Speedpainting Conan: TMG

I’m trying to paint more stuff this year than I managed in the Covid times.  In 2020 I painted 601  miniatures and in 2021 I did 604.  I’d like to be over 700 this year as I’m working on a plan to have much of the collection painted prior to retirement.  I’ve got 5-7 years left so there is time but the POP is still extensive so I’m having to quicken the pace.

Conan is one of the biggest single sets with no paint on.  I painted Mythic Battles about 5 years ago and have Solomon Kane as well.  I don’t play games like this until I’ve painted them so lots of wasted potential here.

Let’s see what’s in the boxes:

Counting up there are 243 items:  32 scatter items, 206 miniatures and a play board in the Conan TMG set.  I’ve also adding in the 4 from Conan: Tower of the Elephant game (in cream plastic).  I’ve grouped them into types as this will make painting much easier.  The big group at the bottom are the characters who I’ll do in small batches alongside the bigger groups.  I’d like to get around 30 finished a week to be through them before the end of November.

A sinister silent foe for Conan.  These were an expansion box for the original game.  Love the Adrian Smith artwork and painted them to match.

Batch painted all of the pirates.  Two different sculpts, five of the bigger chap and 15 of the smaller.  Why are pirates on perspex bases? <insert pirate accent themed gag here>
Forgot to mention that everyone will be transferred onto clear perspex bases.  Conan and the other Monolith games are played on boards with marked movement zones so it is important to see them during game play and clear bases help a lot.  It also means there is less effort required to finish.  Cut them off with a sharp knife and superglue into place.

Characters are painted to resemble the artwork so they are more recognisable in gameplay for those not familiar with the genre.  I’ve photographed them on their card so the art is also visible.  There are lots of version of Conan.  The Mercenary is a fairly early stage in his development.

I’m painting small groups of the character models alongside the batches of goons.  This will spread the enjoyment/pain out across the project and ensure I don’t get too bogged down in detail in what should be a very quick process.  The first are:

Pallantides the commander of the Black Dragon knights.

Olgerd Vladislav a Kozak hetman and enemy of Conan across a number of stories.

Savage Belit – one of two versions of the Pirate Queen.  There is a horrible mould line (no, I’m not taking time to clean these off) running down the left of this figure, you can see it on her arm.  It crosses through the left side of her face and the distortion is pretty bad.  Pity, nice sculp otherwise.

Kerim Shah a mercenary and Turanian prince.

The elite knights of Aquilonia, Conan’s kingdom.  These were an additional box that was extra to the core game.  Pallantides was the commander of the Black Dragons.

This is all of the scatter in the box.  Mostly tavern furniture but also boxes and trunks to act as objectives.  Cheated on the Speedpaint only rule.  Gunmetal on the straps and hinges of the boxes and trunks and fluro paints for the flame effect.

Zogar Sag the Shaman.  Tried to match the artwork but due to the speed element didn’t do the war paint on any of the Picts.

Pict Hunters – there are 15 of these.

Pict Warriors

and finally Pict Archers

Second lot of personalities.  We start with Conan and his lion, Amra.  The lion was Conan’s spirit animal and he could call on its strength and even see through its eyes.

Valeria.  Heroine of the first Conan movie who features in a few of the original stories.

Constantius “The Falcon”, evil mercenary.

Balthus and Slasher the dog.

Zelata the witch and her wolf.

Halloween tonight so here are some scary things.  Mummies.  Simple enough paint job and three different poses, two were KS exclusive.

Thaug the sea monster.  This model is also the Ketos miniature for Mythic Battles: Pantheon.

And here is Adrian Smith’s original art.

This is an early version of Conan who is yet to have many of his defining adventures.

Pelias is a wizardy type with his ball of fiery magical energy.  I did cheat a bit on the Speedpaint only approiach here as I couldn’t figure out how to do object source lightling with it so went for some dry brushed AP Neons to creat a suitable reflection on his robes.

There are 25 of these in the game.  15 in the original pose:

Then another 10 in two KS exclusive poses.  The usual AP Speedpaints with bronze blend being Dark Wood, Palid Bone and SP Medium in equal quantities with a few drops of Sand Golem added to get a slightly brighter tone.  This was finished with stippled GW Nihilakh Oxide.

The fierce tribal warriors who manned Belit’s pirate ship were such as these with command shared out amongst sub-chiefs lile N’Gora.

Some minor characters, starting with a princess.

And now some baddies.  Akivasha the Stygian vampire.

Khemsa, agent of the Black Seers.

Khosatral Khel – demon god of the Abyss.

A warlock – evil demonologist.

The three Kushite Witchhunters, their two guards and Amboola commander of the spearmen of Kush.

The final miniatures painted in 2022.  Natohk the Veiled One who is the returned Khotan the Scorcerer who slumbered in his tomb for 3,000 years.  Needless to say he wasn’t a nice guy.

The Hyperborean Primitive – last of his kind.

Skuthus the Stygian Necromancer.

Bossonian Guards in two poses with their captain.  They have only 6 Speedpaint colours on them and no blending or mixing.  Still pretty effective in big groups.