Sunday 21 December 2014

From TamsinP - 'They Mostly Come At Night. Mostly...' (112 Points)

And so, my third entry. 


A brood of Aliens with their Queen and King.

The figures are Space Demons from Khurasan Miniatures. In theory they are 15mm, but I've sent Curt some size comparison pictures as they are a bit bigger than 15mm human figures. I'll leave it to the Challenge-Meister to decide how to score them.


There are 48 of the little bugs. I've mounted them on washers singly, in pairs and in threes to allows for figure removal. I honestly can't remember how I did the base texture as it was a long time ago that I first started these. I'd got as far as spraying them with black metallic paint and then left them in that state. As there was a lot of bare metal which the spray hadn't hit, I re-primed them with black Vallejo surface primer.


I did these as a "break" from the SYW Russians - it is too close to Christmas to start on the 8 foot regiments I have waiting in the wings.


There were numerous steps in painting these.

The Aliens - base coat of Prussian Blue mixed with some black; wet-brush of Prussian Blue; medium-to-heavy dry-brush with Medium Blue mixed with metallic medium; black ink wash (a little bit too thick - it has pretty much hidden the first two steps!); light dry-brush with Medium Blue mixed with metallic medium; Gunmetal Blue on the extended proboscii; silver on the teeth and some claw tips.

Bases - base coat of London grey; wash of Black Grey; dry-brush of Stone Grey; a few bits picked out with Blue Violet; "veins" picked out with German Camo Medium Brown; washed with diluted Sky Blue pearlescent ink. I think the last step has really given them an alien look.

Some Close-Ups:

The King:










The Queen:




And one of the brood:

"Smile for the camera!"
Now, with all of these nasty bugs, one really needs a plucky female spaceship second officer driving a big cargo handler to deal with them:

"Get away from her you BITCH!"
Again from Khurasan, this is the Hercules Cargo Handler. I'd forgotten about it until last night when I suddenly thought that it would be an appropriate addition to this entry. I quickly prepped, assembled and primed it, then painted it this afternoon. As you can tell, I went for a well-used look.

The base is 30x40mm MDF with some wire mesh glued on top.








Some pics to show that the crew figure has been painted:




One of the Alien brood figures has a pose that always makes me think of Morecambe and Wise:


For those who don't know what I'm talking about, when you get to the end of the vid, you'll see what I mean.


Well, that's it for now folks, so here's an Alien saying "bye bye!"


ps - I'll get it in before anyone else does - "I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure."


From Curt:
Very cool submission Tamsin. I like the paint recipe you came up for the Aliens and the drizzle of pearlescent blue on their bases is a great touch.  
This brood, along with its King and Queen and Ripley in her Cargo Lift Suit will give Tamsin 112 points, enough to allow her to slip into 3rd place. Wonderful work Ms. P.

19 comments:

  1. Excellent job Tamsin. The aliens are menacing and the loading is very bashed up. They've brought me some sunshine (sorry)

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  2. Scary stuff , great job on these Tamsin.

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  3. This is the kind of thing I really like! You put a lot of work into painting these up and it shows. The base for that Handler is very creative.

    Congratulations on pulling into 3rd place!!

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  4. Your a dark horse Tamsin, a dark horse ;-)

    These are great, the colours sure are alien

    Ian

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  5. I have been thinking Aliens myself lately. Always good to see the powerloader as well. Nice work mate and so fast. Well done on 3rd place well deserved.

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  6. Is this going to be a standup painting challenge, sir, or another bughunt? Cracking stuff Tamsin, these are.... umm.... beautiful?!?

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  7. they are very nasty and scary :) as it should be

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  8. I liek this collection a lot. Really good result on this scary bunch. They might just be too many for the yellow lifter. cheers

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  9. Great job! Nice to see something completely different in the challenge for a while!

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  10. Stay tuned, 'Morecambe and Wise vs Predator' up next!
    ; )
    Top work on the alien menace, Tamsin, and a well-deserved advance up the table!

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  11. Nice! The black/ blue combo works really well for the Aliens.

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  12. Top notch Tamsin, I wasn't even aware that Khurasan did them, do they also do the marines. I can sense a new project coming!

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  13. In actual fact I'm at a loss for words (in a good way). Totally blown away with the painting on the alien models and bases. Totally in awe of the effect you've created. They look ... [I had to go back and take another look to try and think about what I want to say]. I just never would have guessed they began as unpainted metal miniatures. Brilliant.

    Sorry, I didn't mean to gush.

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  14. They are fantastic, really good painting work!

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  15. Very nicely done, Tamsin! The bases look grand and the the black has wonderful depth on the Aliens. They look snotty shiney like the movies!

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  16. @ Curt - thanks! It will be nice to be in the top 3, even if it is just for a few days :)

    @ Martin C - cheers and *groan*. Painting the loader as 2out of the shipping container" clean just didn't feel right :)

    @ Dave - they certainly are scary :)

    @ Anne - I just knew you'd love these critters.

    @ Ian - just checked. I'm very definitely not a horse, dark or otherwise :)

    @ Clint - thanks :)

    @ Millsy - I've always thought Giger's creations were scarily beautiful.

    @ Alex - they're definitely nasty :)

    @ Brendon - Jon does sell some great stuff, and these are some of his best IMHO

    @ Samuli - well, it does make a refreshing change from all the Middle earth stuff we are seeing at the moment :)

    @ Evan - thanks! My money is on Morecambe & Wise in that match ;)

    @ Moiterei - thank you. I thought it would look effective.

    @ Ste - yes, they also do some corporate marines (and suitable APCs). I do love being a bad influence :)

    @ Roy - cheers. Gush all you like! :)

    @ Juan - thanks. I'm glad you like them :)

    @ Greg - thank you :)

    @ David - I could, perhaps, have gone a bit easier on the black wash, but they've still come out quite nicely :)

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  17. I've been eyeing these figures for awhile, perhaps they could work for 20mm. Nice work.

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