Egyptian Mythology: of Gods and Beetles

 Hi everybody!

Sorry for the lack of update on this blog. Not a lack of mojo this time, it's just that sometimes, real life's stronger than hobby. I didn't paint a lot since last winter, though I have a few figures to show. After Nordic then Greek mythology, I wanted to extend my Ancient Egyptian army into a fantastic version. It's far from complete but I have enough figures for a decent post.

First, the family picture:

 If you've read this blog in the past, you might identify some mummies on the left of the picture. Let's have a closer look:

These figures come from a Dark Alliance set, ALL72045. The same manufacturer also produced some Anubites (named after god Anubis, a reference to the Mummy movie series, set ALL72053), and you can see them here:

I also wanted to represent some Egyptian Gods. Fortunately, Reaper Minis produced some in their plastic 28mm range, and I chose to paint Thoth, god of the Moon, wisdom, knowledge, writing, hieroglyphs, science, magic, art and judgment. He is often depicted with an ibis head an a human body.

A could also find a swarm of scarabs in the Reaper range - though big for 1/72, they do the job.

Of course you also need some human troops. Here they are so far, some archers:

Some heavy warriors, including a few Sherden elite.

And the usual light infantry. Nubian archers:

And Libyan warriors:

Still a lot of work to complete this army. I need:

- a second scarab swarm figure

- more heavy warriors

- more Anubites (my favorite figures in this army)

- some giant scorpions (I found some in the Conan range by Monolith)

- a sphinx (Reaper)

- some Chariots (some are on my workbench for aeons...)

- and some generals, foot and chariot

Hope they are worth the wait :) 

EDIT: I also wanted to apologize for the lack of answer to your nice comments lately, but there's a security issue between Firefox and my Google account, so that I am now unable to write a comment on my own blog!!! Very sorry. I'm considering leaving Blogger if I don't find an answer to that problem.

EDIT #2: I've found a way to solve my problem, at last! If I use Firefox private navigation, I can write comments on my own blog, and also on the others. If this info is of help...
 

2020 Advent Calendar: Day 21

Today is the 21st day of the Advent Calendar, it's Saint Peter's day. And you know why ? Because it's Mummies day !!

"... and at the 21st day of the Advent, the Mummies will rise again, and their number will be higher than ever..."

 

 Ok, only five mummies doesn't make an innumerable horde, but last time I had only three of them, so 'higher than ever' :D. The two new additions are these:

If we dare to have a closer look, we can see that the first one has a head of Anubis over its own head. Its eyes are glooming in the dark, because it is animated by some sort of... evil ?

The second one looks like a pharaoh, especially the one that is drawn on the cover of a famous Iron Maiden album :D

Remember this one ?

One more family picture, bouh, frightening... Peter, what do you think of them ?

Hope you like them, in spite of their old age :D

See you tomorrow for the next day of this unusual Calendar!

The Mummies return, and they look angry

In September, I came back to the brushes after a hiatus of 9 months with this mini, a mummy from one of the new Dark Alliance Fantasy sets.

The painting was correct in my opinion, but it revealed difficult and long. Since I still believe I can paint complete armies, I immediately painted a second mummy using the drybrush technique, in order to speed the process up, but I was disappointed with the result: not enough contrast, the mini looks flat.

Then I started a third one, with more dark washing, and more highlight. And then, at last I thought it was ok - long, and rather difficult if you ask me, not an easy task to highlight the cloth strips one by one.

Well, enough with the technique, let's have a look:

Can you guess the order in which I painted them ?

The mummy in the center of the picture above is the first one: it looks ok, but the painting lacks precision, and a bit more contrast would be great.

The mummy with drybrush: not a good idea, almost no contrast. There's only one mini left, let's have a closer look:

This one is better... except that it is too clean for a mummy just coming back from the tomb !!
But this is Fantasy, so... I do what I want :)

There are three layers or four layers of paint on every part of this figure, which explains why I find it long and difficult, but I will paint the others with this method.

Oh, and regarding the size, maybe you wonder how they compare to other references. A couple of pictures of these guys into action will give us an answer.

The mummies are fighting against Caesar ancient Egyptians. The latter are a bit smaller, but the difference is very slight, so I can keep on preparing both camps for a bigger fight.

Just need some skeleton chariots... a strong conversion in perspective!

Hope you like them :)

Philotep.

The Mummy returns

An update on this blog, at last!

I must explain that I wasn't interested in figures any longer. I have been away from the community for almost 9 months, which has given me a lot of time for other hobbies, such as collecting Japanese woodblock prints, or playing music in a small band.

Since I was away, I didn't even visit the blogs of my fellow figure painters - I hope you don't hold it against me too much. Well, it seems that a break was necessary.

A few days ago, I had a look at Benno's, and I discovered that Dark Alliance was about to release a set of Mummies. Mummies ? That was completely unexpected (at least to me)... but absolutely necessary for a painter whose nickname's Philotep :)

So I left a very small comment at Benno's, ordered this set as soon as I could, received the package a few days later, opened the box with excitement (a feeling long gone), and begun to paint the first minis this afternoon.

The first mummy is finished, I have taken a few pictures so that I can show you. Here you are:

Well, not my best, but I haven't touched a paintbrush for a long time. And I had difficulties removing the mold lines - something I have never been good at, but it is obvious that I must change my blade.

Some other mummies are on their way. I will take time to finish them properly, take better pictures, and write a small review about this set.

Hope you like this one anyway :)