Draconis: Spring Clean 2023 and onward

First up are some Ninjas.

At the start of lockdown I designed a number of minis on Heroforge.

One of which was an homage to an old Ninja from citadel – the one with the pistol.

I didn’t want to do a direct copy, so designed it slightly differently.

A friend of mine printed it off for me, and while chatting online with him it came up that he actually had the original ninja that I was referencing – and didn’t want it ?

So, then I had two ninjas!

I knew that I wanted to keep with the original colour scheme from the White Dwarf page, so that meant I didn’t have the delay of debating colour schemes internally.

Out with the white spray paint!

The white spray (TT Combat) went on a little thin, so I had to touch up with brush on.

Then it was onto the Soulblight Grey shade and some drybrushing and highlighting to get the look I desired.

On the original ninja the picture showed the arms as bare flesh. However, when I tried this they looked rather odd and lumpen

I decided that it must have meant to have been clothed arms (the rest of the range had clothed arms), so I went back over the arm areas with a matching white for the cloth – and I feel that came out much better.

Then it was back to the new version, adding some more colour and flesh there too. I have used a light tan colour for his undershirt – but it doesn’t show up so well in the picture here.

Then just a few finishing touches, and the two ninjas – created many years apart – were done ?

I went with classic basing for the old ninja, and for the new one I based it to match some other ‘modern survivor’ type minis I designed at the same time.

At the same time as designing the ninja I also designed a number of minis on heroforge for roleplay characters for an ongoing WFRP game that I GM (and occasionally play in).

Don’t worry though Gerry – they are representative; we don’t play on a grid.

This one is a female wizard that my wife plays in our campaign.

I debated the robe colour for a while, but finally plumped for green.

Trying to get the model done quickly I used a green contrast – but wasn’t really happy with how it came out.

So, I got out the green paint and tried old school layering. I wasn’t sure if my skills or patience were still up to it – but I am reasonably happy with how it came out.

I worked on the base separately. This was because the model has quite wide robes that come close to the ground. Painting the base separately meant it was a lot easier to get to details on both the base and the model that would be hard to do if they were glued together at the time.

Finally it was a case of all the finishing touches.

I built up several layers from dark red through yellow to almost white for the fire effect (again, pretty happy with how that worked).

The book I initially painted brown, but changed that to a dark blue and highlighted it up.

For the backpack I used a contrast at first – but yet again I wasn’t really happy with the finish (perhaps the bright white base isn’t so good for a lot of these colours), so went back to my old Foundry paints and layered it up too.

Whilst I was still part way through my Deadzone project I was given a Lumineth Warband for Underworlds.

A friend of mine is a big fan of Underworlds and has a lot of the warbands, and happened to have a spare Lumineth one.

So, as part of the spring clean, and now that the Deadzone project is ‘complete’ it is on to these.

Like many new GW sprues the layout can be ‘all over the place’ with lots of small random seeming components.

I downloaded a picture of the build instructions, and then colour coded the four models on the sprue before cutting each off in turn and building them.

They went together pretty well overall – GW certainly seem to have fun designing their join lines, but it does at least mask a good number of them.

Then it was a spray white, in prep for some contrast and some light colours.

Another item for the spring clean is this group of lovely ladies – the Discworld Witches.

They have been on my painting area for too long now.

So by posting them up here it will motivate me to get them finished.

1st April 2023

I have been able to squeeze in some more progress on the Lumineth Underworlds warband this week.

For the colour scheme I had a rough idea of what I wanted, but no certainty. So I just starting out by putting a wash over the white armour panels and laying down some yellow contrast. To deepen the effect of the contrast, once it was dry I added some more contrast yellow, but just to the creases and folds in order to add some more definition. The Ironjawz yellow covers really well but doesn’t seem to have as much ‘contrast effect’ in one coat as some of the other contrast paints.

Then I went on to lay down more colours. Some pale blue and then some darker blue, including robe edging – definitely needed a smaller brush and thinned down paint for that ?

Once I added the gold I arrived at one of those points that I often get in my painting progress – the ‘this looks like crap’ stage ☹

It’s at this point that the minis often get put off to one side, and sometimes never see paint again…… but since the whole point of the Spring Clean challenge is to get on with part finished or not started minis/projects, then I decided that I would just push on through and see how they came out.

I would normally try adding a wash to bring the colours together somewhat, but with white and yellow that didn’t really seem like an option.

So – to have a mental change, up next I will work on the bases, then come back to the rest. I am hoping that if I can have a good crack on over the rest of the weekend then I may be able to finish them off by midweek ?

3rd April 2023

As mentioned before, I decided to crack on with the bases in order to get a change of perspective on the minis. I was able to work on these without too much ‘mental debate’, so it allowed me to just get some basic progress and keep up some momentum.

