29 replies to this topic

[Sanael]

Very exciting news for me: In about a month, I will take a hiatus from DMing and actually play in a few games. Other people will run the weekly RPG show at my house, and that's spectacular. First up, we'll finally get the Firefly game going that I painted up minis for some time ago (see them here if you're interested). Then, once the "pilot" episode of that game is over (we'll come back to it from time to time for two- or three-session "episodes;" not only is it in the same 'verse as Firefly, it's also going to be plotted like a TV series), we'll start a Dragonlance campaign.

I should say, "the" Dragonlance campaign. We aren't using the iconic characters--no Raistlin here--but the DM will run the classic modules. I'm totally stoked for this!

Now, I just have to paint a bunch of things. This WIP will show the process of the PC minis, and I may throw in a few other things as I work on them (my main job, aside from PCs, is the old Ral Partha box of Draconians).

So, here's the five initial PCs. All Reaper minis at this point, but we have a few players that haven't made characters yet. Here you can see Alaine, Jester, Ezren, Lem and Dub in various stages of primer, awaiting paint. So far I don't have names for all the PCs, so I'll refer to them as archetypes (rogue, female fighter, etc) or by their minis' names until I do.


Alaine and Dub will pretty well go to paint as-is; they'll be the party's female fighter/Knight of Solamnia and our ranger-rogue. Ezren is going to lose his staff, but we don't yet know what this wizard will replace it with.

Lem will play the part of our kender. Happy-go-lucky, blithe...annoying as all get-out...kender use a forked weapon called a hoopak and wear their hair in topknots. So while the attitude of this guy (thanks to Derek!) is perfect, the acoutrements needed work. Here you can see the initial greenstuffing. Obviously I have some sanding and polishing to do once the GS cures on the hoopak, but I'm pretty pleased with the topknot.



Jester will henceforth be known as Gerwin Southwall. Gerwin is my PC, a hereditary scion of the Knights of Solamnia who would rather keep his fellows alive than seek personal glory on the battlefield. As such, he's become a competent field medic in a time with no clerical powers, and has picked up a footman's weapon, the spear, instead of a knightly sword. For close combat he prefers a crowsbeak. I've removed the sword from this mini and replaced it with a spear. The axe was removed from his left hand, and will eventually be replaced with a medic's bag. The scabbard has been modified (along with the axehead) to put a crowsbeak on his belt, and the pile of skulls GS'd over to become a pile of rocks.



More to come as it happens!

[Last Knight]

Watching with great interest, your greenstuff mods are looking great.

[recruittons]

Loving the kender mod. That hoopak is solid looking!

[klyons99]

I'd forgotten about Dragonlance, used to love those modules.

Excellent choices there, I can really see Lem as a kender and Jester is looking very solamnic!

[buglips*the*goblin]

I think these actually look better than the partha licensed figures.

Never thought I'd say such blasphemy!

[psyberwolfe1]

I actually want to figure out Reaper equivalents for the Heroes of the Lance... and Lord Soth.

[buglips*the*goblin]

Yeah, but what would they call him? Lord Sock of the Knights of Insomnia?

Aw, jeez. Now I'll never be able to look at my Soth with a straight face again.

[MiniPainterC]

I love Dragonlance and I own almost every Dragonlance Novel and RPG product made in one form or another. I would like to find some proxies for the HotL as well but I'm just getting started in painting and not ready to try any sculpting yet. But alas it may be a future project.

[dks]

Ingenious to reimagine Lem's flute as the middle of a hoopak staff. Thanks for choosing this mini as the base model -- good work with the conversion. I look forward to seeing how your version comes out.
Will you paint a long droopy mustache on Gerwin, as is traditional for Knights of Solamnia, or does he have different facial hair to buck tradition? (Or is he from a knightly family but not formally a knight himself?)

I ran the Dragonlance modules (1st edition AD&D) twice in middle/high school, for two groups of friends. They also used their own characters. In middle school, it was for one player with a powerful cavalier PC, and later we decided to send him off to Gamma World; in high school, it was for two (later three) friends who ran multiple characters each: red-robed wizard, cleric of Mishakal, Qualinesti elf ranger. kender thief, human fighter. I reread the novels a couple of years ago and it took me back to those days. Interesting to see how the modules expanded on the action of the novels.

Anyway, keep up the WIPs and enjoy the game!

Derek

[Sanael]

Yeah, but what would they call him? Lord Sock of the Knights of Insomnia?

Aw, jeez. Now I'll never be able to look at my Soth with a straight face again.

Thanks for that.

I think these actually look better than the partha licensed figures.

Never thought I'd say such blasphemy!

I painted the Partha set of Heroes a looong time ago (some of my first minis ever), and I like 'em a bunch, but scale creep means they're smaller than my D&D ppm kobolds! (I hyperbolize. But I do have goblins larger than the Heroes.) Makes it tough to use 'em in-game without laughing.

For anyone looking for the original companions, check out Darksword Minis...they just put out a Tannix, Laura-naah, Caranon and Notkhisis. Plus something that looks suspiciously like a Pseudomoon, though I don't think she's quite native-americanny enough.

[buglips*the*goblin]

You hyperbolize, but not by much. The DDM kobolds actually are bigger than the Partha miniature I'm using for my current character (which is, itself, smaller than the TSR parthas).

[dwarvenranger]

Buglips there's your cousin!

[buglips*the*goblin]

Buglips there's your cousin!

When you go to sleep, I'm going to set your beard on fire.

[dwarvenranger]

Buglips there's your cousin!

When you go to sleep, I'm going to set your beard on fire.

What, you in cahoots with my girlfriend now?

[Sanael]

OK, folks...sorry about the lack of updating...I've done a bit of work sanding and filing the hoopak and such. Gerwin's medic bag is sculpted and in place, but I still need to put a strap or two down. And now I can't find my camera, so no pics. Hopefully on Sunday and Monday I'll be able to sit down and do some painting.

Ingenious to reimagine Lem's flute as the middle of a hoopak staff. Thanks for choosing this mini as the base model -- good work with the conversion. I look forward to seeing how your version comes out.
Will you paint a long droopy mustache on Gerwin, as is traditional for Knights of Solamnia, or does he have different facial hair to buck tradition? (Or is he from a knightly family but not formally a knight himself?)

I ran the Dragonlance modules (1st edition AD&D) twice in middle/high school, for two groups of friends. They also used their own characters. In middle school, it was for one player with a powerful cavalier PC, and later we decided to send him off to Gamma World; in high school, it was for two (later three) friends who ran multiple characters each: red-robed wizard, cleric of Mishakal, Qualinesti elf ranger. kender thief, human fighter. I reread the novels a couple of years ago and it took me back to those days. Interesting to see how the modules expanded on the action of the novels.

Anyway, keep up the WIPs and enjoy the game!

Derek

Derek, as always, thanks for the support; I'm always fond of painting your sculpts, and the expression on Lem's face is just waaay too kenderish to pass this opportunity by. Gerwin is likely to end up just with the goatee the sculpt already has; one, because I hate finessing the little tiny bits of GS necessary to add the handlebars and two, because the PC isn't likely to make his way fully into the knighthood; he's got some issues with their politics and is more interested in finding something to believe in, beyond the pervasive honor-without-substance. Something tells me he'll find it in Xak Tsaroth, but don't tell him that, yes?

The novels are actually a simplified retelling of the modules, more or less. Hickman ran what would eventually become the modules for his own group, wrote them up for TSR, and then he and Weis collaborated to make the novels happen. In order to make the trilogy TSR wanted, they had to cut the journey to Icewall and a lot of other things from the modules.

Thanks all for the comments; see you early next week with more.