Wildspire Miniatures: Cultists, Harpies and Ghouls

I'm enjoying painting these Wildspire Miniatures, so here's twelve more.

Since painting the previous minis I've downloaded the PDF of stat blocks from the Wildspire website. There's artwork to accompany each creature, which helped me interpret the detail on some of the minis.

The next batch

Cultists 

A good example of me benefiting from seeing the artwork.

The unpainted minis are busy. There's a lot going on, with texture on the legs, which I thought might be straw, giving a sort of 'Straw Bear' vibe, for the legs at least. There's something strange going on with the belt too, and the head is covered with some sort of fringed hood.

Well the picture makes it clearer (it's not straw, it's a fur fringe along the top of the boots), although the detail doesn't always transfer well to the mini.

In the end I came up with my own interpretation. I chose to paint the fringed hood as hair with a hood on top. Close examination suggests that this wasn't the intention (unless the cultists have really long nasal hair - yuk).

I chose to ignore the gloves and treat them as bare flesh with the cuffs being some form of strapping. The manacles help sell the effect.

Painting was straightforward. I aimed for dull coloured clothing, but emphasised the cult elements with bright red.

I wanted them to look like ordinary folk who occasionally put on the red hood, ritual belt (and perhaps the sacred Ugg Boots) for 'club night'. "Honestly dear, it's just a group of lads getting together for a drink or two and some singing and dancing". Maybe the manacles and leg irons are explained away as percussion, or perhaps it's a stag do?

They are certainly not my favourite minis in the box, but I've grown to like them. The 'prison accessories' suggests that they may be worshipers of Torog, which fits nicely into my current D&D campaign.

The Cult at large

Harpies 

These are one of two flying creatures in the set. They look pretty straightforward, though it might be tricky getting the brush in behind those wings.

They were the worst minis so far for mould lines, particularly along the arms and legs. A combination of knife, file and wet and dry paper (thanks Dave) reduced them somewhat, and I suspect my earlier difficulty trimming them might be due to dull blades.

I approached them as standard female minis, so VGC Dwarf Flesh, AP Flesh Wash, reset, then Pale Flesh for skin tones. Various mostly light colours for the tunic, with some extra detail added to add extra interest.

I did the bird sections afterwards, using Desert Yellow, highlighted with Khaki for the bird feet. The colours were based very loosely on vultures, but there isn't really enough detail to give them fancy wing feathers, it's more just a suggestion of texture.

I'm finding the slightly smaller scale a little difficult to paint when there's fine detail, such as the faces. I've made a fair stab at these, but I'm used to a more exaggerated style of sculpting. There's no chance of me doing more than shading the socket for the eyes. 

It's nice to see harpies wearing sensible clothing, and having bird's feet for both hands and feet is a nice idea.

Not exactly a choir of angels

Ghouls 

More mould lines. A file removed the worst of these.  There are also noticeable gaps between the arms and the shoulders; I relied on a large amount of primer to partially fill the gaps, which seems to have done the job.

The feet are only partly detailed, as if the ghoul is paddling in liquid. Is that why they're called 'puddle bases'?

So I don't forget, they were basecoated Vallejo Extra Opaque Heavy Gray (quite a greenish grey) following with a drybrush of VGC Stonewall Gray. The result is a reasonable light greenish grey, but I wanted something a bit darker and less wholesome. 

So they got a wash of Army Painter Military Shade. Pretty much any greenish colour would do, but I like the fact that it isn't too bright.

Then it's simply a case of doing the remaining clothes to add a bit of individuality to the pack.

I did manage to add a little detail to the face, but I'll admit the teeth were largely guesswork. 

I'm pleased with the ghoul skin tones,  I'll definitely use something like this on any future ghouls I paint. I might even redo some of the WotC minis I started for the Master Forge. 

The ghouls

What's Next?

Well, that's 28 out of 60, so nearly half way, although the giant is probably worth quite a few of the smaller minis, by weight alone if nothing else.

32 to go

I'm still enjoying painting them, partly due to doing just four at a time, and knowing that I can pause or stop any time.

Looking ahead, there are some that I'm not thrilled about, but the advantage of the random dip (I get my wife to do this, so there's no avoiding the selection) is that I can't pick and choose.

I'm saving the giant until the end, but that still gives eight different sculpts left, two of which are more of the translucent plastic.