Ettin Project Completed

I finished up my Ettin project just ahead of my busy travel week for work and for TotalCon 2014, where I was able to deliver him to his proper owner. I am pleased to report that "M" seemed quite happy with his new toy.

I wound up applying a brown glaze to the Ettin's base, followed by a gloss sealer coat to polish up the stone, and make it fit better with the wood floor.

Firestorm Armada Revisited

One of the very first things I posted here was my Dindrenzi Battleship WIP for Firestorm Armada. I was pretty happy with the result, and Spartan's later releases took away the laborious assembly issues, but I still had a problem: That paint scheme was designed with a great deal of hand highlighting and paneling, and it was simply too much work for a table-top fleet scheme.

This month, I set out to come up with a revised scheme that would provide a similar look, but also come together much faster, allowing me to bring a mighty armada to the table in (relatively) short order.

Ettin Project: Round 3

I did some painting during the past week, and then drove on over to Groton, CT for a semi-local paint day. It was a nice to be able to sit down with a group of like-minded hobbyists, and I actually made a lot of progress on this project. I am now hopefull that I can finish him up and bring him along to TotalCon to show off in a couple of weeks. I may even be able to turn him over to his rightful owner during the con.

During the week, I experimented with possible base textures. I wanted the plinth under the Ettin to look like some form of stone slab, as one might use in a large taxidermy display.

Wing It

Sometimes I paint with a planned formula, or a packaged set of matched paints. Other times, I just start mixing and blending until something good happens (or I give up and strip the paint off to start over.)

For the Ettin, I know I wanted a grey-brown base for the skin tone, but I didn't want things to look fully undead-grey, like they did with my Red Box Keeper mini, from last year. What you see above mixes some bronzed skin tones and browns into the highlights, but is, overwhelmingly, grey.

Pro Bono work

I never take paid painting commissions. I have limited free time, and even more limited painting time. I would never feel right taking somebody's money with the knowledge that their mini would get back to them "eventually". I would also have to charge a ridiculous fee, based on how I value my time. In short, nobody sane would give me the job, even if I were to accept it.

Having said that, I have painted models for free as favors or gifts. This year a friend of mine, and his son, asked me to undertake a project. Let's call them L and M, respectively. L bought a brand new Ettin miniature for M for Christmas, and they both asked me to paint the thing up as a trophy for one of M's Pathfinder characters. How could I refuse?

My raw material for the project is a Reaper Bones Ettin miniature. I asked M how he wanted the thing based, and he said it should be on a pedestal, as if on display. I started out by standing the unmodified mini on top of two bases, stacked up as base and platform. The fit wasn't perfect, but it was close, and could be made to work. It also saved me the trouble of tracking down, or fabricating, a suitable replacement.

Starbases

In my last post, I covered some of the changes that Spartan Games has made to Firestorm Armada in its new, second edition release. Spartan is also releasing a whole series of revised models to refresh the product line along with the new edition. I was thinking about waiting until I had a selection of those models in my hands before posting anything, but it looks like it might be some time before I get a hold of any, so I am going to comment on the new Directorate battle station that came with my rulebook.

Last time, I included this photo as a teaser. It isn't always easy to see detail in a picture of unpainted resin, but Spartan has certainly continued to improve both their sculpts and their casting quality as they have advanced their game lines. The first series of ships they put out were cool, but the ones I have definitely had some casting issues, especially the Dindrenzi cruisers that came in my original fleet box.

New Edition, New Models

Spartan Games has just begun the relaunch of Firestorm Armada with a new rules version, and, like any good miniatures company, a complete refresh of their line of models for the game. I have not ordered a new fleet, as of yet, but I thought that now, almost two years after my original review of the game, might be a good time to comment on the new version, and on its history.

The new rulebook was just released this book, and includes a substantial overhaul of the game system. The book is nicely put together, with beautiful photography showcasing the models in the studio fleets, and numerous example diagrams to illustrate the rules. A new feature of this edition will be dedicated fleet books for each race. Basic statistics for an introductory fleet appear in the main rulebook, but players will need to obtain more complete information to play more complex fleets. Fortunately, the fleet books should ship next month, and Spartan has made the fleet lists available for free on their web site.