Kooky Tanuki!

Traveling Tanuki
15 mm scale

Tanuki, or raccoon dogs, are a common subject of Japanese folklore.  They're good-natured, even foolish trickster spirits capable of shape-shifting and disguise.  Traditionally, tanuki were often depicted in humorous art, wielding their preposterously large and prehensile scrotums as tents, hats, fishing nets, and many other useful items. While not including this particular feature, this sculpt from 15mm.co.uk. was still a cute, fun project to quickly paint up.

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And a sneak peek at a project I've just started.  It's what I believe is a... unique take on the "parasite" zombie concept.  Figures are from Khurasan.

Diminutive Extra-Terrestrial

Friendly Asogian
15 mm scale

The small-statured natives of the planet Brodo Asogi ("The Green Planet") are intelligent and good-natured.  Their society values science and exploration and they send research expeditions to the farthest reaches of space in the hopes of discovering new natural wonders.  Though physically weak, they have potent psi powers which give them telekinetic and healing abilities.

A Khurasan figure from the pack "friendly demons".

By the power of Greyskull...

HeroQuest Barbarian ("He-Man")
28 mm



Ok, so he's not exactly as exciting as "Skeletor", as I've said the villain usually gets the coolest outfit :) But I am pleased with the way the skin turned out, which is good considering how little he's wearing. The only real modification I did is the belt design, which I tried to make similar in style to He-Man's chest plate (while not clashing with the rest of the figure). Since I was messing with greenstuff after I started painting, I didn't try to make it too elaborate.

As you can see I gave him a companion; maybe a little small, but perhaps Battle Cat is young in this photo :) The cat is from Mega Miniatures.



I'll probably try to paint up a few more of these HeroQuest figures in the coming months: Chaos Warriors, orcs/goblins, maybe a zombie (But not the Fimir because, frankly, they're lousy minis even by HQ standards).

I think he's done...

I put on a push this evening and finished my Mousling. I really just had to highlight some of his hat and gear, so it wasn't much of a "push"... I also added some freehand decoration to make his accordion look more interesting. He's posted on CoolMiniOrNot here, response has been quite positive so far.



I fixed his eyes after having another look at my reference pics. The single point highlight looks much better.

Mousling... almost done!

I'm just about done this little guy, I have to put the finishing touches on his hat and accoutrements and he'll be ready for the display case! Gotta love Italian seasoning mix - instant foresty leaf litter basing material which costs nothing! For best results, however, each piece should be glued on individually:



I'm not quite sure the gleam in his eyes looks right, but mouse eyes are solid black and I'm not sure how better to depict shiny black spheres. Easy enough to fix at any rate.

Brief Update

It doesn't feel like I've had much time to paint lately. But my mousling is coming along nicely, he's looking quite "rustic":



Also, the Black Legionnaire looks much better in a darker indigo colour:

Works in Progress

I'm liking the colours on my Mousling so far. The fur especially looks very natural. It's good to occasionally do a figure which isn't violent or warlike in theme:



Here's a palette test on my Legionnaire. I'm having more doubts about my colour choices on him...



Maybe he'll look better once he's a little more fleshed out, and a little less primary. I'm thinking the blue could be more indigo.

Miniature Exchange

In my post last week I mentioned sending out several miniatures for the CoolMiniOrNot.com miniature exchange. Well, I just GOT some as well - from "Pigmented" in Pittsburgh! There are two but this cute little guy is the one I'll get started on first:



Yes, it's a mouse playing the accordion. You don't see that every day.