JeremyM, Aliens: BugHunt

 Hi Again,

Back at work this week so my painting productivity has certainly plummeted. But I managed to complete the 4 colonial marine figures that come with the new Upper Deck Aliens:Bug Hunt game. Just in time to as I'm hoping to run it with our local group via zoom tomorrow night. Get ready to shout "They are coming out of the God Damned Walls!" Curt.

I just realized will working on this that technically this is my 5th aliens themed board game, as I have the Legendary Encounters card game, Aliens vs Predator the Hunt Begins Version 1 and Version 2, this game and the new Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps. I love the film but perhaps that is a bit much...at least until the next one comes along especially if it has minis! Of all of them I think Bug Hunt has the lowest theme value but it seems to still be a reasonably fun simple game, good enough for zoom I figure so it has its place at least during the pandemic.

The figures aren't great to be honest. A bit smaller or at least thinner than the others I have in my growing collection and definitely less detailed. I started by replacing their bases with 3d printed ones so they fit the sci fi theme a bit better, and a lot less work than trying to add theme to their plain plastic ones. I was lucky that these ones fit the base rings, although they are a bit loose. I tried a few different skin tones and once again am not totally happy with the results but you have to stop somewhere and move on. The camo is also a fairly new thing for me surprisingly for a mini painter, but I think it turned out okay, certainly good enough for board game pieces.

The one figure I'm very happy with is this guy. He came with this blob of plastic that vaguely resembled a pulse rifle, and he's the only one of the 4 armed with one. Rather disappointing for the most iconic gun from the film. Thankfully I had a hasslefree miniatures version that I was able to swap. I also was able to use some hot water to bend his head back a fair bit and make his pose slightly more reasonable than the overly awkward one. Now it looks to me like he is firing backward as he kind of shuffles away from some horrible acidic bloody creature.

Here is his original pose where he is looking down at his boot laces or perhaps staring at what should have been pulse rifle. Seriously it is so bad some reviewers thought there was no pulse rifle mini included with the game.

I'll end with a quick thank you to my wife. I had a bit of an accident while finishing these guys and managed to spill almost an entire new bottle of Agrax Earthshade on my khaki pants. Somehow she managed to get the stain out, likely because we acted fast. [Insert joke about brown stains on my pants here_________]. Bloody hate those GW pots, I may have to decant it into some dropper bottles given how clumsy I can be. So 4 28mm figures is 20 more points to my tally.

Jeremy