From the Vaulted Realm of Pluto

So the Sythyrs from Shadowforge I got through Eureka Miniatures are all done. These ladies are a departure from the previous fauns and I like them much better for the scale of detail. I also like the fact that these are metal instead of plastic. The only issue I had was the fact that all the figures have tails like Scandinavian trolls. All of them needed to be attached and using epoxy resin instead of superglue has yielded sufficient resilience to some dropping. It also helps to bend the tails so that they don’t point into deep space away from the models. This is also an issue when dealing with trying to either rank up of put them on the unit base as shown.

Beyond all that I found it difficult to try and find ways of keeping the green accent color included and tried to draw the eye with the jewels. I think it might work but only on the 3″scale versus the one of 3′. Lenticulur highlights are a pain in the ass. I might skip this kind of thing in future but as a challenge I might keep at it. This remind me of the movie Hook and a dialogue between Cpt. Hook and Mr. See on “Don’t let me do it”…. “Pundancer, don’t let me do this”.

So I had thought about a way to bring in a bipedal beast into the army outside of the minotaur and had this cyclops printed. Using the troglodyte from Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (running on from the Arabian Knights project) I decided to keep the Harryhausen theme in a different way. I thought the original monster, now 3D print, was a good anchor point and used Polyphemus from the Odyssey as another great bit from Greek mythology. Since I had some sheep sitting around I used this as opportunity to justify buying them way back when (Past self “See, there was a reason you bought them”).

Here be the metal centaurs, replacing the previous plastic ones, all outfitted for fierce battle. I tried initially to break the shapes of their musculature into distinct areas but I gave that up after I sat and thought they weren’t sculpted that way. I went back to the same thing I did for my gray dapple mount of the Mordheim knight painted some time ago and began stippling. I just needed to make the color transition for areas stand out.

Horse skin aside, I had the same issue with the human bits. Thankfully, they are similar to all the hoplites I’ve finished so I needed only worry about armor and armaments being different. No bother for transfers for the shields as I kept the provided ones for distinction. It gives me an idea of how better to work NMM for other things as I look at them now.

I have found another Scourge for my collection of armies. The Harryhausen Hoplites will be getting an Incredible Thunder Chicken unlike the last one for the Arabian Knights. Thanks to my being vigilant for minis and thinking this army will need something big and flying I found a phoenix.

Keeping with the theme of Greek mythology it was just something I felt needed to be done. Given the Black Friday sale I was compelled to buy the files for future printing. Dwayne, the Roc, will not be my only feathered friend to field. This will also mean I need to be creative with plumage once again and think about fire. I’ve worked on Justin’s Khorne demons and painted them for the heated metal effect on their swords. I just need to transpose that idea and process onto a bird.

Right now I only have the issue of whether or not I use the flying model or the one barfing a fireball. The first one looks stable enough to stand unsupported. The second one, eventhough it looks badass, I have reservation on the strength of the supporting gout of flames. I’ll weigh this idea out as I work on other stuff in the meantime.

Nope, no clothes here to hold back any movement. This has been a good mental balance to Warren’s Celt gesatae and I’m glad for no tattoos. I did a few mods on these figures. I added LBMS transfers to the Brother Vinni figures as I thought they would fit the shields. I was right and wrong on that point. I didn’t want to deal with the issue of snapped resin spears I replaced them with steel ones from Warlord Games.

Anyone buying these figures will see that they are perfectly sized to Wargames Atlantic hoplons. The difference between them is a sculpted laurel detail around the center for the Brother Vinni offering. The edge of the LBMS transfers sit right where the laurels come up from the otherwise smooth surface. It’s a very close fit and most times it was enough for the transfer to pull back from the edge and not adhere to the shield fully. To try and address this I added extra clearcoat to act as a filler. After drying fully it didn’t work. Its only noticeable on very close scrutiny.

Beyond that I will freely admit to finding deadly mould lines along the rear leg of some models which I failed to remove beforehand. Its on a side my opponents don’t see and there is plenty enough going on otherwise that the detail in question can be overlooked. I’ll be sure to address the issue on other models in future. As a preamble to the UHH.. bugger off 😆.

As an update for other figures, the sythyrs from Eureka have all been pinned to their bases and magnets inserted to make sure the figures don’t end up getting tossed around the carrying tray. There were a few arms to pin but generally the sockets fit well enough that you could get away with just gluing. All the figures of the unit have tails and they are quite fiddly. The use of solder might’ve been a damn good idea but melting temperatures is something I don’t want to mess with. I opted for using glue to attach them and it’s worked so far. Pictures to come when they’re painted.

No, I can’t well just leave well enough alone with silly thoughts and how to implement game mechanics into a thematic army. Here, I finally dragged “Clash of the Titans” onto the table.

