Peg D&D Adventurers - Part One

This was fun and a bit of a departure from 19th/20th century soldiers, but it's been an interesting experiment and I've learned a few things.

This is the first half of a peg figure set depicting my D&D adventuring group, including; a Warrior, a Druid, a Blue Wizard and a Barbarian.

They are just novelty ornaments really, as at 42mm scale (approx) they wouldn't look right as game miniatures...Unless I made a huge collection of other D&D beasts to go with them! (That's a no, btw!) :D

The Blue Wizard and Barbarian are my newest completions and like all experiments there are things I like and were somewhat successful and things I don't like and were not so successful. My 3D accessories are starting to get a bit more elaborate, as is my painting of textures - but I've tried to keep everything within my desired 'cartoon' look for these figures.

I still have two more player characters to do and I plan to do a DM figure too as I don't want him to fell left out (particularly as he's the one who has been doing the most work in creating our current adventure which I shall entitle 'Massacre at Sleepy Bay'). :)

Peg D&D Druid Completed

Well, another figure off the production line. I'm really pleased with the new Posca Paint Pens, they did - indeed - work fine with my normal spray lacquer without any bleeding whatsoever. Win!

This was an interesting little project to do as - because these were bespoke custom characters for individual D&D players - each figure in this series will have very specific features and accessories and aren't quite as simplistic as the other peg figures that I have done so far.

In this case, the addition of a fur effect paint job, a magik tome, and - which turned out to be the trickiest bit - a Native American skin tone. The skin tone took me three attempts before  I was happy with it.

I have four more characters in this series to do for the rest of our adventuring group; a barbarian warrior (me), a wizard, and (female) thief and a novice (female) druid. I only highlight 'female' as I have to figure out what stylistic shorthand I might use to denote a specific gender (another first for me).

Again, all this seems a little 'off topic' for this - supposedly - FLW Molatero themed blog BUT this is all much needed practise before I embark on a set of Molatarian peg figures. I want to have nailed this peg figure format before I start on these.

Peg Saxon (or D&D) Warrior

Managed to knock one off my cue of unfinished models this morning! This is the prototype peg model I did to explore how I would go about creating fantasy D&D figures.

However, I am more of a fan of Tolkien's vision of a fantasy world than I am of the normal Heroic Sword & Sorcery ideal. I like Tolkien's (and Jackson's interpretation in his movies) use of Anglo-Saxon mythology and social history rather than a completely fanciful 'look'. Giving a fantasy world the semblance of some real historical background - to my mind - makes that world more believable.

Anyway, so my little D&D warrior turned out very Saxon looking...Though it is very stylistic...

Aside from the Saxon influence for the clothing and equipment I took a lot of my design cues from Graymouser65 over at the Wooden Warriors blog. Indeed, this is where I got the idea to try out a fantasy peg figure in the first place.

As mentioned in my previous post, I will be following this idea up with a small series of figures representing my D&D group.

Trying Something New (Painting Style)

I'm playing about with a different painting style (with gratitude to 'Graymouse65' of the excellent 'Wooden Warriors' blog for the inspiration), it's a lot looser and brash than my usual 'tight' technique that I've been using for my peg soldiers thus far.

I begin with flat colour blocks, just like my other peg figures.

I guess you might say that it's a little cartoony, but this is a fantasy figure for a D&D game so I guess this style is in keeping with the spirit of the game...

Anyway, it's taking be time to 'loosen up' and get the 'deliberately sloppy' look with my brush. I don't want straight and even lines and I don't want evenly spaced patterns. This is hard work for me!

By the way, the button will be the warrior's shield!

I reckon it will take me three or four practise figures to get into this style (and to work out how to shade and highlight things properly).