Tuesday 27 August 2019

THEM!

Last year I backed a Kickstarter run by Crooked Dice for the launch of their 7TV: Apocalypse game. With my pledge I got the base game, an Interceptor (which I gave the Mad Max earlier in the year) and a starter cast of Giant Ants.


Why Giant Ants you ask?

Well, a number of reasons really. Firstly, I like the models reminding my of b-movie classics like the aforementioned 'Them!'. Secondly, they looked quite easy to paint (more on this later). Finally, in gaming terms they are quite versatile, fitting into spy-fi, apocalypse and pulp games of 7TV with ease, they are also more than suitable for fantasy games and even Marvel supers gaming thanks to Ant-Man and the Pym Particle accidents that happen in his vicinity.


Assembly of these was a little bit fiddly with my clumsy fingers. The queen is resin and I managed to snap one of the antennae by being heavy handed during clean up, and I also almost stuck the legs on the wrong way round. I found the antennae of the smaller ants, being so tiny, even more tricky and I managed to glue myself to them a couple of times.


When it came to painting, I kept things simple. Base coat of Doombull Brown, drybrush with Ratskin Flesh and then wash with Agrax Earthshade. The princes were done with Ushabti Bone and washed and the eyes were painted red and I added a coat of Blood for the Blood God for that glossy effect.

The hardest part of painting was handling them, as I didn't want them based before they were painting and I was also terrified I'd snapping legs and antennae. If I was going to paint more (which might happen), I'd probably insert a rod in the underside of the smaller ants for painting and clip it off when finished.


I'm really pleased with the final outcome, although Mrs Cheaphammer isn't as they creep her out something rotten, which I suppose is a compliment of sorts. I will have to be careful with them as I managed to snap an antenna whilst taking these photos.

Unfortunately, despite painting all six in the space of a day, my progress hasn't been affected as my nemesis, Wargames Illustrated, arrived with another six free miniatures (this time it's renaissance handgunners) and so the gap remains the same:

Acquired: 164
Painted: 130

6 comments:

  1. Nice work Kieron I must get around to mine at some point. I have a couple of vehicles I need to assemble.

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    1. I've still got a scorpion, a buggy and the stretch goals to go.

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  2. I d on't think that freebies should count on the pile of shame

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    Replies
    1. Unfortunately, they're still on the pile. I've taken to giving away the Wargames Illustrated freebies if I'm definitely not going to use them, someone can get more use out of then, or they are likely to tempt me to start a new project.

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