicating a Brothers Hildebrand look! The next step was to paint their helms and armor. One pack of four was wearing scale or banded armor underneath their vests. I base coated it with a craft paint called Gunmetal Gray that is very similar to the Iron Wind Steel that I normally use. It is slightly lighter, though. Over that, I painted a craft paint gold highlighted with an even brighter shade of gold. Skin and armor were done!

    I don't think I went overboard on decorating the long, outer vests the archers are wearing

Next, it was on to their clothes and lots and lots of greens! I painted the under tunics first, setting out the first eight shades of green that I would use and placing a figure next to each paint bottle. Once done and dried overnight, I dry brushed them either in very pale greens or white. Then it was on to the long vests. I picked out a nice contrasting shade of green for each and placed it behind each miniature. Same plan here -- base coat and then dry brush the next day. I was quite happy with how my green on green looked after both colors were applied and dry brushed. I figured that I may as well do the hair next, since these Warhost elves have long, flowing "rock star" hair (but NOT punk rock star hair!). I used four different shades of yellow for their blonde hair, ranging from a very pale yellow to a strawberry (almost red) blond. Each was highlighted in a lighter yellow shade.

    Another look at all 8 figures in front of a backdrop of forest & mountain that I had printed

Next, it was on to the pants and shoes/boots. I switched to a brown palette here, using various shades of beige or tan for the pants or leggings. The shoes were done in either gray or a medium or darker brown. The next day, dry brush highlighting finished off those parts of the miniature. Now, it was back to those green tunics. Early on, I decided that I was going to put decoration on the vests. For most, I simply added a border in various colors (not all greens!) and then added contrasting dots. These were done with paint rather than my micron pens. After doing their belts, it was time to do and decorate the quivers, sword sheaths, and pouches. For about half of these I used micron pens, the rest were done with a fine point brush.

At this point, I think I realized that a batch of elves was probably going to take longer than a batch of orcs or goblins. I felt like I had been working on these figures steadily for a week, and I still wasn't done. I was close. The last things to finish off were the bow, arrows, and feather fletchings. I went back and forth on whether to do a wash on these. Elves always seem to be dressed immaculately -- not dirty and dusty. Maybe elf magic repels dirt...ha, ha! So, I decided to hedge my bets. I did a brown wash on the skin, hair, and lighter colored clothes or equipment. That means the green clothes are straight base coat and dry brush -- no dark wash. After I put the first layer of flocking on, I was happy with my decision. I think they look fine a bit brighter than my usual darker look for my miniatures.  

    Final zoom in on all of their inner tunics and outer vests -- how many shades of green can you see?

Speaking of flocking, I often go with a standard look for a force when it comes to flocking. I tend to stick with the same basic blended turf with patches of green grass, and then let the tufts or other base decoration define the army's ground cover. For the elves, I decided to go with one green grass tuft and one flower tuft. And lots of leaves! I had bought two new types of leaf base scatter at Michigan Toy Soldier, as well as getting two others for Christmas. They'll be on full display on the bases of my wood elves.

All in all, I am very happy with my first eight elves. Only about 50+ more to go...ha, ha! So, what else is on my painting desk right now? I am painting some Wargames Atlantic plastic spiders that I picked up from Firelands Wargames last year. I am also doing 24 Pin markers for my Vietnam games (though I doubt I will ever need that many!). Also on the table are three 28mm Vietnam miniatures that my friend Will brought back for me from Gringo 40s. They are two Vietnamese snipers and one U.S. air crewman  on foot evading capture. I really want to get the pin markers and snipers done in time for next weekend's Cincycon, when I will be running Surviving 'Nam twice. So, stay tuned and see if I accomplish that!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 42

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 21

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 2
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 24

Grisly End - 'Battered' Casualty Markers for the Bonefish Band

    My 6 orc casualty markers that I created with some of my 28mm 'Ragnarok' miniatures 

One of my quirks (that I freely admit) is that I prefer to have any markers that a miniatures game may require be "scenic." I want them to add -- not detract -- from the look of the battlefield. So, I hate markers like printed MDF tags that say, "Broken" or "Rally" or other such abominations on the tabletop. One of the few things you need to mark in a game of Dragon Rampant! is "Battered" status. This indicates units that have failed a Courage test and must attempt to rally at the start of their next turn to remove the status. 

