Adding some monsters to my Five Leagues roster. Here are two Battle Valor Stone Golems that I’ve painted in a different scene to look more like Earth and Magma Golems or Elementals.
For the Earth Golem I went with a mostly gray tone with brown parts, washed it with Military Shader for a wet look and drybrushed white to bring back the highlights. Added tufts of grass and static grass on it for a more realistic feel like it broke out of the ground.
For the Magma golem I went with an inverse zenithal. White primed then drybrushed black as a base. Then did a yellow paint, crackle medium and burnt umber overbrushing.
Also a Hulking Beastman from Ral Partha Europe Demonworld range that reminded me a lot of the classic Amiga (and PC) game Moonstone, because of its similarity to the Baloks!
Stone Golem painted as EarthStone Golem painted as MagmaHulking Beastman
Here’s three Battle Valor drunken Dwarves. I really enjoyed these sculpts, they have nice poses and will look good on the table. Also one Dwarian Spy from the same vendor. He looks more like a very big Halfling to me. Maybe he’s Bandobras Took’s relative. Finally there’s two dwarves from Minibits, one with an axe and one with a crossbow. Nice sculpts but quite big for dwarf standards.
Drunk dwarf with axeDrunk dwarf with aleDrunk dwarf with ciderHalfling spyDwarf with axeDwarf with crossbow
Here’s several random fantasy miniatures I’ve painted to complement my collection. I chose a few command packs from Battle Valor as they would be nice samplers. I didn’t use the banner bearers -except for the Amazonian below which I could turn into a spearwoman- and didn’t do the musicians either. They could find some use in KPS, but I don’t feel the need to do it right now.
I also mixed and matched the shields provided according to what I felt fit my desires better. So I used the Stygian shields on the Barbarians and the Amazonian shields on the Legians.
I went with a similar green colour scheme on the Stygian and Barbarians so that they look like they’re a unit, and a Hellenistic look on the Legians and Amazonians, for a similar purpose if required.
In addition to those there are a couple free samplers, one is a Falconian that I intend to use as a bird man in the coming 5L3e. I didn’t glue the wings on him as I didn’t feel like it would fit the theme I had in mind. The other is a Rhinocerian.
I painted also a ballista captain from a Museum Miniatures set. The dude is really big, like towering, but won’t feel off scale.
Then, there’s a couple of travelling Monks from Battle Valor. Big dudes as well for 15mm, but Battle Valor is known to have big miniatures. I’m not entirely with my paint scheme, for two reasons. The Naples Yellow Red colour that I used to paint their tunics is very close to the colour I used for their skin. Also after using the Army Painter Strong Tone and Soft Tone, I feel like my homemade washes give results that I like more.
Finally, I painted a couple of monster Slayers from Blue Moon Horror range. I chose a couple that are armed with crossbows and would fit the medieval fantasy theme despite their tight clothes.
Turning to the other side of the Atlantic, here are three Wraiths and a Werewolf from Khurasan Miniatures Fantasy 15mm range.
Here I’ve used my acrylic mat medium with a tint of black acrylic ink for the cloaks, and it worked well, so I’m getting to understand how this medium can work. The werewolf was a simple paint job where I’ve used Strong Tone wash on the darker parts of the fur and Soft Tone on the lighter parts.
Here are the 8 Elf Heroes from Alternative Armies Hordes of Things range, which I explained in a previous post how I had a serious case of varnish frosting. Linseed oil seems to have solved the problem. So since it’s dry, they can be used. I’ll wait a few months before proceeding with my solvent based varnish if required.
Elf hero with swordElf hero with swordElf hero with axeElf hero with axeElf hero with swordElf hero with spearElf hero with bastard swordElf hero with axe
Here are 8 Halfling Swordsmen from Battle Valor Skirmish Pack. Battle Valor has a bit chunkier 15mm miniatures. Even bigger than 18mm minis sometimes. Thankfully these halflings, although bigger than my Irregular Miniatures and Splintered Light Miniatures halflings, they’re still shorter than my Demonworld dwarves, so they’re plausible. Maybe they have some Stoor or Fallohide blood in them!
What I enjoyed is that they come with separate shields, so even though I got two double poses, with a slight bending of the sword arms, different colour schemes and different shields, they don’t stand out as the same.
Now to the painting part, I’m not thrilled with them. My colour choices could have been better, but also I tried two new things which could have gone better.
First, I experimented replacing water as my thinner, with acrylic mate medium. This medium was quite thicker and although it reduced opacity, the flow of the paint was not what I wanted (note: I’m painting with art grade acrylics). It gave a thick texture which I didn’t like. So it’s not good for regular painting but it could work well for making washes (noted for future reference).
