Wednesday 25 October 2017

Fire Demons - Balrogs (set 1)

Made by Dark Alliance.
These things are big, not quite as big as  the  Balrog  in the LotR´s film, The Fellowship of the Ring and although Tolkien was never specific about the size and appearance of the Moria Balrog it´s film depiction is frankly,  ridicously enormous.

Thier height.
From page 194 in "The Book of Lost Tales II"
"Then Glorfindel's left hand sought a dirk, and this he thrust up that it pierced the Balrog's belly nigh his own face (for that demon was double his stature)..."

 Apparently Elves are supposed to be tall, and Glorfindel around  6'6" (or taller?) so doubling his height, this makes  the Balrog, at least  13' tall. 
The Alliance Fire demons are ca; 6cm´s tall. In 1/72nd, roughly 4.5 meters, roughly  15' foot tall...so 2 and 1/2 times bigger than a man but roughly 2x the height of an elf so the sculptor at Alliance has them just about right.
I´m not good at reproducing flame/fire effects especially on such large sculpts but I wanted to portray them as if they have fire /intense heat within them, hence the attempt at a  "Lava" effect on thier Skin. Did it work?
They are also described as having "steel like claws". Wether this means "actual steel" or "as hard as steel"  I´m not sure. I tried steel coloured claws but it looked odd so I went for more animalistic colours. Fits with the teeth colour as well.
A tiny bit of Flash but as they are semi hard plastic it´s easy to remove.
The Demons have two holes in thier backs, the wings two pegs but the holes needed Drilling out so the pegs would fit. Even then, the wings are quite heavy and due to the non-glueable type of plastic they  needed pinning so they would hold. 
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14 comments:

  1. Maudlin Jack Tar25 October 2017 at 23:37

    Those look excellent. The "lava" effect definitely works.

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  2. elsibaby25 October 2017 at 23:39

    Very good!!!!!

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  3. Michael Awdry26 October 2017 at 08:41

    These are absolutely stunning Paul, I love the effect on the skin.

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    1. Paul´s Bods27 October 2017 at 00:36

      Merci. It took many attempts and a Long time to make the Skin effect. The second two went quicker. I started on both at once..a bit of a mistake as the learning process would have been quicker painting only one and then the last three could have been done as a Batch.

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  4. BookLordJohn26 October 2017 at 11:02

    I was a bit hesitant about picking these up as the unpainted images I had seen to date were not impressive. Your paint work is amazing. I agree that the lava effect really works here. Can't wait for my usual sources to start stocking this set. Thank you for sharing.

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    1. 1Mac26 October 2017 at 13:54

      I was also a bit skeptical and wanting to see them painted up before making any judgments. I'm glad to see they paint up so well!

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    2. Paul´s Bods27 October 2017 at 00:32

      I think a lot of People were. When I saw them I thought they could be fun (took me a while to make 100% sure both sets were needed) and got them I thought "oh oh!, will this work at all" but it seems to have.

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    3. 1Mac28 October 2017 at 18:37

      Really, Red Box should pay you for making their minis look so good! (Or at least send you a less wonky set of those war trolls from your latest post!)

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    4. Paul´s Bods28 October 2017 at 23:52

      I think that at least one of the People concerned with RedBox/Alliance Looks here (or at one of the Forums I´m on) as a couple of pics have appeared on a russian site, so here´s hoping :-)
      No..really though. These Things can happen, it´s a fact of the Hobby and with 1/72nd Plastics in particular, that there will be Flash and the occasional "mishap". How many times I have bought sets and the bods have had broken or missing parts and I still buy from those makers.
      I put Redbox/Alliance among the better Producers and I´m sure they will correct the error.

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  5. Herkybird26 October 2017 at 12:12

    I think it work well! I have a work mate who likes to paint lava effect with GW paints.
    Paint the base a fiery orange and then overcoat with Agrellan badlands, which flakes and cracks when dry, showing the fire below!

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    1. Paul´s Bods27 October 2017 at 00:30

      Now that would have saved a lot of work. I had to rely on painting the Things all sort of yellowy redish orangy (looked really odd) and drybrushing them with black. Took ages.

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  6. Philotep27 October 2017 at 02:17

    I agree, it definitely works, and the result is awesome! These minis reminded me of the Lord of the Ring animation movie by Ralph Bakshi, I like them a lot.

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  7. Le Maistre Chat29 October 2017 at 20:57

    I'm disappointed to hear that they're 6 cm. The War Trolls in 1 & 2 are 5 cm and you get eight of them for the price of a pair of these. I'd hoped that a box of two meant they'd be about 10 cm.
    Given the 12x17 box Alliance uses, it seems like they should have been able to give customers a box of four. :(

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  8. Sgt. Slag5 June 2018 at 15:08

    Finally broke down and ordered one of the sets, #2. Have a group of AD&D PC's going to trek across my version of "Hell", in my campaign. Wanted to buy one of these sets in the worst way, but I could not justify it, as they would never be used in a game... That has changed, and now I need to get them in hand, and painted up within the next 6-9 months! Looking forward to getting them in hand, and beginning to paint them. Your examples are a great inspiration! Thank you, Paul! My players will hate you, but not me... Cheers!

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