Monster Mayhem: Fungal Troll

I've finally got around to finishing what was going to be my first entry to this year's Monster May(hem) challenge until I got annoyed with it and did the Jötunn Moder instead.

I wanted a troll (or two) to go with my night goblins. I do like the "official" Games Workshop trolls troggoths, but I decided to stick to Etsy and after a bit of searching I found this chap. He did take a while to paint as there's a ton of details on him, but he was well worth it.

After gluing him to a 60mm base I sprayed him with grey primer. I wanted a blue-green look for his skin, so I kicked off the actual painting with a couple of thin coats of Incubi Darkness. From there I switched to a heavy overbrush with Turquoise, a lighter overbrush with Light Turquoise and then a final drybrush with Sybarite Green. The skin didn't take too long and came out looking pretty good.

Of course now I have to paint over a chunk of the skin to do his belly, chest and chin tones. I started with Tan, a nice red-brown, and once it was dry I went over it with Green Ochre and then a drybrush with Beige. A final light drybrush with Buff gave me the yellowy look I was after, and I used thinned Carroburg Crimson to fill in the creases in his skin and make them more visible. Some Dorn Yellow coloured his boils nicely, and to finish it off I thinned more Green Ochre and used it to try to make a transition from the green-blue to the yellow.

I really wanted to add some warmth to his skin so I went for a reddish tinge on his nose and in his ears, using more Carroburg Crimson mixed with Vallejo Glaze Medium. I think it looks OK.

The troll itself is basically done, so now it's onto the details. Oh God, the details.

First to be done was the... frog? squig? I'll call it a squog... over his shoulder. I thought about doing it in very dark colours but changed my mind and went bright instead. I used Warpfiend Grey as a basecoat for its belly and highlighted it with Slaanesh Grey, and then added some Ghost Grey to do the final highlights. 

The squog's upper body was given a few thin coats of Mephiston Red before being highlighted with Vermilion and Wild Rider Red, and then a glaze of Bloodletter. All the raised spot things on its back were dotted with Black, and then it was just a case of painting its eyes Averland Sunset and Yriel Yellow and adding a dot for the pupil.

Mushrooms. Bloody mushrooms. There's loads of 'em. I went for a violet/purple look because I like the idea of this troll being a walking brewery for gobbo beer. All of them were painted Violet and then given highlights of Hexed Lichen and Purple. The raised bits had to be painted White before getting a couple of coats of Yellow Green to make them really pop and give them a solid fantasy look. Needless to say, this was the bit that drove me insane and made me stop working on it and painting the Jötunn Moder instead.

When I came back to the troll, I finished the 'shrooms by doing their understalks with Forest Flesh, highlighted with some Beige and Buff.

His loincloth is just Rhinox Hide, Chocolate and Mahogany browns, Agrax Earthshade and Flat Earth.

The final part was his club and right hand, which is a separate piece. The club was painted Dryad Bark all over, and the wooden bits were highlighted with Mahogany Brown. The fungus covering 90% of it was given a couple of coats of Tau Light Ochre before being thoroughly washed with a mix of Casandora Yellow and Fuegan Orange to bring out the orange a bit more. 

I added the little dots using a cocktail stick dipped in Buff, and then painted his hand to match the rest of his body. After gluing it on, I used some modelling paste to fill the gap and painted it.

His base is so simple it's embarrassing. I made it look like the bases of my night goblins with sand painted to look like stone, and I added a couple of chunks of cork to act as rocks and some mushrooms (more bloody mushrooms). And he was done!

Here he is with some of his gobbo friends. I'm really happy with how he looks, and I think the bright red squog works well as a contrast with all the blue, green and purple. 

So that's entry two for Monster May(hem) done! Stay tuned for more!