Caffeineforge

From beneath the earth comes a horrifying hulk, an astonishing abomination, a monstrous mutation! (ok, enough of this alliterations 🙂 ) If you are not afraid of things lurking beneath your feet, then read on…

(posted by Dirk)

5 shades of brown… and grey.

As we have a monster living in the ground and burrowing through the earth, earthy or stoney tones were an obvious choice. But what color does earth have? Our painters all found a way to give the monster an individual touch. Below you can see how they chose their colors.

For me, it was a child’s choice (sorry 🙂 last time):

As I wanted to work on the Behemoth, I had to take care of my son. So I tried a new strategy: we painted the miniature together! After we decided for a light brown, my son (4 years) painted the base color. After that, he wanted to give the mini markings in red, so he was allowed to paint it to his own likings with red Contrast paint (the only red color I found with good covering power). I just painted some details such as claws, fangs and eyes, before the mini was washed with strong Quickshade from Army Painter. I also painted the base in light brown to match the environment to the monster.

It was a lot of fun working together and to let him choose the colors, and I like the results. It was sweet to see how careful and focused he painted the antennae.

Timothy used a few colors to invoke scariness:

He also used a light brown as base color (which is the standard color for Umber Hulks as I know them), but used some spot colors to give it an unique, alien feeling. The first thing that catched my eye (LOL) were the eyes. The light green with the vertical pupils gives this monster a scary stare that makes me shiver.

I also like the use of purple on the base to let the environment look strange and alien.

Michael’s color is in the name:

He wrote: “I decided to go literal on the real name of this critter and used Umber Brown as my main color here. I then drybrushed up with Ruddy Brown (trying to get a burnt umber color), then some lighter yellowish tones, and a wash of Agrax Earthshade. Overall, this was super quick to paint using drybrushing.”

Jim went classic, in two ways:

He used an old color scheme and an old model: “So, I always thought Umber Hulks were, well, brown. Upon consulting my 1e Monster Manual, I discovered that they are “… black, shading to yellowish gray on the front. Their head is gray on top, and the mandibles are ivory colored.” So, no brown! Also, as I started this beast, I remembered that I had an old Citadel/Games Workshop Umber Hulk from their AD&D line back in the ’90s (late ’80s?), so I thought I’d paint him, too. It doesn’t look like it, but both of these minis are base coated entirely in black with gray highlights, especially on the heads. It was mostly a case of dry brushing on the main figures and washes on the claws and mandibles. I worked in a little yellow on the fronts and on some of the other details and the eyes are silver with a yellow ink wash. The claws and mandibles looked a bit better before I applied a brown wash which covered up most of my ivory work. I was really proud of it! Overall, these two were nice minis to work on, with generally good, clean castings and details. I like having an original Umber Hulk to compare with the new version.”

Arjen went a more recent style:

He said: “I took a color scheme that was close to the umber hulk, which is mostly portrayed as brownish green or orangish brown. The mini is very well suited for washes, so I used a brown wash, with a mix of black and brown wash for the details that I wanted to accentuate. I do not quite like the glossy look that resulted from the wash, though. I aimed to have the orange spikes stand out more, but as usual the paint is less bright than intended after drying. Overall the result is OK, but for one of my favourites I had hoped for more. I should have made more daring color choices.”

I had the same problem with the glossy effect of the wash. Perhaps I try to dampen it by some drybrushing and/or matte varnish.

I really like how the legs and claws look like they are covered in grey dust, connecting the mini to its base showing that it really burrows through the ground.

This week’s gallery:

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Coming next:

01/25/21 Mavaro, Iconic Occultist (Bones IV Core Set)

Want to participate in the next post? Email the pictures of your minis until Friday 01/22/20 to

MondayMiniature@fantasymail.de  (It’s a .de domain, in case emails are bouncing)

–> Attention: The submission date for photos is about three days before publishing date, to give us a bit of time to actually write about your pictures 

This way you’ll have two weeks/one weekend to paint, and we have one weekend to write (which is the only time of the week where we (might, *sigh*) have some open minutes).

You can of course send in pics later, but to take out a bit of the stress (most pics arrive here rather last minute) please consider the three day deadline. Later pics will still show up in an update 

Here is the link to Reaper’s graphic with all the core pieces, but it’s one and veeeery long picture so be prepared for some scrolling. On the other hand it has separate numbers for most of the pieces. I will add individual shop links as soon as they appear!

Here is the “Underdark” Expansion Darkreach.

Here is the Dreadmere Expansion

We recently added a lot to the schedule, without considering the upcoming release of the Bones V minis… We should talk about that.

Should we leave the schedule like that, or swap some of the later entries with Bones V minis? Add extra Mondays? What do do you think?

02/08/21 Angry Townsfolk Woman w. Torch (Bones IV Core Set)

02/22/21 Owlbear (No 6) (Bones IV Core Set)

03/08/21 Townsfolk Beggar (Bones IV Core Set)

03/22/21 Adowyn, Iconic Hunter (Bones IV Core Set)

04/05/21 Griffon (No 82) (Bones IV Core Set)

04/19/21 Show me your project/Catch-Up Monday

05/03/21 Amrielle, Female Ranger (Bones IV Core Set)

05/17/21 Pig with or without cart (No 17 & 18) (Bones IV Core Set)

05/31/21 Dreadmere Fishwife (No 409) (Dreadmere Expansion)

06/14/21 Oman Ruul, Wizard (Bones IV Core Set)

06/28/21 Dreadmere Tortoise and Handler (Dreadmere Expansion)

07/12/21 Ava Justinia, Female Templar (Bones IV Core Set)

07/26/21 Erasmus, Iconic Medium (Bones IV Core Set)

08/09/21 Troglodytes(one or more) (Darkreach Expansion)

08/23/21 Dreadmere Crone (Dreadmere Expansion)

09/06/21 Two handed Fighter (No 9 in the main pic) (Bones IV Core Set)

09/20/21 Dark Watcher (Beholderkin) (Darkreach Expansion)

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On the list for later (or maybe extra homework?):

Half-ogre fighter (Link to metal version)

Knights (No 58-61, no links yet)

Dire Boar/Warthog (No 56, no links yet)

More Townsfolk (No 50+ and 146+)

Small Heroes (some Halflings and/or Gnomes)

Tiny Foes (Kobolds and/or Goblins)

Brigand with heavy Axe (No 101)

This entry was posted by Antonia & Dirk Vogel.