Finally found the time to finish up my partner's requested/demanded pink Golden Axe skeleton for Advanced Heroquest. Well, I say he's for AHQ but he'll most likely end up on the bedroom shelf where he can wave his (or her?) sword encouragingly while my partner does her makeup.
The Skeletoon (not a typo) miniature itself is a nice little metal one from Ral Partha. It's probably old enough to be considered "Oldhammer", though I'm not as familiar with their ranges as I am with Citadel to be honest. But, I'm pretty sure he's as 80s as my old swollen-tongued high-top trainers.
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| Here he is in the MDF ruins of a 20th Century house. Not very Golden Axe-y, but that's (un)life for you. |
What I love about Ral Partha though is that they've kept a lot of their sometimes very old models in production, and at what you'd nowadays call bargain prices. I even bought their ancient Jabberwock recently (newly cast!) for about seven British gold coins. Amazing.
The Jabberwock is a model I've loved ever since I saw John Blanche cut its head off for use in an undead diorama in the inside cover of the "blue" Citadel Painting Guide pamphlet. I spent ages poring over that one, and I know every tiny detail, it's so evocative. Mr Blanche had cut the Jabberwock's head off at the neck so that it looked like a water monster rearing out a pool of foul water, about to snap the head off a dumbly aghast zombie. Probably not the tastiest meal, I (try not to) imagine.
The Ral Partha figures also sit really nicely alongside the 80s era Citadel ones, though perhaps they're sometimes slightly slimmer and with smaller heads and hands than Citadel's. Back in the day it was common to see Grenadier and Ral Partha miniatures in Warhammer armies and they even occasionally appeared in official Games Workshop publications/rule books! Inconceivable today.
Anyway, back to my (i.e. my partner's) Pinken Axe skeleton. The Ral Partha miniature was the closest I found to the Golden Axe sprite, even if a skeleton with a round shield and weapon is about as generic as you can get. It would ultimately be the paintjob that would seal it as a tiny 3D replica of his pixelated granddaddy.
Basically, I heavily drybrushed it with the infamously kinky sounding Titillating Pink over black, added a dark wash, carefully glazed it like the top of a mince pie with a thin glaze of red ink, then highlighted from there with white blah blah blah. In other words, just like in middle-era White Dwarf issues: undercoat > base coat > shade > highlight > complete. Perfect Mike McVey results every time, hahaha!
My partner also asked for a "raspberry red shield", so I did that too (can't remember what paints I used, but Clotted Blood something or other by some company or other), I think it looks perfect! The "pink" though, it lost some of the vibrant pinkiness after the highlighting. I may add another very very thin glaze of red ink to soften the highlights and get some titillation back again.
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| The originals. Image taken from VGJunk. |
