Table of horror
(27 Nov 04)
Here's my first completely painted miniature in quite a while, and the first stock miniature I've painted in I don't know how long: the table of horror. It's a fairly old Citadel piece I bought quite some time ago (10 years ago?) when a friend and I decided to buy all sorts of scenery for our ongoing RPG adventures. I painted all the various gravestones for an adventure, but never got around to the indoor furniture until now.
I primed this piece with Glass and Tile Medium (cut with a drop or two of Vallejo smoke so that I could see what I was doing. The table surface was painted with a variety of browns and grays, and inked a few times with dark browns. The skulls are painted using my standard method for bones: dark brown, caucasian, ivory. I wasn't quite sure what the stuff between the lower skulls and the top skull was, so I painted it as grass. There's also a piece of armor, a small bottle, and a tentacle on the table.
I didn't notice the graffiti until I started inking, but it's amusing to see now. Even more amusing than the writing is what's on the bottom of the table. . . .
Believe it or not (for those who know me), the underside of the table is entirely stock. I didn't so much as remove the missing nail at the top left of this shot. The tentacles are just a couple shades of green, and the background is a very dark blue worked up to shallow purplish highlights. I was torn between this fleshy look and a spacescape, so I added stars. They're sort of horrible. I need practice there -- this is my first attempt. The wood is also not as good as that of the top, partly due to the shallower grain (where grain is even sculpted). I should've taken the time to sculpt or paint some in, but the difference sets off the scene of unspeakable horror in the middle.
All in all, lots of fun to paint, and I got in a short meeting with the DCAreaMiniPaintingClub folks as I put down the first layers of paint. The table is unfortunately not a horrible enough miniature for me, though. . . an upcoming project should be even more up my alley.