Green Team!

I'm not on a green kick, it is just coincidence I tell you.

I've finished the next batch of cultists for the Cthulhu Wars game.  This time it is for the green faction, Great Cthulhu.

In a previous blog post I  showed pictures of unpainted and painted green cultists. 

Reusing photos makes things so much easier!

Dark picture for the dark arts.

Here is a shot of the six of them together with the red, Black Goat cultists as a group.

X-Wings not included in Cthulhu Wars game

Mean Greenies

Welcome to the jungle.

Two no-nonsense guys that are just as comfortable robbing a bank as they are mugging you in a dark alley.

Numero Uno is from Foundry and the sculpt reminds me of the McManus character from The Usual Suspects, for some unknown reason.

This is a generally nice model, well sculpted.

The young punk is from Warlord/Mongoose.

I think the armored codpiece is a nice touch...

It's not a bad miniature, but it's not going to be the centerpiece of any force on the table, either.

The Gang's All Here

First Cultists

Last time, I posted pictures of the power markers I painted for each player for the game Cthulhu Wars.  This time, I finished painting the cultists of the Black Goat faction.

Unpainted Great Cthulhu cultist.

The models in the game are sculpted well and cast adequately.  They are made of a "board game" type plastic, sturdy but flexible and not the type of plastic I normally associate with miniatures wargaming models.

I had already painted all the Black Goat cultists before deciding that an unpainted example would be nice to show.

The models needed to be washed before painting to remove mold release agents.  There was some mold-slippage and flash.

"Come to the meeting," they said.  "There will be coffee and cake," they said.

Each faction of Cthulhu Wars has six acolyte cultists that provide the faction with its weakest, but most vital units.  Here, I've painted the Black Goat faction's cultists (the red faction in the game).

The shading on the robes was too subtle, I think.

The cultists of the faction are one of the primary means through which the faction will gain power (the currency of the game) and doom points (the victory points of the game).

Cause and effect.

Each cultist in play provides their faction with one point of power and each faction can have a maximum of six acolyte cultists.

Raise your hand if you are a servant of the dark gods.

Cultists are usually the only units that are able to control gates, which then provide more power points and doom points to the player.  This makes them the most important unit for most factions, despite being the weakest in terms of strength.  This forces players to want to protect their cultists, who would otherwise be victimized through combat or by being forcibly taken and sacrificed (for power) by other players.  Yes, you can capture and sacrifice other players' cultists to gain more power for yourself.

 

28mm Foundry miniature for size comparison.

The miniatures have been purposely made to be 28mm scale (for the most part), making them useful for playing miniatures games as well as their original intended purpose.

Super sneak preview - a green team Great Cthulhu cultist.

Student Becomes The Master

The Mongoose/Warlord line is hit and miss with sculpting and casting quality.
Some of the models are just so very nice, while others are not so great at all.

I think these provide a good example of the variety.

Judge Tutors are judges that have been badly wounded in the line of duty and have been offered positions at the academy, to teach cadets.
The Tutors were instrumental in overthrowing Chief Judge Cal, as he hadn't hypnotized them into blind obedience the way he did with most of the other judges.

The casting here is average, with some lines.  The sculpting is off.  His anatomy is a mixture of incredibly muscular and also frail.  The pockets on his belt have flaps or not, have buttons or not.  The bionic arm just sort of ends and it's not clear if that is a hand or claw or miscast.  The number of folds in his draping armor goes from four in the front right to a mysterious three once his shoulder is crossed, but this doesn't happen on the left shoulder.  There are other things I think make it not so great.

The female cadet (perhaps America Beeny), on the other hand, is a clean casting and decently sculpted.

My only complaint is that her badge should be a half-badge, but that's passable.

Judge cadets frequently go on patrols with judges to gain experience, or conduct investigations under a judge's tutelage as part of class assignments.

The entire Sector House, thus far.

I've Got the Powah!

We've been having fun playing Cthulhu Wars, lately.

Despite it's high cost, it's got a lot of appeal to us.  Fun game play and MINIATURES!

I started painting them and this will probably be a main focus for me for a while (once you start painting the miniatures for a board game, you are stuck following through with it).

These are the power/point markers that come in the game.  Each player gets two in the color of their faction.

They are meant to be piles of stones with a skull on top (perhaps grave markers of some kind?).
I painted these with the player colors in the cracks of the stones, the idea was to create a sense of otherworldly power emanating from the markers.  It's okay looking.  It gives a good indicator of which marker belongs to which player.

Back to the Future

Let's move forward from the 19th century civilians and go back to more appropriate models.

Let's Rock

These models are from Aberrant, originally for their Rezolution game.

The models are appropriately bulky for SWAT-type cops.  They have well-detailed sculpting.

They are cast in a rigid pewter.  It is stiffer than I've encountered in most metal miniatures.

The models are broken up in such a way that it isn't easy to assemble them.  They needed filing, pinning and filling. 

This resulted in the odd posing.

The Team So Far

Pour Me Another Pint

More anachronistic civilians from Blue Moon's Romanian Villagers set. 

These were, like the other two from this set, fun to paint.

I think they are Naismith sculpts.

I am partial to miniatures like this that have "character".