"Lava Beasts... Inhabit Deep Volcanic Regions."

"Their bodies are comprised of amorphous glowing rock and mineral deposits."

This 28mm metal miniature of a Lava Beast Skull is produced by "Crooked Dice Game Design Studio" and was a free stretch goal unlocked during their successful Pirates of Luna City Kickstarter. As I wanted to use the model as an objective marker I simply super-glued it to the usual thin-lipped 40mm plastic circular bases I use, and once dry set about undercoating it with a double-helping of “Vallejo" White.

I rather liked the 'official' colour scheme for this 'MacGuffin' so applied a wash of "Citadel" Druchii Violet over the entire skull. I then dry-brushed the miniature with (more) "Vallejo" White to bring out all the sculpt's marvellous detail. I also decided that the purple shade hadn't quite made the eye and nose sockets as forebodingly dark as I wanted, so ended up dabbing some "Citadel" Abaddon Black into these recesses. Finally I tidied everything up with a few carefully placed edge highlights of (even more) "Vallejo" White.

"Take the young lady to the hospital."

Alongside the first model of my new "Flash Gordon" project, I have completed the last four 28mm scale 3D printed resin Sentry Robots I own which are sold under licence by “Twisted Pinnacle 3D”.  Sculpted by Mike Tongue (a.k.a. Big Mr Tong), the figures are highly evocative of Hans Reinhardt's security forces aboard the U.S.S. Cygnus in Gary Nelson’s 1979 American science fiction film “The Black Hole”, and were painted accordingly.

The miniatures arrived covered in several small ‘bobbles’ of resin, and these needed to be removed with a sharp modelling knife before I could paint them. I also found that a couple of the automaton's blasters had been broken during transport. I'm not really surprised though, as these pieces, particularly the weapons' long slender barrels, were thin to begin with.

"Battlefront Miniatures" WIPs - Four German Panzergrenadiers

Infamous for capturing the crew of the Cygnus and turning them into zombie-like humanoids, each figure was undercoated with a double-helping of "Vallejo" Heavy Red, before being drowned in "Citadel" Agrax Earthshade. They were then enthusiastically dry-brushed with (more) “Vallejo” Heavy Red, and had both their eyes and blasters layered with "Citadel" Abaddon Black." Finally, these areas were ‘picked out’ using a combination of “Vallejo” Gunmetal” and “Citadel” Nuln Oil.

Lastly, I have started working on another four plastic 15mm miniatures by “Battlefront Miniatures”. These soldiers are from their excellent “Hit The Beach” starter set for “Flames Of War” and should enable me to field the fourth of six MG34 and K98 Rifle teams I require for my second (maximum-strength) German Panzergrenadier Platoon...