    Close up of 3 of my admittedly rather grisly orc 'Battered' markers for Dragon Rampant

The obvious (if not the easiest) solution is to paint up casualty markers and plop them down in front a Battered unit. That's what I set out to do for the final batch of miniatures that I would paint for the Bonefish Band, my orc and goblin horde. The problem was that I didn't own any orc casualty figures. I would have to convert them from the extra figures I already owned. The second problem is the Ragnarok line of miniatures that make up the bulk of my army are 28mm metal, which is notoriously harder to convert than plastic. So, that would be step one.

    The hardest part of making the casualty markers is altering metal figs with wire cutters & such

I used wire cutters to snip a half dozen orcs off their metal bases and trim up any excess. Unfortunately, this resulted in a few feet becoming collateral damage. Oh well, now we know what wound made them into a casualty! I tried to re-pose the arms or legs so that they would lay relatively flat on their stomach or back, which was also a challenge. Next, I created rectangular bases for them and flocked them with my usual method. I set each figure down on its base and noted what leg, arm, or head was sitting up off the base more than it should. I built up the corresponding area of the base with tiny rocks and flocking so that it appeared the dying orc had rested his head or legs on a tiny mound of earth. 

    I posed the orcs with the raven fatigue markers I created with for my Saga Mongol army

I also wanted to model the enemy's killing blow, as best I could. Thus, two of the six orc casualties appear to have been speared in the gut or back. Three of them had one or more arrows sticking out of their chest or back. For these, I used my pin vice to drill a hole in the appropriate places on the miniatures. Then I took wire spears and trimmed them to proper arrow or spear length. I attached these to the model itself with superglue. Next, I used two part epoxy to attach the casualty to its flocked base. I added a tiny blob of epoxy to the end of each arrow shaft which I would paint as the feathers or fletching. 

    Most of the orc figs did not lay flat, so I raised the ground flocking to meet the figure in some cases

From that point on, it was all painting, much as I had done with the army proper. I used the same color combinations that I did on the Bonefish Band. I also wanted to make their wounds nice and gory. I painted the wound Iron Wind Metals Blood Red color, liberally splashing it around the wound, running onto its clothes or equipment, and the ground. Once the color dried, I added splotches of bright red to the parts of the wound where the blood would be the freshest. Perhaps I went overboard on the blood? Ha, ha -- you be the judge! After spraying the six casualty markers with Krylon matte clear coat, I had one final step to do. I brushed on clear gloss to the bloodiest part of the wounds to make them appear wet to the eye. Gory enough, yet?

    Another look at all six of the Battered markers - I will likely keep making these for each DR! army

Anyway, I made six of them for my army, which typically fields seven units. I think that should be plenty. If all seven units in my army are Battered at the same time, it might be the time to call the game...ha, ha! I am happy with the markers, and will likely do something similar for future Dragon Rampant armies. 

So, what else is on my painting desk, at the moment? I have five modern figures that I plan on being my "team" for solo games of Majestic 13. This game from Snarling Badger Studios features secret organizations that are quietly fighting a war against alien invaders, largely outside of the public eye. I think I will call my team "Critter Control"...ha, ha! They're supposed to be part of one of the rural, farm-centered organization. So, that seems appropriate humor for them to call themselves pest exterminators! They're coming along nicely and will hopefully be finished in a few days. I have also spray primed two medieval town buildings that I bought at ATC 2025. Hopefully, I will do their 50/50 black acrylic paint and water mix on their surface this evening. So, stay tuned -- lots happening here in February!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 29

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 2
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 24 

'Christmas Money' Purchases - What Have I Bought So Far in 2026?

