“This Nest Of Wingless Mole-like Mammals…”

“…Hover through a mild form of telekinesis.”

This 28mm scale white metal model of some Owl-Shrews is sold by “Crooked Dice Game Design Studio” and can be bought as part of their Alien Pets deal. The tiny animals are actually only 6mm in length individually and are designed to be used with the company's other "Colony 87" sci-fi civilian miniatures "for any RPGs and tabletop wargames."

Sculpted by Andrew May, the diminutive critters were initially undercoated using "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, and shaded with "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. They were then dry-brushed using (more) "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna, before having their main bodies darkened with an extra application of "The Army Painter" Strong Tone Quickshade. Finally, all of their eyes were ‘spotted’ with “Citadel” Abaddon Black.

"Games Workshop" WIPs - The Uruk-hai Crossbowmen have had their shoes and legs layered

Alongside the last of my Alien Pets, I have also been making steady progress on a small unit of Uruk-hai Crossbowmen for my 500 point strong Isengard army. One of the more interesting mechanics of the Middle-Earth Strategy Battle Game by “Games Workshop” is that armies have a bow limit due to “the many hundreds of arrows” needed during a confrontation, and as a result only one third (rounding up) of each force’s warrior models may be equipped with a bow.

In the past I’ve actually just used a small contingent of normal Orcs equipped with crude bows as the evil White Wizard’s missile troops. But this time round I thought I’d supply my initial scouting party with some much more thematically-based crossbows - which whilst significantly more cumbersome than my previous archers due to not being able to move and shoot in the same turn, will fire bolts twice the strength of an arrow when unleashed.

"Rocket Pig Games" WIPs - The Grave Gnasher's "Vallejo" Heavy Sienna weapon has been replaced with Gunmetal

Lastly, I’ve made some major inroads on my Grave Gnasher by “Rocket Pig Games”. This bizarre-looking 3D printed resin figure has actually proved a bit of a head-scratcher palette-wise as I’ve been in two minds as to whether it should be bedecked in precious gold or silver. My original plan was to use the 32mm miniature as the magical leader of Nature fighting off the mechanical machinations of a Clockwork Mage.

However, as the creature is clearly aligned to Death, I’ve already been contemplating using him as the commander of a third force firmly formed around the Undead. This change in the project’s direction has caused me to abandon my initial idea for the earth-based fiend to be wearing colourfully rich bracelets and weld a massive golden hammer, and instead re-paint the figure using a much more muted steel hand-weapon…