Giant centipedes

This weekend I finished D6 Giant Centipedes for my Lustria-themed Warhammer Quest collection.  As I couldn't find any sensibly-priced wargaming centipedes of the right scale, I made these using the same tiny rubber novelty ants which I used for my 2D6 Giant Ants - I simply trimmed parts from 3 ants & superglued them together (using Gorilla Superglue, which has a rubber additive) to make each Giant Centipede.  Then I affixed them to my usual jungle recipe bases.  The paint scheme was straightforward, nothing fancy or impressive - I based it on real-life giant centipede colouration.  These have the Venom characteristic, & are a little more challenging to fight than Giant Ants (4 gold each for slaying), Giant Insects (5g), at 30g per base, the same as Snakes.  For comparison a basic Skink is worth 40g, & a basic Saurus warrior 150g.

WQ Stats for foes & creatures from across the classic Warhammer World can be found on the excellent Warhammer Quest Chronicles website.

More snakes

This week I painted a few more bases of snakes for Warhammer Quest.  These figures are from Black Cat Bases, who have a wide range of esoteric miniatures at sensible prices.  Added to the two bases of snakes from the GW Lizardmen Cold One riders sprue that I painted a while back, that's five bases of snakes.  I think I'll add one more of the coiled snake on my next Black Cat Bases order, for a nice even 'D6' snakes encounter.

Apologies for the unformatted tall column of photos, but Blogger appears to have been 'upgraded' to remove the tools for wrapping text around & aligning images :-/

Terradon

Things have been very busy for me this summer, but I have managed to complete a few small miniatures pieces, including this Terradon for my long-running Lustrian Warhammer Quest collection.  The model is an old Jurassic Park juvenile pteranodon toy (I think it came with the Dr. Alan Grant figure), which was block-coloured in grey & blue, & emblazoned with the JP logo, but which I have repainted with a more interesting scheme - natural jungle camouflage from above, & sky-blue from below, with an orange crest for display (which also mimics my red-crested Lizardmen to a certain degree).  I drilled a hole in its rib cage for the flying stem.

The base was my usual jungle recipe, with snippets of plastic aquarium plants.  I used a spare Battlefleet Gothic transparent flight stem for the illusion of flight.  I drilled a hole in its rib cage for the flying stem.  I left the Terradon unglued from the stem, for safer storage/transport, & also so that the flying base could be used for other aerial creatures if necessary.

Really pleased with how this turned out - saved buying an expensive official Games Workshop Terradon miniature!

At 400 gold for slaying (the same as an Ogre), a Terradon is an early level challenge for the adventuring Warriors.  For comparison, a basic Orc is worth 55g, a basic Lizardman Saurus is 150g, & a Lizardman Kroxigor is 750g.

Giant Ants

This week I finished 'D12' bases of Giant Ants for my Lustria-themed Warhammer Quest collection.  I will use the Giant Insects stats from Warhammer Quest Chronicles for these critters, minus the Fly ability, & therefore reducing the gold for slaying each base to a meagre 4g.  For comparison, Giant Spiders are worth 15g each.  Giant Ants are the least deadly foe in Warhammer Quest, so I may make them 'D6+6' or even simple '12' in quantity when they are encountered in the game.  I used cheap rubber joke shop ants for these, gluing two to each base as they are a little smaller than the Giant Spiders, & to better give the impression of a swarm.

These were really straightforward to paint - it was preparing the 12 jungle bases that took the time!  Next I will try chopping-up some of the many leftover ants & gluing body sections together to make some Giant Centipedes/Multipedes (they will probably only have 12 legs!) - a slightly more threatening prospect for the Warriors, at 30g each for slaying.

Gigantic Snake

I recently finished this gigantic snake for my Lustria-themed Warhammer Quest collection.  It's a hard rubber toy that I've had since my childhood (retrieved from my parents' attic).  It took model paints well, & I'm pleased with the outcome.  I'll be using the Giant Snake rules from the excellent Warhammer Quest Chronicles website.  Those stats make this a tough Monster for the adventuring Warriors, worth 570 gold for slaying.  For comparison, a basic Ogre is worth 400 gold, a Gigantic Scorpion is 450 gold, while a Kroxigor is 750 gold.

