Sunday 24 November 2013

Inspector Uncle Thulu, his pet infernium hound and subordonates

Finally it is time for Detective Inspector Uncle Thulu to emerge from his slumber and take charge of the Triple Six Division, or more commonly known as the Supernatural Branch. Very few know the group by Uncle Thulu's preferred name, Detective Inspector Uncle Thulu and Friends.

Uncle Thulu hanging out with the gang in, err, a gigantic pot plant

So how did this young detective Uncle Thulu, a Empire of the Dead Requiem Stretch Goal, come to be the head of the Supernatural branch? After all he never shaves, he has atrocious table manors, he never brushes his teeth, he smells of seaweed and once he even broke Constable Rupert's arm (story following soon). When Uncle Thulu was a kid he was bullied by his nephew (time is relative (get it???) for Old Ones) Cthulhu. Because of this Uncle Thulu joined the supernatural branch to lead them against the fight of all things supernatural. Plus Thulu has a thing for men in blue. 

Why hello there

Let me take you round my pot plant

It is worth noting a few things about Uncle Thulu in my faction. First he can fly (he has a gyrocopter but I will just pretend that he can fly). However if he gets shot on a 8-10 you shoot his wings which then might malfunction. Second his walking stick doubles as a bludgeon and a pistol. Pretty snazzy!


It took me a while to appreciate Uncle Thulu's black cape. I was very impressed with Dan's painting of Jack the Ripper, namely the black and thought my attempt involving mostly just highlighting the raised areas and leaving the rest black/german grey was a bit silly. However I have grown to appreciate it and now (as a week or so on the shelf does) think it gives it a nice comical look along with the green skin. I was contemplating a olive skin tone but thought that would be a bit to serious for Uncle Thulu and friends. I will save that for his brother Cthulhu. 

Cthulhu model I got of trademe (NZ ebay). I think it was part of the Call of Cthulhu RPG game
I think this guy is pretty cool. 

Next up for the Supernatural Branch is Uncle Thulu's faithful robotic infernium hound CJ7 named after the Stephen Chow film of the same name (which was a kinda average film admittedly). I found this model a little hard to paint although I think this is because my gold tamiya colour wasn't the same great quality as valejo paints which I normally use.

Infernium hound needs a wash after bringing
justice to the streets of London. 



Next up is two more of the Westwind Supernatural Branch police constables . Police Constable Rupert with the light pistol and Police Constable Nettles with the net-gun. 


Constable Rupert on the left had his arm broken by Detective Inspector Uncle Thulu in an arm wrestle. Because he lost he had to give 20 shillings to Uncle Thulu which he donated half to the faction. The reasoning behind this is because in the Empire of the Dead rules if you start with a 200 shilling faction you can take an injury to gain 10 shillings. I decided I wanted to have a full faction with infernium hound and two firearms specialists so needed a little bit of extra cash resulting in an arm injury (-1 strength) for Rupert. 


I think these guys look alright. However I had trouble painting them, I believe due to my ageing brushes. Which leads me to this question, does anyone know where I can get good quality, long lasting, not to expensive paintbrushes. Also what is the best way to look after your brush. Anyhow I hope you can forgive me for my somewhat silly faction backstory and enjoy Doctor Who's 50th anniversary today. 


14 comments:

  1. Great work Steve. Like the terrain too. Nice back story on the faction which is always fun and uncle Thulu is such a great leader for them. You've done really well on Thulu, what I did for Jack was to mix black and dark grey together to get a mid tone highlight, which I block painted in all but the recesses then used Codex Grey / Dawnstone Grey to do the final highlight. That gives a good transition because other wise the jump from black to dark grey can be stark. The style of highlighting here works well with Thulu, cause the skin has strong contrast as well. A bit like how Anatoli paints. Makes it pop out on the table. Good to see you're all prepared for Monday!

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    1. Thanks Dan. I will give that a shot next time I think. However I think fortunately the stark contrast works for Thulu. Hopefully better brushes help as well.

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  2. Damn nice work Steve...even if your brushes are old!

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    1. Thanks Francis! It just seems to make things harder to do but not impossible as I always seem to be touching up areas more than I should be due to being unable to make as fine and accurate brush strokes.

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  3. I love it... all of it, the story, the painting, snazzy uncle T in purple and black, its really great work. Use brush conditioner and follow the tips in this link you'll get more out of your brushes http://www.wagmanprimus.com/the_proper_care_of_artist_brushes.asp

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    1. Cheers Robert. Some good tips around cleaning. I think I will get some kolinski stable brushes from Wayland as I hear they are good and not to steep. Also they are horse hair I believe.

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  4. Don't apologise for the back-story, it adds to the fun!

    Very nice painting.

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    1. Haha cheers Edward. I have a terrible tendency to apologise for things I am not sure about.

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  5. Lovely work and splendid colors!

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  6. Cracking work on the Rozzers. If anyone comments adversely on Uncle Thulu's cloak, well it's obvious innit - the cloak is imbued with the power of the Old Ones and that's why it looks that way :)

    As for brushes and conditioner, check out your local art stores. For Kolinsky sable brushes I go for Winsor & Newton Series 7. For Conditioner, get a small (2.5 oz) pot of Master's Brush Cleaner and Preserver - it will last you for years.

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    1. Thanks Tamsin I always appreciate the positive feedback. Some good info regarding the brushes. Looks like kolinski stable is the way to go now just have to work out what brand. I am going to keep an eye out for brush cleaner now!

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  7. Nice job and back story... I like how you have worked Thulu into a faction. Great idea :-)

    I like the kolinsky sable series 7 miniature... but haven't found a supplier in NZ and they get expensive ordering from abroad... My recent brush purchases were the army painter range from Slave to Painting here in NZ...

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    1. Cheers Scott. I will look into slave to paintings range because as you say it can be hard to find good miniature brushes in NZ.

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