Tuesday 25 February 2014

Grenadier Fantasy Lords Second Series 030 Giant Ogre Champion



Next to be extracted from the Lead Mountain was this beastie from Grenadier. Initially I thought it was a Troll variant, similar to this chappie, and so he was painted accordingly with pale/grey skin. It took a bit of research on Lost Minis to find him, which is when he was ID’d as an Ogre!

The paint job was comparatively simple – grey for the skin, dry brushed with white, and then the main armour was GW Tin Bitz dry brushed with gold. The other colours are simply base colours – leather, green, yellows – with a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone. The base is just flock with a twig from the garden placed at the front.

Many of the early Grenadier figures can look slightly cartoonish – very much in keeping with the illustrations from the AD&D 1st Edition Monster Manual  – and so I was quite pleased with the way this one painted up, as it still manages to look vaguely unpleasant and threatening. It also seems to be a comparatively rare figure; I’ve only seen it a couple of times on certain auction sites. Pleased with the way this one turned out!

Friday 14 February 2014

Little Horrors: Alternative Armies Zombie, Grenadier Mummy, Citadel Aerial Servant


It’s been a while since I last posted; a combination of work and decorating has effectively kept me again from the lead mountain. Still, I’ve managed to put in some work on a couple of minor nuggets:

The zombie is from the Alternative Armies Very Nasty Things: The Risen Dead range. I like Alternative Army sculpts; they are the nearest I’ve seen in style to the old Citadel sculpts, with just the right mix of genuine unpleasantness edged with comedy. Just look at the skull exposed under the rotting skin! It was a pleasure to paint as well – GW putrid flesh, standard colours for the clothing, then Army Painter wash and highlighting. Simples!

In the centre, a John Dennett sculpt from the Grenadier 1506 Monster Manuscript Vol.VIMM53 range. To be honest, I’m not fan of the figure; whilst it is well done, the Grenadier figures from this period always seemed a bit fragile and just a bit too small… maybe it is a Halfling Mummy! Again, simple to paint up – white for the bandages, leather for the exposed skin, and a sand colour for the pillar, followed by the usual Army Painter wash and highlights. The end product is OK, but I can’t see it getting much table time.

And finally, on the right – the Aerial Servant from the Citadel Weird Fantasy range. This was actually a damaged figure from a job lot – the base had been snapped off and was missing. The stone slabs on the base are made from Milliput, and serve as an anchor for the figure – it is still top heavy, so under the base are some lead weights from a fishing bag to hold it down. The figure itself was very simple to paint – dark gray, then lots and lots of drybrushing with white, with the red cloth done afterwards. It’s a bit of coarse, but it also has a lot of charm and humour sadly missing from a lot of today’s figures.

Quite pleased with the way these turned out!