Tag Archives: miniatures

Tips and Tricks

Hobby Momentum — Mini Monday 32

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week let’s look at hobby momentum and why it’s important for your hobby, and maybe life.

This weekend I banged out three new bits of scenery. What’s more, I was only home for half of the weekend, so I surprised myself with just how quickly it all came together. The magic ingredient was momentum.

What’s Hobby Momentum?

Hobby momentum is progress that rolls onwards, lends motivation, and helps you get bigger projects done. It builds up from working consistently and frequently at your hobby.

I’d been banging away on my scenery for over a year now, but in the week leading up to the last, I finally painted five of the buildings I’d been working on. I’ve also managed to complete a heap of other small projects, including making decals, custom Space Marine banners, a new Ork Weirdboy, painting some spiders, and finishing off the first of my Angels Encarmine heroes. Seeing these completed must have motivated me, because I got cracking on the three new terrain bits on Friday night. By Sunday all I needed to do was paint them.

It felt like the whole thing took little effort, and that’s all because of hobby momentum.

Life Without Forward Momentum

On the flip side, I recently finished a project that seemed to have stalled for ages. Things only progressed when I managed to break the project down into small enough pieces to get some momentum back.

The Terrain

All of these terrain projects incorporated older terrain projects that I’d not been very happy with, two or so years of collecting bits, and lots of browsing Pinterest. That certainly made these projects quicker, but the push came from hobby momentum. Having finished a bunch of terrain provided clearer inspiration for this build.

Barrel Pile

Luke tries to force push, but the hot glue is strong with this one.

This model terrain consists of a styrofoam base, milk box lids, some wire wrapped around a small thread spindle, and some silica gel containers from medicine bottles. I made cardboard toppers for the green containers to hide the logo on them. I hot glued this onto the base and then added more sand and dirt with wood glue.

The red fits my colour scheme, which is red and grey.

Water Tower and Barrel Dump

Another styrofoam base, onto which I hot glued more of the barrels I cast for my Grot Oiler. I built the tower from a toy army barrel, some thin dowel sticks, bits of plastic, and wire mesh.

I originally built the base as a hill for my Old Egyptian DBA army, which means it has sat in a box for twenty years or so. Turning it into a dump made so much sense and fits with the factory terrain I’ve built so far.

Broken Wall

This was one of the first bits of terrain I built for Warhammer 40,000. Like so many of my terrain projects from years ago, it was a single piece that didn’t match anything else on the table. I figured a little effort could update this and help it fit with the set.

Mmm, look at that dust.
Nothing like rebar to bring your construction together.

I added rebar with bits of bent wire poked into the styrofoam, then added more gravel around the base. Done.

I really am getting too happy with this spray can.

You’ll have to come back to see these painted up, which is a project for another Mini Monday.

RPG Blog Carnival @ Phoenix HQ

Why not check out the RPG Blog Carnival, which is happening here, at Rising Phoenix Games, this month. Our topic is “When the Bad Guys Win.”

You’ll find new articles on the topic in the comments, as they come in. If you’re a blogger, you can also submit articles of your own. Details on the page.


Tips and Tricks

Get Started Painting 40K Vehicles — MM 31

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week we’ll get started painting 40K vehicles.

I’ve learned loads since getting back into miniature painting, but painting vehicles, especially pretty Space Marine vehicles, has always been intimidating to me.

Until now.

Here’s a very easy way to get started with painting your Warhammer 40,000 vehicles, and you won’t need an airbrush.

Get started right with a few coats of spray paint. All this guy needs is some detail work with a brush.

1. Prep

Clean your mould lines, like you would with any other mini. You can assemble as much of the vehicle as makes sense. This Land Speeder came to me fully built, so I prepped it for painting as a whole. You could also paint the vehicle on the sprue or paint each piece, bit by bit. Whatever makes the most sense to you.

One of the cool things about mini painting is that they’re your models, you can paint them however you want.

2. Undercoat

Now undercoat/basecoat the whole vehicle with a spray can. White, black, grey, whichever makes the most sense for your colour scheme.

Death from below.
Death from above.

This guy will be sporting Angels Encarmine colours, which I interpret as a darker take on the Blood Angels paint scheme. For this project, I wanted to try a zenithal undercoat, so I hit it with black on the bottom and white on the top. It seems to have blended well enough in the middle, but some people hit it with a grey coat in the centre of the vehicle for a more gradual blend.

3. Primary Coat

Lastly, I hit it with two coats of the primary colour. Let the mini dry properly between coats, and you’ll end up with a decent looking vehicle that only needs detail work.

