This mini was purchased with a definite purpose in mind - it is going to be the Behemoth of a Hordes of the Things (HOTT) Wood Elf army, using Grenadier Mark Copplestone figures. To be honest, I wasn't enthused about the figure - it seemed a bit too cartoonish, and didn't have a suitable air of menace. As with many of the larger late Grenadier figures, it came in several pieces, and whilst it glued together well, there were obvious gaps that needed lots of filling with Milliput. On the plus side, it was designed so that it didn't fall over once constructed, so that was a bonus :) So, out with the brushes. The figure had a light gray primer, followed by an Army Painter Dark Tone wash, followed by drybrushing with light gray, then a very light gray, and then a white just for the upper branches. That brought out a lot of the detail, and I started to get a bit more enthused about the sculpt. After that it was a matter of picking out the roots and leaves with dark green and then light green for highlights, and picking out indvidual rocks on the base. I still wasn't satisfied with some of the filling work I'd done, so I disguised it with some PVA glue and some flock, which I hoped would look like moss or lichen, and I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Finally the figure was glued to a 60x60mm MDF base to fit in with the rest of the HOTT army, and the base given a fine coat of sand which was then primed a dull brown, high lighted with green, and then dusted with flock and grass highlights. A lot simpler than it sounds. At the end of it - I was happy with the paint job, but I'm still not sure about the sculpt which - if you'll forgive the pun - is a bit wooden. Still, it looks impressive - take a look at it next to the latest recruit for my Amazon/Shadowforge Dark Temple HOTT Spear Unit - and I am pretty sure it will do some damage on the tabletop, as well as doubling up as an Ent in any woodland adventures for my D&D party.
Not strictly old lead... a bit of a mixed bag posting, but with a vague ancient Greece theme. The next nuggets to be extracted from the Lead Mountain were the Heresy Centaur and the Ral Partha Gremlin, and as they are small figures I thought I'd post them here at the same time. First up, the Heresy sculpt - a bit stylised, with what looks to be a truncated torso and elongated legs - but its well detailed, and I think it would serve well for a NPC that shows up on a regular basis. A nice and simple paint job, mostly browns and leather, and then the Army Painter soft tone wash did the hard work. Simples! Pleased with the way this turned out. At the same time I extracted the Ral Partha Winged Gremlin. Now, I am not sure that it is complete - I can't find this sculpt on Lost Minis - and I suspect that it is missing a weapon from its right hand. Still, it's still a great sculpt - for something that is nearly 40 years old I think it holds up really well - and it will definitely serve as a generic dungeon demon. This was a lovely mini to paint - a base coat of red, then a wash of GW crimson, then just dry brushing, which really brought out the detail. Again, pleased with the result. The Shadow Forge Dark Temple Spear Warrior is part of an Amazon HOTT army I am painting up, and when I was photographing the minis I wanted something to show the scale of the Ral Partha mini, and that was the first figure to hand. I like the look of Shadow Forge minis, especially their centaurs, although I think that sometimes their sculpting of arms leaves a lot to be desired. I'll post pics of the HOTT army as it progresses.
This mini was purchased with a definite purpose in mind - it is going to be the Behemoth of a Hordes of the Things (HOTT) Wood Elf army, using Grenadier Mark Copplestone figures. To be honest, I wasn't enthused about the figure - it seemed a bit too cartoonish, and didn't have a suitable air of menace. As with many of the larger late Grenadier figures, it came in several pieces, and whilst it glued together well, there were obvious gaps that needed lots of filling with Milliput. On the plus side, it was designed so that it didn't fall over once constructed, so that was a bonus :) So, out with the brushes. The figure had a light gray primer, followed by an Army Painter Dark Tone wash, followed by drybrushing with light gray, then a very light gray, and then a white just for the upper branches. That brought out a lot of the detail, and I started to get a bit more enthused about the sculpt. After that it was a matter of picking out the roots and leaves with dark green and then light green for highlights, and picking out indvidual rocks on the base. I still wasn't satisfied with some of the filling work I'd done, so I disguised it with some PVA glue and some flock, which I hoped would look like moss or lichen, and I was pleasantly surprised by the result. Finally the figure was glued to a 60x60mm MDF base to fit in with the rest of the HOTT army, and the base given a fine coat of sand which was then primed a dull brown, high lighted with green, and then dusted with flock and grass highlights. A lot simpler than it sounds. At the end of it - I was happy with the paint job, but I'm still not sure about the sculpt which - if you'll forgive the pun - is a bit wooden. Still, it looks impressive - take a look at it next to the latest recruit for my Amazon/Shadowforge Dark Temple HOTT Spear Unit - and I am pretty sure it will do some damage on the tabletop, as well as doubling up as an Ent in any woodland adventures for my D&D party.