    Spoiler Alert: A 2026 purchases from Hobday & Hicks and their Warhost line of 28mm Elves

To make things easier at Christmas for my elderly mother, we agreed awhile back that her gift to us would be money. That way, my brothers and I can buy whatever we want or need with it rather than asking her to run around time and find things for us. I found over the years, though, that I would deposit into my checking account and then kind of forget about it. So, sometimes her gift kind of just went into the general slush fund. To remedy that, I've begun making dedicated purchases (hobby or otherwise) and mentally ticking it off against the amount she gave me.

One of my first purchases of the year was a pair of 3'x3' cloth battle mats. I was looking for fleece ones made here in the U.S., and ended up going with Cigar Box Battle Mats. Since I seem to have settled on a 3'x3' playing area for my 28mm Vietnam games, I wanted one to use for that so that I don't have to keep using my 3'x4' neoprene one and blocking off the last foot. I decided to go with the one called The Shadow Deep -- obviously intended for the fantasy skirmish game of that name. I liked the dark green wilderness look of it, though, so figured it would be a good general purpose mat usable for a variety of periods. I'm not sure what material the cloth is, but it is not fleece. It has a bit more sheen and reflectivity than I'd wish, but it is still a good gaming surface.

About the time that I was shopping online for this mat, I had finished up the two medieval buildings -- the Duncan House and Watchtower. I loved how they turned out so much that I became interested in doing a medieval or fantasy town skirmish. Simultaneously, I began also  looking at mats that would be good for a nice city board. I ended up liking another "Shadow Deep" mat called Blood Moon best.  It has a good look of a crumbling stone surface to it -- not perfectly-maintained cobblestones. More of a decrepit town street, which I liked.

    Resin printed "Bullet Impact FX" from Green Stuff World for my Vietnam 'Pin Markers'

The next big purchases were part of a day trip up north to Michigan. My friend Mike S needed to pick up some painted miniatures from the amazing Ted Bender. The speed in which Ted gets entire armies done is mind boggling. When Mike told me he was planning on going north to pick up some figs, I pitched the idea of including a stop at the Michigan Toy Soldier Company. They have an amazing selection of modeling, painting, and basing needs, as well as carrying a number of figure lines and some rulebooks. My main purchase there that day was the Green Stuff World 22mm tufts that I used for my elephant grass for Vietnam. I also picked up a couple packets of leaf scatter for various bases to add to the ones I'd gotten for Christmas from Jenny. 

    'Plants & Vegetation: Xanadu' -- more resin pieces that I will try out on my next Vietnam figs

While shopping, my eye was caught by a couple other scenic items. Green Stuff World has started making what they call "Resin Bits" -- various scatter or basing items. Two in particiular caught my eye. The first was the pack called Bullet Impact FX. I felt these would make excellent Pin Markers for my Surviving 'Nam rules that I am writing. The next was a pack of tiny resin jungle plants called Xanadu. For my 28mm Vietnam figures, I would often glue on parts of plastic plants to the base. However, in gaming, many of these have popped off. Flexible plastic is notoriously resistant when it comes to being glued into place. I thought that maybe these resin ones would stay in place better for future miniatures for this project.

    U.S. Army Dog Handler from Gringo 40s -- I will be painting these up as gifts for veterans I know

And what was that about "future miniatures" for Vietnam? Well, I have a local friend who is a British citizen who goes back to the UK regularly for visits. I'd asked him to pick up some miniatures for me the next time he was overseas so that I could avoid the whole tariff and shipping expenses. My friend agreed, and I put in an order with Gringo 40s for some of their 28mm Vietnam figures. According to my friend Jim, they mix well with the larger Crucible Crush Black Sun range which make up the bulk of my miniatures for this project. So, I'll be getting some NVA miniatures to complement my Viet Cong, as well as some specialty ones that I needed like snipers and downed air crew. I'm also picking up two of their U.S. Army Dog Handlers with German Shepherd. I have two friends who were sentry or scout dog handlers in Vietnam. They came to my middle school's Veterans Day celebration for many years. I am going to paint one up for each of them, hopefully depicting them and their dog. I figured they'd appreciate the gift. To hear them tell their stories, check out my YouTube Veterans Recall interviews with Ed Reeves and Tom King.

