More Shadows of Brimstone today! I’m making a bit more of a concerted effort to at least get all the models from the inital two core sets painted, so we can, you know, play the fucking game. Especially since regardless of the models’ quality, the game does have pretty great feedback and reviews for a Warhammer Quest (original)-styled miniatures/RPG/boardgame campaign hybrid game. First there’s the Sand Kraken, which isn’t actually one of the Core Set monsters, but comes from one of the “Season One” expansions. At one point I planned to paint this one up as The Watcher In The Dark, but I’ve gotten some other suitable candidates since then, so it got to be the Sand Kraken again, and actually got based and painted thanks to Monster MAYhem, over at Dead Dick’s Tavern and Temporary Lodging giving me the motivation.
The model’s a pretty simple one, with rather soft details. I added both slate shards and cat litter to enhance the large, soft-sculpted “rocks” that aree part of the, erm, sculpt. I also used liquid greenstuff to make them a little less smooth, which worked okay to make them a tiny bit more textured. Otherwise, the base was done in my usual style for cracked desert bases, using GW cracked texture paint and then painting over the lot of it. The actual Kraken was done with a few different layers of contrasts, both straight out of the bottle as well as thinned, and then drybrushing with Vallejo Bonewhite to finish it off with a slightly different “desert dweller” skintone than the actual desert base it’s bursting out of…
Oh, and the eye was done with black that had the tiniest bit of Citadel’s Incubi Darkness mixed in, and then gloss varnish after everything else was done. No painted highlights, as I wanted it the eyes to be a deep, dark, shiny black. One that could be either an animal operating purely on instinct or an unfathomable malignant intelligence. And also a fairly strong focal point in what’s an otherwise simple and unimpressive sculpt.
The Desert Tentacles were painted in much the same way as the Sand Kraken. I don’t know how they relate in game (if at all) because I still haven’t played, but they certainly feel thematically linked – the tentacles could easily be the appendages of the Sand Kraken, after all. Suckers on tentacles that come out of the ground in the desert is a bit of an …uhhh, okay? for me, but I gave the sucker-sides of them a wash with thinned purple to both distinguish them from the opposite sides, as well as link them back to the Kraken a little more strongly. Bases were the same deal as the Sand Kraken.
And here they are together. I feel like they work well as a visual set…
And a couple of “in the field” shots for fun, showing the scale of these models in a situation where the Sand Kraken and its many tentacles surprise a mob of Orks by appearing out of the ground from within their battleline.
Azazel's Bitz Box. 
Great job mate, the colours and extra tones you’ve added really brought this beastie to life.
The sculpt actually reminds me of a low budget monster movie where sea creatures attack a luxury cruiser and promptly eat all the passengers, can’t think of the title ! Must be getting old
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Remembered the film Deep Rising, haven’t completely lost my marbles, just work a lot slower ! LOL
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Love that movie, I have the DVD!
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Thanks Dave. Just looked it up and might get hold of it to check out sometime. Is it “So bad it’s good?”
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Don’t get me wrong I love the movie, it has wit, comedy and some gruesome effects, and will happily watch over and over again
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Cheers, Dave. I’ve located the movie, so now I just need time to slot it into the queue! 🙂
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Simple and unimpressive sculpt it might be…but you elevated to pretty damned amazing! The monster is an odd looking one, but I think the desert themed scales and especially the eyes, really helped sell it. Great job!
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It’s not so hot close-up, but as longas it passes the “three-foot test” that’s the best I can hope for given the sculpt and the corresponding amount of effort a sculpt of that quality gets from me…
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Well, I find the camera always magnifies the flaws a hundredfold, and he looks great in the pics! 😉
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That’s certainly true! – and thanks! 🙂
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Brilliant work man! The colours really pop, and the amount of detail on its hide is just astounding. Fantastic
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Thanks Steve – I have to say you’re being way too kind here! 😀
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Those colours look amazing. You’ve done a superb job on that monster and really elevated a basic model to awesomeness.
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Thank you, Matt! I feel like the base does a lot of the heavy lifting on this model in making it look better than it would have.
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I love it mate, very cool
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Cheers, Alex – thanks! 🙂
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Awesome bit of painting there mate!
Cheers Roger.
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Thank you, Roger! Another one done!
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Whoa, that’s fantastic
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Cheers mate! 🙂
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Very nice- you’ve got the best out of that scuipt.
