A Tacky Tyrannosaur

Hot on the heels of last week’s 'Mighty Megalosaurus', I present, for your delectation, the fearsome Tyrannosaurus Rex!

This most wholesome of hobbies is blessed with a community of hugely generous souls.  One such person is Roger Webb, who last year, quite inexplicably, packaged up a Christmas gift and sent it on its way to Awdry Towers.  Well I am delighted to report that, ‘Junior’, as he has been named by the ‘Saintly Mrs. Awdry', has finally been completed and is ready to take centre stage in all manner of prehistoric pulpiness.

Unlike the hard plastic of the Megalosaurus, the Tyrannosaur is made from a substance with a little more give to it, more akin to the ‘Reaper Bones’ material.  That said it seemed to take the undercoat reasonably enough and was then given the now standard application of a couple of varying tones of green using Vallejo Model Air.

The sculpt is particularly fearsome and really nicely done, not dissimilar to my beloved 'Schleich' Rexie, not dissimilar apart from, of course, his stature!  Given their uncanny resemblance it seemed to me that Junior should be painted in such a way that he could be the offspring of the towering 'Scheich' version.

Again as with the previous post the initial base layers were added to with some dry brushing followed by picking out the details with a fine brush.  All went swimmingly well until it came to the varnishing stage.  My preferred matt lacquer has reacted in an odd way with the plastic leaving me a slightly ‘tacky’ dinosaur.  Interestingly it has dried as normal around the feet, but the upper body is strangely sticky.  I would like to say that the stickiness is abating, but I am not entirely convinced and I shall have to continue to pat down my tacky Tyrannosaur for the time being.  Unnerving texture aside, which I should clarify is all my fault, I am rather pleased with how Junior turned out and must, once again, thank Roger for his very generous gift.

Kong's Lair!

With the jungle terrain now assembled ahead of our game of Congo my mind started to wander with regards to all the possible additional pieces I could add to make the experience truly immersive.  At the centre of table was to stand Kong's lair, described in the scenario as a tree large enough to shelter the great ape.  Well yes, I could have done that, but when you hear the words 'Kong's Lair', what do you think of?  Remnants of a once great civilisation, now lost to the ravages of time and the relentless march of the jungle?  Possibly a cave system with precipitous drops and steaming vents, hinting at the island's geographical instability or perhaps the remnants of those challengers foolish enough to attempt to dethrone the king of the jungle?  A tall tree just wasn't going to cut it!  

Just the very mention of Skull Island is enough to get the imagination racing and since Kong's first celluloid outing in 1933 it has remained a forgotten, secretive place where wondrous and deadly creatures have lived, undiscovered for millenia.  In truth, Skull Island could be a life's work, so how to bring a little bit of cinematic magic to the tabletop?  

I often find it amusing how the most unexpected of discoveries can lead me on some of my most enjoyable flights of fancy and this was to be another case in point.  As I was perusing the virtual aisles of 'Swell Reptiles' looking for that just so shape of plastic vivarium plant, I happened upon an 'Exo Terra Primate Skull'.  This was a small, 10cm x 9cm x 9cm white resin, humanoid skull for £4.99 and as soon as I saw it I knew that I had discovered Kong's lair!  Once safely delivered to Awdry Towers the hastily sketched plan was consulted and away we went, sawing, cutting and sanding offcuts of blue foam to form a base for my skull.  I had envisaged a cave like sculpture and so had to assemble the pieces to give the impression that the skull had be hewn from the rock itself.  I had limited myself to a fixed base size using the terrain tiles from 'East Riding Miniatures', which also had the added benefit of linking it, visually, with the 'Dangerous Jungle Terrain' pieces.

With the basic shape assembled I layered pumice gel to give it a more organic feel before rummaging through the bits box to see what other treasures I could unearth.  I happened upon some 'Fenris Games' ruined stonework rubble, which I was able to intersperse with my crudely cut blue foam pieces giving everything a little more depth and along with some of their large broken pots I started to consider the idea that offerings had been left to the mighty Kong to pacify the beast.  

