A few weeks ago miniatures sculpting legend Bob Olley was selling some converted figures on eBay. At the time I didn't get round to bidding, but instantly regretted it. Carmine over at Indelible Inc. did bid however, and after completing a squad of 5 alien mercenaries based on WOTC Star Wars Yuzzem, had one spare.
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| Check out Carmine's cool squad. |
Carmine very generously offered it up for grabs in the Great Yuzzem Giveaway, and I ended up being the lucky recipient as I promised to include the model in my Super Hairy Alien Mercenary Squad.
Fast forward to Monday morning, and I collected the hairy fellow on the left from the Post Office.
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| Image taken from Bob Olley's original eBay listing. |
I set about painting up the Yuzzem in my lunch break, finishing the job off later that same evening. Here are the results:
I wanted to give the Yuzzem a believable, yet alien look, away from the brown bear-like colouring they're traditionally depicted with. I've found that the best way of doing this is to look at actual colouration and patterning of brightly coloured lizards and monkeys. Although the shape of the face makes the Yuzzem look baboon-like, it's actually based on a white uakari monkey:
The painting was all done very quickly with drybrushing and washes on the fur, and a bit more attention paid to the painting of the face, strapping and shoulder pad.
All in all, I'm very pleased with both the paint job, and having an original Bob Olley conversion in my collection, and I'm very grateful to Carmine for sending the hairy beastie to me!
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| Hairy aliens need to stick together! |
This is perfect, I could swear I saw that guy on a National Geographics show
ReplyDeleteWithout doubt, you most certainly did! Taking a short holiday perhaps?!
DeleteEnough monkey business! I feel like he needs a 20 story tall Clint Eastwood now as a side kick.
ReplyDeleteOooh! Now there's an idea :D
DeleteThat Yuzzem sculpt was screaming to a conversion and of course My Orlley blew it out of the park. Your paintjob is a really nice idea - I need to start using real nature examples to inspire my schemes too!
ReplyDeleteI have to say, the Yuzzem has me wondering what other Star Wars figures might be ripe for conversion. I thoroughly recommend looking at nature for inspiration - it's often more bizarre than you could invent!
DeleteVery nice contrast between the face, the armour and the fur. I've never seen these models before. They've got a lot of character!
ReplyDeleteThanks Toby! I paid particular attention to the fur around the face with several washes to darken it and push the contrast.
DeleteOutstanding! He'll look great in any scifi game.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bill!
DeleteFinally made it back to the land of decent WiFi so that I can comment on this!
ReplyDeleteI knew that you'd do the thing justice, but I had no idea that you'd find a twist the likes of this. I was never going to paint the minis that I have in any shade of muddy brown, but the idea that it would look better as an ape than an ursine is very original indeed.
Also, thanks for the kind mention of the blog too.
It was an absolute pleasure to have the opportunity to paint the figure, really pleased you like the results and, again, many thanks :)
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