Out of the forests…

I did this a week or so ago. Here I’ve been building up some areas of light/warmth using dark browns, through deep reds into oranges and pale yellows. I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing or how the finished result will look – but am enjoying just being a lot more free with the paint and seeing where things go.

I did this a week or so ago. Here I’ve been building up some areas of light/warmth using dark browns, through deep reds into oranges and pale yellows. I’m not entirely sure what I’m doing or how the finished result will look – but am enjoying just being a lot more free with the paint and seeing where things go.

Adding some broad washes of contrast Wyldwood and Snakebite Leather. See how it now starts to look really messy? I have to trust that it will come together as I carry on.

Over that very messy blue, I’ve started drybrushing and adding some selective highlights to get a real night time feel to the back of the display base. The trick will be to bring this round to the front and tie the blues into the warmer browns.

Danngit Gerry! Yet again Gerry’s comments on the Hobby Hangout have given me a kick to change my approach. I was going to just paint this up in my usual style (contrast, drybrushing, greys and muted), but Gerry’s suggestions about playing up the blues in the shadows and using the richer warmer hues elsewhere has forced my hand. Grr!

To that end, I’m going to try a more painty approach to this miniature and base. I’ll be blocking in a lot of deep blues, purples and blacks in the shadows, and then layer up the base tones and highlights.

This is going to be very much a “trust the process” type deal as it is going to spend a lot of time looking very messy.

A little bit of selective priming – grey for the back of the diorama and some under shadow. Wraithbone for the rest.

Which is probably what Thing shouts when he goes to the toilet!

Gravel on, with a few gaps on the base left which will be painted up as flagstones.

A bit of work with clippers, saw and green stuff, and the display base is coming together really well. Prompted by Gerry’s comments on the Hobby Hangout I’ve also had a go at blinging up the doors to be more ornate and Rackhamesque. I made these “hinges” by cutting down some face plates from the Bloodbowl Treeman kit. They are a bit daft, but I think they’ll blend in well once painted.

I’ll add some gravel and a few other bits before priming.

The door and columns from Zealot miniatures arrived really promptly, and are great quality castings.

Putting them together with the Ushoran scenic base and the Minotaur himself, I’ve been able to do a basic mock-up of the over-all composition for the diorama.

There’s going to need to be a fair bit of trimming, gap-filling and sculpting in of details such as flagstones and bricks. But, I think it has a really nice feel and flow to it. It’s not identical to the Paul Bonner artwork but has a similar feel – and that’s pretty good for me!

I haven’t done any hobby in such a long time. Been busy with work, life etc and had kinda lost my mojo with so many part completed projects.

But, I wanted to pick up a painting project to ease myself back in and get hobbying again. I’ve recently picked up Ushoran, Mortarch of Delusion from here at the OTT store, for a different conversion project. It comes with a really nice scenic base (which I don’t need):

And it struck me that this was what I needed to help bring out the best of my Minotaur.

So, I’ve also ordered a big door and some columns from the lovely folk at Zealot Miniatures – and I’ll be ready to give this Minotaur the diorama base it deserves.

A lovely build. Once cleaned up, the pieces went together so neatly. I thought I might need a little putty to fill gaps, but I think once primed and painted any minuscule gaps will just disappear – certainly more seamlessly than trying to do anything with putty.

As this is quite a “closed” miniature in terms of pose, I haven’t pinned any parts – it’s all just superglue.

Over-all, the miniature is incredibly well cast and really great quality. There’s no slippage and no flashing at all.

There are some visible gates here and there, the largest being on the Minotaur horns. I’ve marked on the image below some of the others. No issue with these though, as they’ll all trim and file down easily.

More contained in the little cardboard box than I expected – that’s for sure!

First, the Minotaur himself. In 3 little baggies, the miniature comes in 8 pieces, as 6 resin parts. Depending on whether you’re playing Confrontation or Continuum, there’s a 50mm round base and a 50mm square base.

There’s also 2 profile cards – one for original Confrontation and one for Continuum.

The box also contained two lovely small art cards also. The artists signature isn’t visible but I am fairly confident that they are by the irrepressible Gary Chalk.

And here it is! Really well packed and the outer box (not pictured) even had an extra metal miniature chucked in too.

Will unbox in the next post.

I’ve owned and adored this Paul Bonner book since I got it back in 2007. It covers so much of his career from Mutant Chronicles, through Games Workshop, Riot Minds, and of course, Rackham.

Learning that a miniature based on this gorgeous piece of art was being made, I knew I’d have to get hold of it.