Tricky Things to Paint - Three Mythical Earth figures

I've been adding to my Minifigs ME (Mythical Earth) armies and finally steeled myself to paint up three figures that I've been dreading! Not because they are especially complicated or involved - far from it - but because no matter what you do with these guys they always look a bit... disappointing. 

Our Mighty Balrog! 

Here is the grand-daddy of them all - ME30 Balrog - mighty demon of fire and fume - servant of Morgoth and Durin's Bane. For those to whom such things are blissfully unfamiliar, this model is a mere 25mm tall and thus no bigger than a standard infantryman. Even by the dim light that was all we had in the early 1970s, this was something of a disappointment. For some reason the figure has been given the head of a lion, and unkind commentators have likened the sculptor's attempt to represent flames to teddy-bear fur. The rotters.

Not me though. As far as I'm concerned this is the definitive Balrog and I'll not hear a word said against it. It is - however - famously difficult to paint to make it look anywhere near convincing. As you can see, I've had a go, and I'm reasonably pleased with the result, considering it does look like a lion-man in a teddy-bear suit (ooops... curses... just forget I ever said that!). 

This particular example was missing his whip as many are. I've replaced it with wire and arranged it to look like the original, which was straight and cast integrally to the base. Most of us snipped this from the base and arranged the soft-lead whip into a more dangerously whippy shape. Which is why it's hard to find an original one that isn't broken, of course. I've done it this way because makes a more solid figure for gaming. Once I've convinced my opponent to stop teasing me about the size of my Balrog, that is. 

Black Rider he's so black

Number two on our list of the unpaintable is the Black Rider. What makes this fellow something of a challenge is that it's basically a chap wrapped in a black cowl and cloak riding a black horse with - yes you guess it - black gear. I've tried to give this one some interest by painting the horse, rider and kit in different shades of black... if there is really such a thing. 

The tricky thing about black is that any attempt at highlights will tend to make the result look grey, and you really can't win whatever you do. The best bet is to keep the highlights to a minimum and make the transition to black very short, but I've compromised a bit by painting in the folds of the rider's cloak. Our horse gets a light touch of brown, but over all... well it's a Black Rider and you can't change that without going seriously off piste... tangerine rider, taupe rider, teal rider, etc. 

Still black 

Here he is from the front. As you see, the horse has suffered the indignity of having a supporting pin inserted into his chest. The horse arrived with the front legs separated from the base, which makes a nice rearing pose but tends to result in the poor brute snapping its back legs. Rather than risk calamity, I decided to put the pin in to hold the piece nice and firm. And I painted it black. Seemed the thing to do. 

Hill Troll 

And finally, number three in todays paint challenge is the Hill Troll. Yes it is a Troll. No, he's no bigger than the usual 25mm figure. And that's correct, he appears to be armed with the kind of mallet you might have used to fix tent pegs with. What's that you ask? What is that in his left hand? Well, it's a mystery to me, although it does look like it might be a banana. I've painted both mallet and banana as iron just to give them a hint of menace: though how you can menace anyone with a banana I can't imagine (nor do I wish to be enlightened thank you).

For some reason this is a figure that often gets painted green, which I didn't much fancy and which didn't seem very true to The Lord of The Rings either. The skin texture is distinctive and I assume it represents a scaly hide covering the whole critter in a kind of scaly onesy. I mourn the lack of genitalia, but suspect I am alone in this respect. 

He's so scaly

In the end, I went with a brown drybrush keeping things fairly dark, followed by a bit of selective dry brushing with a lighter colour. I worked the face over to try and give it a slightly less cheerful countenance than that favoured by the sculptor. I have generally avoided dry brushing these old figures in favour of blending the paint, but in this case the skin texture just cried out for it. It's hard to think how else to tackle him to be honest.

I have a unit of twenty of these in the offing (this is a trial piece). Once they're finished, I think they'll have some battlefield presence despite the lack of colour. A dark presence admittedly. I suspect their leaders will approve. 

I've been lucky enough to get a batch of these with their - let's call them hammers - intact. More often they come without, as the handle is very thin and prone to breaking. It's tempting to convert a unit up with proper sized weapons and shields, but I'm not going to carve up examples  that have survived intact all these years. Give them their opportunity to wreak havoc I say. 

Indian Chariots

 

Indian Chariots led by their commander advance along a river bank

I've recently added a unit of Indian chariots to the Indian contingent of my Persian army. I've wanted to get my hands on some of these chariots for a while. When these came up on e-bay I bought them at once, not worrying too much about their condition. 

