Last weekend saw the fourth of the bonus rounds for the Painting Challenge. I’d missed the other three so was determined to get something in for this! The standard of the round was stunning. Some beautiful entries. As there have been in the other rounds. Well worth a look: Hero Bonus Round.
After my last challenge entry of 15mm Minifigs ACW from a project I started back in the late 90s I thought I’d step back a little further for this entry! Back when I was doing my A-Levels in the early 80s I started playing assorted RPGs with friends in Shrewsbury (who are now friends in Birmingham!) and although we played mostly AD&D to start we did move on to Call of Cthulhu and others. Including Runequest. I always like the background to this where the human element wasn’t some pseudo medieval thing! So around that time I bought some of the Runequest figures released by GW (and sculpted by the Perrys I think). As ever, we moved on to other games and I never got any/many painted but the remnants have moved around the country with me ever since! So one of them seemed ideal for the Hero Round.
The figure is a Non-Cultist Adventurer from Box Set 2. As he’s broadly a hoplite type figure I intended just painting a generic Greek hero. But as I searched for a shield pattern I stood a chance of painting I came across what I believe is the one carried by the Spartan King? So the figure morphed into Leonidas on his way to Thermopylae. Burdened with his own baggage (as I think any Spartan king would be) he strides through the marshes to see off bandits threatening the 300 on the march!
The base is an offcut of blue insulation board as I figured I should make a little effort with the base.
I’ve also almost finished my Last Stand entry (for the seventh and final round) with figures of a similar vintage! But that will have to wait until March!
I’m still slowly painting RSMs for Ayton and awaiting the arrival of my RSM and Minden orders which will hopefully arrive this week.