From SimonG: Roman Shields, Zombie Aladdin and a Brace of Nogs (119 points)

After last weeks plain diet of Romans my offering this week has something for everyone I hope. Before I get to the main dish however I have an amuse bouche -- the hand painted shields that I had not had delivered in time for last week.

These are 1st Corps rounded edge scutum which I think are closer to the shields used in the Jewish war. They were free hand painted and edged and annotated in fine marker in a style to suit legio V Macedonica. I discovered to my chagrin that fine markers scratch metal very easily so there was a lot of fixing and filling needed -- no such problem on plastic or even other harder metals. Anyway at gaming distance I think they look pretty decent.

A Visit to World Cinema

Our first main stop this week is to the studio lot where an Estonian director is directing an adult take on Disney's Aladdin in which Aladdin is a Zombie ...

... Who rides an ancient Egyptian centaur ...

... And there are three versions of Abu, all of whom are malignant Imps!

These are all 40mm scale plastic sculpts -- the Aladdin and the Imps are from Descent: Legends of the Dark and the Centaur is from the Black Rose Wars Inferno supplement. Shown here next to a Victrix Roman to get a sense on scale.

What I really enjoyed with these three pieces (beyond some great sculpts) was the chance to really play with techniques -- for the Ninja/Assassin/Aladdin figure the choice of brown tones with the pop of colour in the sash and the leaves, plus working on smooth gradations for the air effect.

On the centaur I played around with OSL for the first time -- the magic spinning chain saw thingies casting an eerie green glow across the upper torso (a mix of a sliver layer paint and a bright green layer).

And with the Imps getting each to be a distinct character, to use colour carefully with the only red in the Toadstools -- and two sorts of magic effect (the water and the green twinkly wings) -- using a mix of gloss and matte varnishes to make the various effects pop.  This probably the most complex figure I've had to work on for overlapping figures, so lots of back and forth correcting over painting as you put in each colour!

Just Stopping Off at the Gift Shop

Finally for this week we're swinging by the Gift Shop with a present for my Wife's birthday coming up next month. The present is a presentation set of the main characters from Noggin the Nog in the white metal versions from The Little Soldier Company.

Painting was straight forward using the LSC references with simplification of details to suit the cartoon style. I think I liked how Thor Nogson turned out best!

Totting Up the Results

My totals for today are:

• 49 points for the three Aladdin figures (two 40mm foot and one mounted, I'll count the three imps as one larger figure) including the 20 point World Cinema bonus 
• 60 points for the Noggin the Nog set (8 28mm figures plus a 20 point gift shop bonus)

For a total of 109 plus anything our illustrious Minion thinks the ten hand painted shields might be worth!

So far I've stopped off at four Green Zone locations and have one more before I'm done -- next stop another journey with Lady Sarah will take me to the 1980s!

Nice work on those shields, Simon, but it's the centaur that steals the show for me. Oh, and what a great gift for your wife! For the shields, I believe that 1 point each is customary.

Tamsin