Tag: box

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!

Fighting Men

This group is from the Grenadier “Fighting Men” box set, circa 1980. These, along with the Wizards box set, are the minis I started playing D&D with at age 8. My brother was DM for a game in which the characters were all Knights of the Round Table, but set in Greyhawke instead of Camelot. They let me play Sir Perceval, who had a Girdle of Storm Giant Strength. Lancelot, Galahad, Arthur, and Merlin were all represented at the table as well.  I don’t remember doing much other than rolling dice, but the impression it had on me has been life-long. I think that all of us geeky D&D players are now the lawyers, engineers, programmers, physicists, and entrepreneurs that are now running the world. The jocks and burnouts who teased us way back then have fared far worse over the years, I’d wager.

My original plan was to divide these minis into two five-man groups, each with its own color scheme: the trees against the fleur-de-lis. In the end I made them all one army with matching color schemes.

Communing Cleric

I remember this mini from when I was very young. I played D&D with my brother and his high school friends (I would have been about 10-12).   One of his friends had the Grenadier Specialists box set of minis. This cleric always caught my eye. It has an unusual pose, a snapshot of a warrior priest at a penitent moment. I always thought it was a female until a couple months ago when I was inherited the Specialists box set from a dear friend.

I used this as an opportunity to work on my NMM (Non-Metallic Metals) skills. I’m pretty happy with the breastplate. I’m ok with the helm and holy talisman, though I acknowledge that they could both be better.

Because I’m colorblind, the red robes were the most frustrating part. I knew how the colors ought to be mixed, and where they should be placed as I was layering them on. But because there isn’t any significant distinction between the red shades for me, I had no idea if I was getting them in the right places. I had no idea if I was glopping anything where it shouldn’t go, etc.

I wanted to keep the focus on the gold breastplate, so made a very simple base; a dark stone slab with edge highlighting as if to indicate the cleric’s space was holy or hallowed.