When Projects 'Drag On'

I previously mentioned that I wanted to add a little something to my D&D Villains cast for 7TV...I may have lied about the 'little'.

This is Marduk the Tyrant from Archon Studios, a model I picked up from the UK Games Expo in 2024 as it clearly bears a significant resemblance to Tiamat from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon (fun fact: Tiamat and Marduk are both figure from Babylonian mythology).

Obviously, there are a few differences, including the Archon model not having the same body shape as Snarf from Thundercats.

She was a third-party antagonist in the show who was equally an enemy to Venger as to the children. She also had a multi-tonal voice which suggest that she smoked too much.

I built the model almost as soon as I got it back home and the model went together really well, and encouraged me to potentially pick up some more of the Archon models in the future.

I then set about painting, using mainly contrast paints, with a little dry brushing and highlighting for good measure. However, I ran out of steam after getting base coats on as I think I became a bit daunted by the heads.

With hindsight, I should have left all but the central head off the model and painted them separately, as I had a bit of a nightmare getting contrast paint into all the books and crannies around the necks.

If you are picking up this model for yourself, sub-assembly is you friend.

However, having painted up the other Villains, I felt I really out to get back to Tiamat.

I sorted out the red bits of the main body I'd missed before giving the whole model a Mephiston Red dry brush. I then approached each head one at I time, breaking the project into doable chunks until she was done.

Here she is with Venger for scale.

I pleased to have go her done and I'm pretty sure I can put together a decent sized cast to attack Matt's D&D kids with. I'll just have to come up with a very thin excuse for all these Villains who hate each other to have teamed up.

Acquired: 76

Painted: 132

Lead Mountain: 692

Forgotten Foes

In 1983, as Dungeons & Dragons was entering mainstream consciousness (in both positive and bizarrely negative ways), both a cartoon series and a toyline were commissioned to capitalise on the growing success of the game.

Unfortunately, these two franchises didn't really communicate with each other, leading to the confusing (for 7 year old me) situation where what I was watching on TV bore no relation to the toys I was playing with.

The collection of villainous miniatures I've painted this week reflects this somewhat uncoordinated merchandising strategy.

You can tell their villains. They're all dressed in black and red.

The miniatures were kindly printed for me by Matt when he was printing his 7TV cast, the kids from the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon. He'd picked up the STLs somewhere along the line and he did a whole batch and passed on the villains to me.

I think he'd admit that these sculpts were somewhat problematic to print and there was more than a bit of tidying up to do, particularly with regard to missing fingers, and I believe that Shadow Demon didn't survive at all.

The most recognisable of the bunch is obviously Venger, both foot and mounted. The primary antagonist of the cartoon series, a terrifyingly powerful dark sorcerer with jefions of minions  and perpetually in pursuit of the magic weapons held by...checks notes...six children.

These sculpts frighten me. Not just because it's Venger, but because the wings are incredibly thin and fragile. In fact one of the mounted model's wings broke whilst the supports were being removed and has been fixed with liquid greenstuff and blind hope.

The model on foot just needed a new index finger.

Kelek the Sorcerer has the unique honour of fitting in three separate categories in this group. He was part of the original toyline, he featured in a grand total of one episode of the cartoon series, and he's the only one of the bunch that I owned a toy of (if you're interested, I also had Warduke, Strongheart, Ringlerun, Elkhorn and Melf/Peralay - a pair of Gamorrean Guards served as Kelek's pig-faced Orc minions.

Zarak is an assassin. He's also technically a Half-Orc whose about the size of a Goblin. Apparently, back in the early editions of D&D Half-Orcs were quite short, although given that their average size is 5'6", Zarak is still short.

That's probably what turned him into a villain.

Like Kelek, he was part of the original toyline, but he didn't make it onto TV outside of commercials.

I had to replace his left hand due to the aforementioned finger issues.

Skyllar the Witch is an even more obscure character than Zarak, as she didn't even make it into the action figure range, but did get featured in a smaller scale monopose range of toys from the same time.

She's technically the apprentice of the hood wizard Ringlerun, but was corrupted by a magic item called the Heartstone.

Anyway, I needed to give her a hand swap as well.

Here's the group stood with Warduke, who I painted several years ago. Although Venger is arguably the most famous D&D villain of all time after Hugh Grant, the others did get their time in the sun. They were featured as special characters in The Shady Dragon Inn supplement for D&D and have continued to feature in adventure supplements down the years since.

So it seems I now have a good chunk of a D&D themed 7TV cast. If only there was someone I knew who has an era appropriate cast of magic item hoarding small children I could harass.

There's just one 'small' addition I'll need to make first...

Acquired: 76

Painted: 131*

Lead Mountain: 693*

* Stats watchers might be wondering, but I've also painted three more street tiles for my Carnevale board. They're in the pictures if you look carefully.

Fun Guys

I had a bit of a super glue issue over last couple of days. I used a rather large amount of it securely sticking together a rather chunky miniature that's in the pipeline and I ran out.

This, and the fact that not one but two gaming stores had also run out forced me, at least for a day or two, to turn my attention to something that did not require sticking together.

