Miniature Monday – Bloodhoof, Minotaur
Can you hear the stomping of heavy hooves somewhere deep within the labyrinth? Somewhere, the Minotaur is waiting… (posting by Antonia)
I love minotaurs and remember the days when minotaur minatures were kind of rare and very expensive because they needed so much metal. Fortunately, since the dawn of plastic and even bonesium I can get more of those beasties than I ever can paint (Disclaimer: Having a small child, that means “more than a handful” at the moment, but still…).
This miniature is nice overall, a rather slim specimen compared to many of the bulky wargaming minotaurs. A lot of open skin/fur surfaces to play with shading, a bit muddled detail in the armour part, but the muscles and general anatomy look fine.
My minotaur got a tech makeover:
When I saw the mini, I somehow thought of it as a cybered thug, like a character from the Shadowrun RPG, so I added a bit of scar tissue, plating and rolled up some wires out of green stuff. I imagine this guy (or gal? Who knows if there is an udder under that loincloth?) experienced some kind of heavy injury and needed cyberware to go on smashing opponents 🙂
I painted the fur wet-in-wet (I like that for smooth transitions) and only added metal and leather – in hindsight I should probably have chosen darker metal though. Later on I plan to add some technical markings like warning stripes or corporation logos on it to add to the cybertech look.
Arjen got his inspiration by a rare cattle breed:
He wrote: “I will be busy next week so I am early again. All the time saved on my very quick gargoyle was poured into this one: finally a mini I spend some time on and I think it shows. As inspiration I used a Dutch race of cow called Blaarkop (“blisterhead”). They have kind of spooky heads, most are black and white, but I went for the rare red and white variant. The eyes are not as fiercely red as I wanted. Maybe I should have used gore (blood) red instead of normal red. Apart from that everything is pretty much the way I planned it.”
Awesome color scheme! So in the Netherlands you have cattle with halloween (or Khorne?)-style skull-shaped head markings and deep red fur? Wow! It indeed looks really scary, even demonic, well done!
Michael took the miniature’s name literally:
Nice bloodshed, really! As you might have guessed from some of my previous paintjobs I do like to use blood and blood effects for dramatic emphasis 😉
Which brand did you use? Are you happy with the result?
I also like the warm browns of fur and loincloth, they harmonize well with each other – and the blood, of course 😀
Jim sent us a whole herd:
He wrote: “This week is a case of buy one minotaur, get three free! I had been wanting to catch up on Bronzeheart and these two beastmen and this was the perfect opportunity. They are all painted similarly but not identically, to give them a common theme look. I prefer Bloodhoof over Bronzeheart stylistically, but I think both painted up fine. The beastmen were fun and easy even if I didn’t do much cleanup on them before starting!”
Very cool group picture, and as it fits for the feature of this article I think Bloodhoof looks best. Like so often you captured a classic “monster manual” look which shows off the muscles really well.
Thanks for all the great participation, since this is the last article for this year, we already wish you all a wonderful festive season and a good start into the year 2019! I’m looking forward to seeing all the new miniature projects and if you have ideas and suggestions for minis to paint or articles to write, just send them in or comment!
This week’s gallery:
Coming next:
01/07/19 Bones III Christina, Female Cleric (B3 Core)
(I added some of your suggestions already, I might shuffle them around a bit, but keep them coming! For some minis there are no pics in the online shop yet so I’ll add them later.
12/24/18 Christmas break
12/31/18 New Year’s break
01/21/19 Bones II Cuth Wolfson, Barbarian (B2 Core)
02/04/19 Bones III Wild West of Oz Wicked Witch plus Monkey* (B3 Core)
*they sell them in packs of three (obviously) but in the KS there was only one piece
02/18/19 Bones II Dub Bullock, Rogue (B2 Core)
we need more suggestions!
Caffeineforge 
https://nl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blaarkop
(Dutch site has better pictures then the English one). Its fur IRL is more orange-brown than dark red, but hey, we are painting fantasy here.
I am so glad this site is still running as I would not paint half as much minis without. Sometimes I just paint it playable because of time constraints, but once in a while it works out nicely like this minotaur.
Man, I think this is one of my favorite ones so far for wild variation from the norm that works out great.
Love the white and red one, as well as the grey.
I caught up on comments on the last two, and now get to comment on time!
