Friday 22 February 2019

"Somehow The Killing Of A Giant Spider..."

"...All alone by himself in the dark without the help of a wizard... made a great difference to Mister Baggins."
These seven "cartoon scale white metal figures" of Lord Rascal’s Icky Spiders are produced by “Lucid Eye Publications” and can be bought from the company's "Toon Realms" range. Sculpted by Steve Saleh, these "over-sized and sapient arachnids" will form a Lesser Warbeast unit for my Necromancer's Undead 'Lord Of The Toons' army using the "Dragon Rampant" rule-set by "Osprey Games".

Six of these metal horrors were rather simplistically undercoated using a double application of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, followed by an enthusiastic dry-brush of "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal, and a unifying wash of "Citadel" Nuln Oil. However, as I wanted one of the models to stand-out on the tabletop as their clear leader, I decided to keep one miniature separate from its 30mm plastic lipped base and instead drilled a tiny hole up into its underbelly before attaching a piece of wire to it.
"Age Of Sigmar" WIPs - The Bloodletters have had all their base layers finished
This then let me prime the bloated creature using a combination of "Vallejo" Dead White and Pale Grey without having to worry about how my paint-brush was going to reach some of the figure's harder-to-reach areas without catching on its base work. In addition, it meant I could subsequently dry-brush the albino Icky Spider with impunity, and only once the eight-legged arthropod was completed did I pin it to an already finished stand.

All the crawling critters' eyes were 'picked out' with "Vallejo" Heavy Red, and glazed using a splash of "Citadel" Bloodletter. Lastly, their fangs were layered in "Vallejo" Dead White", shaded with a dab of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade and I applied some clumps of static grass around their bases.
"Heroclix" WIPs - The Crimson Dynamo, an Ultron Drone and Batman Beyond
Moving over to a far more bloodthirsty Fantasy setting I have made considerable progress on three more multi-part plastic Bloodletters by "Games Workshop". These Hellblade-carrying warriors will go towards doubling the size of my Blades Of Khorne Battleline unit for "Age Of Sigmar", and just need a few washes and pieces tidied up before being ready for varnishing.

Lastly, I have been a bit remiss lately in weaving a few "Heroclix" models into my painting output, so have set aside a little time to get a couple of "Wizkids" sculpts re-based and primed, including the first of potentially several Ultron Drones, and Terry McGinnis' Batman Beyond. With the entry limitations of the Ninth Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge in mind, I have also 'dug out' a figure of the Crimson Dynamo which I only had previously undercoated many moons ago, so is therefore still an eligible submission for the event...

24 comments:

  1. Great work on the spiders Simon, the bloodletters are looking good too, look forward to seeing what you do with the heroclix models

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    1. Cheers Dave. Hope to have both the Bloodletters and "Heroclix" finished this weekend if I can.

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  2. Lovely job on the spiders Simon. They look great as a group with there albino like leader. You have some cool clix upcoming I really like the Batman Beyond one.

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    1. Thanks very much Simon. I thought the albino leader would help the mass of black spiders stand out that bit more of the battlefield. As for Batman Beyond, I was a bit disappointed not to be able to source a red bat emblem for his chest, so am currently slowly working my way around the decal already on the mini itself (even though it has a visible air bubble beneath it).

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  3. Terrific work on the giant spiders, Simon.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. I have another five to come, each one a different colour to the others ;-)

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  4. Wonderful creepy crawlies Simon.

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    1. Thanks Michael. Simple but effective stuff, imho.

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  5. Heroclix and Bloodletters are awesome.

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    1. Definitely two of my favourite mini subjects too, Phil :-)

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  6. Your lead spider definitely looks terrifying all white and with red eyes! Absolutely love Batman Beyond, such an underrated part of the entire Batman mythos 🙂

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    1. Thanks Ivor. I too was very happy with how my lead spider turned out. Hopefully I'll be able to acquire a few Batman Beyond "Heroclix" and get a couple of themed BatReps in as a result.

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  7. Great job on the spiders and bloodletters. The spiders would be perfect for Frostgrave and the like.

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    1. Cheers Wouter, and a big welcome to the blog! I too think the "Toon Realms" range have a fair few useful "Frostgrave" minis amongst them :-)

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    2. Thanks a lot for the warm welcome, judging from the posts I already read on your blog I should have come here sooner :).

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    3. Thanks Wouter, hopefully the tags will help you easily spot which past postings will be of interest to you. There's a few Top Ten's too which I like to think are nice summaries of each year's postings as well.

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  8. Those spiders look really great and it was a good call to paint the leader white to stand out. The bloodletters are coming along nicely too, how many is that now? That selection of superheroes look nice too, really like all those sculpts.

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    1. Cheers Undercoat. Once finished, the Bloodletters will take me up to a unit of 17, with three more to complete - and another ten to prime. I've a horde of "Heroclix" to base etc for the AHPC, so expect a fair few over the next month as the event ends.

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  9. Fantastic work on the spiders; the albino one stands out brilliantly well. :)

    I hope to start on their Supers once they have released a couple more. :)

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    1. Thanks very much indeed, Leon. I too have the "Toon Realms" Supers, and hope to get them painted once I've finished my "Dragon Rampant" forces. I look forward to seeing yours :-)

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  10. Can spiders ever me cute ?
    Well I think you have answered the question as yours fit the bill nicely (though they're probably deadly in the game)

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    1. Cheers Joe. I've yet to try out the spiders in "Dragon Rampant" but certainly think a couple of hordes will cause a lot of consternation in my opponent :-)

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