Sunday 10 December 2017

December Oddments: Finished Models

Introduction

Just over a month ago, I showed the state of my workbench (here ==>).  Since then, I've been trying conscientiously to finish some of the longer-term projects which were contributing to the clutter.  Whilst this task is by no means complete, I have made progress; here are some of the results...

Super Dungeon Explore: Emerald Valley

I've been working my way through one of the Super Dungeon Explore expansions: the "Emerald Valley" warband set.  So far, I've completed the hero that came with this set (the Silver Chevalier) and have moved on to the monsters that inhabit the area.



This is Glimmerwing, the mini-boss who controls Emerald Valley.  She's a 'Fairy Dragon', which seems to mean that her strengths in game terms are in magic use rather than physical power.  Having said this, I'd say that the model looks quite robust enough to chew off some adventurer's head!



Most of this mode is simply painted green and then highlighted with 2 or 3 lighter shades.

The wings were more involved, as only the "veins" were done in green.  The "membrane" between these prominent lines was painted in a pale undercoat and then coloured with several thick washes/thin paints (take your pick).  Water was used on the brush to lessen the intensity of each colour when further away from the focal point, or even to blend a little with an adjacent colour.

Whilst the result isn't perfect, I'm reasonably happy with it.



The Emerald Valley warband itself consists of pigs and mushrooms.  Not scary?  Take a look at these elite Okoshrooms!  Basically, one of these is a very large mushroom man with a rope around its middle, tied to two large mace heads.



There's not a lot of detail on the mushroom bodies, but I have attempted some subtle shading nevertheless.  Fortunately, the rope, face and cap add plenty of colour and texture to draw the eye away from the bland body.

Out of curiosity, why does a mushroom need a fig leaf (or equivalent)?  Modesty seems unlikely, both from a botanical point of view and also because these berserkers don't seem the types to be worried by such a consideration.  Who knows (though it's probably better if you keep your answers to yourself)?


Hordes of the Things: Barbarians

My Barbarian army for Hordes of the Things has been growing steadily.  Last year, it was large enough to provide one part of the force which took on Santa in my annual Christmas Game.  Since then, I've expanded it by adding some panther cavalry, with the ultimate aim of being able to field 48 or 72AP (i.e. 2 or 3 times the normal HotT army size).



I've been looking for a general for the second 24AP "army" and here he is.  As soon as I saw this model, I knew that I had found my barbarian chieftain!  He is, of course, Kovornik, the Barbarian Outcast from the Frostgrave range.  I've classed him as a somewhat-unusual Behemoth General.  In HotT, Behemoths are usually big, dumb things such as trolls or giants, not leaders.  It'll be interesting to see how well or badly this works in practice...



This is a all-resin model and it's incredibly detailed.  For a long time I was too scared to do much with it, but once I knuckled down I found that it wasn't too hard after all.  Still took a while to paint, though...



Finally, here are some more Barbarian warband elements.  The figures are all 28mm castings from Black Tree Design, though this time there are some conversions in amongst them.  Some of these BTD models were spearmen, but I wanted them to represent HotT warband rather than spear bases.

The standard bearer is an obvious and straightforward adaptation; the top of the spear was cut off  and replaced with a banner from an old set of plastic Warhammer goblins.

Two other spearmen had their entire right arms (including the spears) removed at the shoulder.  These were replaced by arms from the same set of Warhammer goblins, one waving a crude sword and the other holding a large, curved horn.  I was very pleased to find that he plastic parts fitted very well and were just the right size and style!


Conclusion

As always, this isn't everything on which I have been working recently, but it is fairly representative.  It's a considerable relief to be completing models again and reducing the clutter on the work bench - especially as Christmas is coming up very soon.  After all, who knows how much new stuff I might be given then?


21 comments:

  1. Gobsmackingly good stuff, Colgar6. Awesome looking models, with some corking paint-jobs to boot. Marvellous work on the dragon; albeit my fave is the wholly rhino rider. Terrific posting :-)

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    1. High praise indeed :-) - thanks. It's hard for me to come up with a personal favourite from this lot; I like them all!

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  2. Great paint jobs. Love the chieftain. Thanks for sharing.

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    1. I have high hopes for this barbarian chieftain. Of course, if I'm fighting against him then I hope he fails ignominiously :-) !

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  3. Brilliant work! Those are some amazing models, especially love your chieftain :)

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    1. Thanks, Ivor. I'm tempted to look for some other wooly rhino/mammoth riders to go with him. From memory, Grenadier made some a long time ago and someone else (Mirliton?) still has them in production...

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  4. Great paintwork on all of them but I was especially impressed with "Glimmerwing."

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    1. Ah, I do like the dragon! Mind you, it's not often that the words "fairy" and "dragon" are used together...

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  5. Crackingly good.

    Barbarian HoT always appeals when you show it. It will definitely give me something to think about today.

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    1. Almost all the elements in my Barbarian HotT army are "impetuous" (i.e. they'll *always* follow up if they win a combat). Should make them - how shall I put this - an "exciting" army to command!

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  6. Cracking good stuff!

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    1. Thanks, Roy. I'm quite pleased with this lot.

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  7. Great job on them all. The Dragons wings turned out great I am really impressed with how effective it turned out. Love the Barbarian from Frostgrave you've done its a cracking looking model. I keep meaning to pick up the full set of barbarians from Northstar as the sprue I got with the Nickstarter was quite impressive.

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    1. I was really nervous about painting the dragon's wings! I researched a number of butterflies for patterns, but eventually decided to try to emulate the "official" colour scheme - with the result you see above.

      I've got a single sprue of Northstar (foot) barbarians as well. It has crossed my mind to build them into further stands of HotT warbands...

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  8. Top notch brush work C6 - especially on Glimmerwing, those wings are a masterclass!
    Like Clint, your HotT stuff keeps making me think about pulling my copy of the rules out (as well as DBA, DBM, oh, and DBN) ;-)

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    1. Thanks, WA! "Glimmerwing" isn't painted as neatly as I would have liked, but she's not too bad, is she?

      Hmm, might just have to play a game of HotT soon. Next weekend, perhaps :-) ?

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  9. Beautiful redition on the "dragon", quite stunning, it did remind me of a similar one for DnD, but I foget which!
    Your general on 'behemoth' is a superb model and befitting his status, but I also wonder how he'll do on what appears to me to be a stupid beast, even with his added warband.

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    1. Thanks, Joe! I don't remember a DnD dragon of this form, but a search of the internet for "fairy dragon" suggests that it's quite a common concept.

      The thing about behemoths in HotT is that they're hard to move against their will (friends cannot generally push them back in a recoil) and hard to stop moving once they get going (they're impetuous and will always follow up after winning a combat). Whether this makes for a good mount for the general remains to be seen :-) ...

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  10. Colors on the Glimmerwing were beautifully done! Awesome work :)

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    1. Thanks, F.E.M. Personally I think the concept is good, but my execution is a bit sloppy. Still, it looks good from a distance :-) .

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    2. A sign of a good painter is an ability to see where he is going wrong and the need to improve. Looks good but as in anything we do, it can always be better. And that's a good thing or we'll be bored silly XD :)

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