Earthbound but aspiring

The Dohwar are a race of space penguins from the Spelljammer setting. I don't know too much about them, but even though I am a fan of whimsy in fantasy, I'm lukewarm about Dohwar which seem to have devolved into yet another quirky comedy relief race that populates the D&D universe.

A couple of miniatures of Dohwar appeared in the Icons of the Realms line. There is a standard Dohwar (Adventures in Space #5), and a Dohwar & Space Swine (Adventures in Space #18).

I wonder if the creator of the Dohwar had the flying pig with the motto "To the stars on the wings of a pig" used by John Steinbeck in mind when designing them.

In any event, I was interested in re-purposing the miniatures as giant albino penguins from the H.P. Lovecraft novella At the Mountains of Madness.

Most depictions of the albino Lovecraftian penguins make them distorted and grotesque.

For it was only a penguin—albeit of a huge, unknown species larger than the greatest of the known king penguins, and monstrous in its combined albinism and virtual eyelessness.

I prefer something a bit more unassuming like the Dohwar miniature, but sadly it is only about 19mm tall, which makes it closer in size to Inkayacu paracasensis than the full 6 foot height of Aptenodytes albus described in the Lovecraft story.

I slapped some white paint on the miniatures, and colored the feet, beaks, and horns in a coral color. The result was rather mediocre, and the penguins look a lot like oversized chickens...

Tekeli-li! Tekeli-li!

Maybe a dark wash, and perhaps a different color for the horns will make them look a little less chicken-like.