Friday 28 December 2018

"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...

12 comments:

  1. I got my "Resident Evil 2" Kickstarter pledge just in time for Christmas but I haven't played it yet as I've only just got round to start reading the rulebook. I agree that the tiles are a lot darker than I was expecting but I have no problem with the figures. They seem correctly proportioned to me, which is why they may appear to be too slim for some. The giant alligator is just awesome and so too are the five stages of Birkin. I'm very much looking forward to getting stuck into this game.

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    1. The rules are great, imho, and easy to pick-up; being just different enough from "Zombicide" to warrant further play and seem to follow the computer game rather accurately. The sculpts are okay for their scale but I guess I was expecting something akin to "Guild Ball" size. The card tiles are definitely disappointing though, imho, especially the wall and door tiles - which I can barely see at times...

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  2. Great work on the Mandrel's Simon, not seen the sculpts on Resident Evil so unable to comment on the sculpts

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    1. Thanks Dave, and for the splendid painting advice. In the end though I went for a far simpler recipe as I figured I'm bound to buy a load more in the future and wanted a straightforward palette I could follow :-)

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  3. Lovely work on the Mandrels Simon, I'll say no more at the moment, Resident Evil is a game (well board game anyway) that I've never heard of, I'm not a PC gamer so probably wouldn't have been into this anyway. But I do really like the films.

    By the way how many more posts till the end of the year? I've done my top ten, but don't know if there will be any late "stunners" I need to keep an eye out for yet?

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger, two of my favourite minis in "Black Tree Design" "Doctor Who" range tbh. A bit time-consuming but worth the effort imho.

      No more painted minis are planned for the rest of the year. I have a fair few finished, but they've been put aside for 2019. Ready for your Top Ten whenever you are :-)

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  4. Nice work. I was unsure about the resident evil game. I liked the game play video I watched of it. There was a lot of ks's towards the end of last year which diverted and available funds for it.

    Are the figures just slim like the batman figures or something?

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    1. Thanks Simon. The figures are 32mm from foot to head (at least those of Leon Kennedy's stature) and definitely slim build; where I was imagining something a bit bulkier I suppose having painted some of their "Guild Ball" minis. I also think their detail is rather soft, and see them as board pieces rather than tabletop miniatures. Hope that makes sense.

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  5. My Resident Evil has arrived too and stashed away fro the time being. Like you I was a little disappointed with the hero sculpts, but some of the monsters are amazing!

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    1. I certainly think I'll probably end up painting some of the larger monsters at some point, Michael, perhaps with the giant crocodile being the first such piece. But almost certainly not the 'human' characters...

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  6. You've certainly been busy over the festive period and apologies for not commenting on more pf your posts - but they just kept coming! Nice work on the Mandrels, but I'll hold judgement on the Resident Evil boardgame until I see a bit more.

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    1. No need to apologise at all, Jez. I'm really pleased with how the Mandrels have turned out, and may well now look to pick-up some more in the near future. As for the "Resident Evil 2: Boardgame" - then I strongly recommend the rules - they're great and I have a BatRep or two planeed to show them off ;-)

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