McDeath: The Monster of Loch Lorm aka The Dragon Turtle

Last post I blogged about Mergrey Calchoner, the folically challenged court Wizard for Donaldbane, and the curious fact that the wizard is a difficult model (in my experience, at least) to get hold of. Today's subject, the Monster of Loch Lorm aka The Turtle Dragon, is another model that fits into that category.

 

Like many of the McDeath figures, I spent quite sometime researching the range and how expensive the models were in reality. We have all heard the tales of Sandra Prangle, McDeath and Lady McDeath changing hands at prices exceeding £100 - but were they actually true?

 

The reality is that this range, like with many other Citadel model, varies quite extensively. £50+ is certainly true of the miniatures I described above, with figures changing hands from anything around £60 to over £100. The miniature you can see above was the result of some hard haggling, but after a while the deal was done and the Monster arrived on my paint station.

 

Goodness knows what he was covered in! Soaking for several days in the Dettol did nothing to remove the shiny blue 'something' that covered the creature's shell or the white 'Tippex' looking smears that had obviously served as eyes for the last twenty-five years or more. Nitro-Mors and some frantic scrubbing wouldn't shift it either, though after a good soak I was able to prize off the white glop with a cocktail stick. The odd blue staining (which looked to me to have been created by an ink) was impossible to shift and in a way reminded me of a boy I knew at school who regularly 'coloured' in his dragon models using a permanent pen scrawlled over the bare metal.

 

Thankfully, the staining didn't clog any detail and I was able to undercoat the model in white fairly easily. I use a brush to do this now, rather than faffing about outside with a spray can. If you want to have a go at undercoating in this way, always mix in some water to thin the paint, as this will avoid any nasty clogging of detail. Usually, though not always, I apply a second layer of white over the first once it has dried. In the case of the Turtle Dragon, I opted instead to give it a good base colour of green and a good brown ink wash.

 

I was then ready to start work on him proper.

Inspired by the colour scheme of a real life turtle, I hit the paints and worked up a rather reptiley (is that a real word?) green on the head and flippers. This was quite simple though a bit fiddly to achieve. I am still not sure if I have highlighted up light enough yet, but I shall give it a week or so until I make the decision to add any more tone to the scales/skin.

The eye was simple. Based in a dark red before washing over with a blacky-brown ink. Once this was dry, I kept much of the depth and dotted back over the top of the pupil with a lighter red and highlighted that very finely with yellow. Its hard to see on the photograph above, but the Monster's eye looks nice and beady now.

Unsurprisingly, the shell took the most time and saw me highlighting up to almost pure white. I copied the look of a turtle shell from my reference as best I could and used a mix of brown and yellow to create contrast with the green skin. I didn't really take enough photos of this model, and I am rather proud of the underside, so I really should document it a little better in the future.

To conclude, this was another Bank Holiday special which I completed in a couple of hours. I really enjoyed painting up the model and it was a challenge working on something without a base. In the end, I decided against sticking him to some flat piece of plastic to ensure that he can be easily placed on the gaming table. After all, as the Monster of Loch Lorm he should be able to traverse land and sea with relative ease and the base would just get in the way.

Right, I am off. I will post soon about my ongoing McDeath project.

Orlygg