From the Vaulted Realm of Pluto

So the Sythyrs from Shadowforge I got through Eureka Miniatures are all done. These ladies are a departure from the previous fauns and I like them much better for the scale of detail. I also like the fact that these are metal instead of plastic. The only issue I had was the fact that all the figures have tails like Scandinavian trolls. All of them needed to be attached and using epoxy resin instead of superglue has yielded sufficient resilience to some dropping. It also helps to bend the tails so that they don’t point into deep space away from the models. This is also an issue when dealing with trying to either rank up of put them on the unit base as shown.

Beyond all that I found it difficult to try and find ways of keeping the green accent color included and tried to draw the eye with the jewels. I think it might work but only on the 3″scale versus the one of 3′. Lenticulur highlights are a pain in the ass. I might skip this kind of thing in future but as a challenge I might keep at it. This remind me of the movie Hook and a dialogue between Cpt. Hook and Mr. See on “Don’t let me do it”…. “Pundancer, don’t let me do this”.

So I had thought about a way to bring in a bipedal beast into the army outside of the minotaur and had this cyclops printed. Using the troglodyte from Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (running on from the Arabian Knights project) I decided to keep the Harryhausen theme in a different way. I thought the original monster, now 3D print, was a good anchor point and used Polyphemus from the Odyssey as another great bit from Greek mythology. Since I had some sheep sitting around I used this as opportunity to justify buying them way back when (Past self “See, there was a reason you bought them”).

Here be the metal centaurs, replacing the previous plastic ones, all outfitted for fierce battle. I tried initially to break the shapes of their musculature into distinct areas but I gave that up after I sat and thought they weren’t sculpted that way. I went back to the same thing I did for my gray dapple mount of the Mordheim knight painted some time ago and began stippling. I just needed to make the color transition for areas stand out.

Horse skin aside, I had the same issue with the human bits. Thankfully, they are similar to all the hoplites I’ve finished so I needed only worry about armor and armaments being different. No bother for transfers for the shields as I kept the provided ones for distinction. It gives me an idea of how better to work NMM for other things as I look at them now.

I have found another Scourge for my collection of armies. The Harryhausen Hoplites will be getting an Incredible Thunder Chicken unlike the last one for the Arabian Knights. Thanks to my being vigilant for minis and thinking this army will need something big and flying I found a phoenix.

Keeping with the theme of Greek mythology it was just something I felt needed to be done. Given the Black Friday sale I was compelled to buy the files for future printing. Dwayne, the Roc, will not be my only feathered friend to field. This will also mean I need to be creative with plumage once again and think about fire. I’ve worked on Justin’s Khorne demons and painted them for the heated metal effect on their swords. I just need to transpose that idea and process onto a bird.

Right now I only have the issue of whether or not I use the flying model or the one barfing a fireball. The first one looks stable enough to stand unsupported. The second one, eventhough it looks badass, I have reservation on the strength of the supporting gout of flames. I’ll weigh this idea out as I work on other stuff in the meantime.

Nope, no clothes here to hold back any movement. This has been a good mental balance to Warren’s Celt gesatae and I’m glad for no tattoos. I did a few mods on these figures. I added LBMS transfers to the Brother Vinni figures as I thought they would fit the shields. I was right and wrong on that point. I didn’t want to deal with the issue of snapped resin spears I replaced them with steel ones from Warlord Games.

Anyone buying these figures will see that they are perfectly sized to Wargames Atlantic hoplons. The difference between them is a sculpted laurel detail around the center for the Brother Vinni offering. The edge of the LBMS transfers sit right where the laurels come up from the otherwise smooth surface. It’s a very close fit and most times it was enough for the transfer to pull back from the edge and not adhere to the shield fully. To try and address this I added extra clearcoat to act as a filler. After drying fully it didn’t work. Its only noticeable on very close scrutiny.

Beyond that I will freely admit to finding deadly mould lines along the rear leg of some models which I failed to remove beforehand. Its on a side my opponents don’t see and there is plenty enough going on otherwise that the detail in question can be overlooked. I’ll be sure to address the issue on other models in future. As a preamble to the UHH.. bugger off 😆.

As an update for other figures, the sythyrs from Eureka have all been pinned to their bases and magnets inserted to make sure the figures don’t end up getting tossed around the carrying tray. There were a few arms to pin but generally the sockets fit well enough that you could get away with just gluing. All the figures of the unit have tails and they are quite fiddly. The use of solder might’ve been a damn good idea but melting temperatures is something I don’t want to mess with. I opted for using glue to attach them and it’s worked so far. Pictures to come when they’re painted.

No, I can’t well just leave well enough alone with silly thoughts and how to implement game mechanics into a thematic army. Here, I finally dragged “Clash of the Titans” onto the table.

It really was a segue from an idea after seeing an owl being used as a mount.

From here it proceeded on to the possibility of a Hearthguard unit of flying figures. With the experience of the hippocampi I think I’ve trod down that road far enough to consider four figures likely won’t work. This should be a significant single unit for visual impact.

As it is a piece to be looked at with awe and wonder my brain went from what could be done admiring natural splendor to the whimsy of the ever famous Bubo!

This will either be a warlord on flying mount or another lieutenant like the one riding the flying carpet I had on my Arabian Knights. All in all The Hunt, as Gerry put it, is afoot and I think there are quite a few trophies scored during my time in the wilds of The Interwebs.

I’ve hit a small painting wall but getting some magnets into the trays for the figures has been positive movement for the project. I’ve also ordered more to complete securing the army to the transport plate. This lot of lovely ladies grows more attractive all the time. 😆

I had the hippocampi(?) that I wanted printed and I’ve been looking at how I’d need to kitbash the legs of some Dark Temple Guard Praetorians from Shadowforge to use as a unit of Hearthguard. I’m not a fan of the cast spears. The polearms look more like ranseurs with tiny details of skulls that I just won’t be able to replicate in a material I feel will be durable for regular handling so they will be kept. The legs will be hacked, repositioned and the armor frill replaced on the finished legs. I don’t think too much work will need to be done on the shield arms but I’ll see what happens in the seating of the figures.

A not on the prints is that they came out very cleanly with minimal fuss for the supports. My friend printing them did a bit of custom supporting in tapering the terminal points where they meet the model. It’s a trick that seems to minimize the scarring of the contact points and my need to run sandpaper for smoothing.

On a separate topic of photos I’ve tried some more with natural lighting and using thin EVA foam as a backdrop. Tooling about with 5600k WB, 100 ISO and 1/30 sec shutter seemed to have worked with these pics. I’ll look more into the difference between this and my “studio” photo setup with table lamps.

Considering the hunt for more minis I’ll give this all a bit of a twist to put in some more 1s and 0s. This all makes sense as far as a change of pace as I’m pulling in aquacav(?). With the Jason and the Argonauts feature of Poseidon I thought a little bit more could be drawn in. Seahorses in the non-standard idea will be good. As an addition I’ll be kitbashing some stuff I got in order to keep the visual motif.