"Sometimes Pairs Of Yellow Or Red Or Green Eyes Would Stare At Him..."

"But the eyes that he liked the least were horrible pale bulbous sort of eyes.

These five "cartoon scale white metal figures" of Lord Rascal’s Icky Spiders are produced by “Lucid Eye Publications” and can be bought from the company's "Toon Realms" range. Sculpted by Steve Saleh, I have actually painted half a dozen of these arachnids before using a simple “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal and “Citadel” Abaddon Black colour scheme.

However, as I have subsequently decided to field a second unit of these heavily-fanged horrors for my Undead “Dragon Rampant” warband, I decided to paint my second unit of Lesser Warbeasts in a much more eye-catching palette, and then mix them in with their much more monotone brethren. As a result I decided against just super-gluing the miniatures to their 30mm lipped plastic circular bases and instead drilled a tiny hole up into their underbellies before attaching them to some pieces of wire.

"No spider has ever liked being called Attercop, and Tomnoddy of course is insulting to anybody."

This allowed me to prime them with impunity, predominantly wash the arachnids using “Citadel” Nuln Oil, and later heavily dry-brush the furry critters without having to worry about catching their bases with my enthusiastic strokes. In order to cover as broad a palette as possible I decided to pigment my eight-legged horrors with “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna, Heavy Red, Heavy Blue, Heavy Green and Heavy Violet.

Once the bulk of my work was completed, I ‘picked out’ the Icky Spiders' pointed teeth using a combination of “Vallejo” White and “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade, as well as the wall-crawlers' eyes with “Vallejo” Heavy Red and “Citadel” Bloodletter. However, for my red-furred eight-leg I applied two dollops of “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre over its eyes, and shaded them with “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade.

"Toon Realms" WIPs - One of Lord Rascal's Skeleton Swordsmen and Warrior, plus a Royal Guard

Only once the Necromancer’s fearsome minions were fully-painted did I drill a small hole into the models’ separately finished bases, and pin them in place using a small quantity of superglue. Lastly, the web-spinning servants were varnished using Vallejo" Gloss Acyrlic Varnish and had their stands flocked using “Citadel” Static Grass.

With both of my Lesser Warbeast units finished, I've started priming and shading the last of the Skeleton Swordsmen and spear-carrying Warriors I need to 'fill out' my Undead force's Light Foot units. In addition, I have finished the layering on my pilot piece for King Victor's Royal Guard, having gone for a palette inspired by Gondor's Fountain Guard as seen in the 2003 epic fantasy adventure film "The Return Of The King".