From the Vaulted Realm of Pluto

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.

These skeletons were a pain with so many little tiny connection points. The best way to get them to stick was super glue gel. The thicker gap filling formula held alright and the plastic cement from Modelmaster (now fully Testors I believe) took too long to set while trying to hold the figures in place. I am happy to have completed them. I also didn’t need to add any falcata as the sprues had enough for the swordsmen.

Special points of interest were the waterslide transfers from Little Big Men Studios for their undead Greek line. I didn’t think they had quite the punch needed for corrosion so I went and touched them up with the old pigments I had from Secret Weapon before they went out of business (don’t worry I think Elrik Hobbies got the old stock as I just got a boat load of those skulls). I also used the Geek Gaming Scenics flock mix of Mediterranean Soil and touched up a few bases with flock to be more true to the 1963 film.

Currently I am not a fan of either the Children of the Hydra’s Teeth or the RGD centaurs. The former is a pain in the posterior for making it nearly a total assembly worthy of a Gundam kit (I sympathize with @gorram on these figures and consider @johnlyons a looney). I’m pushing through at the moment but not keen on the process. I look forward to the painting with drybrush and quick work on massive amounts of figures. This will be so much more pleasant than some of the previous armies I’ve done.

The latter are rather small for the scale and lack a certain amount of options from their sprue. The overall effect is that they seem to be lithe half ponies instead of massive muscled chargers that would rally and rout their enemies. I’ll put down the cash for other figures in order to make the impression of ferocity.

Another addendum would be that the Chimera I have ordered seems to be smaller than anticipated when looked over. On the plus side, I can and will use it as a Beast mount for my warlord. With that in mind I’ll supplement the loss of a monster option with something else. Harryhousen and the myths are great for stuff to use. Perhaps I could do a huge harpy as a scourge in thinking about other monsters.

I threw my ideas by the wayside. I am one to create and recreate over and over if the mood strikes. Here I have decided that naked Amazons are the way to go as Brother Vinni has created a set. I had seen the naked Hoplites from Wargames Foundry but, after painting so many tiny tadgers for Warren (he really does love his wee willies and winkies). I couldn’t be moved to do it again for some time.

From there I’ll be turning to a minotaur figure from the Zealot miniatures KS funded in the way back. I also have put forth the effort to gather a box set of plastic centaurs (with a detachment of faun) from RGD Gaming.

I have also purchased a bronze collosus from Mierce to match this largely human female fighting force.

This monstering deserved more, because… “why not?” so I’ve also ordered a copy of the Ignis Chimera from Artizan Guild (a superb 3D preview) to fill future tablespace. What lesson have I learned in gaming? Nothing important!  Build bigger dreams when trying to make visual impact.

•Minotaur 1 fig – 1pt
•Bronze Amazon 1 fig – 1pt
•Faun 4 figs – 1pt
•Centaur 8 figs – 1pt
•Nakee hoplites 16 figs – 2pt
•Chimera 1 fig – 1pt

I found a much better deal than to get just a few skelebobs made ready for the delivery of boxed set from Warlord Games. The Children of the Hydra’s Teeth are on their way…. along with a certain bronze behemoth (maybe a titan).

I’ve also considered this as a dual purpose undead or horde battle board horde for future play. All in all, I’ve gone back into beast mode for building and I think it’s refreshing as a recharge to my painterly part of the hobby.

I’ve had a moment of hobby bumblebee insanity and have come along to the great concept of more Harryhousen hijinks

Mierce miniatures has a series of golems that were covered long ago by the resident site wookie and we have had our words regarding Talos. I’ve just been keeping it on the backburner for a while as I contemplated when I might build a fantasy Greek force. Well Gerry, as with the African inspiration, I’ll put up the ideas before I build.

Moving on to a wonder of wonders, we have Warzan inspiration, at least for miniature sourcing, as Wargames Atlantic will be present for skeletal warriors. I like the fact I can field more figures at lower cost but the problem is weaponry. I have alleviated the problem with a quick Myminifactory search for falcata that I will arm them with as the sprue only have a few. Eventhough its not canon to the film I think it fits better with the motif. I’ll keep the helmeted heads as squad leaders and continue along those lines. I may do some spear work but who knows.

For some levy I’ll dive into the Victrix range for a couple bags of Greek archers. At 12 figures to the unit this purchase would work out perfectly.

The most recent Reaper Bone Kickstarter features a great addition for the force

Lucid Eye minis has the figure The Wings of Thanatos for their Ziggurat line. The theme of death, the Underworld and other fantasy stuff seems to be just what I want to fool around with for creative ventures.