Now to pimp my ride.

It’s really that simple, and you don’t need to get fancy with an airbrush. Two thin coats, with a brush, will get you where you need to be from here.

We’ll be back to help you get started painting 40K vehicles in a bit, so see you again in a few weeks.

Aurora’s Black Friday Sale

It’s Black Friday week at Aurora’s Whole Realms Emporium. Be sure to check out the mountain of gear on sale now, perfect for your Dungeons & Dragons fifth edition adventures.

 

Tips and Tricks

Zombie White Dragon — Mini Monday 27

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week we’re painting the zombie white dragon from the Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game.

The zombie white dragon was such a satisfying and quick model to paint. You could easily apply the main technique we’ll look at here to other frozen creatures, perfect for your adventures in Icewind Dale.

Basecoat and Drybrushing

I base coated the mini white, then painted the whole dragon blue. Two thin coats applied with a big brush will make quick work of this frozen fiend. After that, lightly dry brush pure white over the model. I recommend two goes of this, otherwise it’ll look more like a blue dragon with white highlights. You’re building up levels here.

Detailing

I then painted the exposed ribs, teeth, and the hooks on the leading edge of the wings with Flesh Wash (like I did for those skeletons a while back). I painted the tongue, exposed flesh, eye sockets, and nostrils purple (I mixed red and blue). Then I edge highlighted the tips of the teeth and ribs with a flesh tone.

I painted the base black. For this, I found that a thin first coat and a thicker final coat gave it a really solid finish.

The last thing I did was edge highlight the large scales on the tail and head, as well as clean up around the jaws. All of this was with pure white, which muted the blue undercoat some more. I sealed the model with matt varnish.

Using Photos to Paint Better

If you look carefully in the photo above you’ll notice spots I missed. The great thing about taking photos of your minis is that you’ll examine them through a different lens (literally) and notice things you didn’t spot while painting. Photos also give you a great way to compare your progress. I learned everything I know about mini photography from Tabletop Minions. Check out How To Shoot Good Photos of Your Minis with a Smartphone on YouTube.

Explore Icewind Dale

Venture deep into the cold north!

Great Icewind-Dale-shaped things are happening in the world of Dungeons & Dragons, and Rising Phoenix Games has teamed up with other DMs Guild creators to bring you the Icewind Dale Ultimate Pack bundle. The bundle is packed full of adventures, player options, items, and more for your adventures in the cold north.

General

Modular Tavern Storefront — Mini Monday 25

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week we’ll build a modular tavern storefront, because every adventure starts in the pub.

Modular Tavern Storefront

“You meet in the tavern…”

That line has probably started more roleplaying campaigns than any other, as cliched as it is. Having some tavern terrain is going to get a lot of use in fantasy tabletop games, so let’s build one. We’ll make it modular to get as much use out of this piece as possible, and we’ll use the magic of magnets!

The module tavern storefront without its sign.
With the power of magnets, the shop sign is attached. The Pewter Tankard is an obscure Warhammer FRP 1st ed. reference, and is the name of the establishment in our Pewter Tankard Tavern Map.
We make books, so we need a book shop, even if it’s only a mini one. More magnets and a quick switch are all that’s needed.

Overview

We’re making a sandwich, with the door and window in the middle, then the walls, then the wooden beams. This will give the model depth, but allow us to keep things thin enough to game around.

I’m sorry that I don’t have any pictures of the process of making this. I did take a few, but they’ve been lost in the general chaos of my Pictures folder. If I do find any I’ll update this post, but I’ll do my best to describe what’s going on.

The Frame and Door

Cut two pieces of card into rectangles. Mine is 4″ long and 2.5″ high, enough space to incorporate the door and window. Cut a space for the door and window in both pieces of card so you’ve got two copies.

Cut a rectangle of balsa wood to make the door. This should be wider than the space you’ve cut in the cardboard.

Cut lengths of balsa wood to form the outer wooden frame, for both sides of the model. Keep any offcuts for later.

Ramblings on Balsa Wood

A lot of people use popsicle sticks or coffee stirrers for wooden features, but balsa wood is much easier to work with, lighter, and a strip of it will get you through many projects. They build remote control airplanes out of the stuff, it can take a real banging. Believe me, I’ve crashed my glider more often than I’ve flown it.

Detailing

Use the back of a hobby knife to lightly gouge along the grain of the balsa wood. You can press harder to define planks, so the door is one solid piece that looks like it’s made of individual planks. This cheating saves time and glue, and keeps the model stronger.

