Spidermen! No not that kind, this kind:
Driders, or "drow-spiders," or spider-centaurs. Dark elves punished (or rewarded, depending on edition) by their spider-goddess Lolth with an aspect of her spidery form. One of those curiosities from D&D that's somehow stuck with fantasy gamers. Recall that these are mostly Alliance elves patched onto "jorogumo" figures from Arcane Legions.
Melee guys above. Archers and sorceress below; the sorceress bod is a Caesar elf. I worry that she looks either like Mrs. Santa Claus via the Brothers Grimm, or else a Star Trek bridge officer after a teleportation accident.
Side views, showing off the spidery livery this crew is wearing for some reason. Not the greatest freehand you'll ever see, but looks okay on the table.
Let's check out the larger drider figure, maybe an alpha drider, or possibly an avatar of Lolth herself. It's a Reaper Bones "Spider Centaur" archer figure. I swapped her bow arm with a Skink bit—should have either swapped both arms or else just trimmed the bow from her original hand. Looks kind of wonky. I also regret that her face is a bit obscure. Should have put more black around the mouth. I think it's not too bad overall, though. It's actually a smaller figure than you might expect, pretty close in body size to Sven the 1/72 comparison viking.
The spotted pattern on the back is loosely inspired by actual black widow spiders, which also inspired the general red-white-black colors of this squad.
This was a fun project. I'm really pleased how the mods turned out on the 1/72 figures. Painting was a quick and dirty affair for the most part, but I like the overall look. They'll be a nice addition, or counterpoint to, the drow figures I painted a month ago.
Coming soon: demon legions, and other hellish beings!
These guys look great! Absolutely love this blog; I always find things that I want/can use :-)
ReplyDeleteWith the Reaper mini, how close is her body to 1/72? I'm looking for something I can use as Arachne and the original looks great. I'm always worried that the body, head, arms etc. on miniatures will be too big and I'll waste my money!
Keep up the good work - especially with anything that can be used for ancient Greek mythology :-)
Thanks! With the Reaper mini, it's surprisingly close, though still just perceptibly bigger, especially the head. I now realize Sven may be just a little further forward than she is in the comparison shot, so they may look even closer than actuality. Maybe I can make a better comp shot for you.
ReplyDeleteIf you believe that whatever it is that makes you a spider critter makes you just a bit beefier in the process, the smaller Reaper "spider centaurs" should probably work just fine for 1/72.
Yeah, I could see the head looks bigger, but was hoping it wasn't too bad and that if the body was ok too, then it'd be fine......like you said, if it isn't too much, then it could be beefier because of the process.
DeleteIf you could do another shot though, that'd be a great help!!!
Thanks :-)
These are awesome! Great work.
ReplyDeleteYa,Just reviewing the troops my self. An 8ft by 2ft wide table full. And I thought "the spider women need fixed!" What was the co thinking? Spiders should be the scarest thing out there!These are lame! They look like they are playing mahjong! They make great archers, Fast and light,hit and run,no close quarters.Thanks for the examples.
ReplyDelete