Greetings Terrans, a bit of a strange post today – a sombre affair in many ways. As you probably know, I’ve been working my way through my existing mountain of minis over the last year or so, trying (and mostly succeeding) in not buying anything new… (or more importantly, in not buying any oldhammer goodies from ebay). Instead I have been picking things out to suit projects that have had me excited, or occasionally painting something I just fancied painting!

Last month, I found a gorgeous fan-sculpt of an undead version of Jes Goodwin’s famous Hrothyogg Ogre Captain from 1986, (itself inspired by a Blanche piece I think). Now I don’t recall the exact circumstances of me getting the undead version – I suspect it came up in the OldHammer group, but I confess, I don’t remember for sure… What I do know is that it screamed out to be painted & here’s the result:

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Now for the poignant bit. I went looking back through the story behind this mini, knowing that I would want to do a good job in this post. I learned that the guy who sculpted it was called Justin Coutange, and sadly, that he passed away back in 2019. It sounds like he was a similar age to me, and while I didn’t know him personally, he sounds like my kind of guy. It made painting this mini much more of a reflective experience than it usually is for me – enjoyable as a painting project, but more melancholic perhaps… it was an absolute privilege to paint.

There are some very nice words on Justin here if anyone wants to check it out.