Monster March - A Tad Delayed

Hello all,

At the prompting of my brother in brushes, Lewis, I decided to join Monster March, a yearly painting challenge from Swordmaster’s blog. I’m delayed in posting this, but I hope that’s okay!

I decided pretty quickly that I’d work on these two undead ogres that have been hanging around the desk for a while! I sometimes take the time to add tufts to my bases before finishing up a paint job, as I like to do this in batches! 

One of the undead ogres is a fan-sculpt that I saw available on Facebook - it’s a great Oldhammer-themed sculpt based on Hrothyogg, the Ogre Champion by Jes Goodwin. There are some lovely details in there!

The bigger lad is from Reaper Bones and is a mountain of plate armour that I’m looking forward to working on! The aesthetic seems very much like Darkest Dungeon, of which I am a huge fan of it’s murky grey Lovecraftian fantasy setting!

If I get these two finished off I’ll work on this Perry Brothers Ogre. Again, this mini is loaded with different metal textures - it’ll be fun to weather!

Finally, if I get all of the above finished off I’ll try and paint this recent acquisition, which was found recently in a charity shop for 50p! I started cleaning up some of the moldlines - the original paint job really is a cut above some of the other pre-painted figures I’ve re-based and re-purposed previously. He

Keep Finishing Things - The Bridge Troll

 

So I was really chuffed to finish off the Creature from the Black Lagoon from my last post, but the key for me is also the “getting pictures took” part of the process too!

Here’s a figure with a bit of a story - I first saw it in Travelling Man Newcastle way back when I lived up there. It was right in the back of the shop and had been trapped in it’s blister pack for a good 10 or more years - how is it that I felt bad for a metal miniature!

Fast forward a bunch of years and I see the yellowed blister pack of this Iron Kingdoms RPG miniature and decide to rescue it.

After that it was built and undercoated and went in the queue for a couple of years, before I finally picked it up last night and painted the majority of it in one sitting. I added the static flock tufts and some gloss varnish mixed with swampy tones added to the base and it’s clammy flesh at lunchtime today and then photos once I finished work.

Just Finish A Thing

 I’ve had this little voice inside of my hobby headspace for about a month now…

Just a little itch telling me to finish off a miniature. Any genre, any scale, any medium…

Just finish something!

Instead, I’ll pick up a freshly undercoated figure and start half-heartedly trying to remember how to paint. Doubly so as in this case I’m trying to match to an older scheme. 

The brushes are back down in record time and then I’m off to sort something else in the house.

It’s been that way for four weeks - tonight, I decided, would be different.

Tonight, I’d Just Finish A Thing.

Here’s the thing in question - the Creature from the Black Lagoon, as sculpted by the wonderful Paul Muller and sold by Four A Miniatures.

It kind of works perfectly as a little palette cleanser - with toes in Lovecraft, Dracula’s America, even Don’t Look Back, the horror-slasher game!

I tried to take some nice photos, but that’s where my energy ended for the night, so here’s a moody shot that shows the figure off nicely! The details are exquisite!

Enough from me - I’m going to try and do more of this sort of thing in the future, as well as trying to set boundaries and deadlines for myself to get some games in - it’s well before COVID that I’ve even played a miniatures game, despite a large painted collection! Let me know what you think.

The Crimson Court - Warhammer Underworlds

When my good friend Lewis of The Die is Cast! suggested us both painting up the gorgeous Crimson Court warband from Warhammer Underworld as a mini-challenge around 10 days ago I was initially apprehensive - I'm out of the painting groove currently, with no real reason as to my lack of enthusiasm for it! I picked up the boxed set when I was in Leeds for a work conference and ultimately decided that I'd give it a go!

Here they are - they're somewhat lacking the "Crimson" aspect, maybe more of a Puce Court? It doesn't quite have the same ring does it?! I had the colours of House Bolton in mind for these and I'm pleased with how they turned out! I may return to them some day to add some further definition to the greyish white hair and maybe some additional shading on the armour, but overall I am very happy. The figures are honestly gorgeous, with weirdo batboy being my favourite, followed by the hulking mace/polearm wielder! I wish I'd kept some elements separate for painting, so if you find yourself with these guys mid-assembly, DEFINITELY keep the cloak on the big guy separate!

Let me know what you think, and be sure to check out Lewis's brilliant blog for his painted version!