Monday 11 May 2015

Why You Wear Such Clothes Like Me?

"Jai, you've got to understand that there are other people who love the elephants."
These two diminutive 28mm metal miniatures are from the “Pulp Figures” collection PLT09 Kojar Of The Forest Tribe. Somewhat inspired by the 1966 “Tarzan” NBC television series, I’ve imaginatively decided to name the chimpanzee Cheeta and the small boy Jai. As an aside Bob Murch has unfortunately temporarily withdrawn these models and the rest of his Lost Worlds and Lost Tribes range in order to resculpt and reorganise them. 

I painted Cheeta in exactly the same way as I did the three much larger monkey figures found in code PLT10 Killer Apes. Thus the model was first given a double undercoat of “Citadel” Abaddon Black before he was heavily dry-brushed with “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal. I also used this colour to pick out all the dark areas of flesh on the primate’s hands, feet, chest and face. Once dry I washed the model with “Citadel” Nuln Oil to help blend it all in together and finally highlighted the fingers, toes and brow with some more “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal.
Werewolf WIPs - These fanged fiends simply need their claws washed with a brown shade to be finished
Jai was very simple to paint, once I’d applied an undercoat of “Vallejo” Heavy Skintone all over the figure. I used “Heavy Sienna” with a strong wash of “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade for the child’s loincloth and then gave the flesh areas a liberal ‘dousing’ of “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade. Finally I picked out the boy’s lips, nose, cheeks and fingers with more “Vallejo” Heavy Skintone. Bob Murch has actually sculpted in two eyes beneath the boy’s mop of black hair. But I balked at attempting to paint these areas, figuring you’d rarely see them whilst looking down upon the figure on the tabletop, so simply left them being ‘overshadowed’ by his “Citadel” Abaddon Black locks.

I’ve actually finished painting these three 40mm metal werewolves by “SLAP Miniatures”, and they’re currently in the queue to be based. But I thought they were worthy of some work-in-progress shots, especially as I originally mistook their elongated paws as claws and initially picked them out with white. Obviously I’ve since gone back and corrected my mistake.
Army of Mankind WIPs - All the blue paint needs to be washed with black ink
Finally I have been beavering away on some of these great-looking 15mm figures by “The Ion Age” and am close to finishing a stand of three Retained Knights, a smaller base of two Muster Patrolmen, and one of the company's awesome looking Adder hovertanks.

14 comments:

  1. Liking those Ion Age minis. Good stuff sir. :)

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    1. Cheers pulpcitizen. They really are very nice figures, with lots of character and plenty of dynamic poses. Loads of different vehicles to fight off the Xenos Menace too :-)

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  2. Lots of nice work there, Simon. Obviously I am most impressed with your SLAP Werewolves. Actually, I rather like your white claws. For a start, it adds contrast to the skin tones and secondly, they don't look out of place, in my opinion. Oh, and I love the red eyes. There is something that just screams supernatural about red eyes.

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    1. Thanks Bryan. Glad you like the SLAP werewolves. I must confess I didn't realize just how elongated their paws were until I looked back at the reference photos I'd printed and realized I painted them as if they were claws. The hands claws are a bit fiddly but once washed fit in well with the rest of the model. Red eyes is always best with the undead imho :-)

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  3. Some very nice work dude! Really like Kojar and the chimp. The werewolves are nearly there too, great eyes and claws.

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    1. Cheers Bob. I rather like Cheeta myself... and think him and Jai would make some splendid time-travelling companions in the near future ;-)

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  4. Jai could easily be used as a Mowgli from Jungle Book too. (Not sure what gaming application there would be for that, but it was my first impression. :P )

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    1. Thanks Dai. I did think that myself as well, especially the "Disney" version if I'd painted his loincloth red, though I always imagine him with a Tiger's fang in his hand (acting as a knife) when I think of Kipling's version.

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  5. Yep nice work as always Simon, I like the claws on the werewolves a it breaks up the colour scheme on them, nice figures too though I'm not sure about the "full disclosure" aspect of them down below (that's a little more werewolf than this innocent boy is used too!), the 15mm stuff is coming along rather nicely and our jungle chums are very well done, Dose Bob removing the figures mean I'm not going to get my Gorilla any time soon? oh well I'm not in any great hurry, I have plenty of boats to keep me occupied.

    One thing why is Jai hailing a bus? or is he about to burst into song.....

    Cheers Roger

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    1. Cheers Roger. The werewolves are a bit too menacing 'tackle out' aren't they, hence my decision not to highlight them in that particular area in any way. I'm afraid Bob's decision does mean the gorilla's are currently OOP, but my fingers are crossed this is a short term issue. He resculpted some of his other minis in quick order as memory serves. I think Jai is meant to be indicating 'this is Tarzan' or rather Kojar... but it is an interesting pose - nice to paint thought :-)

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  6. I started off by trying to make a connection between the models in the pictures, but I just cannot see a scenario in which Cheeta and Jai meet werewolves in the jungle. But I'm sure you've already got some plans for these :-) ...

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    1. Thanks C6... there's always a connection :-) Though in this case Jai and Cheetah have already met something with far more hair on the streets of London..!?! ;-)

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  7. Now I like those, I feel a pulp order coming on! Great also to see the werewolves, these are on my list to do this summer.

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    1. Most kind Sir Awdry, Bob Murch's sculpts are great fun to paint, and I'm thoroughly enjoying going through my stash slowly but surely. I've a few more "SLAP Miniatures" werewolves to finish off but they are certainly looking like a good minion horde for the Hyena. I do though look forward to seeing how yours turn out in the Summer - and will be interested to see how you 'stick them together' :-)

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