The Third Day of Citadel: Night Horrors Imp 1986

 

Nothing takes me back to the height of my collecting days like the Night Horrors range. These were once the 'most wanted' in collecting circles and owning a full set was a dream to many a Citadel enthusiast. The range was largely ignored by me back then, being primarily focuses on Warhammer models and Realm of Chaos stuff. 

I see now that I did myself a disservice. It is such a wild and wonderful range that more should be written about it. I know the old GW stalwart, Graeme Davis, wrote several articles on his blog about some of the figures in the range... most notably the three medusas and his writings are far more worthy than mine. Go seek them out and you will not be disappointed.

This imp figure was part of a small bundle donated to me recently. Unlike the last few models, he was in perfect condition when I began (a rarity for me) and I struggled to get him to work as a figure. I began life a far stronger red and I had it in my minds eye that he would resemble one of those little devils so popular on ankles in the 1990s. Over time, his blood red skin merged into this fleshy hue by pure chance. A purple glaze here, and dapple of skin there and the fleshy, almost baby-skin look emerged. I tried to ape the metallic bronze look of Daethskar once more for his weapon and I think I was semi-successful there. 

Replicating the look of ancient bronze is far easier on a larger scale. 

I kept things simple with his horn, using my usual 'bone' mixes to give, what I hope, is a shell/horn type finish. He has shades of the Roman cherubs about him and his baby-like face was rather tricky to capture the character of. His hair is Sunburst Yellow highlighted with Bleached Bone and then washed with an Orange Ink glaze, serving well as a spot colour but matching the shade in the horn well enough. 

The imp was a challenging but rewarding figure to paint. I have memories of painting the Devil Attacking and the Wolfman and there were once part of my former collection of painted models. My top want back in those days was the wonderful Headless Ghost though the Spectre is more ghostly than many other of the spectral figures GW put out over the decades. You can almost see the goblin hiding beneath those dirty and rather tattered sheets!

Orlygg