Monster Mayhem: Minotaur Lord

What's this? A non-Etsy model? What's going on?

With all three of the minis I ordered from Etsy still not delivered I was left scrambling around for more Monster May(hem) stuff to paint. Luckily I remembered buying this chap off Amazon a couple of years ago and found him on a shelf in the spare room.

Before I get onto the painting, I have to say that the difference between this Reaper model and the 3D prints I've been buying is incredible. I'm not going to dump on Reaper as I think they're a great mini company and I've bought and enjoyed painting tons of their figures over the past five years, but Jesus, that white plastic really didn't work well, did it? Soft details, bendy bits, parts that don't quite fit together, other parts that don't really fit together at all... painting the minotaur lord really brought home the quality of 3D printing. Reaper's newer black/grey plastic is much better, but 3D printing is pretty much the future. I'm trying to remember the last time I bought a Reaper figure, and I think it was in February, which is shocking given how many I'd get off Amazon every month.

Anyway, painting.

I glued him to a 60mm base and after spraying the minotaur black, I kicked off with a solid coat of Rhinox Hide all over his skin to give it a deep brown basecoat. After that it was on to highlighting, using thinned Dryad Bark and Mahogany Brown to bring out his muscles. When all that was dried, he got a coat of Reikland Fleshshade to tone things down a bit and keep the reddish look.

With his skin out of the way I hit his armour with Bronze. After getting it all nice and shiny, it was washed with Seraphim Sepia to bring out the details and give the Bronze a deeper tone. I used Brass and Gold to highlight it, and then gave the armour a second Seraphim Sepia wash to cut down on the shininess.

All the straps holding on the armour were painted Charcoal. I'd usually use browns but I didn't want them disappearing into his skin. They were highlighted with a mix of Charcoal and Neutral Grey and then some Dawnstone, and the buckles were done with Iron Warriors.

See how the haft of his weapon is bent? Yep, crappy white Reaper plastic. It's supposed to be straight but I wasn't even going to bother trying to fix it, and I think the minotaur having a whip topped by a whopping blade is pretty cool. His right hand is a separate piece, so I did the weapon with Charcoal, Iron Warriors, Leadblecher and Silver and then washed it with Nuln Oil. I'd already painted the hand, so it was just a case of gluing it in place, filling the gaps with greenstuff and then painting it to match the rest of the skin.

Onto the bone areas, which were basecoated with Bone Shadow and then given a coat of Bonewhite. I used a mix of Off-White and Bonewhite to highlight it, and then the curvy carvings in his horns were slowly filled in with thinned Seraphim Sepia. The horns were also separate pieces, but I stuck them on before I began painting because the gaps needed a lot of filling. The rings around the horns were done the same way as his armour.

The bull's head on his shoulder pad and his tabard were both painted with Thousand Sons and then highlighted with a mix of Ahriman Blue and White. The hair on his head and tail were done with Charcoal and Dawnstone.

And now for the base. I was totally stuck for ideas, except I didn't want to do a grassy base as I thought it wouldn't suit the figure. I went with sand/desert, using a bag of small yellow stones I picked up at Michael's a few years back. The base was plastered with Mod Podge and the stones were dumped on, and the next morning I shook off the loose stones and gave the base another coat of Mod Podge to seal everything on.

One of the fun things about this hobby is painting real things to look like real things. The stones were given a once-over with XV-88 and a topcoat of Zandri Dust before being highlighted with Karak Stone. Once dry it was washed with Seraphim Sepia, and I stuck a few desert tufts on to break up the stony look.

More monsters to come!

Monster May(hem) might have only one day to go, but I have another post to write and I'm still working on a whopper of a Reaper mini. Stay tuned!