From Dallas: It's All Barks's Fault (15 points)

So here we have a Reaper Hill Giant. How is it Barks's fault?

A couple weeks ago, Mr. B posted an amazing Ringwraith on a Fellbeast, from Games Workshop's Lord of the Rings range. Wow, I thought, what an amazing looking model! I also have a sizeable collection of LotR models, but no Fellbeast... and Barks's post made me think I really need one. So off I went to look at picking one up.

At the same time, Conscript Frederick of our gaming group has been painting LotR models like a madman, and this made me think that maybe higher-order escalation might be appropriate. Since a Fellbeast by itself is $75 from GW, but the Battle of Pelennor Fields box set (which includes a Fellbeast as well as over 80 other models and a new rulebook) is "only" $190, the choice is clear - especially as the box can be found online for about a 15% discount...

So off I scuttled to eBay and found a Canadian vendor selling the BoPF box, and ordered it. Since the box includes 20 plastic Army of the Dead models and I'd never painted anything from that faction, I hit up the Web again to look at paint recipes for those models. "Biel-Tan Green" wash seemed like a good option and I don't have any in my paint stash, so I stopped at the local shop to pick some up. One thing led to another and I ended up browsing the racks of Reaper Minis... and was stopped cold by this very cool Bobby Jackson sculpt of a Hill Giant. Lacking any really big giants in my fantasy collection, I couldn't resist this one, and picked it up along with the BTG wash.

The Hill Giant was an easy afternoon project. It's made of some strange resin, but it's actually grey in colour rather than regular Reaper Bones white, and seems a bit sturdier and less bendy, which is an excellent thing indeed. The funny business started when I primed him with flat black spray - the finish on the model ended up high-gloss. Another coat made no difference, and even a dusting with a different flat brown spray ended up very glossy. So before I put the brushes to him I sprayed him with Krylon Matt Finish and that dulled him down a bit.

The Hill Giant is obviously mostly flesh... so I worked this up from the dark brown spray using Mournfang Brown, Skrag Brown, Cadian Flesh, and finally Kislev Flesh. The tree trunk is Mournfang and Steel Legion Drab washed with watered-down GW Brown Ink. Normally I'd painted the fur in a brown tone but considering how much brown there was on the model already, I opted for a grey fur.

This model was great fun to paint (once I got past the priming) and he'll fit in well with the rest of my fantasy stuff. Bobby Jackson did a great job with the sculpt (his facial expression is awesome and reminds me a lot of the old Citadel style) and at $12.49 the price can't be beat.   

So that's 15 points for this VERY large 28mm Giant... obviously I've fallen out of the top 20 in the league table but hopefully that keeps me in the top 25 for a bit anyway. Now back to the Reaver Titan I've been tasked by the Snowlord to paint!

Stay safe all!