Call of Cthulhu - Deep Ones.

Deep Ones.

"I think their predominant color was a greyish-green, though they had white bellies. They were mostly shiny and slippery, but the ridges of their backs were scaly. Their forms vaguely suggested the anthropoid, while their heads were the heads of fish, with prodigious bulging eyes that never closed. At the sides of their necks were palpitating gills, and their long paws were webbed. They hopped irregularly, sometimes on two legs and sometimes on four. I was somehow glad that they had no more than four limbs. Their croaking, baying voices, clearly used for articulate speech, held all the dark shades of expression which their staring faces lacked ... They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design - living and horrible."

(H.P.Lovecraft - "The Shadow Over Innsmouth")

Hybrid children watch the sea...

Maybe it was the calling of the sea, the foul murmurs of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, or maybe the fish and chips I had at the weekend - whatever, I decided to make a start on my Deep One horde. Currently a work in progress, I have dug out all my 'Deep One' miniatures and started work on about half. Out of the initial twenty, three of these are almost done but I have most of the detailing work to complete on the others. I also have two hybrid types undercoated and then another fourteen, a mix of hybrids and pure, to begin.

A fishy collective.

The figures are a mix of old Grenadier, RAFM, em4, CP Models, Black Cat Bases, plus some Black Tree Design Fishmen and Troglodytes to bolster the ranks. At the back is a huge mutated Deep One, aka a Frog Daemon also from Black Tree. Due to their monstrous nature and the practice of mating with humans, I felt there was a some flexibility in the actual physical shapes they could potentially have. The idea is that these are a mixed bunch of pure Deep Ones right through the various stages of hybrid plus the few inevitable grotesque mutations.

...pray for Father, roaming free.

As far as painting goes, I have tried to go for the 'classic' look, as described by Lovecraft, greyish green with white bellies. I could not decide on the colour of the eyes so settled for a glowing yellowy look.

Blasphemous fish-frogs indeed!