Friday 3 May 2019

“It Is Described As A Ten-Foot Cube Of Transparent Gelatinous Ooze..."

"...Which is able to absorb and digest organic matter."
This 60mm tall model of a Gelatinous Cube is produced by “Reaper Miniatures” and can be purchased as Code 77305 from their “Bones” range. Cast in a translucent “special” polymer plastic, the “ooze entry” was invented by Gary Gygax, and first appeared “in the original [1974] Dungeons & Dragons ‘white box’ set”.

Able to slide “through dungeon corridors, absorbing everything in its path, digesting everything organic and secreting non-digestible matter in its wake”, this multi-part monster was painted in sub assemblies in the hope that it would be possible to sneak a ghoulish glimpse of its recent partially-eaten prey. As a result, its ‘interior piece’ was primed using some “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand, drenched in “The Army Painter” Strong Tone Quickshade and later dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Iraqi Sand.
"It is specifically and perfectly 'adapted' to its native environment..."
Any skeletal remains were lightly dry-brushed with some “Vallejo” White, whilst the odd weapon blade (whether sword or axe) was ‘picked out’ using a combination of “Citadel” Ironbreaker and Nuln Oil. I then applied a couple of washes of the shade, Carroburg Crimson, to what appeared to be a large sprawling cape, so as to suggest the raiment was actually being bleached by the creature’s digestive juices.

The sculpt also contains a couple of long-discarded shields, so the wooden ones, along with any shafts, handles or belts, were treated to a layer of “Vallejo” Heavy Sienna before being washed in Strong Tone Quickshade by “The Army Painter”. I also applied either a dab of “Vallejo” Heavy Blue or Heavy Green to the odd pouch, and subsequently shaded them with a splash of appropriately-placed “Citadel” Drakenhof Nightshade or Biel-Tan Green.
"Age Of Sigmar" WIPs - These three Bloodletters have are slowly having all their gold 'picked out'
Unfortunately, little of this brush-work can actually be seen through the Gelatinous Cube itself as the exterior sculpt of the “perfect ten feet” cube is equally as detailed with lots of dripping slime, brutally muddying the plastic’s transparency. Disconcertingly however, this was not my biggest disappointment with the model, as it proved impossible to stick together using my ordinarily-trusty “Gale Force Nine” super-glue and instead I had to resort to a hearty application of “Araldite” to bond the “living mound of transparent jelly” together. Sadly, this two-part epoxy didn’t completely cure clear, leaving a slightly frosty seam down one of the Gelatinous Cube’s sides.

Having completed my “dungeon scavenger” I have found a little time to continue progressing the next batch of Bloodletters I plan to add to my “Age Of Sigmar” Blades of Khorne warhost, as well as “Warhammer 40K daemonic force. I want to give myself as much flexibility as possible in potentially splitting up this horde into much smaller minimum-strength units, so have decided to assemble both a third standard-bearer and musician from my latest ‘Slaughter-kin’ boxed set…

32 comments:

  1. thats really cool. everytime i hear the word "Gelatinous" in reference to D&D i always think of a bowl of JELL-O getting angry. lol

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    1. Thanks Mr Martin. LOL!! Now the Gelatinous Cube is finished I hope to track down a reasonably priced Black Pudding model ;-)

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    2. You know... a block of black Fimo would be about $4. I know you could make one :D

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    3. That's certainly a preferable option to forking out £20 for the 'official' piece of black plastic I'd been looking at on "Ebay", Allison, LOL!!

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    1. Cheers Fran. Possibly my favourite "Reaper Miniature" to date.

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  3. The cube is dissapointing for me as you can’t see all the work you put in on the detail, more progress on your bloodletters is good

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    1. Cheers Dave. Such is life, and I'll be keeping the lack of transparency in mind if I decide to buy a couple more Gelatinous Cubers in the future.

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  4. I always loved the cube, it's like the worlds worst jellied salad!

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    1. LOL Peter. I love it and was delighted to finally get one painted for the tabletop.

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  5. Shame all your hard work underneath the cube isn't on full display, but I do like it a lot. More bloodletters! Good grief you must have the entire country's supply! They will look amazing as a huge horde on the gaming table.

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    1. Thanks Undercoat. I'm certainly hoping to have a good solid core of Bloodletters for future games which I can either split into a couple of units or even four minimum strength warbands.

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  6. I echo Dave's comments regarding the cube, but even so I like its size and sculpting.

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    1. I like it too, Bryan, it's just not as transparent as I would have liked.

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  7. It's a pity about the cube, I was picturing B.O.B. from Monsters vs Aliens, I think I've watched too many kids films. Bloodletters are great and up to your usual standard.

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    1. Thanks Phil. I certainly won't be spending anywhere near as much time on the next "Reaper Miniatures" Gelatinous Cube I buy. Hoping to have some more Bloodletters finished real soon :-)

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  8. Oh WOW, the Gelatinous Cube is probably one of my very top favourite monstrosities of all time. We call it part of the dungeon "the clean up crew" here, as it moves about the tunnels literally chewing its way through every bit of rubbish in its path (hmm, do cubes chew?). Very nicely rendered Simon. I wonder how it might fare against that Bloodletter hehe.

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    1. Cheers Tarot, its my fave d&d monster, so I'm pleased its proving such a popular posting with so many people. Hmmm Bloodletters vs Cube eh? I reckon it'd depend upon how big a unit of the daemons I manage to paint and field ;-) Hopefully I can get the Cube into a BatRep soon though.

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    2. Can`t beat a good DD ooze, slime, or pudding.

      Oh and my money would be on the Bloodletters ^^

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    3. "Can`t beat a good DD ooze, slime, or pudding." - Very true, Steve. I'm currently digging around my partially-painted backlog as I'm pretty sure I have some by "Otherworld Miniatures" somewhere...

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  9. I thought at first you'de hot-glurd s figure, but you've done a good job bringing a little life to a rather iconic figure from my early dungeoneering days (3 books in a box!)

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    1. Thanks Joe. Glad the Gelatinous Cube took you back to those days. Hopefully I can get it on the tabletop soon with some dungeoneering of sorts.

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  10. Love the cube, it looks properly gooey,
    Shame that it obscures all your hard work as I can hardly see any of the details you're talking about.

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    1. Cheers Wouter. The Gelatinous Cube definitely didn't need all the attention I gave it with my paint-brush that's for sure. LOL!!!

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  11. Nice work. Reaper has some pretty good transparent figures: their purple tentacles are also a great set!

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    1. Thanks Allison. I hadn't heard of their purple tentacles before, but will keep an eye out for them next time I'm at a show :-)

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