The Mass in the Cauldron pt. 7- Ogre Treasure Hunters!

 

Ogre Treasure Hunters!

The next thing I've been working on for the Mass in the Cauldron is a set of NPCs for the scenario. Like most anyone in this hobby, I of course have a backlog of miniatures that I haven't gotten to painting, so I ended up writing in two sets of NPCs in the scenario based on a couple sets of minis I'd purchased without really having a project or army in mind. First up- the set of Wargames Atlantic Landsknecht Ogres. I was soo delighted to find these physically in stock at Sanctorium Games in NJ last year and couldn't resist buying them. How can you not love a big stocky ogre in flamboyant slashed landsknecht clothes? I wrote them in as Ogre Treasure Hunters, prowling over the Mass in search of unearthly artifacts and riches. 

The perfectly tempting box of ogres

I have to say that building these guys was a real pain. Part of it is on me, for not using plastic cement (thanks Philly Indie Tabletop for the reminder there) but anything with a two-handed weapon is usually a hassle.

Side note on SAFETY- while adding magnets to the bases, two magnets jumped together while covered in liquid superglue. A tiny drop got in my eye- which meant spending most of the next day at the eye ER! I'm fine, but I'm going to wear safety glasses when gluing down magnets from here on out- so the safety minded shop teacher in me wants to share that recommendation....

Assembled ogres at great cost to my eye and my patience

From there, just painting away. I tend to use gesso on bases and dip the whole model into scale gravel to get texture, and I wanted to use a few more bits to give these guys a feel like they're part of the Mass. Because of my aversion to spray paint, I just brush-prime things with the Vallejo primer, but it works pretty well. I try to be a fussy painter, but my patience has limits and I'm feeling the need to get these guys done. 

     

Quick bit of basecoating

I'm pretty straightforward with painting- basecoat, washes on each color, then mix up highlights and do what I can there. On a real showpiece I'll try to do two rounds of highlights, but I wanted to work fast on these guys. 

Washed and ready for highlights

Then just drybrush the bases with the same mix of colors I've been using on the tokens. I was going back and forth and considering doing the bases in my usual goblin green so they'd work for other later fantasy game scenarios, but I decided in favor of keeping the Mass looking cohesive and I'm pretty happy with it. I always debate whether to do overall drybrushing on the model after doing all those highlights, but more often than not, a quick, light drybrush with Vallejo Ice Yellow makes everything look so much sharper and more unified. 

        

Two finished ogres. 

Then I ran downstairs and immediately set up my toys on my board and took pictures because WHY ELSE ARE WE DOING THIS??? Very excited about these guys. I've got another round of NPCs to get done, but I'll be traveling for the next week so things will be a little sparse on posting. Gonna try to get some layout done for the scenario guidelines while I'm away, though. 

As always, thanks for reading and more coming soon!