Stone Giant from Grenadier Troll

One of the miniatures that I recently painted was a cockatrice.  One of my faithful blog readers, Jay, suggested that it would make a good pet for a giant.  I liked that idea and since a cockatrice has a gaze that can turn someone to stone, I figured a stone giant would be the best choice.   I wasn't able to pick up an ideal stone giant miniature, but I found this figure from Grenadier's second Fantasy Lords line, that was meant to be a troll.  I guess he might be small for a giant, but I thought he could make an interesting stone giant with some type of visor in case the cockatrice had any other gaze attacks.  He's not taking any chances. 

Here he is with his "pet."  Should make for a fun encounter.

Here's how he looked when I bought him.

And after soaking in Simple Green for a while:

I primed this figure in grey which I rarely do, and it reminded me of why I generally prefer a white primer.  It really has a dulling effect on colors, which I think worked fine here, but most of the time, it's not for me.

Thanks to Jay for reading and for the idea!

Asgard Cockatrice FM12

If you've been following my blog since it started, you'll know that I'm a big fan of Asgard Miniatures, particularly there line of fantasy monsters.  There's just something charming about them.  I just got a chance to paint Asgard's cockatrice, that mythological creature that is a mixture of a rooster and a dragon.  According to the Lost Minis Wiki, they made two versions of this creature and this is version 1.  I've never seen the other and the wiki only has a drawing. 

Most cockatrice miniatures have a more menacing, usually more draconic head.  The fact that this one's head looks like a regular old rooster sets it apart.

I'm most happy with the rooster part.  I think that part turned out well.  The body is ok.  It didn't have much texture so I painted it by stippling various shades of green.  The wings on the other hand didn't turn out as well as I had hoped they would.  If I had to do it over I think I would use more naturalistic colors, rather than the green I went with here.  Oh well.

Some in progress shots: you can see I had to patch a hole in one wing with with greenstuff.

I had a lot of fun painting this beasty and I'm anxious to get back to my painting table, but I'm not sure what's next, so stay tuned.