Azazel's Bitz Box.

Another of the models from the Conan Kickstarter today. This time, it’s the “Dragon”. I have to say, that when I first opened up this model, I was pretty disappointed. Obviously, I’d seen the overall design of the model from the KS advertising, but I wasn’t really expecting it to be so (relatively) small (for a “dragon”) once in hand.

I was, in fact, so un-enamoured of this model that once I opened it, it took me several months to halfheartedly spray it with a dark green I had, and then let it sit for ….I dunno. More than six months, easily. Any number of Neglected Model months also passed by without tempting me to get this thing out and paint it, even though it was stored in a tub of “neglected monster” models for ease of access for a painting challenge.

Once again, then – Swordmaster of Hoeth’s Monster March was the impetus for me to see the model in that tub and decide to smash it out to get rid of it and get it done and out of the way. I’m grateful for him running this challenge, as without it, this model would still be sitting in the tub, annoying me whenever I laid eyes on it.

I used their official/box art for my guide, basically, because I didn’t care enough about this model to try and do anything special with it. There’s a turquoise wash involved, as well as various layers of drybrushing. The concept artwork, like much of the stuff from this Kickstarter is taken from the Age of Conan MMORPG.

The (tiny) eyes were picked out in yellow, and then I decided to give them little slit pupils. This close-up shows how much the thing looks like a cheap PVC dinosaur toy. Actually, the stuff from Papo and Schleich are much better.

As with yesterday’s monster, here’s a scale shot alongside a Space Marine. You can see how small the thing is for a “Dragon”, and how disappointing this model is for US$30 (or $40 at RRP!) Ah well, can’t do anything about money badly spent. Model is painted, finished, available for gaming. It’s still not a great model, but it’s finished and I no longer need to waste energy disliking it. That’s as good as this one is going to get!

I’ve got a couple more Monsters I’m trying to get done before March ends (including the ones I originally intended to complete!), so hopefully Swordmaster can hold off for a couple of days before he does his round-up!

Another model from big shipper box of random Shadows of Brimstone stuff today. It’s the Dark Stone Hydra!

Another in the series of simple Brimstone models that I’ve worked on, this one feels very “rattlesnake” in its sculpt.

The Dark Stone Hydra really is a bad model, and a prime example of why the initial run of Shadow of Brimstone models copped so much shit when they were first received by backers.

This model got started quite a few months ago, but was so uninspiring that it just sat in a tub with half a base-coat and a wash on the lower scales, literally for months until I saw it in there the other day and thought I should try to knock it out for Monster March. I mean, it could just as easily be a Neglected Model Month model, but MM is what prompted me to get it out and finish it, so credit goes to Swordmaster of Hoeth there. – This is also why, despite running my own painting challenges each month, I also try to join in a few of other people’s ones. Because it works to spike motivation. Turns out that it also fits in with the Gender-Ambiguous challenge that I am running here as well, so double-win.

Because of the whole rattlesnake thing, I decided to paint the model in a similar manner, though having to work around the wonky sculpt added some difficulty. I mean, the easy thing would have been to go with “man paints snake green” and it would have looked fine, but I always think models that look more natural in their colouration (if not anatomy) tend to look a bit better. So I looked up some rattlesnake images on google image search and tried to make them fit the sculpt. With some difficulty because of the XXL-sized scales, initially, until later I just decided to ignore them. I didn’t even think to look up the box art (for what look like airbrushed lines on the body) until I was wondering about the crystals/stones embedded in it’s hide (and for it’s “rattle”.) Purple, huh?

I often forget scale shots, especially for critters that look like they could be various sizes, so here it is, next to a Space Marine.

Azazel's Bitz Box.

Painting, Modelling, Miniatures, 1:6, Games… Whatever else I find interesting.

Conan Kickstarter’s Dragon (#Monstermarch3 ’19, Gender-Ambiguous March ’19)

Shadows of Brimstone: Dark Stone Hydra (#Monstermarch3 ’19, Gender-Ambiguous March ’19)