Thursday 13 August 2020

"Because The Only Good Human Is A Dead Human."

"The only thing that counts in the end is power! Naked merciless force!"
This 28mm scale white metal model of a Simian Leader is produced by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be bought either separately or as part of their Simian Minions II four-figure collection. However, I actually obtained mine through the company's successful 7TV:Apocalypse "Kickstarter" as I thought the 'aggressive gorilla' would make an excellent proxy for General Ursus from Ted Post's 1970 science fiction film "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes".

"A leading official of Ape City", the figure was initially primed with two coats of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, before being heavily dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Charcoal. Every one of the metallic plates and studs on the military commander's armour was then 'picked out' with "Citadel" Ironbreaker and thoroughly washed with a mixture of Nuln Oil and Badab Black.
"Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" WIPs - Cornelius, Kira, Ape armed with baton and Zaius
Ursus' uniform was painted using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Purple and "Citadel" Druchii Violet, whilst his face was layered in "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna and washed with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. I had actually contemplated using "Valejo" Heavy Charcoal for the General's skin, but in the end thought it would make both the miniature and any subsequent gorilla soldiers I pigmented appear a little too dark.

In addition to finishing "the primary antagonist of Beneath the Planet of the Apes" I have somewhat painfully completed another two of my twelve dedicated painting sessions for my twenty-four hour 'Paint An Entire Project" Challenge using "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" models. I'm now quite a way behind schedule though mainly thanks to my having to re-paint two more Simian Minions after their original final washes of "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade either disconcertingly dried white (presumably due to some chemical reaction with the heat) or simply cracked open the paint underneath.
"Ochre Jellies were known to exist in the dungeon of Xul-Jarak in Thar."
A recent rummage through a few boxes of old painted models I probably won't ever use again has also revealed my missing Small Ochre Jelly by "Otherworld Miniatures". For some reason I'd glued the ooze onto a 25mm circular base and applied a bright green colour scheme to it, so that the slime rather resembled a Rutan from the BBC Television Series "Doctor Who" or a particularly soggy iceberg lettuce.

Fortunately, I was able to both re-base and re-paint the "thick, golden sludge" so that it matched that of its twin, predominately using a combination of "Vallejo" Heavy Goldbrown and "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade. The 'giant amoeba' was then heavily dry-brushed using (more) Heavy Goldbrown in order to help highlight the wonderful detail Paul Muller had sculpted onto the ooze.

12 comments:

  1. Great work on the Simian leader Simon, and nice progress on the others and another good looking blob as well

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    1. Thanks Dave. The gloss varnish was especially shiny in the photos of Ursus for some reason, but as usual once handled a couple of times it should lose most of that sheen. The oozes are always a pleasure to paint as they're so straightforward and relaxing to paint - shame I'm about to run out.

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  2. Really nice work on Ursus (I always thought it was Urko but I bow to your superior knowledge), good to see the painting regime is paying dividends :)

    Another nicely painted jelly too, you'll have more jellies than "Chivers" at this rate!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. Hopefully the ape soldiers will prove as reasonably simple to paint as Ursus, as I'm way behind schedule on this project now. As for Urko, he featured in the 1974 CBS television series Planet of the Apes as opposed to the movie "Beneath The Planet of the Apes". Hopefully that makes sense :-)

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    2. Thanks Simon it does, I had a few (4) of the "Mego" figures from the "PotA" series and one of them was called Ursus I think he was a commander of some sort but didn't have Urko's head dress, so I think that must be were I was confused. Thanks for clearing it up.

      Cheers Roger.

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    3. I remember those figures, Roger. I had Galen as played by the awesome Roddy McDowall - who also played Cornelius and Caesar in the PotA films. Whilst researching their costume colours for my paint-schemes I stumbled across the Mego Museum which you might enjoy. Here's a link to their PotA page: http://www.megomuseum.com/pota/index.html

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  3. The general looks spot on Simon. Am enjoying seeing these apes getting a lick of paint

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    1. Thanks Dai, much appreciated. Got a few finished now, so expect a flurry of apes being posted over the next few weeks.

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  4. The leader is a great fiure and looks very imposing and the rest of the PotA crew is coming along nicely.

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    1. Cheers Joe. The PotA crew is indeed coming along, so more postings to come over the rest of the month.

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  5. The ape general looks great and the other figures look awesome too. They look like really good sculpts. I guess You must have some other D&D figures in your collection for when you run out of blobs? Would love to see a painted Beholder!

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. The PotA project is fast approaching its half-way stage, so I'm finally starting to get a run of minis finished for it. I have a load of D&D figures both painted and unpainted now - especially from "Otherworld Miniatures". I don't own a Beholder though. Not sure when the next batch of D&D stuff will be painted. Just clearing through my oozes to make a little space - I do have some adventurers on the painting table though taking up room :-)

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