Help needed: Heavy Metal Trolls

[jdeckert]

So, after fielding a pewter troll army for almost a year now, I've finally decided on a theme that's got me excited to pain them up: heavy metal. The army goes into battle drinking, playing music with vocals that make you want to tear things up, telling tales of epic victories. To top it off, they're led by a trollblood wielding an axe that is loaded with dark power that could destroy the world. Figure all that in with the high degree of spiky bits and a spell called moshpit, and heavy metal seems to be the way to go.

So I'm thinking black cloth, some black armor, and Alclad chrome for spikes/skulls/weapons. If the chrome doesn't work out I'll just go with the brightest metal I can manage, not sure I want to do the amount of NMM to pull off chrome otherwise. I think I'll do the rocky parts of skin in a glossy-black obsidian.

So, two things:

1. Skin color. I'm thinking gray. I'm worried though that this would make the color scheme too monotone. Maybe that's okay given the theme, and I could add red in places (quills, etc.). Thoughts?

2. Any recommendations on cool things to add? Leads on good bits, bases, alternative, minis, etc. I'm keen on converting stuff, so any ideas are welcome.

[KulThass]

I think green stuff studs all over the place couldn't hurt. And extra spikes, like you said, in dullish, muted metal. I almost think the metal shouldn't be bright and shiny, but rather dull and rusted.
I think you're right on the skin tone, though. They should be either terribly pale (think nathan explosion) or vibrantly bright and angry (Red skin?)
But yea, I'm excited about this theme. It sounds very BRUTAL

[Feeple]

I would advise against the grey skin tone. It sounds like it won't let the skin be different enough to stand out. What could be fun is to let them just have the studio Troll skin tone, and paint up some piece's faces (like KISS does for concerts.)

[Bruunwald]

You know, this is one of the few instances in which I could ever imagine recommending you do the Trolls' skin in normal human pigments. When you said "Heavy Metal Trolls" I immediately imagined (right after I got images of the movie "Heavy Metal" out of my head) a bunch of black-leather wearing ruffians, big and trollish, with their flat troll faces done up in pasty London pale, So Cal tan and every shade in between (and some off the radar), all with black Troll hair (though featuring various dye and tint jobs), and various tattoos.

That would (and I actually didn't notice the pun at first), rock. Like a big brawling mob of mutated humans at a dark, stinky club. Awesome.

Also, I know it's been done a few times before, but anybody with a good-length weapon (like an axer or impaler) ought to look like he is playing air guitar with it. (Wherever practical).

[jdeckert]

Thanks for the tips! I think I'm going to try red skin first. KISS-style facepaint might be cool for some, I'll have to think about that. And, need to de-construct my axer so I can go the air-guitar route.

Alten Ashley is gong to make a killer Ozzy...

[KamenRiderNecro]

Or Norwegian black metal style corpse paint for them as well? The spiky look you're thinking of would go well with that, too!