Lord Edmynd Crownbeck of Crownbeck (and better Aegon the Conqueror pics)

I have completed another command style stand for my A Song of Ice and Fire gaming experiences. Here we have the crafty and conninving Lord Edmynd of House Crownbeck. Their words (not featured on their banner) are "A Trickle Becomes a Torrent."

The figures are all Perry plastic WotR figures, with a few modifications. The head of Lord Edmynd is from a Warlord Games ECW plastic figure of which I had a sample sprue. The horse is a Perry metal. The missive and seal the herald is handing him is scratchbuilt from paper and greenstuff.


Also, here are a couple better shots of my Aegon the Conqueror figure that I was able to snap today.

I hope you enjoy!

Ser Julien Grimlowe, Lord of Goldmoor

Here is the first completed command stand for my planned A Song of Ice and Fire gaming experiences (mentioned in my previous post) using my now fairly decent sized (c. 650 figures) War of the Roses collection. The characters are representing fictional minor houses who reside in the border region between the Westerlands and the Riverlands.

This is Julien Grimlowe, the young, arrogant and adventurous 'Black Lion' of Goldmoor. House Grimlowe's blazon is a barry-bendy of 8, or and gules, a lion rampant sable. Their words are 'By Tooth and Claw.'

The figures are all Perry plastics, except for the horse, which is a Perry metal (I wanted a more static pose that the plastics, unfortunately do not provide without serious modification), and Ser Julien's head, which is cut from a Foundry slinger from their now defunct line of Franks.

His faithful squire makes sure that the brash Ser Julien does not careen into battle without his helm, as the lord regards him with disdain. I like how this one turned out. I am working on incorporating more motion into my multi-figure bases and attempting to tell a story through their posing. It sort of began with this figure (posted in a previous post), my Edward IV command stand.

Here too are a couple shots of a portion of my War of the Roses figures in action, fighting at the battle of Tewksbury. The wife and I were play-testing a scenario I am working on for Historicon 2015.

The van and main close on each other. Richard is in danger of outflanking if only Somerset could navigate the 'foul laynes and dykes' on his right. Here Hastings and Devon stare at each other from across the field.

Edward's retinue has crushed Wenlock's mainward in the center of the field. Only a single group of levied array troops remains facing the enemy.

I hope you enjoy!

A Song of Ice and Fire character figures

In between paintings of large batches of War of the Roses figures (I have recently finished about 80 more), I like to spend some time refreshing by doing something a little different. I have been a huge fan of George R. R. Martin's ASong of Ice and Fire series since I first came across them about 8 years ago. It has gone on to become quite the pop-culture item in its TV incarnation as Game of Thrones on HBO. In my most recent refresher time I have converted and modeled some character figures from the series. Whether I use them for any gaming, the future will tell. I am planning to do a fictional campaign in a the aSoIaF realm using my WotR collection with newly made command stands and vignettes (more on those in coming posts), creating fictional houses to play out a regional conflict between local lords.

I thought I would use this space to post up a few pictures of characters I have converted and painted up.

"A ruler who hides behind paid executioners soon forgets what death is."

First we have Eddard 'Ned' Stark and his massive Valyrian steel great sword 'Ice.' The body is a Perry plastic from the WotR infantry boxes. The blade for the sword came from some old ridiculous fantasy miniature. The crosspiece is a bit of a sprue , and the pommel comes from a Wargames Factory gladius. The head is a plasticWargames Factory ancient German tribesman, complete with the trademark Wargames Factory 'mushy face,' as I like to call it. I think this is the least pleasing figure of the bunch, due to the bad face sculpt, and the coloring of the sword. I was going for a bluish tint but not sure I like the way it turned out. The Valyrian steel effect I later came up with looks better (see Jon Snow below).

"I think it passing odd that I am loved by one for a kindness I never did, and reviled by so many for my finest act."

Here is Jaime 'The Kingslayer' Lannister, (spoiler alert!) after his run in with the Brave Companions and his heel-to-semi-face turn). The body is once again a Perry plastic, the cloak is from the Fireforge Teutonic sergeants plastic box, the head is chopped from a Foundry Roman head that came stuck on a stake meant as a Germanic/Gallic decoration. The armor is polished looking I think, washed at one point with yellow to give it a golden-white appearance.

"I have won every battle, yet somehow I'm losing the war."

Above is Robb Stark, 'The Young Wolf.' The components are fairly similar to the Jaime figure, body by Perry plastics, cloak by Fireforge, and a Foundry head hacked off.

"There’s no shame in fear, my father told me, what matters is how we face it."

Jon Snow is almost entirely from the Fireforge Teutonic infantry set. There is a little sculpting done at teh back of the right arm to get it in the position I wanted. The wolf's head pommel piece was sculpted by me from Kneadatite 'green stuff'. The figure is decent, and I like how it turned out, though I wish the nose on the Fireforge hooded head was not so broad. It is a little overpowering for the face, and does not quite look as I would want.

Here we have a Targaryen of some sort. The armor is inspired by Rhaegar's at the Battle of the Trident, but I could not quite get the whole Targaryen sigil on the chest, so one dragon head will have to suffice, rather than three. This one is entirely from the Perry platic WotR boxes. The dragon on the chest was altered and fitted by me from a 6th ed. Warhammer dark elf shield decoration.

I hope you enjoy, and say tuned for the some pictures of my command vignettes I intend to use for the campaign.

S.V.B.E.

And now for something completely different...Reaper's Bones figures

I, like many others, backed the Reaper Bones Kickstarter campaign, and received my box of vinyl miniatures a little over a month ago. For the price, I thought it was a decent purchase, especially with a 12-year-old son who is just getting into painting. The figures themselves are nicely detailed for being made of plastic, though as one may expect, lack some of the definition of Reaper's metal figures.

The main place where I have been disappointed in the figures is in Reaper's lack of upfrontness about the impossibility of spray priming the figures with a standard paint (I generally prime with Krylon white primer and swear by its quality). This results in sticky figures that will never dry, as the vinyl which the figures are made from is not porous enough to allow for drying. I know that they say that you can paint them without priming, and this is true, if you don't mind a crappy paint job that uses super thick layers of paint and you don't intend on painting with washes.

So long story short the problem can be remedied by spraying figures with a paint engineered for hard plastics (I have used Krylon's Fusion line of paints). Or, if you have some that have already been sprayed with standard primer and remain sticky, hit them with a spray of cheap matte varnish. Alternatively, you can prime by hand; not for me as it is too time consuming.

So, what are some of my results from the figures I have painted so far? Let's have a look.

Here is a group of sci-fi hero types that I have painted to go together as a 'squad' of sorts. The group includes a female sniper with a giant gun and Reaper's typical gratuitously over-sized female bust, along with a big mechanical dude with an 'electro-sword.' I have never painted sci-fi miniatures before and thought I would give these a go. I have no use for them at all, so I have added them to my sale/swap page. If you are interested, make me an offer.

I have also painted up a unit of kobolds for my 28mm fantasy bad guys. Basing is not complete, but you'll get over it, I am sure.

For the price, these figures deliver decent quality. Just know how to prime them.

S. V. B. E.
-The Fox