Mounting up the Torakk Riders

Staying off of the forums has helped me get some more painting done. Part of the purchase from Microworld Games were the Torakk Riders from Dark Realm Miniatures. To me, these 6mm science fiction miniatures are very reminiscent of the rider in Ralph Bashki's movie Wizards. (Here is a link to the movie poster. I am not going to link in the image itself.) Of course the riding beast is different and the rider has Kraytonian armor, so I guess it is just the pose.

I started off by priming these figures white. I then used various browns, yellows, and reds in washes, inks, and glazes to get my beast tones. I then painted a darker flesh color for the 'horn' and the 'beak', then washed it in brown to blend it in.

For the rider I first coated him in gloss, then washed him in Citadel Nuln Oil (a black wash). That got the black mostly into the depressions and only lightly colored the white primer. I then washed the armor with Citadel Camoshade and that colored the figure the green that you see. I then picked out the equipment in various colors and washed over them in browns or greens in order to blend in the colors.

Yes, I did actually paint the eyes white on these guys. They were pretty well defined in the sculpt.

These guys had a bit larger base, ½" circle punched from magnetic business cards, which I covered with sand, painted my standard Cocoa color (which is colored more like light caramel), washed in dark brown to give some depth, and then added static grass.

All in all it took about two evenings, as this style requires a lot of time drying (due to all the washes and glazes).

The figures were fun to paint, but … they are not 6mm, in my opinion. Never mind that the total figure height is so tall, but the rider itself is much larger than the GW Epic Space Marines and larger than even the Kraytonian infantry, which they are supposed to duplicate. Torakk Riders must be the 'cuirassiers' of their day!