Happy new year to everyone!
I hope all of you are doing fine after the season excesses, I'm coming bact to normal too.
First of all, a (not so random) tought about Blogger itself. I've been experiencing annoying issues when trying to comment on other blogs. Either the system doesn't allow me to publish anything or directly doesn't even allow me to sign in. I suspect it has something to do with cookies, but I'm experiencing it randomly and on different browsers, so I cannot say for certain what the problem is. I sometimes write the comment and try to publish it for ages, until I have to give up. That's why I'm commenting with such delay on some of your blogs, or even I cannot comment at all. It has also happened on my own blog when trying to answer your comments. I know I'm not the only one, but well, it sucks anyway.
But enough rants! You came here for minis!
These holidays I made a trip through nostalgia road and I rescued this monstrosity from oblivion. The infamous Manticore from the Dark World board game:
 |
| Painted in... 1992?... 93? |
I had this beast totally forgotten for literally thirty years. I had it in a bits box and these days I decided to tidy it up a little. I don't think that WIP pics will add much to this post, but anyway I made just this one:
 |
| Still hurts at sight |
I honestly couldn't be bothered with stripping it, so I have to confess I simply primed it again and painted over it. The pics below are quite overexposed, I'm afraid, but will give you an idea of what I achieved:
 |
| That's all I could get out of this mini! |
 |
| Glorious 90's hair! |
 |
| It has clearly working out at the gym |
 |
| The tongue remains a mystery to me afrer all these years |
Of course the sculpt is what it is. I believe (I have no proof, but also no doubt) it was an attempt to reproduce the Manticore by Citadel (I may be wrong, haven't checked it, but I believe it's a sculpt from 1987 or so). Well, there was an attempt. The head obviously doesn't belong to a lion, but some other kind of anthropoid monster. I tried a lighter colour on the snout, yet not fully reproducing a lion.
There's some kind of convention about painting the lion's mane darker than the rest of the fur, but after checking some reference pics I have to say I've been fooled all my life, manes are quite in a similar colour to the rest of the animal. Anyway, I went with the convention.
The same goes about the scorpion tail. There's some kind of convention about scorpions being red, and I haven't ever seen an scorpion other colour than black. I've seen pics of some other colours, but definitely not bright red! So you can see I went mostly for red, but turning into darker tones, almost black, on the upper side. And this is it!
I don't have any immediate use for this beast, but I'm pretty sure there were homemade rules for Manticores in HeroQuest, for example, so I may try those.
 |
| Random encounters in the wild |
Well, this feels weirldy calming, after three decades! I think I still have some other Dark World minis somewhere, so who knows, I may try to recover some of them!
I don't think I'll buy the current model from the Cities of Sigmar ranges, but I'll leave it here for your own consideration, if you want to compare this mini with my own Manticore.
 |
| Find the seven differences. I dare you |
Well, I guess I can declare that 2024 has officially started! Let's see what projects does it bring!
Cheers!
Great work resurrecting this old model Suber, and the new paint job is some great work on a simple sculpt. There are a couple of breeds of lion that have darker manes than the body and head, so you are safe with your colour choices, and your right on the scorpions, the closet is the red clawed Scorpion, which as the name sounds as red claws and a red stinger the rest of it's tail is black, but the red you've achieved is very reminiscent of the colours on said scorpion.
ReplyDeleteAs for the new Manticore, not sure on the feathered wings, I prefer bat wings, following ancient Greek mythology, but that's a personal preference.
Thank you! You are right about the animals, but it's fun to see how we painters stick to some conventions on how to treat certain elements in models. I concur about the Manticore wings, but I find that new model quite impressive anyway. I would take the most over the top elements away, but it's quite a beast to work with :)
DeleteGreat little trip back to the 90s. A nice way to start the year.
ReplyDeleteHappy New year Suber.
Thanks! It was an unexpected standalone project, but fun to do anyway :)
DeleteGreat mini and fantastic re painting!
ReplyDeleteThanks! Ugly monster indeed!
DeleteFirst of all: f**k Blogger, the last thing we need is this poor artificial intelligence to make us waste the little free time available!
ReplyDeleteThat said, you make us discover a new world, because we had never heard of "Dark World" board game. Checking the web, we realized that Italy was one of the few countries where it was not translated and marketed... who knows why?
It's obvious that the quality of the very recent AoS manticore sculpture is infinitely superior to your manticore from the nineties, which in comparison looks like it was made by a kindergarten child for Mother's Day... but the old sculpture has a vintage feel that the new, cold GW manticore doesn't have. And it has a bastard expression that befits a monster.
As for the colours of the parts of the body, they seem right to us, even if they are not found in the animals that inspired the monster: no one will be able to come and tell you that he saw a live manticore with colours different from yours!
Ooohhh! I believe HeroQuest was released in 1989 or 90 in Spain (should check it), and this Dark World game was released maybe two or three years later. Of course it was no match, nor in rules or miniatures, but it however provided some good times. I'll see if I keep more of these minis!
DeleteSame thing is happening to me in Blogger :(
ReplyDeleteIt helps to refresh the page a few times after choosing to comment via a Google Account ... sometimes it works, and they log you in somehow.
Great work by the way :)
Thanks! It's kind of comforting to see I'm not the only one (I couldn't be!). It's a little bit frustrating and annoying, but I don't despair, I'll keep trying!
DeleteHe does have a very strange tongue, but it's a fun model anyhow. Your painting helps the miniature a lot. The eyes are especially good.
ReplyDeleteWell, it's a crude sculpt with some strange creative decisions, but it's a monstrer indeed! Thank you, I dared to add some more detail on the eyes given their size, I hope they work!
DeleteVery nice Suber, a much more practical Manticore than the AoS version!
ReplyDeleteThank you! Haha, well, it's way more practical, that's undeniable! :)
DeleteExcellent resurrection job, yes I've been having problems with blogger too recently, I guess it's still good for what we pay for it?
ReplyDeleteBest Iain
Thank you! Oh, I guess you have a point there, but I still think that the expectations of a regular service we used to have aren't being met anymore. Anyway, we'll keep on posting! :)
DeleteGreat work on the manticore! I dig its old-school vibe, even if it seems outdated in today's standards. Never played the Dark World board game, but I used to play the Pen & Paper RPG it's based on (Das Schwarze Auge).
ReplyDeleteThank you! It's indeed pure old school, I haven't been able to get rid of this model in all these years because of that undefinable vibe :)
DeleteOh, I didn't know of the RPG, I'll dig up for some info!
I've been unable to comment for years via mobile, and just comment from my laptop. Also, Norton is flagging the blog as being a location of Phishing links, which may be causing you some woes with commenting...
ReplyDeleteOh, I've never been able to post or comment from my phone! I've recently been able to comment on other blogs, so apparently someone has been doing some maintenance!
Delete