Several months ago, inspired by that dastardly blogger known as Wudugast and his constant showing of his rather spiffing ASOIAF TMG Miniatures, I finally buckled and Marouda and I picked up the (old) Core set featuring armies of York and Lancaster – as well as a few extra force boxes. Off the back of that, we also started watching a niche little TV show you may or may not have heard of called Game of Thrones – which we’d tried to start several years ago but bounced off S01E01 for various reasons. So we’ve started watching that again, pausing at the end of Season 2 (so no spoilers, please) to watch House of the Dragon (no spoilers please, we’re only up to S01E06)
Anyway, that long-winded intro leads us to this post’s models. The Mountain’s Men – the foot soliders of House Clegane’s head villain, Gregor. A shame that outside of a KS-exclusive model, they don’t really look anything like the character from the TV series, instead going with the more “Knightly” look that is somewhat at odds with his brutish characterisation.
If I could find a right-sized close-shorn or bald head I’d be swapping that right in, but the Mountain’s model requires a head that is space marine sized, and all of those appear to have earpieces and ribbing built in – he’s way too big for any of the Stormcast heads I have on hand.
Despite being relatively straightforward, I did get bogged down on these models – it’s a combination of too many straps, them being preassembled with closed poses leading to a bit too much of “what’s that supposed to be?” which just kinda ended up with me painting things that were easier to work on instead of finishing these earlier.
It took Dave Stone’s “Apocalypse Me” challenge and it’s …generous interpretation of “Apocalype” including the War of the Five Kings (I assume there’s some White Walker Undeadpocalypse and/or Dragonpocalypse later – don’t spoil it, though!) for me to drive myself to completing the last four of these guys (the ones with long surcoats) and the Bannerman.
I’m using a different basing scheme for these models to my usual, a more “mid-brown” made up of a giant tub mixed from three different AK modelling pastes so I can try to keep it consistent.
Still, as often happens with difficult models like these, as a completed unit I’m quite happy with them. I do kind of wish I hadn’t picked up another box of them, though since I now need to paint those as well…
I’m probably likely to add a subtle bit of mud spatter to their tabards and long surcoats just as I have to the bottom of their greaves, but I’ll wait until I’ve gotten that second unit of these guys painted, so it can be more consistent across the figures as they will no doubt be mixed between the two sets of models over time.
It does feel pretty good to get my first unit for the game painted – let’s hope it’s just one of many I can get done without it taking a decade! I’ve got one more post for Apocalypse Me to go up (sorry Dave!) so expect that in about 48 hours…
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Fantastic work mate, you’ve done an excellent job on giving them life and individuality especially as there are so many duplicate models in there. I think it’s a wise idea to do all the tabbards at once to make them look like they are on the same battlefield.
As for game of thrones, all I can say is . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . I won’t spoil it for you ! LOL
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Very cool 🤘
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I feel like the mud spatter would be a nice and correct(?) touch.
Great job!
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Ohhh they’re quite lovely mate, well done. I too struggled to get into GOT and attempted to watch it several times. Finally a friend of mine said, “At least watch until season 2 and you’ll be hooked.” He was right BUT I still haven’t watched the final season haha. The same friend said don’t bother haha. Can’t wait to see more mate and I might even drag out my own unpainted minis in 2025.
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Very nice, both the individuals and the unit! 🙂 I like the pale yellow/cream clothing! It won’t come as any surprise to you that I can’t tell you anything about Game of Thrones!
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Superb mate, absolutely superb! I have well and truly led you astray – now your part of the bargain is to inspire me to get back to painting my own models. And well done by the way, despite my having a 2 and a half year head start, you’ve already finished as many units for your Lannister army as I have!
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Very nice work!
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These look very nice, mate! Painting for A Song of Fire and Ice will harness your batch painting skills since the game requires blocks of troops. I think you’ve got the right approach and I would use metallic paints on these to get them ready in a reasonable time as well. I’m looking forward to seeing more from this game when you get around to it!
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