Saturday 12 January 2019

A Swarm of Bats

Since the refurbishment here at ‘Awdry Towers’ there has been a certain amount of relocation, by this I mean that my little cosy corner of the dining room table has been banished!  With this banishment the lead pile was spilt over a couple of locations with the more esoteric elements of the collection finding further isolation in the loft.  
This was carefully considered at the time, with a degree of sorting out and labelling, but alas as with all good intentions the system has fallen by the wayside!  What this now means is that when I go in search of something it is now over several floors of the house and takes an inordinate amount of time!  All griping aside, this arrangement does have an unexpected upside, namely that when rooting around for one miniature you come across a number of others that might inspire a complete change of direction. 
So it was that I came to find a Vampire Knight, a Man-Bat and a swarm of bats in my hand at the same time!   Although not completely sold on the idea that the three pieces could show the transformation from human form to flying mammal, I started the process of preparing the miniatures.   The Swarm is from ‘Reaper Miniatures’, whilst the Vampire Knight was an impulse buy in one of ‘North Star Miniatures’ clearance sales and has more than a passing resemblance to Gary Oldman’s portrayal of the immortal Count, in Bram Stoker’s Dracula.
Finally, the Man Bat was from ‘Heresy Miniatures’ and was the most involved to prepare and took some pinning and filling to secure the wings to the body.  As with all Paul Muller’s work, it is a finely sculpted and balanced miniature and so worth spending some time to get the construction right. 
When it came to painting, and having spent so long building the thing, I panicked and just used the website’s images as a guide.  There was an idea that I could use some of the colours in the Man-Bat to tie the three elements together.  On reflection, I am not convinced that it has worked, but I certainly matched their bases to further reinforce the idea.
I am happy to report  that both the Man Bat and the Vampire Knight have both been blooded in action, taking on the roles of Alain de la Slaughter and Gareth of Oldham respectively in last summer's Witchfinding fun, 'The Scouring of Muchwhinging'.  I wonder what will crop up next?

59 comments:

  1. All three pieces look great Michael, if it was a sculpting project to tie the three together as in transformation, I would say you need to carry on a element from each figure to the next, but as this was three models from three different companies I get the idea.
    The big question has to be what did you actually go looking for ?

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    1. Thank you Dave, as for the original subject of my search, I believe it was a group of musket men - still missing in action!

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  2. Wonderful painting and it is inspirational to read about how all of these minis came together in one project.

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  3. Top notch job...and atmosphere...and scenery...and pose...I'm leaving now, too scary!

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    1. I hope I haven;t scared you away for too long Phil.

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  4. Pure tip top painting, Sir Awdry. The Man-Bat works sensationally, and as for the Immortal Count - sublime work!! :-)

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  5. Cracking work love the man bat from Heresy miniatures such a dynamic pose.

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    1. Thank you Simon, the Heresy piece was an incredible miniature to work on.

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  6. Excellent brushwork Sir M. Love the Man Bat!

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    1. Thank you Ray, I was particularly pleased with the man bat.

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  7. Lovely painting on all three aspects, great work!
    Best Iain

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  8. Looks really wonderful Micheal!

    Christopher

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  9. FANTASTIC! And, it gives me an idea for paint scheme for my man bat.

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    1. Thank you and delighted to hear I may have helped.

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  10. Great looking figures as always, Michael. That "tower" of bats looks very complicated! :)

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    1. Thank you Dean, the bats took a while to work out how to start, but once I got going all went well.

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  11. Great work nice red color and batman skin!

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  12. Excellent work on them, especially the man-bat! Love that figure, though not a fan of things I need to pin! Your painting on the wings is superb! Glad to see your hiatus hasn't dented your painting skills!

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    1. Thank you Terry. I have to confess I had put off putting this one together for exactly that reason. Glad I persevered though.

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  13. All great but that Batman is superb. Release that lot onto the poor folk of Muchwhinging and a lot of People will be getting it in the neck.

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    1. Thank you Paul and a lot of people did get it in the neck! :)

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  14. Wonderful Michael.
    I the strength of your post I went and ordered myself a swarm of Bats and a a Murder of Crows...
    Simply brillant.
    Best wishes
    Stuart

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    1. Can there be a better comment? Thank you Stuart!

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  15. oh, awesome stuff Michael! And motivs from my favourite Dracula movie :)

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  16. Your random findings have come together rather well and what a bonus having bloodd them too !

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    1. Thank you Joe, so pleased to see them together.

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  17. Bloody (or should I say "bloodless"?) awesome Michael! I always loved vampires and your Lord of the Darkness here looks like a fine specimen. Especially like the Reaper sculpt. Might get me that one too.

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    1. Thank you Nick, all were great fun to work on, but that Heresy bat was a pig to pin.

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  18. Great job Michael, and you're off and running in 2019.

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    1. Thank you, pleased to get some posts under my belt.

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  19. Beautifully tied together mate

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  20. Great work. Pretty sure I’ve got a man bat somewhere, I’ll have to remember to pin the wings.

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    1. Thank you, definitely worth the effort, I think I would cry if they broke now.

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  21. A wonderful paint job. Vlad reminds me little bit on the main actor in "Dracula untold". I think the armor is very similar...or I'm just mixing something very much up.

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    1. Thank you, not sure about Dracula untold, but he definitely has a passing resemblance for Dracula in Francis Ford Coppola.

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  22. Wow Michael, these are absolutely gorgeous!

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  23. I think I would have to be wearing garlic around my neck if I was to go in your loft Michael with all those vampires and bats.
    I think the colour match works really well and brings them all together.
    Cheers,
    Pat.

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  24. Lovely job you did on all three of them, but the man-bat is definitely my favourite among them.

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