Standard Cultist affair here, some bloke wearing a long robe waving a fancy wand around. The pose would be all right if there was only one of them but when you have a few of them in play they look like aeroplanes lining up for departure!
There was a fair bit of prep to do, as they had some prominent mould lines to get rid of, though I didn’t put too much effort into it and at least they were easy to get to.
I was tempted to paint them each a different colour, but managed to hold on to my aim of not wanting to spend any longer than necessary on them, so they ended up the same, and of course, it had to be red. No Cultist worth his chanting mantra would be seen in anything else, right?
There’s not much to say about them really, other than the discovery of a new technique (at least for me). I Zenithal basecoated them using Mud Brown, Yellow Ochre, and finally white Ink – I always use shades of brown and yellow when I know the topcoat is going to be red. Red can be a difficult colour to paint depending on your priming or basecoat colour, as it doesn’t go well over black, especially if you’re using it thin such as when glazing as I was here. The choice of the final Zenithal colour can make a difference too. Using white a red glaze tends towards pink, but I’ve found that this isn’t too much of a problem when glazing with ink, as it has a strong enough pigmentation to keep its colour, especially if you give it a few coats.
So, after the basecoat, I glazed over with Red Ink. This looked a little bland and I wanted to add more contrast to the robes, so I applied a wash of Agrax Earthshade. In my haste, I applied it before the Ink was fully dry and on the front of the robe the Ink started to rub away. After an initial bout of cursing, I started playing around by applying more pressure to the brush and revealing more of the yellow basecoat. In the end, I decided I quite liked the look of it and continued to do it on them all.
It adds some interest to otherwise boring figures – I’ve called it my ‘scrubbing’ technique! In a way it’s a bit like the chipping technique – removing the topcoat to reveal the basecoat to simulate paint being chipped/scratched away – but it gives a softer edge, almost a blend. It could be used to give a worn or dirty look to cloth, or possibly to give a strong OSL (Object Source Lighting) effect. You might not be able to see where I’m coming from for the latter, and I’m not totally convinced myself, but looking at some of the Cultists I thought the front of the robe gave the impression they were standing in front of a fire!
Anyway, that’s another six figures done for Mansions… Child of Dagon next.
The Solo Meeple 
Great work Justin, like your scrape technique, and the yellow on the front does add an element of interest, and I can see what you mean for the fire glow on the robes
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Thanks Dave, they needed something, as they’re not the most interesting sculpts in the world are they!
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They look good as a group!
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Thanks Dave, though hopefully I’ll never meet a group this big when playing the game!
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Lovely reds on these, and the yellow showing through is a great look. I do wonder why they have 70s porn ‘staches though LOL!
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Isn’t that Burt Reynolds second from left?
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By God, I think you’re right… 🤣
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Thanks Matt – 70’s porn ‘staches, I really have no idea what you mean 😇😉
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Was going to try and write something serious until I read Matt’s and hexeres’ comments and then I just did the rolling around the floor laughing thing! 🙂 You are now never going to be able to unsee those comments! Nicely painted though! 🙂
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It’s amazing the entertainment one can find in something so simple – Every time I play MoM I’ll be imagining I’m been chased by a Porn Star version of Burt Reynolds… terrifying!
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The cultists are definitely too uniform in sculpt and they look silly the more you get together but they’re pretty much a constant a Mansions so it will be great to have them done and usable in your games. I look forward to the Child of Dagon when you get around to it 🙂
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Yeah, these are what they are and glad to have them done and dusted.
Child of Dagon is just waiting a base, so should be putting in an appearance soon(ish!).
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I look forward to seeing it!
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They look good. I also often struggle with red. What helps is to start quite dark (mix red and green for a chromatic black) and then work up towards a lighter red tone. That way you never need to resort to yellow or white to highlight.
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Thanks mate.
Yeah, red can be a pain to highlight. I usually use ivory to pick out the highlights, or maybe Bonewhite, and then glaze over with my mid-tone red.
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I did that with the Behir. Worked well. I think I used a fairly light skintone, but that gives you more of a faded appearance.
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