    28mm Elves from Hobday & Hicks' 'Warhost' line -- I ordered an army of them from Badger Games

So, what else have I bought? Well, now that the Bonefish Band is all painted up for games of Dragon Rampant, I could buy another 28mm fantasy army, right? Our group is having a lot of fun with the rules. If I ever wanted to do demo games at a store or convention of DR!, it might be a good idea to have at least one other fantasy army painted up. Right?? Glad to see you agree! So, I went on a hunt for 28mm fantasy elves that evoke the Lord of the Rings/Tolkein mythos. No punk rocker elves for me! Someone on Lead Adventure Forum suggested the Warhost line from Hobday & Hicks. They are carried domestically by Badger Games, who I am a big fan of, too. Once I sat down and sketched out an army list for the rules, I couldn't resist going online and ordering them. They arrived yesterday as I am typing this. So, look forward to seeing some Tolkein-style elves on there, soon! 

So, there you go -- thank you, mom! Of course, these purchases mean that after a solid month of having a great Miniatures Painted vs. Acquired ratio, it was time to throw some challenge into 2026! Speaking of work to do, what else is on my painting desk? The six Battered markers (orc casualties) inch closer to completion. I have done the flesh base coat on the Crucible Crush figures for Majestic 13. And I plan on spray painting a couple more medieval buildings this afternoon, if the weather cooperates. These are ones I bought at Advance the Colors 2025 from Sword & Scabbard Games. Stay tuned -- lots more on the way!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 95
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 24

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 17

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 2
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 24 

 

Armored Troll & the Last of the Orc & Goblin Horde

    My final batch of armored orcs (plus an armored troll) for the Bonefish Band are done!

I am winding down the painting of my orc and goblin horde for Dragon Rampant. Here's the final batch (with one exception which I will talk about below). I've also included one of the Gripping Beast armored trolls in with these because I previously had only five trolls painted up. I wanted a sixth because a unit of Greater Warbeasts under the DR! rules is 6 Strength Points. This way, I can remove one figure for each SP loss. The other eight figures in this batch are armored orcs.

    One of 28mm armored trolls from Gripping Beast's Ragnarok line -- a heavy hunk of metal goodness

The troll (named Ogah on their site) was great fun to paint up. It thought that his chainmail, with its small plates of armor over the top on his chest, was a nice touch. I painted both those plates and his helmet bronze to give more contrast with the chainmail. I love the intensity of Ogah's snarling expression, teeth bared. His feet wrapped in strips of cloth are a nice touch, as well. I used the same skin tone recipe for him as the other trolls -- charcoal gray base coat, rain gray dry brush, and faint timberline green highlights. I also love the plates of armor bolted onto his huge shield, as well. Looking at the shield, I thought it just called out for a checkerboard pattern. That turned out pretty well, too. All in all, it is a great figure that will definitely be deployed in the ranks of the Bonefish Band!

    Closeup of 4 of the last batch of GB armored orcs -- these were a lot of fun to paint!

The armored orcs were simply more of the same that I've subjecting you to on this blog...haha! I certainly feel like I've painted up a lot of these boys over the last few months. In fact, I had very few unarmored orcs at all in this army -- mostly just the goblin archers. I will likely pick up a couple packs of unarmored goblins from Firelands Games so that I have some to use in games of Sellswords & Spellslingers. It's kind of funny, and so typical of us wargamers, right? I have way more orc and goblin figures than I need to fill out the ranks of my Bonefish Band, but I need to buy more figs...! To be clear, they aren't for Dragon Rampant -- they're for another game. But it still seems strange, doesn't it?

