The Coming of the Magi

Oh so close. You can almost taste the brandy butter.

That is indeed a Mantic Dungeon Saga door up there, and it is indeed hand-tooled. I haven't done much furniture this month. It always feels like it's piling up behind whatever else I'm painting, so I try to keep chopping away at it.

Bookshelf! I put a bit of extra texture paint along the bottom, to make it look abandoned and mouldering. And then did nice bright, polished bottles along the top, which rather spoils the effect. 

Well! Water effects included. There's more than I planned, it dried badly with all the gel creeping up the sides in a massive miniscus. So I put some more in and then roughed it up to look splashy before it dried. It's a hot water well, clearly, captured in mid-boil.

Chair! Throne really, I suppose. Moss added with Green Ink once I'd painted it. 

Now, I'm clearly aware that Stylus has out-painted me thoroughly this month, but I'm not going to go down without a fight. Taking a week's holiday in Tenerife didn't help me catch up, I have to admit, and as much as I could draw out the warband, it was never going to out-do huge packs of goblins. But I have managed a last burst of productivity before the Julbord starts up and I lose all cardiac function.

Reaper mini Thief! In a very non-stealth-friendly cloak. The gewgaw she's nicked is some kind of urn, you can't really see it very well in this pic.

Official Pathfinder Reaper mini Lini the Druid! Tiny model, this, with a hell of a lot going on. Not sure I quite managed to pick out her voodoo doll set, for example, although I was pleased with her hair. Dunno why she's got arrows, she doesn't have a bow. 

General Kas was over last month, we played a couple of evening of randomly generated Dungeon Saga with our own created heroes. Fun, although we didn't win a single mission of the ten or so we played against the AI deck. This was because I had the rules all wrong, it turned out, so well done me. Fun all the same!

Reaper Mini Paladin! Probably Antipaladin, with this angsty hairdo.

Reaper Mini Bard! The hair came out nicely. 

These four models are the all-girl heroes we used. I felt bad that they weren't painted, so got to it. Of course, that meant I was also honour bound to do some of the bad guys.

Mantic Goblins! Fun trying out the rules for these vicious sneaks. Much better than the Abyssals as villains, I felt, and much better models too. Looking forward to the rest of these. 

Warriors in centurion helms. Bit fancy for gobbos, no?

That's more like it. String belt and a bent spear.

Troll! We only fought one, on a level we nearly beat. And we would have made it, if it wasn't for the half-dozen rounds this bugger took to kill. 

Zombie Troll! It's been a while. A whole year, in fact, I was doing Kas's copy of the Undead models last Advent. He made the jump to the paint box at the last minute, really as a nod to last year's effort. Also because it makes a nice 'before and after' shot.

Much better shot of the Paladin, this.

 There is a reason behind today's title, of course, but we're not quite there yet.

Reaper mini Snake Demon! All six bendy arms of her, bless her reptilian boobs. Quite a large model, and as such, the Reaper plastic makes her appropriately flexible for a serpent lady.

I have no idea why I suddenly felt inspired to paint this, one of the Orcs from the 80s Fantasy Armies box set. I have nearly forty of them and no desire to finish them off. Yet here he is. Dead easy to paint, too, very blocky model.

 Having got that out of my system, I can finally get on to the main event for today.
 

Almost, anyway. There were some leftovers to get through first.

Another six original hybrids, plus one with a Tyranid Warrior arm. That's how Boneswords used to look in the 90s, kids, look them up.

So now I have a unit of twelve that I'll field in my never going to happen, relegated to perpetual box shelf. 

General Leofa's hybrids as well, the final three early generation guys.

And these little freaks, a pair of genestealer familiars. Creepy little bastards.

Who of course enjoy skull bowling, like their elders. I painted them much more red, as though they're still in some infant stage. Instar. Whatever the correct genestealer term is. 

And here we go! At last, the Magus himself.

I really like this model, it's a great design nod to the original artwork from the Space Hulk game. Jes Goodwin, was it? Corking stuff either way. I had to dial the facial glow back a bit, he was a bit Juggalo to start with.

This one, who had some equally stumpy old-school lead back in the day. 

And that's me done for Advent! Tune in tomorrow for the final door, courtesy of Stylus and his dazzling parade of Christmas Allsorts.

Get them, my minions! For I can barely walk in all these flouncy robes.