From the Vaulted Realm of Pluto

I managed to snag one hell of a deal from an online vendor during a sale and I am damn well pleased with it. I’ll be adding a second colossus to the army. This time it’ll be the Phix Delta Chiokolossos from Meirce. I had purchased it under the understanding that it was going to be the standard sculpt but after I looked in the bag I was happily surprised that the spear wielding hand had also been included. Hooray for someone else’s trade in with extra bits!

Yes, yes, I haven’t done myself any favor with adding yet another figure to the army but it falls in line with The Rule of Cool. I saw it and the kick ass monster needed to be thrown in for fun. I really wanted it a while ago but I haven’t been able to lay my hands on it. At the moment I’m grinning madly as I continue work on this army.

Additionally I’ve done more building on the tricycle and I feel it’s done. Until I add the driver and the horsepower there’s no more modding this thing so I’ll hold onto the surprise. I should also do some more painting as my phoenix Marie Claude needs some love. With the pieces I have so close to completing I need to just do it, especially as I’m about to move again.

The ladies mounted on their sea horses will finally be realized after kitbashing. I really do have a love hate thing going on with doing this stuff. At the moment I have only done some painting.

I tossed a layer of Vallejo Xpress Caribbean Turquoise on as a base and worked it into a light blue drybrush. The scales needed a draw of contrast and I tipped them with pink. The manes and fins got touched with Army Painter’s Speedpaint Stormlord Blue and a hint of drybrush using Proacyrl’s White Blue to highlight.

My plan for the future will mean that, I hope, the bases are going to be a treat to work through. I had already played around with the experience of Vallejo water gel for diorama on a display base and knew it starts opaque and dries translucent. After that, the steeds will be made to look like they are emerging from crashing waves. This will be accomplished by using transparent plastic scrap that I will tip with seafoam paste.

After getting the hippocampi plans settled things went sideways as I started on the riders. I sawed off the legs and the attached sheld arm from the torsos. The movie referenced was more intriguing compared to the reality of remodeling bodies four times over. I was glad for the practice with Bubo’s rider but not happy to recreate legs in a sitting position again.

Right now in the middle of this I am not keen especially after gouging a middle finger with a self tapping screw at work. No bone damage but the flesh wound isn’t pretty. Meh, I’ll live and grumble as I continue the resculpting.

So I had done a little work in the background prior to announcing the start of these chariots but I really hadn’t gotten very far. The first one got some chain and a paint job to bring it closer to completion.

I have now, however, done some more kitbashing and feel that my progress should be shared. I also am happy to have found a solution to an issue I had with the spiked chariot in how to spice it up and make it more visually impactful.

Needless to say there is more work to be done, but I can show that there has been progress. The delicate nature of putting together the ballista by hand was truly aggravating as the only thing that was premade was the bow I salvaged from a pewter weapons pack. The bolt was taken from the same GW kit as the side spikes and was a final addition. After the plastic, twisted wire and spare watch parts had all been assembled I think a small reprieve was in order.

The front wheel assembly also falls into the category of things I don’t want to do again. A spare wheel from my bits bin and a few cut down lengths of cotton bud rod (what you grasp while cleaning your ears) made for a nerve wracking task. My final additions will be so much easier by comparison.

I’ve also decided on a name for the woman at the fore of the Harryhausen Hellenics, Acantha Endoxosa (Άκανθα ένδοξοςα)-Glorious Acantha or perhaps Acantha the Glorious.

I don’t know Greek so I ask for clemency on that matter. I chose the name for its meaning “thorn” but also being a genus of flowering plants. A pretty and potentially difficult leader of ladies on the battlefield will prove interesting.

So what have I been up to since last I posted, we’ll, I tried my hand at the Terrainfest stuff (yes it was a few months ago) and decided against it as I found some other things to add.

Yes, this has sat for a bit and other stuff got attention. In Age of Magic you can have terrain bits that are gome turf so I did some digging and found some figures from Foundry that are of a group of Amazons making a goat sacrifice. I haven’t painted them yet as I’m only getting this sacrificial mound built up.

Beyond that I have some chariots that I’m working on and doing kitbashing to make “more interesting”. What does that mean? It means inspiration bit me and therefore more work than is simply completed. Some hubcaps from the shields that came with the Eureka Miniatures, GW pokey bits from Khemri spears (gifted graciously by a fellow community member) and horses from the Victrix Roman Generals/Officers pack.

No, if The Rule of Cool is in effect it means there was an equal measure of “This is a pain in the ass”. The short and sweet of it, I’m still working on this slowly as I come closer to completing the Spring Clean Seraphon for SAGA.

I have done it! The madness continues as I had this mechanical marvel printed with a rider that came from the same CG set as the chimera rider. The feet were a little fiddly and were repaired after removal from the supports. All in all these were resin models that needed some care in handling (more for my nerves with how thin they seemed). This was not an idle fear as I would find out later.