Window

The window is made of stiff plastic, like the type you find in toy packaging. Cut a piece of this that is larger than the space it’ll fill. Use a ruler and a permanent marker to draw the black lines to represent the lead frame on one side of the plastic. Then, use a yellow highlighter to carefully color between the lines and color the opposite side too. Let this dry, and that the highlighter will rub off easily. Finally, carefully stipple gloss varnish over one side, leaving it to dry before doing the other. This should cause the yellow to pool and will texture the glass.

Assembling

Glue the door onto one piece of card. Then, using cutoffs, line the outer side of the card (the same side that has the door) and around the window. Fill all the gaps so you won’t see any when the second piece of card is ed.

Next, glue the outer wooden frame onto the walls.

Pro Tip: Don’t stick the second piece of card or the window on yet. Work with the two pieces until you’ve finished painting them, then glue the window in and the walls. This way, you won’t have to worry about getting paint on the window.

The Magic of Magnets

Glue a strip of metal above the window. We’ll hide this later, and then use magnets on the signs to stick them onto the wall.

Texturing

Mix up a small amount of wall grout and paint it onto the walls, between the wooden s. Be sure to paint it over the metal strip.

Base

Use strips of cardboard to make the slate stones of the base. As long as your wall isn’t top-heavy, the base can be quite narrow, making it easier for gaming around.

Painting

If you haven’t glued the two sides together or stuck the window in, this part will be easy enough.

Paint the walls an off white, then use a slightly darker version of the same color to paint the top of each wall section, drawing the brush down to make it look like weather damage.

Paint the wood black, making sure to fill in all the gaps. Paint over this brown, without filling the gaps. Holding the brush flat against the wood will help with this. Drybrush with a lighter brown over the edges of each beam.

Paint the stone gray, then drybrush with a lighter gray, picking out the edges again.

Use a small picture frame eye screw to make a door knocker. Stick a “U” shaped loop of paperclip over this to complete the look.

Finally, paint everything with a matt varnish, except for the window, then glue it all together. Done!

A Dark Night for Russia

I’m very excited to tell you about Nightscape: Red Terrors, our latest release:

In the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Russian government decommissioned several publicly hidden research facilities devoted to ‘arcane science,’ chief among them, PERM Laboratory 37. Recently, due to several strange energy emissions, the location of the PERM 37 facility has been discovered by various parties with an interest in the lab’s inventory of eldritch artifacts.

You’re an agent of one of these factions on your way through driving sleet to the facility. Dusk is falling as you through the broken security gate…

“The line between magic and science disappeared in the utopianism of the early Soviet period. Hopes formerly invested in religion and magic were transferred to technology and science. Stalinist political culture utilized ideas taken from the occult elements in its attempt to influence the masses.”
— B.G. Rosenthal

In Nightscape: Red Terrors you play an agent of Integrand General — an extra-governmental non-profit established to research the arcane sciences — fighting your way through the PERM 37 facility. You will be opposed by the horrific forces at the disposal of the Director. Modern weapons have little power against the most powerful horrors you’ll face, but a host of creatures do bleed. Arm yourself well and expect the unexpected.

Nightscape: Red Terrors includes everything you need to play, except for a few 20-sided dice and a group of friends.

Journey into the world of Nightscape:

Visit nightscapeseries.com to find out more, and buy the book today:

 

It’s becoming a tradition that we end off product announcements with a 20% off discount code. This one is good until the 23rd of August.


Tips and Tricks

Mini Monday Recap, All the Projects, Ever!

Mini Monday is a bi-weekly blog series where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. The goal is to get through the mountain of grey metal and plastic we all have in our cupboards. Here you’ll find the complete list of articles, listed by project and project type. You can also find all the Mini Monday articles listed, from newest to oldest, by checking out the Mini Monday category.

