Feel the Magic, Hear the Roar

Half-term has come along given me a bit of time and space to pick the brushes up for the first time in a while. And what better way to get my mojo back that witha bit of eighties cartoon nostalgia.

Oh yes! The Thundercats are loose!

These 'Beastmen Heroes' are from Crooked Dice, and as ever are fantastic miniatures that are a joy to paint. If I have a gripe it's that Panthro should be bulkier. I particularly like the fact that the sculptor has avoided the temptation to make Cheetara as striperific as Deviant Art and Cosplayers would have you believe. It was a kids' show in the eighties, after all.

I was a little daunted by some of the cats, especially Tigra. Not only is he the third set of tiger stripes I've painted this year, but his costume was actually much more varied than I've made it look. I've actually made the blues on him and Lion-O (who I've learned was t one point going to be called Lion-L) darker than the show. This was mainly down to the paints I was working with.

However, I'm actually really pleased with how they've turned out. All they need now are some villains to beat up.

The oddly named Mutants (they are all typical members of their races) of the plant Plun-darr.

Also from Crooked Dice and also labelled as Beastmen, these four came out around the same time as the Apocalypse box. I held off from buying them until I had some cats for them to face, after my first attempt at buying some custom sculpted models resulted in my obtaining oversized, poorly detailed, badly cast monstrosities that I sold fairly quickly.

Given the more earthy nature of their colours, the Mutants were easier to do than the cats thanks to the transformative powers of the Ancient Spirits of Agrax Earthshade. However, I may revisit Slithe to darken his spots as the base green I used was probably too dark.

Whilst we're on the subject of Ancient Spirits, check out this decayed form...

Mumm-Ra and his 'dog', Ma-Mutt. Both from a custom sculptor. Really straightforward to paint with base colours and washes, although I took the time to highlight each bandage, which has given Mumm-Ra a little more 'pop', which I like.

Crooked Dice does a similar model to Mumm-Ra, labelled as an Abomination, and it's equally as good. However, I opted to get this significantly pricier version as a birthday present because, not only did it come with Ma-Mutt, but it also came with this...

Mumm-Ra the Ever-Living.

Yes, I know he doesn't have wings in the cartoon, but the model does, and I like them - although I do keep thinking 'this is a gargoyle' in a gruff Australian voice.

I really enjoyed painting him, as despite my fears, every element turned out easier than I expected.

I'm really pleased to have taken a project from start to finish in only a few days. I've no immediate plans to expand the collection. Thundercats characters are quite hard to proxy (beyond a few human looking ones like Safari Joe or Hachiman), so unless Crooked Dice add to their range, I'll leave this lot as a completed set.

In terms of profiles, I think I might need to do custom 7TV cards for them. The Masters of the Universe fit neatly into 7TV: Pulp, but Thundercats has more superhero and fantasy elements that existing profiles might struggle with (Cheetara's speed springs to mind).

Despite my productivity, free models on the front of magazines and an unexpected (and very generous) delivery of superheroes from Leon, means that I've not actually made that much progress. The numbers are still good though.

Acquired: 217

Painted: 251