Painting the New 15mm Cockatrice Monster

Welcome to the fourth article for Age of Might and Steel by Andy Jefcoate a great fan of 15mm fantasy wargaming.  Andy has lots more articles to come which will feature on our blog while this time he shows off his painted up new HOT103 Cockatrice monster from the HOT 15mm Fantasy Range.  If you missed any of the previous articles you can find them by clicking on the links here. Last time Andy talked and shows his painting and use of our HOB1 Human Starter Settlement set of 15mm fantasy buildings see that HERE.  If you missed his article on Zombies you can read that HERE and if you passed over his excellent first article on building a Goblin Army for Age of Might and Steel (AoMaS) you can see that HERE.  We hope you enjoy and all comments or emails are most welcome. Follow the links in the text to visit our website for the rules and miniatures mentioned. GBS

Painting the new 15mm Cockatrice!

Thanks to Gavin I was lucky enough to receive a casting of the new 15mm Cockatrice figure ahead of its release date. I immediately liked it a lot as the casting is very clean with a good level of detail and the pose is good, with it's wings raised in a threatening gesture and one foot poised to strike! 

It is supplied in 3 white metal pieces with the wings provided separately which I always like as the angle of the wings can change the look of a figure dramatically. I was happy with how the finished figure looked so I thought that I'd explain how I went about painting it.

1. After minimal cleaning of the casting I started by gluing the wings to the body and then gluing the figure to a 40mm x 30mm stand to fit in with my collection of AoMaS figures. Once the glue was dry I undercoated the figure in a matt black paint. As stated in an earlier article I like to use acrylic paints as they dry quickly. 

2. I then added my basing material by stirring fine sand into paint of the colour I want the bases to be and put it on. For my current 15mm fantasy armies I'm using a sandy brown as the base colour. The figure was then left overnight to dry.

3. I started by painting the largest area of the figure which was the scaly body and wings. These were done in a dark green but as it is a creature I used a dark camouflage green to give a more natural look.

4. Next I covered the belly and along the underside of the tail in a pale yellow to contrast with the dark green. I painted this in stripes so that the bands along the stomach and tail were clearly visible.

 5.  With the larger areas complete it was time to put the base colour on smaller areas. The feet and beak were painted in a dark yellow, the tongue and crests on the head were painted in a dark red, the feathered areas at the top of the legs and on the head were done in a light grey and the claws and teeth were done in a pale brown.

6. I then covered the whole of the figure in a black ink wash. There is a nice level of detail on the casting so as the ink dries it brings this out and dulls down the colours. It also has the effect of creating areas of shade which gives a good boundary between the individual colours, but also tying them together. To make sure that the ink was completely dry I again left the figure overnight.

7. It was then time to add some brighter colours by dry-brushing them on to the main areas. I used a light camouflage green on the wings and body which highlighted the raised areas on the wings and the individual scales nicely. I then used a white over the feathered areas to make them stand out, before putting a lighter red on the crests on the creatures head.  

8. To add a final level of detail the beak was covered in a lighter yellow, the claws were all given an overlay of a bone colour and the eyes were painted red.

 9. The same bone colour was used to dry-brush over the sandy base as I've done with all of my 15mm fantasy collection. I then gave the figure a coat of matt spray varnish to protect it.

10. Finally once the varnish had dried I added static grass to the  base using PVA glue to fit in with the green of my terrain tiles. As the base then matched the rest of my collection it means that I can freely swap the Cockatrice between armies (which is especially useful with monsters) and it will immediately fit in.

I enjoyed painting this figure immensely. I'm building a fair sized collection of monsters to use with AoMaS and a Cockatrice was something I didn't have previously. I plan to highlight my collection of monsters in a later article. 

In the AoMaS game this Cockatrice could have the following stats.

Magical Creature Align: Evil

Move: Walk or Fly Moral Effect: None

Combat Effect: Each figure is counted as a stand

Magic: Magic Attack (-1 to attack base number)

Although the Cockatrice is a monster it isn't a large figure with the top of the crest on the head being about 25mm from the ground. However, with it's wings spread and tail raised it looks bigger than it actually is. As I write this I'm thinking about how this figure could easily be used as the mount for a character or even as the mounts for a unit of heavy cavalry which would look very imposing on the tabletop!

In the meantime I would recommend buying a Cockatrice (or two, or three) to add to your own collection; you won't be disappointed. 

Thanks for reading.

Andy