Monthly Archives: April 2015

D&D Monster Manual 6: Reaper Bones: Not-Intellect Devourer, Not-Grick

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I received my Reaper Bones II Kickstarter stuff a few weeks ago, and while I had a little bit of Buyer’s Remorse at not having purchased a few additional bits and pieces from the campaign, that’s mostly due to having started new projects that things would have worked well for in the time since the campaign ended, and then finally delivered however many months late it was. I didn’t even bother keeping track of that this time around. Overall it’s a solid bunch of models for PVC, and I picked out a few that I thought would make nice, quick painting projects. The first was that Bronze Bull/Brass Bull/”Gorgon” which I asked about recently and just need to finish the final touches on (probably later this weekend). The second and third are these two …thingies.

Reaper Bones 77228 "Cython" (aka Grick)

Reaper Bones 77228 “Cython” (aka Grick)

Reaper Bones 77228 "Cython" (aka Grick)

…don’t worry, it’s only a shower

Reaper Bones 77228 "Cython" (aka Grick)

…and now for your clothes, here’s a pretty flower.

Now, my nerd-background is solidly on the Warhammer/LotR side rather than the D&D side, so when I saw the 03603 “Cython” and 03582 “Mind Eater”, I saw silly-weird Rogue-Trader-esque space aliens, rather than D&D critters, and decided to paint them up in that spirit – somewhat inspired by Cheetor’s Alien Flora and Fauna project (and the fact that they looked like they’d be quick and easy enough). So in the spirit of all that, I thought I’d paint these suckers up.

Reaper Bones 77229 "Mind Eater" (aka Intellect Devourer)

Reaper Bones 77229 “Mind Eater” (aka Intellect Devourer)

Reaper Bones 77229 "Mind Eater" (aka Intellect Devourer)

No relation to the Brain Bugs from Starship Troopers…

Knowing that of course, the things must be some kind of D&D or Pathfinder ripoff, I also asked Tarmor if he knew what these things actually not-are. He informed me that the 03603 “Cython” looks a lot like a Grick from 3rd edition D&D and that 03582 “Mind Eater” is a direct “copy” (ripoff) of an Intellect Devourer from all editions! Tarmor also kindly provided me with a couple of pictures that I then used as paint references. Now that I’ve done the photography, I’ll be adding some Gloss Varnish to the Brain Diner, and these two will be done and dusted.

77228: Chthon, Grick, 77229: Mind Eater , Intellect Devourer, The Mouth of Sauron

The Mouth of Sauron provides Scale.

Since I rarely play D&D/Pathfinder (every few months I play the occasional session run by Orez. I think we’re level 3 or so?) I don’t know when or if these will ever see the table in their “proper” form, much like that not-Purple Worm of theirs (Wow! I just googled “Reaper Purple Worm” and my pic is the first thing in the image search above the actual link to Reaper!)

77006: Great Worm, Purple Worm, 77228: Chthon, Grick, 77229: Mind Eater, Intellect Devourer

A little collection of Reaper’s Not-D&D Monsters

77006: Great Worm, Purple Worm, 77228: Chthon, Grick, 77229: Mind Eater, Intellect Devourer

The Mouth of Sauron provides scale reference.

77006: Great Worm, Purple Worm, Mouth of Sauron

The Mouth of Sauron provides scale for the Great Purple Worms.

Anyway, both figures were reasonably quick and easy to paint, and the various blending of tones was fun and turned out pretty decently as well. Now it’s back to those bloody goblins!

From the Painting Desk #12 – Yet another LotR Goblin Challenge

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Well, strictly speaking, I failed the last one of these. Two metal goblins still left, as well as the Dwarf Slayer and Ogre (who didn’t get touched). Between a solid batch of videogaming and friends coming over for some Zombicide – and just needing a bit of a break from painting. So for this week, which I have off work – I’ll be trying to finish those four, as well as several additions by this coming Sunday night:

Yet More Goblins on the WIP desk.

So now the priority queue is:

  1. C23 Ogre Bounty Hunter.
  2. Dwarf Slayer (Finally identified him – he’s a Daemon Slayer circa ’96-97).
  3. Those last two Metal Moria Goblins to be used as Captains and Unit Leaders (Spear, Sword). Perhaps the odd Biggit.
  4. 7 more Metal Moria Goblins for use as above. 4 Bows, 1 spear, 2 swords.
  5. 4 Goblin Prowlers. They’ll combine with the other three to make a unit. Shame I can’t find another one, cheaply.
  6. 6 plastic goblins with sword & shield.
  7. 10 plastic goblins with spears.
  8. Durbûrz, Goblin King of Moria.
  9. Tom Bombadil (GW) and Lady Geneve of the Council of Seven, Speaker of the Far Stars (Red Box Games) – to be painted and used as Goldberry.
  10. Reaper Bones II “Cython” (a Grick from D&D*)
  11. Reaper Bones II  “Mind Eater” (an Intellect Devourer from D&D*)

So… 36 models. The goblins shouldn’t be too hard, but the more individual characters might throw up a bit of a difficulty. I’d wanted to paint something nice on my break as a reward to myself for my recent productivity. Perhaps a Minotaur or the Greek Talos. Instead, I’m going for more goblins. I guess the reward there is getting a ton of them done and out into the War Room as a very quickly put together starter KoW army.

After I finish the above, the remaining (for now) push of Goblins I plan to paint will be made up of Golfimbul, Foot & Mounted; 6 Warg Riders (strictly speaking, Orcs); 18 Wild Wargs with a Wild Warg Chieftain; a possibility of 2 more sprues of these Moria Goblins (24 in total) and several “Hobbit” plastic goblins to use as Shamans, since I’ve been unable to get find any “proper” Moria Goblin Shaman figures for a reasonable price. Same deal, unfortunately with the War-Drums. The problem with all of those is that while they round out the (new) KoW force and also allow some more LotR SBG scenario play, they’re not “half-painted”, and so would all be freshly started models. So the question will be whether I continue to clear the desk, or let these upstarts jump the queue…

…and my plans were to finish Gondor, then start on the Dwarves…

*Thanks to Tarmor for IDing the D&D critters – I’m not especially familiar with the D&D menagerie of exotic monsters.