The Votes Are In for the 'Monstrous' Theme Round!

Finally, I'm back at the controls after a few days away R&R with the lovely Lady Sarah. Thanks for your patience everybody, and another big thank you to Tamsin who did a fabulous job standing in for me posting the Friday Follies.

Our fifth and final bonus theme round has concluded! We had 35 participants submitting entries illustrating their delightfully imaginative interpretations of the 'Monstrous' theme. Below are the results of the voting. 

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The Runners Up of the Theme Round were:

SidneyR's 'Les Chevaliers de Versailles, 1688'

AlexK's 'Monster Madness'

JamesM's 'The Command is Given, the Command is WALK!'

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Our podium finishers for the Monstrous Theme Round are:

Third Place: MichaelA's 'Monster Mash'

Michael will receive another 25 points for his fabulous retrospective of these classic monsters of the Silver Screen. Yes they are verrry verrry scaaaary! Lovely brushwork Michael.

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Second Place: AnthonyO's 'George the Giant'

George's amazing romper-stomper monstrousness (monstrousnous?) will give Anthony another 50 points to add to his total!  Superb work Anthony!

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And in First Place: 

ByronM's 'Kingdom Death Dragon King'

I had the pleasure of seeing this electric blue brute up close and personal while visiting friends and family in Winnipeg this past weekend. I can attest that it's even more impressive (and intimidating) when viewed nose-to-nose, so to speak. Truly, an amazing piece of work. 

In recognition of Byron's excellent efforts, he will be awarded an additional 75 points to his total and receive a generous gift certificate from our fellow Challenger Edwin over at Diplomatist Books.

Congratulations again Byron!

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Let's give A BIG round of applause to all the round's participants for their excellent efforts bringing the theme to life. Terrific work folks - thank you! 

Curt

The 'Monstrous' Theme is Now Up! (and Curt's 'Monstrous Wulfen')

Hello Everyone!

The fifth and final Theme Round of Challenge VIII is now up for your viewing pleasure!

This fortnight's theme is 'Monstrous' and we have 35 folks who've submitted entries for your viewing enjoyment. There are many entries in this round that are quite spectacular, so I'm looking forward to reading the reactions of the visitors to the gallery.  

Please click here, or on the 'Bonus Theme' link in the navigation bar above to take you to see the efforts of the participants. Again, once you're there, please use the links on the right sidebar to navigate through the entries. As I've mentioned before, there is a bug in Blogger in how it displays multiple entries over several pages on a single day, so use the links in the sidebar so you are sure to see all the entries.

Finally, remember to take time to vote for your favourite submissions. You can vote for as many as you like. The top three in votes will get additional points added on to their total for the round.

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I had a two or three entries on the go for this round, but decided to run in with this lupine fellow as he reminds me of a time when I thought the scariest monster by far was the werewolf. 

I was born and raised in northern Saskatchewan, which is pretty much as rustic and remote as it can get here in North America. My hometown was the last bit of civilization before you headed off into the Laurentian Plateau and the sub arctic beyond - literally on the edge of nowhere. One autumn, when I was 9 or 10 and staying out at my grandparents farm, a pack of timberwolves came hunting into our area. During the week we could see them at night in the farmyard, and I have to say, they were pretty magnificent creatures - scary as hell, but magnificent all the same. Anyway for those few days that they were around, my grandfather, shotgun in hand, would meet me at the end of the road where the school bus let me off and then walk me back to the farm. As a young boy you can imagine how that impressed me.

Later, when I was a teenager, the movies 'American Werewolf in London', 'Wolfen' and 'The Howling' were all released in 1981 and while they scared the absolute bejeezus out of us, my friends and I absolutely LOVED them.  We would often stay up late at night and tell our own scary stories of werewolves and work ourselves up into a terrified frenzy. It was great fun.

My favourite of the '81 werewolf movies

Anyway, when I first saw this figure I knew I had to have it as it reminded me so much of those carefree teenage days where primary concerns were avoiding being ridiculed by girls, the next scheduled D&D game and scaring yourself witless watching monster movies.  

It's a Forge World resin model, which I believe was released for a special GW event back in 2012. PaulS entered a wonderful rendition of this figure as part of the 'Myth' theme round during Challenge V, and after expressing extreme covetous of the model he kindly sourced me with another that he had acquired (thanks so much again Paul!).

I shaved off most of the silly GW Chaos iconography and painted him as a black timberwolf. The gore effect on the poor Reiselaufer, who's being toted around as lunch-on-the-hoof, is a triad recipe from a Citadel ink set that I've had since 1987 - back in the heady days when GW used containers that actually sealed...

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Now, I invite you again to visit the theme gallery and enjoy the wonderful entries for 'Monstrous' and remember to vote for your favourite submissions (voting closes next Saturday at 11:45pm).

Have a great week everyone!