This idea spawned additional, smaller pots and salvers* and then it was time for the skulls!  I'm not sure why, but I seem to have an array of miniature skulls from a variety of manufacturers and these were liberally positioned as if they were gruesome trophies.  Additional body parts littered the nest area of the interior before the final addition of some jungle vines, using embroidery threads, were added.

*Which were actually medieval shields from some long forgotten project! 

When it came to the painting, the piece was airbrushed with a couple of tones of grey* and then the earth matched to the previous stands.  Lots of washes were applied to give a more naturalistic feel to the rock as well as hinting to the never relenting creep of the jungle.  The final touches included some leaf litter and clump foliage with one or two judiciously placed tufts.  

*All rocks are grey, right?

With that my homage to one of the silver screen's most endearing monsters was complete, all that was needed now was to introduce Kong to his newly appointed lair.

Also added to the 'Command Stand' page.

The Writing is on the Wall

Of all the bonus rounds, ‘Home’ seems to have really fired my imagination. This was to be a terrain build and from the outset I was keen to construct something more tangible than my usual vignettes – something that could be picked up and placed on the table, something with purpose.

All very noble sentiments, but what to build? What was home? All manner of starting points sprang to mind from a colonial farmstead to a hunting lodge, a Māori Pā to a Zulu Kraal, but in the end I decided that I would go for man’s first home – the cave! Now it won’t have escaped the sharp eyed visitor to ‘28mm Victorian Warfare’ that I have a love of all things prehistoric and a hankering from some Pulp/Lost World gaming and so this became my focus. After some initial ideas and sketches the build started to take shape, further enhanced by a chance find of Patchy the Pirate’s prehistoric home on the infoweb; thank you Spongebob Squarepants!

The base is a ‘Warbases’ terrain base to which I started to add chunks of blue Styrofoam to build up the sides.    ‘Windows’ and a ‘door’ were carved using a hot iron and before long the dwelling was stating to take shape.  I had an inkling that I wanted to have a roaring fire in situ and used a 'Ristul's Extraordinary Market'*

  *imported to the United Kingdom by 'Bad Squiddo Games'

camp fire as a starting point.  This was fixed to another Styrofoam off cut that I had hollowed out in order to site a flashing red and orange Blinky LED; for this to make any impact though I needed to drill some holes in the resin campfire and fill them with clear resin flames from ‘Zinge Industries’.

The interior just required the addition of some cave paintings and then my attention turned to completing the outside.  A ramshackle door made from coffee stirrers has been included along with some ‘Steve Barber’ prehistoric trees and plants, before the final adornment of two Mammoth Tusks framing the entry point.  

All the time that I was slicing, hacking and painting, I kept wondering who would live in a place like this and decided that what it really needed was some inhabitants.  Some ‘Copplestone Castings’ Cavemen Elders and a ‘Lucid Eye’ Neanderthal was duly primed and painted along with a Sabre Tooth Tiger from DeeZee Miniatures, available through Arcane Scenery and Models.  The final addition came in the rather voluptuous shape of a ‘Bombshell Babe’ Cave Girl complete with  a couple of little companions.

I imagine the three chaps all sitting around the fire telling tall tales of great hunting exploits and daubing them on the wall, much to the annoyance of the lady of the house who has clearly had enough and finally sends them on their way with a strong word and a wield of her club.  Silly, impractical and historically inaccurate it might be, but hugely entertaining to build nonetheless, now to find some Fred Flintstone miniatures to use it as a holiday home!

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The Iron Mole!

Having completed my recent batch of ‘Antediluvian Miniatures’, it was inevitable that the next thing to hit the painting table was the Iron Mole.  I have wanted one of these splendid pieces from ‘Ironclad Miniatures’ for such a long time and with the release of the ‘not’ At the Earth’s Core Adventurers, I decided that the time had finally come to raid the piggy bank and purchase one.

As I was scrutinising the ‘Ironclad Miniatures’ website, I noticed that they do a version on tracks, but went for the one triumphantly emerging from the ground.  It is a large chunk of resin or more correctly three large chunks of resin that I glued and pinned together for added strength. 

