Sunday, 9 August 2020

"Ochre Jellies Were A Dangerous Variety Of Subterranean Ooze."

"The ochre jelly extended itself and latched onto a victim, proceeding to constrict and engulf them."
This 28mm scale pewter model of a Large Ochre Jelly is manufactured by "Otherworld Miniatures" and is available under code DM7d from their range of Dungeon Monsters. Hand-sculpted by Paul Muller, the ooze lurks "in dungeons, slowly creeping along floors, walls, and ceilings... looking for victims", and featured in the 1977 edition of "The Monster Manual" by Tactical Studies Rules".

"Capable of dissolving any organic material" with its yellow-orange coloured acid, I initially super-glued this unaligned ooze to a plastic "Citadel" 40mm circular base, but quickly discovered that this gave me absolutely no room to manoeuvre when it came to gritting its base with modelling sand. As a result, the jelly was re-based onto a "Citadel" 50mm circular stand and primed using a few coats of "Vallejo" Heavy Goldbrown.
"The jelly can climb difficult surfaces, including upside down on ceilings..."
The "clean-up crew" creature was then enthusiastically washed using a copious amount of "Citadel" Gryphonne Sepia, and later doused in its deeper folds with some Strong Tone Quickshade by "The Army Painter". Lastly, the giant amoeba was dry-brushed using some (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Golden Brown.

This particular model was actually found in a long forgotten box of goodies produced by "Otherworld Miniatures" which also contained a single casting from their twin-pack DM7e, Small Ochre Jellies. The monster ordinarily turns into two of these smaller versions of itself when sliced apart by a sword or similar bladed weapon. However, the fact I have lost one of them didn't stop me from painting the other figure alongside its much larger version.
"Warzone" WIPs - The pair of Cybertronic Machinators have been primed, layered and shaded
In addition to discovering some more oozes, slimes and jellies for my "Dungeons & Dragons" adventures, I also found a collection of old Warzone Mutant Chronicles by the sadly defunct "Swedish publisher of roleplaying games", Target Games. Two of these miniatures, a couple of Cybertronic Machinators particularly caught my attention, and were immediately based/undercoated.

Knowing very little about the actual model range myself, as at the time of its popularity I was far more interested in the out-of-print collectible card game "Doomtrooper", I don't know a great deal about this universe, and therefore have little idea as to the lethal-looking robots' colour scheme. However, a predominantly silver and dark grey palette seems to be the most popular choice judging from the photographs I've seen, so that's the way I plan to go...

12 comments:

  1. I like the jelly and ooze, although I do prefer jelly and trifle! They look good and you just have a nice collection of D&D monsters by now? The Warzone minis look very old school.

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    1. Thanks very much, Undercoat. I've just uncovered a couple more oozes by "Otherworld Miniatures", including the missing small Ochre Jelly, so expect a few more postings to come over the next week or so as I quickly paint my way through them.

      The Warzone minis are definitely showing their age for 25-year plus sculpts. I was hoping to get away with just a simple metallic dry-brush on these Machinators. But the detail isn't quite there on some of the areas

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  2. those oozes and jellies look very juicy. great job.
    love the warzone miniature. i remember my very first miniature i ever painted was from Warzone, it was a Dark Legion Ezoghoul, really cool miniature.

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    1. Cheers Mr Martin. I've a few more to be posted over the next week as I tick them off my painting queue. That Ezoghoul was a large piece as memory serves - multi-part? What an awesome mini to start hobbying with :-)

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  3. Great work on your oozes Simon, and nice find on the robots, they almost have a gladitorial look about them

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    1. Thanks Dave. Simple stuff on the slimes. The Machinators do indeed have a gladiatorial feel about them. Now there's a thought for a use for them...

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  4. Nice oozes Simon (never thought I'd write that!).

    I really like those Warzone mini's remember them as they sold them in a games store in Liverpool back in the day, never bought any though (maybe that's why the went kapput! well perhaps it wasn't just me!).

    Cheers Roger.;

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    1. Cheers Roger. I seem to recall at one point when both its sci-fi and fantasy lines were doing very well that "Target Games" were being labelled as real rivals to "Games Workshop". It's funny how now 25+ years later you can look back and see how things worked out for both parties.

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  5. Ooze ? I thought you'd dropped your pasta shells.
    This, along with all the regular dungeon 'clean up crew' were favourites of our DM and he'd have loved to have seen this. I think ours were all plasticine based!

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    1. Thanks Joe. I've a few more of the clean up crew to come over the next few postings, so am glad they're bringing back fond memories.

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  6. The Oozes all look like something my son would have produced as a baby. LOL Perfect for nasty slimy oozes!

    I liked Warzone and had a nice collection of Imperials (The British faction). Your Cybertronic fellows seem to fit the bill colourscheme-wise if I remember correctly. They look like Terminators anyhow so why not?

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    1. Cheers Dai. I too have a load of Imperials somewhere, and a fair few Cybertronic too somewhere. I'm planning on going with a blue-grey colour scheme for my Machinators and see where that takes me :-)

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