From BillA: 3D Printed Alien Monsters (20 points)

Mixing things up once again! 

With my wife being immunocompromised and the hygiene standards (or lack thereof) I've seen at some of the local game stores, a lot of my wargaming has shifted to solo play since 2020, and one of the games most often seen on my table is "Majestic 13," from Snarling Badger Studios. While it hasn't gotten the same level of attention that their offerings "Deth Wizards" and "Space Station Zero" have, it's been a very enjoyable game for me.

You play as a team of five "Agents" in a covert war against alien invaders, represented in most games by one big gribbly monster that can absorb and deal out a lot of damage. Each game is capped at five turns and you'll usually have a secondary mission attached alongside the primary mission of "kill the monster." It's built for campaign play, with agents improving skills, requisitioning improved gear, as well as developing PTSD and dying and being returned to the battlefield as clones of varying quality. 

I'm currently (as of this blogpost going live) four games into my current campaign, and have a small collection of painted monsters to use; the game offers stats for 26 monsters, each of which are described in the vaguest possible terms to allow you to use whatever figures feel most appropriate to the you. Most of mine are 3D prints from various designers, and here are two more newly painted for my collection. Both of these were purchased from TableTopTradesman on Etsy, who has been one of my go-to sources for these.

The first of these is a sort of generic "Cthulhu"-y humanoid figure with long arms ending in tentacled "hands" and a octopus-like head. I tend to keep my paint jobs on these monsters relatively simple, often with a main color and pops of contrast; they've also been good for me as practice for glazing and similar techniques. Here, I used a medium cool gray for a base-coat, washed it with some thinned down GW "Nighthaunt Gloom" contrast paint, and then drybrushed with a very pale blue-tinged gray, and a second drybrush using a 70/30 mix of white and that same pale blue-gray. 

I then went over the "hands" with "Baal Red" contrast paint up to the wrists; once dried, I gave them a light drybrush of a red-orange color, and then used a lighter red to glaze over the orange and carried the glaze all the way up to the...second wrist? There's a lot of extra joints in its arms. Hopefully that reads as a shift in the creature's pigment, rather than it being wrist-deep in gore. 

The second critter is marketed as a "Dire Bat," but those sure as heck ain't wings! The frills on the arms look more like fish fins to me, personally, but it was such an odd design choice that it drew me to this figure whereas I probably would have skipped over a more traditional "bat" design. 

I kept the colors fairly simple, an all-over basecoat of a dark red-brown, drybrushed with a brighter version of the same, and a final drybrushing of a rusty red-brown along the edges of the fins and the mane down its neck. In hindsight, I probably should have painted him *before* gluing him to the base! He's on a 60mm round from Renedra, by the way, while his paler companion is on a 40mm base. 

Since many of the monsters in Majestic 13 have energy-based ranged attacks, I painted the inside of the figure's gaping maw a strong golden yellow (3 coats), and then washed it with orange before going back over the middle with more yellow. Hopefully that sells the idea of it having a Godzilla-style breath weapon! 

ZZZZAPPP!!!

They're fairly large figures, but the paint jobs are not terribly complex, so I've been chewing over how best to score these. The gray monster is pretty close to 54mm in height, while the bat is probably not far off that in length. Here's a picture of them next to one of my Majestic 13 Agents for sale:

I'll leave it to Sylvain to make the final determination, but maybe treat them as 40mm figures to account for the simpler paint jobs, and call it 14 points for the two of them? I'm counting these as Modern Horror, so no new squirrel points for me.

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Sylvain: Those are some wicked monsters! Simple but effective game tools. Figurines are based on size, so you just completed two 54mm models. Extraordinaire!

 

 

 

From SamuliS: Swamp Hags (14 points)

Time for my final post in the challenge! My output and participation slowed down quite significantly for the last third of the challenge as work has been very busy and fitting the normal family life into that has really proven why here in Finland these are called your "traffic jam years" with your schedule jam packed. It's a shame that I haven't had the time to keep up with all the amazing entries in the last weeks.

