Sol'Kanar, elven ranger of Cormanthor

The second D&D character I ever had was a ranger. In those days the ranger was the only fighter that could wield two weapons at the same time and this was why in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons there were plenty of them.

My ranger was, and still is, a wood elf from the Cormanthor forest who even spent some time living in the elven fortress of Evereska. With him I played lots of adventures and also the second chapter of Baldur's Gate saga (Shadows of Amn) and both Icewind Dale games during my high school years and later. After a first cycle of adventuring (and some planar travels) he retired for a while, because i switched to a different kind of characters like spellcasters for some time. Then came 3rd edition rules (Dungeons & Dragons 3.0) and I chose this guy to approach the new game. Lots of tales again. Lots of enemies slain in the name of Rillifane Rallatil.

His name is Sol'Kanar, taken from a legendary creature of the game Magic The Gathering which has nothing else to do with my ranger. I just liked the name when i was a really young D&D and Magic player at the same time.

I chose a quite rare miniature (that came for free together with White Dwarf) to represent him: it is Aenur, the Sword of Twilight from Mordheim, the 1999 GW game. He was a high elf mercenary, kind of a swordsman. I like this miniature basically because of the cape and the sword, i found those things well representing the ranger fashion tipical of Sol'Kanar Fireblade.

I can't wait to play a new D&D campaign with him!

Alexei Draconis, cleric of Tempus

This miniature represents my very first D&D character which I created in 1992-93 circa when I was just a kid. At that time I used to play with an italian edition of the classic D&D boxed set and its expansions:

In the beginning he was a simple cleric, without any focus: the cleric was just a healer with some fighting skills even if he couldn't use any edged weapon; its "forgiving" nature of priest forbid him to make the blood run.  His name is now Alexei Draconis but in the first years was Alex of Dragons (which is kind of a silly name for a fantasy character but i guess that's how it goes when you are 7). With the shift to the Advanced Dungeons & Dragons rules set, this guy became a cleric of Tempus but still he bore a morning star or some other bludgeoning weapon. The axe came with the 3rd edition of the rules. Needless to say that all this memories make me really nostalgic!

Right now Alexei Draconis lives in Cimbar, a city of Chessenta (in Faerun, Forgotten Realms), and runs a big temple of good gods. He's involved as a NPC in my last D&D campaign. I wonder if I will ever make him go to adventure another time with a party of adventurers...
By the way, this miniature is a converted Guard of the Citadel (from Lord of the Rings range by Harlequin miniatures). Quite rare stuff, I guess.

Battle Masters Orc!

When i bought my Battle Masters box it was 1992 circa and i was just a little kid so i had no skill at all in painting miniatures. After almost 20 years i'm ready to paint all of that miniatures in an old school fashion, like the way they were painted at that time.
This is an orc which i'm going to use for my Dungeons & Dragons campaign. I painted it to make it look pretty much like the leader of the mob so i gave him some bright clothes and a magical weapon. I'm really happy with the highlights of the skin (50% goblin green + 50% sunburst yellow) and also with the GW's Burnt Grass that is invaluable on a rock base like this one.

Last Imperial Guard Tank Crew member!

This running guy is painted in the same way the previous were. The thing i like best is his green pants. Anyway there's not that much to say about him! do you like it?

Bretonnia: START!

I must tell you, my dear friends, that i decided to start Warhammer Fantasy Battles with Bretonnia since i have many knights from the 1996 boxed set of a friend. I'm really excited about this because of the painting challenges that are waiting me, I think Bretonnians are a big opportunity of having fun with painting all those amazing heraldries! So stay tuned!

BTW: today I won on Ebay the miniature shown above which is a classic metal Bretonnian duke on pegasus... sweet!

Advancing Valhallan Ice Warrior

This is the last Valhallan of this batch. Painted as usual, please just note the particular attention for the details. Nothing more to say, he's just a basic veteran trooper.

Another Valhallan veteran

I love this Valhallan Ice Warrior, the pose is pretty much like "ok: what's going on there?". I find him quite funny and suitable for a static command squad that looks the battle from a second line trench, giving orders or transmitting coordintates to the artillery batteries.

