Something gribbly this way comes

As part of my whole plan to get more of my vast collection of plastic painted in a short timeframe, I got a few interesting monsters painted up ready for use in D&D or Frostgrave (or anything else really...) 

These were just some fairly random monsters that I'd bought over time with the expectation that they would be useful at some point - I expect a few of them will be turning up in my current D&D campaign (don't tell the players!) 

Hydra

First up is the Hydra from Reaper Bones. I had been wanting to paint up a Hydra for a while but struggled to decide which one to get... I backed a kickstarter with a wonderful Hydra model in it (to be in a future post), but until that one turned up I decided to grab this beast and give it a go. As with all the Reaper Bones stuff, it was cheap as chips (less than 20 quid for a huge model), and surprisingly well detailed. The soft Bones plastic makes less of a difference with this larger model where the pieces are thicker. Overall, great model. 

I decided this hydra would be green, with the next one being something slightly different. Painted with Contrast paints, undercoated black and then Grey Seer, the underside was painted with Skeleton Horde while the main body was painted Militarum Green. The thing I particularly liked was the effect on the spines and top scales. I painted the spines in Iron Warrior to make them metallic (it is a magical beast after all), and then used Cryptek Armourshade Gloss over those silver spines and the green scales immediately underneath. I think that gave a really interesting transition from the green scales up to the spines, make the top of the beast look heavily armoured, and was quick and effective to do. The only thing I forgot before taking the photo was pupils in the eyes!  

Owlbear

The Owlbear feels like one of those classic D&D monsters that you have to fight one day! This one is from Nolzur's Marvellous Miniatures and is a great model with a load of character and nice detailing. Again, it was all primarily Contrast paints and I knew I wanted a nice pale owl breast, dark brown bear fur and dark blue feathers on top. After using Leviadon Blue on the feathers, my wife convinced me that they needed to be a bit more blue, so a couple of lighter drybrushes made them stand out a bit more. I was happy that the blue shows a bit of sheen but isn't dramatically contrasting with the brown fur. 

Umber Hulk

Another classic D&D monster from the Nolzur's range. I feel like I might need to get some more of these in the future once I find some good alternative poses - I have good memories of fighting a group of these in an underground section of one of the Baldur's Gate games, so I think just one won't be enough. But it's a start! 

I wanted this one to be interesting and didn't just want to make it brown all over, so my wife (she's a good painting adviser!) suggested doing the shell like a pale crab. I was really pleased with how it came out, with the fleshy bits underneath looking nice and warm with the dirty, pockmarked shell on top. I'm looking forward to getting some other Umber Hulks in the future.   

Purple Worm

Purple Worms are great D&D monsters and are the basis for one of the Frostgrave scenarios. This particular model is a Devouring Eel from Wyrd Miniatures game, The Other Side (I've played Malifaux in the past but not this newer game). The models are really nice, but for some reason the plastic used on these Other Side miniatures is the softer kind, not the same as the hard plastic Malifaux models - but they come all in one piece. Maybe it's to make it easier for beginners? Anyway, I do find the soft plastic trend annoying, but this model does look great, and once I stuck it down the base and glue some of the curling bits of the body together it was much more stable. I did have to put a couple of pennies uncer the base to keep it from tipping over, but that's largely because I didn't want to use a bigger base for it. 

This was a nice quick paint job and I decided to go a bit weird and contrasting with the blue spikes / teeth and green tongue - this was purely so they would stand out against the colours I had painted the body, but I think they were really nicely and highlight the unusual nature of the beast. 

I've got a number of other beasts that I've painted or are waiting to be painted - my goal is to have a big box full of all sorts of monsters so that most scenarios in a D&D game can be catered for with the right model, or at least a close approximation.