Bubo snapped his left wing (for a second time) and the rider busted a leg at the pinned hip from the previously mentioned brush case incident. The repair work was easy and I was glad to have done it all before betting any more details on. Visually I think I did pretty well to draw the eye when I added the crotch curtain trailing (butt sail/banner?) behind the rider. She initially was wearing what could be best described as a barely there mudflap to cover her cheeks. Considering I had to tie the figure in with the color scheme and I had some success with capes, as I bounced between figures, I added one to cover her bum. I’m actually quite happy to not sculpt much when doing mods like these.

The major modifications include the helmet on her head, opening her legs to straddle the neck of Bubo, and add the fabric flapping in the breeze behind the model. I only added greenstuff where needed to tie things in (the hair, smooth seams, add fabric and brooch). Thankfully the work is small enough that I hope to get away with more in future.

Painting all this was simple from screenshots and the work done on the resr of the army. Metallics, skintones and The Green makes it all come together. The smooth coverage I needed to catch the very slight detailing on Bubo was something I didn’t leave up to brush coverage. I did find that the metals really didn’t matter in going over a gloss black when I airbrushed them. It might just be my imagination though. Troll Green from Vallejo Xpress Color continued to kick ass with a highlight with Scale75’s Irati Green. Outside of that the rider got Cuttlefish Colors Peachy Keen and No Sun Screen before a touch of Proacryl Flesh Wash. With the major stuff taken care of I varnished this with AKs Ultramatt and called it good.

My command group has been interesting. All the figures come from Brother Vinni and is composed of an officer, musician, standard bearer and the last hoplite I ordered long ago. I thought having a warlord on foot like this would offer a change from the Arabian Knights command or the one for Shay’s Zulu. Not much going on other than the original plume on the leader’s helmet snapping because it was too thin. I replaced it with one from a helmeted skull in the Warlord “Children of the Hyrda’s Teeth” box and it seems to have withstood my cackhandedness during the whole process of assembling the bunch. The magnet in the base is not too strong as to force me to yank it from the carrying tray for the sake of the resin standard pole. I don’t want to keep repairing parts.

There is more work to do and it’s slowly coming around. The final units are in the process of being finished as I am. I pity the fool who assembled this army… oh yeah.. that’s right. Ugh!

An addition of maeneds from the Shadowforge line I showed off before are now complete. I figured if I were to put on a unit for the “We Obey” rule (if I remember properly) there are figures to act as wound sponge bodyguards. Not much out of the ordinary with these ladies and they are a random part of mythology I wouldn’t have known about before this project.

A side note after I got these done disaster steuck. With it being winter I’ve found how easy the resin of my figures is to snap when they are cold. I dropped my brush case accidentally into my army box and hit my phoenix, the Warlord on beast and a new addition to be featured later. Marie snapped at the weak join where the beak met the base and it wasn’t a surprise. The warlord snapped cleanly at the neck and where the upraised sword arm was pinned. I am grateful that the damage was minimal but I do warn that if parts do get pinned with resin they are apt to shatter.

Working on multiple parts of the project at the same time to keep my interest I finished up another big bird, this time on an 80mm base. Here for your viewing pleasure I offer the phoenix, Marie. She’s a lovely bird if I may say so myself.

As I mentioned before the issue of weight was a worry for balance as she has an impressive tail raised high for all to admire. It seemed to be unwarranted as the resin is light enough to stand up the entire fire puking chicken. The join for the model sits right under the beak and above the smoke plume. The keying was good to sit without too much issue from the printing and only needed slight scraping. Really, it wasn’t anything out of the ordinary and only needed minor gap filling after superglue.

I tried my hand at going about the plumage with glazing to get the shift in color value. Anyone interested in trying the same here are the paints I used:

• Proacryl Pale Yellow
• Proacryl Orange
• Vallejo Scarlet Blood
• Vallejo Scarlet Red
• Cuttlefish Colors Sacrificial Red
• Cuttlefish Colors Bruised Ego

I touched up the separation in the feathers with some of the Pale Yellow and hit the underbelly with some spots of white to broaden the value scale. To tie the flame gout in with the rest of the model I went with most of the same colors.

Thinking the flame should have had an effect on the model base I flocked the model as normal with the Geek Gaming Scenic mix Mediterranean Soil and went back with a thinned down black though the airbrush. I added Gamer Grass medium Scorched tufts to stand in for the other Autumn and Mixed Green ones to also add to the burn patch credibility.

All in all I like how punchy this monster has come out and hope that the manner I’m now taking photos shows that appropriately. More fun is in store as I bounce between the final units. Really, I promise that I have no more planned beyond what I have. In truth I can’t fit any more on the transport tray so it’s all finalized.