In looking for the theme of this blog, I was intrigued by the idea of painting up something that could be done with just a few colors while highlighting some of the Turboshifts that I do not often use. So I thought back to some Remix paint examples and remembered a carnivorous plant model that spoke to me (Not literally, though by the time that Remix launched a few months ago I was a bit goofy). I am a monster kind of gal so having a shifting flower with teeth appealed to my creative side.
Once I settled on plants, I needed to find models. It quickly became apparent that what I was looking for was pretty much restricted to the DnD/Pathfinder realm and mostly to 3D-printed sculpts. The latter was fine with me as I have become very fond of supporting this side of the miniatures hobby.
I went a bit overboard, to say the least, with the blog but I kept finding new models that I wanted to paint. So, even if you are not into man-eating plants, please take a quick look at the rest of the blog as I have tried to work on emphasizing interesting color combinations that you might want to try. I also tested out some ideas for sprucing up the bases for fun.
Challenge question for the Turbo Dork cognoscenti: How many different colors did I use in this dozen models? Answer at the end.
Carnivorous Plant
This is the plant that started me down this rabbit hole. It is a 3D print sculpted by Goon Master Games and deserves to be in a flowerpot like Audrey II.
Colors:
Black - basecoat
Dream On - petals
Sugar Rush - inside of flower
People Eater and Cool Ranch - edges of the blooms
Purl Grey - spikes and teeth
Gordian Knot with People Eater trim - stem and leaves
Awake Cactus
This cactus sculpted by Dragon Trappers Lodge is definitely awake and hungry. It was the perfect model to show off some bright sun above and shade below. Of course, now I have to admit that I originally liked the idea of plants because they usually do not have true eyes to paint. This guy is one of the exceptions.
Colors:
Black/White - zenithal basecoat
Hemogoblin - main body
Summoning Sickness - areoles and teeth
Pucker - eyes
Black Ice - inside mouth and pupils
Imperial Blooms
So the one game that came to mind when I started to search for plant models was Monsterpocalypse by Privateer Press. Imperial Blooms are part of the Vegetyrants and while not carnivorous, they creep around the battlefield and provide power so I thought they would fit here.
Colors:
Black - basecoat overall
Green - basecoat for the Malum Malus and Appleseed
Yellow - basecoat for Pucker
Malum Malus and Appleseed - stems
Afterburner - outer petals
Radium - inner petals
All That Glitters - edges of petals
Pucker with Bees Knees and Orange You Glad - stalks
Giant Fly Trap
The quintessential carnivorous plant is the fly trap. This model sculpted by STLFLIX comes with its own fly on the "base". The other thing to note is that I left the Turbo Dork world briefly and used a green one-step paint for the dark green shade.
Colors:
Black - basecoat main plant
Black/White - zenithal basecoat small side plant
Malum Malus - branches and leaves
Summoning Sickness - highlights on branches and leaves
Shell Shocked - fly trap
Fae Wylds - small side plant
Dragon Plant
This model is sort of a riff on the actual dragon's tongue plant while honoring the memory of Balerion. It was sculpted by Kevin Williams for Reaper Minis. This, by the way, is what I think is one of my best examples of Laserface's tricolor nature.
Colors:
Black - basecoat overall
Green - basecoat for Gordian Knot
Hot Pink - basecoat for Hotline
Laserface - main body of the plant
Gordian Knot - leaves
Hotline - head
Redrum - tongue
Black Ice - teeth
Death Watch
Hot Pink - basecoat of Hotline
Miami Sunset - flower petals
Hotline - eyeball
People Eater - eye center and lower claws
Gordian Knot - stem
Death By - stump
Demonic Tree
To be completely trueful, it was this Dungeons & Lasers line model from Archon Studios that sold me on doing this "plant" series. I did, however, deep-six the two corpses that were supposed to be hanging but emphasized the glowing eyes under the branches.
Colors:
Black - basecoat overall
Dark Net - tree overall
Death By and Gordian Knot - tree highlights
Malum Malus - highlight on tips of branches
Pucker - highlight around mouth
Fahrenheit and Redrum - eyes and mouth
Black Ice and Silver Fox - rocks
People Eater - berries
Blue Steel and Da Ba Dee - water
Shambling Mound
WizKids makes several plant models as part of their Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures. The most well known is probably the Shambling Mound. It is not exactly a plant but rather roving, rotting vegetation looking for its next meal. Therefore, I stuck it on a muddy base and tried to mimic the look of dying plants with quick swatches of a variety of Turbo Dork paints in green, yellow, and orange.
Colors:
Black - basecoat overall
Electrum - body overall
Summoning Sickness, Death By, Bees Knees, Multipass, Gordian Knot -
drybrushed over the body
Pearly Gates - teeth
Fahrenheit - mushrooms
Gas Spores
Other plant models sold by WizKids include these non-intelligent fungi with poisonous spores and gas. It seems that these fungi can come in different colors so I decided to use two Turbo Dork paints with similar profiles --- Forrest Flux (green, bluish green, and purple) and 4D Glasses (greenish blue, bluish green, and purple) but highlight them differently to bring out one or other of the shift colors.
Colors:
Black - basecoat overall
Pearly Gates and Black Ice - eyeballs
Forrest Flux (left)/4D Glass (right) - body
People Eater (left)/Cool Ranch (right) - main striations/ rhizome growths
Taro (left)/Maguro (right) - tips of the rhizome growths
Glue Plant
This glue plant was sculpted by Print Your Monsters and is definitely carnivorous. You can see the evidence by the sprinkling of skulls that I added in Shifting Sands, which is my favorite Turbo Dork color for bones.
Colors:
Black/White - zenithal basecoat overall
Twin Sons - petals
Shifting Sands - skulls
Molten Mantle - base
Treevil
In searching for plants I came across this treevil which is non-DnD but still scary. It was sculpted by EN Studios and provided the perfect second evil tree for the collection.
Colors:
Black - basecoat overall
Orange - basecoat for Farenheit
Red - basecoat for Redrum
Grave Robber with Death By - trunk
Scarab with Appleseed - leaves
Fahrenheit - eyes
Redrum - tongue
Black Ice - pupils and eyebrows
Mesmerizing Morels
I have no idea of these giant mushrooms would eat or even attack players but I figured if they were named "mesmerizing" they must do something nasty. This model by Printable Scenery is one of my favorites. It should be noted that the hollow areas in the caps were intentionally left black to contrast with the Blue Raspberry. However, the bark was painted all over with Dark Ritual and then shaded with Nuln Oil.
Colors:
Black - basecoat overall
Blue Raspberry - morel caps
Dark Ritual - stems and bumps
Gold Rush - highlight on the stems and bumps
Conclusion:
I will leave you with these dozen plants knowing that there are several times that number of potential color combination ideas to spark your imagination.
The answer to my question at the beginning of this blog post is: 3 zenishifts, 18 turboshifts, and 24 metallics.