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.
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.
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.
Grinding through on my pre-IOSS lead of shame stockpile, I painted a couple of Demonworld Death Knights by Ral Partha Europe.
In general I try to have unique poses for my miniatures, and scrolling through the RPE webshop I found a couple single skeleton miniatures that were missing from the dozen-strong warband. In an effort for completeness, I got these ‘death knights’ just in time.
Switching to some miniatures painting, for some relaxation after risk of solo burnout.
Here are some Ghouls by Splintered Light Miniatures. I really love Ben Siens sculpts. Although these are true 15mm, they fit in well with my heroic 15mm as they’re non human.
Did a simple paint job, using a Pale Flesh base coat, washed with a Black/Blue/Green custom wash. Also played a bit with the base texturing, by just sprinkling baking soda over CA glue, which gave these cool effects of broken land. Sealed up with a satin varnish for a wet look.
With the summer becomes increasingly more difficult to focus on the hobby, with it’s heat waves and mental burnout after months of lockdown, I managed to get down and paint a couple miniatures. An Elf Thief with crossbow from Alternative Armies Hordes of the Things range and a Minibits (now Pendraken – odd that they don’t redirect the hyperlink) 15mm Troll (Which is actually a big orc compared to my Demonworld miniatures).
Unfortunately with the new EU customs scheme, I can no longer afford to purchase miniatures from non-EU vendors unless they have applied for the IOSS VAT scheme. To my understanding with this scheme I get to prepay VAT during ordering and the package will pass free through customs.
Thankfully Eureka miniatures has applied for IOSS and there are a few EU based vendors on 15mm that I can try out. Also I picked up a nice lead pile of shame beforehand, in order to be ready for the changes.
Three executioners from the Fantasy HOT line of Alternative Armies. Simple, older sculpt designs, but fun nonetheless.
I wanted to complement my regular medieval troops with more figures, so here come the Dismounted men-at-arms in kettle helms, mixed weapons from the 13th century range of the Khurasan Miniatures historicals.
I went with an olive green cloth and a simple red and white horizontal stripes on the shield.
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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