WMM '20 - Magnetizing Amazon Riders

Crocodile Games Mounted Amazons are really nice- except for the storage and transport dilemma. I didn't get these ladies finished for GenCon 2019's WarGods event, but they still took part in it in all their partially painted glory...

When I returned and unpacked them a couple had fallen off the horses (I had only pinned 3 of the 5) and so it was decided that they'd all come off the horses and get rare earth magnets so they could be swapped amongst the different horses and storage would not lead to tears.

The Amazon Raider above was more stubborn and just would not come loose from her horse, so I've left her alone- she's going to be the captain of the unit.

The tools I used for the magnetization process (aside from the tiny magnets and Gorilla Superglue Gel) were: clicky hobby knife, 3 needle files, and my beloved pin vise to drill the holes.

Above we've got the first horse to get a magnet. Below is one in progress. I'd make sure the holes for the magnets on rider and horse were lined up just right so the rider would be in a good stable seated position. That's when I'd make a tiny notch with the knife to start a hole for the drilling.

Next, I'd widen the hole so a magnet would be able to fit in snugly by using the needle files.

Below we can see where the magnets go for the riders. To help strengthen the hold of the magnets on both horse and rider I would put a little of the glue over top of the magnets to make a little hard barrier that would still allow the magnetic magic to happen.

After the first horse and rider were finished I used them to help speed up the process in a sort of assembly line. For the riders, I would put them over the magnet in the horse and then drill out the rider. To make sure that the polarities were all the same I'd mount a loose magnet onto the horse with a dab of glue...

...then the rider would carefully be fit into place onto the magnet and left for ten minutes or so to make sure the glue had dried. Then the rider would come off and the magnet would get a coat of superglue to help ensure it would stay in place.

The process was simply reversed for the other horses to get their magnets (the extra magnet would be stacked on the rider's magnet with a tiny dab of glue and then put into place onto the horse).

Here's a rider getting gently set into place with the awesome power of magnetism!

In the above pictures, the horse have not switched places but the riders have been distributed amongst them randomly. This is just a fun bonus feature of this project.

The stubborn captain of the unit will be the first to get fully painted. She's coming along nicely.

Now that the Raiders are done I'm going to need to do the same with the mounted archers- not sure if they should have the polarity switched or the same, though...

WMM '20 - Egyptian Adventuress, Medea, Seated Statues

WarGods Minis Month continues to flow like paint from the magical brushes used on these miniatures... This time we've got a mixed bag- 2 resin seated Egyptian statues (I'm not sure where they came from), a Dark Hable Egyptian Adventuress, and Medea from the Mythic Battles Pantheon miniatures boardgame.

These simple resin statues were pretty quick paintjobs, but the detail is such that they look pretty good for their purpose. The backs are simply flat so they can fit up against other terrain so I just painted them with successively lighter drybrushes of greys.

Below we see the Crocodile Games Helen miniature strolling between the statues.

Hijet the Adventuress is armed with a fancy kopesh that was painted with a color-shifting metallic paint so it looks kinda magical. Her eye makeup is passable. 

Below Hijet confronts a wicked Nekharu anti-hero (from Crocodile Games).

When I was looking for a figure to use as a Demigoddess of Dionysus I came across figures from the Mythic Battles Pantheon game and thought this Medea or this Circe figure would do. The Circe figure won out and took part in the GenCon 2019 WarGods of Olympus event. That left this equally nice mini languishing around the painting table. I removed her integral round base and put her on a 20mm square so she can take part in any WarGods gaming that might come up. She could be a sorceress of some sort.

I knew she'd have to have some clingy see-through parts on her dress because it just seemed like a shame not to do something like that. I think it turned out okay. Her magical swirling energy bits turned out pretty good too.

Below we have Medea showing off for the evil mastermind Tebbi the Priest (a converted Crocodile Games mini).