As with my Gigantic Scorpion, following the size logic of giant & gigantic spiders in Warhammer Quest, I termed this huge snake 'gigantic', & will count it as a Large Monster, because it required a Ø60mm base (2x2 dungeon squares).  It will probably need a few Wounds added to it's profile to account for being potentially open to more Warriors attacking it at once, & a slightly higher Gold value as a reward for defeating it.

Lustrian Warhammer Quest WIP

Building a Lustrian-themed 3D Warhammer Quest set is one of my far too numerous wargaming projects.  I have several 3D dungeon tiles in progress, & am now finalising the design of the integral walls & doors.  Thinking of using magnets in the walls to join the tiles.  I've enjoyed planning & implementing fantasy miniatures with a jungle 'lost world' twist, including a group of Warriors that isn't the standard male-dominated fellowship including a wizened grey old man.  My Warrior party includes a female Noble disguised as a man, a dark-skinned female sorceror from the Southlands, a native Barbarian escaped from slavery in Naggaroth, a female Wood Elf archer, & a female Dwarf Trollslayer.  As some motivation to get a move on with this project, I decided to make a list of what miniatures I have for this so far...

Giant leeches

This week I finished these 1D3+1 giant leeches for Warhammer Quest in Lustria, the land of the Lizardmen.  These nice miniatures are Rebel Minis Ripper Worms.  In hindsight I wish I'd bought another pack or two, before the Rebel Minis shipping costs to the UK seemed to rise dramatically. 

They don't present much threat to experienced Warriors, & are only worth 35 gold for slaying (compare that to 20g for a Goblin, 40g for a Skink, 55g for an Orc warrior, & 150g for a Saurus warrior).  However, giant leeches do have the Ambush & Bloodsucker abilities.  Stats for Lustrian creatures & Lizardmen can be found here.

They were very straightforward to paint, & I gave them a double-coat of gloss varnish to make them look suitably slimy - although this doesn't show up as well in these photos as it does on the tabletop.

Here's a photo of them with a Saurus warrior for scale  >

Brain leaf tree

I recently finished painting this brain leaf tree & its victims, for games of Necromunda / 'Inquisimunda'.  I modeled the brain leaf tree using florist wire to create an armature on the base, with trailing wires positioned for the branch-tendrils.  As the rules state a 6" reach for brain leaf attacks, I based the dimensions on that.  Next I layered papier-mâché for the surface of the trunk.  Then I used Green Stuff putty to bulk-out the tendrils, texturing them to suggest 'bark' (or perhaps something flesh-like) with a craft knife.  Leaves clipped from a plastic aquarium plant were used for the brain leaves at the tip of each tendril - & for those embedded by the tree into its victims (an unfortunate House Orlock ganger & a scavvy mutant).

The brain leaf is a plant with a surprising instinctual intelligence & ability to transform the victims in which it embeds its leaves into slaves of its influence.  It is believed that the brain leaf plant may be native to the jungle death world of Catachan, & was transported to the hive world of Necromunda at some point in the distant past.  The brain leaf plants of Necromunda are described as having vine-like tendrils, with greyish colouring that allows them to blend with the chaotic industrial ruins of the Underhive.

Great lizards

Some more creatures for my Lustrian Warhammer Quest set - 1D3 'great lizards'.  These cheap hard rubber toys have a surprisingly good level of detail & texture, & painted-up really easily.  They are slightly too big to count as the 'giant lizards' from the Lustrian bestiary, so I'll cook-up some rules for 'great lizards', in a similar vein to great wolves & the great spiders that forest Goblins ride - I'm thinking slower but tougher than a great wolf, & without any special abilities.  Except maybe Poison... Everything in Lustria seems to be poisonous...

I based the colour schemes on real lizards, with a bit of artistic licence - e.g. a Serengeti Agama for the one with a neck-frill, a leopard gecko for the orange/yellow/purple one, & various monitor lizard patterns for the camouflaged one; whilst tying them together as a group with purple on each.  I'm really pleased with how they turned out, & have another nine of these to paint.  However,  I am wondering whether to add a horn or a few spikes to them, to match the more fantastical look of the GW Lustrian snakes.  Any thoughts on this? Cheers!

