Grimmleigh's Lab

15mm Wargaming: Make Mine (Tiny) Marvel!

I’m still on this weird-ass quest to find the perfect scale, and I’m afraid it’s leading me to this whole new world of resizing existing STL files to smaller scales to see what scratches what itch the best.

Lately, that itch has been tiny super heroes, and that scale appears to be 15mm. I have been taking some regular 40mm files from C27 miniatures and printing them off at 15mm scale on my Saturn, and the results have been really fun.

And really frustrating. The figs not only get super tiny, they’re also super fiddly and really come off the supports alot, even though I’m painstakingly supporting the damned things. Oh well, live and learn. We’ll see how long I stick to it, but for now, the madness shall run its course!

First off the plates was this tiny Captain America:

I was pretty happy with the results, and really happy to see that Speed Paints and a quick highlight look FANTASTIC! Plus, this is a half hour to an hour of a paintjob, so wins all around!

Here’s Cyclops:

One down side is that my focus is getting freaked out by the penny, so I’ll probably start shooting without the scale comparison. Still, it’s fun to see how freaky tiny these guys are!

Time for some Southern charm:

And, finally, my absolute favorite character from Silver Age Marvel, MODOK. I am absolutely smitten with how this little maniac turned out!

Full transparency, I painted these before a medical emergency in November that pretty much knocked me on my ass and is still effecting me. My hand-eye coordination is pretty messed up, and I can’t hold a brush for very long, but physical therapy will help with that. I’m just trying to catch up with projects that I had been meaning to post about prior!

I’ll be trying to get more of these printed off soon, but I’m going to have to find someone to print them for me, since the doc says I can’t run resin anymore. Poo. Still, no use dwelling on that, I still have a mountain of gray plastic to tackle as I get back on my feet from surgery!

Miniatures, Workbench

Marvel Zombies: Black Widow

I picked up the Kickstarter All for the Marvel Zombies: Zombicide game from CMON during a moment of weakness. Okay, more like a month of weakness while watching the stretch goals slip by. Sure, there is already a perfectly good Marvel based miniatures game out there, but I really don’t like 40mm miniatures from a storage perspective, and if I’m going to paint up a mini range, I would rather it be from something more reasonably scaled.

Plus, the mins are actually pretty cool and have pre-textured bases. What would I have to lose, other than half a week’s pay?

The boxes arrived several thousand years later (and before it comes up, I don’t do Kickstarters anymore, they’re kinda terrible for independent game stores). There was, one fateful afternoon, a box on my porch the size of a small Yugo, or perhaps a very large mini-fridge. Inside were an assortment of even smaller boxes, crammed full of little plastic super-heroes.

I pulled out half a dozen, put the horde of zombies in the “who gives a damn” box, and set to base coating. Since I was going for quick over quality (I’ve since changed my logic on this) I sat down and put some paint on a test model. And, lo and behold, she didn’t turn out half bad!

I am having a hard time spotting the mold lines on these models, and the plastic CMON uses is a little on the soft side, so sometimes they can be a little tough to clean up. Still, not a bad first effort, and I’m excited to get more heroes painted up!

Fantasy Art, monsters, Morbid Tales, Theater Macabre

Bringing on the Green Knight

I have long been a fan of Arthurian legends. I really enjoy getting into the roots that prop all of these tales up, from ancient Welsh mythology to old tropes that different cultures would trade about in their oral traditions. It’s a lot of fun for me, and I’ve been wanting to do my own book of Arthurian tales since I was about 20.

With David Ayer directing the new Green Knight movie for A24, I was able to geek out a bit about the story of Gawain and the Green Knight, one of my absolute faves. It has just a little bit of everything peppered into the story, from impossible contest to ridiculous trading games. And woven throughout is the concept of honor, and what honor, or a life without honor, would mean to any knight of the Round Table.

I drew my own rendition of the Green Knight, which you can watch with the video I have attached to the story. I also tell the beginning of the story, which finds Gawain rashly choosing to agree to a game with an obviously supernatural being.

art drop, Fantasy Art, monsters, Time Lapse Theater

The AMAZING On Again, Off Again Art Blog

Hi. My name is Leigh. I run Grimmleighs, and have been for the better part of a dozen years been trying to figure out what I want to be when I grow up.

The fact that I am nearly fifty-two is making this hard to deal with.

I have spent a lot of time either developing Grimmleighs as a art site to show off my monster creations, which can be popular and makes me pretty happy.

The rest of the time, I try to make Grimmleighs a place to showcase my love of miniature painting, which can be popular and makes me pretty happy.

I’m like a freaking pendulum in this regard.