  1. Japanese Torii Gate (Terrain)
  2. Drow (Miniature Painting)
  3. Flying Sword (Kitbash)
  4. Sailing Boat (Scratch Built)
  5. Mushrooms (Terrain)
  6. Stalagmite and Road Post (Terrain)
  7. Ork Guns (Kitbash)
  8. Hobby Tools (Article)
  9. Smoke Grenade Objective Markers (Scratch Built)
  10. Rokkit Launcha and Motivation (Kitbash and Motivation)
  11. Basing Basics (Miniature Painting)
  12. Travel Wargaming (Article)
  13. Level Up Your Painting (Miniature Painting Article)
  14. Getting Started (Miniature Painting and Motivation)
  15. Yochlol (Miniature Painting)
  16. Skeletons (Miniature Painting)
  17. Cacodemon (Mini Painting and Conversion)
  18. Ork Deff Dread Gundams (Kitbash)
  19. Barrow-downs (Terrain)
  20. Saxon, from Mouse Guard (Miniature Sculpting)
  21. Keeping Motivated (Motivation)
  22. Grot Oiler (Kitbash)
  23. Familiars (Miniature Painting)
  24. Flesh Golem (Miniature Painting)
  25. Tavern Storefront (Terrain)
  26. MVP Your Way to a Painted Army (Motivation & Miniature Painting)
  27. Zombie White Dragon (Miniature Painting)
  28. Orktober 2020 (General introduction to a month of painting Orks! Yes, we love Orks.)
  29. Orktober Ork Weirdboy (Kitbash)
  30. Black Orc to Ork Runtherd (Kitbash)
  31. Start Painting Warhammer 40,000 Vehicles (Painting)
  32. Hobby Momentum (Motivation & Terrain)
  33. Painting Plan (Painting)
  34. Pallets for Scatter Terrain (Terrain)
  35. Building Ork barricades from Christmas Trash (Terrain)
  36. How to Pick Colors for Mini Painting (Painting)
  37. Scratch Build Tank Tracks (Scratch Building)
  38. Miniature Bolts (Scratch Building)
  39. Toys as Minis (Collecting and Kitbashing Ideas)
  40. DIY PJ Mask’s HQ (Scratch Building)
  41. Beast Man, a MotU Mini (Kitbashing)
  42. Building a Miniature Skirmish Game, Episode 1: Core Concept and Theme
  43. Building a Miniature Skirmish Game, Episode 2: Initiative and Activation
  44. Building a Miniature Skirmish Game, Episode 3: Movement
  45. Building a Miniature Skirmish Game, Episode 4: Combat
  46. Building a Miniature Skirmish Game, Episode 5: Hero Powers
  47. Building a Miniature Skirmish Game, Episode 6: Game Polish

If there’s anything else you’d like to see me tackle, leave it in the comments below.

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General

Flesh Golem Frank N. Stein — Mini Monday 24

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week we’re painting Mr Frank N. Stein, the flesh golem from the Dungeons & Dragons: Castle Ravenloft Board Game.

The flesh golem from the Castle Ravenloft Board Game is one of my favourite minis. The detail is crisp and he looks like he has just walked onto the stage of an Iron Maiden concert. I wanted him to have really gross, leathery skin, and I’m very pleased with how he turned out.

Undercoating and Flesh Wash Magic

I sprayed the mini white, then painted sections of his skin in off-green, off-blue, and flesh colour. I also left some sections white. It’s all in the name of visual interest.

Yum, yum. I think I might never eat sushi again.

I then went over this with my magical Flesh Wash. I’ve used it in a few projects now, such as the skeletons. Flesh Wash was perfect for getting that dry leather look, and the off-green and off-blue shows though enough to give it a sickly look. Perfection!

Flesh Wash for a Flesh Golem! I knew there was something to the name!

Stitches and Iron

After some experimenting, I painted the stitches black. If Dr Frankenstein was using thread, these would turn black from the blood it would soak up. I did try adding silver to make them look like staples, but that didn’t make sense to me in a fantasy setting, so I ditched the idea.

Okay, he has metal fingers under the flesh of his one hand, but I’m still not doing staples. I picked out the raised metal edges with silver paint.

Disaster

I didn’t want to paint every stitch, so I tried a marker pen instead. What I didn’t realise until I’d finished was that I was using a dry-erase pen. Whenever I added wet paint or varnish, the colour ran and pooled in an ugly mess. What seems to have worked was going over this with an actual permanent marker or dryish paint.

Live and learn.

Exposed Muscle

I painted the flesh golem’s exposed muscle pink, then went over the raised parts with a reddish-purple. I used a black wash to pick out the detail, and then made sure to use a gloss varnish to make this section appear wet.

Pants

We decided on purple pants to contrast nicely with the orangy flesh, and because this guy looks like an undead version of the Hulk.

I painted the pants the same reddish-purple as the exposed muscle, then dry brushed a lighter purple over the raised bits. The straps were painted a leathery brown and given metal highlights on the buckles. Finally, I used a black wash (watered-down black paint) to pick out the shadows.

The first layer of paint on the pants. It’s not very smooth, but the dry brushing will cover that up.

Final Details

I painted the tongue pink and the teeth yellow, then these also got a black wash. When I was done, I gave varnished the flesh golem with matt varnish, except for the exposed muscle, as I mentioned before.

Here he is again, in all his gory glory.

Rising Phoenix Games’ RPG Con is On

Rising Phoenix Games’ RPG Con is this week, all week, right here on the blog!
 
us for articles like this one, interviews, discounts, and more RPG fun!
 
#RPG #RPGCon

Tips and Tricks

WizKids Deep Cuts Familiars — Mini Monday 23

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and tabletop gaming. This week I’m painting the Pathfinder Battles: Deep Cuts Familiars, produced by WizKids and NECA.

Deep Cuts is my favorite RPG mini range right now, because the detail, variety, and price are spot on. The Deep Cuts Familiars blister contains a badger, bat, and a fox, which is a lot of value, even if nobody in your party is keeping a familiar around.

These little critters taxed me to the very edge of my photography skills. This will have to do.

For all of the Deep Cuts Familiars, finding good references really helped. Look for quality photos of real animals. It may sound obvious, but when you spend most of your time painting fantasy creatures, the chance to refer to nature is a rare treat.

The Key to Fur

The trick with fur is to get the countershading right.

Photo credit: Erik McLean

Countershading is the tendency animals have of having a darker coloration on their upper side and a lighter coloration on their underside, like this fox with his lighter tummy. Our badger friend is an exception, but only in that it’s flipped around for him, with his lighter top and darker underside.

You can paint countershading in a number of ways, but the important thing is to know where the graduations are and where there’s a sudden change in color. Look at how the orange fur under his eyes suddenly becomes white, while on his forelegs the change from black to orange is more gradual.

The Bat

Priming is already done for you, so we can dip right in. The stone was painted gray, then dry brushed with a lighter gray. The bat was painted a chocolate brown, then I mixed in a little white for the dry brushing highlights. Lastly, I washed the stone with a black wash.

The Badger

I painted him the same gray as the stone on the bat mini, but then dry brushed white on the top and painted the muzzle white. I touched this up with gray over his eyes to form the distinctive patterns on the badger’s face. Paint the legs black.

For the badger’s stone, I had painted it gray, but there wasn’t much contrast, so I went back over it with a dark brown, then light brown highlights. This made all the difference.

The Fox

This might be my best paint job yet. See, I’m learning!

I painted the whole fox orange, then dry brushed a lighter orange over that, with white over the tail. The nose, eyes, and mouth were all painted black. Also note that foxes have black inside their ears and on their forelegs. Getting the patterning right is half the battle, but so satisfying when you get it right.

The base was painted dark gray and then dry brushed light gray.

Done!

The last thing to do it varnish them and stick them on their bases, then you’re done. I knocked all three out over a Saturday, so they don’t take much time at all.

You can get the Pathfinder Deep Cuts Unpainted Miniatures: Familiars on Paizo or at most good hobby gaming stores.

It’s Christmas in July!

Celebrate Christmas in July with Aurora’s Whole Realms Christmas Catalogue, and : it’s never too early to start your Christmas shopping!

 

 

Be sure to check out our other Aurora’s Seasonal Catalogues, we’ve got something for everyone!

Aurora’s Seasonal Catalogues

 

Tips and Tricks

Kitbashed Grot Oiler — Mini Monday 22

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying and gaming table. This week we’re making a quirky little grot oiler for Warhammer 40,000 or Wrath & Glory.

This little guy was loads of fun, easy to make, and is literally dripping with character. And oil.

The Oil Barrel

I guess this grot doesn’t want to be squig food, hiding in that oil barrel like that. The barrel is white metal, which I melted and then poured into a simple mold made from silicone and corn starch. The Crafsman has a great tutorial video on making molds this way. My first attempt wasn’t great, but it looked like a purposely dinged up barrel, perfect for an Ork job.

The Grot Oiler’s Body

The head and arm are from the Gretchin box. I first made the shoulders and knee out of modeling epoxy, then stuck these two bits on. It really helps to have some understanding of anatomy, so references are useful. This part of the build was enough to sell the idea of the grot oiler coming out of the barrel, even though the barrel is solid and there’s nothing more to this little dude than what’s stuck onto the side of the barrel.

Painting

I painted the grot, then used a black wash (watered down black paint) to make him look oil stained.
Who’m I kidding? I do this with all my minis!
I then painted silver on the edges of the barrel to give it a metallic look. A rust paint job would probably have looked even better.

