Elfs and Dwarfes and Dark Lords. Oh My!

Fantasy is still grabbing my imagination. It's been a long while between drinks with me and fantasy and I have to say: I'm enjoying painting these figures.

For a long time now I've been interested in quantity. Painting mass armies takes a very different style that requires a lesser level of detail. Or, should I say, a different type of detail. As far as I'm concerned I don't bother with shading, adding eyes or other such stuff when doing huge armies. To me it's more about clean lines and making the uniforms (especially historical uniforms) look good and clear in a formation of 300 odd figures.

Fantasy figures are different. Like figures for other skirmish games they're very individual and as such each one requires thought and consideration. There was a time when I painted fantasy figures exclusively and I did a lot of them. A LOT!

But those were my D&D days and they fell by the wayside as my group of D&D partners, and I, all grew up and had families to take care of. When I got back into wargaming it was all about Napoleonic's and since then it's involved a shit load of other projects too.

Now that my interest in fantasy has been rekindled it's been easy to get back into painting the figures again. As I alluded to above, it's a matter of quantity v's quality. These figures require a lot more thought and a lot more intricate brushwork and techniques. So, it's a matter of painting less figures but adding a lot more detail to individualize them. And... I'm really enjoying it.

So, today I have some figures that, for me, are unusual. They're unusual because they're a mix of official plastic D&D figures, a Reaper Bones figure, A figure by Black Scorpion and a very old Citadel figure that I've had for a long, long, long time.

These first ones are official D&D figures. I'm not sure what to think of these yet. They look okay but I found them difficult to paint due to their mix of sharp detail and fuzzy detail (on the same figure).

One plus for these is that there's a new games shop in town that has a big 

selection of these and it's only 2 minutes down the road.

This one is a Reaper Bones figure. I think this is the first Bones figure I've ever painted. I bought a bunch to see how they go. I do like this figure but I'm not 100% convinced by them at this stage.

The Mad Hatter by Black Scorpion. This one has been sitting half painted on my desk for a few years. I guess it's okay but I'm not sure what I can use it for. I really just wanted it off the desk and I didn't want to throw it out.

And this chap is (apparently) Saouron the Dark Lord by Citadel Miniatures. He's old. I think he was made in the mid 80's. I've had him for a long time and decided that his day had finally come and that he needed some paint.