Monster May(hem) 2024 Wrap-Up

     Another May, another batch of monster painted. At the start of May, I was going to just do a smattering of random creatures in my collect. But as I looked through my pile of opportunity, I found something a bit more themed.

Rising Sun is a CMON game with clan vying for power over territories all over Japan. One aspect of the game is summoning Oni to help spread their influence. And what is an oni besides a monster?

Oni of Souls

Yurei

Cool shoulder and seemingly walking away?

Komainu

Oni of Spite

River Dragon

    Here are all the monsters gathered together for their group shot. I have previously painted up 3 warriors from the Koi clan which I used for scale.

    I have also picked up Fistful of Kung fu, which is why I have based them, just in case I want to use them as oni in that game as well.

    I am overall pleased with the results, they paint up pretty quickly which is good because I have another 3 to paint (Oni of Skulls, Hate and Blood). These last three look like they might be more difficult then these five. As per Keith's challenge? dare? ultimatum? mild suggestion? I have painted a dragon, a river Dragon. I believe I have a couple more Reaper dragons, and I have dragonmen? Do they count? Surely they were dragons before being men.

Painted: 15

Purchased: -17

Total: -2

Next on the Hobby Desk

    Our summer is going to be booked pretty solid with trips during the summer, I might see you all in the fall! Just kidding, I will have sometime later in June for painting. Probably go back to Tail Feathers to finish it up.

Monster May(hem) 2023

    Looks like another May has passed us by! I can hardly believe it. Was planning for more, but with some travelling and tending to a backyard that hasn't seen much in lawncare in the passed two decades or so, it just wasn't in the cards. I hope Keith won't mind if my candidates for next year have a small head start (they were painted in May). As an extra kneecap to any progress I made, I accidentally broke off an arm on one model, so even, right? Painting a monster outside of May would be sacreligious, how dare you suggest that!?

Here are my entries for this year.

Nightwalker (Wizkids)

        Wizkid's monsters are very well done, good detail, and reasonable price. I prefer Reaper Miniatures for any smaller models. No real play for the Nightwalker, I liked it so I bought it, was thinking of using it for Reign in Hell, but it's base is double the size of all the other miniatures I have for it.

Rancor (Star Wars IA: Jabba's Realm)

    My partner gave me the Jabba's Realm expansion for my birthday... in 2017. Haven't played in sometime, would really like to get the core box and this expansion painted up and on the table again. 

    This rancor is the famous beast that resides the pit below Jabba's throne. Or at least, that's what the set implies. Witches of Dathomir are force sensitive warriors that ride rancors into battles, I painted mine to be owned by one of the sisters, giving her mount a tattoo after fierce battles together. Which brought me to my next idea, painting several Rancors with mounts. Imperial Assault can be played as a competitive tabletop game, so they could be fielded as an army. However, this Rancor is sold only in the Jabba's Realm expansion, a costly endeavor for what would most likely be a passing fancy. With a quick Google search though, it looks like someone has made a rancor with a rider in STL form. That's one step closer to my rancor army, haha! 

Size comparison to dandelions in my yard

    There you go, my meager entries into Monster May(hem) this year. I had two more miniatures planned, a fungal giant and a colossal skeleton. Yes, it's a skeleton, but it's big! Like a giant's or ogre's skeleton! Those count as monsters right?!

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I have a Reign in Hell warband almost finished off to show, just need a few highlights. For June, it will be time to finish off all the mostly done miniatures kicking around on the desk before I jump into the Season of Scenery for this year.

Heap of Abandonment

     After Monster May(hem) I still had a few more giant spiders on the hobby desk, I added 2 more large spiders and 3 more of the smaller ones to my swarm. With that, I ran out of 50mm bases for the large spiders and called it a day.

Experimenting with colours

The whole swarm

    

    Spiders painted up for Rangers of Shadowdeep, which requires 6 plus. Extra spiders! I am sure some arachnophobic reader out there is cringing at the thought. And the box has 24, so only 13 more to go my multi-limbed opposed readers!

    Occasionally, a project will speak to you, painting and colour scheme comes naturally. Every model should speak to you in someway or at least did when you picked up the new shiny. You enter a zen like meditation while painting these figures, hours go by without notice. But, as Ian Malcolm says, life finds a way. In this case, it's to get in my way of my precious hobby! We moved in November so these Blackstone Fortress models just pushed off the desk into The Heap. We don't usually talk about The Heap on the blog, those miniatures that are just inches away from being whole painted models. Now is the time we do, if I don't have a theme for the month, I will chip away at these island of misfit toys. Maybe while listening to The Misfits (are they good? I don't actually listen to them.)

    

    Anyways! Cultists from Blackstone Fortress are done. I picked up the Escalation expansion for Blacktone Fortress at the beginning of the covid shut down to support the local hobby store. Two explorers are already done. The rest are on the painting block in various stages of progression.

