Flying Dutchman Crew - Hadras

Today, let me introduce you Hadras, a damned pirate from Davy Jones' crew. If you have seen Pirates of the Carribean movies, you certainly have noticed a guy whose head is in a shell. The head was replaced by a coconut during a fight on an island, and the body began to move and eventually forgot his head on the beach.

Mars has produced a couple of sets representing the movie characters, mainly pirates of course, and Hadras is one of them, here:

Here are the pictures I found on the net to get some inspiration.

I've already painted other pirates from the same set a few years ago, here is another picture gathering the crewmen:

Not the best figures in the world, but interesting to paint - what do you think ?

Maya warriors

As promised yesterday, I've begun to paint some more Mayas. Yes, this time I've painted something historical that was already on my desk, and in 1/72!

Let's have a look:

You've already seen the slingers on this blog, which means that only the two lancers have been painted today - they were on yesterday's last picture.

Let's show more pictures of these men:

It's not that easy to paint Mayas from the Classical period (250 AD to 900 AD). First of all, there is not a lot of documentation on the web, and if you appreciate to work with original sources (as I do), you arrive very quickly to the reproductions of the Bonampak fresco, such as these:

This one is a reproduction

These walls were painted in 790 AD. They represent court scenes, and a ritual celebration for victory in battle. We can see mainly nobles, prisoners, and warriors - but should we suppose that they wear special ritual outfits ? Anyway, we see that the clothes are mainly white, yellow, red, sometimes green or black. Most feathers are green, but you can find many colorful birds in the tropical forest, so I assume that red, white and black feathers are rather common, and blue feathers are also accurate.

Many nobles also wear leopard skin, which I will paint later - remember, I'm starting again, so easy painting first :)

Another typical feature of these warriors are the stone necklaces, and probably gold for the richest among them.

A few more pictures of the figures:

Hope you like them :)

... A Deep One Hybrid !

Hello dear fellow painters and gamers. I really thank you for your comments and contributions in the previous post, it helped me to find some strength and inspiration, although the result is a bit... unexpected.

At the last rank of the minis on my desk, there was a figure from a boardgame, Mansions of Madness, a cooperation game in the universe of HP Lovecraft. I was looking for something easy to paint, and I think I found a good way.

Let's have a look:

Ok, he looks like a fat, ordinary man, but this dark creature is a Deep One hybrid, the result of the union of a Deep One (an ocean-dwelling creature, half fish and half humanoid, described in HPL's novella "The Shadow over Innsmouth ) and a Human. Look at this fishy face:

This is the game this mini comes from:

In this game, a team of 1 to 5 players have to investigate in a manor, a strange village or a deep jungle to solve a mystery and/or repell horrible creatures from this world before getting insane, and believe me, it is very easy in this game :). The game is app-driven, which means that all players have to cooperate to succeed...

The Deep One hybrid comes from the core set, and is one of the "ordinary" monsters (not the boss of the level).

Profond hybride is the french for Deep One Hybrid

I've glued this mini on a transparent base, so that you can always see the nicely painted board elements.

This guy was painted this afternoon, while my daughter Hatshepjuju put her own brushes on a chaotic creature.

Hum, the picture is chaotic too...

For those of you who look forward to new 1/72 historical minis, do not despair! I carefully read your proposals, and the second winners after the Deep One Hybrid are the Mayas! Work in progress.

Hope you will want to know more about Deep Ones and Lovecraftian adventures :)

What shall I begin with... ?

Hi everybody, I hope you're all well in these times of pandemic and, unfortunately, sorrow.

Some news at last, regarding figures I mean :)


I didn't paint a single figure since last post, because of several factors: LOTS of work during the first months of the year, then four days of vacation at the beginning of march, then confinement here in France, which gave me some MORE urgent work and many many things to organize and think of. Now that it becomes slightly quieter, I think of painting again.

Yesterday, I used a brush for the first time in days, because I had to put some oily treatment to the wooden table in the garden - useful, but nothing regarding figures :) And this morning, I went to the cellar to have a look at my painting place. So many figs, I don't know where to begin.

