Wednesday 19 June 2019

Stone Golems Are Formidable Opponents..."

"...Being physically powerful and difficult to harm."
This 49mm tall model of a Stone Golem is manufactured by “Reaper Miniatures” and can be purchased as Code 77171 from their “Bones” range. Sculpted by James Van Schaik, the magical construct first appeared in the original 1975 "Greyhawk" supplement written by Gary Gygax and Robert J. Kuntz, "and has since then become one of the most well-known creatures of the Dungeons & Dragons game."

"Made of stone and are twice as strong as Flesh Golems", the monster was undercoated using an old out-of-production pot of "Citadel" Charadon Granite, washed with Nuln Oil and later dry-brushed using some (more) Charadon Granite. As I wanted his skirt to somewhat stand out from the rest of his body, I subsequently painted the area in "Vallejo" Sombre Grey, shaded it with "Citadel" Nuln Oil, and then dry-brushed it with (more) "Vallejo" Sombre Grey.
"Reaper Miniatures" WIPs - The Mind-Eater is slowly having its giant brain layered and shaded
The Stone Golem's waist-band, bracelets and head-piece were initially layered in "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, before being treated to a combination of Gold and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. These ornaments were later 'highlighted' using a smidgen more "Vallejo" Gold. Whilst the "physically powerful" creature had its eyes spotted with a dab of "Vallejo" Heavy Red and the "Citadel" Glaze Bloodletter.

Finally, I 'picked out' the large construct's belt-buckle with "Citadel" Ironbreaker, and then shaded it with a little Nuln Oil. Originally, when I first spotted this unaligned guardian I had planned to use it just for "Frostgrave" and subsequently had intended to flock its lipped base with snow. However, I eventually decided to purchase two figures, and use this particular model for "Gamma World" instead; quite possibly as a wandering party's magically resistant protector.  
"Games Workshop" Chaos Spawn - The brute has been covered in lengthy spikes and squishy tentacles
Having finished one of several "Reaper Miniatures" I currently have sat upon my painting table, I have also continued to make some steady progress on the first of my "Bones" Mind-Eaters. Clearly based upon the tiny "Dungeons & Dragons" aberration known as an Intellect Devourer, this literal 'brain on legs' will eventually form part of a three-figure strong pack for my gaming in the post-apocalyptic mid-25th century.

Lastly, I have glued together the last of the monstrous Chaos Spawn I intend to field as part of an "Age Of Sigmar" Slaves To Darkness warband. Absolutely covered in spikes, I actually tried to replicate one of the massively malformed creatures depicted upon the multi-part plastic kit's box art, and resultantly probably ended up using far more of the sprues' incredibly useful conversion bitz than I intended to...

26 comments:

  1. Looking good. A question though, why do stone golems wear jewellery and clothes?
    The mind eater is excellent.

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    1. Thanks Phil. Well I painted mine in these colours so it wouldn't look so monochrome tbh, plus I thought all the gold adornments could be part of the spell to animate the brute.

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  2. like the progress of the Mind Eater already. pretty cool.

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    1. Cheers Mr Martin. It just needs a bit of dry-brushing and should hopefully be finished. Then I can crack on with the remaining pair.

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  3. The mind eater is definitely the pick of this bunch.

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    1. Thanks Bryan, the Mind-Eater certainly seems to be getting a lot of love.

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  4. The Stone Golem looks great Simon. Love the Mind eater though

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    1. Cheers Simon. Another vote for the Mind-Eater LOL!!

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  5. I really like the stone golem, lovely job. I like all the embellishments too, they make him more appealing than all grey in my eyes. The brain thing is nice, but I am not familiar with them as baddies I must admit. The spawn are nice too, but they are not my favourite model so I am keen to see what you do with it.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. I think James Van Schaik's sculpt of the Stone Golem is excellent and its been a real treat painting a pair up (the other is in the snow flock tin currently).

      The "Games Workshop" Chaos Spawn are clearly showing their age as kits, tbh, as they're a bit clunky to assemble and take a long time to dry before you can add more mutations to them. Still, as I've said before, I bought them for the bitz rather than the models themselves.

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  6. Wouldn't mind getting my hands on one of those Stone Golems its a pretty impressive looking piece isn't it? Top prise still goes to the Mind Eater I think. Oh incidentally, I finally pulled the plastic shrink wrap off my Dungeon of the Mad Mage set and discovered to my joy, there are no less than 6 Intellect Devourer include in the box, so yeeey!! Just off to paint them now (want to have all 43 models painted for that over the next couple of days as I really want to get playing and dungeon crawling. So paint for two, and play on the third day that's the plan).

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    1. Cheers Steve. Hopefully you're going to be covering your unboxing, painting and AAR of "Dungeon Of The Mad Mage" on your excellent blog?

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    2. oh absolutely. Its queued on the list (just as soon as T finds room to gimme a slot to do it).

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    3. Splendid news, Steve. I look forward to reading those :-)

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  7. Lovely work, I like especially the mind eater!

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  8. The Golem looks the part and very much a traditional DnD monster (nowadays at least) - I have the greyhawk spplement too... somewhere.
    He looks the part too,the various gold bits really make him something special.

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    1. Cheers Joe. I'm certainly pleased I went to all the extra trouble of picking out his belt, bracelets and head-piece.

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  9. That`s a really cool post. Delightfully eclectic.

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  10. Great work on the golem and Mind-eater!

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