Greetings Terrans, I have another brace of heroes from the Cursed City game to share this week, but before we get to that I want to let you all know that I will NOT be running Fembruary this year. I’m juggling too much at the moment, with work, studies, family, home renovations, hobby and fitness all competing for my attention, and honestly I just do not have the bandwidth to coordinate another thing at the moment. That said, please do go and paint some fantastic female figures from your collections & tag them as Fembruary! I will be doing the same, but I just don’t have time to do all the wrap-up work at the end of it all. Maybe it’s time Fembruary just ‘was’ rather than it be something led and curated, but that’s for another day – key thing now is please do go for it, but don’t expect me to do an end-of-month summary 😊

Right, back to the Cursed City, and a pair of balanced characters that look equally effective at range as they are in melee. First up, it’s ‘Jelsen Darrock’:

First things first, let me get the whole ‘Can you smell what Darrock’s cookin’?’ guff out of the way. There is no way that is ever getting old in my immature little mind, so I just need to get it out there & move on. Second things second, what a model… Jelsen is an absolute cracker of a mini with a great pose, a lovely level of detail, and a real understated quality to him. I think this is another one of the top tier of minis from the set, and was a joy to paint. As with the Dorf, I’ve corroded the metal to imply entropy and decay, while the leather is worn and cracked. The overall feeling is one of the character being worn and tired, but still ruthlessly effective and dangerous.

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Next up is the rather fabulously named ‘Glaurio Ven Alten III’:

He cuts a fine figure, striding forward with his pistol drawn & hand resting on his sabre – again, another top-tier mini in my opinion. I wanted Glaurio to look quite grand, even if that grandeur is somewhat faded & tired looking. I gave him a slightly darker skin tone to imply a touch of the exotic, and I picked out his jewellery & buttons in gold to really push that angle, (although the more mundane metals still show corrosion & wear). I think the mirror is a nice touch, and I loosely painted a hint of reflection in there. As a side note, this is another mini that I would like to bring into the 40k universe – he’s crying out for a las pistol & pith helmet if you ask me!

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Anyway, that’s it for another week – next post will be the final two heroes & then Cursed City is done. Laters Potaters

Greetings Terrans, how goes it? I have another brace of heroes from the Cursed City game to show you this evening. Again, these kinda-sorta follow well established dungeon crawling tropes, with both of these being solid support-type characters.

First up, the Dwardin, the Duandin, the bloody DWARF Dagnai Holdenstock:

I really wasn’t looking forward to painting this Steampunk Dorf, but boy, did I misjudge – this stocky little bugger was a joy and a pleasure to paint! There are loads of fun little details to pick out, but nothing that was too tricky or irritating. I’m really happy with the colour scheme, and I enjoyed the chance to paint that glass flask on his back-pack furnace thingy. I also tarnished up a lot of the metal – not very Dwarven perhaps, but I want to suggest that a) Dagnai has been adventurin’ for a good long while, and b) the Cursed City takes its toll on everything…

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Next up the Alf, the Aeilf, the shitting ELF Qualthis the Exile:

This was a really nice mini to paint up, though the model itself was a pain in the bum to handle – I managed to snap her off at the foot, so that had to be pinned and repaired before I could do anything. Once I actually got down to the painting, I knew I wanted to do something different to the standard Elven-green studio paint job. I remembered reading something somewhere about using a seasonal palette to set different tones for elves, so I went more Autumnal in my choice of colours & tones. I also stuck with gold for the metals, and, unlike the Dwarf, I didn’t use corrosion to suggest decay. Instead, I rely on the naturalistic Autumn tones to get the same message across, and I’m really pleased with how she came out.

And that’s it for another post – we’re on the home stretch with this project now, and I hope to catch you all next week for the penultimate Cursed City post 😊

Greetings Terrans, and Happy Arbitrary Commencement of a New Planetary Orbit of Sol! I hope you are all happy & healthy, and that you had a good break & relaxation time. I certainly did – probably ate too much, but certainly no regrets 😊

I did manage to get through the remainder of the Cursed City minis in fairly short order, but I’m going to drip-feed you the pics because I’m anticipating a busy time & a corresponding lack of blog material in the coming weeks… I’m deliberately keeping my powder dry so to speak, and no big end of year recap from me either this year – I’m just too damn busy!

So, without further waffle, let’s get stuck into the Heroes of the set. They all fall in to classic RPG tropes, so for no particular reason, let’s get started with the Clericy/Wizardy-types.

First up, it’s ‘Cleona Zeitengale’:

Cleona’s a funny old model – having both arms outstretched makes her a bugger to photograph, and that strange doofy on the back is just weird and awkward… So awkward in fact that I, (unusually for me), actually painted her in sub-assemblies just so I could do a tidy job of it. Also, annoyingly, one of the dangly doo-dabs on her headdress broke off during the build, and was soooo fiddly that it couldn’t be fixed… I just trimmed the other one off to match.

I followed the studio scheme fairly closely, albeit with different colours, and I’m pretty pleased with how she came out. I didn’t bother with the runes on the back-ribbons, but I did have some fun with the orb on the staff, and with a spot of magic glow on her left hand. All in all, a nice mini to paint, even if she is a bit awkward.

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Next up, it’s ‘Octren Glimscry’:

Octren is another strange mini – the long swooshy beard is just a bit OTT for my taste, to the point where I really toyed with the idea of trimming it! In the end I stuck with the model as-is, though I’m not sure how durable that impressive facial hair will be, overhanging the base as it does!

Again, I kinda stuck with the studio paint scheme, but went a darker, grittier feel. The main departure from the ‘official’ scheme was to use gold to make it very obvious that the ‘face’ is actually a mask, and the use of a darker tone of skin, (the closeness of skin tone & mask colour really bothers me on the studio version, so I was keen to not make the same ‘mistake’). A bit of fancy painting for the orb on the end of the staff finishes the look for a very enjoyable paint job… I liked painting this guy so much that I’m keen to do a 40k version of Octren… Replacing that beard with some cabling, and making the staff a bit more techy would make for a superb Administratum character I reckon.

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Anyway, that’s your lot for today – bugger off but do swing by next week and I’ll have another couple of heroes to share 😊

Stay safe, Happy New Year, and catch you all soon.