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
My two favourite minis from the night horrors range were the fish man and flyman sadly I think I sold them off a few years ago.
ReplyDeleteI'm not that knowledgeable about this range so had to look these two models up. The have a 1950s feel to me more akin to old B movies than fantasy, probably why I missed them back in the day. You only 'think' you sold them off Ian, they could still be in the leadpile somewhere!! (;
DeleteClassic mini and a lovely bit of painting. The flesh colour is inspired, ut shouldn't work, but you nailed it.
ReplyDeleteLike a lot of folk I'm regretting selling off most of my Night Horrors.
You always regret the sales, not matter what there were, in the end. I hope you shifted them during the range's peak. Thank you for the kind words about the paint job. I too wasn't convinced with the way the skin turned out so its good to know its appreciated by other enthusiasts.
DeleteI collected most of these, they are all lovely in their own way, but gave up when I got to the final four: flyman, emerging zombie, man with ax in his head and ‘death spirit’. Decided life was too short and eBay prices (where available) were the other side of ludicrous. Sold on to a better home now, and the money used for other citadel projects. Still have the spectre, some ghouls and a couple of others I couldn’t bear to part with.
ReplyDeleteI hope those treasured horrors that remained are painted up and displayed in a suitably glorious position. They deserve nothing else. (;
DeleteI love it. At first you get a vibe of something innocent, like a cherub, or maybe a satyr, but then you get a whole look of it and see the mischevious design, it's so lovely! Great job there!
ReplyDeleteHi Suber, yes you are right about the design ethos. I've said it before but the models put out my Citadel in the second half of the 1980s are the greatest range of fantasy figures ever created. So much imagination and character, and to think many were just sculpted on the spot after a pint down the Man in Space!
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