Monday, February 1, 2016

'Defensive Terrain' from BillA - 'There's Gold in That There Monster!'


I was originally going to skip this bonus round, as I was feeling pretty stumped and didn't want to do a foxhole, a series of pavises (pavisi?) or a trench section.  I mentioned this to my better half, and she commented, "Well, what about like a stone golem? Would that count?" And then the hamster started running on his little wheel in my head.  What if the terrain itself was on the defensive? We looked at miniatures together, and I went gaga over this Earth Elemental from Reaper's Bones line.  I started looking a little bit at a group of crossbowmen or maybe some dwarves with hammers to be attacking the Elemental.


While I was at work, Gina bought the Earth Elemental, and since she didn't really like the dwarves she was seeing, went looking for other options, stumbling across a three-pack of Zombie Miners in Reaper's Chronoscope line.  Perfect! When I got home, she told me what she'd ordered and I, deciding the Miners needed a directing force, went looking for a western witch to command them, settling on the "Wichita Witch" from Reaper's Savage Worlds (Deadlands) line.  I don't know much about Deadlands, so I don't know if she actually is a spellcaster or not by canon, but to me she is.


The Elemental I painted with layers of beige drybrushing to give him a sandstone look, then picked out the crystalline-looking bits as quartz (they have a little bit of a shimmer in person from drybrushing grays and white over silver) and painted a few of the little rock nuggets as gold.

insert your own joke about his Butte.
The zombies got chalky gray skin and a fairly limited palette for clothing to keep them looking kind of unified.  I like how the guy with the shovel looks like a slimmed down Tor Johnson from PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE.  The witch got a very simple paint job based on what you could expect from a "black hat" villain in an old western movie - though the Elemental is a far cry from Roy Rogers!





Forgive the lack of a detailed diorama base with everyone on it - Conception to completion on this project was less than a week! With that kind of pressure maybe I should have put some diamonds on the Elemental...

11 comments:

  1. That's awesome! Hmmmm. That big crusty dude would look good in my Dwarf army. Thanks for showing me this rockin dude. :)
    Nice posse as well. Cowboy Zombie slaves and a witch....legends of the wild west indeed. Cool. We have had 'Aliens vs Cowboys' now it's time for 'Zombies vs Cowboys' Cheers

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  2. I love the crystals and nuggets!

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  3. I love the idea of the terrain being on the defensive, top work

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  4. That golem is very well done! I like the details you picked out on him too.
    Your wife had a good call on the zombie miners as well!

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  5. Really excellent... I love the imagination. A great idea, and right within the spirit of the bonus theme - well done!

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  6. Nice work! I almost did something very similar, but lacked time.

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  7. great article
    https://Paintbynumbershome.com

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