It really was a segue from an idea after seeing an owl being used as a mount.

From here it proceeded on to the possibility of a Hearthguard unit of flying figures. With the experience of the hippocampi I think I’ve trod down that road far enough to consider four figures likely won’t work. This should be a significant single unit for visual impact.

As it is a piece to be looked at with awe and wonder my brain went from what could be done admiring natural splendor to the whimsy of the ever famous Bubo!

This will either be a warlord on flying mount or another lieutenant like the one riding the flying carpet I had on my Arabian Knights. All in all The Hunt, as Gerry put it, is afoot and I think there are quite a few trophies scored during my time in the wilds of The Interwebs.

I’ve hit a small painting wall but getting some magnets into the trays for the figures has been positive movement for the project. I’ve also ordered more to complete securing the army to the transport plate. This lot of lovely ladies grows more attractive all the time. 😆

I had the hippocampi(?) that I wanted printed and I’ve been looking at how I’d need to kitbash the legs of some Dark Temple Guard Praetorians from Shadowforge to use as a unit of Hearthguard. I’m not a fan of the cast spears. The polearms look more like ranseurs with tiny details of skulls that I just won’t be able to replicate in a material I feel will be durable for regular handling so they will be kept. The legs will be hacked, repositioned and the armor frill replaced on the finished legs. I don’t think too much work will need to be done on the shield arms but I’ll see what happens in the seating of the figures.

A not on the prints is that they came out very cleanly with minimal fuss for the supports. My friend printing them did a bit of custom supporting in tapering the terminal points where they meet the model. It’s a trick that seems to minimize the scarring of the contact points and my need to run sandpaper for smoothing.

On a separate topic of photos I’ve tried some more with natural lighting and using thin EVA foam as a backdrop. Tooling about with 5600k WB, 100 ISO and 1/30 sec shutter seemed to have worked with these pics. I’ll look more into the difference between this and my “studio” photo setup with table lamps.

Considering the hunt for more minis I’ll give this all a bit of a twist to put in some more 1s and 0s. This all makes sense as far as a change of pace as I’m pulling in aquacav(?). With the Jason and the Argonauts feature of Poseidon I thought a little bit more could be drawn in. Seahorses in the non-standard idea will be good. As an addition I’ll be kitbashing some stuff I got in order to keep the visual motif.

So as I’ve just watched the XLBS for the week I have been pleasantly surprised to see the Harryhausen Greek project featured. I agree to the idea pointed out of “The Hunt” which has gone on in building this army. Starting from initial seed concept and cultivating the development as it grows is a curious business like bonsai. Going back and forth with pruning the notions can be tricky as it can be a really good idea that you shut down in the effort to try and fence in your efforts.

That being said I’ve come up with jumping onto the Shadowforge figures carried by Eureka out of Australia. Nic at the shop has been quite helpful for this project and I’m sure anyone tossing him an order would be well received and taken care of.

My thoughts to mull over recently has been more monsters. In the Arabian Knights there are all sorts of fantastic things to see (truth be told I found a few more I might add) so this army needs just the same. I do this as my brain cannot wrap itself around a war machine to put in. Pulling out what I can from the film I might just hammer in some things from Clash of the Titans as well.

The minotaur has been completed. It’s not a great painted piece but it works for what I need. I can say that having it done is better than what it was before so I’m happy. I did what I could to avoid NMM where I could. I’ll keep at this and feed myself aspirin for the rest of the painting.

I’ll complain about more 3D models and sculpting in future as I found things to add to the army. Creativity is a double edged sword

The leader of these Amazons is perched atop a chimera with a golden fleece saddle (it seems that there is more than one out there and may be a Chinese knockoff, who knows). A minor modification using a spare plastic head from the Wargames Atlantic undead chariots was done by cutting out the skull. Her sword arm was repositioned to be more dramatic and avoid the helmet. Her legs were cut near her hips and pinned to accommodate the width of the chimera. Overall, a good figure with little needed done to it to work better.

As far as paint, Speedpaint is a helpful tool for basecoating. Sand Golem for the lion bits, Orc Skin for the snake and Gravelord Grey for the goat parts made the beast easy to start feeling less daunting. From the overall mass, it felt good for the detail work to be done which made the mini pop. I feel happy about the end result and think there is understanding by some 3D sculptors that Death by Detail can hurt your models.

The downside to this is I now have to run NMM for my foot troops to match the bronze helmet of the Warlord *sigh*. In happy little accident fashion the winning colors are as follows:

Vallejo Model Color

Saddle Brown 70940

Buff 70.976

Pale sand 70.837

The fauns from the plastic centaurs box are done. I’m glad to be finished but I feel as if they’re just too scrawny for my tastes and will work better as an addition to the army I gave to one of my friends. To these minis I say goodbye and good riddance.

