From NoelW: Lair of the Great Beast (183 points)

Without even a click of ruby slippers, but with a most palpable magical whooosh! they are instantly transported to the Lair of the Beast.

“Sorry, can’t take you any further,” wails the disappearing purple-haired sorceress, “you don’t have enough air miles.”

For a moment, looking around, Titchy suspects they might be in trouble.

“Er - “

“Woof!” says Scruff.

“Oh, yes, of course he is!” agrees Titchy, peering upwards. “It’s Gnawbone, and he’s all grown up.”

The great troll leans down and pats Scruff on the head. Then he pats Titchy on the head. Elfbow gets out of the way.

“So who are all your friends?” asks Getrude, surveying the sundry monsters clustered around them.

“Hulk smash!” says the giant Gnawbone.

“Yes, well, obviously. What else would you do in circumstances like this? But, the question is, who are you going to smash?”

“Gnawbone meet invaders in Hall of Heroes. Final showdown. We show them. They down soon enough.”

“Sounds great, old pal, old friend,” says Titchy. “So we’ll just hang around here until you’ve pushed the invading hordes back into the sea, shall we?”

But no – that’s not what happens, you’ll be surprised to hear. With a sudden cry Gnawbone raises his iron hammer, gestures at the tunnel leading to the Hall of Heroes, and the whole maelstrom of monsters follows suit, screaming, screeching, roaring and, yes, it seems, woofing!

“Come back, Scruff, you’ll get yourself pulverised.”

“It’s no good,” says Getrude. “Gerald is of the very definite opinion that we’re going to be swept along with the monstrous tide of nationalist – well, Chamberist – sentiment, and must follow where these valiant monsters lead, to do or die.”

“I’m pretty sure I know which I’d prefer,” says Elfbow. But he’s outnumbered, and before you can say “Shot to death by a hundred invading muskets”, the whole party finds itself carried bodily along the tunnel towards the Hall of Heroes.

***

As I’m playing more fantasy games lately, such as Oathmark, Frostgrave and Rangers of Shadow Deep, in odd intervals through the Challenge I’ve been painting monsters, with no particular plan, other than the expectation that one or other of them would do for the Beast. It turns out, they all wanted the job, so here they are.

First, the mighty Gnawbone himself, finally transformed into the creature he always knew he could be, if he only realised his full potential.

 

Compare him with this model, properly a minotaur, but probably really a minitaur – he’s intended for my 10mm fantasy setup (Lord of the Rings et al. ‘Al’ is the name of Sauron’s successor), though he stands 20mm high.

 

Another small giant is this octopus – ancestry unknown but I think he might just belong to the GW Man O’ War game. Anyway, he’ll be a hazard for my Black Seas games.

 

Next we have a pair of monster crocodiles. I’m quite pleased with how these look, as I was experimenting with different contrast paints and washes on them, and whilst they look quite different, I feel they both also look quite realistic.

The first is a Reaper Bones nasty:

 

The second is simply a Playmobil creature from one of the pirate sets (don’t tell my kids) and turns out to take a paint job surprisingly well.

 

Next two monsters also “borrowed” from my children’s collections of old toys. A giant spider creature which, rather scarily, has humanoid features. This is made from that sort of jelly resin that cheap children’s toys are made from (that’s toys which are cheap for children, not toys for children who are cheap. I’ve found that children are actually extremely costly) and doesn't paint up that well (that's my excuse, anyway).

 

The other is a yeti-esque creature. Rather scarily, this also seems slightly familiar.

 

 Then there’s this sort of chaos dog, which came amongst a set of chaos dwarves on the cover of Miniature Wargames. I don’t really like this figure and I think the mediocre paint job rather tells you that.

 

I’m much happier with my eagle. Well, I call him an eagle. Could be any noble raptor, really. No idea of manufacturer, as he’s been in the collection for decades.

 

 And another ancient, unattributable creature, a sort of winged snake (coatl?) which has painted up surprisingly well, too. Some of these ancient models have real character.

 

Next two giant rats. Very animated poses, and very large rats. Made by Reaper Bones.

 

Another Reaper Bones figure is this nicely sculpted Giant Scorpion. And it really is giant. There’s no need for it to bother with venom – a sting from this thing would be like being felled by an axe. And not a soft, gentle axe, either.

 

 And next another Reaper Bones fortissimo of a figure: I’m not sure what sort of dragonesque creature is intended, but I’ve made her a blue dragon. I really like this model, but I’m also quite pleased with how she’s come out, as I mainly used Contrast paints, with added highlighting, and I find they’re often too patchy to be very pleasing.

 

 And talking of dragons, here’s a gold dragon by Wizzkids. I’ve not attached the flames, so the dragon can be calling plaintively  for Mummy, or making toast, whichever is most appropriate for a game.

 

Finally, a brazen bull. Weirdly, this creature (or a cognate) exists in D&D as a gorgon, but the model is great, whatever it’s called.

Scoring for this miscellany is a bit unclear, especially as several of the figures are much wider or longer than they are tall. I’m tentatively suggesting, the following, but I throw myself on the rare and tender mercies of our much-beloved Minions:

Octopus (10mm monster): 2 pts

Minotaur: (20mm foot): 4 pts

Coatl, eagle, dog, 2 giant rats: approx. 30mm = 5 x 5 pts = 25 pts

Bull, spider and 2 monster Crocodiles: (80mm, 90mm and 110mm long, but only 30mm and 40mm high, so suggest treat them as 28mm artillery): 4 x 10 pts = 40 pts

Yeti: 40mm x 60mm: 7 pts

Gold dragon (54mm x 80mm) and Scorpion (50mm x 60mm): suggest 54mm artillery = 40pts

Troll: 65mm high, 80mm at widest point: 15 pts?

Blue dragon (100mm x 140mm): 30 pts?

Lair of the Beast: 20 pts

Grand total: 183 pts, perhaps

What a grand collection of beasties. I'm sure they'll give a good account of themselves against the Hall of Heroes.

I'll go along with your scoring of these, simply because I reckon any scoring I came up with would quite closely match your suggestions.

Tamsin