"Oh, Monsters Are Scared."

"That's why they're monsters."

This 90mm tall model is made out of bisqueware and was pre-made by one of the staff at the Ashbury Manor craft shop in Devon. Produced via slip-casting (which uses plaster moulds and a clay/water mixture), the lovable-looking monster is one of over a thousand various sculpts someone visiting the resort can purchase, and was specifically picked so as to let me trying using an assortment of decorative acrylic paints (deco) by "Pebeo" - a range I'd never even heard of before visiting the centre.

The rather rotund figure was initially covered in a couple of coats of Blue Sky, which was described on the label as being an opaque gloss. To be entirely honest I was never seriously considering using these paints for 28mm wargaming figures, as I figured their pigmentation particles would be too big. But I was curious to see whether they could be utilised with large scenic pieces, and having provided a strong coverage with just a couple of coats, I was pretty convinced that certainly this particular colour could be so used.

"Ashbury Manor" WIPs - The bisqueware monster has been base-layered in Blue Sky and Turquoise

Having seen that my nightmarish creature had an unhealthy covering of large, circular spots, I then decided to see how well one of the "Pebeo" metallic colours worked. In keeping with my not-so-friendly faced fiend's cool palette, I opted for Turquoise and was immediately taken with how well it worked. The formula for this 'Pearl' paint was pretty much spot on as far as coverage was concerned, and whilst a tad grainy - as so many metallics arguably seem to be - I felt it had a nice sparkle to its finish.

Indeed, it was at this point that I started to cast my mind back to all the untouched "Games Workshop" plastic scenery I own for "Kill Team", and how this acrylic would probably work well as a basecoat for all the space hulk corridors and metal flooring. Furthermore, where-ever my less than brilliant brush-tip went astray, the aforementioned Blue Sky seemed perfectly capable of covering up my error with a single touch-up. This also proved true for any errant Dark Blue, which I unsuccessfully tried to keep solely upon the bulbous beast's lips.

"Ashbury Manor" WIPs - The ceramic creature slowly has its details 'picked out'

Next up I thought I'd tried one of the lighter colours, so picked up some Light Lilac and gave my monster's bumpy spine and tail a good coat. As expected, the pigment was fine for covering the bare bisqueware, but not so good when it came to any parts previously hit with the Blue Sky. Only after a few more layers did the acrylic finally look reasonable, and even then I feel you can still see some of the Blue Sky leaking through.

Finally, I gave the model's feet a good licking in Violet, and was pleased to see that worked very well with just a single coat - whether it was applied over bisqueware or Blue Sky. With this in mind, I then went on to finish off the somewhat sickeningly cute creature, and considered whether any of the other pottery pieces for sale would be of experimental value for a return trip. A hulking head of Tutankhamen is definitely on the cards, as I rather fancy seeing whether I can turn it into a sandstone centre-piece for an Egyptian tabletop...