Anyways I hadn't really painted anything in the last couple of weeks and with the final day of the challenge coming up I figured I need to come up with one more quick entry as I definitely was not going to be able to finish any of the things that were half painted on my desk. I still had a few unpainted DnD monsters prepped so I picked a couple suitable ones to have a nice speedpainting project that I could finish within my kids naptime. The models are Wizkids Hags that I painted with mostly Contrast paints and a couple of details picked out with regular paints. I gave them a sickly greenish skintone to go for a Swamp Hag aesthetic.

 

The minis are around 50mm tall so 7 points per model netting me a quick 14 points to add to my tally. I ended up doing much better than I anticipated this year. Especially as the first month and a half of the challenge was quite productive for me thanks to a slower start in my new position at work and being able to paint during several online meetings while I was working from home. 853 points is far from my best in the challenge, but still quite a nice tally especially when I originally thought even getting to my goal of 500 might be a bit tricky.

Thanks to Curt for organizing this madness! It's been the highlight of the hobby year for me ever since I participated the first time during the third challenge. And thank you to Barks for keeping us honest in the Thurday crew! And for allowing some of my more liberal interpretations of quadrant goals ;) Can't wait for the next challenge to start!

From Millsy:

A couple of cracking miniatures to finish your Challenge Samuli. I feel like I have a bit of "Swamp Hag aesthetic" going on myself this morning , although my basing is nowhere near as well executed. Well done on a great Challenge effort and thank you for sharing your creative efforts with us mate!

From PeteF - A Trip to The Death Star: Printed Sci Fi Monsters for a Friend (70 points)

Going into Challenge XII I wanted to paint the widest variety of minis that I could find - and having become a little jaded with my own projects (there are around fifteen) I offered to paint something for each of my wargaming pals.  ChrisD offered up this splendid group of monsters. 

A Questionable Design?

Is the dragon's head devouring the dog or is the dog running through the head? CRIPR gone wild.

Several challenges ago I speculated about the future of 3D printing - and it's come a long way in the last few years. We're seeing a lot more of it in the Challenge and I'm running into more and more 3D printed models and even whole armies on the table. Chris 3D printed all of these - so if he doesn't like the colours it will be easier to print a new one than go to the Simple Green.

About those colours - unbound by Ospreys I wanted to go bright and wild -  I'm assuming they'll be well camouflaged on their home planets, although the magenta frog might be giving off more of a warning (WARNING: Don't Leave Colour Choices to Pete!).

To get to the Death Star and deliver these creatures of questionable design I need to use the Star Yacht - so here is Brunhilda #1 - a Viking shieldmaiden for SAGA. She's a resin miniature from V&V and was gifted to me several years ago by Old Bob. She has some as yet unpainted friends which may be needed to fuel future yacht excursions.

6 x 28mm miniature = 30 points

Yacht Trip and Death Star 2 x 20 = 40 points

Squirrel: +1 (total 5)

Skulz: +0 (total 1)

Well Pete, it looks like you've been drinking LeeH's "tastes like red" coffee, or perhaps some herbal concoctions.  Very technicolour results on the fauna on display here.  I am assuming that you are a known quantity to your friend and therefore the friend has an idea of what they're getting!  I really like them, the frog and purple worm are wonderful. 

I really like your sheildmaiden too, great work on the shelld.

  

From ScottM: LV-426 Monsters, Critters & Indians (140 pts)

My second stop in the Middle Ring is at LV-426, the Alien world. For this location I went with a medley of monsters that would easily fit in to any alien world setting. First up is a pair of 28mm plastic Gricks from Wizkids' Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures D&D range.

Next up is a pair of Flumphs from the same range as the Gricks. These two definitely have an 'alien' feel to them.

And finally is a lone Magmite. This 28mm metal fig is from Northstar Military Figures Frostgrave range.

And finally a size comparison shot with a 28mm Stargrave Medic.

Also to add to this post, I completed a box of Warlord Games Woodland Indians from their French and Indian War range.

So that should be:

• 24 - 28mm foot figs = 120 points
• 1 location (LV-426) = 20 points

Total = 140 points

From Millsy:

What a cracking collection of nasty space bugs Scott! I love all of them but the Magmite in particular is very cool indeed. I can almost feel the heat coming off him in waves. Every time I see a collection like this it makes me want to add to my own.