The colour scheme is the usual 34th Valhallan urban camo. Above, the regimental insigna painted on the coat right sleeve.

On the left sleeve it has been painted the squad number. Please note the camo roll this model bears, useful in case of heavy snow.

OOP Commissar into veterans 2nd squad sergeant

More veterans! This guy is an old commissar miniature, 1996 circa i guess, which i used to represent sort of "improved" infantry sergeant so, because of his veteran status, i thought it could be a good idea to replace the usual Valhallan Ice Warriors sergeant with something more sofisticated. I find it very suitable to Valhallans because of his greatcoat and his peaked cap makes him look pretty well like a hardened commander.

His pistol is a now almost disappeared hand flamer which i think is only available to Battle Sisters and Blood Angels but i'm not sure. Anyway even if this isn't available anymore to Imperial Guard, i chose not to replace it because of the beauty of its aquila marking on the side and the rarity of this OOP miniature.

Another Imperial Guard Tank Crew guy!

Welcome back!
This guy is basically the same than the previous one, except he is standing instead of kneeling and he's armed with a lasgun instead of a laspistol. It is quite clear to see what i was telling you before about the black "armoured corps" vest, which makes him quite "panzerdivision" looking. Beside of that, his leather helmet and his black leather boots give him a Soviet taste.

I painted of course a squad patch on his left sleeve.

Valhallan veteran!

One more painted veteran! This time a Valhallan Ice Warrior, the one with the rebreather. I already painted this kind of Valhallan trooper so i tried to make him look a bit more different adopting a slightly different camouflage scheme, darker in comparison to the other miniatures i painted last year. also i introduced a fourth level of highlighting and i must say that i really like how it came out, do you?

Look at how the coat colours and the base colours are blended together but somehow the model manages to stand out and look bright!

OOP Imperial Guard Tank Crew, limited edition

I'm particularly proud of these miniatures: this is one of the three members of the Imperial Guard tank crew that i own. These models came out in 1999 when, with the first 3rd edition codex, you could give tanks a piece of equipment called Crew Escape Mechanism meant to save a D3 members of tank crew in order to avoid losing completely the Victory points of the tank. Very fancy wargear, i wish i could buy this right now for my Russes (i deploy three). These miniatures were available only from GW Mail Order so this made them pretty rare stuff.

I decided to use these three models because i wanted to give my army kinda "survivor" feel, like if it has been deployed for a really long time, so starting from the day this guy lost his tank, i got attached to a veteran infantry squad to allow him to go on fighting.
The colour scheme is a bit different from the other veterans: the trousers are the same but the jacket is, instead of grey-black urban camo, plain black to represent his status of elite tank crew, pretty much like the way WW2 Germans did. In fact in my army i painted tank crews from Leman Russes or artillery with a black vest while the Chimeras' crews just plain olive green (quite Soviet looking).
Anyway, i really love the way i painted the potentiometer on the laspistol! looks like it is glowing in the dark!

Cadian veteran!

I began to paint seriously all of my guardmen: this is the first of the first batch. the camo scheme is the usual urban camo made of medium grey as main colour and black stripes.

Right now i'm using Vallejo game and model colours and for the grey i combined:

• German grey
• Basalt grey 
• Cold grey

Black stripes are painted with:

• Black
• German grey
• Black wash or Lifecolor's Panzer Uniform instead of German grey

 Green fatigues are painted with:

• Yellow olive
• Cayman green
• Camouflage green

I'm particularly happy with the red patch of the squad's number on the left shoulder. This make my guardsmen really tidy, very clear to understand who is who on the battlefield!

Command squad part IV

Fourth and last meltagunner: this one is Animal from Schaeffer Last Chancers. quite rare miniature, out of production of course even if still available from GW mailorder i guess. its rarity is why i've decided to include it in my Valhallan command squad even if it doesn't make much sense to make an almost naked man to walk into a snowy environment. i imagine this guy like a prisoner of war used by the other members of the squad like human shield and/or expendable soldier when the firefight gets tough.

 

this was the last command squad member so that's all for now! see you in a couple of days!