    Obligatory 'Shield Shot' with all of them lined up in a row -- I thought this batch came out nicely

I really like how the shields came out on this final batch of troops, too. I decided to add a second (or third) color on some of them. I'm still using the simple, tribal-style illustrations with my micron pens on the lighter-colored shield faces. On the darker shields, I brush paint the design -- the gaping skeletal jaws on one and the yellow moon on the other. I have genuinely enjoyed painting the orc, goblin, and troll figures in this army. I would have liked more variety in equipment. However, that's not Gripping Beast's fault. That's simply what my friend sold to me. Oh well -- the army is nearly done! 

    Are you sick of seeing orcs here on my blog? Well, other than some casualties, you made it through!

After this batch, I counted out my remaining orcs and goblins. I had only 15 left from the horde that I purchased from my friend Jeff. The final step is to take a half dozen of those remaining and create casualties out of them. One disadvantage of metal figures vs. plastic is chopping them off their bases is NOT easy! I have done that to six, though, and am in the process of creating the flocked base each will rest upon. They will be used to mark units that are "Battered" status in DR! This reminds me a bit of making Fatigue markers in Saga. Same idea -- something scenic on the tabletop instead of a random colored bead or other marker to track a unit's status. The remaining nine orc and goblin figures I likely won't paint anytime soon. I'll save them in case I need them for something special. As I said, I have PLENTY for my DR! army!

    Okay, I liked -- here is one of final look at Ogah and his orc minders lined up for battle

With this batch, I also finished more bases of elephant grass (Version 3, if you're curious). I have now used up all of the 22mm tufts I bought at Michigan Toy Soldier, with which I was able to create 14 total 1.5" bases of elephant grass. Hopefully, that's enough! So, what else is on the painting desk? I continue to work on those crashed spaceship sections. The base coat of dark metallic is done for all of them, and I am more than halfway through the dark red metallic accent color on them. After that, only the flocking will be left to do. They're scheduled to be used this Sunday in a Star Wars skirmish game using Space Weirdos. So, stay tuned -- more stuff is on the way!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 6
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 24

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 2

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 16 

More Armored Orcs for the Bonefish Band

    9 more armored orcs for the 'Bonefish Band' - my orc & goblin army for Dragon Rampant

Some of the miniatures that I bought for my Dragon Rampant orc & goblin army from my friend Jeff were primed or even partially painted. I held off painting them to make sure I had my own way of doing them down. When 2026 dawned, I decided to get them ready as my first batch of orcs for the year. I wasn't sure if I should start from scratch and repaint everything? Should I leave some of what Jeff painted "as is"? In the end, I decided not to re-prime them, but otherwise to mostly paint over them completely. About half had only primer on them, some had their armor done, while one or two were even further along. 

    These are from 28mm orcs from the 'Ragnarok' line by Gripping Beast -- I really love these figs!

Jeff had given spears to eight of the nine figures. The empty handed orc received a sword to even out the weapons some. For some reason, I decided to use white glue and temporarily affix them to cardboard squares, which is how I have traditionally held onto miniatures while painting them. For this army, though, I've been putting them on their round base and simply holding onto that. I honestly have no idea why I glued these to cardboard...haha! Anyway, the first step was to paint my base Walnut Brown flesh on the orcs. I followed that up with the two dry brushes of Raw Sienna and Khaki, and then went to work on their armor.

    Close up of one batch -- I like the orc with the 2-handed grip on his spear & snarl on his face!

It kind of pained me to paint over Jeff's chainmail he'd done on some of them, but I didn't want the armor of this batch of orcs to look different from the rest of the army. I have to admit, his armor looked nice, but I like mine with the Iron Wind Steel as a base coat better. I was also painting their helmets at the same time while doing the armor. I really do like the sheer variety of helmets that these Gripping Beast orcs from the Ragnarok line are sculpted with. I feel it really adds to their rag-tag appearance. This is probably helped by the variety of tunic, pants, and cloak colors that I use. No two figures in a batch tend to have the same tunic color (except for the warlord's bodyguard, who were painted semi-uniform). The same holds true for shields and even pouches at their waist. I usually use four different colors, mixing them up on each orc.

