P is for Paint Your Own Magical Beasts

No - Once you've painted them they won't help you win the lottery or stop that bloody Walters' [with a s!] blogging, they're not that kind of Magical Beasts, the word they needed was 'mythological', but it's too long and complicated for the target age-group of The Works 'Paint You Own' Activity Station sets from Top That Publishing/Tide Mill Media. But mythological they are.

Did I say earlier that they are seven-quid each or two-for-ten-pounds, in The Works now; this one is aimed as squarely at boys as the previous one (posted below) is at girls, and it's no good quoting some califon-eye-ay PC bollocks at me, some things are as old as the hills and gender-preference is one of them, sure tomboy girls will love this set and glass-haired Quentin's will want a set of Princesses . . . well; I've got one and I 'aint no nancy-boy! What-choo sayin'? Ooo's the daddy round 'ear!

Same format, same pack-drill; artwork is Hobbit'esque, the mighty Smaug, a bit of a disappointment when you see the model!

Four models, 6 paints, brush, booklet, card backdrop . . . tray . . . book-like box.

The figures; this time we have (from the left again) a Dragon, Centaur, Werewolf and Griffon, so two from heraldry and two more fairy-tail/fantasy types.

You may have spotted in the previous shot that these are more complicated models, with the problem of undercuts solved with multi-part construction; these have been fettled badly (if at-all?) and then seemingly glued in a hurry with no effort, as a result they are relatively easy to pry apart and trim to fit, before being glued together again.

I glued them with my go-to for PVC; plumbers sealant. The brand I'm using at the moment is Polypipe SC125 Solvent Cement (active ingredient: bisphenol A-epichlorohydrin epoxy resin [AV MW<700]) which wealds PVC instantly. However it's an old tub and has started to dry-out, so it needs to be blobbed-on with a toothpick, which fills the joins nicely as it shrinks tight on fully drying (overnight).

You can also see the 'Werewolf' looks more like one of those alligator troopers from 2000AD (was it the Judge Cal storyline?) and will make a better troll or ogre or even 'The Beast' for a Paint Your Own Princesses' 'Beauty'.

The Centaur got the same treatment and the other two need work, but I did these two for the photo-shoot!

Confirming the brush quality compared to the quality of the usual 'craft brush' efforts, it's a synthetic squirrel or sable, and won't last long, especially if you use it with old school spirit enamels, but for the purpose at hand, not too shabby at all!

This time we get a green, but at a cost to the blue, which one needs for all the other blues, and purples, so a bigger remiss?

This booklet gives potted histories of other mythical (Unicorn), fantasy (Ents), folklore (Black Shuck) and even horror (Dracula) beasts between the painting 'projects'. The fold/crease-distressing on the booklet and box is deliberate graphics, not my having sat on them for years!

Another useful scenic backdrop we will see again occasionally.

Again; the Consumer Info. panel for those who want it, and you may have worked out by now that there's more to come . . . Dinosaurs in a while!