Mantic Giant

My Mantic giant arrived today. It's the only thing I got from the KS. I showed great restraint.

A quick dry fit to check the size compared to some of my other giants. I happen to have the Otherworld giant on my desk, still awaiting assembly. I think they will be pretty close in size when assembled, though proportioned somewhat differently (as just about every giant seems to be.)

And another quick check against a couple of the finished giants. I think the Mantic, Otherworld, Warploque, and Ultraforge giants will be of similar size when they're all complete.

I will need to get a new group photo when those two and the Heresy giant are done. But for reference, below are a couple of previous group shots.

Marshing into April

No more marsh-y themed minis for March. I'm still working on stripping the paint from those old Marauder trolls, and looking for the remaining two that I still don't have.  In the meantime, I am soaking the other four in some Dawn Power Dissolver, at the recommendation of Blue. My usual go-to, Simple Green, just wasn't cutting it this time.

I did manage to strip, prime and start on the MM41 ogre that finally completes my collection.

While that's all going down, I also, miraculously quick, finished the Westfalia goat knights!

Although I do think I will be turning one of these into a standard bearer at some point. Or maybe I will try to get a few more to create a standard, champion, and musician...

So with Big April coming up, I'm looking forward to...

Giants! (And the above-mentioned ogre.) A bit ambitious, and slightly out of focus it seems. First will be finishing the paint on the Warploque giant. While that's going on, I will prep the other two -- from Heresy and Otherworld.

IF, by some miracle that all gets done, I have more in mind. I would still REALLY like to sculpt my own giant. Given the timing, that's been on my mind again and I think I've got a decent picture in my head of that I want to do. Also, I've got some more giants here, still waiting to be painted. I have several of the Reaper Bones giants from their last KS. These are a bit larger than the older sculpts, and in fact one is a resculpt of one I've previously painted.

I've also got the extra heads from the Otherworld giant. The web site says to select one, but they ended up sending all three. I could try to magnetize them so they're swapable. Or maybe I can work out a way to get an extra giant out of the deal...

...oooooor maybe not.

Marsh & Big April

Month of Marsh

Unfortunately, I've been sort of sputtering out on the Month of Marsh.

I cleaned, assembled, primed and started painting the four classic lead Citadel Fianna/nobles, converted a Reaper orc for a Fomorian hero, and then (barely) work on a second, larger, hero. What I've painted so far has been a bit less than my usual quality, and I think these figures deserve better. I'm (crazy...) thinking about re-stripping the one in the back because the flesh is so drybrushed and grainy. The guy in the front-left is in better shape, but I'm still not happy with the color(s). I seem to have lost my Fomorian Flesh Mojo. I really love the way I did the earlier figures... I'm just having problems reproducing it.

Such is the risk of not having "formulae" for painting. On the other hand, I did want them to have varied skin tones.

I'm still happy with the way the way the Citadel plastic savage orc conversions turned out, at least.

Big April Challenge

But these other figures are frustrating enough that I'm already looking forward to the Big April Challenge -- which will be my second annual giant challenge. I'm sure the sudden arrival of...

...doesn't have anything to do with it. 😉 Got my Otherworld Giant today. I wasn't expecting all three heads (I specified A, the one with the long beard, as instructed with my order.) So now I'm wondering if I should magnetize, or find other homes (on new models) for the two heads that will go unused.

Also the three Drew Williams trolls arrived a few days ago -- to add to the first three that were awaiting this second set of three before getting painted. Very cool figures, once again. I'm anxious to start painting them.

My recent shopping spree doesn't end here. Still waiting on two smaller things to arrive. Now I'm shopped out for a while. I figure all of the extra work, overtime, etc. the past few months justifies my buying some new stuff. ;)

In the meantime, I need to get painting some more!