Friday 22 February 2019

Mer-Man

Mer-Man was always one of my favourite Masters of the Universe characters when I was a young kid, and I am pleased to have painted him up for tabletop gaming as a much older kid!

Ruler of the undersea realms of Eternia, Mer-Man was forced to serve in the armies of Skeletor after his kingdom was destroyed in a battle with rival ocean clans. His allegiance with Skeletor brings him to the surface world more often then he would like. Lurking deep beneath the Sea of Rakash, Mer-Man awaits the evil call to arms of Skeletor!

The miniature is from Quest Miniatures, from their second wave; it is a lot nicer sculpt than then last one I painted (Moss Man from wave 3), and therefore a more enjoyable painting experience - the sculptor of this and the other wave 1 and 2 minis is Boris Woloszyn and I love his evocation of a MotU style, and think his approach is a wonderful fit to the genre (I suspect design choices of weapons were down to Quest Miniatures rather than the sculptor). The only change i made was replacing the spear haft with brass rod.

Finishing Mer-Man brings me to three painted Evil Warriors so far, along with Skeletor and Beast Man. Hopefully I can get a couple more Evil Warriors done soon before turning my attention back to the Heroic Warriors.

Although Mer-Man is often portrayed as somewhat cowardly he also has a history of being an Ocean Warlord, which I have tried to reflect in the rules I did for my personal MotU skirmish game. I need a few more painted up to get started with gaming so it is certainly time to motivate myself.

Sunday 3 February 2019

Moss Man

Moss Man is the latest in my very sporadic Masters of the Universe (MotU) Project. With much of 2018 focused on developing my own range of minis, painting took something of  back seat to those preparations. I wanted an easy win to get my 2019 painting started (a month late no less!), so this sculpt of Moss Man from Quest Miniatures fit that bill.

Unfortunately Moss Man is not sculpted by the same person who did the first dozen or so MotU minis from Quest, so it looks a little static in comparison as well as having a different sculpting style. In addition, it is possibly half a head short compared to the rest of the line, and I wish it had the action figure's mace.

Nonetheless, tackling Moss Man made for a quick paint job all told as I went for something basic, with some washes, dry-brushing and picked out highlights, and that means I can tick another off the 'to be painted' list.

With my current painting being so sporadic I am not committing to a He-Month like last year as I dismally failed to meet my own expectations; instead I will paint more MotU-related minis as I get the motivation.

Moss Man is an ancient good of nature in MotU lore, so I have tried to reflect that in the rules I have written for my personal rules set. To find out more about the rules, or other fan-made creations, feel free to look me up on Facebook.