From BruceR: Gators on 2 legs, Greeks clothed and unclothed, Wizards (104 points)

After last weeks lace affair of grenadiers, I took a palette cleansing and saw these bipedal gators base coated on the shelf.  These are Reaper Bones miniatures and stand 50mm and 40mm.

A friend has been using some different techniques and had mentioned slapchop, give a shade coat, slapchop again and another highlight coat from the color wheel.  As I really didn't have a plan, I tried this with these beasties. I used army painter pinkish speed paint for the shade.  After this a lighter white slapchop and went to work with a light green speed paint.  I really liked this effect.  You can see a flesh base color in certain areas (not sure if the photo shows this).  Added some detail, like the metal eye of the one and teeth of course.

Here are the Gator Boys.  Bodyguards to some demented wizard or just protecting the swamp.

The  process was quite easy and really hit a sweet spot for me.  These will be great monsters and one even hit the table this past weekend as a Slaad during a session of The Silver Bayonet.  

The next addition of clearing the closet is brought to you by ancient times.   One of the movies that sticks out in my mind growing up was Jason and the Argonauts.  Doesn't everybody desire the hoplite helmet with the Y eye slot?  I've never collected Greeks in my gaming life and a few years back we were group ordering from Wargames Foundry and SAGA was advertising ancient times, so I ordered Athenians.  Like many hobbyists, these went to the shelf as I'm not enamored with SAGA, an okay game, just not in my wheel house.  A friend has some Greeks, suggested we play Midgard Heroic Battles using them.  Why not, except he only had a few units.  Ahhhh, the shelf of opportunity.  

Hoplites from Athens.  

Instead of slapchop I tried a new speed paint version using a white base coat and then a dark wash.  Leaves a somewhat gritty appearance and I'm happy with the speed and result.

The first group are hoplites with no armor.  I must have never ordered shield transfers, so for now they are sporting generic shields, which may receive more attention down the road.  

I went for a mix of colors for the tunics, crests, and shield banners.  Red for the "naked" Athenian Hoplites cloaks.  

Next up are again unarmored but "naked" Athenian Hoplites, minus the tunic.  Yikes.  Big shield needed.  I did google obscuring portions of photos.  I was able to angle the camera and shield so as not to expose their bits.  

I did some steel based movement trays to allow using round or square based figures and lined them up for a shot.  

Thats 16 Hoplites.  

Been well below zero and windy this weekend and the last few days.  So more opportunity to hobby.

These two are dynamic wizards from Reaper.  One a Bones and the other a resin figure.  The resin really has defined features.  Mix of speed paints and acrylics, plus highlights.  They turned out well.  I grabbed a wall to give them some background and set up the Gator boys as minions in their ongoing battle for dominance of the hovel.  

Reminds me of Bob the
skull from Harry Dresden

Battle for the hovel 

Thats the week.

Points.

16x 28mm Greeks @ 5                    =    80 pts

 2x 40mm gators @ 7                      =    14 pts

 2x 28mm wizards @ 5                    =    10 pts

Total                                              =    104 pts

Hope you like.  Take care everybody and hobby on.  

Gratuitous doggo photo, cold on the paws so limited outside time, so he nests.

Bruce

Sylvain minioning for Greg: You really nailed the skin of those gators. They look happy to be green. Your Greek hoplites look really good when bunched together. They look ready to join the phalanx and fight for glory. And your wizards are colorful and well accessorized, proving that good magic does not mean bad fashion. Great work this week!