4e Goliath Barbarian

This year, my teenage son started playing DnD with his friends.  So for his birthday last week I thought I'd get him a miniature for his character.  Subtly, I found out that although he likes my miniatures, he's not interested in trying his hand at painting.  So I decided to go ahead anyway and paint it for him.

His character is a race that can be found in the DnD 4th edition Player Handbook 2, a Goliath Barbarian.

Goliath, source unknown.

Miniatures representing that race are still quite rare, but I was lucky and found one from Reaper miniatures, Goldar the Barbarian.

To determine which colours to use, I looked at pictures like the one above and the description of the Goliaths taken from this races of Stone Excerpt:

"Goliaths have gray skin, mottled with dark and light patches that goliath shamans say hint at a particular goliath's fate. Lithoderms -- coin-sized bone-and-skin growths as hard as pebbles -- speckle their arms, shoulders, and torso. Their skulls have a jutting eyebrow ridge, wide jaw, and occasional lithoderms as well. Female goliaths have dark hair on their heads, grown to great length and always kept braided. Male goliaths generally have hair only on their limbs. Goliaths' eyes are a brilliant blue or green, and they often seem to glow a little from underneath their furrowed brows."

03461 Goldar the Barbarian

03461 Goldar the Barbarian

To paint the skin, I primed the whole mini with black and then applied a base coat of Reaper Pro Paint Granite Grey and Reaper Pro Paint Ash Grey for the dark patches.  I then applied a wash of Citadel Devlan Mud all over.  Turned out OK, but I might get better results next time if I try local applications of Devlan Mud to the shadow areas only.

14608 Gorak the Ravager, Barbarian

Another model that would have been good for a Goliath is Gorak the Ravager, again from Reaper, but it was not available yet when I ordered my mini for this project.

Kratos from the PS3 game "God of War"

That Goldar mini reminds me a lot of Kratos, from the "God of War" game series.  One day I'll order another copy of the model and try a conversion.  And maybe that day my son will feel like putting down is game controller and pick up a brush.