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.

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.

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.

Beast Man

Beast Man joins the ranks of Skeletor's Evil Warriors as my Masters of the Universe Project makes slow but fairly steady progress, and means I have painted two minis for He-Month so far. With two Evil Warriors now finished, I think Orko is due for some reinforcements soon!

In-keeping with many Masters of the Universe characters, Beast Man has a typically bonkers colour scheme, including an orange-blue discord and red side by side with orange - if, for example, I was painting a random generic superhero or space-farer mini they are not colour combinations I would consider!

I have tried to remain fairly faithful to colour scheme depicted in the 1980's Masters of the Universe cartoon as that is clearly the primary design inspiration for the sculpt (available from Qminis' Etsy store - click for link), although I tried to differentiate the two types areas of red a little (torso piece in contrast to the boots and arm bands), and the two areas of blue (fur trunks and the amulet thing-y).

While not my best painting, I did enjoy being able to finish the mini in an afternoon, and overall I am pleased with how it turned out.

The bottom image is Beast Man's game card for the personal set of Masters of the Universe skirmish rules. The first draft is complete and I hope to get some games in with the rules in the next few weeks.

Skeletor

Skeletor is the second painted mini for my Masters of the Universe Project (after Orko), and  my first for He-Month.

My order from Qminis (click for link to Qminis Etsy store) arrived mid-week, but then I was hit by a heavy cold, so I didn't feel up to prepping minis until yesterday. I put together Skeletor, Man-At-Arms, Beastman and my four Hover Robot proxies, then tackled painting Skeletor today.

The paint scheme is super-simple, mostly influenced by the original toy and the 1983 cartoon, although I painted the shaft of Skeletor's Havoc Staff in near black to break things up a little.

The Qminis sculpts are clearly based primarily on the 1980's Filmation He-Man and the Masters of the Universe cartoon rather than the original figure line, and this keeps them mostly nice and straightforward to paint (not that the action figures were especially fussy in their designs).

I think Skeletor has a really visually distinctive design even over thirty five years on, stronger than his rivals Hordak and especially King Hiss. And I am glad the mini kept to the classic elements.

I have nearly finished my first draft rules for Masters of the Universe gaming, and the bottom is the game card I have done for Skeletor. He-Man will be a better warrior, while Skeletor is more crafty and cunning, and of course is a master sorcerer.

Finally, if you are looking for MotU minis and proxies, I did a post earlier in the week giving a list of options (click for link).

Miniature Masters of the Universe

While painting and writing continues for He-Month, I thought it an opportune moment to round up some useful links for anyone looking for suitable minis  - some of the examples may need a bit of conversion work to get them 'right'.

None of the pictures below are my painted minis, they are form the various manufacturers.

Qminis - (click for Etsy store link)

Producing: He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela, Skeletor, Evil Lyn and Beastman
Perfect for Masters of the Universe fans, Qminis have plans for more waves in the next couple of months onward, filling out the ranks of the classics first then moving on to other fan-favourites

Kaha Miniatures - (click for store link)

The Lord of Destruction (click for  link) looks like a good stand-in for Skeletor, and keep an eye on their store for future offerings

Heresy Miniatures - (click for store link)

This Norko miniature makes a good stand-in for Orko

RN Estudio - (click for store link)

This Fantasy Football player could be a He-Man proxy

Achtung Cthulhu - (click for store link)

(suggested by Kieron)
A potential stand-in for Mer-Man

Killer B Miniatures - (click for store link)

(suggested by White Knight)
This Mecha-Man miniature could stand in for Skeletor's Hover Robots from the Filmation cartoon

Grenadier

A fairly wide range of licensed Masters of the Universe minis from back in the 1980's, still to be found via Ebay, trading, and good fortune!

By the Power of Grayskull - He-Month!

Welcome to He-Month!

With thanks for the inspiration to Carrion Crow and Rantings from under the Wargames table (click for links), and apologies to both for nicking the He-Month tag, Kieron of Cheaphammer (click for link) and myself are launching into He-Month.

Each of us is tackling He-Month in a slightly different way, but safe to say there will be painted minis and there will be rules for gaming.

I started writing a rules draft for personal use last month when I had some days off, and made some good headway. That in turn spurred me to paint my Orko proxy and suffice it to say orders have been placed to fine purveyors of minis across the interwebz.

I hope to have both a rule-set and at least four more minis painted by month's end, so expect the blog to have a very Eternia-centric focus for the next few weeks. You can see a sample game card above for what I am working on.

Stay tuned to see how He-Month unfolds!

Orko

New year, new project, as Orko is the inaugural mini in what I hope to build as a Masters of the Universe (MotU) Project.

Before continuing I just wanted to apologise to other bloggers for not commenting on your posts in the past couple of months as I have been in something of a hobby slump on the painting side of things.

So a new project eh? Simply put - yes! MotU is one of my grail IPs along with DC Comics, Marvel Comics, G.I. Joe and Star Wars. I see FFG are doing an excellent looking game with Star Wars Legion, but I don't have the appetite for mass-battle painting, so I am passing on that, but recently I have started to look at options for MotU and when more have materialised, a plan was hatched!

This mini is a Halfling Wizard from the excellent Heresy Miniatures. Although not an exact likeness of Orko from the 80's MotU cartoons (and soon after made into an action figure when he became a popular character), he was close enough for my needs. Like most characters made into action figures, Orko's look has evolved over the years, and so I took some hints from a few different versions in painting him. Strangely enough, I probably like the character more than I did as a youngster when he lacked the cool factor of He-Man, Man-At-Arms, Teela et al.

I bought the mini years ago and he sat in the minis pile for far too long. When I finally tackled him, Orko was actually painted quickly by my standards, in a couple of sittings yesterday afternoon. The only change I made to the mini was to snip away the long hair it had at its back. Unfortunately the paint-on varnish came out a bit shiny but I can live with that (weather too poor to use my usual Purity Seal).

I have a few other minis on order to represent other classic MotU characters, and I have already started gaming plans, which has involved writing a game and I think I will find a use for that dungeon terrain I showed in a post a couple of months ago (which could be tunnels beneath Castle Grayskull, Snake Mountain or Castle Eternia).