Today’s model is another from a miniatures-heavy kickstarter. More specifically, from the people over at Monolith Games, who also brought us the Conan Boardgame, and more recently, Batman (which I ain’t opened yet). I started this one shortly after finishing that Dragon from the Conan Kickstarter, by the same people.

They did a pretty faithful job to the artwork, too.

Funniest thing regarding the artwork and my paintwork – I just googled for and downloaded the artwork now to add to this post so we could see how the model stood up to the concept art. I painted the model without any reference pics – black claws, dark scales, luminous green poison…

I mean, it’s no real stretch to go golden and brown with a lion’s fur and mane. The oversized, Trish Carden/Morrison-style scales (a sculpting trait which I hate, btw) across the model were done in dark red-brown to mesh with the predominant colour of the scorpion tail, which is basically a way to give more interest to something that was going to basically be… not black, but dark. Luminous green for the poison because it contrasts well with the dark red, and because green is RPG shorthand for “poison”. I went with black for the claws to match the black for the wing-talon-spikes, because I felt black would look better on the wings against the tan. I went with a purple mixed with flesh for the wing membranes so they’d stand out and look monstrous, but not quite cartoony-monstrous.

Overall, the model was a pretty nice one to paint, and didn’t take too long for me to get through, when compared to most other monsters. It’s quite a nice sculpt, unlike the dragon and it came mounted on the plastic base, also unlike the dragon – so it seems that Monolith learned some important lessons in between Kickstarter campaigns.

A Deathwatch Space Marine gives us the scale shot.

Speaking of lessons, I’ve got a bit of an unfortunate habit of starting more of the same kinds of models as soon as I finish something like the Skaven that I’ve recently finished and have WIP – picked basically right after I finished the Pestilens models, which is how this model got plucked from a box filled with KS expansion boxes. I mean, I’m happy with this model and how it turned out, but I have decided to stop myself from plucking any further large monsters until I complete the three or four I have on the go already. Yeah. Four.

Anyway, while a few elements aren’t entirely to my taste (the scales, horn shape) it’s overall a pretty good model and I’m glad I got it done. I can easily squeeze a beast like this into a variety of miniatures games, aside from Pantheon. If the rest of the models turn out to be produced this nicely, I’ll be quite happy…