Sunday 23 June 2019

"An Intellect Devourer Resembles A Walking Brain..."

"...Protected by a crusty covering and set on bestial clawed legs."
This 28mm model of a Mind Eater is manufactured by “Reaper Miniatures” and can be purchased as Code 77229 from their “Bones” range. Sculpted by Patrick Keith, and clearly inspired by Gary Gygax's Intellect Devourer, "this foul aberration feeds on the intelligence of sentient creatures" and first appeared in the 1976 "Dungeons & Dragons" game supplement "Eldritch Wizardry".

Bred by Mind Flayers "to serve as roaming hunters of the Underdark", the four-legged creature was primed with "Vallejo" Heavy Grey, doused in "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade and later dry-brushed using some (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Grey. I then decided to pigment the monster's 'clawed feet' using a combination of "Vallejo" Iraqi Sand and Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter".
Hitler's Undead advance as Rocket Raccoon steps in to protect the Dark Knight
Finally, I painted the lawful evil aberration's brain with a couple of coats of "Vallejo" Squid Pink. This organ was subsequently shaded with "Citadel" Carroburg Crimson, as well as a little Strong Tone Quickshade around it's base, and enthusiastically dry-brushed with some (more) "Vallejo" Squid Pink.

Moving across from fantasy to science-fiction wargaming, I have managed to pay another visit to the LVL Up Gaming Store in Bournemouth so as to play a game of my homemade ruleset "M.I.S.S." and finally dust-down both my collection of "Secrets Of The Third Reich" Nazi Zombies by "West Wind Productions", as well as the somewhat comical-looking miniature of Adolf Hitler sold by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" under their "Danger 5" range. This cataclysmic confrontation would see Commissioner Jim Gordon take on the Fuhrer's Undead might, alongside the likes of Chewbacca, Lockjaw, Lobster Johnston, Rocket Raccoon and (of course) Godzilla.
Lobster Johnson and Jim Gordon are eaten alive by Nazi Zombies
Fought across a 3' x 3' swamp-inspired tabletop populated with a couple of forests and a pair of pools, both forces desperately attempted to seek arcane knowledge from a trio of gargoyle statues, a heavily-disguised Ben Grimm and the Batman. This resulted in Lockjaw arguably proving to be the most useful character of the afternoon, teleporting the likes of Lobster Johnson and Jim Gordon all over the show in a desperate attempt to cull the twenty-five walking dead models stumbling towards them.

Godzilla, certainly in the first battle at least, also proved to be a bastion of strength for the Forces of Good, holding the central objective [The Thing] despite being persistently peppered with bullets from Hitler's semi-automatic machine gun. Disappointingly for the heroes however, after a tensely-fought draw in the first fight, the rematch saw them fall beneath a seemingly relentless horde of zombies, with even the mighty Chewbacca's raking firepower failing to halt the march of Adolf's undead...

22 comments:

  1. Love the Mind eater - great stuff. :)

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    1. Thanks very much Leon, much appreciated :-)

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  2. Very nice work on the mind eater Simon, and your games looks like it was a lot of fun, though I would love to see a picture with Godzilla in it! I would have thought the "G man" could take down the third Reich on his own to be honest :-)

    Cheers Roger.

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    1. Cheers Roger. Godzilla is actually pictured just beside Ben Grimm in the third picture facing a wall of Nazi zeds. He's not as big as you may expect, LOL!!

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    2. Oh yes there he is! I did wonder how you got him on a 3' x 3' board.

      More of a minilla, or baby Godzilla, perhaps he needs to "program himself to be larger" like Jet Jaguar did in "Godzilla Vs Megalon ;-)

      Cheers Roger.

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    3. LOL!! It is a great mini though, with plenty of detail :-)

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  3. The Mind Flayer has come out extremely well. That looked like a fun game but I'd have liked to have seen more photos of it. I, too, wanted to see Godzilla in action.

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    1. Cheers Bryan. Sadly I was too busy playing the games to photograph more, but I might use the premise for a proper BatRep at some point in the future. As I explained to Roger though, you can see Godzilla in the third photo, albeit his "Wizkids" mini isn't as tall as you'd imagine.

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    2. Honey, I shrunk Godzilla!

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  4. The mind eater is excellent as are the other figures. Hmmm Godzilla vs Adolf Hitler, believe it or not there are several You Tube videos on that very subject.... not to mention your next AAR ... Bambi vs Godzilla !!!

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    1. Thanks Phil. Hopefully I can get the other two Mind-Eaters finished soon. I do like to mix up my battles, and my homemade rule-set lets me do it easily enough with whatever minis come to hand.

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  5. That must have been an amazing game, love the idea of including all these classic monsters.

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    1. Cheers Wouter. It was a lot of fun, and a great way to get lots of weird minis on the tabletop together at once.

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  6. Great stuff Simon! Talk about the ultimate "what if..." for characters in that game 😀 Chewbacca and Batman in the same game, yes please!

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    1. Thanks Ivor. I haven't managed to get some of those minis on the tabletop before, so it was good to play-test out their rules.

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  7. That critter has to be one of the most revolting critters I've seen for the table top.
    Job well done I'd say.

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  8. Loving the brain Simon, but that came sounds like a blast - zombies, Nazis and Chewbacca!

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    1. Thanks Michael. The game certainly was a lot of fun :-)

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