The Halfmen of Westfalia

A few months back, I was following the design and sculpting of some stellar fantasy halflings by Westfalia Miniatures when I was given the opportunity to obtain some sample casts.  Naturally, I jumped on the opportunity and a few weeks later I had the figures in my hands.

Westfalia has decided to go with resin for these figures, and while I am typically partial to pewter, I was quite impressed with these.  The detail was crisp, there seemed to be just enough bend to the material without it being either flimsy or brittle, and mold lines were very minimal. My young kids even managed to grab a hold of the figures and were playing with them for a while without my knowledge, and nothing managed to get broken. I gave the figures a good wash, primed them, and finally finished them this past weekend.

These really are lovely little figures, and they paint up quite easily.  The leader with the hammer seems a shoe-in (or should I say shoeless-in?) Tyrion Lannister.  If only there was an unhelmeted version bearing the likeness of Richard Dinklage...

In homage to the halfman, I painted these guys in typical Lannister colours.  I hope you enjoy them, I even got creative with my background! Westfalia is planning a Kickstarter to fund the production of a large range of these little guys, and it is set to start around Dec 16, or so I am told.

Here are a couple more shots for your enjoyment:

Draconids Kickstarter - 48 hours left! Lots of terrain unlocked!

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/524168246/rise-of-the-draconids

Just under 2 days left in the Rise of the Draconids kickstarter.  The pace has picked up a bit, and thanks to some rearranging of the stretch goals, we have passed a few today already.

Next up, and just a few hundred dollars away, is the fungal patch.  I think it will turn out spectacular with Eric's sculpting skills.  He does not have specific artwork yet, but he says it will be similar to some of the older D&D fungal forests, as in these pictures:

Should be great, lots of new unlocks to reach in the next couple of days.  Make sure to head on over to pledge for these great figures!

Shadowsea - Rise of the Draconids Kickstarter

This has been mentioned in my post a few days ago, but I thought I would highlight this specifically.

Antimatter Games is currently funding the production of some more lizardman figures for their draconid faction (along with a few other stretch goals).  The funding has unlocked the initially targeted figures, and with another 10 days to go, there is still lots of potential to unlock more!

Additionally, there will be a published painting guide by Eric Louchard, showcasing his painting technique using washes and glazes to bring out the best detail for these figures.  I have followed many of his tutorials, and am always amazed by the skill he possesses.  It should be a great resource to have in my quest to improve my painting skills.

Eric will also be sculpting the lizards, as he has sculpted most of what is currently available in the range.  He has already started on the draconid Royal Guard:

As with previous Antimatter KS projects, you can order figures from the existing range as pledge rewards, and they can typically be shipped within a few weeks.  I am looking forward to complete part of my collection of their figures - they are always a pleasure to paint!

You can check out the KS here.

Shadowsea Axibalan Coyotl Warriors

Time for some more Antimatter goodness, this time from some land-based Shadowsea figures.  These two sculpts were part of the original Cavalcade line of Dragonblood miniatures which were purchased by Antimatter last year when Cavalcade closed its doors.  Sculpted by the ever-talented Kev Adams, when I first saw these minis I knew I had to have them!  They are definitely some of my favourites from the Shadowsea line.  Just really great detail and character, and very fun to paint.  I made some heavier use of inks and washes on these, particularly with the feathers and the cloth.  The bronze and gold were painted using washes over a light primer which were then drybrushed with the appropriate metallic colour to help differentiate it.  I think ti worked out quite well.

In case you had not noticed, Antimatter is currently running a Kickstarter campaign, titled Rise of the Draconids.  If you had not figured it out, this one is primarily to fund the production of more lizard/draconid figures.  It is going quite well, with all of the Draconid starter set now funded and further figures as stretch goals.  There is a little less than two weeks to go, so feel free to stop by and pitch in!  The bespoke Coytol are available as rewards, so you can definitely pick up these beasties at a nice discount.  Check it out here.

Shadowsea Kickstarter relaunched

Recently, Antimatter Games launched a new Kickstarter campaign to fund the revamp (complete with new miniatures) of their Shadowsea skirmish game.  This is the sister game to the lovely DeepWars, set on the surface of the Underlands.  The rules will be updated to be compatible with DeepWars, and indeed both rulesets can be played simultaneously (which could make for some interesting games!)

Ever since I got into DeepWars, I have been nothing but impressed with the quality and detail of Antimatter Games' products. They turn out a great ruleset, with beautiful figures and great customer support.  The price per figure is a bit more, but you usually need less than 10 models for a well-rounded force, so it is a relatively cheap game to play.

The campaign has reached it's funding goal (horray!) but it is slowing down currently as they try to unlock stretch goals.  There is some really awesome stuff to be had, and some great deals available.  Some sculpts have been mostly finished, and pictures have been posted, which I will copy here:

To make things even better, Antimatter Games recently acquired the Dragonblood line of miniatures from Cavalcade miniatures, who are closing down.  The Dragonblood miniatures were the original miniatures sculpted for ShadowSea, so they are now available as part of this campaign.  Backers really are spoilt for choice!

Here's to hoping we can get some more backers in the last two weeks and unlock a plethora of new models from the stretch goals.  I really want those Sunless Kingdoms models :)

DeepWars Mini-Kicker ending soon!

As I type, there are about 16 hours remaining in the DeepWars mini-kicker!  There are still lots of miniatures to unlock, and you can get the product at a great discount off of retail!  The highest pledge level works out to about 40% off before any shipping charges (shipping is free in the USA).

The first stretch goal, the Dark Mariners Deepspawn Reaver Biomech already has some sculpting done, by the talented Bob Olley:

Looks great to me!  Here's to hoping we can clinch a few more pledges and unlock a couple more miniatures before this thing finishes.

DeepWars gaming mat finished!

The canvas gaming mat has been finished!  It was pretty simple really.  To refresh your memory, I started the mat here.  After the acrylic had all dried and I was ready to continue, I gave the mat a generalized heavy drybrush of med-dark brown.  This made it look more earth-like and less pastel-like.  After that, to finish it off with a suitably-spooky ether-lighting effect, I did a light drybrush of some aqua blue.  Then I trimmed off the excess bits of canvas.

The finished mat:

A closeup of the texture:

Finally, the only painted mini I have that has any aquatic themes.  Suitably out of focus for this picture:

It's Fish-Head from the Mordheim Frenzied mob!  I hope you like it!  I am eager to get some DeepWars minis in a couple weeks, and to get some suitably aquatic terrain...

Speaking of which, Antimatter games is running another Kickstarter!  Their last campaign, to relaunch ShadowSea, fell just short of its goal, unfortunately :(  So, the fine folks at Antimatter decided to run another campaign to expand the miniatures range for DeepWars.  They started with a lower goal this time, and have well surpassed that, getting funding for many new miniatures!  As I type, they are just shy of 13k raised.  The coolest thing though, is if they make it to 30k, they will build this terrain:

A wrecked sub!  How cool is that, and massive too!  Only 5 days left though, so they need some more supporters!  Why don't you check it out, and pitch in too!  http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/524168246/deepwars-guardians-of-the-abyss-mini-kicker