Monday 21 July 2014

Grenadier Fantasy Lords 2nd Series 009 Titan



Titan: an enormous, powerful, and godly outsider. Though titans are supposedly of both chaotic good and chaotic evil alignments, the majority of them seem to be good, and hence, those are the ones which will be described here. In appearance, a good titan resembles an enormous (25 feet tall) humanoid, with perfect beauty and strength. They are hardy and muscular, but nonetheless extremely handsome/beautiful. Every aspect of them (teeth, hair, etc.) is also perfect.

When this nugget was extracted from the Lead Mountain, my immediate reaction was WOW – what a figure! It is fabulous bit of metal – large scale (look at the Grenadier-Copplestone Wood Elf next to it), and really well sculpted – lots of detail, and a great pose. I’d acquired this figure in job lot, and originally it had been quite badly painted, but I’d stripped that off and was determined to try and make a decent stab at it. 
With something this size, I thought the best thing would be to keep the paint job as simple as possible, so not to distract from the figure. The helmet, breastplate, shield and greaves were just base gold, whilst the tunic was white, against standard flesh tones. I went for a red plume on the helmet for a contrast against the gold and white, and also because the figure reminded me of the Spartans from 300!

After that – a wash of Army Painter Soft Tone, which really brought out the detail and gave the helmet, breastplate and shield a good polished bronze appearance, followed by lots and lots of dry brushing. I deliberately kept the base as simple and as cluttered as possible – it's just GW sand, inked over and then dry brushed.

I am very pleased with the way this one turned out!

Sunday 6 July 2014

Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM75 Huge Spider - Unknown Barrow Wight - Asgard Fantasy Monsters FM96 Vampire Bat




Just a minor update of some miniatures I’ve been working on. First up, the Asgard giant spider - I'd previously posted it here, but I wasn't especially happy with the photos, so I've added it again here as part of a group. Oddly enough it looks far better at a distance!

In the middle… an unknown. This came as part of a job lot, and the base was missing or had been cut off, so I have no idea who the manufacturer is. I think it’s a barrow wight – the crown suggests that – but I can’t confirm it. A Lich maybe? I’ve searched for similar figures and found one other owner, but they have no idea who made it either! Any thoughts on who the manufacturer is gratefully received! The actual paint job was fairly simple – light green, then GW Beltain green, then dry brushing, with the face and crown picked out. The base is simply flock with a few strands of cotton wool to suggest mist! Whilst I was fairly happy with the paint job, I thought it did bring out how coarse the sculpting is – the face of the wight/Lich in particular isn’t that great. Still, I like the sculpt and the figure – I think it is very atmospheric – and I can see this getting a lot of table top time.

Lastly, the Asgard Vampire bat. Quite an easy figure to paint; browns and grays, then Army Painter Dark tone, followed by dry brushing. Simples! Having said that – I honestly can’t see it getting much table top time. It’s not a particularly dynamic figure – I think most Role Players would have preferred a figure in flight, rather than having something scrabbling along the dungeon floor. From what I can make out, it wasn’t a particular popular piece, and it’s fairly rare now. One for the collectors than the players, I think!