Our beloved Dungeon Master at Alpha Omega Hobby has a copy of an old book titled Central Casting: Heroes of Legend. With this book, we roll incredibly elaborate backgrounds where we learn story-enhancing details like the circumstances of our birth or the professions of our parents. Occasionally we’ll even learn of tragedies that befell us in adolescence or of an unclaimed inheritance.
Sometimes, we’ll even come into possession of unusual magical items like Spider Gloves or prosthetic limbs with as yet undisclosed abilities. Or a clockwork dog.
Yes, I said CLOCKWORK DOG.
I really lucked out and acquired a clockwork dog that I anticipate will become a favorite semi-NPC of our party. It’s already done some bizarre things and we’ve only had one session with which to become acquainted.
Given our group’s affinity for Hero Forge custom miniatures and an increasingly contagious propensity for impulse purchases, I knew I’d have to find a clockwork dog miniature for our Dungeons & Dragons Adventurers League campaign.
But who knew how difficult it would be to find ANY kind of mechanical dog miniature that would look natural with our minis?
Who knew?
Within five minutes, I knew. I found all kinds of vicious, snarling, drooling dogs. Cyborg pirate dogs. Dogs covered in weapons that made them look like refugees from Dominion: Tank Police.
But no dogs that looked remotely clockwork or D&D-esque. No dogs that looked like my quirky, eccentric dog that spawned from the pages of Central Casting.
And then I discovered Crossover Miniatures.
While Crossover Miniatures had no clockwork dogs, the did have robo dogs. Three of them. In a single pack (no pun intended). Ten seconds later, I placed my order with full belief that I could paint one up in a way that would look reasonable on our D&D table.
Full Metal Alchemist.
Awaiting a package in the mail, I took inventory of all the metallic Citadel paints in my collection and researched photos of REAL dogs. By the time my robo dogs arrived, I had a game plan ready to go. Here’s what I did:
- Spray-primed with Citadel Mechanicus Standard Grey.
- Base-coated with Citadel Screaming Bell.
- Painted the top half of my dog’s snout, his ears, his feet, and the juncture parts where the legs connect to the body with Citadel Balthasar Gold.
- Painted the bottom of his neck, belly, lower jaw, inner-lower front legs, lower back legs, and the tip of the tail with Citadel Leadbelcher.
- Painted a middle section of tail, the upper-back shoulder of his front legs and upper-front shoulder of his back legs with Citadel Retribution Armour.
- Dotted his left eye with Citadel Abaddon Black.
- Dotted his right eye with Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet.
- Washed with Citadel Athonian Camoshade.
- Dry brushed with Citadel Retribution Armour.
- Dry brushed with Citadel Screaming Bell.
- Re-dotted his right eye with Citadel Evil Sunz Scarlet.
- Painted the base with Citadel Mournfang Brown.
- Washed the base with two coats of Army Painter Strong Tone.
While I lost some of the clearer delineations of mechanical panels and precision painting when I dry-brushed, I’m REALY happy with how much more cohesive and weathered he looks. He’s got that steampunk vibe even though I think he was cast with futuristic science fiction in mind. With that, here are some photos…
