Monday 26 January 2015

Spectres and Spooks

Introduction

Last time, I showed some models that I had prepared with a white undercoat.  Well, I've now completed the apparitions that I plan to use in Fear and Faith.  These will be opposition for Mystery Incorporated and should, I think, strike terror into the hearts of Scooby Doo and company (not that that's very hard, mind you!).  I've also painted up their boss, so read on...

The Skeleton Knight

The big baddie for my planned game is the Skeleton Knight.  He's from a pack of Black Tree Design undead knights that I obtained a long time ago, though I cannot remember why I bought these.  Perhaps they came in some bulk eBay purchase rather than direct from the manufacturer?  I'm not sure, but it doesn't really matter now.

He's quite a big model, though if anything I think that just increases his suitability to be a Scooby Doo villain.  After all, if it is just a costume then there needs to be room inside for the operator.  In any case the teenagers wouldn't be as frightened of something smaller, I think!

This was a very easy model to paint.  I undercoated in grey, then touched up the plate armour with steel.  All of the metal parts were then given a wash of metallic black (this is my favourite way of painting chainmail - just undercoat and wash!).  The bone was painted with a pale tan and then given a darker brown wash.  That just left the gauntlets, the belt and the horns on the helmet, which were all painted individually.  Oh, and the base, but that's pretty simple too.

In the game, he'll be mobile and quite terrifying, at least to start with.  However, if Mystery Inc. can find some clues before a final confrontation then his stats might just melt away!

The Spectres

As I mentioned in the previous article, these models are also from Black Tree Design.  Again, they're quite big (they are on 25mm bases), but that's OK since I want them to tower over the humans.  I'll give them the Haunt trait from the Fear and Faith rules - that will tie each to a single location and prevent all the evil forces from just ganging up on Shaggy and Scooby!  This also fits my intended background for such apparitions: they're really just film projections onto white walls or clouds of dry ice.  Maybe!

The spectres were undercoated in white.  After that, I applied a brown wash over the bony bits, followed by a bright green wash over the lower parts.  I deliberately extended the green wash a little way over parts of the ribcages and also over the dirt on the bases.  The scythes were done with further washes and finally the eye sockets were painted in solid black and topped off with red spots.  Very simple!

Conclusion

Right, now I need an assortment of innocent and suspicious-looking bystanders (I'm working on some!) and a suitable setting.  Then I'll be able to put on a small game with Scooby Doo and company in it - awesome!

26 comments:

  1. Greta stuff C6. I especially like the Spectres and the way you've done the green on them. Very nice indeed. I'll have to 'borrow' your technique for that ;-)

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    1. Thanks, Blax. These spectres were very quick and easy to paint; by all means copy the technique and please let us see your results :-) .

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  2. Yep. Great stuff! And I agree...those spectres look fantastic!

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    1. Thanks, Gordon. As I said already,the spectres are actually very easy to paint in this manner :-) .

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  3. That's why I like a white undercoat, there's so many washes you can use over it. Your spectres look great by the way.

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    1. Thanks, Bob. The white undercoat certainlyy does make them look bright, doesn't it?

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  4. Fantastic job. They remind me very much of the classic citadel metal skellies lovely figures both these and there citdadel counter parts

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    1. All these BTD miniatures were probably sculpted about the same time as those "classic" Citadel miniatures. They were intended to be competitors, so it's not too surprising if they have a somewhat similar look!

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  5. They have all turned out really well. I'm looking forward to seeing the Scooby Gang in action against them. It should be a lot of fun and high jinks. ZOINKS!

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    1. I must admit that I'm really looking forward to putting on such a game. I'll need to be careful not to raise my expectations too high, lest I am mightily disappointed in the result!

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  6. Great opposition for the scooby gang, the 'boss' is quite spectacular and deserves to be that bit bigger too, until of course it turns out that he's wearing a rubber mask.

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    1. It would be nice to have a multi-stage model where the villain was gradually unmasked and became a bit less frightening with every step, wouldn't it :-) ? I think that's just a daydream though...

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  7. They turned out really well. I could never get the hang of a white undercoat.

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    1. I only use a white undercoat very occasionally, when I have a special purpose such as this. It's not something that I've practiced very much.

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  8. I like the green eery look on the spectres with scyte

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    1. I did consider a blue look rather than green, but green is so much more 'evil', isn't it :-) ?

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  9. They've come up a treat, the spectral green looks wonderful.

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    1. Thanks, Michael. I don't think they would win any prizes, but they'll do very well for my purposes :-) .

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  10. The pale green on the spectres works incredibly well. very nice mate.

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    1. Thanks, Clint. I thought about painting the spectres *entirely* in green (like the army of the dead from Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings), but in the end I thought that it looked better if they were partly materialised.

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  11. Excellent figures - nice color transition with the Spectres too.

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    1. Thanks, Dean. They're very simple, really.

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  12. Nice work on the skeletons ... good colour scheme!

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    1. Thanks, F.E.M. I'm not sure about the red eye sockets, but I'm pleased with the rest of them.

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  13. Looking good, I really like the use of different colours on the ghosts!

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    1. Thanks, Mathyoo. There aren't actually very many different colours on any of these models; they are really quite simple :-) .

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