Antonia, that conversion is crazy! I mentioned this on the bat demon, but I’d like to take more time and think more on modification concepts before I begin prepping the models. Arjen, I love the pattern on the head. Not only does it look great and interesting, but I like the inspiration from real life. Jim’s got the whole herd – that’s a classic encounter ready to run! The light colored fur is an interesting choice too. Was there any inspiration behind it?
My blood effect here is Citadel’s Blood for the Blood God. I made sure to use gloss coat over those parts too to keep it icky! Also, the loincloth is actually Chaotic Red (by Army Painter), though I did use Strong Tone wash on it as well.
I will also echo Arjen’s sentiment that this site is great for keeping me painting in general and for getting a big variety of minis that I might not have painted otherwise. I’ll look to see what other models I might suggest going into the New Year.
Also, dangerous question here – who went in on Kickstarter 4 and what did you get?
I did Bones 4. Had to take the Fan favourites as they put not one but actually two figures in there that I asked for in the KS comments (big beetle and crab man). Either I can use Charm Person at a distance or my taste is similar to the Reaper guys. Also Darkreach (Burrowing behemoth in the last KS update was really cool!), trolls and the treeman. I kept saying no to things like giants and dragons, because for RPG, I have all the giants I need and no, if I collect dragons till I have all colors in the Monster manual, I really need a bigger house. To be honest, I have no need for the giant treeman either, but I loved painting the large sized one from Bones 1, so I gave in there.
I went a little nuts on Bones 4. I got the main pledge, and added every major expansion – Chronoscope, Dreadmere, Darkreach, Lost Valley, and Fan Favorites. On top of that, I got the High Rollers, Baba Yaga’s Hut, Thunderfoot Behemoth, Blacktooth Terror, and the Stygian Barge. A few friends wanted to get in on this too, so I have a bunch of giants and a few other sets like the Dragon Turtle and Tree of Despair in my order to divvy out.
I’m with you, Arjen – I need a bigger house…
I’d like to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes and claim that my fur color choice was based on a specific breed, like the Limousin, but i just went with a lighter color that I thought would show off the musculature and look good on both the minotaurs and the beastmen.
I backed Bones 4 and probably spent way more than I should have. My strategy was to spend what I could afford during the campaign and then buying extra stuff every month while the pledge manager was open. I definitely favored the “big” stuff as I feel they are the best looking in Bonesium.
Not a complete list but: Core set, darkreach, treeman, baba yaga’s hut, roc, frost giants, blacksting, t-rex & triceratops, nyarlathotep, skeletal dragon, fantasy scenics, wraiths, trolls, skeletal monsters, living statues, tree of despair, dance of death…
After completing my 2018 to-do list, I picked out a bunch of Bones from their storage boxes for the first part of 2019. Here are some of the Bones III models I grabbed, for consideration to be added to the list (my Bones I & II are mixed to the point where I don’t know what came from where, or what was previously covered, so I’m limiting my suggestions to Bones III).
Humanoids:
Skara, Female Skoli: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77488
Gwyddis, Dwarf Valkyrie: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77481
Dijoro, Female Kitsune: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77474
Kogo, Male Kitsune: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77473
Elthin Bluesteel, Gunslinger: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77470
Athak, Undead Knight: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77408
Sigurd, Viking: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77399
Brotherhood of the Seal: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/89035
Other:
Werewolf: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77464
Werecrocodile: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77447
There’s a Wereboar, too, but I don’t think it’s on the site.
Wraith: https://www.reapermini.com/Miniatures/Bones/latest/77424
Antonia – I love the idea and the execution even more! Gray really suits the cyber look.
Arjen – You captured that breed of cattle very well and the overall paint work is well done. That is a very intimidating color scheme to be confronted with.
Michael – Nice and bloody! Just like a minotaur should be. I like the color choices (for obvious reasons.
I have to admit (again), I like the style of Bloodhoof a bit better than Bronzeheart but both are cool. I didn’t originally plan for a unit look but just ended up going that way using all the same colors. My only slight disappointment is with the minotaur horns. I was trying for a realistic effect but it kind of got away from me. In any case, I’m happy getting this bunch done!
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Nice minotaur painting, both sci-fi and white face one. Just to let you know, there is now a kickstarter on Legend of Minos of minotaur with great anatomy.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/simonminiatures/the-legend-of-minos?ref=android_project_share