Swamp Troll

I wish I could have finished this one before the end of Monster May(hem) but he was a lot of work.

Owen, as I've named him, is one of the biggest minis I've ever painted. In fact, I think he is the biggest model I've ever painted, standing a whopping five inches from the base to the spikes lining the top. He's also one of the best in terms of value for money, costing just $30 including shipping.

I kicked off the painting with a prime of German Grey and two coats of Ork Flesh contrast to give a nice deep shadow colour.

With the Ork Flesh dry I slapped on a heavy overbrush of Black Green, then another one of Black Green mixed with Park Green Flat. Owen's skin was looking nice and swampy but I needed to up the contrast a bit, so I added some Scorpy Green to the mix and drybrushed it all over, then did it again with more Scorpy Green added to the mix to get an even brighter tone. At this point I realised how much I was enjoying painting something with saturated greens, unlike all the Nurgle minis I've done over the past year.

His belly, face, inner ears and the palm of his right hand were given a coat of Tan, a warm red-brown, and then a mix of Tan and Tau Light Ochre to add a yellow tone. I layered it on more in hope that it would work, and it looked OK once dry.

I painted all of Owen's odd little bumps with pure Scorpy Green, and gave his lighter skin another layer of Tan and Tau Light Ochre with some Buff added to lighten it.

His loincloth is Rhinox Hide drybrushed with Chocolate Brown, Mahogany Brown and some Tuskgor Fur. All the ropes, and he has a lot, are Khaki washed with Agrax Earthshade and highlighted with more Khaki. I painted the little totems hanging off the ropes with various brighter colours.

I was going to do Owen's hair and beard the basic black/grey scheme, but instead I kept the green theme going by drybrushing Cold Flesh over the black and then giving all his hair a once-over with Mantis Warriors Green contrast.

Owen's nails and teeth were painted Ivory, washed with Seraphim Sepia and then given some dabs of Off-White. His spiky bracelets are just Nuln Oil and Agrax Earth shade over Iron Warriors, with some very thinned Trollslayer Orange to add a touch of rust. The final touch was filling in his eyes with White, going over that with Imperial Fist Yellow and adding dots of black for his pupils.

Owen comes in three pieces: Owen himself, a howdah and a base. With the actual troll finished, varnished and put somewhere safe, I painted the howdah next.

I primed it German Grey and then gave it a coat of Wyldwood contrast for a nice deep brown basecoat. I highlighted it with drybrushes of Chocolate Brown, Mahogany Brown and Flat Earth and then washed it all over with Athonian Camoshade and some dabs of Biel-Tan Green to match the whole swamp theme.

The metal areas of the howdah are Iron Warriors tinted with Nuln Oil and Aggrax Earthshade and I ran more thinned orange over it to simulate rust. The skulls and totems were the easiest bits to paint, and once I'd varnished the howdah I dumped on a lot of flock mix to add some moss and then daubed on Scorpy Green to up the saturation. 

I did debate making my own base for Owen, but I decided to go with the 3D printed one to save me a couple of weeks. After slathering it with Stirland Mud I slapped on some Black Green and sprinkled flock into the wet paint. Once it was dry I sealed it with matte varnish and added a touch more here and there to build up some texture.

The wet bits were first filled with a mix of sand and PVA, and then painted Mutation Green with Scorpy Green dabbed over it to add some variation. This was a base that absolutely demanded resin, so I added a small amount of Athonian Camoshade to tint it green. I poured it into the inset areas and placed it under Alicia's UV nail drying light for about five minutes.

Finally I glued on a bunch of tufts and some mushrooms and then stuck Owen onto his new home. Once he was firmly in place I glued the howdah to his back and he was finished.

Owen took about a solid 10 days of painting, both before and after work, but he was well worth the effort. I've ordered a goblin figure to go in the howdah, so stay tuned 'cos Owen will be returning to the blog!