A Talisman Adventure

[Spooktalker]

I have fond memories of Talisman, having owned the 2nd edition since my youth and having also played a fair number of 3rd edition games. There is some elusive quality inherent more in the illustrations and presentation than the actual game experience that has captured my imagination all these years, and driven me to tinker, over the course of the decade and more, on a design of a game that bears no resemblance, mechanically, to Talisman, but attempts to deliver on the sweet promise that the game seemed to make to me all those years ago.

Hopefully more on that later, but in the meantime I'll just note that that is mainly the purpose I intend to put these figures to, more than playing actual games of Talisman with them (though I am also half-heatedly wearing down the resistance of those around me to consent to a a game or two of Talisman itself as well).

On to a few words about the figures. These are all sculpted by Aly Morrison, best known as the Marauder Miniatures principal, after illustrations by Gary Chalk. I'm unabashed in my enthusiasm for both. It's interesting to have the opportunity in the later editions to compare the experience with Gary Chalk to without. I was actually surprised at the time, back when I played the 3rd edition as a teenager, that I enjoyed it as much as I did, as I might otherwise be telling you now that Gary Chalk illustrations represent some 90% or more of what Talisman "is" to me. Instead, I know that's not entirely true, but still these illustrations, and the character illustrations in particular, made and make a huge impact on me and my "fantasy ideal," or whatever I should call it.

On to the figures...

Sorceress:







Barbarian:









A few notes about the painting. I used some black and brown stippling on the sorceress to capture a bit of the pen and ink feel of the illustration as well as the rough quality of the dress and paper on the staff. The minimal base texture is watered down concrete patch and it was painted quite light and then a heavy wash of ink and matte medium. Believe it or not, on both of these figures the nose was at least fully twice as big as shown here before I carved them down with an exacto knife to better match the figures. I actually like big noses but on both of these they were grotesque-level big and it was hurting my ability to see the card illustration in the figure. The barbarian still has an enormous nose even after the major nose-job operation! Last note, the gold on the barbarian's sword is a new style for me. I painted it very, very bright yellow over white before painting P3 "Sold Gold" (the brightest of the golds they make), and then I put a brown wash for depth and yellow glazes for even stronger color. I'm happy with the result and have used it on a few other figures since.

[Spooktalker]

The prophetess:








She's arguably the most powerful of the characters in the base game and was a favorite choice in my games back in the day.  I'd call her the easy button today. She always has a spell and draws an extra card on any space she lands on and discards one she doesn't want. Especially in the early game this means she can avoid most would-be setbacks such as encountering a dragon before one is ready, while getting double the chances of pulling a great boon like the fountain of wisdom.

I love the sculpt Ally Morrison did here, but the mold line runs right down her center looking straight on, and sculptors should know that a figure loses 25% of the mass along that axis between sculpt and casting. Here it may have been even more; she looked pretty squashed. I used greenstuff to take get her back to normal, adding mass to her cheeks, giving them the flush of health (and some work on the eyes was required too), and her bustle, giving her hips back, and her ball. For this last one I sliced it almost-but-not-quite in twain using an x-acto blade, rocking it back and forth, back and forth. Then with same blade I pried it open so there was a large empty wedge atop, and then I filled that back in with greenstuff. Thus, round again. She also had what I thought was too much hair flowing over the top of her gold band. It just didn't make sense to me and I couldn't get over it. She might pull a lock out as a fashion choice but there is no way either accidentally or intentionally that half her hair would be hanging outside the band. So I carved away and resculpted the hair and band on that side.

This is a good example of the difference between pleasing the judges and pleasing oneself. In some ways painting old figures has freed me up and I'm looser, not as picky about certain things I would spend more time on if it was a commission or for a contest. On the other hand, there are things like this lock of hair that if I was painting if for someone else I would not think twice about, but when it's my figure I'll go all out no matter the cost. With no before-and-after shots, who would know I did it if I didn't tell you? Perhaps only me, but in the end I'm still the hardest to please.

On the painting side I also had a tough standard I wanted to achieve on the blue robes. I don't know why, but I've never seen a cold blue or cold purple in a miniatures paint. The closest I have is Vellejo Ultramarine, but it's a far cry from a tube ultramarine. So I broke out the tube paint. From there I can't recall the steps exactly, but there were some blue and purplish washes and back-and-forth to get the final result.

The gold was done in my new style of underpainting strong yellow and then painting my brightest, gold over, P3 Solid Gold (stirred well, not shaken). Then darker golds shading, brown ink washes and yellow glazes, and finally a few Mithril Silver highlights  (I seem to recall for this particular figure I just liked the gold result early on, though, and there wasn't too much beyond a basic shading and highlighting). The ball was Mithril silver over white and I decided to just go with that way.

The flesh is mostly P3, I think, mostly Midlund Flesh over a bit darker base, then Rynn Flesh highlights, and then old Citadel Elf Flesh or Bleached Bone (can't remember which but it's way lighter than the later incarnations of these).

[Spooktalker]

Ghoul:


 



Thief:


 



 

Dwarf:








Three wonderful figures from the base Talisman set. The thief and the ghoul have similar red and purple color schemes and I will probably use this on other figures. I did the golds on the dwarf dark to light and then glazed with color, as opposed to the bright method I did on the barbarian, in fitting with the differences in the illustrations. The ghoul and thief have significant black lining which may only be visible in the full-size versions of the pics, for example, in the lines of the cloth, face, and the muscles and veins of the ghoul. I also tried an illustration-like black ink shading method on the dwarf axe that I think was successful. I chose to make the ghoul's eyes face forward as I prefer more generic, neutral poses in figures so they can interact more naturally with one another in a game. The thief's flesh is particularly jaundiced to match the illustration, using P3 Thrall Flesh as the made tone.

[fred]

Excellent work - and very faithful renditions of the original line drawings.

[majorsmith]

Brilliant!

[Hobgoblin]

These are astonishingly good! The highlighting on the sorceress's robe is exquisite - and the rest is terrific too!

I played Talisman quite a lot as a kid, though I never owned it. I can't actually recall much about the game (concentric circles? followers?), but it's the Chalk illustrations - and the Morrison miniatures - that stick.

By the way, I've been playing around a bit with your "no highlights" black technique. Did you ever paint up your drow that way?

[Gibby]

Awesome

[beefcake]

I like those very much.

[Dr DeAth]

Jolly Nice

[Jagannath]

These are really great  - the red on the sorceress is really fantastic

[mweaver]

Excellent work on those figures!