Tuesday 27 February 2018

"Hey! You There! Stop!"

"Our Axon friend has just walked straight into the furnace of the main reactor."
This 28mm metal model of an Axon Monster is manufactured by “Black Tree Design” and can be bought as code DW310 from their "Doctor Who" range. "A scavenger entity which came to Earth, supposedly for fuel, the aliens' real motivation was "to drain all energy from Earth" and made their first appearance in the March 1971 BBC Television science fiction serial "The Claws Of Axos".

The model was originally primed with "Vallejo" Heavy Orange and washed with "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson. It was then dry-brushed first with more "Vallejo" Heavy Orange, and later with some Heavy Red. Finally, the entire figure was once again washed with "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson.
"Excalibur Captain Harris and first officer dead. Many casualties."
I don't ordinarily get the opportunity to post other people's painting on this blog, but Roy Williamson, who runs the excellent "Never Mind The Yankers!" website, very kindly sent me a rather splendid-looking re-painted constitution-class starship earlier this week. It's a plastic "Wizkids" model for their "Star Trek: Attack Wing" tactical space combat miniatures game, and comes complete with a mind-boggingly tiny hand-painted NCC-1664 registry number on top of its saucer section.

Of course that marks the 23rd century Federation vessel out as the USS Excalibur, with Captain Harris as its commander. Sadly, both the starship and skipper were destined to be destroyed by the U.S.S. Enterprise "during the disastrous M-5 Starfleet battle simulation war games" depicted in the broadcast episode "The Ultimate Computer".
Grishaks WIPs - The beaked-birds have all been primed and are ready for shading
In addition to the odd bit of painting, I've been sorting through my worryingly burdensome lead mountain and separating all the miniatures I've based, prepped or even started working on, from those I've never touched, and even more embarrassingly never even unsealed/opened. There's been a few trips down memory lane as a result, and once such quartet of models was four Grishaks by "Twilight Miniatures".

As I recall I picked these weird dinosaur birds up as part of a starter set bought at "Salute" several years ago, and clearly made some sort of effort to get them 'up and ready' as they'd all been based, primed and one even shaded. Sadly however, they subsequently fell out of favour and have been lost to time... until now. I have little intention of actually playing "The World Of Twilight" with them, but because they're on the self-same 28mm lipped bases I use for my "Doctor Who: Exterminate!" models I thought they might make interesting 'killer birds' for a scenario or two...

28 comments:

  1. Just playing "catch-up" after being away, and boy have you been busy! Far too much to comment on individually, and ALL up to your usual inspiring standard Simon :-)
    The 'card holder' idea was just brilliant - and the USS Excalibur is a great addition to a Star Trek and Wizkids collection!
    Picking up where i left off, Biel Tan Green (close) and AP Dark Tone (just about spot-on) were the two suggestions, and I see you obviously agree :-)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks very much Greg, "N-FX Game Design Studio" seem to have been similarly impressed with the card holder, and have sent me more stuff to assemble and paint as a result.

      USS Excalibur is awesome, so I'm hoping to get it on the tabletop soon.

      Thanks for the suggestion, and good to know we were thinking along the same lines :-)

      Delete
  2. Nice work on the Axon monster Simon, what a great gift from Roy and so well painted. The Grishaks look cool and could work in your travels through the spaceship game your planning

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Dave. Simply stuff once again, whilst I crack on with more complicated minis. I hadn't thought of the Grisaks for "Expedition TO Barrier Peaks", but now you mention it what a corking idea :-)

      Delete
    2. For the life of me I couldn't remember the name of your campaign, glad you could work it out from my ramblings ! LOL

      Delete
    3. Tbh, I had to look it up myself, just another in a long line of half-completed projects I aim to address this year by culling the spending and increasing the painting :-)

      Delete
  3. The oooh shiney syndrome. I bought a Flintloque Orc once now long gone.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Lots of shiny syndrome stuff to come Phil over the next few weeks as I rifle through my collection :-)

      Delete
  4. As I look at the top figure I know my group would all call it the Spaghetti Monster. That being the case I would have to have painted it a different colour. yes my players are a bunch of Kids..... which is why I fit in I guess.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tbh Clint, as soon as you said that I immediately thought of the Synthetti Men from "Judge Dredd". Have a look at Prog 216's cover, superbly drawn by Brian Bolland, and let me know what you think :-)

