Some ugly beasts

 While committing to other stuff, I've decided to take on a small side project, one of those palette cleansers that help you to feel closure and that you get your damn stuff done. It consists of Frostgrave and Stargrave minis, all of them creepy monsters for scary encounters. Nothing special on mind, but just some eerie creatures that you can use in a number of different games.

Eeeek

In the pic above you have an example of each mini, but I painted two of each. Trying to decide how to approach this project, it looked clear to me that they needed to look ugly, dark, ominous. Nothing about bright colours or any kind of flamboyant patterns. So totally opposite to my work on the World of Twilight stuff. Then I thought of a fun experiment. What if I gave them all the same base coat and then tried different approaches? They should look sufficiently tied in, yet distinctive.

It looked great in my mind, seriously.

I primed them black and then I used a mix of dark brown, black and grey for the prime layer. Then I abundantly agrax-ed them:

They look all the same. Ugly and dirty. I'm pretending to say it as a good thing

From this point on, however, I walked different paths with each kind of creature. Let me start with the Leechwolves. I guess the name is quite descriptive on its own.

Uuuugghh

I wanted these to look pale and sick. Leeches are in fact quite opposite, in the black scale of things, but I really thought they should have this kind of look, and Itried to define the muscles and so, just using the three base colours I used on the original mix, but adding more and more grey to each layer.

Cute puppies

Next, the Grothek. Again the palette was kind of the very same, but this time the mix had quite more black and grey. The creature is a strange hybrid of bat and boar or something in that line, so I thought that dark greys should look fine.

I really thought that "animal crossing" was a totally different concept

I only added a different tone of brown on the back when painting the final layers, to provide some additional hues to the result:

A nice family!

The Chronohounds were a different challenge. I decided to go with the dark brown palette, always starting from the same point as the other monsters. I used little grey for the highlights, and then the result fell on the brown side. But they looked too dull and the texture of the minis was calling for something else. Then I came up with a weird idea. As these beasts move in time, coming in and out the continuum, I considered they should have their skin burnt, if not full of nasty tumours. So while staying with the same colours, I tried this:

They are also blind, just because they look scarier

So let's have a look at the final results. The good thing of having two minis of each model is that I can show both sides at the same time:

I'm still struggling to decide how does the Batpig sound

Oink, oink, screech

I prefer not to think of their sound

I really think some vet should take a look at those skins

Imagine a forest in the dark and then you find these. Nice, huh?

It's been a nice challenge, trying to get different results (as different as I could) with just the same three colours. They look like predators, but each one in their own way, and I believe they'll make some interesting encounters in any game they take part of.

I'm currently working on more stuff, and it will be quite different from this; coming (hopefully) soon!

A dozen years

Who would have told. Twelve years ago, a day just like today, I started this adventure, this Old School Workshop. Twelve years in a row.

Wow. I know I've said it before, and that I repeat myself every time, but I wouldn't be able to do this everyday without your continuous support. Once again, thank you. Thanks for being out there, reading, commenting and supporting the blog. It means a lot!

What's been happening over here during the last twelve months? Let's recap!

I had the craziest of games, a mod of Formula D but with racing pods, in the Boonta Eve Race:

I managed to muster part of the crew of the bold Agreusa, Athenian trireme:

I closed December with the scratchbuilt airship, the Laika:

I started January 2024 bringing the old Dark World Manticore back to life:

Oh, and enjoyed quite a lot coming back to my realscale Carcharodons with these slightly converted marines, making the old school vibe look new, and with the addition of this monstrous Rhino:

I kept on recovering old minis, and so I repainted this Ork cyboar rider:

And then these ancient Space Crusade Androids!

I also finished the Infinity project (well, "finished", ahem, you know)

Year of bringing old stuff back on duty! I put some work on this (only relatively old) Orc Warboss on Wyvern for a friend:

I also got the long forgotten pleasure of drawing during a few days off with the family, which was a much appreciated thing to do:

Again, making old school vibe back to modern times, I went full Red Era with a twist:

 When the date came, I posted this quite particular take on St George and the Dragon:

I was really in need of updating my old Epic Titans, and I took the opportunity to build a few more:

 When I thoght I was done with AvP, it happens that I still had some unfinished business!