    Middle & orc on right had their shields 'brush painted,' while the rest were with my micron pens

While painting these nine figures, I actually got a chance to play my first DR! game with the Bonefish Band, as I call my horde. It dawned on my while painting that I really didn't need these figures to field the army. What's more, there are at least two more batches worth unpainted orcs and goblins in the drawer (if not three). So, why even paint them? Well, there's always the chance I may want to field two forces using my orcs and goblins for an evening of gaming. Not all of the Sunday Evening group have their own armies. If I have enough for two, I could lend one of them out, right? I like having nicely painted miniatures on the tabletop, and I'm pretty happy with how they've turned out! Especially in our skirmish games, all of the figures on the table are mine. So, why not paint all of these?

    Speaking of shields, here is the obligatory 'shield shot' of all nine lined up in a row

I did my usual "tribal-themed" designs on each shield for this batch, too. I was reading my National Geography History magazine recently and had to do a double take. There was an article about ancient scripts that have yet to be deciphered, such as Linear A, Rapa Nui (Easter Island), and early Elamite. They reminded me quite a bit of the Google Image I had downloaded with supposedly tribal patterns and designs. I may have to pull up and save an image of each of these scripts to use for future projects. They were all pictograph based and struck me immediately as being possibilities for future shield designs on some project!

    Close up of the last three orcs ready to create some mayhem on the battlefields on Sunday evening!

So, what else is on my painting desk? Would you believe...more armored orcs? I guess it didn't dawn on my how high a proportion of the miniatures I bought from Jeff were armored as opposed to unarmored. I know that I just said that I already have more than enough troops for a DR! force, but I may actually end up buying more figures from the Ragnarok line. These would be unarmored goblin warriors (not archers), though. I have only about half a dozen of this variety, and I need quite a bit more for skirmish games using Sellswords and Spellslingers. Most scenarios differentiate between goblins, who are less powerful, than orcs. I need more ordinary goblin warriors -- I DO have plenty of archers.

    Final look at this batch of orcs posed on my brand new 'Blood Moon' stone Cigar Box battle mat

I should go downstairs and count how many I have remaining, but I don't want to be disappointed. As much as I'm enjoying this project, I am just about burn out on painting armored orcs. Side note -- some of these may actually be armored goblins, but the Ragnarok line didn't do a clear size difference between the orcs and goblins. So, I am considering anyone wearing armor an orc, while those without or goblins. It certainly makes it easy to tell them on sight! I'm also working on some terrain at the moment. My next Star Wars scenario will involve investigating a mysterious alien spacecraft that has crashed on Tatooine. So, I am making a half dozen or so bases of crashed spacecraft sections. So, look for those soon!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 6
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 15

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 2

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 4 

Pack of Wolves, Dire Wolves, & Warg

    My first painted minis of 2026! Six Reaper Bones wolves, dire wolves, and warg

The first miniatures "Acquired" in 2026 were the first to be finished! I received three packs from Reaper Miniatures so that I could field a unit of wolves with my orc and goblin army for Dragon Rampant. All were from the Reaper Bones line. One was a pack of three wolves, the other two dire wolves, and the final one, a huge, menacing Warg. As you can imagine, they are three different sizes. The warg does tower over the others, but I think they'll still look fine together as a unit. Or perhaps I can substitute the warg out and put in one of the metal wolves I painted up awhile back for my first Devilry Afoot game. Those are closer in size to the pair of dire wolves.

