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Writer's pictureBlaxkleric

"Lava Beasts... Inhabit Deep Volcanic Regions."


"Their bodies are comprised of amorphous glowing rock and mineral deposits."

This 28mm metal miniature of a Lava Beast Skull is produced by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and was a free stretch goal unlocked during their successful Pirates of Luna City Kickstarter. As I wanted to use the model as an objective marker I simply super-glued it to the usual thin-lipped 40mm plastic circular bases I use, and once dry set about undercoating it with a double-helping of “Vallejo" White.


I rather liked the 'official' colour scheme for this 'MacGuffin' so applied a wash of "Citadel" Druchii Violet over the entire skull. I then dry-brushed the miniature with (more) "Vallejo" White to bring out all the sculpt's marvellous detail. I also decided that the purple shade hadn't quite made the eye and nose sockets as forebodingly dark as I wanted, so ended up dabbing some "Citadel" Abaddon Black into these recesses. Finally I tidied everything up with a few carefully placed edge highlights of (even more) "Vallejo" White.

"Take the young lady to the hospital."

Alongside the first model of my new "Flash Gordon" project, I have completed the last four 28mm scale 3D printed resin Sentry Robots I own which are sold under licence by “Twisted Pinnacle 3D”. Sculpted by Mike Tongue (a.k.a. Big Mr Tong), the figures are highly evocative of Hans Reinhardt's security forces aboard the U.S.S. Cygnus in Gary Nelson’s 1979 American science fiction film “The Black Hole”, and were painted accordingly.


The miniatures arrived covered in several small ‘bobbles’ of resin, and these needed to be removed with a sharp modelling knife before I could paint them. I also found that a couple of the automaton's blasters had been broken during transport. I'm not really surprised though, as these pieces, particularly the weapons' long slender barrels, were thin to begin with.

"Battlefront Miniatures" WIPs - Four German Panzergrenadiers

Infamous for capturing the crew of the Cygnus and turning them into zombie-like humanoids, each figure was undercoated with a double-helping of "Vallejo" Heavy Red, before being drowned in "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. They were then enthusiastically dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Red, and had both their eyes and blasters layered with "Citadel" Abaddon Black." Finally, these areas were ‘picked out’ using a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal” and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.


Lastly, I have started working on another four plastic 15mm miniatures by “Battlefront Miniatures”. These soldiers are from their excellent “Hit The Beach” starter set for “Flames Of War” and should enable me to field the fourth of six MG34 and K98 Rifle teams I require for my second (maximum-strength) German Panzergrenadier Platoon...

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planetmut
Aug 16, 2022

Nice work on the skull, Simon, and as others have said the touch of purple gives it a suitably alien look. The sentry robots look awesome as always and I'm happy you discovered them!

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Blaxkleric
Blaxkleric
Aug 17, 2022
Replying to

So you should be,!!! LOL!!! Lots of tempting goodies on sale on that damnable site. LOL!!! 😂

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undercoat2670
Aug 16, 2022

Nice work on the lava beast skull, the purple tinge reinforces the alien nature of the thing.

Those sentry robots are fabulous. I really like them a lot, great job.

More WW2 Germans are always nice to see. I hope they turn out as well as your previous ones.

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Blaxkleric
Blaxkleric
Aug 16, 2022
Replying to

Thanks Undercoat. Simple stuff but does the job on the skull. I do like the CD MacGuffins as they're predominantly layer, shade & dry-brush jobs - I do own quite a few though, so expect plenty more scenic objective markers to come in future weeks. LOL!!


Still have a fair few Germans to finish but slowly closing in on the target.

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wsd50
Aug 16, 2022

Nice job on the skull marker, what's "Flask Gordon"? never heard of that one myself might have to google it. 😉


I think you'll end up with a lot more of those security robots than they had for the film itself at this rate! 😂


Good to see you back beavering away at you FOW mini's too.


Cheers Roger.

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Blaxkleric
Blaxkleric
Aug 20, 2022
Replying to

LOL!!! Mark Copplestone has been super-busy with his 30mm Imaginations Toy Soldier range lately. Wave One of Four is currently on Pre-Order with North Star Military Figures and looks superb. I might have bought a couple of figures - just to try out you understand..? 😃

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wargamesterrainworkshop
wargamesterrainworkshop
Aug 15, 2022

Fun little skull Simon, the sentry robots turned out great, you must have a fair size squad now. More battlefront minis on the go and looking good so far.

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Blaxkleric
Blaxkleric
Aug 15, 2022
Replying to

Thanks Dave. There's so many CD not-Flash Gordon minis to paint that I thought I might start somewhere simple, LOL!! And their objective markers are a lot of fun too. I've got S.T.A.R. and nine Sentry Robots completed. I might order another ten at some point. Just not yet. Loads of FoW to finish, so just ploughing on through the next stand tbh.

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