Behold!

I love beholders. They've always been my favorite D&D monster, even before I'd played D&D. I just have a thing for eyeballs. Lately, I've been picking up multiple copies of Nolzur's Beholder miniature. It's just a fantastic miniature, and it's fun to paint. Every time I finish one up, I get an idea (eye-dea?) for another one. Here's the ones I've done so far. 

First up, we have the Death Metal Beholder. My original idea was to make it look like the Death Star, but that didn't really work out. So instead, I tried to make the scariest, most evil-looking Beholder possible. Mostly black and silver, with red eyes, firing four eyebeams.

Death Metal Beholder

Next up, we have the Pride Beholder. Black with rainbow plates and eyebeams.

Pride Beholder

Side View

This is the Pineapple Beholder. While painting one of the others, it occurred to me how much the back of this model looked like a pineapple.

Pineapple Beholder

Back View

Here is a Beauty Beholder. I stole the eyelashes idea from this reddit thread. More pictures of her here.

Beauty Beholder

Eyelash Close-Up

Here is a Jester Beholder:

Jester Beholder

Here's a Joker Beholder. A lot of people have been painting this beholder model to look like the Joker, so this is my attempt.

Joker Beholder

Back View

Finally, here's a Metallic Beholder. Originally I wanted to go for disco ball, but then I started thinking of Bubo the owl from Clash of the Titans. Anyway, he ended up a little bland, but I like having a metal Beholder in my collection.

Metallic Beholder

Here's a group shot:

Group Shot

As long as I'm here, here's one I printed with my 3D printer, using this model. It didn't turn out very well, but it was kind of a tasteless idea anyway.

Coronavirus Beholder

All of these go really well with the pre-painted Beholders I already owned:

3D Printing: Amazon Box Mimic

3D Printing: Baba Lysaga

 Here's the latest stuff I've printed:

A Slender Guy

Baba Lysaga's Creeping Hut from Curse of Strahd

Leaf Boat

Blue Fairy

3D Printing: Toons and Squid

There's a running joke with my DM, that he throws a lot of squid at us, or at least uses them in weird locations.  It's probably not even true, but it became a thing, and so I figured he needed an actual squid miniature. 

Here's a Gazebo Mimic, based on the infamous Dread Gazebo anecdote.

Here's some boats:

And here is my first attempt at recreating the characters from the 80s D&D cartoon.  Most of them aren't great, because I can't find actual STL files for them, so I had to collect and improvise.  I'm going to gradually replace these if/when I find better models to work from.

Some notes on the individual characters:

Dungeon Master: This was the easiest, because someone actually did make an STL file for him.  I really should fill in his facial features, but I suck at tiny details.  I even tried a flesh wash, but I had to paint back over it because it accentuated the horizontal print lines.

Hank/Ranger: The hardest part of this one was picking from the many STL files available.  He has such a basic look, I found a lot of Ranger minis that would work.  I didn't realize this until after I painted it, but what I painted as his hair is supposed to be a hood.  But I like how it turned out.

Bobby/Barbarian: It was also pretty easy to find a barbarian STL to work from.  A child barbarian, though?  Impossible.  Still, this one will stand in pretty well.  I didn't print the unicorn, though.  I think I bought it at a zoo, and just glued it on a base.

Diana/Acrobat: This is my favorite.  I think the STL I found was called "savage warrior".  She was originally holding a spear, but I cut off the tip.

Sheila/Thief: This is a very undetailed mini, but it works for my purposes.  I love the minis that print easily without supports, and the conical shape of this mini made it an easy print.

Presto/Magician: My least favorite, and the first one I'm going to replace when I find a better STL.  I really needed a mini with his iconic hat, but every wizard I found with a pointy hat also had a long beard.  It's like nobody's ever considered the idea of a young wizard wearing a pointy hat.  This will do for now, as silly as it looks for someone to wear a hat over a hood.

Eric/Cavalier: You know what else is impossible to find?  A paladin STL that is holding a shield, but not a weapon.  

Overall, I think these minis result in the "Cheerleader Effect".  If you look at each mini by itself, you wouldn't connect it to the cartoon.  But standing as a group, it trips that memory by virtue of the color scheme alone.  I can't say I'm proud of the set, but they'll serve their purpose if I ever run an 80s cartoon themed adventure.

More to come, as I print more things!

3D Printer Update - Dinosaurs!

A while back I showed off my first efforts with a 3D printer.  Here's some updates.  First off, here's a few of the ones from last time, now painted:

Dice tray, now painted and felt-lined.

Dice tower.  I kept the interior green, because it would have been hard to paint it all.  But I like how it gives it a mystical feel.

Campsite.

Barbarian.  Now de-stringed and supports removed.  Still needs some paint touch-ups.

Now some new stuff.  Here's a different style dice tower:

Here's some dinosaurs.  I did not print the dinos (except for one of them), they're from some packs from a dollar store.  I printed the bases the dinos are on, then painted the bases.  I also repainted some of the dinos.  I'm now ready to run a campaign in Chult.

I did print this one.  You can tell because it sucks.

And finally, here is something completely different.  I tried to print a horse that had a platform on its back for holding a miniature.  Unfortunately, it printed badly.  First, it came out huge, like some sort of war elephant.  Secondly, I didn't put enough supports under its nose, so it came out looking more like a duck's beak.  So I leaned into the skid, and designed a new creature.  I present the four-legged war mallard:

Painting Miniatures - Part 2

Just posting a few more pictures of miniatures I've painted (see previous blog here).  I'm still not happy with my skills, but I'm having a blast (and killing my back).  For the most part I've given up painting the eyes - I just can't get them even and they always end up looking cartoony.  I think I've been putting more creativity into the bases than the actual miniatures so far.
 

Bard

Weeping Angel - Pretty much just painted it gray.

Fairy

Same Fairy, but invisible

Bookshelf

Maybe my future Starfinder character?

Innkeepers

Mimic

Paladin of Sune

Pirates

Young Displacer Beast - I added tentacles to a cat familiar.

I didn't paint the following sharks.  They're just some toys you can buy in a tube at craft stores.  But I did paint the bases and added some extra flair.  I even glued real sand and seashells to some of them.

The ants below are from a bag of plastic ants.  I gave the bases a dirt-like texture and glued the ants to them to make ant swarms. I'm working on a spider one right now as well.

This is something I made to track flying height:

And lastly, here's some AOE effects I made for tracking the range of certain spells: