Eternia Scenery - Evil Spirits Well

Today's update adds another piece of Scenery to the Eternian landscape in the form of a magical Well of Evil Spirits. It is said he who harnesses the power of the evil spirits within the well can conquer Eternia itself... if he's willing to pay the price. For you see, many of the souls trapped within once belonged to those who thought they could master its powers and failed...

At last, my imbecile lackey, with the power that lies within this Well, Greyskull will fall into my hands.

There is no Well of Evil Spirits in MOTU lore, at leas tnot that I know of, but I think the model fits right in. It is a single part of a plastic Games Workshop terrain kit that I picked up from a bits seller on ebay a few years ago, thinking it would work great as a standalone piece. When I started this MOTU project, I figured it would look great for Eternia. I tried to paint it in a way that would be reminiscent of the colours you would encounter in Eternian rocks and ruins in the Filmation cartoon. I think it works rather well.

A bird's eye view of the well and the spirits trapped within.

An action scene, with evil overlords battling for controle of the Well.

You are too late, Hordak, the power of the Well is mine!

Aroo - The guardian of the City of the Ancients

Only appearing in the episode "Masks of Power", Aroo is a giant demonic blue gorilla-like beast, who was in charge of guarding the said masks in the lost City of the Ancients. He-Man and Man-At-Arms barely escaped with their lives when they encountered him and while the masks were taken, Aroo was just too strong to defeat, even for He-Man.

The giant, apelike Aroo

My version of Aroo is not full size, he'd need to be about 2,5 times the size, which would just make  him look out of place on the table and impossible to work into a scenario where you could fight him and win. So, I settled for a more practical size, which still puts hem at around 115mm tall, on an 80mm base. As he's based on an Eaglemoss figure of Grudd, skillfully converted by the talented John Pickford, he's also made of lead, so weighs a heavy 700g. Painting him was not so easy due to the added weight.

Aroo in the original episode

For size with Skeletor, who's hoping to control him, but may have bitten off more than those weathered teeth can chew

A comparison with the original figure. The Grudd figure is actually pretty close already if you don't care for an exact match. The only really required changes would be replacing the hair with a skullcap with horns and pointy ears poking out, adding a devilish tail and filling in the G to be a circle. As I wanted to get as close as possible, John also changed the mouth, necklace, armbands and wrist guards, belt, loincloth, and added claws to the fingers and feet, as well as turning the oversized skull into a rock.

Anti-Eternians - Anti-Goddess

If Anti-Eternia is the opposite of regular Eternia, then it stands to reason that its Goddess has also been tainted by the same evil. Being more brutal in nature, she fights with a mace, ready to bash in skulls, rather than to carry the snake staff.

Anti-Eternia Goddess

 There isn't really any precedent for this character (that I'm aware of), so her colour scheme was made up, using the usual Anti-Eternia palette and trying to go by what makes sense and gives the best contrast. As the regular version already wears a (dark) red snake collar, I decided to do the collar in the grey colour and work out the rest from there. I think the end result is pretty good.



The model is another old Grenadier mini from the 1980s. It's interesting that Grenadier made multiple poses of the same characters and it helps to further differentiate between the good and bad Goddess, although having duplicate models in different colour schemes doesn't bother me in this project, since it's a nod to the heavy reuse of parts and recoloured characters in the MOTU universe and toy line.

Anti-Eternia and Eternia Goddess

What sorcery is this? You are not the Goddess!

The Anti-Eternians so far (not including Man-At-Arms in Windraider)

Evil Warriors - Shadow Beasts

Shadow Beasts are great ape-like beasts who live in tribes throughout the dark hemisphere. They are named thus because they can only come out in the absence of light. Like most beasts, they are vulnerable to Beastman's powers and can be controlled by him to join the fight on Skeletor's side.

Shadow Beasts, the yeti's of Eternia

 I went with the Filmation cartoon colour scheme on this. Other media have shown them in darker, more apelike colours, but I like how the purple shade emphasises the alien, retro pulp quality they have. I originally was going to do their bases in a neutral colour, as they can also be used independently, but ultimately settled for the Evil Warriors scheme, as that will be their main purpose.

Beastman takes controle of the Shadow Beasts

Teela getting surrounded by the Shadow Beasts

The Evil Warriors so far (not including my alternate Skeletor)

Anti-Eternians - Anti-Sorceress

The Sorceress is a force to reckon with and since there is a Castle Hellskull on Anti-Eternia, there has to be an Anti-Sorceress to guard it as well. Her fiery red eyes and black skin give her an unwordly type of beauty, while her red garb evokes hints of a hellish world indeed.

Anti-Eternia Sorceress spreading her wings

The model is another Quest Miniatures figure sculpted by Boris Woloszyn and in an unusual turn of events, I painted her as the Anti-Eternia Sorceress before I tackle the regular one (because, seriously, who wouldn't put off painting white?). The colour scheme is made up, starting from the Anti-Eternia palette. As the regular sorceress has orange wings and a white bodice, the needed contrast dictated the Anti-Eternia version should have a red bodice and grey wings (or black wings, but that would make her too monotone, you need three colours to have nice contrast). The rest followed from there. The base is my usual sculpted on flagstone, with red painted in the grooves between tiles to simulate the hellscape that is Anti-Eternia.

Oo-Larr (minicomic He-Man from a few generations before Adam) dukes it out with Anti-He-Man while their respecitve guides and mentors look on.

The Anti-Eternians, so far (not including the Man-At-Arms in Windraider).

Evil Warriors - Skelcon Footsoldiers

Introduced into MOTU continuity by the Ladybird books, the Skelcons are a race of horned demons who  worship the bones of their ancestors until a summoning spell, cast by Skeletor, brought them to Eternia. For obvious reasons, they view Skeletor as their god and serve as his soldiers, wearing skull masks and wielding weapons built from the bones of their dead.

Skelcon warriors

Ironically, I am both happy and unhappy with how they came out. I hesitated longly whether to paint their faces as bone mask, like the MOTUC toy, or in the same colour as their skin, like in the original Ladybird books. I went with the former for more contrast and I think it was a good call. I also wanted their skin tone to be different from Skeletor's, so went with a darker, greener blue. The resulting colourscheme looks great, I think, but ironically, now I sort of wish I did paint them in Skeletor's skintone, like the Ladybird version. The bases are my usual recipe of sculpted on flagstone texture, painted in purple as they are part of the Evil Warriors.

The diverging inspirations: MOTUC figures vs Ladybird book

Teela and Man-At-Arms are attacked by some Skelcons

Skeletor flanked by his new honour guard

Evil Horde - Horde Troopers

If Hordak has been able to conquer Etheria it is largely thanks to his vast army of robotic Horde troopers. Mindless machines, they don't tire and know mercy nor remorse.

I can't believe it's been 8 months since I was able to paint something new for this project and it shows. The painting skills are a bit rusty and my brushed were running on their last legs, so as a result, I'm not overly happy with how they came out, which is not to blame on the models as they are spot on. Hopefully, now that the painting muscles have been stretched, and with the help of some new brushes to be bought, the next ones will be better.

Hordak and some of his Horde troopers

Hordak is backed up by his troopers, but He-Man and Battlecat know no fear.

The current tally of painted Horde miniatures