Cheers,
Pete.
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Thank you Pete – silk purses, as they say!
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Truthfully it is a little odd to see him rising from the sands rather than the waves but you’ve done a cracking job on him (a kraken job even!).
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Yeah, it’s an odd design where they’ve literally just taken a simple Kraken-type sculpt – even including gills – and put it in the sand.
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Very nice sandy color in top of sand! With those mouth-tentacles and the whole concept, they were clearly going for a Gravoid, like those of the movie Tremors… I had that VHS burnt by rewatching it! The black shiny eyes give me a pup vive… That’s probably just a small sand-kraken specimen. 😉
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Haha yeah we were talking about Tremors while I was painting it. Man it’s been a long time since I’ve seen that movie. I should track it down…
And that’s great to hear about the eyes as well – there’s something kinda …powerful? evocative maybe? there’s something about having those big black eyes on this model combined with no mouth that really leads into being able to read different things into them.
Creepy? Cute? Evil? Innocent? Malevolent?
All of those fit – and I really like that aspect! 🙂
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Terrific. I’m always worried that such minis that are supposed to be camouflaged will just blur into their base but this has worked to perfection. I also love that glossy inhuman eye.
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Thanks mate – the base was the most work on the model, but figuring out how to make the Kraken fit in with while being distinct from the base was the hardest part of the model.
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I can believe that sculpt isn’t that great but you certainly elevated it with your painting, mate. The colors on it look great and the eye is extremely lifelike. For me though, the basing on all of these minis is stellar! Its very realistic looking and really brings to life that desert setting. I might have to use these as reference for whenever I get around to painting some desert stuff. I know I’ve said this in the past but I’d love to hear how you get on with Shadows of Brimstone too. If you like it pretty well, I could see myself dipping my toe in too 🙂
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Thanks Kuribo – the funny thing about that eye is how simple the paint on it is – in this case, the (simple) sculpt and the gloss are what really sells it, I think. Thanks for the basing compliment as well – it took more work than the model itself in this case! 😀
I’m guessing Brimstone will be up to speed in a couple of months. I want to finish painting at least all of both core sets’ models at the very least before starting to play it. That should theoretically provide enough motivation to keep chewing through the rest of the original KS’s models. Hopefully!
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Love how you brought this baddie to the table. Though the gills are superfluous, I agree! Great gam3 piece.
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Thanks Mark! I guess maybe they’re more like dust filters in this case! 😀
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Brilliant! 🙂 I think I want one!
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Oh, now that I want to see! 🙂
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I’m far from knowledgeable on this subject but he/she looks good coming out of the sand! looks good to me mate!
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Nor am I, Pat. It’s a weird-concept monster from a game I haven’t played yet (and I had to google it to 100% check what it’s called!) 🙂
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Sorry for the late comment, Azazel. I love this monster; both the miniature and your stunning work on it. This thing is so cool. It’s too bad I can’t get one of these without buying the Shadows of Brimstone expansion (I’ve bought way too many board games I have yet to play already). The idea of a sand Kraken is definitely one I’m going to steal for a rpg at some point, regardless.
You really did a fine job on this (and everything else for Monster May(hem)). I guess I’m in the minority because I don’t mind the sculpt; but only because the extra tentacles make up for the “meh” main body. Together they could really cover a table (which I guess is the idea). Very cool!
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No worries at all mate – you’ll notice I’m way behind on even replying to my own comments – and I’ve become godawful over the past couple of years at keeping up with comments on the many blogs I follow – so I just put in some time when I have a chance to. 🙂
The extra tentacles are from the core set, and unfortunately you don’t get any with the Kraken. I’m not actually sude if they’re supposed to have a connection ingame, but I always assumed that they did, rather than just being generic Cthulhu-esque nastiness coming out of the ground. Much more fun this way!
My next post after the Void Hounds that went up tonight will be some more Zombicide models tomorrow, and after that I’m hoping to get (at least) 5 consecutive days worth of additional Monster posts done since I’ll be finishing work for this week tomorrow night after putting in extra hours on every day last week (and this week so far).
If I have an exceptionally productive long weekend, I may even be doing my usual and having my Monster Mayhem model posts leak into the following month. We’re on the verge of another lockdown here right now, and so either way I won’t be going out…
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I like the model mate, and the paintjob you did with it.
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