WMM '20- Heru Archers

The Heru miniatures have always been some of my favorites, but not enough to build a whole unit yet. While I like the look of them and their role of "paladins" in the WarGods of Aegyptus setting, their play style is a little too bland for my tastes. But I do like the minis quite a bit...

Pretty straightforward Heru paint scheme that I usually use (a mix of blues and light greys/white with brownish skin). This guy's left eye looks a little off, try not to look at it directly.

This second guy was originally going to have white skin (like his headdress) but after the wash dried I decided it looked so much better than I had planned so I left it.

Here we have our pair of Heru Archers protecting an important non-combatant- perhaps she's the Nomarch's daughter being threatened with kidnapping by local bandits...

WarGods Minis Month '20- Forge of Ice Skull Pig 1 (Entelodont)

What better way to kick off the occasional Antediluvian painting frenzy that is WarGods Minis Month than with a giant prehistoric entelodont, the first of 2 "Skull Pigs" from Forge of Ice!

Below we can see a ton of primed and partially painted WarGods-related miniatures that will hopefully get painted during this WarGods Minis Month. There's a bunch of Crocodile Games stuff (the official WarGods minis) and a mix of other manufacturers from Ral Partha to Dark Fable to Forge of Ice to others I can't remember. Anything that can fit within the broader WarGods world is fair game for this 30-ish day painting event (sometimes it goes even longer because time is an amorphous concept in the WarGods world).

To the Forge of Ice Skull Pig! This monster is a friggin' monster, it weighs about 80 lbs (rough estimate) because it's solid metal. It was a beast to base up, but thankfully it did not have an integral base to chop off. There was a solid peg on the bottom of his left front hoof that I drilled a hole all the way through the base to make sure it would hold.

I did some light research on entelodonts and aside from finding out that there's some exercise guru that comes up when you google "skull pig" I found out that they're more closely related to dolphins and hippos than to pigs. So I thought about what colors a killer whale might have on land and decided some lighter almost white splotches aroudn the eyes were a must.

I resisted using some UV Resin to do drool on his chin, but the next one might need to have that feature added since the mouth is wide open.

I decided to keep this guy's base pretty plain, just a couple of Secret Weapon grass tufts with the rough desert mix of flock. The shocking white stone was just a happy accident that somehow got into the rough desert mix. On the back left corner I decided to add just a little hint of civilization with a bit of flagstone liner paper, the next one will probably have more of it added.

A comparison shot of the Skull Pig and some Forge of Ice Azoran Lions. That's gonna leave a mark...

Crocodile Games' Demigoddess of Artemis calmly prepares to take down the Skull Pig with one arrow....

Some vicious Nekharu (Crocodile Games) close in on what they hope will be their lunch...

Here's a sneak peek at what may be coming next time- could it be the weird alien looking guy with 2 swords? Maybe the converted snake chick with the turtle shield? Possibly the Heru archers? What's that big dinosaur thing in the background?

The Last 3 Sleepy Sentries (Forge of Ice)

I was inspired to finish these guys up due to a discussion on Alex's (the Forge of Ice guy) painting livestream the other day. Thanks Alex!

Integral bases are one of my least favorite things to deal with when it comes to prepping minis. Sadly many of the Forge of Ice figures have integral bases so deal with it I must. Above you can see the figures in the process of being debased so they can go on 20mm square bases like most other regular hman figures that fit with the WarGods minis. 

I decided to give them a more fancy base top than the previous batch so I broke out this old roll of shelf liner or something (given to me by Fitz a loooong time ago when he was getting rid of some unbuilt terrain at a gathering, thanks Chris!) As you can see below, they offer a simple pattern that looks good once it's painted up.

These guys are pretty straightforward so they all got a unified simple paint scheme.

Including the debasing (about 45 minutes from the start of that process to getting them and the fancy toppers onto the bases), it probably took about three hours total from start to finish on the sentries. And they look pretty good.

Here we've got the new ones with the first batch. This crack security team is for hire if you need something guarded but don't mind if it get's stolen...

And here we see the last three with their employer the Sleazy Merchant and his fat little lizard pet.