Over the last two-ish years, though, fate has treated us to a pandemic, and life has treated me to a scorched esophagus from an ulcer that has been percolating about in my guts for most of my life.

The pandemic lit a fire under my ass, it seems, while the scorched esophagus has chosen my path. With my guts damaged, I can’t paint miniatures for very long without ending up in excruciating pain. I also can’t lay on my right side very well, but I’ll survive.

That pretty much kills the blog space as a place to post miniatures that I have painted.

So, welcome to my AMAZING on again, off again art blog.

I hope you enjoy my monster creations, they make me pretty happy.

With my newly rekindled love of sharing monsters, I have also launched a YouTube channel and have been posting stories and time-lapse videos of my art. Here’s the first one, it’s a fun little story about a forest princess:

She’s going to be late for everything.

I hope you enjoy! This is a challenge for me as I am easily distracted. But I really like drawing monsters, so I hope they make you as happy as they make me!

Cheers!

Your friend Leigh.

Miniatures, Workbench

Necromunda: House Cawdor Project

This project is short and sweet. A squad of Necromunda figures with an Ambot for backup.

I have only played a couple of games of Necromunda, and while I enjoyed it I found it overly complicated. And there were a couple of spoofs that players could pull that massively wreck the fun factor, so I won’t be playing again since I already know what any opponent will be fielding. Take out the glue guns, and maybe I’ll think it over again!

Still, the minis are incredible and full of character, and will work really well with Stargrave, Core Space, and Zone Raiders, so this probably won’t be the last Necromunda set that I pick up!

The squad was painted primarily with Citadel Contrast Paints over a zenithal primer coat. Highlights were then layered in to punch of the details, then a diluted wash of Agrax Earthshade was given to tie everything together.

My favorite little detail in the Cawdor kit is the candles a lot of these goofballs have just jutting out of their armor, with the dude with the giant crossbow dealing with dripping wax all over his visor! Great little details that tell their own story. Love it!

Miniatures, Workbench

Grimmleigh’s Guide to Painting Ork Skin

Since absolutely no one has asked, I thought it would be fun to put together a quick guide to how I paint ork skin. This is a speed paint method that I have been tinkering with for the better part of 20 years, and allows me to get a squad of orks (or goblins, or green dwarves, or emerald halflings) on the table pretty quickly!

**Step One:**

Start with a good foundation. Deeznudds here was sprayed with a coat of black primer, then I gave him a zenithal highlight pass with gray paint. Then, he got a downward drybrush of light grey paint. I’m going for high-contrast here, so subtlety is absolutely not a goal.

**Step Two:**

I blocked in the skin with some Sap Green ink from Daler Rowney, mixed with just a tiny bit of airbrush medium to dilute the pigment just a little. With the pre-shading done in step one, the skin could be considered done at this point and look just fine on the table-top…

**Step Three:**

…but we’re not Barbarians, are we? At this point, I started picking out the upper left side of the highlights with a little bit of yellow paint (Army Builder Babe Blond to be exact). Any light yellow will do the trick. I took a couple of passes to build up the lighter effect.

**Step Four:**

Why yellow? Well, Padawan, green is made out of yellow and blue, therefore it really likes being highlighted with yellow, and if you need to shade, blue works a wonder. At this step I have mixed a little Army Painter Arid Earth in with my yellow, and my highlights are getting smaller with each layer. It’s also time to paint that manky damned eye.

**Step Five:**

This step is completely optional, but I really like the effect. I paint in the highlights on the lips with a lighter skin tone, this adds a cool effect to the face and breaks up the monotony of a purely green face.

**Step Six:**

This is where I block in final highlights on the lips by adding a little Army Painter Arid Earth to the flesh tones.

**Step Seven:**

Deeznuddz is looking pretty fierce, it’s time to line his gums and his manky damned eye with some Flesh Tearers Red Contrast Paint from Citadel.I also painted in his teeth with some Menoth White Highlight from Studio P3.

**Step Eight:**

The gums get a little highlight action by adding a little Army Builder Arid Earth to the Flesh Tearers Red. Yes, I do try to highlight with the same color, good eye! This is a good place to coat the teeth with some Skeleton Horde Contrast Paint from Citadel.

**Step Nine:**

At this point, all that’s left is the teeth. Since highlighting with a yellow based paint won’t give me the effect I’m looking for, I’ll be using Menoth White Highlight from Studio P3. Deeznuddz is ready to smash some skulls!

The same technique that was used on this face works perfectly for any green skin, whether it’s arms, torsos, or even squishy little goblins. Have fun!

Now, the colors may seem a bit washed out, but that’s because we’re looking at this guy much bigger than he is in real life. Look at your screen at about what his real world size would be, and you’ll see what I mean!

