Friday 1 March 2019

"Sometimes Pairs Of Yellow Or Red Or Green Eyes Would Stare At Him..."

"But the eyes that he liked the least were horrible pale bulbous sort of eyes.
These five "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, I have actually painted half a dozen of these arachnids before using a simple “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal and “Citadel” Abaddon Black colour scheme.

However, as I have subsequently decided to field a second unit of these heavily-fanged horrors for my Undead “Dragon Rampant” warband, I decided to paint my second unit of Lesser Warbeasts in a much more eye-catching palette, and then mix them in with their much more monotone brethren. As a result I decided against just super-gluing the miniatures to their 30mm lipped plastic circular bases and instead drilled a tiny hole up into their underbellies before attaching them to some pieces of wire. 
"No spider has ever liked being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course is insulting to anybody."
This allowed me to prime them with impunity, predominantly wash the arachnids using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and later heavily dry-brush the furry critters without having to worry about catching their bases with my enthusiastic strokes. In order to cover as broad a palette as possible I decided to pigment my eight-legged horrors with “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, Heavy Red, Heavy Blue, Heavy Green and Heavy Violet.

Once the bulk of my work was completed, I ‘picked out’ the Icky Spiders' pointed teeth using a combination of “Vallejo” White and “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, as well as the wall-crawlers' eyes with “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Bloodletter. However, for my red-furred eight-leg I applied two dollops of “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre over its eyes, and shaded them with “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade.
"Toon Realms" WIPs - One of Lord Rascal's Skeleton Swordsmen and Warrior, plus a Royal Guard
Only once the Necromancer’s fearsome minions were fully-painted did I drill a small hole into the models’ separately finished bases, and pin them in place using a small quantity of superglue. Lastly, the web-spinning servants were varnished using Vallejo" Gloss Acyrlic Varnish and had their stands flocked using “Citadel” Static Grass.

 With both of my Lesser Warbeast units finished, I've started priming and shading the last of the Skeleton Swordsmen and spear-carrying Warriors I need to 'fill out' my Undead force's Light Foot units. In addition, I have finished the layering on my pilot piece for King Victor's Royal Guard, having gone for a palette inspired by Gondor's Fountain Guard as seen in the 2003 epic fantasy adventure film "The Return Of The King".

24 comments:

  1. Excellent colour on the arachnids!

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    1. Cheers Fran. I thought the additional colours would make the units more appealing :-)

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  2. Looking very good, Simon. I do like the cartoony look of this range. If I didn't have so many other projects on the go I'd be tempted to buy some of these figures.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. "Toon Realms" is a range growing at a fantastic pace too, so its hard to keep up with just them, let alone all the other projects :-)

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  3. Very cool stuff! I will never say "Tomnoddy" to anybody again!

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    1. Cheers Skully. LOL!! One of my favourite lines from "The Hobbit".

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  4. They are a bit cute, but I would no doubt start to run when faced with such numbers :).
    These "Toon Realms" models look fantastic too, I love the style and you already did such a great job painting them.

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    1. Thanks very much Wouter. I really do like the "Toon Realms" stuff, and hope to paint most of the range up over the year.

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  5. How cool are those? Brilliant job Simon.

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    1. Cheers Michael. I think they've turned out rather well, imho.

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  6. Great work on the spiders Simon, and nice progress on the rest

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    1. Thanks Dave. I'm starting to get slightly overwhelmed by the amount of "Toon Realms" released currently coming out, so need to get my skeletons finished fast.

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  7. Great looking arachnids, Simon. Given their anatomy, it was definitely the best course to paint them before basing.

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    1. Cheers Finch. I certainly think so. The few seconds it took to pin the beasties was well worth the time/worry saved if I'd had to get in between all their nooks and crannies.

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  8. A lovely unit of rainbow spiders. Those Toon Realm sculpt are just lovely, and the new Frog King stuff looks even better. I think those skellies in their boots are just so cute! Nice job as always.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. Hopefully I can push through the "Toon Realms" skeletons soon and finish my initial Undead Army for "Dragon Rampant".

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  9. That's one heck of a lot of spiders !
    The bright colours don't look out of place either imho.

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  10. Cracking work Simon! I love this Toon Realms stuff :-)

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    1. Cheers Greg. I'm so pleased you like these minis as I have many more to come.

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