"Oh, My Fingers, My Arms, My legs!"

"Ah! My everything! Argh!"

These four 28mm "humanoid creatures native to the planet Eden" are produced by “Black Tree Design" and can be purchased from their "Doctor Who" range as code DW427 - Mandrel, and DW432 - Mandrel Attacking. "Dangerous predators" who were "able to easily kill a human", the "absurdly tough" monsters "decomposed down into a pile of lumpy white powder, the dangerous, addictive drug vraxoin, after being electrocuted" and made their BBC Television debut in the November 1979 story "Nightmare Of Eden".

The figures were originally primed using a double layer of "Citadel" Abaddon Black, and very heavily dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Red. However, despite this simple technique bringing out some of their sculpts' scaly detail I didn't feel it resulted in the deep blackish red shown in photographs of the programme's costumes, so I soon returned to the quartet and just painted them "Vallejo" Heavy Red".

"You must help them get the Mandrels back into the projection."

The models were then thoroughly washed using "Citadel" Nuln Oil and dry-brushed with (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Red. I tidied up the aliens' furry feet, hands and heads with a touch of "Vallejo" Black, before 'picking out' their enormous claws using a combination of "Vallejo" Dead White and "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade.

As a final step I painted in the Mandrels' large oval "glowing" eyes with "Vallejo" Heavy Khaki and later soaked them with "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green. I also dry-brushed their face's fan-like mouth with "Vallejo" Heavy Green and subsequently treated these dangling fronds to some (more) "Citadel" Biel-Tan Green. Lastly, these areas were once again dry-brushed with "Vallejo" Heavy Green and then washed with "Citadel" Nuln Oil.

"Resident Evil 2: The Board Game" - Leon and Claire race back to Raccoon City's Police Department

With this furry foursome finished I have found some time to start playing my recently arrived "Resident Evil 2: The Board Game" by "Steamforged Games Limited". This "Kickstarter" proved tremendously popular in 2017, generating a whopping £800,561 in pledges during its 28 day funding period. Fortunately, I was lucky enough to nab an Early Bird Survivor Pledge and resultantly have been learning the rules playing its Scenario 1A Brief - Getting To The Police Department.

First impressions are good, albeit the quality of the tiny sculpts and very dark tiles are not what I was expecting from the manufacturer behind "Guild Ball". I don't therefore plan on painting the figures anytime soon, if at all, but having successfully made it off the unsafe streets of Raccoon City, I can definitely see myself traversing deeper into the Scenario Book; especially as I couldn't resist buying the "co-operative survival horror" game's Giant Alligator Expansion...