“I Dunno What The Hell’s In There, But It’s Weird…”

"You see, what we're talking about here is an organism that imitates other life forms..."

These three 28mm scale resin miniatures of Protoplasmic Terrors are manufactured by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and are part of the company’s Villains and Monsters product line. "Bubbling, amorphous masses of viscous matter, these surging, formless horrors are the product of vile experiments or the consequence of terrible, unholy rites” and rather reminded me of the lethal Black Pudding from “Dungeons & Dragons”.

As the trio of huge oozes come as multi-piece kits, they were initially assembled by having their separate tentacles super-glued in place on to their writhing bodies, and subsequently primed using a couple of coats of “Citadel” Abaddon Black. I was actually in two minds at this point as to what colour to predominantly pigment my mutable creatures, as I didn’t think painting them pure black (or even “Vallejo” Heavy Charcoal) did the detailed sculpts much justice.

"One other thing, I think it rips through your clothes when it takes you over."

However, I did rather like the idea of a hapless adventurer seeing little else but some teeth and an occasional eye suddenly peering out at them before being horribly consumed, so ultimately decided to heavily dry-brush each “bubbling, heaping pile of thick black goo” with “Vallejo” Charred Brown, and then washed the monstrosities using plenty of “Citadel” Nuln Oil. Each Protoplasmic Terror’s maw was ‘picked out’ using “Vallejo” White and later stained with some splashes of “Citadel” Agrax Earthshade.

In the past I’ve usually simply ‘spotted’ such dungeon dwellers’ eyes using a dollop of “Vallejo” Heavy Ochre and a dash of “Citadel” Reikland Fleshshade. But on this occasion, I wanted the majority of the voraciously hungry monsters’ eyes to have some intelligence behind them, so resultantly turned to my new Psycho Wargamer Brush by “The Army Painter” to dot a few pupils with a little “Citadel” Abaddon Black instead.

"Toon Realms" WIPs - One of King Victor's Men-at-Arms, Sterling and King Victor's Royal Guard

With the month soon coming to a close, I’m still hoping to get the vast majority of my Gondor/Fangorn Forest army finished for “Dragon Rampant” using the “Toon Realms” range of figures by “Lucid Eye Publications”. The main bulk of this force will predominantly consist of some Heavy Foot, and despite having already painted a blister of King Victor's Men-at-Arms, I still have need of another eight miniatures to bulk out the unit to its maximum strength.

In addition, I also need to pigment a further five models from King Victor’s Royal Guard to act as the Guards of the Tower of Gondor. I finished a test piece based upon the Minis Tirith warriors’ palette earlier in the year, and am keen to get the rest of the force finished as I now have my eye on painting a second unit of Elite Foot utilising the bright blue and white colour scheme of the Knights of Dol Amroth…