Been busy, but actually used my time wisely...

Been pretty busy since my last post. We moved from the suburbs to the City, drove down to Austin, Texas for a week’s vacation and started new jobs.  Living in Chicago is great, so much to see and do. I also like the fact that I can walk to the grocery store, liquor store, library and restaurant. Did I mention there is also a small brewery about four blocks away? Just too good to be true!

I did manage to finish three Scotia Grendel Dungeon Creatures since the move. I picked them up sometime in the 90’s (I think?). They’ve been primed/painted/stripped several times. I wanted to paint something fantasy based but am trying to steer away from the really small stuff. They’re cast in a grey resin, surprisingly well detailed and even though they’re game based pieces, they’re not tiny.  Their latest paint job had been at the hand of my son when he was maybe six or seven. I put them in a zip-lock of Purple-Power All-Purpose Cleaner and once stripped of paint, primed them with flat black and started painting.

Once I got into a painting groove, each creature only took me a night or two to complete. I then used JB Weld two-part epoxy to attach them to a small section of finished oak and went to town on the groundwork. I think they turned out pretty good.

  

I also tackled a Scotia Grendel "Lesser Goblin Horde". I bought this around the same time that I bought the three Dungeon Creatures and its nothing but a big-chunk-of-resin. Like the creatures, it had a few false starts followed by a numerous baths in oven cleaner. Anyhow, I finally decided to give it a go. 

To be honest, it was a pain-in-the-ass to paint. The shields weren't too bad (just a freakin' ton of them!), but the goblins drove me crazy. They're everywhere and some are sculpted well and others are half-assed. At first, I was going to paint them green, just like everyone else does. This is the Games Workshop influence on goblin painting. I got real geeky and Googled "goblins" and was rewarded (odd term, but it works) with images from GW and "Lord of the Rings" (LOTR).  The LOTR goblins looked just right: disgustingly putrid. 

The GW goblins look clownish, I wanted something that would reflect the goblins true nature—sneaky, cowardly and prone to bouts of excessive theft. Now, it’s impossible to portray these attributes with paint, but the flesh-like colors I used did a better job than green (or something like that).  The kit came with a couple of spears and swords that were intended to be sticking out of the mass. Of course I misplaced them, so I had to come up with something to fill the holes. One is a banner made from plastic rod, wire and lead foil and the other is just a piece of plastic rod fashioned to resemble a sharp stick. I’m not 100% happy with the way the paint job on the banner came out — I may go back and redo it. 

I put it on a base, used tile grout/adhesive for the groundwork, covered that with fine sand, added sections of dilapidated fence plus some dried plants and it was done. Now on to other things...

RJH

10.2.13