Into the Spider-verse

Mother of Spiders
28 mm scale (~40 mm)

The subterranean world holds many mysteries and terrors... savage driders, huge cavern crawlers, slimes, myconids, and more.  The looming Mother of Spiders is one of the most cryptic.  Rumored to roam the caves, accompanied by a swarm of venomous arachnids, she has been said to lead explorers astray, attack them, or even strike bargains in exchange for tasks or items from the surface.

Added stalagmites and extra spidery goodness... 

The Mother of Spiders is a Bear's Head miniature.

Captain Esmeralda and her crew encounter a terrifying hag as they
search the seaside caverns for Butcher Sutcliff's treasure hoard.

Cool and the Gang

Cyberpunk Crew
15 mm

For an instant, she stared directly into those soft blue eyes and knew, with an instinctive mammalian certainty, that the exceedingly rich were no longer even remotely human.

Whether you need to smuggle pirated simsoft cartridges through Yakuza territory in Neo-Tokyo or extract a star scientist's bioengineered child out of a fortified corporate compound in Arizona, this band of hard-hitting underground operatives are up to the task.  Equipped with high-tech weaponry and armour, biological and cybernetic enhancements, and the coolest of long coats (because it's raining... it's always raining), their motto is "No job too big, no ICE too black"...

Figures are Khurasan, duffel bag objective marker is by me :)

The gang encounter hunter-killer bots, courtesy of the zaibatsu they recently robbed.

Cyberpunk Standoff

Cyberpunk Standoff
15 mm

Police and thieves in the street, oh yeah
Fighting the nation with their guns and ammunition

On the neon-lit, corporate-controlled streets of the mega-cities of the future, those with the power make the law, and those with the money have the power.  A B-Secur private police officer faces off with a mysterious hacker... Is he a mere criminal, or a revolutionary?  Is there a difference any more?

I've had these Khurasan figures in my collection for years.  They're really cool (especially the gangers), but they're scaled a bit small to fit in well with my other 15mm figures, and so they've unfortunately languished.  I'll see if I can get them painted up and post them in a bit.

Holy Heavies

Xin Armormonks
15 mm

Armormonks provide heavy backup for the Xin's infantry forces.  Their enhanced armor is impenetrable to hand weapons, and their gunstaffs are both a power-polearm and heavy plasma blaster.  The monks have a reputation as jovial ascetics, but in combat they are deadly and terrifying, with even a small number often routing a determined enemy and turning the tide of battle.

Wow... nice to get back into 15mm sci-fi!  I've taken a real detour lately, even if it was for some amazing models.  I know these guys aren't  my best work, but they turned out all right, and fit in nicely with the previous Xin I've done:

"I suddenly feel much braver!"

The Xin are Ion Age models from Alternative Armies.

Green Heeler

Cattle Dog Ranger
28 mm scale

The last Dungeons and Doggies figure you'll see here, for now anyway.  They're fun, but I do want to get back to the many fun 15mm figures I have.  Plus I have a lot of Bears Head miniatures sitting unpainted... including Narthoks the sci fi Beholder!

"Stand down, marauder!" "Woof!"

Sorcerer Supreme

Dogtor Strange
28mm scale

"Arrogance and fear still keep you from learning the simplest and most significant lesson of all."
"Which is?"
"It's not about you."

Once an ordinary Dachshund, Earth's Sorcerer Supreme now protects humanity from mystical threats and supernatural villains of all kinds.  His Doghouse Sanctorum in Greenwich Village is a place of great power and mysterious artifacts, from which he ventures forth to fight evil on both the material and astral planes...

Dogtor Strange is a Dungeons and Doggies figure: "Morgaine the Dachshund Sorceror".

"By Dormammu's beard, I know I left my kong here somewhere!"

Bump in the Night

HP Lovecraft, Paranormal Investigator
28mm

I opened the door and went out in the gallery toward the stairs to my study, ******-Man following at my heels. Before we had reached the stone steps, however, the cat darted ahead of me and vanished down the ancient flight. As I descended the stairs myself, I became suddenly aware of sounds in the great room below; sounds of a nature which could not be mistaken. The oak-panelled walls were alive with rats, scampering and milling, whilst ******-Man was racing about with the fury of a baffled hunter.  
- "The Rats in the Walls"

Another great Bears Head figure, of the (in)famous horror writer H.P. Lovecraft as an investigator in his own mythos. Accompanying him here is his brave cat of unspeakable name, ready to take on any paranormal threat to his master.

This is actually the second figure of Lovecraft I've painted.  It's perhaps less dramatic than the first, but I think I might actually like it even more.  The face is less gaunt and exaggerated and he has a lot of gaming potential for those who play mythos games.  The cat is an old Reaper familiar which I think really adds a lot to his character (as well as referencing the classic HPL story "The Rats in the Walls").

"He went that way!"

(Cultists courtesy of winnipegmichael!)

Thick-skinned undead

Zombie Rhinoceros
28mm scale

Animal zombies... a philosophical mystery.  We know human zombies as mindless, bloodthirsty savages, reduced to a single drive: kill the living.  But when other animals are infected, do they become the same species of generically aggressive, flesh-rending creature?  Or is some vestige of their original nature preserved?

This is another Bears Head Miniature, received as a miscast freebie in my last order.

Since somebody asked, the basing is Milliput textured with an Instant Mold stamp of the bumpy privacy glass from our bathroom door :D

The last sight of many an African zombie-hunter...

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. 

An offer you can't refuse

Dirty Thirties Gangsters
15mm

I painted this buncha wise guys for the same person who sent me some 10mm fantasy characters a while back.  They're Khurasan's "LC-103, Sheparton's gangster henchmen" from his eldritch horror range.  These may have spurred some light research into men's fashion, prompted by such questions as "did hats match suits?" and "who wore spats?" (in this case the two dapper goons on the right).