Mythic Battles: Pantheon – Manticore

Mythic Battles: Pantheon - Manticore

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…

Mythic Battles: Pantheon - Manticore

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.

Mythic Battles: Pantheon - Manticore

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.

Mythic Battles: Pantheon - Manticore

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…

The Others: 7 Sins – Gluttony Faction Completed! Also – Nurgle’s Children 2019 #20: Proxy Plaguebearers of Nurgle

The Others: 7 Sins - Gluttony Faction

Today we have a completed boardgame faction. Not quite as impressive as a finished army, but hey, 8 figures fits into that same kind of size as a squad, or a (smallish) Necromunda gang or Bloodbowl Team. The biggest appeal(s) of the 7 Sins factions was that I could probably get them from none to done pretty quickly – and in that process – clear a box from my boardgame shelves as these will obviously have to go on a painted model shelf or at worst a figure case rather than residing in a giant box.

The Others: 7 Sins - Controller of Gluttony

Here’s the controller. Pretty much a woman dressed for the business end of a bondage session, including a complete lack of pants, who got his by the tenticular bloaties. She doesn’t seem to have really noticed much, though.

The Others: 7 Sins - Controller of Gluttony

Usually, a model like this would get its own post pretty much right after I completed it, separate to the Abominations – but since we’re playing catch-up this month for April’s models still – we’ll do the whole lot in one post. Not that this particular figure is in any way amazing or deserves it’s own post based on the sculpt or paintjob, so it’s all good. She ain’t the Avatar in terms of impressive models. that’s for sure!

The Others: 7 Sins - Abominations of Gluttony

Here are the Abominations of ̶N̶u̶r̶g̶l̶e̶ Gluttony (sorry, don’t know how I got confused there!) As you can see, Adrian Smith’s Vagina Dentata obsession rears its head once again on the head-parts of these little mini Great Unclean Ones. We don’t just have a “leech mouth” here, as there are some pretty clearly-shaped labia on show. I mean, if the model design on these was more of a one-off, sure. You could say it’s in my mind, but when you see a pretty consistent leitmotif throughout a range, then smoke usually means smoke…

The Others: 7 Sins - Abominations of Gluttony

The rear ends of these guys is much more “traditional” Zombie-Nurgle, as you can see. Not that I’m claiming that Nergal is a wholly-original creation or anything, but GW has codified a bunch of aspects of the whole “plague demon” thing pretty well over the past few decades, and these fit in there pretty well from the designs of a former GW artist.

I just thought I may as well throw in a box shot for this faction here again – what with it being the completed faction from the box. Dunno if I’ll ever play the actual game, but that wasn’t a strong consideration when I purchased it as a set of “should be able to proxy these in the Warhams” models.

The Others: 7 Sins - Gluttony Faction

To finish, here’s a size-comparison shot, so you can really see how the controller is very slight (maybe she’d fit in well with Eivor?) while even the Abominations are just a little undersized from what I’d assumed (and hoped) that they’d be to fit in with my Plaguebearers. I mean, they’ll still work and I doubt anyone outside of a GW store or officially-sanctioned GW-tournament would complain, just not quite as well as I’d hoped.