D&D Monster Manual 13: Castle Ravenloft Flesh Golem & Oldhammer Skeleton “Hellblade” – Diabolical December ’18 meats Deadcember.

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Oldhammer Undead Skeleton Hellblade Undead Chariot Crew, D&D Dungeons and Dragons Castle Ravenloft Flesh Golem

Recently, I was reading one of Alex’ posts over at Leadbaloony where he noted that he was going to try and paint up something for Deadcember. (Though nothing in months for these challenges anymore.. sniff 😢). Anyway, I decided to see what Deadcember actually was. Or is. I mean, I can guess, but it’s always good to have a proper look around. It seems to be predominantly a weightlifting thing, where weight enthusiasts do a lot of deadlifting …but a few google ranks down, also a painting challenge that has run for several years, though I couldn’t really find a central “hub” for it, despite a few blogs participating over the last couple of years along with mentions/threads over on Lead Adventure and the Oldhammer forums.

Oldhammer Undead Skeleton Hellblade Undead Chariot Crew

Hooray! Exclaimed Hellblade the Skellington.

Oldhammer Undead Skeleton Hellblade Undead Chariot Crew

So simple then, from what I saw. Paint some undead. As it happened most conveniently, I had this skellington on my desk. Known as “Hellblade”, and originally one of the five interchangeable crew from the classic metal Undead Chariot. He had been sitting around, part painted and unloved for some time. Years in fact. I know I rebased him a few years ago, and there had been some repainting involved. So yesterday I re-repainted his bone cloaks into the red of the current Undead Army, did all of the necessary highlighting to his bones and black robes, and then hit the shield with some freehanding, and he was done. So after an hour or two, easy as that, a model that had sat around ignored for literally years was done. This is why I started doing these challenges, and also why I’ll try to tack on anyone else’s challenges that I happen to see that aren’t those “start-to-finish” ones that just leave me with more half-painted figures.

D&D Dungeons and Dragons Castle Ravenloft Flesh Golem

D&D Dungeons and Dragons Castle Ravenloft Flesh Golem

So, with Mister Hellblade the Skellington done, I looked around the table for something else that was achievable. The Flesh Golem was there. That bloody Flesh Golem from the Castle Ravenloft D&D boardgame that Marouda, Pyro and Orez played through back in 2012-3 or so, which is why I’ve (badly) sculpted flagstones onto his base. Yeah, he’s been sitting around for a long time, too. Mediocre story short, I also knuckled down and got him completed as well. Done.

This isn’t the last of 2018’s models to show. There’s still a couple more to go, but they shall have to hit the page in the opening days of next year!

And on that note, as it’s getting to the business end of New Year’s Evening here, I wish you all the best for the remains of 2018, and the best for 2019. I’ll see you on the other side!

31 thoughts on “D&D Monster Manual 13: Castle Ravenloft Flesh Golem & Oldhammer Skeleton “Hellblade” – Diabolical December ’18 meats Deadcember.”

  1. I totally forgot about all these minis, we have all 3 of those dungeon crawler D&D games and they have some wicked models in those. I’ve painted almost non of my board game minis. I should set aside some time to trying to make an impact on those. This Golem looks really great and makes me want to try and get some work done on them

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    • Yeah, I’ve now painted most (I think) of the Ravenloft models, sans the PCs, which I thought were pretty sub-par. I still need to get the big Dracolich finished after so many years. Maybe I can add him to the January Centrepiece targets…

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    • I was going to say. I thought that came out really nicely.

      The Skellie looks really cheerful. If I had one, and an Undead BB team, I’d be very tempted to swap out its sword and shield for pom-poms and use it as a chearleader!

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    • Thank you. I just painted it onto the other Ravenloft models, but that wasn’t going to fly on a base as large as this one. The game tiles have this same style of almost-random flagstones on them, so that’s what I was trying to ape here.

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  6. Brilliant mate, love the skellibob, and that Golem is brilliant! Sorry for being a bit lame with your challenges dude – the Wolf Time has had me in its jaws for much of the year, and this will continue well into next. I think Not-Gash qualifies for you December challange though, so I’d be delighted if I can submit him 🙂

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    • I’ll gladly add him in Alex. You could squeeze a lot of your other stuff in through the various monthly caveats if you liked and they have any chance of helping you motivate. Orktober, Squads, minor heroes and whatnot! 🙂

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  11. I really like your flesh golem, especially all the staples and the steel band around his head. I’m painting a Reaper version right now that is similar. The detail isn’t as robust but I still wouldn’t give him a hard time if I caught him poking around in my trash can. Know what I mean?

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  12. Very nice. Funny, at first pic I liked the Golem better. But after noting the freehand on the shield, I’m going with the Skeleton. Probably doesn’t help that he was ‘stuck in the shadow’ of the golem in the first pic. I also really like the flagstone base on the golem. Probably one of my favorite parts.

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  13. Beautiful work! I heartily admire the attention to detail on both of these. The skull on the shield is wonderful, but also the details in the muscles on the left arm of the flesh golem are fantastic.

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  14. Pingback: D&D Monster Manual 14: Castle Ravenloft Dracoliche (#Monstermarch3 ’19, Gender-Ambiguous March ’19) | Azazel's Bitz Box.

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