Gladiator Ogre and Jack o' Lantern Familiar

I had a rather productive day today. Managed to make headway with the enormous amount of school work I had to get through and I got two miniatures finished off it my sunny back garden. The gladiator ogre and the Jack o' Lantern familiar, both I believe by Jes Goodwin. 

Wanting to try something different with the ogre's skin I opted to use yellow in my standard flesh mix. I was hoping to achieve a sallow looking skin as a result but I am not too sure if I have been successful. I also used a far darker base colour to create the shading than I would normally use. The jury is out! 

I am very pleased with the metallics though, especially the bronze pauldron. I have a hankering to tinker with this recipe for golden metal again soon, if I can find a suitable figure to try it out on. It was simple to achieve. Bronze basecoat with a brown wash, highlighted with a bright gold. As simple as that! For the chainmail I used a variety of techniques, mostly drybrushing and a little edge highlighting with a bright silver. I added depth here and there with a little black ink too. The result is pleasing as silver armour is an area I am keen to improve. 

I even went as far to add toenails and a couple of nasty spots to the figure to help add character. The mohawk was great fun to paint and as you can see I went for a odious '80s green.  

The black leather was really easy to achieve too. I just painted the strips black, painted over the top with grey and then used a finer brush to paint a thin black line through the centre. Quickest piece of highlighting I think I've ever done. The eyes, lip and scar were created through purple and red washes followed by a final bleach bone highlight of the features. Pure white was used to pick out his two protruding teeth. 

A very nice model this one, though a little bit more primatively sculpted than the other ogres in the range I have painted so far. 

This was today's second completed model. He was great fun too and I tried to contrast the orange of his pumpkin with the tatty earthy colours of his ragged clothes. I highlighted the whole model from the pumpkin down in bleached bone to give him a slightly weathered look. This familiar is after all supposed to represent a scarecrow brought to magical life. I toyed with painting magical lights in his eyes but in the end I thought the black contrasted better and added more depth. 

He feels more akin to the Night Horrors range to me though, than the other familiars... but he's finished.

Famous Familiars: Mannequin

Been laid low recently with a tooth infection. It seems with the pandemic the only solution to serious toothache is to nuke it from orbit with megaton antibiotics and painkillers. Still, it was the cheapest private consultation I've ever had costing me precisely nothing save my time. More money for miniatures I guess...

I was feeling better this afternoon so decided to continue my famous familar project with this little chap. The Mannequin. Not the best photograph I know, but at least he is finished. I tried to capture a feel of woodgrain paintig him up and I am not sure I was successful. What do you think, dear readers?

The club also proved a problem as it ended up looking too similar to the body of the model. In the end I mixed red in with brown and highlighted the weapon up as normal. I added a tiny bit of blue verdigris on the bronze studs but it hasn't come out too clear here. 

Still, he was fun to paint after a while away. I'll see if I can take some better snaps when I finish the next batch of familiars that I have started. Each is a joy to work with. So full of character and imagination. I discovered today that GW have produced a set for the 21st century. Not a patch on these metal original in my opinion but each to their own. 

Orlygg