 Mwahahaha, no one expects the ancient Khorne Blood Slaughterer!

In this year of nostalgia, I tried not to get myself lost inside the Labyrinth... 

I felt comfortable (or fool) enough to try a second chance with Epic, even making this conversion to build a Banelord:

My Orksies got even more mobile reinforcements, as I added all these bikes to my Waaagh! army force bunch of pals:

Oh, when you thought I had more or less a coherence in the stuff I was painting this year... this happened. Make mine Marvel! Both heroes, villains and stuff:

The last part of the year has been essentially devoted to the Qala Debdou board, which has consumed quite an amount of time and effort, but has also left some rewarding experiences. I recklessly put some lights on (or in?) the board, I hollowed a space for a bazaar, also built a thematic and ethnic entrance, ended the main hulk of the board and finally cared about the details that bring a board to life. I still may put some additional work to change some stuff, but this first module of the board is essentially finished.

Oh, and after such an endeavour, I felt the need of doing something much more sizeable and reasonable, which was the Eldar Farseer:

 

This is all my work from the last twelve months! You may rightfully observe that I apparently have done no work since the Eldar, and that was almost a couple of weeks ago. Oh, fear nothing, I'm already working on new stuff. So buckle up, counter is set on zero again and there we go! Ready for the lucky thirteenth year!

I know that everyone uses to do this kind of recap posts by the end of the year, instead of on the blog anniversary, but I find it a nice way to remember the date, kind of a birthday party. I may move it to the end of year next time, I'm not sure. The only think I know for certain is that I still fancy painting little people and that I'll love to share my stuff with all of you up there. Thanks again for showing up, for commenting and for your own blogs, which, trust me, are a constant source of inspiration and encouragement.

Let's keep on!!

Interlude: Eldar Farseer

 After finishing the Qala Debdou project (Well, "finishing", you know... "finishing this stage of the Qala Debdou project". Or maybe "finishing the core stages of this stage of the project") I needed something really simple. Call it a palette cleanser, call it whatever. The simple pleasure of taking a single mini and painting it, from the beginning to the end. Start a project and closing it. So this was the perfect choice.

I had this Eldar Farseer for some quite long ago. It's the modern Eldrad Ulthran model, but I don't really have any plans of starting an Ulthwé army. However, I have this Biel Tan warrior, as white/green is a scheme I find pleasing, so I decided to go the same way with this one. Please let me introduce you Ellinderelion, Farseer of Biel Tan.

I made no conversion at all but just cutting the rear crest out. It was a little too much for me, and I think I've saved the poor guy a lot of neck pains.

What do you mean "over the top"?

I couldn't just paint it plain white and green. This is undoubtedly a singular character, and needed a little more ornament. I mean, it makes no sense to have such a mini with all those details and then painting the robes with plain colours. Not that I'm capable of doing complicated freehands, of course (besides, this was to have a relaxing experience!), so I made simple paterns with grey over white and white over green. Simple, but it adds something to the general impression.

Yes, of course I could have painted way more stuff there. I could, but I couldn't at the same time

Of course I couldn't paint any metal on the mini, not even the bracelets, as it's all wraithbone. Maybe some golden colour would have looked nice (aesthetically speaking, just in chromatic terms), but it wouldn't have made sense. I tried to make a difference between white and bone, I hope it works.

As you can see I kept both the sword and the staff in bone colour. I didn't want the model to be a colour splash; less is more and keeping it sober was a conscious decision. A decision I immediately broke painting all those sprit stones! I didn't want to paint them all red, so I chose this RGB pattern. It adds some variety, I believe, and it still makes the model look decent, I hope.

Here you have my whole Eldar force:

Can this be the beginning of a Kill Team?

I definitely have no plans of starting an Eldar army or whatever, but I enjoy these models, so I'm happy with these as they are. I don't see myself purchasing Guardians or anything else in the immediate future, so I'll just enjoy these.

This is it for today! I have another new project on the bench, but it still will take some time. I'll bring something however soon!

Cheers!