I don't even have much to say about these guys other than they've been the bane of my existence for the past month or so. I started painting this unit right after the Black Coach, along with a Lord Arcanum. It's been a bit since I've done any batch painting of a unit. The last time was last year in July with my Plague Monks, and let me tell you, the patience you develop with that fades quickly.
I play Age of Sigmar, which I'm sure is obvious to many of you who read this blog. What that means is that, usually, I will purchase, paint, and play with models made by Games Workshop, the creators of the game. Mostly. But the Skaven Giant Rats are ugly and expensive, and come with equally ugly Rat Ogres and Packmasters. Luckily, giant rats are a staple of fantasy and there are lots of versions available on the market. I got some Reaper Miniatures and Archon Studios rats on display here.
Jokes aside about a catchy song from a kids cartoon, I could belabor the point about how I painted this model or how awesome it is, but a quick Google search will give you plenty of models to peruse and people talking about how they painted it. Instead, I'm going to talk about the theme of this model in relation to its faction.
Late last year, I played a 4 player game of Age of Sigmar. I had participated in a total of two games in 2022, so to say I was rusty was an understatement. I don't have a lot of time to focus on the rules and stay updated, and the meta moves quickly, what with the General's Handbooks dropping every 6 months now and an edition change every 3 years. It's too much, and I sound like an old man. So I need something a little more simple for my old man soul.
Here at the Space Dinosaur Miniatures, I'm trying to grow a little bit, as an artist. Yes, I consider myself an artist, as I paint little figures to be prettier than they were. Art can be done in so many different ways, and I find that I can be pretty limiting in what I post and do. But this is my blog, and I make the rules. So let's get a little weird, a little... experimental. Try new things and see what sticks.
I've had half a mind to write a book...
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| Credit: The Space Dinosaur |
There's always those models that elude your grasp for too long a time. Whether it be because of the price or the rarity, we all have them. For me, it's always been the Skink Starseer. I find the price (at the time of this writing) at $50 for a single character to be too high, especially at this size and material choice. Because you see, this model used to be cast in metal. Which would be ok, but GW in the modern era has replaced the metal with their homebrew resin/plastic mix which they call Finecast. And I dislike Finecast.
Tired puns aside, I had a really good time painting this shark. Does it make sense? No, not really no. I like Age of Sigmar, a lot, but even I can admit that sometimes it gets a tad bit...weird. But I really like the Idoneth, so much so that I bought a whole army at once just to put them on a shelf and forget them. I've painted two heroes so far, but those were mostly tests to see how the paint scheme would work out.
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| Credit to the lovely https://sarahcandersen.com/ |
Bretonnia continues to be a sleeper hit on this blog. Last year, the second mini to get a spotlight was the King of Bretonnia himself, a name that I eternally find difficult to spell, King Louen Leoncoeur. It's all of those pesky French-y vowels. This year, the faction goes up on the podium to the coveted first mini spotlight of the year. While not strictly speaking a Bretonnian (or human, for that matter) model, I did some slight converting to make a Damsel on Foot for the army.
