From TomC: Rataclysm! [Gluttony] (40 points)

Hello again everyone, it may have been some time since my last entry but it has been great to see all the entries so far, particular thanks to my fellow Thursday crew members for keeping the day's momentum going! Today's submission is a slightly unusual creature, the Rataclysm from Steamforged Games's Animal Adventures Gullet Cove Kickstarter. I'd painted one of the wererats from the set previously, but the Rataclysm is a materially more substantial prospect for any adventurers!

As you can see, life in the sewers has not been so unkind to this giant, three-headed rat-creature! Having broken free of its bonds, no shortage of culinary delights have clearly been available as our chap is now quite portly! I therefore thought this might qualify as a little too much Holiday feasting and so have offered it up for Gluttony.

As is probably evident, I used Citadel's Contrast paint to get most of the beast done, the body is Goregrunta Fur, which seemed the most suitable of the various tones I had to hand (most of which I picked up with a view to Flames of War miniatures, none of which have yet to see any Contrast paint, of course!).

This is my second trial of Contrast, I also painted a Beholder a while back, but I'm pretty happy with the results for the time taken and have tried to broaden the application, blending a little in with Vallejo Medium Sea Grey and Cadian Fleshtone to get a fleshy tone on the tail. Originally, I tried to use Basilicanum Grey for the stomach, but this did not work, it's much too dark! It is instead another blend of the Goregrunta Fur to Medium Sea Grey, with a little Dead White added towards the very centre. The veins had a little Genestealer and Xereus Purple blended in and the Basilicanum Grey was instead used for shading, where it was much more successful (to my eyes!).

Various details were picked out in the traditional manner: the claws and teeth were Vallejo Flat Earth, Heavy Goldbrown and Ivory in varying ratios; the eyes were going to be red, but I pushed this up to yellow as I enjoyed the contrast, I used Two Thin Coats Yellow Flame over Vallejo Orange Fire in the end. I particularly like painting rusty metal, the various manacles go all the way from Dark Rust to Orange Fire and now look thoroughly corroded! I did also try adding scratches with Russian Tank Crew (and then with added white) but kept these quite limited, to the point where it might be a little difficult to know they're there!

In terms of points, our beastie is quite generously sized, being in the realms of a 28mm monster and about the size of a light tank. I think 15 points is a fair claim as 28mm vehicles can be much bigger, but will defer to my Minion's wisdom! The location bonus is 20 points, so in total I have submitted 35 points, which should get me over my target for the Challenge! This is probably for the best as we are currently moving house and my wife is also now expecting so this may well be my final post and, if so, I would like to thank Curt for organising the Challenge (as always!), Teemu for bearing through my antics, the wider Minion team (without whom the Challenge would struggle!) and my fellow Thursday crew for doing all the heavy lifting!

TeemuL: I hope your not asking Thursday crew to do the heavy lifting of your move? Congratulations for your new home and the coming family member, I hope everything goes well! If you can, I belive you can post a voluntary wrap-up post after the Challenge to show all your painted minis in one post. It is always nice to see how much participants have actually painted.

Then the miniature. Goregrunta Fur is a very nice, strong brown colour and as Contrast paints work very well on textured surfaces, it would have been difficult to pick some other paint for this monster. The browns (and other colours) look great! I saw the comparison photo you sent me and this is a big one. To make it simpler and spreadsheet friendly, I have scored this as a 28mm vehicle - some vehicles are smaller and some larger, so I guess this one fits the category. 40 points in total, well done!