      Delete
  5. Much to admire here, Simon, and thankfully not a Chaos figure in sight!
    I agree that the Axon is squat and lumpy, but I still like him. Unlike Clint's gaming group, I don't think of spaghetti when I see him but of glistening intestines!
    Lovely present from Roy, who is such a nice chap.
    Those Grishaks could work in a number of games and genres from prehistoric times to sci-fi.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Bryan. Don't be disheartened, plenty of Chaos yet to come to try and turn you to Nurgle ;-) I'm happy enough with the Axon, though its not quite as orangy-red as I'd like. However, if I ever bought more (unlikely as I'm sticking to "Warlord Games" for future buys) then I think en-mass they'd look very colourful indeed :-)

      The Grishaks were a great find, and I'm hoping to keep posting about such wonderful old buys in future as I sort through my collection. Pleasingly, they're still available to buy too, if I want to add to my flock :-)

      Delete
  6. WHen I saw the Axon I immediately thought blood and guts, lots of guts, so weird and wonderful that I like it a lot.
    I like your gift from Roy and the 'bird thing' would make a great monster in many different genres.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Joe. The Axon seems to have gone down well for such a simple sculpt - not one of finest "Black Tree Design" minis imho though.

      Roy is a tip top chap and his gift was very much appreciated. I love "STAW" so it really was the perfect pressie :-)

      I was actually thinking about "Jimland" when I was re-priming the Grishaks, as they strike me as potential primordial beasties for an expedition to encounter.

      Delete
  7. Hah! Which dopey bugger would go and do something as daft as painting up a starship that only went and suffered a horrendous injury to itself and it's crew during a canon event? That's right...Me. Although I've no idea, now, as to what I was thinking at the time I chose to do so!

    The Axon Monster looks cool. I really like how you've painted it up, with the darker shaded areas underneath.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. LOL Roy! I thought it was a superb nod personally to a great vessel which sadly just suffered an ignoble end. I love canon stuff like that, so it was absolutely perfect for me. Many thanks indeed for sending it to me - very much appreciated I assure you :-)

      I'm not the second "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson wash has blended in the highlights etc on my Axon, more completely overshadowed all the orange/red contrasts. But there we are :-)

      Delete
  8. Wow, you are prolific. I like the Axon, a proper old school mini with a nice paint job. The star Greek ship is ace, well done to that painter. Those Twilight minis are great! It is a unique universe that doesn't use the usual fantasy stereotypes and is also fun to play. Great to see them and the wip looks great. Great mix and I am putting in a vote for more Chaos as I love your Burgle minis! Great read Sir.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I'm not sure prolific is the right word, as I need to paint approx 50 minis in the next month in order to achieve my Partially-Painted Challenge... I do have a few finished minis waiting in the wings however.

      More Chaos is coming, as I finish off my "Blightkings" and probably add some additional minis to Khorne too. Not sure about any more "Twilight"; but this quartet isn't all I own I'm sure.

      Delete
  9. All lovely stuff as always Simon, and what a smashing gift! Roy does beautiful work doesn't he.

    The Axon has turned out really nicely, though the fig is still not great in my opinion (sorry).

    Those Grishaks are a new one on me but I do like the look of them, they could work in so many games.

    Cheers Roger.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Roger. I'm not a great fan of the Axon either, but I think with that colour scheme, a group could be rather fun on the tabletop. I'm delighted with Roy's gift and hope to get it into action real soon.

      I had to research the Grishaks myself, as I couldn't recall what they were when I found them, only that they were "Twilight Miniatures". Plenty more old projects to come... some from "W.S.D." if you remember them? ;-)

      Delete
    2. No not really...getting old you see. ;-)

      Delete
  10. A nice load of stuff on view here mate. The Axon is wonderfully disgusting looking. Like an intestines monster or some such.

    Those dino-birds, they too small to make for good mounts for human sized figs? They're pretty cool sculpts.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Cheers Dai. The Grishaks are on 28mm lipped bases so should be large enough imho. If you have a look at the "Twilight Miniatures" website, they do a vast range of bird-like/dinosaur mounts etc.

      Delete
  11. Ooo that Axon monster looks cool. I bet you could do that in greens and it would look right at home with plant monsters.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Simon. Funny you should say that about greens and plant monsters, as that's precisely what the "Doctor Who" costume department did with the Axon costume for Tom Baker's "Seeds Of Doom" plant-monsters :-)

      Delete
  12. See, I was thinking Spaghetti monster too...and then thinking that would be quite cool for Ghostbusters. Can't just be confectionary related animated constructs, after all. Oooh, I think there was a guacamole monster in one of the published adventures for the GB RPG, so I could do one of those too.

    Noce work from Roy on the Excalibur, especially the text. I think I'd have yrouble doing lettering that small.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Good memory, Jez, "ApoKermis Now" is the "Ghost Busters International" module you're thinking of :-)

      I'm delighted with Roy's gift, as you can probably imagine, and I certainly wouldn't want to be doing the sort of fine brush detail he seems to excel at :-)

      Delete