I took a picture to show you:

Any piece of advice ? I would need something easy to start with, but everything seems difficult. The sort of moment when you realize that painting 1/72 minis requires a lot of skill and a lot of patience.

All suggestions are warmly welcome.

Fusiliers-grenadiers of the Imperial Guard

After a couple of posts related to Star Wars, back to 1/72 and the Napoleonic era. This week-end, I have painted a company of Fusiliers-grenadiers, a middle guard unit attached to the regiments of Grenadiers à pied.

Much less known than the units of the old guard, the fusiliers-grenadiers formed a regiment created in december 1806, and disbanded in may 1814. The regiment consisted of two  four-companies battalions, for a total strength of about 1800 men.

I've painted a unit of 10 soldiers, 1 NCO (first figure from the left) and 1 officer wearing a surtout.
Those who follow this blog from the beginning may have recognized the unexpected guest, the goat-that-travels-through-time. So a little game: could you find the year, and the post in which this goat was spotted for the last time ?

 Meanwhile, the plastic soldiers keep on marching through the village.

Nothing new regarding the painting technique, which has already been explained a few years ago at Benno's. I could copy a link to the post with the explanation, but I've just checked, and I realized that:

1. The post is difficult to find since I answered a question (by Sceavus :)) in a thread regarding half orcs
2. The pictures used to explain are no longer visible since the host on which they were stored is no longer in activity.

So I think it might be a good idea if I put everything here. Here you are:

Concerning white: when I want to paint white clothes, I first don't use white, but I start to paint a light grey layer, with a Citadel paint called Deneb Stone (in their old denominations, I don't know the name in their current range).

An example, with a Fusilier grenadier (french middle guard by Hät):

Then I wash the area with Agrax Earthshade - not much on the light grey area, or the shading might be too strong - well it is a question of taste.

Then I begin to lighten. I paint a layer of pure Deneb Stone (carefully, because at this step you have to keep your shades as thin lines between the different elements: clothes, belt...). Then I mix Deneb Stone and white, and I add a new thin (diluted) layer on some areas only - those that receive the sunlight. It is possible de repeat this operation several times on always smaller areas - it depends on your time and on the quality you want to get.

In my example, the belts are painted in a whiter color than the clothes. In the picture below, you have the three steps illustrated on three different minis:

Concerning the flesh, I use a red ink to shade the face and the hands, but I am not very happy with the result because the contrast is not strong enough in my taste. I will go back to my previous technique, a simple wash of diluted of Citadel Dark Flesh (ancient range, it is a sort of brown red), then lightening as explained before. The only difference is that I lighten the flesh paint with Citadel Ushabti Bone (something like ivory), NOT white.

Here you are the result:

I hope you find this little explanation useful, and that you like the result :)

Star Wars Imperial Assault: a Wookiee

A new mini for my collection, on the Rebellion side this time: a Wookiee.

You all know about Chewbacca, the giant hairy creature seconding Han Solo in his adventures, and co-pilot of the Millenium Falcon. Chewbacca is the first Wookiee we see in the saga, a creature from the planet Kashyyyk (3 'y', yes,not me, I just checked on wikipedia).


The figure below represents another Wookiee, such as those who fight on their home planet in the third episode of the Saga, Revenge of the Sith.

In this movie, Kashyyyk is a tropical world covered with forests...

... large enough for many many Wookiees!!

But I've painted only one so far.

Not much to explain about the painting: dark brown as a base, then some highlights with drybrush, the easiest thing to do on a hairy figure.

This Wookiee joigned the Rebellion to fight against the stormtroopers and their auxiliaries.

That's all for today. Hope you like him :)

Star Wars Imperial Assault: a Jawa

This is another figure for Star Wars Imperial Assault boardgame, a Jawa. You surely remember the little creatures with yellow eyes, wearing brown cloaks and living in the desert of Tatooine.

This guy is one of them:

In the next picture, he's fighting in a duel against a Rodian mercenary - although smaller, the Jawa stands his ground... probably because there's a dozen if his kin not too far :)

Let's examine him from all sides.

Not too difficult to paint. You just need to use different shades of brown for the cloak, the leather belts and the weapon.

Hope you like him :)