Showcase: Snake Mystic, Spirit Warrior, and More!

I'm showing off another batch of Freeblades minis this week, and is it ever an A-Team of mixed talent.  The group of four includes a summoned bandit Spirit Warrior, bandit Thug, Urdaggar Snake Mystic, and a Haradelan Muster Archer.  Let's take a look!

At long last I finally got my hands on bag of birch tree seeds (a few weeks before Kent P.'s birch tree shed its own) and put them to good use on the bandit bases as fall leaves. Secret Weapon offers birch seeds for $10 at your friendly hometown hobby store, but if you can gather them up for yourself for free that's your best bet.

Two of the models in this group received special attention: the bandit Thug, and Haradelan Archer.  Jon C. wanted a Thug with a "baseball" swinging stance instead of the stock option.

Both the Thug's armed were chopped off and pins put in place for replacement sculpts.  I also bent his legs into a "squash the bug" pivot (for all of you who played baseball as kids out there) to complete the body motion of an all out swing.

Here he is with two brand new arms and a paint job!

I was excited to do a five o'clock shadow on this thug as it fit perfectly with the rough-and-tumble nature of the bandit faction.  Clean shaven is so Haradelan.

The Thug's leather armor is studded with rings and slugs to bolster its defenses.

The Spirit Warrior is a model that can be summoned by the bandit Enchantress.  For this one I went with the classic spectral glow, adding blue light around his feet and where it reflects on the tree stump behind him.

Here they are, a live and dead bandit, back-to-back fighting in the fray.  Trivia!!!  If you can name the image that inspired the bandit's bases you will win one free paint at my Level 2 showcase quality!  So, what was the image (probably something from Freeblades, hint, hint) that inspired the basing scheme on these bandits?  Be the first to comment with the correct answer or email me at midwestmonsterlab@gmail.com and I'll paint one of your infantry sized models for free!

This Snake Mystic is an Urdaggar model released for the DGS role-playing game Bright Swords.  It will be included in an upcoming Urdaggar faction, but you can get the model now!

I couldn't resist doing another... Urdaggar... redhead.  Ok, one of those was a guy, but yeah, I can't help but want to paint my Urdaggar females with red hair, I've had to fight the urge to do it on each one!  The Snake Mystic is a great model for red hair though.  It contrasts nicely with he drab clothing and the bright green snake and makes the model pop.

Of course, I wanted to do a bunch of snake tattoos on the mystic and so I decided to do a shoulder sleeve and one lurking around her pelvis... bow chick wow wow.  I have found myself doing this on a number of female models as well.  I imagine these free-spirited  and war loving women are a bit randy as well.

The final model in the group is a Hardelan Muster Archer.  Like the archers I've done for Haradel before, I wanted to add some umph to this model with an arrow and bowstring.

Here's another archer I've done before with an arrow and bow string.  It really is that extra bit that pushed the model over the top.

That's it for this week, thanks for stopping by and checking out my Freeblades minis!  Come back next time to see what's cooking over here at the Monster Lab!