Sunday, September 22, 2019

Bug-Eyed Monster

Since I've been painting a lot of sci-fi figures and reading various rulesets aimed at Flash Gordon-style derring-do, I've definitely been in a pulp sci-fi mood lately, and it dawned on me that I'll need at least one Bug-Eyed Monster to serve as an adversary or complication on games; Osprey's Rogue Stars has a "Space Demon" complication on its mission-generation charts, and BEMs are such an iconic aspect of the genre that I knew I wanted to do one.


Fortunately, I had the perfect figure sitting in the box my Reaper Bones 4 Kickstarter came in.  From their "Dreadmere" expansion, this brain-on-tentacles looked like it had just slithered off a cover painting for Astounding Stories.  I quickly washed it and glued it to a 40mm round base and, once dry, base-coated the brain in Vallejo "Warlord Purple" and the tentacles in Reaper "Brilliant Green."


The brain was then drybrushed with Vallejo "Squid Pink" while the tentacles got thin layers of Reaper Viper Green, Vallejo Escorpena Green and Livery Green built up towards the tips of the tentacles, leaving the base of each one darker.  Once this had dried I glazed the tentacles in GW "Wayfarer Green," and picked out the eye with Vallejo Fire Orange and Golden Yellow, dotting in the iris and drawing the veins in Reaper Fresh Blood Red and finally painting the pupil with a dot of Pure Black.  Pure Black was also used to pick out the claws on the undersides of each tentacle. 


The base was painted Reaper "Cloudy Gray" and will be getting flocked tomorrow, and hopefully varnished as well.  Now to find a proper Flash Gordon-style figure to oppose this horrible monster...

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