Kings and Wings

Commission work has been keeping me pretty busy, but I managed to squeeze in some time to paint the kings:

Attentive readers will notice the bracers on the one with the raised axe. After the initial conversion, I thought his thin, bony arms and the way the cape bulged out in the back was making the figure look a little portly in the middle. So, I shaved down the cape to give it a more natural hang, and bulked up his arms by sculpting bracers. I also concealed his sides a little more with some knives and pouches taken from the plastic Grave Guard kit. All this helps give him a more heavily armed and armored appearance, and further distinguishes him from the other king.

The red armor uses a formula I had discovered years ago while painting my battle standard– It's basically Scab Red with a (very) little Blood Red and Dwarf Flesh mixed in for the highlights. To keep things from going too pink, I apply a thin glaze of Brown Ink and Scab Red in the recesses.

The Varghulf is proceeding slowly, but surely. I've got the reposing and sculpting of his body finished. The Balrog wings have been suitably tattered, and pinned in place. All that remains is to putty the joins and add some fur on the arms.

As you can see, I'm simultaneously working on some bat swarms. I've never been too keen on the "official" bat swarm models. The bats are too large, and they all have the same, upright pose. I settled on Warmaster Fell Bats to use as swarms. They're small, posable, and separate, so each swarm base can look totally unique.

The bats and Varghulf will all be "airborne," pinned into tombstones to create a scenic base. I picked up the Garden of Moor hoping to cannibalize some posts or statuary, but there really aren't any large, solid pieces that would be good for mounting the Varghulf. After some searching, I came across a set of resin grave markers by Custom Dioramics at my local hobby shop.

Once the Varghulf's sculpting is complete, I'll model all the scenic bases for it and the swarms, and paint them all in one batch. I guess that will be sort of like a unit grind.

'Til next time!