"His Divine Majesty King Groot The Twenty-Third."

"Monarch of Planet X, custodian of the branch worlds, ruler of all the shades."

This 40mm scale model of Groot is made by "CoolMiniOrNot", and was unlocked during the company's hugely successful February 2020 Kickstarter for "Marvel United" when it achieved a whopping $2,866,168 in funding. Originally created by Stan Lee, Larry Lieber and Jack Kirby as an invading monster for the November 1960 issue of "Tales to Astonish" for "Marvel Comics", the figure can be found inside the boardgame's Season One expansion box entitled "Guardians Of The Galaxy Remix".

Produced in a light blue hard plastic, I was initially going to prime the miniature with either "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna or Charred Brown, as both of these colours have excellent coverage. However, having used these paints on my "Wizkids" and "Atomic Mass Games" sculpts of Groot, I always felt they were much too dark for the "sentient tree-like creature", so in the end went with a couple of layers of "Two Thin Coats" Ancient Forest instead.

"CoolMiniOrNot" WIPs - The Abomination has been primed, shaded and dry-brushed

The figure was subsequently washed with plenty of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade, dry-brushed with (more) Ancient Forest by "Two Thin Coats", and had the odd splosh of "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green pushed into its joints, cracks and crevices. Then, so as to blend all these colours together, I added a smidgeon of "Two Thin Coats" White Star to my Ancient Forest, and delicately gave the entire ensemble one final dry-brush.

Lastly, I decided to 'drop' a couple of spots of "Two Thin Coats" Skulker Yellow into the extra-terrestrial's eye-sockets, darkened them down with "Citadel" Reikland Fleshshade, and dot them with (a little more) Skulker Yellow by "Two Thin Coats". This brought the model much more in line with Groot's comic book incarnation than the black-eyed, CGI (Computer-generated imagery) version seen in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - This Praetor's cloak has been base-layered in preparation of a shade

In addition to the first of my "Marvel United" Guardians Of The Galaxy miniatures, I've also been busy making progress on another of the co-operative board-game's pieces for an upcoming Marvel Multiverse RPG (MMRPG) scenario. As with my finished "Flora colossus from Planet X", I have previously pigmented a couple of Abominations before - so hope to have Emil Blonsky's super-strong alter-ego ready for the tabletop in quick order.

I have also not completely forgotten about completing the Praetor I need to lead my Sons Of Horus force for "The Horus Heresy". This mixture of pieces by "Games Workshop" and "Forge World" is actually rather close to having a coat of varnish slapped over him - especially now I've finally dry-brushed the trio of skulls riding atop his backpack. However, I still need to carefully trace his fiddly-flowing cape with some "Vallejo" Heavy Red, and sort out then traitor space marine's aforementioned backpack too...

Wargame Model Mods - WIP - Part Two

Having waited long enough for its coat of "Citadel" Foundation Astronomican Grey to dry, I've given my entire first "Wargame-Model-Mods" commercial style building a healthy wash of Nuln Oil and, on the flooring and around the exterior buttresses, some  Agrax Earthshade; the later really helping to bring out some of the tiling detail etched onto the floor.

I've then spent some time drybrushing the building with more Astronomican Grey using an old "Royal & Langnickel" number six round brush. I'm really glad I managed to resist the temptation to 'base' the building prior to this stage of the painting.

Once finished I've sealed the entire building with a coat of PVA glue, and, having used "Gale Force Nine" green stuff basic epoxy sculpting putty to provide a better fit on the bottom of the buttresses, used more PVA to secure it to a six inch square 2mm MDF base from "Arcane Scenery & Model Supplies".

I've actually found myself rather losing focus on my painting over the past few days. This usually occurs because I've lost interest in my main project and start getting far too distracted with the mini-projects I tend to turn to as simple diversions. This isn't actually too much of a surprise as I've been predominantly painting models for my "Savage Worlds" "Weird War Two" setting for two months, and that usually is the limit of my 'don't start buying a load of new shiny lead minis for a different game' discipline. As a result I've found my painting table swamped with models from "Mongoose Publishing", "Forgeworld", "Games Workshop", Wizkids", West Wind Productions", "Ground Zero Games", "Pendraken" and even some 1/72 "Zvezda" plastics, as well as large amounts of scenery from "Ainsty", "Snapdragon" and "Minibits".

I've therefore returned the majority of these models back to their respective cardboard boxes and plastic containers, and with the exception of a couple of old(er) "Mongoose Publishing" models from their Judge Dredd range and eight "Secrets Of The Third Reich" British Infantrymen, plan to turn most of my attention prior to Salute 2014 to the "Forgeworld" converted Space Marine (now Ultramarines) Sternguard I recently purchased from Ebay.co.uk.

German Mech Grenadier Flamethrower

I've finished painting the first of two 28mm metal models found in the "West Wind Productions" blister G-SOTR34 German Flamethrowers. As with the majority of my models I first undercoated the miniature with "Coat D'Arms" Black and then painted the soldier's trousers and shirt with my usual combination of "Citadel" Foundation Adeptus Battlegrey and Nuln Oil. As I wanted the Heer Infantryman's flame-proof overcoat to slightly stand out from my German Army's usual grey colour scheme, I painted it using "Vallejo" Heavy Bluegrey before also washing these areas with "Citadel" Nuln Oil. Finally I used "Vallejo" Heavy brown" for the soldier's thick gloves and the straps on his tanks. 

As with the recent British PIAT gunner, I was tempted to simply paint this model's weapon entirely with "Citadel" Boltgun Metal and Nuln Oil. But having viewed some colour photographs of actual German flamethrowers in action, I eventually settled on using "Vallejo" Heavy Green followed by a wash of "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade for the flammable liquid tanks and main body of the incendiary device and just painted the nozzle with Boltgun Metal.

Over the next few days I hope to find time to start work on a mini-project involving these "Games Workshop" Sons Of Horus Sternguard Space Marines. They've just arrived having been something of a bargain on Ebay, especially as they come complete with "Forge World" Mark IV helmets - which alone seem to cost a pretty penny on the internet.

As you can see the models have arrived having already been glued together, undercoated and even had some green paint applied to certain areas. Having sought inspiration from the "Forge World" Horus Heresy painters guide and some interesting colour schemes I've seen on other blogs, these models will all be repainted to include gold armour plating and trimming, as well as red gloves and bolters. It's a pity these models weren't additionally converted with Sons Of Horus Mark IV shoulder pads but hopefully the paint scheme alone will pull them together as a single unit of the XVI Legion.