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Black Crow Miniatures – Grunthal IV

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Another week and another update on Grunthal which continues to progress at a decent pace for a display project anyway. I worked on a couple different parts this time around including his braids along the side of his head and his metal arm band and nose ring. I’ve also started his horn earrings (!) which are probably the part I’m most worried about getting right besides the eyes. They are very much a WIP and expect some changes when you see them next time as they need quite a bit more work still. Perhaps the most interesting to mention is that I tried to add a secondary reflection on the metal armband which you can see below along the bottom of the metal.

Its subtle but it does make it look more shiny and reflective which is what I wanted. Dwarves prize having nice metal after all! I want to get better at secondary reflections in general as I think they really up the realism of metallic surfaces. If you were curious, I used this rolled up sheet of galvanized steel for inspiration.

There’s more metal to paint on the horns and I’ll see if I can’t capture a bit of the texture of the steel when I get around to it. Here’s a look at the bust from a couple of other angles.

The only reservation that I have at this point is that I’m not sure I balanced warm and cold colors very well on this miniature. Its hard because bones and tusks don’t have a lot of variety. They tend to be like either how I painted them or they’re painted using the “Tomb King” paint colors that Citadel makes (Screaming Skull, Ushtabi Bone, and Seraphim Sepia as a wash or glaze) so not a lot of choice there. We’ll see how the miniature looks once I get the horns finished as then there’s only the hair and fur to go.

The only other thing is worth mentioning is that I have continued to play Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition and mostly had a great time. One thing I’ve realized is that the game is really meant to be played with four heroes. I was trying to use three because it seemed like it would be easier to manage but honestly playing four on my own has been fun and provides a bit more tactical options. The game has support heroes (who generally make the rest of the team stronger) and damage dealers who are good at dealing with the boss and their minions who you need to take down to win. Having four heroes on the team makes it easier to balance the two hero types as well.

One thing that is true about wargames that is doubly true for card games is that there is a ton of variety in Sentinels so you can hopefully never get tired of it. In miniature wargames, if you have a large collection for a game, then you can always try different combinations for the factions you own in varying scenarios. In Sentinels, you have a ton of different hero combinations you can try in each team. There are also 6-7 supervillains in the base game. On top of that, each one has Advanced rule (which is basically a hard mode) and the bosses have special events which also look to provide a fresh challenge. So all that is to say, I’ve got tons more to play through and I’m in a good place with having Sentinels, Hellboy, and Fallout Wasteland Warfare. I’m sure there are other games out there I’d enjoy playing but I think for the time being, I’ve got a nice balance of lighter games to a heavier and more involved game with Fallout. I have noticed that there aren’t a lot of guides out there on Sentinels of the Multiverse: Definitive Edition so I am tempted to write some as I get more experience with the game. I’m not sure how many of the regular commenters will find it interesting but it might get my website in front of a new group of people so we’ll see if I actually follow through on this idea in the coming weeks or not.

14 thoughts on “Black Crow Miniatures – Grunthal IV”

  1. Great progress on the Dwarf bust Jeff, the secondary reflection looks good and adds another dimension. Curious have you decided on a fur colour yet, as that will make a huge difference to the model, and will it be something patterned ?

    Good that you are still enjoying Sentinels, and it has given you a different type of gaming to the other two, and that it has plenty of scope for variation. As for the guide to it, I always read everything you write, and at the end of the day it’s your blog, so put in what you want, no one will moan about it ! LOL

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    1. Thank you, Dave, and experimenting with secondary highlights is long overdue so I’m glad to finally give it a try.

      The fur question is an excellent one. I don’t know what I’m going to do at this point. I may ask some painting friends to get some ideas. The sculpting of the fur is unique in that I’ve never seen fur patterns like this. That could be because I haven’t painted many busts though to be fair. My original thought was to do grizzly bear fur though most people have done something that looks close to wolf or fox’s fur. What is maddening is that nobody takes pictures of the back of this miniature so its hard to get a look at what people have done. I do agree that the fur is going to be very important to the overall miniature and I wouldn’t rule out that I go back and repaint a part or two to add more visual variety to the mini as a whole either. I’m certainly mentally prepared for that.

      All I can say is that you absolutely do read everything and I truly appreciate it. The question will be if I can find the time to write about it as I just stopped writing on one website due to lack of time so we’ll see if I can actually manage it or not and what kind of response it gets (from random people on the internet). Those two things will determine whether I get very far with the idea or not.

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      1. With the long lengths of the fur, I was thinking last night what would fit, be interesting, and also help frame the face. I came up with two ideas, snow leopard, this is the easier one of the two, or a Siberian Tiger, if your feeling really adventurous ! LOL

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      2. This suggestion is the equivalent of throwing me into the deep end of the pool haha! I do like your thinking and there’s little doubt that tiger fur would look striking on this miniature. I’ll keep mulling this over and we’ll see what I come up with in relatively short order, I imagine.

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    1. Thank you, John! You aren’t missing anything. Your observation is completely correct. In larger scales, especially busts, its very common to see people paint with more extreme lighting than in smaller scales. That’s why you see that going on here 🙂

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  4. Grunthal is looking excellent, I really like the NMM of the arm ring, I think the secondary reflection is excellent it’s not obviously noticeable but some how just makes it look more realistic.
    Looking forward to seeing more work on the horns.

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  6. That’s some terrific progress on old Grunthal there. I love to watch your minis as you post each step; I’m sure that you put more work into each tiny bit than I do into a whole mini – and in fairness you can see the difference. Those metallics are just amazing, well done.

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