How To Kill A Wight King

 It's NOT good to be king...

Our current foster dog, a sweet pit bull by the name of Chuckles, has managed to undo hours of my son's painstaking work in a matter of seconds. He chewed up what was probably Mr. Frodo's best work to date today, a Warhammer Vampire Counts Wight King. I was almost sick to my stomach when I realized what Chuckles had in his mouth. Well, time to head to Ernie's and see if they have another one in stock. Bad dog, Chuckles. Bad dog.

UPDATE (3/21/13): Frodo has painted up his new Wight King, and here are the results:

He basically painted it the same as the original one, but spent a little more time on details and highlights. He's especially proud of the old, dirty cloak, the face, and the highlights on the armor. Chuckles just went to his new forever home, so all of our miniatures are once again safe from his unrelenting maw of canine doom.

Here Be Dragons! (Reaper painting challenge)

I stopped by Reaper's forums the other day and noticed there is a new painting challenge up and running. This is my kind of challenge - you have a whole year to complete it! Of course, I'm a notorious procrastinator, so this could also be one of those double-edge sword scenarios if I don't stay on top of things.

There's a black dragon by the name of Ebonwrath sitting on my bench, languishing in miniature hell, partially pinned and assembled, just begging to be finished! And I also have one of those neat old DragonTooth dragons who needs some paint as well, so one or both of those will be my entries.

I'll be posting my progress here from time to time, and hope that I can actually finish this challenge.

1982 Tri-State Con Trophy

This Ral Partha Frost Giant (01-057) recently sold on eBay for $10. The listing states that it is "gold-plated" but to me it looks like it was spray-painted gold. You can see the telltale spots not covered in gold, in particular the space between the left arm and the body. Looks like a spray-on tan to me.

In any event, I amost put in a bid on this just for the coolness factor of it. I haven't been able to find any info on 1980s Tri-State Cons, but hopefully I'll dig up something sooner or later. If this is an actual trophy from an actual 1980s gaming con, then it's a neat little chunk of lead from the past that has hopefully found a place of honor in its new home.

Time to get back to painting! We have a session coming up in March that I need to prep for.

Reaper's P-65 Frost Wyrm - Some Assembly Required...

I took advantage of the holiday clearance sale over at FRP Games and picked up almost $90 worth of minis for only $30 including shipping. My order consisted of Reaper's Stone Lurker (roper), Vulture Demon (vrock), and a P-65 Frost Wyrm (remorhaz). Oh, I also bought my first Star Wars 30mm mini by Knight Models - Count Dooku. I paid roughly $4.35 for the roper, $6.23 for the vrock, and $10.50 for the remorhaz, which retails for $35. Count Dooku was a steal at $2.50!

They arrived yesterday, and I had a chance to open the package this morning. Everything looks great, but I just had to open up the frost wyrm. It's heavy (8.6 ounces) and consists of 22 pieces! There's the lower body (base), torso/neck/lower jaw, armor plates (behind the head), head/beak, frill x2, tail, legs/claws x 7, spines x7, and right mandible (the left mandible is molded in place).

Here's a picture of all the parts. Lots of nasty, pointy spines and claws! I'm still planning on an assembly write-up as well to see how everything comes together.

Now I just need to get the Ral Partha and Center Stage versions, and I'll have a killer trio for my DM to play with.