Nice take on the FIW figures too mate. I'm always impressed by people who can paint convincing skin tones outside the Caucasian space and tones with red in them are amongst the hardest I think. Awesome brushwork indeed.

PS. Now THAT'S how you label a post! Well done that man, carry on.

Cheers,

Millsy

From StuartL - One for the Arachnophobes - Arda - 40 Points?

Hello,

My journey around the Challenge Sector has brought me to the planet of Arda, a Tolkienesque place, filled with all sorts of magical and fantastic things. 

Back when the LotR trilogy came out, I went to watch the movies with some of my friends, one of whom is both a huge Tolkien fan and also a huge arachnophobe. Sitting through the Shelob scene in Return of the King was a lot of fun. So, when it became apparent that I needed to paint up something that fit the theme of Tolkien style fantasy, I knew exactly what I wanted to paint. 

This lovely looking eight-legged monstrosity is another figure from Reaper Bones. It came complete with a sculpted base that is strewn with skeletal remains. My wife refused to come into my hobby room while I was working on this.

The spider's front half and legs were painted up in light grey with some white highlights and then given a covering of contrast black. For the large abdomen, I went with a layer of vallejo silver and then a blue wash, which I think gives it a strange, yet menacing appearance. The eyes were done in a similar way with a green wash.

Here we have Jarl Hvat-Skael (a 28mm Viking model, not part of the entry) to help showcase just how large this gribbly beast is. The model's original base has been mounted on an old CD for added stability. 

So, for scoring, I'm guessing 20 points as this is easily the size of a vehicle, plus an additional 20 points for Arda, for a total of 40.

There are 4 skulls on the base that can go towards my noggin count.

My god Stuart that is a big spider!  I got a chuckle out of your arachnophobe stories, my wife has tales of me jumping out of my skin when we watched the Aragog sequence in Harry Potter.

Nice paint work on this arachnid although I am glad that it lives in Japan and that I won't be getting any closer to it.  There is Challenge lore regarding counting spiders as vehicles, but we'll save that saga for another mead hall.  40 points you shall have sir on my scoresheet and hopefully Barks has the Skullometer fired up.

From Barks: Snowflake the Black-Heart Paindeer (10 points)

I won't be getting stuck into the Challenge until next year, but did want to get some festive points on the scoreboard. I'll put up more of an 'about me' post later as well. Maybe this entry says plenty about me anyway?

This is Snowflake from Imitation of Life, a growing 3D sculpt range I really like. He's on a 40mm base and is 8cm to the tip of his antlers. I'm getting more confident in the use of Contrast as a time saver.

80mm tall monster: 10 points?

Slowpainter's ABC Challenge: C for Christmassy

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Pretty trippy, Barks. I really like him. I can't decide if it's the ornaments hanging off his antlers, or the red rockstar pants. Delightfully weird and cool mini.

- Curt

From Barks: Descent monsters (84 points)

 I have almost finished the Descent 'core' boardgame set. Here's some more monsters:

The Shadow Dragons were a bit of a pain to paint, being too featureless to work with Contrast (and I don'y have purple Contrast anyway). I think the mouth nicely distracts from flaws elsewhere. I was aiming for a bit more of any ashy grey colour, but will settle for painted.

Similarly, the Merriods' skin was challenging and the mouths are a nice distraction. Gloss varnished.

The Ettins are two-headed ogres, all Contrast except the metalwork. The various brown Contrast tones are rather handy.

Why have one element when you can have all four? The Elementals were a bit odd to paint, but I felt sorry for the sculptor.

Flesh Moulders- quick and nasty.

4x 28mm figures: 20 points

8x 28mm monsters: 64 points

Skullz: +6

From Barks: Dragon (15 points)

A quick monster today; a dragon from Descent. I'm going to try and smash out a fair bit of this boardgame in my remaining time. After the base, this is 99% Contrast over a white undercoat; wings Aggaros Dunes, claws Skeleton Horde, then scales Flesh Tearers Red. I picked out eyes, teeth, face highlights- done.

1x 28mm monster (2x3" base): 15 points?

+7 skullz