Unknown Painter: Ral Partha AD&D Chimera

I use the Unknown Painter tag on posts of figures in my collection I'd like to share with you, but didn't paint myself. I'm always on the lookout for offerings of figures that meet my standard and fit my style, figure needs, and budget, but they seem as rare as hens' teeth. I might come across one or a group from the same seller every three to five years. This chimera was one such I gladly plunked down for, though, even though I have one of my own to paint one day (that I've had since adolescence), as well as three more from Reaper. I wasn't disappointed.

Ral Partha AD&D 11-414 Chimera

I did take the liberty to make a few modifications. I replaced the base with an ellipse base to fit with the rest of my D&D collection. I would have preferred to do a dungeon style base rather than outdoors, but this figure has one foot resting on a bush and I didn't feel like going in with cutters and Dremel or modeling dungeon debris over it. I also modified the mane, which was the same color as the rest of the fur. I glazed it with richer honey tones and dark tones after some photos of lions found online.

Overall, I really admire the painting. Note the details such as the purple dots in the wings, the eyes and mouths, the treatment of the horns and the highlights on the blacks. Also the nice balance of the black top of the wing and goat head against the red underside of the wing and dragon head.

I was lucky enough to win a few more figures painted by this painter including a sabertooth cat, some cavemen and a group of fantasy pygmies with stone idol, all by Reaper. I'll aim to get pics of them to share as well.