Custom figures! I have a bit of an obsession with painting custom minis for our RPGs, and, well, here we are. We have a Lurk, Spider, Slide and Hound. The Hound is prett obvious, but for the others I tried to bring out their vices. The Lurk has a penchant for getting fighting drunk, the Spider likes the finer things in life and dresses rather garishly as a result, and the Slide has a slight gambling problem.
I opted to shade them a little on the gritier side because it seemed to work well within the setting. They’re dirty, they’re mean, and mighty unclean; they’re wanted men.
They still need facial detailing, which is easily my least favorite part, but the base, layers and shades all came out to my liking. 🙂
Where did you source those minis? Those are sweet.
Seconding the request for source – but also, what modifications did you make? Paint jobs look good, nice color choices especially on the bag-holder.
Awesome job!
Wait, those are Heroforge minis. I recognize the posing and the accessories.
http://heroforge.com
It’s a pretty sweet application that ties into shapeways.com‘s 3d printing API. Minis take a few weeks to print and process and ship but if you get the high detail material they paint up fairly normally.
They are, indeed, Heroforge minis. We backed them on Kickstarter and I’ve been obsessed with them since. 🙂
How’s the surface texture? Shapeway’s apparent graininess has made me hesitant…
They’re the “ultra detailed plastic,” which is the more delicate versions. They can be handled in a normal game, but they do need to be very gently stored. I have a guy whose sword broke off because I accidentally dropped him into our marker/pen basket and transported him as such. D’oh! This is why super glue was invented.Â
The surface texture, as you can kind of see on the green-coated fellow, varies. It can be smooth or it can be grainy. I use Citadel’s Imperial Primer on darker areas (coats and pants on these) and it does a good smoothing job, making the graininess less noticeable. . For lighter areas, like faces and stuff, it can be occasionally grittier than I’d like, but never so gritty as to be a deal breaker. For me, at least. 🙂
I’ve got my own shapeways shop there and “get high off my own supply” fairly often, so I’m familiar with the materials. Specifically to Heroforge’s offerings, though, their “ultra detail plastic” material is the only one you’re going to want to paint. Their “strong plastic” will paint in my experience, but it won’t take washes/dry brushing well without the applications also picking out the printing striations.
I ordered a heroforge mini for a friend’s birthday and she painted up fine. The detail plastic is not as robust as, say, Reaper Bones or Clix or anything, but my heroforge order was fine and it’s held up for months now with gentle handling.
Jen Bosier Adam Schwaninger Thanks to you both, that’s all good to know.
I’ve got quite a range of steampunk minis from various sources for different wargames. So if you want a cheaper metal source I recommend: Wolsung, Northstar Miniatures (In Her Majesty’s Name or if doing Asian, A Fist full of Kung Fu), West Wind Productions (Empire of the Dead) and for American, Gangfight Games (Blackwater Gulch). Or if you want larger than 28mm and more supernatural you can try Malfeaux.
Reaper has a few Chronoscope and maybe some Deadlands minis that could fit the bill as well. Some of those are in Bones, if that’s your jam.