As they turned up

And lo and behold they duely arrived! I confess that the Minifigs 'S' range chariots are a bit of a mystery to me, and I can only assume this is 'Chariot 6 - Indian chariot' from the 72/73 catalogue. If these were ever supplied with a specific crew they have long since abandoned their duty and been replaced by the ever willing PB archer figure. 

The horses have been drilled and the yokes affixed into their flanks in imitation of the Airfix Britons. Much Araldite epoxy glue is in evidence! I  removed the card bases before remembering to take a pic.

In hot water!

So how do you disassemble models stuck together with epoxy glue fifty years ago? You drop them into boiling water! The hot water melts the expoxy glue and you can pull the pieces apart with a little effort, being careful not to get scalded! 

I was really trying to remove the horses and riders, leaving the chariots intact with the wheels and quivers in place. The axles had been cut down and wheels fastened hard against the chariot body. This wasn't going to be a perfect restoration by any means, so I decided against stripping out the wheels and replacing the axles. I know. So, lax. So, idle. 

Bits and pieces

So much Araldite! Still, it all came apart in the end. I guess the original owner had crammed in the archers to conform to the vogue ruleset of the day. I was going to have to come up with a driver for each chariot and I wanted to convert one into a general's chariot with a suitable commander figure.

ACH 9 it is

But first check the horse for the usual Minifigs 'S' range code under the base. ACH 9 Ancient Chariot Horse 9. This is simply listed as 'chariot horse' rather than any specific nationality, but it looks the part and I imagine it was the horse originally supplied. There is only the one design. We are talking Minifigs here - uniformity is the name of the game! 

A good Dettoling

Into the Dettol they go! Dettol is my 'go to' paint stripper and I've never found anything better. Old Humbrol enamel without undercoat comes away fairly easily after a couple of days in soak. Undercoats and some colours might take a bit longer and require repeat scrubbing with a tooth brush. Stubborn bits are picked out with a hefty needle. Glues and some undercoats can go sticky and need a bit more effort to wipe off, but most things just drop away given time. Rubber gloves, decorator's apron, and face mask recommended! 

The Dettol doesn't seem to harm the metal in anyway, but it's a good idea to give the figure a good scrub in hot soapy water to try (try...) and remove the inevitable Dettol pong.

As good as new

And as if by magic! As you can see, I've taken one of the chariots apart because parts were either especially lathered in glue or bits simply fell off along the way. I've also stripped some Greek slingers and a Poros figure that I had waiting in the wings. 

All the figures were cleaned up, removing mould lines and the usual 'clag' that no-one seemed to worry about much in those days. Such innocent times! 

Charioteers

Remember those Greek slingers? Well, here they are after a good de-slinging and green-stuffing in their new guise as charioteers. I've no idea what the original charioteer looked like, if indeed such a thing ever existed, but these chaps are very similar in overall build and appearance to the Indian PB infantry. I've tried to match the greenstuff to the Minifigs pre-putty sculpting style - not entirely successfully but it will pass. 

The lashes are just wire and I've rather overdone them to get the idea across.

Minifigs PBP Poros

The commander's chariot will provide a mount for my Indian 'sub-general' in the form of this PBP Poros model. This example came without a spear, so I've re-fashioned something like the original in the contemporary 'chunky' style.

He is for the chop

No self-respecting Indian commander goes anywhere without an attendant parasol bearer. This Greek staff slinger looks like he will provide a good basis for a suitable conversion.

Attendant attending

And here he is post surgery with greenstuff additions. I've tried to keep the changes in the Minifigs style as far as possible. These figures were originally carved from solder, which gives them a distinctive look that is hard to replicate using a soft putty. Still, we're not looking for museum quality here are we? Are we! 

Indian Commander 

The sub-general assembled and painted up. With these early Minifigs, I like to keep the schemes simple, and this seems to work well enough. I've not added reins and probably won't. We imagine reins don't we. 

Poros surveys the battlefield 

Based in my traditional mid-green on plain bases with no attempt to blend in the horses' bases. In the old school manner. For these larger and heavier pieces I prefer to use mdf bases rather than card - in this case from Warbases.

Blue chariot

The remaining three chariots each got painted in a distinct trim colour with different matched horses and a single archer. This is the blue one. 

The red one.

And lastly the yellow one. 

The commander's chariot crew painted up before I super-glued them into position. 

The three chariots finished bar a coat of gloss varnish in the old-school manner. 

Now all I need is a few more. The search contnues.