Tag: monsters

Grenadier Action Art 8002: Monsters, Thief Assassin and Drow Captain

Part of the haul of minis that my friend Amanda gave me a couple years ago was a complete set of Action Art figures. The Painting Guide was even included. I’ve started working through that set lately, and this Thief Assassin and Drow Captain are the first ones to completion.

I’ve painted the thief as recommended in the Guide, and I really like the result. I was expecting garish color combinations, but this one turned out well I think.  He is quite small, even compared to other Grenadier human minis of the time. The base he is standing on is 1” across. So he is only a little more than an inch tall.

The Drow captain I’m not as crazy about.  Again, I stuck to the recommended colors, as I will with most of the minis from this set. But the drow’s armor is not well sculpted, and it merges with the dangling cords of his belt. As with many of these old minis, there’s no telling what the helm ornament is supposed to be.  The guide said to make it white, which I couldn’t really wrap my head around so I just kept it metal.  It looks to me like some elephant-like head. I’d like to have a collection of Drow minis all painted up in case I ever get the chance to run the Drow and Queen parts of the AD&D “G-D-Q” adventures (the G is for Giants.)

More from this set to follow over the next few weeks.

Grenadier Vampire

Another of the right-hand-raised undead from the Monsters box set.  White, black, and red are probably the hardest colors to paint well.  The shading is so sensitive; white is had to avoid making muddy, black is hard to make not look gray, and red is hard not to make orange or pink.  So this guy took some work, and obviously I still need practice.

Grenadier Lich

Nearly done with the undead from the Grenadier Monsters box set.  Right hand raised?  Check.

It took three tries to get this guy done.  I originally had him black but didn’t like it so stripped him back down and tried red.  I didn’t like that, either, so I stripped him down again.  Then, my friend Mike over at Swords and Dorkery, painted this mini in purple, which looked great, so I did likewise.  Hopefully Mike will remember that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery…

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!