        The Warg is definitely the largest of the six, towering over the other ones significantly (I felt)

The Reaper figs are plastic, but somehow I feel the detail was a little more crisp than I've seen on some from that line. I based them up first (having to create my own for the "alpha" warg) then primed them with Liquitex White Gesso. Unfortunately, I discovered when I opened the package that one of the tails of the three wolves had snapped off. I tried gluing it with Testors plastic model glue, but that didn't work well. When I began to do its base coat, I noticed the tail separate again. This time, I used poster tack to hold it in place while I did the dry brushing. Once that was done, I tried white glue all around the tail. Hopefully, it will dry as a hard shell, and with the spray matte coat, finally hold in place.

    The Dire Wolves were the in between size and look good alongside either

I pulled up a page full of Google Images of wolves (of course!), and picked out photographs that I would try to match each wolf up with. I wanted variety, so that meant six different colors for base coating. I had enjoyed the way I painted up the five beavers, raccoons, and fox: base coating all of the figures, but then finishing each figure's various dry brushing and details before moving on to the other. I decided to replicate that process with these six wolves. Essentially, they were done as a group up until after the base coating stage, and then again in the flocking stage. Otherwise, I did each one individually before going on to the next. I really like how that allowed me to focus on one particular wolf and do my best job matching his (or her) fur coloring with the photograph I'd picked out.

 

    The pack of three wolves were the smallest -- nice variety of poses among the trio

Wolves tend to have lighter fur around and under their snout, as well as on their undersides and legs. The darker fur tends to be on the middle of the back, running from their head to their tail. There also seems to be a pattern of how it moving irregularly down from the spine to their flanks. Each wolf ended up with two to three dry brushed colors and I really like the effect this gives. For all of the biologists who study wolves out there, yes, yes, I realize I mixed a few different modern breeds of them together in my pack. There are ones that appear to be timber wolves alongside gray wolves. Remember, these are being painted up for a FANTASY miniatures game -- not a museum diorama...ha, ha!

Once the pattern on each wolf's coat was done, I would paint the mouth Blood Red. Then it came for the black details. I did the edges of the ears, the eyes, nose, and their black lips. I also picked out their claws/nails in black. By the time I'd finished all of that, I could use a dull yellow to fill in their eyeballs. I then used a very light tan to pick out their teeth. This was one of the reasons I felt these Reaper figures had above average crispness. I could see the teeth in most cases. Finally, I Googled "Wolf+Eyes" to see how to realistically depict a wolf's eyes. 

    This "above view" probably does a good job of showing the relative sizes of the three packs

I think this "research" really makes the wolves look accurate. Honestly, the extra dry brush stages in different colors to replicate the coloring doesn't add that much time to the painting. I know it the old days I would just do one color base coat and one color dry brush. I would let the miniature say "wolf" rather than actually taking the time accurately depict its real coloring. So, if you want your animals to look a little better on the tabletop, take an extra 10-15 minutes to pull up images and add a few extra steps. 

I did my usual flocking for these six wolves, and they were ready to go! In fact, there is a good chance they will be used with a whiff of matte spray coat wafting about them. We are playing our first game of Dragon Rampant on Sunday. So, there's a very good chance they'll be on the tabletop soon. Also, it looks like the group is excited about playing the game and we will likely have 8 players. Yikes! Worried about eight armies fitting on my 8'x5' table I went out and bought a couple smaller tables of the same height and width aross to add width to my table. So, instead of 8'x5', our gaming area can be 12' wide, now. We will see if that is wide enough, though for 8 players on Sunday!

    The detail on these Bones figures was crisp enough to make dry brushing their fur easy

What else is on my desk? I have my next batch of orcs about halfway done. I've also have four bases of elephant grass terrain for my 28mm Vietnam games that you will see shortly. All they need is a final matte spray coat. So, looks like my blog posts for 2026 are finally underway!!

MINIATURES Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Miniatures acquired in 2026: 6
  
• Miniatures painted in 2026: 6

TERRAIN Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Terrain acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Terrain painted in 2026: 2

SCATTER Acquired vs. Painted Tally for 2026

• Scatter acquired in 2026: 0
  
• Scatter painted in 2026: 0