Which all led to these chaps...

These are three Reaper Bones Mushroom Men that I bought a few years ago to be part of a 7TV: Fantasy cast for an event.

I ended up changing my mind about the cast and taking He-Man and chums instead, but not before I had base coated them and slathered all three in Agrax Earthshade.

I suspect that this might have been the cause of the change of heart as the Agrax Earthshade had dried shiny and dulled the colours.

Therefore, my first order of business was to sort that out by giving the models a coat of matt varnish, dry brushing the bodies and redoing the red on the caps. I also used some Snakebite Leather contrast paint to pick out the fungal growths on their backs.

Can fungus grow on fungus?

The leader, a Mushroom King apparently, took a bit more work, mainly because he's bigger.

However, I did need to pick out moss on his cap, along with vibes and other fungal growths on his staff.

I suppose I could have been a bit more varied and imaginative with the colours I used for this, but as I'm not really painting these chaps for any real reason, I didn't feel the need to go to town on him.

Personally, I think he's turned out fine for whatever I end up using him for.

The original plan was to add these three as stars and co-stars to the Mushroom-Folk I'd painted as a proxy Halfling Blood Bowl team (the Mushington Redcaps) and use them as a 7TV cast, and in fact I took the opportunity to brighten up the rest of the models.

I could still use them as a Blood Bowl team, with the new models as a wiizard and couple of cheerleaders. Alternatively, they could easily feature in a game of Five Leagues from the Borderlands, or they might come in handy if I ever DM some D&D again.

Whatever happens, you'll be delighted to hear that I now have more super glue.

Acquired: -124

Painted: 466

Lead Mountain: 251

Gnome Alone

I had a package arrive this week which encouraged me to take a short break from trudging through my War of 1812 backlog and prompted me to make a bit of progress on some other overlooked projects.

For those with aging eyes, that's a Gnome on a fishing boat by a jetty.

This is a rendition of my character in a D&D campaign I've been participating in for a couple of months: a Gnome Rogue called Waldo 'Nimblefingers' Redcap.

The miniature is a Garden Gnome Assassin from 3DResinprintstore on Etsy - a seller I highly recommend you check out as they have an eclectic range of reasonably priced miniatures available, delivery was really fast (and free in the UK) and the print quality is excellent.

The sculpt is really charismatic and simply done, without lots of extraneous detail to faff about with. This is exactly how I like miniatures as it leads to a more chilled out experience and I put a bit more time into highlighting than usual.

This is the first resin 3D printed miniature I've bought and I'll be honest, considering the price and quality of this I can for the first time see the existential threat 3D printing potentially represents to traditional miniature manufacturers.

I'm not sure I'll ever start printing for myself, but my head has definitely been turned towards Etsy when hunting for something specific.

Having said that, there will always be a place for tradition shopping in my heart as I stumbled on this Wizkids Deep Cut boat whilst browsing in Patriot Games, one of several FLGS in Sheffield (we are really well served here).

I've been wanting a boat as a piece of terrain for the second scenario for Lurkers from the Deep for 7TV and the larger Wizkids pieces are hard-wearing and easy to paint.

I figure this won't look out of place in Carnevale or other 7TV Fantasy games either.

Painting the boat also nudged me into getting these MDF jetties from Warbases done at the same time. I've had them a while, bought specifically for Lurkers from the Deep, and I think I might actually get that game played soon.

Easy to build, easy to paint, lots of potential uses. Winner.

Another healthy bit of progress made, and I haven't totally ignored the War of 1812 project either, but as Napoleonics are the very definition of extraneous detail on miniatures, things are moving somewhat slower.

Acquired: 116

Painted: 184

The Boba Fett of D&D

Warduke - from the D&D cartoon and toy line. 

Why do I say he's the Boba Fett of D&D? Because he looks so damn cool!

And you thought I'd exhausted every Saturday morning cartoon of the 80s?

Sorry to disappoint.

I hadn't intended to start a D&D project, but, well, look at the guy!

I had the toy version of Warduke, along with several others of the line, and was utterly bemused as a kid when only a few of them (Warduke, Strongheart and Kelek) turned up a maximum of once each in the cartoon series, and some (Elkhorn, Melf and Ringlerun) didn't show up at all. Instead it focused on a bunch of snivelling kids!

When the opportunity came to grab a fantastic custom sculpt of Warduke, I jumped at the chance.

The model is excellent and was a joy to paint (even though I forgot to wash it and was battling mould release agent all the way). I missed the only noticeable mould line on the bare leg, but the shield covers it perfectly.

I love this model.

I'm also really pleased with how I've painted it. It's definitely improved my approach to painting blue.

He's destined to be part of my 7TV: Fantasy cast, when it's released. I have lots of other fantasy models, as you know, but the whole point of 7TV is recreating nostalgic TV and film, and so it's nice to do something specifically for it.

The only question that remains is whether to build a cast that evoke the cartoon episode Warduke is in: Venger, Orcs and Bullywugs (Antedilluvian Miniatures will help here), or to go hunting for proxies for the others in the action figure range.

Acquired: 25

Painted: 13