Thursday 13 October 2016

Shadows of Brimstone Goliath and Harbinger

Last time I showed you the smallest monsters from the Shadows of Brimstone game - the Void Spiders. This time I'm going to the opposite end of the scale and reviewing the two largest monsters from the core sets of City of the Ancients and Swamps of Death - the Goliath and the Harbinger. Most monsters encountered in Shadows of Brimstone conform to one of three Threat Levels - Low, Medium or High, depending upon the size of the Hero party - the bigger the party, the greater the Threat Level. However, depending upon the scenario being played, there is also an end-of-game threat that may be encountered and it is known as an Epic Threat. The Goliath and the Harbinger can only be encountered as Epic Threats.
"Hunched and lumbering, this towering behemoth dwarfed all other creatures my expedition had encountered. Its large head covered in soulless black eyes with a wide, round mouth surrounded by an array of sharp teeth, A dozen long tongues erupted from its face and writhed in a hypnotic dance."
An excerpt taken from the journals of Dr. Tobias Hedgebrook.
With a gigantic muscular body and horrendously long, flailing tentacle arms, the Goliath is an unspeakable horror like no other. Its bellowing roar and dripping mass of tentacle tongues consume all that stray within reach, smashing, crushing and devouring the souls of those who would dare to stand before it. But perhaps the most frightening aspect of the Goliath is the cold intelligence clearly visible behind its multitude of soulless, black eyes. It knows you're here... it knows why you've come... and it knows you have made a terrible mistake.
As you can see from the figure of the saloon girl I have placed alongside the Goliath in the first photo, this is a massive monster. It stands 65mm tall and measures 130mm from the tip of its tentacle tongues to the tip of its tentacle arms. It stands on a 60mm diameter base. I decorated the base with half of a plastic barrel taken from a Renedra pack of wooden barrels. This useful scenery set contains five large barrels measuring 15mm tall and five small barrels measuring 10mm tall. The barrels come in two halves, so I used one half here and the other half on the base of my Harbinger (see photos below). I used the large barrel for my bases. I also added a few pieces of cork bark to the base and a smashed wooden plank.
For the paint scheme I simply copied that found on page 49 of the City of the Ancients Adventure Book. The idea of adding the extra scenery items to the base came from a painted example of the creature found on page 45 of the same book. Its paint scheme is very similar to my own. A Goliath is potentially a party killer and must be treated with utmost respect, caution and extreme prejudice.
The massive, demonic Harbinger is one of the most fearsome creatures yet encountered by those that delve down into the cursed mines near Brimstone. With sprawling bat-like wings and long, sinewy limbs, nothing can escape the Harbinger's foul reach. Its bony, horned skull-head holds no eyes but rather two rows of pitted nostrils to sniff out its prey in the dark, and consume the flesh of the unwary explorers with its vicious maw of razor sharp teeth. Often accompanied by a swarm of slithering Hellbats, the Harbinger brings doom to all who gaze upon him and despair to those that hear his name.
The Goliath was a huge monster but the Harbinger is even bigger! Because it is crouched down, it is only 55mm tall from the soles of its feet to the top of its horns but its wings make it even bigger. The top of its left wing reaches 140mm above the ground and its wingspan is an impressive 230mm. Like the Goliath, it is glued to a 60mm diameter base, which I decorated in a similar manner to the Goliath. The Harbinger was amongst the first batch of figures I painted for this game, closely followed by the Goliath. These two figures are stunning, show-piece models that never fail to grab your attention when they make an appearance in a game. 

18 comments:

  1. horrific beasties! Good job on them. I usually find the bigger the monster the harder to paint so these do look especially good.

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    1. Same here, Clint, but actually, these were surprisingly easy to paint. I guess it helped with using a limited palette on them.

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  2. Sensational work Bryan!! I must confess to liking the Goliath more as it simply looks awesome in green with its purple tentacles. But I guess I'l have to settle for painting the Harbinger first; as that's the Starter Set I own. Great painting on both though, and clearly a lot of love going on :-)

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    1. Many thanks, Simon. They are both fantastic figures, especially when you see them in the flesh, so to speak. To be honest with you, painting all of my Shadows of Brimstone figures has been a labour of love. Not once has it felt like a chore.

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  3. Really impressive beasties Bryan, I like them both, though it's a shame you can see some mould lines on the Goliath, one of the problems with plastic figures, Though I doubt you could realistically do the Harbinger with metal wings!

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Thanks, Roger. As so often happens I don't notice the mould lines until after I've painted a figure. I suppose the Harbinger could be made of metal but it would be quite hefty and I shudder to think how much it would cost!

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  4. I really like the saloon girl, I wondered how you would paint her. You did her well. The others make me think "he`s closer and closer to putting on his first actual game. wooohooo!!!"

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    1. Thanks, Hil. The saloon girl is probably my favourite Hero figure for Shadows of Brimstone. Actually, I have already played the game quite a few times. I just haven't posted any batreps yet... but they will come soon.

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  5. These are fabulous miniatures Bryan. Love the look of them and there respective backgrounds to. Lovely brushwork on these super beasties :)

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    1. Very kind of you to say so, Simon. Thanks, mate!

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  6. Both of them look awesome dude! Huge and intimidating they would dominate any game played me thinks and very suitable end game bosses

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    1. Thanks, Andy. You are exactly right - they are very suitable end game bosses.

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  7. Great job Bryan, really cool creatures, especially the Harbinger. Those colors are very unique. It looks really cool. Its given me the idea of going past the obvious colors on monsters. I have a mountain of Cthulhu mythos and the Others game. Its really hard to decide what to paint them. BTW the girl is pretty cool, too.

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    1. Thanks, Roger. More often than not, I find the hardest part of painting a figure is coming up with a suitable colour scheme. If others have already decided on a cool colour scheme ahead of me, I see nothing wrong in copying it.

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  8. More fantastic looking creatures, Bryan. There's definitely a Cthulhoid vibe to this game that i'm liking. As my FLGS has this game and all the expansions, I might have to have another look.

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    1. Thanks, Jez. My first impression of "Shadows of Brimstone" was "Call of the Cthulhu meets the Weird West". Good to know your FLGS stocks this game.

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  9. lovely and atmospheric. Makes me keener than ever to enjoy this cool game when I get inspired by some good atmos` eye candy . And yes, as everyone else is saying... the saloon girl is really spot on.

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    1. Much appreciated, Steve. Shadows of Brimstone is an incredibly cool game. I'm looking forward to posting some batreps of it soon. The saloon girl is a real beauty!

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