A few more of my Battle Valor miniatures. There was a mix up of my order it seems since I had ordered two different Dwarf women warriors, but I got one of them and a mystic. But this didn’t bother me since the mystic figure is beautiful. I’ve also added three Dwarian War Hounds without their handler since it’s not much usable in skirmish (have it haven’t painted it).
Here are a few undead minis from Battle Valor. A Decian Seer, a Decian Captain and a Decian Foot Captain. I chose the first two because they looked really cool as figures and the last because I needed a third skeleton archer (both for Five Leagues max archer number in skeletons and for KPS ‘3s’) units. They can work as skeleton leaders or Liches/Wraiths/Wights.
Here’s a Dwarian Warband from Batlle Valor. The two stone golems I’ve posted in a previous blog post, while I’ve also added two single figures, a couple of Dwarf bear riders.
I really enjoyed these sculpts, these dwarves have a round look to them, and they are all unique, no doubles.
It’s a command group (standard bearer, captain, musician), and three ram lancers, and four each of hammerers, axemen, swordsmen, crossbowmen, spearmen. I may have mixed up the shield of the captain with the bear rider slayer, but I can live with it.
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!
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.
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.
Stygian Captain
Stygian warrior
Barbarian warrior
Barbarian captain
Amazonian banner bearer
Amazonian warrior
Amazonian captain
Legian Warrior
Legian Captain
Falconian
Rhinocerian
Ballista captain
Travelling Monk
Travelling Monk
Slayer with crossbow
Slayer with crossbow
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 you can see some Battle Valor miniatures I got from the US. It’s a Frigian Foot Captain, a Frigian Assassin and a Legian Captain.
Battle Valor is on the bulkier side of 15mm minis, so they won’t fit with true 15mm scale, but they’re okay next to my Demonworld heroic 15mm.
My wash came a bit stronger and darker, but it gave them a nice look. They just need ample light to show it.
Solo, Pen, Paper and Dice 
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