Command squad part III

Third meltagunner of the company command squad, classic Cadian trooper! i love these models, i think they are much better them the actual Cadians which are kind of toy soldiers with those huge helmets and that vest quite looking like a skirt. i know, plastic models are much better to convert and i'm agree (in fact you can get great troopers with converted cadians, just swap their heads with something better!) but this classic metal stuff has a lot more of charme.

Orlando's Dire Avenger

Following the exarch shown some time ago here, now we've got a trooper from Orlando's Dire Avengers squad. I'm not sure but looks like the right arm has been converted somehow in order to keep the shuriken rifle upwards. The left hand bears an imperial combat knife (don't know if catachan or from space marine scouts) painted like a magical/powered/whatever blade. i really like the soft purple gradient.

The colour scheme is the same of the exarch, so blue for the armour and red/green for the crest, representing the craftworld colours.

Command squad part II

 

This is the second veteran from my company command squad, this time a Valhallan. The meltagun has the usual wooden finish and the coat is painted with the standard Valhallan 34th regiment urban camo scheme.

He is very similar to the rest of the army which is composed of veterans (i deploy no platoons) so there was no reason to paint him differently. i am not sure but maybe i'll paint a patch on the left sleeve to show his command designation.

Command squad part I

There are many ways to play an Imperial Guard Company Command squad. Personally, i like to exploit the most the ability of the officier to issue orders like "Bring It Down!" so i chose to equip the veterans that escort my officier with meltaguns.
Since i play Valhallan Ice Warriors, which are made of metal, i would have 4 identical melta gunners so i decided to build up a squad with troopers from many different regiments and paint all of them in the same way to give them some chromatic coherency, even if they are not look alike at all. The first of these is this Catachan melta gunner that has been modified with Space Marines Scouts shoulder pads and some milliput to sculpt a flak armour (previously shown here). i also added a backpack to make him look like a sapper.

I painted him in the usual way, so Command designation on the right pad and chevrons on the melta bombs and grenades. i didn't add any snow, yet.

Orlando's guardians

Sorry for the huge delay, i had a tremendously busy schedule! i hope to relax and be able to sit back for a while.
These are Orlando's guardians, painted with the usual Kaelis colour scheme. they are the usual plastic guardians that came out in 1999 with the 3rd edition codex.

 

As you can see every gem on this model has been painted in different colours from the others giving this guardian a really unique feel and a degree of attention usually dedicated only to independent characters.

Following, group shot of the rest of the squad. The colour scheme varies in order to give a heterogeneous feel to the squad

More to come! this time i swear this is the truth!

Orlando's Dire Avengers Exarch

so, as announced, we've got the first guest post!
this is an eldar Dire Avengers Exarch (1993 circa) painted by my dear friend Orlando! the colour scheme is dominated by the usual blue for the armor and white for the helmet. the crest and the cloth have been painted with the craftworlds Kaelis colours, green and red, as well as the rear side of the flag which displays the craftworld rune, while the front side is painted blue with Avengers' rune. as you might imagine, the flag comes from the Dire Avengers plastic kit. it gives a really oriental feel and recalls the way aspect warriors were painted during the early 40k 2nd edition.

the Diresword has been painted with a really smooth gradient from light yellow to wine red (i guess bad moon yellow to gore red) with lots of washes. as you can see there is plenty of gems on this model, painted in many colours.
in my opinion, Orlando painted this miniature in a really proper way, i mean: the way it could be painted in 1993 and i like it a lot!
so i think this is a really great work, in fact this miniature must have won something in some 40k tournament, like best single miniature.
more to come!

Maybe back (from the warp)!

i'm sorry for this very long hiatus, i had to manage lots of changes in my life. briefly: i changed job and i moved to Switzerland due to this, had to find and furnish a flat, split up with my long term girlfriend and totally changed lifestyle. what a mess!
my new job leaves me a few free time, not enough to keep an acceptable pace of miniature painting so i tought it could be a good idea to host some friends on this blog, just to keep the thing alive and give people the opportunity to show their works and maybe receive a bit of feedback from you guys out there. so, every picture you will see with the label "black/red painting guest" will not belong to me. stay tuned for further update, which will happen soon, i swear!

PS: the fact that i'm pretty busy doesn't mean that i'm going to stop painting :-) don't worry!