Category Archives: Fantasy Gaming

Deathworld Fauna – Part 1.1 – Scotia Grendel Dungeon Crawler (Leech)

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Back in March, I found two out of the three figures from the Scotia Grendel Dungeon Crawlers kit that I picked up bout 15-20 years ago. (Damn that makes me feel old!) Because of the way that things seem to work in my life and on the painting desk, the frog-thing and millipede-thing have been MIA for a couple of months now (they might be in the shed, perhaps?) and I ended up finding the leech-thing, conveniently already glued to a 60mm base with some putty ’round the edges. Not wanting to tool around too much rebasing and agonising over the scheme – since that’s a great way to never get anything finished – I decided to get that sucker painted.

So here it is:

Scotia Grendel Dungeon Crawlers Giant Leech

I figure this thing can work just as well as a 40k-sci-fi alien leech as a D&D-style fantasy giant leech. So, you know, whatever. I went with green and mustard yellow since the underside was sculpted with a bit of contrasting texture, so I thought I may as well transfer that to the palette. Same deal with the pinky-purple tongue and the bone teeth, again so they stand out.

Scotia Grendel Dungeon Crawlers Giant Leech

 

A nice thick layer of polyurethane varnish on the model keeps it looking suitable shiny and yucky. I also added some Vallejo realistic water mixed with some transparent yellow to create the slime effect on the side of the model where the slime-holes(!) are located, and some realistic water without colouring onto some of the mouth-parts and tongue.

Scotia Grendel Dungeon Crawlers Giant Leech

I found that the figure looked too small for its base, and to help fill in the empty space without going overboard – or adding in fantasy or sci-fi-specific extras, I just went for some of the larger tufts that I had sitting around in the packets. Often those are the hardest ones to find a use for and they end up on scenery, since they’re too large for use on almost all miniatures.

Scotia Grendel Dungeon Crawlers Giant Leech with Warhammer High Elf for scale.

Finally, a big-hat Warhammer High Elf for scale. I should really finish this guy’s unit off. I bet it would take less than half a day if I ever manage to pull my fist out…  Actually, I’ve got some scenery that just needs finishing off that could be measured in probably less than half an hour…

Full disclosure – I actually painted this thing a couple of weeks ago but didn’t get around to posting it. After a pretty productive two weeks or so of painting I’m in a bit of a ..not burnt out, but kinda taking a rest. Also, my wife bought me a PS4 as a belated birthday gift, and so I’ve been running around Mordor after work and on the weekends instead of sitting and painting like I’m “supposed” to…

 

Melbourne Museum Rocks! Objective Markers and Summoning Portals

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So today Marouda and I took my Mum to the Melbourne Museum. We all still refer to it as the “new” Museum, even though the new facility was opened back in 2000. The old Museum, located in what is now entirely the State Library of Victoria was a lot better, as they had much more of their collection on permanent exhibition, while the “new” Museum only has things like Arms and Armour on display when there’s a “thematic reason” to include them in some other form of exhibit. So, basically, never. (Yes, seriously).

Anyway, it was still a decent day – seeing dinosaur bones again, even cast ones is always good. But since this isn’t Facebook or Twitter to be filled with meaningless babble, there’s a point to all of this. After the visit, we took a look through the gift shop, not really planning to purchase anything. We’ve gotten some fossils from there before, but this time, I spotted various Orthoceras for sale, including these little polished ones with the same footprint as a coin. I decided that they would make just about the coolest objective markers ever – after all, they’re actual bloody fossils!

So I bought some.

Orthoceras for Objective Markers. Elf for scale.

Undead and Elves pretend to contest the fossilised Orthoceras objective in simulated game photograph.

I’m sure I’ll also sometimes use specific modelled objective markers for thematic reasons, but regardless, these are incredibly cool, and work well on a number of levels.

Speaking of cool, I also spotted these:

Agate Slices – available in a variety of colours – $15 each, sure. But that’s still probably cheaper than whatever crappy plastic summoning portals or vortex templates that GW or PP et al are selling. My first thought was actually Dark Eldar, but they’ll work for anything as far as I can see.

The Mouth of Sauron summons bad things from the Pink Agate portal. And provides scale.

Now summoning from the Blue Agate portal!

And finally, from the Purple Agate portal!

These Agates played havoc with the auto-white balance on the cheap digital camera that I use, as you can plainly see (check the desert sand mat!). Regardless, and despite the slight tonal shift and the fact that you’re not getting the 100% true colour of these Agates, the point is that they look bloody amazing, and despite the fact that I’ll likely use them rarely, they’ll also double as a nice little bit of deco for the War Room – and when I need a magical or psychic portal for a wargame or RPG, I’ll have the most kick-arse ones you’ve ever seen. They’re beautiful, have depth and layers, and incredibly deep colours. Oh, and as you can see – they look the part amazingly! It might be worth giving them a coat of clear acrylic to protect them, which I’ll look into later on.