Secondly I decided to try a commercial wash and used the Strong Tone instead of my homemade PVA washes. I’m not very happy with the result. The flow was a bit gloppy and oily and I felt like I had less control. Also it gave an overall darker look even at rises not only at recesses. I will keep it as backup or for specific uses, but I’ll return to my recipe for routine use. I also have the Soft Tone wash that I intend to try, maybe this will have something more akin to my liking.
Here’s a handful of Ratmen Warriors from Splintered Light miniatures, sculpted by my favourite Ben Siens. I didn’t use the varnish-gone-bad with these, and only used my mate varnish, hence their metallic parts are a bit less shiny (I tend to varnish the metallic parts satin, so they retain some glossiness).
These will make a good addition to my existing Ratmen personalities and zealots.
Ratman warrior with maceRatman warrior with knifeRatman warrior with swordRatman warrior with flailRatman warrior with axe
Where’s part 67? I’ve had some issues with the miniatures of pt67 and pt68. More specifically varnish frosting. I’ve handled pt68 much better, hence they’re ready for photography before pt67, but let me explain.
What is varnish frosting? It’s a dreaded effect that causes varnish to dry in a semi opaque white colour instead of transparent clear.
Why does it happen? generally it happens mostly with spray can varnishes when they’re used in cold or humid weather.
I’m using a brush on water based varnish, so in my case the fault was entirely mine, and the most probable root cause quite different. I’ve been using this bottle of varnish for quite some time, and has almost emptied, and part of the remaining varnish at the bottom had started becoming dense.
I foolishly tried to salvage that part by adding some water, considering that it’s a water based varnish and also that I thin my varnish with water during application for a thin film layer.
This must have ruined some properties of the varnish by either changing the ratio, or reactivated only some part of the varnish ingredients, with some other substances changing in chemistry or evaporating altogether. I’ve come to this conclusion because I never had any issues with this particular varnish until then. And I verified it because it happened in the first set of minis (pt67) and when I used it again in this set.
How did I try to fix it? So at the elves of pt67, I was stressed when I noticed it, and started searching frantically online for a solution. Unfortunately I went with the first solution I found which was the use of a very thin layer of olive oil applied with a cotton bud. It worked! Frosting was like 80% removed! But… olive oil is a non drying oil. Meaning it will remain forever liquid, and go rancid. So I tried removing it, which was quite difficult because I already had applied static grass to the base of the miniatures. I removed most of it with warm water rinsing and carefully use of paper towels. After this, the miniatures had a matte semi frosted look, and some parts looked an tad bit oily. I put them aside and worked with my Hyenamen.
At the time, I wasn’t certain I had ruined the varnish, so I used it with the Hyenamen I got from Splintered Light. Ben Siens has crafted some excellent sculpts and it shows. Loved painting these, but after some time, unfortunately they had varnish frosting too.
This time I was ready to try something else. I considered my options, and although it wasn’t mentioned online, I decided to go ahead and try some clarified linseed oil that I had from my oil paints set. See, linseed oil dries hard. It cures by oxidation. It has some yellow tint, but doesn’t go bad, and it also provides an amount of protection because the layer is tough. So I applied a thin layer of linseed oil to the Hyenamen.
Before and after application of linseed oil
As you can see in my comparison photo above, the results are very good.
So afterwards, I went back to my not-salvaged-yet pt67 miniatures and after using some mineral spirits to further remove any olive oil residue, I applied a layer of my clarified linseed oil.
Linseed oil takes a few days, to several weeks (or even months!) to dry, so they’re not ready for photography yet.
A word of warning, is that after applying linseed oil, acrylics will no longer work on top of the oil layer. Maybe a thicker layer of oil paint if one wishes to paint on top. If you want to varnish, you’ll have to wait a few months and follow up with a non-water based varnish. I have a couple of these (it was a wrong purchase as these have smelly fumes – I thought was buying water based ones) and I may use them in the future. I have no worries though because my miniatures are protected from use as they’re varnishes already under the linseed oil layer.
So, without further ado, here’s my Splintered Light Hyenamen (or Gnolls).
Three more wood elf archers from Ral Partha Europe, Demonworld range, to complement my existing warband. I tried to paint the same colours as the rest of my warband, but I think I’m a bit off. I should write down my colour mixtures…
In the same concept as my extra skeletons, here are a couple Dark Elf Swordsmen from Ral Partha Europe, Demonworld range. I haven’t decided on the shield painting, so I’ve left it as plain steel for now.
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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