Month: August 2017

Grenadier Ghoul

Also from the Grenadier Monsters box set, here is a ghoul that I used Army Painter’s Strong Tone with. I only highlighted his hair and the bumps on his forehead. For future minis, I will definitely do more highlighting. Instead of using Vallejo Model Color’s Dead Flesh like I used with the zombie, I used a pale gray for the skin. I’m not very happy with the combination of that with the Strong Tone. Sorastro used Citadel’s Palid Wych Flesh as the skin base color, which I don’t have, so I tried to approximate it.

I added the bone that he’s licking. All the undead in this set have a similar pose in which the right arm is held up for no apparent reason. I feel compelled to add a reason. I probably should have put a headstone behind him or something, too.

Edit: Mike Monaco (from mikemonaco.wordpress.com) pointed out that this is the ghoul from the monsters set, not a wight.  Thanks Mike!  If you like what you see on this site, you should definitely check out Mike’s site.  He’s a painting MACHINE!

Grenadier Zombie

This zombie comes from the Grenadier Monsters large box set. I didn’t spend as much time on this mini as I usually do. The only highlighting I did was on his hair. I was mainly interested to see how the Army Painter Strong Tone looked in real life after seeing Sorastro’s Zombicide miniatures painting guides.

Because zombies are usually best when encountered in huge hordes, and I take so long to complete even the simplest minis, I probably will never have a proper zombie mini army.

This zombie and his base reminds me of the opening credits of The Walking Dead where they show the lone zombie shambling across the field.

I’m in the middle of painting the wight from the same Grenadier set, and will post him next.

 

Sea Ghost

The Sea Ghost is a pirate ship detailed in Advanced Dungeons and Dragons module U1: The Sinister Secret of Saltmarsh. The ship plans in that module are quite detailed, and even include cross section and rigging diagrams.

I’ve built her from scratch out of 3/4″ polystyrene insulation board. The top two layers (main and cargo decks) are double stacked. The bottom layer (bilge) is single layer. It is scaled to the standard D&D scale of 1″ = 5′, so upper decks are each 7.5′ high. She is 90′ long, not counting the prow. After rough-cutting each deck’s shape, the layers were glue together, and the sanded down with a belt sander to the proper shape. Holding all the layers together, I then rounded the hull with the sander so that the layers all transitioned smoothly rather than stepping from layer to layer. Hull and decks were painted with acrylics (including a 1″ grid pattern) and then details added, including hatch, mast, rudder handle, prow, anchor winch, crow’s nest, mains deck doors, portholes, railings, and lanterns.

The details took a long time. The main shape of the boat and the bulk of the painting was completed with just a couple hours of work. All the little fiddley bits probably took another 10-15 hours.