Nancy's Harbor Cafe

Gnome Barmaid
20mm

So come take a drink and drown your sorrows
And all of our fears will be gone till tomorrow
We'll have no regrets and live for the day
In Nancy's Harbour Cafe

Look out, Nancy!  Some drunken wharf rat's made a horrible mess on the floor of her tavern!  She'll have to step carefully until her scullion can clean it up.  But she's seen worse; at least it's not blood and severed limbs... this time.

Nancy is a Bear's Head Miniature.

"All right, who ordered the owlbear stew?  And Korgoth, you're paying for that chair!

Canine Conjurer

Cornelius, Golden Retriever Wizard
28mm scale

Misty morning, clouds in the sky
Without warning, the wizard walks by
Casting his shadow, weaving his spell
Funny clothes, tinkling bell

A coworker recently showed me something pretty cool: she had backed the "Animal Adventures: Tales of Dungeons and Doggies" Kickstarter!  She recently received 13 lovely fantasy adventurer dog figures in the classic character classes: wizard, monk, fighter, bard, paladin, druid and so on.  Naturally, I offered to paint one for her: this classic magic user complete with battered Gandalf-style hat and spell books.  It's a really lovely set, especially considering they're plastic figures.

"All right, calm down there Shardik.  How about a nice Cure Light Wounds spell?"

Ursus arctos horribilis

Grizzly Bear
28mm scale

The bare necessities
That's why a bear can rest at ease
With just the bare necessities of life

Philip Hynes' animal sculpts are really incredible; more wildlife art than gaming figures, really.  I got this lovely figure as a miscast in my Bears' Head Miniatures order.  I just had to fill some large bubbles on its stomach and do some dental work.  North American brown bears come in a variety of coat colours, so I had a fair bit of leeway in that regard; this reddish hue was a purely esthetic choice.

The base is an ambitious improvement on my old "Italian seasoning forest base" method... I added some fallen North American tree species and woodland flowers to liven it up a bit.  This was a really enjoyable project; expressive, beautiful, and quite a change from my usual subject matter.

Living her be(a)st life...

Galaxy Guardian

Baby Groot
180mm

"Groot, you can't.  You'll die!  Why?  Why are you doing this?
"WE are Groot."

This one's a slightly different project from my usual.  My 5yo son is a big Guardians of the Galaxy fan and I made this to decorate his room.  Groot is made from Fimo, sculpted over a wire and tinfoil armature.  I filled the pot with plaster with a bit of pea gravel to give it some heft.  I've never worked substantially with Fimo before, it was surprisingly easy and forgiving to use.  I had to make this in stages so it was baked probably 4-5 times and the first part I did (the head) shows no discoloration, cracking etc.  I added a bit of dark washing to enhance his wood grain, and a few painted details which I think make him look very similar to the recently-sprouted Baby Groot as he appears at the end of the first GotG movie.  He's about 18 cm tall and another 10 cm for the pot, so this is definitely not a small item, by my standards anyway.  Lots of fun, and hopefully my son will like having this cute guy hanging out on his dresser!

Bear Market

It's always exciting when some good mail arrives.  Of course, as an adult your only mail generally is bills, and things you ordered yourself... But an order from Philip Hynes' Bear's Head miniatures is exceptional!  This is the output of a couple of unique Kickstarters plus his regular, fantastic catalogue.

Received: 28mm "Mother of Spiders", Nancy the Gnome Barmaid, an orangutan, a fox... and Narthoks the sci-fi Beholder!

Bonus: resin miscasts which Philip sent me for free: a zombie rhino, bigfoot, bear, and bartender Narthoks!  A bit of TLC and putty should be enough to make these guys look great too!

 I'm currently finishing up an unrelated craft project, which I'll share soon, but I can't wait to get painting these.