By Dave Merryman, Guest Reviewer

Available at FRP Games

Magnificent Egos Miniatures: Oculous, The Rotten Eye
Retail $15.99 Sale $12.79

Initiative Round
Oculous, the Rotten Eye is a 35mm undead beholder produced by Magnificent Egos for the Nightmares miniature line. When assembled the miniature is approximately 2.5" to the top of its eyestalks. Oculous was sculpted by Clint Staples and retails for $15.99.

The miniature is packaged in two pieces; the front half is cast with a tab to attach it to the base and the back half, which is cast with the eyestalks. The two halves required some filing to get them to fit together tightly. While I believe that super glue would have been enough to hold the miniature together, I decided to use a couple of pins for added strength. Green Stuff was required to fill the gaps around the seam. All in all, I found assembly to be quick, taking approximately fifteen minutes. The casting was clean with few mold lines. One minor casting flaw that I found was some pitting on the main eye.

For such a large miniature, the painting time was relatively short. Most of the detail on the miniature is deeply sculpted making highlighting and shading intuitive. I found the miniature to be well sculpted, with enough detail to make it interesting to paint. This made paint selection and base coat application fairly easy. The sculpting of the miniature is well suited for dry brushing if you are in a hurry to get it painted and on your gaming table. The miniature is also detailed enough to allow some more advanced painting techniques to be used to get a nice display look.

Critical Hit
This miniature is a unique subject that is well sculpted.

Critical Fumble
I found that the 25 mm base packaged with the miniature is not nearly big enough to support a miniature of this size.

Coup de Grace
For me, this was an interesting miniature to paint. It was unusual and added some variety to my painting without taking up too much time. For new painters, the size of this miniature makes it a great place to try out some advanced techniques. For advanced painters, it offers a nice change from the usual wizards and armored fighters genre.

Final Grade: A-