Masters of the Universe in 28mm: Panthor and Skeletor!

I mentioned acquiring some old 28mm Masters of the Universe figures (produced by Grenadier in the 80s) several months ago, and I've finally gotten a start on them. While working on my Etherian Horde and Avion Warriors for Dreadball I was thinking about the coach models for my teams. Since I have no Hordak figure at the moment my thoughts immediately turned to Skeletor.

My Orx/Goblin team the Snake Mountain Smashers are going to be Skeletor's, even though thematically it would make more sense for them to be Caligars coached by Whiplash. Perhaps later on I'll do another team for that. The Smashers aren't ready for prime time yet, but their coach is all set for his debut appearance.

The paint work was pretty simple. Army Painter Crystal Blue for the skin, a little GW Liche Purple mixed with AP Uniform Grey for the cloth on his armour, and P3 Greatcoat Grey for the leather armour bits. Matte black for the spear shaft and fuzzy shorts, gloss black for his claws. GW Bleached Bone for the bones on his chest and P3 Thrall Flesh for his face. I painted his eyes white first and then put some Tamiya Clear Red over top, as well as on the gem in the middle of his chest. Finally I used GW Gorthor Brown for the straps on his back.

To finish things off I gave him a liberal coat of GW Badab Black, then highlighted the skin with AP Electric Blue. A quick dry brush on his underoos with GW Fortress Grey and some standard basing work to finish.

Naturally Skeletor needs his favourite pet: Panthor. In the assortment of models I received there was a Battle Cat, but no Panthor. In fact, the range never included a Panthor figure to my knowledge. I had tested out some of my Army Painter quickshade dip on a sabretooth tiger model from Horrorclix and happened across it in a drawer. "Perfect," I thought, and set about painting it purple.

I think he turned out great, especially considered how mediocre I thought it looked as a sabretooth tiger. It was an easy paint job to put together: AP Alien Purple, GW Bleached Bone, Testors Gloss Black, P3 Flesh and a very liberal dash of GW Leviathan Purple wash. His eyes were done by painting them white, applying a light wash of GW Thraka Green wash, and then a tiny dot of P3 Necrotite Green on top.

Panthor is pretty intimidating size-wise compared to the MotU figures (Battle Cat is even BIGGER!), because they're pretty much true 25mm figures. I suppose on their bases they're 28 - 30mm, but compared to more contemporary figures they're quite small. I'm not too concerned about that though, simply because they're awesome.