Being a miniature painter by trade means having to do with some pretty unusual stuff on a daily basis. Pretty unusual for the greatest part of the rest of the world, that is. There comes a time, every once in a while, when you get to lay your hands on something that is fairly unusual, even for a miniature painter. That moment came for me, when 1 sent me this pack, labeled Possessed Mummies, from Forge of Ice.
Mummies with tentacles coming out of them? Actually, a toothed tentacle, that is? Well, you learn a new thing every day, I say. The figures were cast in an extremely shiny metal (honestly, I mean extremely), quite crisp and with very little in term of flash or mold lines to be cleaned.
List of Materials
- Grey Car Primer
GW Paints
- Enchanted Blue
Vallejo Game Color
- 72.034 Bonewhite
- 73.200 Sepia Shade
- 73.203 Umber Shade
Vallejo Model Color
- 70.822 German Camo Black Brown
- 70.878 Old Gold
- 70.912 Tan Yellow
- 70.918 Ivory
- 70.941 Burnt Umber
- 70.950 Black
Tamiya Color
- TS80 Flat Clear
After the customary coat of grey car primer, I pondered a little about the color scheme to use on the figures. What I wanted to try was something that would convey an idea of sheer antiquity, of something out of the depths of time. Well, I know, that's mummies for you, I hear you say. But generally, the most common hue you see painted on tentacles is some shade of pink or magenta, and that quite spoils the effect, in my opinion (while certainly making for a nice chromatic variation). I decided to follow a different path and use a much more limited palette of colors, more muted and hopefully more natural.
First, I painted the bandages (which cover most of the figures, obviously) in Bonewhite. Normally, I start a figure with the lower layer, which in most cases is the skin, but here I worked the other way, since the amount of area covered by this color would be so large. The bandages were then washed all over with diluted Sepia Wash, and then highlights were picked up back in Bonewhite.
For the exposed skin, I have seen mummies being generally the color of very dry tobacco, so I used a basecoat of Black Brown, highlighted first with Burnt Umber, and then by a mix of Burnt Umber and Ivory. So far, so good.
Now, we come to the tentacles. I wanted them to look sort of leathery in a malicious way, so I used a different approach. I started basecoating them in Tan Yellow, then I started applying successive washes of Umber Wash, working my way towards the tips of the tentacles themselves, in order to create a progression of color that would gradually get darker towards the end, while remaining slightly transparent overall. Several successive layers were needed, each applied to a smaller area, but in the end, I was quite pleased with the result. The teeth on the tentacles were picked in Ivory. I used some Ivory for the tattered loincloths. The figures have some added Enchanted Blue patterning in one case, and Old Gold for the jewelry they wear, shading then both areas with diluted Umber Wash for a dirtier look.
And so we have them: four Possessed Mummies for the horror collection of 
Editor in Chief Bill 
. An unusual subject with a slightly unusual color scheme.