Monthly Archives: May 2015

From the Painting Desk #13 – How Should I Paint this C23 Ogre Shaman?

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This weekend I finally knuckled down and finished the C23 Ogre Mercenary with 2-hander who I’d been staring at for the last couple of months. He’s outside having the varnish dry in the sun. So far, so good. I’ll get some pics of him and his unit this coming week and show them off then. With him down, the next part-painted-aeons-ago Ogre steps into the front rank of stuff to get finished soon.

This guy:

C23 Ogre Warrior Priest/Shaman

C23 Ogre Warrior Priest/Shaman

I think the reason this guy has been in the “stuck” file is because I just can’t figure out what colours to use for him. I’d originally given him a purple skirt with the intention of painting some stars and moons and pentagrams, etc on it – which I think is based on mis-remembering the first time I saw him painted, which was probably the figure pictured in this White Dwarf advertisement from 1989. Orclord of SoL fame also has a nicely painted example in his personal collection.

So what of this guy? Well, the purple robe would have worked better is his outfit was a onesie, but he’s got that fur-cuffed vest as well, so that means we need something else as well. I’m thinking dirty grey-white hair to give him a sense of age and authority. His pauldron could either be worn steel, “coloured” metal, as in the Chaos Ogre from the berserker unit this guy will be inspiring/attached to, or a bright, enamelled red as worn by the one member of Olley’s Ogres. It all depends on how much I decide to make it “pop” as both former solutions are much more subtle and low-key than the latter, and this guy is, after all, a Character in the army.

I’ll clean up the chestnut browns on his boots and arm wrapping, go with my typical bone effect for the warhammer-head, and go with contrasting browns for his pouches and belts, but ultimately it’s the skirt and vest that have got me stuck.

My Ogre force does not have “army colours” as many of my other armies will and do. Some units will have their own heraldry (or just a dominant colour) but nothing across the whole army, which I see as a collection of individuals from a number of tribes.

I could go with strong reds to make him stand out on the battlefield? Keep the purple and give it the patterns I thought of originally? (But what of the vest?) Copy Orclord’s scheme? Something completely different? I really don’t know, which is why I’m posting this here and on a forum I frequent, so I can see if I can get some feedback that will inspire me enough to get this guy finished – and to take less than three months to actually get it done.

Celtos: Fir Bolg – Skeleton Spearmen

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Celtos Fir Bolg Skeleton Spearmen

I picked up this pair of Skeleton Spearmen recently via eBay, paired with some Rackham Ghouls. They were reasonably priced and looked nice enough, and I was buying other stuff from the same seller, and I’m building an undead army, so why not?

The one with the helmet had a spike atop his headgear which I thought looked a bit crappy, so out came the clippers and it was a problem of the past. The same fellow also had what I initially assumed was a kind of banded mail but turned out to be somewhat unconvincingly-sculpted ribs. His radius was also way-oversized, with a tiny ulna to match. I decided to cover up these issues by painting both as bone-themed iron armour – the ribs as the banded mail I thought they were in the first place, and the entire right forearm as a bracer. His mate had much more sensibly-sculpted proportions, so they were all left as bone. I painted the pair in the Undead Army’s themed colours – Black and Red with (obviously) Bone, worn metal equipment with worn brass/verdigris-blue-green accents.

Celtos Fir Bolg Skeleton Spearmen

Nice enough figures bought for about AU$2.50 each. Can’t say no to that! Now I just need to get them 10-22 mates and we’ve got another unit for the table! A bit of research has revealed that they’re from the Fir Bolg range for the Celtos Miniatures Game. The tabs of these models had “I-Kore” on them, and so apparently Celtos was originally created by I-Kore, and later sold to Urban Mammoth and later on-sold again to Brigade Models who currently own the game.

Parts of that range seem to have a strong influence from Chronopia, but I’m more interested in sticking to these (Irish, apparently) Skeletons. I might grab some more, now that I know where to get them. I’ve got a soft spot for metal skeletons for some reason. They’re almost like the perfect things for me to paint at work. Might be a few other things for me to pick up as I scour through their range. I better get onto them before they’re sold again or disappear completely!