Reaper - Golgoth the Ancient

Golgoth the Ancient

Company: Reaper

Part #: 03357

Sculptor: Kevin Williams
Released: 2009

This has become my new favorite piece.  Well cavalry piece at least.  It is a dynamic sculpt by Kevin Williams from Reaper that was released sometime in 2009.  It’s been sitting in my box waiting to be painted for a while.  It’s a pretty large figure, creeping into the 35mm range and is mounted on a 40mm base.  That pretty much prevents me from using him in a normal cavalry unit, but given his general awesomeness, I’d probably commit to using him as a cavalry brigade commander or individual hero anyway.

Epic...

I painted him and the horse using the black base method, directly applying the bone color later and finishing it off with a brown wash over the bone parts.  The armor is Reaper Pro Paints  “Aged Pewter” with a black ink wash over it.

The really interesting thing about this piece, and kind of what makes it generally epic aside from the full plate on a rearing charger, is the fact he comes equipped with a flaming spear.

This was actually completely unexpected.  All of the pictures I’ve seen of this piece has him equipped with a sword.  But when I broke open the blister I found 2 weapons on the sprue, the sword and a spear.  But as I examined the spear it seemed to be wrapped in something and I couldn’t figure out what it was.  Was it cloth… some sort of tattered battle standard?  After a time I realized it was flame!  The guy had a freaking flaming spear! 

Given this, I can’t imagine who would make the decision to go with the sword which is pretty pedestrian.  It’s a freaking flaming spear!

He's got a freaking flaming spear!!!

The problem was, I didn’t know how to paint flame.  I don’t have any other pieces which incorporate fire, except for an awesome Rackham skeletal demon that is holding a goblet of fire.  And I really dogged that one up by just painting the flame red.  More so, I didn’t even have any of the colors really necessary to paint fire.  As the owner of a Skeleton Legion, my palette runs to pretty drab colors.  Bone/ivory (natch), black, dark reds, dark greys, various shades of brown and some metallics for armor.  That’s pretty much it.  I didn’t even have a pure white in my stock.

So, I set out to learn how to paint fire, and using my google fu found some pages with some good tips on painting flame.  Then I sent away for some good fire colors using Reapers Pro Paints, and waited for them to arrive.

Once everything was set I started with the experiment, painting the entire spear in a base of "Pure White" to brighten the colors that were to follow.  Over the pure white went a layer of "Clear Yellow".  Following the instructions I had found I then washed it in a "Fire Orange" wash (fairly thick) and then once that dried, another wash of "Fire Red" (much thinner).  Then I frosted some of the tips of the flame with a dry brush of "Pure White".  I’m pretty happy with the effects I can’t wait to use them on some other models.

This close up with a flash gives a harsher light, but gives you a better feel for the flame effect.

Like I mentioned, I’ll probably use him as a cavalry brigade commander for one of my medieval armies.  I figure I’ll also equip him with a magic weapon as well.  Piquet: Scramasax isn’t very big on magic items as they tend to dominate the battle too much (we’re looking at you Warhammer™).  However the latest edition before the project was abandoned does include some rules for minor magic items.  He has a freaking flaming spear fer crissakes!!!