I did have an issue with the black contrast not liking the white spray…

Doing the bases gave me a bit more mojo, and I then was able to crack on with the Lumineth models over the rest of the weekend. Picking out the details, adding the spot colours, and of course – going back on things I had missed ?

With the minis almost complete I dug out my Milliput and magnets to get these minis magnetised for storage (since they wont store in a foam case very well without me having to cut up the foam – and they may still get stuck or be awkward then)

Then, with a few finishing touches that were a push on my eyes, the Lumineth Warband for Underworlds was complete!

6th April 2023

Thought I would post an update now, as I’m not sure how much hobby time I will be able to fit in over the Easter Weekend (hoping I may be able to finish these).

With the Lumineth Warband completed I have now turned my attention to the three Witches from Discworld. I picked these up as a present for my wife over a year ago, but only ever got as far as putting them together and undercoating them.

Spring clean – worthy minis to work on.

Initially I tried a varying drybrush of greys over the black, but wasn’t really happy with that. So I found a piece of art that I liked of the three witches (Wyrd Sisters, Paul Kidby) and used some of the colours from that as the inspiration for my planned colour scheme.

First up it really had to be Nanny Ogg’s bloomers – they set a cheery tone for the character ?. At the same time, I changed her clothing colour to a mid/dark blue, just because….

I also tried a dark green for Magrat’s dress – but yet again I wasn’t happy with how it came out. So out came my only other two green paints and the drybrush, and I was much happier with it (starting her hair helped too).

I’ll post up again soon hopefully  ?

11th April 2023

Well, I had hoped to get these finished at the start of the four day weekend and start into the next things.

Sadly I came down with a fever, which turned out to be Chicken Pox – and spent pretty much all weekend in bed ☹

Recovered just enough now to work from home – but also to finish these off ?

I had managed a bit more on them after the last update and prior to being taken out of action.

Getting a couple of layers of flesh tones down, and giving Granny Weatherwax a purple hue rather than the dark grey.

Then a bit of work on the broomsticks and bases – just enough to give it a bit of life ?

Then it was basically lots of finishing off – picking out the various packs they carry, shoes, bracelets, Greebo, fruit and leaves on the bases and such.

And now they live on a shelf in the living room, with some other Pratchett goodies

13th April 2023

Just a quick one. I found that my Warcry Minis (from my first project here) were getting damaged in their current storage due to all the long thin parts getting caught in foam etc. The spider dudes boss has already had two broken swords!

So I decided to magnetise them and store them alongside my Lumineth Underworlds Warband in a Really Useful box.

Out came the Milliput and magnets. The milliput was divided up into small chunks, stuck under the base and a magnet placed in. Then I pushed them down onto a flat surface to get the magnet flush with base level and nicely flat. Repeat the process and job done ✔️

Hopefully they will be much more secure in this ?

17th April 2023

Just a quick note to say that I am now working on another spring clean project.  But since the Star Wars Legion project is much larger I have created it as its own project.

I will post more up here again though, once I am at a break point of that project.

They’ve been out for a jolly jaunt

As a little interlude for this project I just thought I would post up some pics of the Witches on their Grand Tour.

Feel free to skip these if it’s just building and painting that you want to see.

Today the Witches were cruising the Yorshire coast,  bringing the sunshine with them.

For todays excursion the Witches headed inland.

First passing ‘The Devil’s Arrows’ – Nanny Ogg wasn’t impressed, she’d seen bigger!

Then a flyby of Fountains Abbey…. no fountains to be seen though

Finishing up with a quick, and precarious, landing at Middleham Castle.

Childhood home of Richard the third.

Where the other two dicks were Magrat wasn’t sure

Today the ladies landed in Lincoln for luncheon….. Nanny had heard they had nice sausages….

Well today the Witches spent most of the day flying up and down through the various displays of the Royal Armouries in Leeds.

They took particular interest in a large display of the Battle of Agincourt. (Possibly Perry minis).

Although Magrat wasn’t sure why people would be interested in tiny fighting men…. ?

Then it was a quick fly past of Sandal Castle, before home for tea.

Maybe with some avec.

For today the trio took a tour of York.

Passing the minster first.

They then swept through the Jorvik viking centre looking for hairy men… but found nowhere to land.

So it was off to Clifford’s Tower

The wonderful Witches are nearing the end of their grand tour now.

Today they stopped by Kirkham Priory, Pickering Castle, Helmsley Castle and Rievaulx Abbey.

Helmsley Castle:

While at Pickering Castle they did see some of the fey folk having their iconographs taken…..

The ladies are making their long way home now, looking for liquorice in Pontefract, cake in Conisbrough and a Princess bride at Peveril Castle.