Having primed the Iron Mole some time ago, I have been studiously ignoring it, worrying about how I was going to paint it.  Finally, when procrastination was no longer an option, I called upon the trusty airbrush and blocked in the metal and wood sections.  Buoyed with a renewed enthusiasm for the project, I employed a fair bit of dry brushing using successively lighter colours to achieve the desired effect.  With the addition of some weathering and detailing the job was done and I have to say that I’m rather pleased with the final result.

Looking at the paint table, I see this is likely to be the last entry for ‘Dinovember 2016’, what with news that the ‘VII Annual Analogue Hobbies Painting Challenge’ is due to commence next month my attention will undoubtedly turn to prepping and planning.  Once again it has been great fun to indulge predilection for all things prehistoric and I thank all those that offered kind words of encouragement along the way.

At the earth's core

These latest additions to the collection are more from the curiously addictive ‘Antediluvian Miniatures’.  The adventures can actually be purchased across two different packs and are wonderfully named Shug McClure, Professor Peter Cushion and Caroline, I believe all sculpted by the talented Matthew Bickley*.

*Do let me know if this is not the case.

Now it is probably worth mentioning at this juncture the celluloid inspiration for these fabulous miniatures.  At the Earth's Core is one of those films that instantly stirs waves of nostalgia, but curiously is a film that I have not watched as often as I thought.  I revisited it not too recently and whist the steaming jungles and steamier Dia** were as I remembered them I seem to have erased from memory the giant, telepathic prehistoric birds!  I think on reflection that this might have been one of those occasions where young Master Awdry, having watched the film, had scurried off to consult the species in his vast library of dinosaur related material only to discover that they were an imaginary creature and therefore of no real importance.  Petulant at best, and I can but apologise for the Young Master’s intolerance, but it seems that these curious beasts still lack something today, that said the wrestling, bipedal, warthog like ‘dinosaurs’ are just superb! 

**Amply played by hugely talented Caroline Monroe.

Anyway I digress, instantly recognisable as having been inspired by the film, these were ‘must have’ sculpts and when it came to painting I decided not to be overly imaginative with the palette, taking I reference directly from the company’s website and of course the costume design worn in film.

What with these and the previously completed, ‘Raquel Scotch’, ‘Dinovember’ is starting to reawaken a Lost World vibe that I had previously suppressed.  Whilst not sure where this will ultimately lead, I know that my ‘Iron Mole’ has to be next!

Steggie!

I had hoped to have had this post to you somewhat earlier in the week, but a combination of the ever demanding day job and the lure of my armchair of an evening has meant that it has waited until now.  It seems almost incredulous to have 'Dinovember' without dinosaurs so allow me to present the imaginatively named Steggie.  Always one of my favourite dinosaurs, the Stegosaurus manages to combine attack and defensive qualities in equal measure, after all just look at that thagomizer!  

This fine specimen was kindly donated by that most splendid of gentlemen, Jeremy Winstanley Esq. of the 'Carrion Crow's Buffet' who had tracked down and captured the beastie in one of his earlier expeditions.  It was, in fact,  shipped with a companion, a mighty fine Iguanodon, something to look forward to next year perhaps?

Now I have to say that I am not overly keen on brightly coloured dinosaurs, Young Master Awdry  liked to keep things simple, Tyrannosaurus Rex was green, Triceratops was brown and Diplodocus was a daring shade of grey, that was pretty much your lot and quite frankly what more could a chap want?  It was no surprise then that I was immediately taken by Steggie's light tan plastic, but more and more recently I have been made aware of the radical thinking that these fabulous beasts might have been adorned with all manner of spurious and brightly coloured designs.  In fact I have some rather lovely 'Schleich' dinosaur toys proudly disporting their livery and so it seemed to make sense to match Steggie to my existing models, after all the only thing better than having a dinosaur is having a herd of them!

So having affixed the beast on a 'Warbases' MDF pill shaped base, I coaxed the trusty airbrush into life and set about laying down the colours that I felt best matched the larger model.  Although not completely confident in handling this piece of specialist equipment, the outcome was satisfactory and ultimately only needed a few hand painted additions to complete the job.  

Seeing them together, I have to say that I am rather pleased with the result looking, as they do, like a young family so all that remains is to thank Jez for his generous gift and to apologise for taking so long to paint it.