Evil Warriors (MotU)

Here together are my first six Evil Warriors for my MotU project: Skeletor, Beast Man, Mer-Man, Hordak (Spirit) and two Shadow Beasts.

I have written a set of rules for Masters of the Universe gaming, and in those characters are rated in value in terms of Power - this group is neatly 400 Power. Skeletor is the most powerful, with magic and abilities representing his dark lord aspects. Mer-Man, Beast Man and the Shadow Beasts are the muscle of the Band. Finally, Hordak (in his spirit form) acts a buffer to the Leader (Skeletor), and has some magic at his disposal, but he cannot resolve objectives or count as a scoring unit.

I have started work on Trap Jaw too, but I really need to add some more Heroic Warriors to get enough models to field two bands to face each other.

Hordak (Spirit Form)

While scanning various bit of canon and background information on Masters of the Universe, I came across a Hordak action figure (which you can see below the painted mini pics) representing him in spirit form when he corrupts Keldor to eventually become Skeletor. This is before Hordak consolidates his power on Etheria or invades Eternia, having been banished from Eternia long in the past.

Now before you have doubts, I promise I don't collect action figures these days - I am a proper grown up who plays with toy soldiers! Pew-pew!

I managed to snag a couple of different interpretations of Hordak from private commissions, and was able to get more than one copy of this one. When I found out about the Hordak in spirit form, my mental cog (just the one!) slowly started turning, and found a use for the extra copy of the mini.

The painting for this Hordak was a process I don't normally use - essentially mostly glazes and washes. I looked up some processes used by other hobbyists for painting their LotR Army of the Dead minis.

The mini was undercoated with my usual grey primer, with additional priming in white from directly overhead. I then used 4 or 5 various red washes, choosing different shades for different areas of the mini, as well as a little Ogryn Flesh and some Tamiya Clear Red. There was some regular painting involved, but mostly the mini was coloured with washes and glazes. The overall effect is certainly a little more pink overall than I envisaged or wanted when I thought about using washes/glazes, but nonetheless I think I am generally happy with how it turned out. I am not sure what i would really do differently and won't likely be revisiting it now.

In building rules to represent this form of Hordak, I found it took a few attempts to get right what should essentially be a 'spirit adviser' Consequently, in this form Hordak is counted as an Evil Warrior instead of a member of the Evil Horde since he is manipulating Skeletor to free him from the dimension of Despondos.

Shadow Beasts (MotU)

These Shadow Beasts are part of a private commission from which I was really fortunate enough to be able to get copies, and I am very glad that I did. They were nice and simple to paint, just the kind of welcome diversion from my recent painting block. They also mean that I can tick off a couple more minis for my MotU Project.

The Shadow Beasts were featured in the original He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon, as well the 2002 cartoon of the same name. They are large ape-like beasts living throughout the dark hemisphere. With their great strength and stealthy appearance, Shadow Beasts are described as more than a match for most heroic warriors.

The painting was done in a few hours, but broken into smaller chunks of time, so in reality maybe 2 to 3 hours in total. They were mainly dry-brushed with some washes here and there, and highlights added to hands and feet. It was nice to have a couple of minis done so quickly. the colour scheme was mainly influenced by the Masters of the Universe Classics version action figure from recent years.

I had originally intended to use Shadow Beasts and other creatures as 'wandering monster' types in MotU games, but subsequently decided that they would be best used as an option to be used alongside Beast Man so I adjusted my plans for them accordingly. Now they can only used if Beast Man (or another Beast Controller character) is in the same Band, which feels right to me.

Mimic (2) & Treasure Chest Markers

It feels good to get something finished, even simple stuff like these Treasure Chest Markers and another Mimic. They were started in December to try and get myself out of the rut that marked much of my 2018 hobby output, but they never got finished in that month as planned, so with a bit of time spare i decided to crack on with them.

I finished the metal-work on the last Treasure Chest this week which meant I could finally finish the basing on all of them collectively and get them cleared from my backlog.

The Mimic is from a Krakon Games Kickstarter (not sure if is on their store yet), and is my second Mimic (after this one from Reaper Bones).

I intend to eventually use it with my other Mimic and the Treasure Chest Markers in either some 28 mm dungeon-based Fantasy Gaming or Chibi Fantasy gaming.