"Nothing Could Withstand Him, And No Weapon Seemed To Bite Upon Him."

"He tossed wolves and goblins from his path like straws and feathers."

This 33mm tall white metal figure of Grüf The Bear is produced by “Lucid Eye Publications” and can be bought from the company's "Toon Realms" range as part of the company’s “Where’s Runcorn?” Adventure Module 2 series. Sculpted by Trish Carden, I intend to use the hefty miniature to represent J.R.R. Tolkien’s skin-changer, Beorn, “who could assume the form of a great black bear and fought in the Battle Of The Five Armies.

Originally primed using two coats of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, the slayer of the Goblin leader Bolg was heavily dry-brushed with “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal and later enthusiastically washed in “Citadel” Nuln Oil. In order to somewhat break up this dark visage I then ‘picked out’ all of the bear’s claws and sharp teeth with a combination of “Vallejo” Dead White and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade.

"Reaper Miniatures" WIPs - The "Bones" Medium Air Elemental has been repeatedly dry-brushed

I also considered whether to give the furry beast a very light dry-brush of dark blue, just to add a little colour to its shaggy hide. However, in the end I decided to stick with the intimidatingly deep black palette I’ve often seen in “The Hobbit” illustrations. I did however, decide to break from tradition and provide Beorn with some rage-filled eyes, courtesy of shading a “Vallejo” Heavy Red base layer with “Citadel” Carroburg Crimson, and then highlighting them with a tiny spot of “Vallejo” Dark Vermillion.

With my latest “Toon Realms” model finished I have set to work on another figure from my “Reaper Miniatures” collection. This Medium Air Elemental was actually sent to me as a free gift by the “eBay” seller Hygienicporridge after I purchased a reasonable quantity of Dark Heaven Legends Aquatic Familiars from his webstore, and at one point was potentially going to be pigmented to represent a swirling Water Spirit for my imminent “Subnautica” project.

"Pulp Monsters" WIPs - The two "Pulp City" models are at various stages of completion

Ultimately though, I have decided to add the lovely sculpt to my increasing collection of bizarre foes for my “Gamma World” campaign, but disappointingly have found the transparent plastic a little problematic to paint due its “Vallejo” White undercoat consistently ‘flecking’ off and visibly cracking whilst I’ve been dry-brushing it. I think the majority of these issues is due to the sheer bendiness of the figure, which really does give way quite considerably under even the lightest of brush strokes, but hopefully my perseverance is paying off as the Elemental reaches its final stages…

Finally, I am also close to finishing the first of my “Pulp City” miniatures by “Pulp Monsters”. I plan on getting the ghostly World War One fighter ace, the Red Baron, completed over the next few days, before spending some considerable time working on the disconcertingly disturbing Comte Vendredi.