If you enjoyed this guide, let me know! I’m thinking about starting a series to help people navigate learning to paint miniatures!

Miniatures, Workbench

Kings of War: Heroes of Iron and Stone (KoW Dwarf Project, part 5)

The Kings of War project I started last year is one of those giant undertakings that I really struggle with. I’m not much of a horde painter when it comes to miniatures, I would much rather paint up a dozen minis and focus on skirmish games, but there is something about the enthusiasm of my local KoW group that is a little infectious.

I have a couple of good, solid core groups put together, and my command minis have arrived from Durgin Paint Forge in Italy, so I have some great character options for my Vanguard detachments.

What we need now is some artillery. Big, brash cannons and terrible engines of war. With Dwarves, you need a bit, too. Or just stay home.

The first two cannons are plastic hold-overs from a box of Dwarves I picked up from a friend. A couple of quick multi-bases later, and these standard cannons are ready for action!

The organ gun is also a plastic kit, but it looks cool and actually has a stat line in KoW, so that’s even better!

The Flame Belcher is the only vintage mini in this group, and it dates back at least 20 years or more from the classic Games Workshop Dwarves line. And, don’t you know it, there is a stat line for this one, too!

It’s going to be a lot of fun seeing these models back in action! Now all we need to do is get this pandemic under control, and let the heavens rain fire! At least the heavens in my games.

Miniatures, Workbench

Marvel Crisis Protocol: Green and Mean in Asgard

There is something about the color green that inspired Jack Kirby to make his more evil-inclined Asgardians follow a jade hue. Or, perhaps it’s because they the green of Enchantress, Hela, and Loki contrast the overwhelming pop of Thor’s red cape so well. Regardless, it seems like the three primary Asgardian baddies really dig their green duds!

So far, Loki and Hela are the only “evil” Asgardians that Atomic Mass Games has released, and I finally got a chance to get them painted up!

Hela is a lot of fun, with a sculpt that kind of hints at the casual immensity of her power. I have been experimenting with a new speed paint technique, which came together pretty well with her.

Loki is pulling the inspiration for his look from the more recent comics, with a pretty nice coat and a smirk that speaks volumes.

The magic effect for both was created by layering thinned inks over silver, which looks pretty cool in person. In photos, it’s really hard to see the effect working!

I used the same effect on the stone in Loki’s scepter, with a little plasma blue painted over silver. It’s not perfect, and I’ll probably play with it a lot more before I get it to where I want it!

There’s another pack coming soon with Enchantress and Angela, which is cool, but I would rather have Sif packed in with Enchantress if I’m being completely honest. Angela may be a Marvel character now, but she really feels like an eternal Spawn character to me. Still, I’ll be happy to see them in the collection!

Miniatures, Workbench

Core Space: NPCs and Gangsters

I’m still grappling with my near fanboyish love of Core Space. The miniatures are absolutely not the best on the market, but there is something about them that makes my little heart go pitter-patter. I’m also really intrigued by the mechanics of the game, and love the aesthetic.

I’m working my way through all of the minis, and figured after having a crew painted up it would probably be a good idea to get some of the NPCs together. So, here’s the first batch, most of which are from the Shootout at Zed’s expansion from Battle Sytems.

She’s an assassin! She’s in a gang! She has swords! She’s Evangeline, and she’s cool as hell!

Hobb is one of the low-life nutters who hangs out at Zeds, looking for work and a spot of trouble.

Ooma is a pretty passive dude, just here for a mug of something cold!

I still need to finish the rest of Zed’s gang, as well as Zed himself. This part of the box has me pretty happy already, though!

Miniatures, Workbench

The Great Shame Project 2021

It appears I have a problem.

I have literally too many miniatures, more than any rational human being should consider having about their home. And yet, I keep buying more.

It’s not a collection, since (in my mind) having a collection of something is kind of useless if you don’t display it or do something with it. I have miniatures just sitting in boxes in my garage. That’s not really fun, hobby wise.

So, I have launched a challenge to myself for 2021. I’m not buying any more minis until I have either painted or given away my backlog. And I am trying to make sure that I paint everything, even if I plan on giving it away.

I am exempting anything I was gifted, because I end up being the guy that gets all the stuff when someone bails on the hobby. If I bought it, I will need to paint it before I buy something else.

This is going to be really hard. I love buying miniatures more than just about anything, but I’m pretty sure I have close to 500 unpainted minis choking off the house!

Now, here’s the first mini out of the way as the Great Shame Project of 2021 kicks off!

We’ll see how this goes. As long as I don’t look at the internet or go to game sites, I should be okay! Hahahahhaahahah!!!