A pyramid in the jungle

The big thing from the cellar is ready, and I must say (for once) that I am quite happy with the result.
Today, the attraction of this blog is a scratch-built Maya pyramid (ta-daam) !

In the previous post, the pyramid was built with polystyren and painted with yellow ochre as a base color. The next stage was to lighten step by step the base color, then add some traces of vegetation - not too much, so that it could be use as an active temple and as an antique building.
Well, if I wanted to be really accurate, I should have covered the building with plaster painted mainly in red - that's what the Mayan pyramid mostly looked like when they were still in service.

You can see the result below:

The enlightement was achieved through several drybrushes (with more and more white added to the base color), except that I also had to paint a lighter line on the top of every stone - a bit long but necessary.
Adding the vegetation was easy: some green paint, green flocking and a little bit of lichen.

The most difficult was to create a scene looking like a primary forest with only a few modelling trees... see for yourself:

That pyramid is a good spot for saurus...

The last picture in cinemascope: Maya-Toltecs vs Aztec invaders.

It's my first serious attempt at building some scenery element, I think I should build a few more, what do you think ? Maybe some houses for my Vikings, or my Rohirrim :)

Meanwhile, in the cellar...

... something big is being prepared!

A mysterious plan

Many parts needed and cut

 Big enough for Lizardmen in 28mm

Even bigger for 20mm Mayas

After glueing, the stones are drawn with a pen (the longest step)

Some sculpting on the rooftop

The painting begins - Yellow Ocre as a base

To be continued.

Maya warriors

As promised yesterday, I've begun to paint some more Mayas. Yes, this time I've painted something historical that was already on my desk, and in 1/72!

Let's have a look:

You've already seen the slingers on this blog, which means that only the two lancers have been painted today - they were on yesterday's last picture.

Let's show more pictures of these men:

It's not that easy to paint Mayas from the Classical period (250 AD to 900 AD). First of all, there is not a lot of documentation on the web, and if you appreciate to work with original sources (as I do), you arrive very quickly to the reproductions of the Bonampak fresco, such as these:

This one is a reproduction

These walls were painted in 790 AD. They represent court scenes, and a ritual celebration for victory in battle. We can see mainly nobles, prisoners, and warriors - but should we suppose that they wear special ritual outfits ? Anyway, we see that the clothes are mainly white, yellow, red, sometimes green or black. Most feathers are green, but you can find many colorful birds in the tropical forest, so I assume that red, white and black feathers are rather common, and blue feathers are also accurate.

Many nobles also wear leopard skin, which I will paint later - remember, I'm starting again, so easy painting first :)

Another typical feature of these warriors are the stone necklaces, and probably gold for the richest among them.

A few more pictures of the figures:

Hope you like them :)

... A Deep One Hybrid !

Hello dear fellow painters and gamers. I really thank you for your comments and contributions in the previous post, it helped me to find some strength and inspiration, although the result is a bit... unexpected.

At the last rank of the minis on my desk, there was a figure from a boardgame, Mansions of Madness, a cooperation game in the universe of HP Lovecraft. I was looking for something easy to paint, and I think I found a good way.

Let's have a look:

Ok, he looks like a fat, ordinary man, but this dark creature is a Deep One hybrid, the result of the union of a Deep One (an ocean-dwelling creature, half fish and half humanoid, described in HPL's novella "The Shadow over Innsmouth ) and a Human. Look at this fishy face:

This is the game this mini comes from:

In this game, a team of 1 to 5 players have to investigate in a manor, a strange village or a deep jungle to solve a mystery and/or repell horrible creatures from this world before getting insane, and believe me, it is very easy in this game :). The game is app-driven, which means that all players have to cooperate to succeed...

The Deep One hybrid comes from the core set, and is one of the "ordinary" monsters (not the boss of the level).

Profond hybride is the french for Deep One Hybrid

I've glued this mini on a transparent base, so that you can always see the nicely painted board elements.

This guy was painted this afternoon, while my daughter Hatshepjuju put her own brushes on a chaotic creature.

Hum, the picture is chaotic too...

For those of you who look forward to new 1/72 historical minis, do not despair! I carefully read your proposals, and the second winners after the Deep One Hybrid are the Mayas! Work in progress.

Hope you will want to know more about Deep Ones and Lovecraftian adventures :)

Mayan slingers

One of the projects of the year is to paint a Mayan army for DBA / AdG (l'Art de la Guerre, a very promising ruleset, I must test it as soon as possible).

I already painted two slingers some time ago, but it was before I learned to use the washes to speed the process of painting. I recently painted a third one with that more recent technique (recent for me, I mean). The result is visible on the pictures below, what do you think ?

In my opinion, the contrast is much better with the new technique, and more efficient in a battle scene.

I can't wait to keep on painting this army: with their colored feathers and their leopard skins, they might become one of the jewels of the collection :), and I would really like to use them against my Aztec army.

Minis by Caesar (the best manufacturer concerning the anatomy), pictures by my daughter Hatshepju !

PS: Oh yes, the plastic plants are a poor attempt at creating a tropical forest atmosphere. I visited Yucatan some years ago, I know what it should look like :)