From Sander: Mansions of Madness (180 points)

Hoi,

Christmas has come and gone and since my last post I haven't been idle. Today I'd like to present you some figures for a boardgame called "Mansions of Madness". I am told it is a nice game with great tiles, but the figures are horrible and the basing system is a drag too. The game is set in a Lovecraftian world of Cthullu-calling detectoring. A group of adventurers (the players) enter a Mansion to prevent the Apocalypse from happening or some such other. The adventurers and monsters they encounter are placed on big black bases that have slots to hold information cards but completely cover the great artwork of the tiles that make up the Mansion/ board. 

My friend Roel disliked the bases and the figures and asked me what to do about them, probably knowing I would cave in and paint them up for him as well as put them on clear acrylic bases. 

The figures are really two dimensional (apart from the two large Cthullu's) and the details are really really shallow. So I must admit this is not my best work but I am happy with how they turned out all the same in the end. 

The adventurers:

The top two pictures show the male heroes: a rich man, an archeologist, priest and a detective.

The last two pictures show the female figures: A girl with a candle (both Roel and myself got a distinct Alice in Wonderland vibe off her) a scientist, a librarian (she looked like Velma to me) and a sportswoman.

The monsters and NPC's:

They are pretty self-explanatory to me, but just some quick notions about them: the two leathery winged monsters really reminded me of Minocks as featured in the Star Wars films, the cultists I painted with different stripe colours and masks so you can play them with different ranking within their cult if you wanted to. And the two ghosts and zombie reminded me of Michael Jackson's Thriller, and I hate that song...

Now let's get back to those bases for a minute shall we? I was daunted by the clear acrylic bases and specially gluing anything on them, but last Challenge Curt explained what glue he uses and I ordered it from Green Stuff World since I needed some of their produce for this year's big and SECRET project anyway, you can find the glue HERE. Using that worked like a treat and there's nothing to it, but cleaning away the glue-strings it leaves behind so why not try it yourself? Yes I am looking at you Young Master Douglas! 

The bases themselves were lasered at the school where I work as we have a laser cutter standing by. 

So in the end, Roel got his figures and I gain 180 points (36 x 28mm figures) for the Challenge!

Cheers Sander   

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No, you haven't been idle at all, Sander. Wow! This is a load of work to have been done in such a short time - bravo! We're big fans of Mansions of Madness here as it's cooperative, and has this clever app feature that keeps track of the game's mechanics and plays the nasty 'Mansion'. 

I agree, the map tiles are great, but many of the figures are a bit soft in detail. That being said, I think you've don a marvellous job on the set, and I especially like the punchy colours you've used. I also think your decision to go with clear bases was perfect for this game as it allows one to easily see the tiles beneath the figures (and I'm delighted that the glue I suggested worked well for you). A laser cutter at school? How neat is that!!

190 points (I've added a few points for the big lads) will streak you ahead on the roster, well, for at least the time being. :)

- Curt