Balor, King of the Fomorians

Remember when I said I had an idea of a figure for a Balor for my Fomorian warband?

Well, painted over three evenings, I present:

This is the Cyclops Shaman from the Skorne faction in Hordes. He is the only cyclops who looks like a cyclops, because the other cyclops figures wear full-faced helmets. Go figure.

Anyway, when I saw him I thought he was ideal for what I wanted. Most cyclops figures look either too Greek (for good reasons) or too barbaric. Skorne figures have a samurai look to them, but the only obviously samurai parts on this figure are the knots on his vambraces - the rest of his dress and weapon have that Celtos look. To add to that effect I used a 40mm resin base from Fantascape, which has Celtic knotwork on it. The designers of the game probably feel the same way as I do, because they actually gave this figure an 'Evil Eye' shooting attack in the game stats.

Adrian got the figure for me and made it a gift (thanks, bro!); Privateer Press figures are nice but expensive, but this one is a must-have. The cast was quite clean, but the shaft of the weapon was a bit irregular, and so I replaced it with a piece of 1/16th inch brass rod.

I used essentially the same palette as I did for the rest of the warband, but I did use a lighter flesh tone for him. I chose green for the colour of his eye, because he is, well, Irish, and because that was the colour I picked for the gems on my other figures; I guess the fluff is that because their king's eye is green, the Fomorians like green gemstones?

I hope to pose him and the rest of the warband together for a group shot over the weekend. In the meantime, here are a couple more shots:

Front view. I like what I did with the eye.

Rear view, showing the stains on the skirt and the patterned border.