Lee Canaday’s Skeletal Warrior

This is an old bunch of bones that I had lying around and finally decided to resurrect.

I glued it together with superglue and accelerator. I chose a more aggressive, taunting pose than the box illustration which seemed a little ‘lifeless’ to me. I dropped the jaw to suggest, in an exaggerated manner, a battle cry.

I supported the threatening, upraised weapon arm with a glue point against the helmeted head. Despite this, I clumsily knocked it off once when handling it and had to add even more glue to support it.

I sprayed it with gray primer and then treated it with artist’s oils — experimentally at first — to get the right bone colour and other subtle shadings for that ‘fresh from the grave’ look.

I went for a rusty/tarnished look for the metals and used dried out grey and tan colour combinations for the wood and leather. The eye sockets and nostrils were blackened and shading around the skull, bones and finer details, such as the teeth, was achieved using black washes in moderation. I then used successive dry brushes to highlight the creature.

I attached the figure to a stained wooden, felt-bottomed plaque using wood screws and epoxy putty.

Overall, it was a very fun figure to assemble and not too bad to paint.

Lee Canaday