Return to Hyboria - now with added polycephaly!

[Westfalia Chris]

Great job - any ideas where I might pick up some of the old grenadier minis?

I got mine from EM-4. Some of those are out of stock, especially cavalry, but apart from that, quality and service are first class.

http://www.em4miniatures.com/

[Dolmot]

Got a strange virus warning when on the Mirliton site looking at their mulleted madmen!

I've heard this a few times now, but I just can't find anything dubious in the source code of Mirliton pages. Was it possibly "Trojan.JS.Redirector.ar"? At least Kaspersky, G-Data and F-Secure have currently a bug showing this as a false alarm on a variety of sites.

[Thantsants]

Yeah - there doesn't appear to be anything nasty on my computer - the message that flashed up said something about scanning my computer for me - being a complete luddite I closed it all down too quick to investigate further!

 >:(I'm with the Cimmerians when it comes to technology!

[pauld]

Because I'm a sucker for muscle bound, clothing challenged Barbarians (R E Howard and Marvel have a lot to answer for) I'll keep the thread going.

Chris's painting (and photography) skills knock mine into a cocked hat but just to prove Mr. Copplestone's mini works of art look good with even a slap dash job .... I present Conan and (Blue) Sonja



Sonja is actually a clix Supergirl with a quick repaint and a sword, scabbard and buckler added from the bits box - I think she worked out rather well.

[Gluteus Maximus]

Very impressive conversion. She certainly looks right for a Hyborian adventuress 

Your Conan's not too shabby either - I'd be happy if my painting was as good as that.

[Westfalia Chris]

Now for a thing that isn't really Howardesque, but then again, there are so many cthulhoid horrors in the stories that a little (see below) polycephalic snake won't hurt.

Enough rambling - I got myself one of Scotia Grendel's resin and metal Hydras. This is a frickin' beast - more than 8 inches long, some 5-6 inches tall, and weighs more than a kilogram. The body is a single-piece resin casting, to which metal necks are attached. Four of the necks have integral heads, three heads can be chosen from a selection of six. These of course require some putty to hide the joins, as is the case with the body-neck joints; some sculpting to make it match the scales and manes (I don't quite get why a snake should have hair that would put Van Halen in their prime to shame).

Painting was done to resemble "real-life" snake patterns so as to reduce the "fantasy flair" of the model; a Revell Ochre base over a white spraypaint undercoat, washed with a mix of reddish browns and bronze, then drybrushed. Dark areas are Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber with a bit of black mixed in and washed in VGC Black; the white scales were individually painted using a mix of VMC Sunny Skin and VMC Pure White. Horns and teeth to match with greenish brown, lightened up a bit. To reduce the manes' effect, I painted them the same dark colour of the back scales.







That's it pretty much. The base measures 16.5cm (6 3/5") in diameter; the figure is one of the previously-featured barbarians. Hope to do some better pictures later on.

[Operator5]

OMG!!!!
 


That is awesome! I love the snake pattern. I'm assuming that you painted the individual scales for it.

[Steve F]

I don't quite get while a snake should have hair that would put Van Halen in their prime to shame.

Seven heads?  Perfectly normal.  But hair?  Oh, no! 

A beautiful piece of work.

[Thantsants]

Superb - and to think I'd got excited at the old citadel hydra which is tiny in comparison!
I seem to remember that one being hairy too!

[Westfalia Chris]

That is awesome! I love the snake pattern. I'm assuming that you painted the individual scales for it.

Even though I risk diminishing my market value, I only painted the white scales per hand. To quote myself:

Painting was done to resemble "real-life" snake patterns so as to reduce the "fantasy flair" of the model; a Revell Ochre base over a white spraypaint undercoat, washed with a mix of reddish browns and bronze, then drybrushed. Dark areas are Vallejo Panzer Aces Dark Rubber with a bit of black mixed in and washed in VGC Black; the white scales were individually painted using a mix of VMC Sunny Skin and VMC Pure White.

I chose this approach after discarding my original plan of actually highlighting each scale from hand after seeing how many there were on the model... But the white ones really worked out, since I could use the ochre as the darkest part of them, and it's looking fine now.

[rob_the_robgoblin]

THAT IS FRICKIN AWESOME!

I really like that mate, might have to buy one myself that's so damned cool! 

[assi]

You Sir, are a dangerous dangerous Man, with dangerous dangerous Ideas..

*must...have...Hydra...too* *argh*

[Driscoles]

from the painted stuff  I saw from you this is the best !

[pauld]

Quite superb

[Doomhippie]

Chris, this is annoyingly good - or should I say superb? I'm really envious now.