Recreating the Monster and Creature Paint Sets

Hello and welcome back to RoC80s... 'The Blog that Died' and has returned. I've spent much of the last week or so closing a few deals, hunting through a few retro shops and having my lessons disturbed by the arrival of more packages. 

I had a long chat with my old mate Stuart, who informed me of GW trend of reproducing old, primarily Marauder figures, for their Old World Range... with prices to match eBay's worst. At least if you do take the plunge you don't need to fear a recast of which I have seen a huge number, especially for Rogue Trader and Chaos ranges. He also recommended an Optivisor to help deal with the eyesight problems I've mentioned as I get back into painting. 

Stuart... I salute you...

I'll be trying that out properly tomorrow on Monday painting night... fingers crossed.  

Thanks to a couple of generous folks I am now in possession of the Monster and Creature paint sets, well the half empty boxes mostly.  Both of the boxes are in fairly decent condition though they are more than a little faded. Not really unexpected considering the passing of time.

Neither were complete paint wise though TimG has been kind enough to send me some of his spare 'old school' colours. Tim I salute you too! Which along with Ian's life changing contribution are being put to work rebuilding these two classic sets.

The best preserved was the Creature Paint set and if memory serves it was the second of the original boxes that I received way back in 1988/9. I am guessing that the previous owner liked Hobgoblin Orange, Elf Grey and Bestial Brown enough to go out and buy the later replacements. If I remember correctly, these sets would often come unlabelled and the sticker on the front of the pots were only present of bought singularly in a store. But I have a vague memory of this not always being consistent. 

Can you guess at my proxies here?

Yes, Worm Purple, Goblin Green and Swamp Brown are all from Ian's Foundry donations. Swamp Brown is way off while Worm Purple and especially Goblin Green are not there yet. Trouble is, my memories and comparative materials online are influenced by the '90s version of Goblin Green which is the famous shade everyone recalls so fondly.

I pretty sure the original colour was slightly different. The Creature Paint Set was much more mute and pastel in its shades with what come later. 

                                                       

                    

The Monster Paint Set had more vivid colours as can be seen here. Imperial Purple, Bestial Brown, Titillating Pink and Billious Green are all original paints. Brazen Bronze is Magic Metal from the Coat d'Arms range. Not sure that this colour is quite right but I bought it on a whim to test out how reliable a website was and wish I'd gone for a lighter tone. The two blues are place holders from Ian's wonderful gift. They are suppose to reference Moody Blue and Electric Blue but look too similar under a light to be suitable in the long run. Ghoul grey on reflection looks too dark, and as this too is a placeholder it may well be a back to the drawing board job there too. Red Gore too is also too bright and looks to me to perhaps be a Blood Red.

Oh, and Billious Green is totally dried out. The only casualty after 35 plus years. But the paint pot gives me an idea of what needs mixing up in future to get a colour close to it. 

The trouble is I haven't found a huge amount of quality reference. There is the famous advert from White Dwarf circa 1989...

There is this fantastic website to go on. GAW paint collecting. Which contains many of the paints in these sets as well as loads I never even heard of back then. I owned Colour, Creature, Monster and Space Marine sets and those 36 paints were all a young enthusiast would ever require, so I never dipped into anything else - no pun intended. 

               

Here are the reference shots from GAW. The Creature paint set is looking fairly consistent with what I now have. What do you fellow enthusiasts think? The Monster paint set needs work, though one of the blues I have chosen in a good match. From what I recall Electric Blue was a popular bright shade but Moody Blue is going to be harder to acquire. I don't think I have anything in my collection to match to that. Swamp Brown I'm more confident on finding something similar amongst what I have been given/bought so far. 

I may need to mix a couple of shades together to create a closer tie with these colours.

That is certainly true of Billious Green which is a lovely radioactive shade. Of course, if you know anywhere decent online to get any colours similar to these lost classics please let me know. I don't intend on using any of these paints until I am happy that the colour match as closely as I can. So its likely that the Creature set will see action before the Monster one does. As I still relearning how to paint, keeping things simple is only going to help. 

I hope at least. 

My next job is to work on my technique so I can reach a level to tackle through four skeletons from the Horde without my eyes crossing permanently. After that Gnome warrior I've got a taste for the stunties. Among the models donated to me is Bandit model from the C06 Dwarfs... so I am off to base and undercoat him ready to test out that Optivisor thing tomorrow.

Orlygg