"You Want A Piece Of Me? You Ugly Son Of A..."

"It's common in ritual sacrifice to take the heart of the victim."

This rather oversized 40mm pre-painted plastic "Wizkids" model of the Alien Grid (also known as Nethead) is from the "Horrorclix" AVP Alien Verses Predator: Aliens Collector's Set. The figure is based upon the "alpha-Alien" which kills the predators Chopper and Celtic in the 2004 science-fiction horror film "Alien Verses Predator" and carries the distinctive head injuries caused by its being momentarily incapacitated by a net launcher.

I initially gave the vicious extra-terrestrial an undercoat of "Citadel" Abaddon Black before simply dry-brushing the model with "Vallejo" German Grey. Grid was then washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil before I applied a second, significantly lighter dry-brush of more "Vallejo" German Grey over its more prominently raised surfaces. The Alien's mouth was painted using a combination of "Vallejo" Gunmetal Grey and "Citadel" Nuln Oil, whilst its head's carapace was given a coat of Abaddon Black. Finally I picked out its ‘bleeding’ head injury with some “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki and “Citadel” Thrakka Green. As the fresh lacerations were very fine, I tidied up my brush work by dabbing a face blusher pad with some Abaddon Black on it over the area. These helped cover up any stray areas of “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki and restrict the bright green paint to just the deepest recesses of the mutilation.

"Hey. Hey, hey, come here, take a look at this."

In addition to Grid I have also painted three more of the Xenomorph drones which the motion picture "AVP" shows being born inside the pyramid Weyland's archaeological party find beneath Bouvet Island. These Aliens were all painted in the same way as their formidable 'leader'. Although one of them, a terrific sculpt of an alien whose tail had been partially severed, required the acidic blood spurting from out of its wound to be painted using a combination of “Vallejo” Heavy Khaki and “Citadel” Thrakka Green.

Xenomorph Drones lead by the alpha-Alien Grid

Originally a couple of the miniatures generously gifted to me by Bryan from "Vampifan's World Of The Undead" were actually based upon either a piece of ornately carved stone or masonry. Having removed the Alien figures from these pieces of terrain I decided to turn them into objective markers by super-gluing them to my usual thin-lipped 40mm circular bases and undercoating them with "Vallejo" Heavy Brown. The scenery was then heavily washed with “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade before being dry-brushed with more "Vallejo" Heavy Brown.