Working over the female collosus has been good for my sense of accomplishment. It’s smaller on the 80mm base than the previous one but no less impressive when compared to the 28mm standard of the army.

As it is different from the other I decided to distinguish it with more blue in the patina. Using less pigment this time around I utilized straight rubbing alcohol as my carrier. Essentially going over the model with a dusting of pigment as if I were rubbing chalk on it the color settled where I sprayed. The “highlight” spots were purposeful and accidents. This model had corrosion sculpted onto areas that I touched up with dark and light blue. There were a few spots that the pigment fixer flowed and ended up carrying color where it was just too much for my taste.

Overall it’s done and I can only warn others to use dry pigment in moderation. I’ll also add that pigment fixer acts as a flow agent that will wick the dry pigment into areas you might not have wanted them. It works the same way as if you added a glaze over a matte varnish finish because of the surface tooth.

The hydra is a WizKids Deepcuts model I initially didn’t have much thrill for but the options for heads made me rethink it. Hydras can be gauged like beer. The more head the worse they are. There was potential for the five headed version and it felt right visually over the version with ten heads. It also had a base barely around the bottom from the model which was really plain.

Putting it on a 100mm round MDF base it was still in need of something more than flat terrain and tufts. I turned back to the Persephone model I did and added a great looking resin tree that got a foam foliage treatment. Having the monster coiled around the tree made more sense than just a plain monster on its own without other elements. I like the way this all came out.

I’ve decided to keep up with the notion of whittling and refining the Greek mythology army collection. I’ve given away half of the skeletal archers/swordmen, all the skeletal spearmen/centaurs as well as the Cerberus. I’ll be scrapping the half dozen fauns after I get done with them as I really am not a fan of the sculpts.

In the place of these losses I’ll be getting figures sculpted from Shadowforge Miniatures courtesy of Eureka Miniatures. A set of Dionesian Maenads as Hearthguard sits just right by me. That, with a unit of Dionesian Sythyr (likely archers) and command will be great for theme. For my fast attack/mobility I went back to the half cav and I have an order of Dark Temple Centaur on the way. I’m debating on whether or not to get a second as this first will be melee weapons. Archers “on the bounce” (a Starship Troopers ref, you apes) could be useful for area control.

Meh *shrug*. Like I said this has been a refining process to the army build.

The Children of the Hydra’s Teeth boxed set included King Aeëtes of Colchis who sowed the teeth which became the skeletons. Knowing the background of the movie I dug a bit and found some images to use as reference and paint it as best I could to be screen accurate.

I picked up Cranos Cranekiller from Lucid Eye Publications and once more I’ve got what might be taken as an undersized individual. This is a great 25mm scale figure that barely reaches the 28 mark with the crest of his helmet. It comes off as a grand Hellenic halfling when I put it up against some others. I’m OK with the figure now that its done. The painting was easy enough and I thought that the transfer from the skeleton box set was just right to add some interest.

This all said and done this is a Warlord on Foot for this SAGA army.

I have completed some centaurs and can field.. er… half cav? I’m sure Sundancer can come up with something from his penchant for coffee. Anywhat, it has been a bit of a pain with these figures as I’d expected them to be larger and more imposing for the unit. I guess it comes from putting together so many horses. I’ve looked at Eureka Miniatures for some metal ones which I hope might be bigger but for now I think having one unit is fine.

I do rather like the fact that some female torsos were included in the mix. The drawback for the sprues, however, were that the female heads were only for fauns. I supplemented with some bald metal Fine Scale ones from Statuesque Miniatures I picked up years ago. Note to kitbashers: Statuesque only offers the bald ones in their largest Heroic Scale which apparently works best with GW figures.

Quite timely an addition to the project as Ben added info on the Kings of War artisan Talos.

The patina was accomplished with airbrushing powder pigment on top of a metallic bronze. The underlying green was a bit heavier than I cared to have it and I knocked it down with a second layer of lighter greens. The random patches of scaling were happy accidents to try and get irregular weathering.

The basing was changed slightly as I used wood glue as a primary adhesive before putting down the flock. It looked a bit flat and I touched it up with some very watered down PVA and sprinkled more flock on top. The double layer seemed to catch more of the static grass than the fine sand/gravel and looked like the tufts were necessary.

Overall a big wolf that makes people shake in their boots makes me happy. The most fun part was his glowing eyes eventhough they’re don’t stand out until you look at the model. By sheer size it gains attention on a 90x120mm oval and then draws the eye to puppy heads for inspection.

I still am in need to get a warlord into the mix so I’ve turned to online retail to get one. Its probably sitting in my post office box as I write this out. I’m also having a bit of a fit with the centaurs currently.