Sunday 5 October 2014

Grenadier Wizzards & Warriors Slime variant, Minifigs Sword & Sorcery SS47 Slimeman and Unknown mud/clay man



Next out of the lead mountain were a number of related sculpts – all easy to paint – so I’ve posted them together:
The Grenadier sculpt was from their earliest Wizzards and Warrior range, which was produced to tie-in with the D&D craze that was just taking off. The actual sculpt itself is not impressive – just a smooth lump of lead with a “eye” stuck on – so it was a bit of a challenge to do something (anything!) with it. The first job was to glue it on to a base of PVA glue – not only did that secure the sculpt, but once the glue dried it provided a smooth surface that suggested the sculpt was rising out of it. After that, a really simple paint job – base yellow, pink for the “eye”, then a wash of Army Painter Soft tone, then picking out the “eye” again with pink. Simples!

The Slimeman is from the Minifigs Sword and Sorcery range in the early 1970’s, and were originally sold as the official range of D&D figures. They are VERY basic – hardly any detail – and I was not enthused when this came out of the box. Still, I tried – same approach as the Grenadier slime, stuck to the base with PVA glue, and then a base coat of yellow, then Army Painter Soft tone, and then a GW green ink wash. Much to my surprise this actually came out fairly well – it looks like a vaguely humanoid shape rising out of a layer of green slime. Most unappealing.

The final figure was in a job lot with the Grenadier slime, and to honest I have no idea what is supposed to be, or who made it. If anyone has any ideas – please let me know! It *looked* like it could be made out of clay or mud, so the same approach again – PVA glue base, then a sand base colour, then Army painter soft tone and highlights.

All of the figures were finished with a gloss varnish to suggest a slimy sheen, and on the whole they work pretty well for very basic figures that were sculptured over 40 years ago! Slimes and molds area feature of many dungeons, so I can see these getting quite a bit of table top time.