The Empyreans (25A and 25B) from WizKids Monster Menagerie 3 sets are huge models (3 inch base) and are similar in height to the Cloud Giants from Storm King’s Thunder. I guess they are not very popular, because I found them only for a bargain. I decided to turn them into Cloud Giants for my campaign.

In this post, I focus on the Empyrean (25A) from WizKids Monster Menagerie 3 set. It’s the one with a one-handed war hammer. The figure looks exactly like the Empyrean from the D&D 5th Edition Monster Manual, but maybe it could be converted to a Cloud Giant.

The clothes do match the ancient Greek style of the Storm Giants a bit better, but the miniature is too small to pass for a Storm Giant. This Cloud Giant in spe would not be a foot soldier, but maybe a commander of some sort. I avoided golden colors for both Cloud Giants miniatures so far, but I guess I’ll try gold for this guy.

Unfortunately, my figure had a heavily bent war hammer. I tried stabilizing it, but it didn’t hold. So sadly, it looks a bit silly.

Basing and Priming

The figure is set on a 3-inch base, on which I added sand and little pebbles. I did not remove the old color or primed the whole figure. I just painted over the existing colors.

Painting

I used the same color recipes for the skin tone as previously with the Cloud Giants. That means gray like a rain cloud with highlights and shadows.

For the clothes, I also used teal again. For the metallic armor, I used polished gold and added a warm brown wash to shadow the recesses. The metal colors from Vallejo Model Colors range did not always work perfectly for me, but here they literally shined.

To really make this figure into a Cloud Giant, I added white stuffed toy animal fillings to simulate cloudy hair and vapor on the hammer. I think it looks quite nice!