Relic Knights Unboxing

IT'S HERE!  IT'S FINALLY HERE!!!



After waiting nearly two years I've finally received my Relic Knights miniatures.  I ordered a whole bunch of minis, and spent hours last night going through and inventorying them to make sure I got everything.  Aside from missing inserts, and some pieces that are missing that has become a known factory issue everything is there!

I'm taking pic requests over the weekend for the SPM forums while I begin cleaning and assembling some of these pieces for Gen Con, which I'm sharing here. 




With luck I'll have some paint on before the day is out.

After looking over things there I'm pretty satisfied with the minis.  There is a lot of variance in both detail and scale though.  Some minis are smaller physically and in scale, which is going to make it difficult to assemble and paint.  Thankfully there are more good miniatures with some pretty sweet detail.  Overall, at a glance, there is softness to the miniatures, and it's a mixed bag what you'll get.




Now I'm getting back to cleaning and assembling.  I'm still deciding what I want to do for a color scheme for my Shattered Swords, and I'm leaning towards white.

Gamers Kickstarter Miniatures

After a long wait I finally got my swag from the Gamers 3 Kickstarter, the most anticipated of which was the miniatures of the fantasy counter-parts from Gamers 2: Dorkness Rising.  The only non-Gamers 2 miniature I got was The Shadow, whom the group is shown dueling with at various points in Gamers 3:



Pretty standard looking bad guy, and not too shabby.  Let's explore the rest of the party then.  Both the male and female versions of Luster were included, and they look pretty accurate compared to their real-life inspirations.



Up next we have Flynn The Fine and Brother Silence.



Flynn the Fine is looking a lot better than his prior version, but Brother Silence looks a bit off.  His face is contorted in what I'm assuming is a martial arts yell, but it looks a bit ape-like.  I think it'll paint up nicely though, and hopefully convey what I think it's trying to.

Last up are Sir Osric and Joanna, both are the only multi-piece figures in the set.  Joanna is looking pretty close to the movie costume, but I get the feeling she'll be a little tricky to paint up.  Sir Osric is in two pieces, and is the most disappointing of the group.  He's got the sword, but is missing the cape and shield.  Both of those are with him throughout the movie, so I don't know why they got overlooked.  I'll have to sit down and try out a bit of grey stuff and see if I can't mold my own.



All in all I'd say the miniatures were a worthwhile buy.  $20 for six miniatures in metal is a pretty low price at a time when companies are switching to plastics due to the high cost of metal.  The sculpting is good and will paint up nicely.  One downside across the minis is a bit of a fuzzy/unrefined look that seems to be from the casting/mold process.  This could go away after they've been cleaned up and painted, or it may not.  I'll just have to paint them up and see.

Friendly Work

With confirmation that Relic Knights is at the warehouse and getting sorted before shipping I'm feeling glad that I got my last minute commissions finished up.  First we'll start off the piece featured previously, but now completed:






This miniature is just like my Mei Fang crew, where the eyes are super tiny (barely more than slits).  The friend I painted this for requested eyes, and so I painted some lovely eyes on her (she's watching you).  I added a bit of OSL from the fire coming from her staff which turned out a little more subtle than what I was wanting, but that's ok because I'd prefer it to be more subtle than to have it be overbearing.

Up next is another go at my sweetheart, Kaeris.  This one is for the same friend who gave the awesome suggestion for a sakura tree on the kimono of Kirai, and the idea for this Kaeris was just as good.




Shining wings, firey red hair, and a union jack on the back of her trenchcoat.  I could easily see Kaeris in this outfit, and that made it so easy to paint!  Let's take a look at how I got here:



Skin, hair, pants & shirt.  Also the wings.  My previous entry I used her to test the chrome silver, and here I've gone ahead with a black ink to help get the recesses.



When I was originally asking for how she was to be painted I was told, "white or silver."  I decided to take things to the next level.  After the wash I added a layer of bright silver to give definition, and then highlighted it with Reaper Master Series pearl white.  RMS' Pearl White is a white metallic reminiscent of their silks and satins line, and it blended beautifully with the metallic wings.

Up next is the start of the Union Jack.



So I tried to get close to a navy color without being too dark.  The color I used for this one turned out a little shinier than I wanted.  After some decision making I decided to give it a wash of GW's Drakenhof Nightshade to dull it up a bit while following up with some highlights.



Much better!  Looking at the pic though you can definitely tell that it's a bit rougher.  I went with another wash to smooth it out, and then I hand-painted the colors for the Union Jack, and was ready to call it a day.  Overall I'm pleased with how she turned out.  Kaeris is truly a miniature that looks good no matter how you paint her up.