    I have a second cultist flamer that I picked up in an ebay lot a few months ago, very well sculpted, good thing I have two!

Next on the Hobby Desk!

    From July to August is the Community Challenge, Season of Scenery, that Dave hosts every year. Seeing as I have used the same tree and 3D printed house for the backgrounds of my pictures a few times on the blog, it might be time to get more terrain painted up! 

Triple the Glott, Triple the Fun! - Monster May(hem)

         Here we are, final day of May. More importantly, the end of the Monster May(hem) challenge! I didn't get around to the Idoneth Deepkin, instead I opted to paint some of the Giant Spiders I picked up from Wargames Atlantic as they can be used in Rangers of Shadowdeep which requires 6 or more. A quick peek through the rules and I didn't find anything about what base size these giants spiders should be. The box comes with 12 of each size so that shouldn't be a problem.

    These boxes are great, they have victims that are wrapped up in webbing and options to make sci-fi spiders with guns! If the stinger wasn't lethal enough, the plasma gun will be! Combining a Goblin box from WA allows you to make Spider Riders, pretty nifty box. However, not having instructions and fiddly spider legs doesn't make it easy to assemble. A good trick is using baking soda with your plastic glue, makes it harden quickly so you can get onto the other 7 legs and 2 mandibles. In the future, I might use the plasma gun arms of the spiders on some Tyranids, there is also some cybernetic implants too. 

    Someone reminded me on a comment on Facebook that due to rules changes (and also new shiny models), The Glottkin is now over priced for points and no longer has the keyword Daemon. Clearly, this lump of flesh is a Mortal. I am probably the last person to follow meta for games, Rule of Cool is number one in my books. Looking up the base size, it is a 130mm, which a Great Unclean One is also on. Could easily be a proxy model for his daemon counterpart, not in tournaments of course but in friendly games. 

        I painted Ghurek's left tentacle with a rotten segment on the upper section. I figured this was the start of his putrid mutation, bound with rope in hopes of stopping the spread of the diseased flesh only for it to consume his whole body. For the base I used Crayola Model Magic Clay, I purchased a box of six packets and one of them covered this base. For the pools of standing water, I used a mix of white glue and Super glue. For my first time, I also created a brown ink wash to cover Ghurek's body. All and all, I am pleased with the results, especially my base. It's not that I am getting better, but more that I am trying new technics and putting time in them. My skaven were the first models that I started to paint my bases for and they have come a ways since then.

    So with the Glottkin being three brothers and my 6 spiders, that's nine models for Monster May(hem) right?

    I really enjoyed painting monsters over the month, maybe next year I will go for quantity instead. Don't forget to check out the other entries on Angry Piper's blog as he will have a round up there.

Next on the Hobby Desk

    I will be on vacation* for a good section of June, but I will be participating in a Warcry Tournament once I get back. My time away will help me decide what warband to bring. I probably should try to do some scenery.... if only there was a challenge for it....

*Parental leave but with beaches!

    

Monster May(hem) 2022

    This year I will be participating in Angry Piper's Monster May(hem). He has been running it every year now for quite sometime. And every year there are some mind blowing entries. Take a look at some amazing work by theses fellow bloggers. 

    The basic premise to the challenge is to paint your monsters! The more beastly and yearning for wanton and destruction the better. It's just the beginning so contact the angry piper if you are looking to add your blog/ Instagram for his shout out of all the beautifully ignorant rampaging creatures throughout the month. I will also post my progress here throughout the month.

    A couple years back, I started work on my Glottkin with the idea of using it as a wandering monster in Warcry. Not wanting everything in my Nurgle army to be green, I opted to paint in blues and purples. This model has been toppled off of its pedestal as ugliest mother trucker in Nurgle armies after the new battletome came out last year, replaced by the Hygienically Challenged One. Points wise, The Glottkin is almost double the points, now that's an odor some players would find offensive! But hey, I was smitten by this putrid chunk of a rot it might as well get used in games.

I bought him off eBay around 3-4 years ago, it came assembled. To be honest, I haven't painted a model this big, and if I did, I would vastly prefer subassembly. So I am finding starting this project a bit daunting.

My baseline for the Glottkin

    Lots more basecosting to go, might get a bit distracted with smaller monsters throughout the month. My Idoneth Deepkin fit perfectly into this challenge, sea elves that harvest souls of the living to survive. Teclis' Monsters, if you will. 

     The Glottkin is actually a literal name, representing three kin with the surname Glott. Otto, who wields his dad's scythe, who was a farmer. Ghurk once tall and handsome now is a beast of burden that carries his brothers on his back. And Ethrac a powerful Socerceror of Nurgle. This has basically stayed the same into Age of Sigmar. I never played Warhammer Fantasy Battle, but I do have some of the faction rule books that I flip through from time to time. When I read about the World-that-was, I find myself wanting to know more about it.