Well, I sure fucked that one up the other day – accidently hitting “publish” instead of save while working through my edits in advance. Here it is now “officially”, I guess!

My second submission for Monster MAYhem, over at Dead Dick’s Tavern and Temporary Lodging, is this Nolzur’s model I picked up recently. An Umber Hulk. I did pick this one up due to it’s very direct lineage to the venerable 40k monster, the Ambull – the original model of being one that I still sadly lack. I’ve seen some modern resculpts of it. I wonder if there’s an old-school STL design of it out there that I could get hold of to have printed?

This was a very simple paintjob. After basing, Reaper’s HD Golden Brown was the base coat, which I then drybrushed in a few different directions with browns into both greens and tans before picking out the claws and then going over the lot with Army Painter’s Strong Tone on the outer and Soft Tone on the inner. Eyes black, spray varnish, and then some GSW Colour Shift paints on the smaller, insect eyes and done!

An unlikely duo fight off The Dreaded Ambull… Umber Hulk

Honestly, the basing (glue down, acrylic paste, slate, dry time, PVA & sand, drying, paint black, drying, then drybruhsing) took a hell of a lot longer than the actual model painting, which took maybe an hour (with breaks). I did notice while looking at this model how much Umber Hulks (and Ambulls) for that matter have changed in their design over the years, but then when you think about it for even a moment it all does make sense. I mean, what does “a beetle” look like exactly? Or “a dog”? Or even “a human?” So yeah, variation in size, colour, shape, length & proportion of various bits… it all makes sense if you look at these (or many fantasy creatures) as though they were natural beings with all of those elements being variable.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this one, and hopefully I’ll have more monsters done and able to be shared shortly….