Sunday, 30 March 2025

Famous Familiars: Homonculus and Mystery Imp


Yes, I am back that soon! We had an unexpected afternoon together so it was spent out in the garden with Citadel paint and cross-stitch (obviously not together). Feeling rather inspired and keen to give my new paints a whirl, I set about working on the two remaining Famous Familiars I found recently in an old box of art materials. 

I know, I know... the bases are not great, an ill timed gust of wind blew superglue and sand all over the place just as I was finishing off the models. But they will have to do until I buy some modelling files and clean them down. I've also forgotten my old recipe for doing bases and have been experimenting with various combinations to get a uniform look. After all, I might one day manage to retrieve my original collection of painted figures and I'll want them all to match. 

Looking back at the photographs, I can feel that I am improving. Both figures were painted in single sittings with a break in between. I've been finding getting consistent colours a challenge, especially when highlighting but I can see the improvement before me as I type these words. I've reduced the amount of white to create highlights... boy do I miss Bleached Bone!

The red on the hat and shoes of Mystery Imp I am most pleased with. They took about ten minutes to complete and use Red Gore as a base, highlighted with Blood Red and Hobgoblin Orange. Proper old school shades right there. His cloak is Worm/Imperial Purple highlighted with a little white. The green tail poking out from under his robe was also a quick little paint- here I used my proxy Goblin Green, followed by Bilious Green and Sunburst Yellow as a highlight. Long term readers will know I like to work fast and get figures finished in a few hours.

The very same recipe was used to paint up the body of the Homonculus. With Worm Purple highlighted with White to finish his long hair do. I'm disappointed that the photographs don't capture his barnet as I was able to pick out the strands of greasy hair with a little effort. Another improvement over that first godawful skeleton. 


Working with all three classic paint sets means I have access to a lot more colours and can use many of them in conjunction. The brown bag didn't come out as well as I hoped and I've got a dwarf figure cleaned up from the 'orrible lot Graham sent me recently next on the painting table to try and get my head around leather. 

All in all, a fun and constructive afternoon. With Easter around the corner I'm planning to get some decent hours in over the next few weeks in the hope that my skills improve further. I've also got Chris's paints to sort through and use too. 

Until then,

Orlygg


15 comments:

  1. Cool stuff, shame about the base glue issue though. :(

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    1. Easily repaired later on. I'll probably improve the quality of my bases later on when I've got some more figures under my belt.

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  2. Both minis look great. The red and purple on the imp are really vibrant also I know a good basing tutorial you could try. https://realmofchaos80s.blogspot.com/2013/10/goblin-green-and-lots-of-it-orlyggs-old.html?m=0

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    1. Ha! What a fine tutorial that is... and how odd to look back on my former life (something I am reluctant to do, for obvious reasons). As I said in the post, I am REALLY missing Bleached Bone and need to do something about that soon. It was the work horse shade for so many of my paint jobs. As for the purple robe, looking at it now those edge highlights need thinning out. Something to do when I fix up those bases.

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  3. You can not imagine how much your posts please me. You are improving fast as a rocket. Keep pushing and thank you so much for being back.

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    1. Thank you for your encouragement FanSkaven. Its been great to paint for two days straight and I hope to get some more time in over Easter. Still so far to go, though.

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  4. They both look wonderful, it strikes me how much you were able to achieve with such tiny miniatures. Fantastic work indeed

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    1. Thank you Suber. In truth, I would like to do so much more. Stuart gave me some good advice yesterday.. something I hadn't thought of... that I might not be getting the results I want due to the paintbrushes I'm using. I know that a bad workman always blames his tools but I'm keen to try something different to the old army painter brushes.

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    2. There's likely a fair bit of truth in this - I'm no master painter (not by a long shot!) but I've noticed a marked difference in the quality of my painting since I upgraded to a Kolinsky Sable for the majority of my brushwork. I don't think it's necessarily down to technique, but I no longer feel like I'm having to fight the brush to get paint in the right spots, and the extra concentration I was using on that is better spent on the actual miniature.

      Your painting is coming along beautifully though, clear progress with each mini added to the Painted pile - and at the rate you're going, you'll soon have a lovely little Chaos warband to sally forth and wreak havoc with!

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  5. Beautiful work as always!

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    1. I am glad you think so, Bill. Thanks (:

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  7. Stunning work, that Imp is one of my favourites from the familiars and you've done a great job on it and it's friend.

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    1. He is a charming little chap. So much imagination went into that little range. Something sadly lacking in today's corporate lead companies (;

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    2. So much these days seems to be over sculpted, as if somehow adding details on top
      of details equals better...

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