First, a Reaper Efreet (03322: Efreeti Emir). I wasn't in the mood for anything fancy, and I enjoy painting elemental types, so decided to just do him as though he and everything he had was all made of fire. Red base, then sloppy "dry" brushing over with orange, then mid range yellow and then a lighter yellow, with a second pass over the armor, face and hair to help it pop more. Base hit with some black to contrast and maybe give the impression of cinders or something.
Also knocked out some Gnolls that I had gotten as a lot on ebay a while back. I think that most are Chainmail figures, with one guy in the back being some kind of Chronopia wolf-guy, but close enough to a Gnoll for me. Very sloppy job, but I think it works out OK for them. Brown base, goldenrod yellow sloppy brushed on the skin/fur, a little metal brushed over the armor parts, eyes/tongue/teeth done and finished. The defined muscles and features and all the fur lent itself very well to drybrushing type work, and they went very fast. The brown/metals give a bit of a rusted/neglected look that I think fits most D&D humanoids. If I wanted to really polish them off a wash or two or some kind of brushing over the mono-layer brown parts, and maybe add some hyena-like spots, but for occasional RPG use I think they're fine as they are. Definitely better than just black primer!
Gnolls are probably one of my favorite D&D humanoids. A bit different from the standard Orcs, Goblins, and Ogres. Might not feel right for giant armies, but great for raiding parties and more unusual stuff. Tougher than the average humanoid, cool hyena theme and they even rate their own demon prince, Yeenoghu, who also is linked to Ghouls, one of the cooler undead. Combined it gives you a good complete package - Gnoll fodder (but tough fodder) led by EHPs (Evil High Priest(ess)) of Yeenoghu with a bunch of Ghouls as backup, with demons on standby for when the PCs get to higher levels. You could run through a whole campaign just working your way up the Gnoll ladder.
Funny, when I saw this post listed on BoLS I thought of the Chainmail Gnolls as some of the best ones ever made. And here they are. You have quite a few there even. Maybe you are like me and have the entire Chainmail sets 1 & 2 for all factions. After that they were never in any of my FLGS but there were still some great looking models in those other sets.
ReplyDeleteI like a lot of the Chainmail figs, but didn't get many while they were in production. Got a few singles here and there, and then these Gnolls via ebay. I agree that they're the best looking ones, and if I had gotten into Chainmail they're most likely the group I would have gone with.
ReplyDeleteI always liked Gnolls as well. Did they have any relation to bugbears? Cool miniatures, I don't think the paint job looks too sloppy either... many times better than primer black, for sure! And the Efreet looks like a fun miniature to paint, well done.
ReplyDeleteNice gnolls man!
ReplyDeleteLook pretty nice ;D
@Papa JJ - No, IIRC Bugbears are somehow part of the whole Goblinoid family, along with Goblins and Hobgoblins.
ReplyDeleteGlad folks like the Gnolls! The speed with which I was able to knock them out has encouraged me; I may try to do something similar with other groups of similar unpainted figs I have that only require simple paintjobs, like some of the LotR boxes.
The efreet looks cool, but you've painted the fire backwards. Fire is hotter at the core, and cools as it gets further out (duh). White to yellow to orange to red as you move outwards gives a true fire look. you've got red to orange to yellow instead. Just a tip for the future. GW painting references the backwards painting a lot, and it looks fine until you actually see fire done the right way. It makes a world of difference.
ReplyDeleteThe Gnolls are cool. I ended up with 6 of the flail Gnolls, and they are awesome model I use for a few different things in different games. They make a nice unit of Wnedigo to spring on players in a Wargods campaign, for instance.
Yes, the fire is backwards, but for a 3-d figure I like it better that way with the lighter/brighter colors on top. Going yellow-red steals some of the depth. Image trumps physics for me. ;-)
ReplyDelete