Wednesday 18 May 2016

"Chap With The Wings There. Five Rounds Rapid."

"What the blazes is that? Some kind of ornament?"
This 28mm model of an Animated Construct was sculpted by the extremely talented Andrew May and can be bought from "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" under Code SKU: MINI 291. The 'living gargoyle' is available to villainous casts in the company's "7TV" Second Edition rule-set. But I plan to use mine to represent Bok, the stone servant of Azal from the 1971 BBC television serial "Doctor Who And The Daemons", and have him lead a group of Scary Statues...

Requiring a simple enough paint-job, the hefty miniature actually proved somewhat troublesome to pin together on account of its outstretched arm not fitting terribly well with its join at the creature's shoulder. Indeed, eventually I had to use quite a lengthy pin and some grey-stuff to firmly attach the limb and even then I couldn't achieve the angle illustrated on the "Crooked Dice" website.
"Don't turn your back. Don't look away. And don't blink." 
Fortunately once set firm, Bok was relatively straightforward to finish. Having applied a couple of coats of "Citadel" Adeptus Grey to the figure, I was able to apply a wash of "Citadel" Nuln Oil over the model and then slowly dry-brush it with more "Citadel" Adeptus Grey. I then simply added some "Vallejo" White to my palette and lightly went over the miniature again in order to catch the gargoyle's raised surfaces with my paintbrush.

As a final touch I thought I'd just add a little demonic colour to my statue by picking out his eyes with "Vallejo" Heavy Red and then treating them to a glaze of "Citadel" Bloodletter.
Arnold Keeler WIPs - The malformed botanist just needs his mutating head to be painted and will be finished
I have also managed to get some more paint on one of the last “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” figures I've yet to complete as part of my Zomtober 2015 project "Doctor Who And The Seeds Of Doom". Painted in order to represent Harrison Chase's hapless botanist Arnold Keeler, I've been persevering with the scientist's white laboratory coat, and having finally managed to highlight it a "Vallejo" Pale Grey wash, have been busy dirtying it up with all manner of green, red and brown inks.

As with all of the Krynoid-infected zombies I've painted for this long-running enterprise, the deformed plant biologist will be used to represent a 'Runner' when I try to replicate the Timelord’s six-parter using an adaptation of the “Zombicide” rule set by “Guillotine Games”.

30 comments:

  1. Nice job on Bok. Looks great with his statue minions.

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    1. Thanks Finch. Nice, quick but effective (imho) painting technique. Just how I like 'em. I'm actually now tempted to get some more Scary Statues and paint them up the same way.

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  2. The Weeping Angels and their boss look very good. Well done sir. :)

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    1. Cheers PulpCitizen. The Weeping Angels do show just how differently I paint stone these days; even if it was only a few years ago that I did them.

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  3. Crooked dice do some nice figures, that look even better with a lick of paint. A pleasure to see such good painting.

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    1. Thanks Clint. Very much appreciated my friend :-)

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  4. Keeler's brown suit is sooo seventies! Looking good bud :-)

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    1. Terrific spot Andy!! I have tried to capture his attire from the TV show. Many thanks indeed :-)

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  5. I didn't realise that the figure of Bok was quite so tall. He makes a most impressive leader of your Weeping Angels. I'm so glad you included the group shot.
    Keeler is looking suitably repulsive, which is meant as a compliment to your painting talents.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. Bok is a seriously-sized mini and was very close to being based upon a 40mm base at one stage. He's also rather heavy too. But in the end I stuck with the "Crooked Dice" base as I still had room to grit and flock the base.

      Glad you like Arnold. He has truly required persevering with on account of his white laboratory coat as I dislike painting large areas that colour. Still he's finished now.

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  6. Great stuff...and good to see The Seeds of Doom coming along nicely!

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    1. Thanks Gordon. I'm delighted to say that both Arnold and the one remaining infected security guard from "The Seeds Of Doom" project are now done. I've just got a load of "Mantic" scenery to finish off and finally the game can begin...

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    1. Cheers Fran. I think in this case it makes sense :-)

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  8. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful!

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    1. Very kind of you to say so, Michael. Much appreciated :-)

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    1. Cheers Martin. Simple but hopefully you'll agree, effective.

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  10. Yup, the statues are good! I'm beginning to wonder if statues are poised to take over from clowns as one of childhood's scariest nightmares :-) ?

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    1. Thanks Hugh. Statues certainly looked capable of doing that a few years ago. I do have some clowns coming soon though which may well readdress the balance ;-)

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  11. I hadn't realised quite how hefty the "Bok" figure was - looks nothing like someone wearing grey tights though, so a win compared to the original. Very nice work, Simon. Which batrep will come first? Cosmic Cube Wars or Seeds of Doom? Or Cosmic Seeds of Cubic Doom...In space...With Aliens...

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    1. Cheers Jez. Bok is indeed considerably larger than Stanley Mason's brave but underwhelming TV version. I do have a bit of a BatRep backlog at present, with "Aliens Vs Blake's 7" Part Two coming this Saturday, a "Cosmic Cube War" one scheduled to follow, and then "Seeds Of Doom". Plus I want to start doing some Gotham City Rooftop battles as well... Oh, and I have a bit of a backlog of painted minis too :-/

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    2. I always find it is far better to have too much material to use on my blogs than too little.

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    3. Very true Bryan. But I would like to get "Seeds Of Doom" posted before Zomtober and "The Pyramids Of Mars" ;-)

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  12. Excellent work on Bok and his minions! They all look awesome and fit dual purpose across games another tick in the box for them!

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    1. Thanks Simon. Glad you approve. They're a useful gang of statues at no mistake!!

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  13. Nice work Simon, though I think that chap at the bottom should ring in sick, as he looks a little "peeky".

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. I'm afraid to say some excellent brushwork hasn't made Arnold look any healthier either. In fact he's looking dead tired ;-)

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  14. Yeesh, weeping angels are terrifying! My household's current fav Who baddies. Yours look the part though mate, very nicely done.

    Gargoyle would work in Frostgrave too right? Some sort of mid-sized summoned thingie? Come to think of it, the angels would be perfect for that "Statues" scenario in the main rule book too!

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    1. Many thanks Dai. I was very tempted to use my Gargoyle for "Frostgrave" tbh. But went with Bok in the end. However I am considering getting a second one for just such a purpose :-) I haven't played "Frostgrave" yet but the "CD" Scary Statues would be ideal for any statue scenarios I'd have thought.

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