The Guards
After the heroes of the movie Planet of the Apes, I have now finished the “evil” apes – if you want to call them that. In any case, they are the masters of the planet and understand Taylor and the other humans as inferior creatures. No wonder the good guy wants to escape!
The design of the monkeys is iconic. The masks were very elaborate and convincing for the time (1968!). With the sequels to the original film, it can’t have been the plot that interested viewers either. The setting was reasonably exciting and there were apes as identification figures in the later films. Design and masks certainly contributed significantly to this.
From Crooked Dice I ordered with the character models also immediately a few ape guards. In the set come four miniatures with different poses, weapons and separate heads. The separate heads are a smart move, as it allows you to break up the duplicates even with a larger number of these models. Of course, you could also glue on human heads and use the figures for completely different settings. The painting was then again close to the original and rather kept in darker colors.
Dr. Zaius
Dr. Zaius, as an orangutan, is a member of the upper class and the National Assembly. He is also the minister of science and as such watches over the faith of the apes. I have always found it curious that faith is linked to science, but in this case it emerges as faith as an origin story. Dr. Zaius protects the teachings. Although or just because he knows the prehistory of mankind, the apes must be protected from this knowledge.
In my memory, I had always counted Dr. Zaius as one of Taylor’s supporters, but after rewatching it, it’s perfectly clear: He’s not a bad guy, but he holds to the prevailing doctrine and chooses authority. Therefore, he is definitely one of the more exciting characters and, consequently, one of the few figures that appear in the second film, Return to Planet of the Apes.
Dr. Zaius also comes from Crooked Dice’s set of ape character models.
Ursus
The last of the Planet of the Apes characters at the moment is General Ursus from the sequel Return to Planet of the Apes. Ursus is also from Crooked Dice’s Simians series and the miniature captures the original brilliantly again. He too, of course, is among the relentless persecutors and oppressors of humans. In painting him, I tried to stick closely to the colors of the film, although with mostly dark tones, he doesn’t look too interesting. At least the highlights were painted with different mixes to get different shades. I’m pleased with the result, but instead of looking grim and frightening, Ursus smiles like he’s found a banana. Maybe he’s a good guy after all!