Crocodile

Another creature for my Lustria Warhammer Quest collection finished - a crocodile (yeah, I know it's actually a caiman, but I've had this toy in my bits box for many years, & thought it'd look great in this role).  I repainted the model based on real-life reference photos, giving it more camouflaged tones like I did with the gigantic scorpion, to offer a contrast to my garish Lizardmen warriors.  Meanwhile I prepared a Ø60mm base using my usual jungle recipe of coarse paint thickener for texture, with card flagstone pieces & resin blocks pressed in.  Then I added various Gale Force Nine flock, static grass, & Gamers Grass tufts.  The finishing touches, after I glued the crocodile into place were to drill a few holes for some carefully positioned snippets of plastic aquarium plants.

Here are a few photos of the finished crocodile, with a Lizardman Saurus for scale, & also battling a gigantic scorpion.  Both of these beasties take up a 2x2 squares on a Warhammer Quest dungeon tile, given their large bases.  However, the gigantic scorpion is the more deadly, being tougher & causing more damage - it's worth 450 gold for slaying, compared to 140 gold for the crocodile (I found stats for it on the excellent Chronicles of the Old World & Beyond).  I think I'd add the Ambush ability to the crocodile's stats though - at least on a dungeon tile that has a water feature...

Snakes

I've been back on my long-running Lustria-set Warhammer Quest collection this week, & needed a quick starter to get me back in the flow of painting brightly hued Mesoamerican-inspired monsters - so I painted-up two bases of snakes.  These were decorative extras on a sprue of Saurus Cold One riders, & I really like what the sculptor has done with them - they look to be inspired by decorative Aztec serpents, so I painted one of the three types in jade & turquoise hues.

Snakes in Warhammer Quest are not much of a threat to the heroic Warriors (a paltry 30 gold each for slaying), so I could do with a few more of these.  I had been planning to scratch-build 2D6 bases of snakes using Green Stuff putty, but these are superior to anything that I could sculpt.  I need to paint up a lot more little critters yet - all the giant spiders, giant bats, & giant rats from the original boxed game, but source or make giant leeches, giant millipedes, giant insects...  I do at least have some plastic toys to use as giant lizards, although they are slightly too big in comparison to the others, so I will probably treat them as 'great lizards', & invent some suitable stats of a similar to 'great spiders' (as ridden by forest Goblins).

Sludge jellies

This weekend I made six sludge jellies for Necromunda.  These are another weird critter from the Outlanders supplement.  They reside in the sludge lakes & industrial effluent pools found in the Underhive, & rise to the surface to ensnare passing creatures or gangers with their stinging tendrils.  Once paralysed, victims are slowly dragged into the sludge pool in a rule called 'Gooing Gooing Gone' in the book  :-D

Each of my sludge jellies is made from half a pistachio shell for the body, topped with a crest sculpted from Green Stuff putty.  The tendrils are from Black Cat Bases, & the laser-cut ply bases are from Fenris Games, textured with coarse paint thickener.

Most sludge jellies are around 1-3ft across, like these ones.  But some that live in the sump sea, or have been growing in stagnant ponds for centuries can be very large... I am working on a couple of larger ones currently...

Rubber moss

This week I made two small patches of rubber moss for Necromunda.  Rubber moss is one of the more unusual lifeforms found in the Underhive - like the ash clams in my previous post, it is not directly lethal, but has the bizarre defence mechanism of being extremely unstable & bouncy :->  If a model moves faster than 2" across rubber moss (or falls onto it), it is sent D3" in a random direction (potentially off a ledge/into a wall/into something nasty/onto more rubber moss!)

I made my rubber moss by sculpting a thin layer of Green Stuff putty over some urban debris bases, letting it tear in the middle to expose some of the base.  When I started painting, I wasn't sure what colour it should be, but my friend Tim suggested a lurid mix of blue, green, & red.  I began with a sea-green, & it quickly developed into what you see here, fading from turquoise at the edges, through sea-green, to ultramarine.  I gave the moss a coat of gloss varnish to emphasize it's rubbery-ness.  I imagine it as slightly bioluminescent in the gloom of the Underhive.