Dottirs of Hel

I have finished up the frost giant for this army and she is not the same as you find in the series My Hero Academia. I’m glad to be done and so so with the paint job. Done is better than perfect and for a playing army this does the job. I’m late putting this up as the hair braids broke a couple of times and the crown required repair after dropping. Resin is good for detail but crap for impact resistance.

As I showed before this is the size of the cyclops so it stands well on the table for monstrous scale. I’m pleased with the 90x120mm oval as it doesn’t unduly tower over other models. I debated on adding more to it in order to bring more attention off the figure but thought better of it. More is less and less is more for focus.

Once more I leaned into the Army Painter original Speed Paint formula and allowed the blue to bleed into a blend for the skin tones. Perhaps I could’ve made it more of a regular human skin tone and done a series of blues washes to create tonal variety. *shrug* I’m a high end game model painter at best who’s eyes are going all wonky with age. I’ll try my best and figure if I screw up the finer points of display detail I still have something that is serviceable to play with.

One mounted unit is complete and finished with only a bit of an issue with cast spears. Yep, not much of a fan on these as the spears don’t sit very well. Despite being epoxied a couple fell off with regular handling and have since been repaired. I finished these to get them out the door so no eyes as its a teaching force anyway.

Second unit complete and the walrus wranglers are ready for the fray. My only issue with these is that the bases have taken all the sealant and fit tighter than I would like. I just need to have people be careful when removing figures. I could go back and sand them down (the likely course of action). I still need magnets for their bases. Once more, these are meant to get out onto the table.to I skipped the eyes.

More progress on the fierce female fighting force as I knock out the Warlord and Hearthguard. The box set had enough to make a few different unit configurations but I decided the beserkers needed their own while the “extra” warriors could be put in with my leader. Another step and a few more models complete. These ladies just need the tufts added and they’ll match the rest.

The detail of the eyes was an issue. As with all others its tricky. My hobby space is cluttered and I had to make do with moving to the kitchen. The light isn’t as good there so a delay ensued as I did my beat ro work there. I’ve made do to get this done and reminded myself its just going to be a loaner anyway. I’m proud of my handiwork and that pride is what pushed me to the details.

Aside from that I had to wait for the ModPodge to dry up so I could have the flock and snow not show up as blobs of glue. With these units out of the way I think I’m about halfway done.

The melee female foot soldiers are done. I had a little issue with hands but this all came out in the end. I really should have gotten to the eyes sooner as these ladies would have been done last week. In the meantime I’ll finish the archers tomorrow with the same detail.

I just received the giantess from a good friend of mine and I have removed it from the nearly impregnable fortress of supports it was encased in. A hot water soak was the best course of action in detaching parts. I wasn’t too pleased with this as the hollow sculpt and drain holes held enough to scald as I was prying away the supports. No matter, I pulled it all loose and went through successive dunks in order to scrape out the fine details into prominence.

I had been worried that the print might be too small compared to the monsters I’m assembling right now but this dry run on a 90x120mm oval shows there’s nothing to fear when the time comes to set her permanently. The added FDM bits are gifts I received from Giftmas a few years back and I’m pleased to use them here. Small things for visual flavor at this scale creates more interest. I may or may not add a thing of two. I’ll wait for it.

As I put up before this was just too cool a model to overlook. I have seen so few moose figures and this was great in combo with the witch. The only drawback is that she is so very plain and my lack of skill in painting black might not do it justice.

From the rattlecan brown I coated the witch in Army Painter Speedpaint Gloomy Black. I thought it a good idea to sketch up using Scale75 Anthracite Grey (SC-04) to highlight folds. I then hit the highest of highlights, which was the barest of surfaces, with Proacyrl’s Blue White. I’m pretty damn proud that it came out how it did. It didn’t grey out like how so many other things have ended up before. The flesh and skull were basic technique work otherwise which I don’t think need much explanation.

The moose was successive drybrush passes and then get its eyes dotted. Little fuss, no muss.

Unit numero dos for the army is done. Vallejo Xpress Color Black Lotus gives a nice blue-black that got a quick drybrush of off white to highlight. I overdid a little bit of that on a couple, admittedly, as I used a larger brush than normal thinking a little more moisture might be needed. I was wrong, I have learned, I move on.

Using the great base scheme from before these guys pop pretty well. I just don’t like the fact they’re so damn light and fall over so easily. I also need to get some magnets for the bottoms to help in transport and for staying upright.