Liquid Effects

Finally, I mixed black paint into silicone and painted this onto the grots base, which was sitting on waxed paper. When this dried, I could pull the whole thing off and it looks just like oil is spilling over the base. This “spill” comes off the base easily and sticks back on again without anything other than the silicone’s natural tackiness, so I can remove the effect when using this mini on the battlefield.

If you enjoyed this little tutorial, or if you have any questions, let us know in the comments below.

Tips and Tricks

Keeping Motivated to Hobby — Mini Monday 21

It’s Mini Monday, where we share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying table. This week we talk about motivation and keeping motivated to hobby.

Phew! Is anyone else finding they’ve got less time during lockdown? I sure am. These days, I finish a good chunk of work at night, so my hobby time is at a . But let’s not get discouraged. If anything, lockdown and new obstacles are just opportunities to do better at the things we count as important. Let’s see how we can keep the motivation high and paint more minis.

The Satisfaction of Starting

Taking your first steps on a new project can be just the change of scenery you need (ha, modeling pun)! If other projects have stalled, a quick project can bring out the joy of the hobby and get you excited again. New ideas are often the most exciting, so use that energy to revitalize your enthusiasm.

Having a few projects on the go helps too. Just be sure to keep finishing some of them off, otherwise you’ll feel overwhelmed by the number of incomplete projects waiting for your attention.

The Joy of the Journey

Every step closer to done is a small victory, so get a little done when you can. If a project sits for too long, it can kill enthusiasm, so a little progress often is the way to go. You’ll probably find that, if you keep progressing, you’ll find time to finish the project off in one final, satisfying go. This was the case for me with my Gundam Deff Dreads, which took ages but were finished off quickly over a few final sessions before a big tournament.

The Dopeness of the Destination

Finishing is possibly the greatest motivator, and it will energize you well into the next project. It’s also an important part of learning, because you’ll learn more from completing the whole process than from only getting through a part of it. With a completed model you can take a step back and consider the work as a whole, and you’ve got something you can show off n your display shelf.

Good luck, get minis painted, and stay safe!

Tips and Tricks

Sculpt Saxon from Mouse Guard – MM #20

It’s Mini Monday, where I share customizing, scratch building, kitbashing, and miniature painting projects for your roleplaying table. This week we’ll build Saxon, from the Mouse Guard comics.

In case you’ve never heard of it, Mouse Guard is an award-winning series written by David Petersen. It was also turned into a best-selling tabletop roleplaying game, based on the Burning Wheel system, by Luke Crane. I love the series and the RPG, and I wanted figures to use in my games, so I made one. Let’s take a look.

Saxon from Mouse Guard

I built a wire frame for the model, then covered it with aluminium foil to give it more shape, particularly around the body, face, and ears.

I then used paper mache, much like in our recent Barrow-downs project, to cover the model.

Paper Mache

For fine detail like this model, which stands about 8 cm high (excluding the base), I made a very fine paper mache by shedding newspaper. I tried to soak and mash it finer, which took a lot of effort but did give me a slightly finer paste in the end. Mix this with 1 cup of water to 1 cup of flour.

Paper mache is great for model terrain projects, and although it’s not great for detail work, I chose it because I figured it would give me a furry, natural look, which worked out well.

The base is made of hardboard, and his hands are made of modelling epoxy. You could use Green Stuff too.

Painting

I base coated the model brown with acrylic paint, and picked out the skin of the hands, feet, ears, and tail with a browny pink. I used grey for the base, stippled on with a brush.

I then switched to Citadel Colours for the main coat. I used Snakebite Leather/Ballor Brown and Bestial Brown/Mournfang Brown for the fur, with Skull White/White Scar for the white patches. I heavily watered down the paints to blend them better.

Finally, I used a brown/black mix with lots of water as a wash, covering the whole model.

Finishing

I used pliers to cut a tiny black bead in half, which I superglued on for the eyes. Two coats of matt varnish, and Saxon was almost ready to the Mouse Guard.

Sword and Cape

I’ll cover Saxon’s iconic sword and cape in a later tutorial, because I’ll need to experiment with a few techniques for the sword first. I’ve already tried plastic card, and now I’m shaping some alluminium, which seems to be working very well. Have any ideas? Drop them in the comments below, we’d love to hear from you.

Jump into Mouse Guard

Looking for the comics? You can find Mouse Guard issues on Drive Thru Comics for a cheap $1.99 each. I highly recommend finding the printed books though, they’re gorgeous.