Mansions of Madness: Path of the Serpent

I've painted the monsters and investigators from the latest MoM expansion, Path of the Serpent. The monsters are a bit more pulp/ Indiana Jones than cosmic horror, but they're still nice figures.

Investigators

 

Ursula Downs, explorer

Leo Anderson, expedition leader

Daniela Reyes, mechanic

Norman Withers, astronomer

Monsters

Ancient Basilisk

Temple Guardians

Serpent People

Feathered Serpents

Mansions of Madness: Horrific Journeys

I painted the figures from the latest MoM expansion, Horrific Journeys.

There are four investigators: Trish Scarborough (spy), Jim Culver (jazz musician), Silas Marsh (sailor), and Agnes Baker (waitress).

Trish Scarborough, Jim Culver, Silas Marsh, Agnes Baker

There are some human, humanoid, and eldritch monsters:

Warlocks

Dimensional Shamblers

Hunting Deep Ones

Formless Spawn

I'm pretty happy with the Warlocks' suits. I went dark grey with a black wash and highlighted with a mid-grey. The Formless Spawn is supposed to be an amorphous tarry black blob- I highlighted it from above and then washed it down with a black wash. It's big: on an 80mm base.

The quality of the figures is leaps and bounds ahead of where FFG used to be.

Conan: Hunting the Tigress; and many other boardgames

I had the opportunity to take some time off and play many boardgames last month. In particular, some longer and more complex multiplayer games with up to six players.

Conan was a fun success with two new players. We played 'Hunting the Tigress', where the pirate queen (and Conan's lover) Bêlit has been cornered by her pursuers. Either the enemy captain or Bêlit has to die by game's end!

Bêlit and Conan and friends start at opposite ends of their ship

Peppered by arrows, Conan and Bêlit clear their ship of attackers

Conan leapt onto the enemy ship ,but could not overcome the captain and his demon.

Filled with rage, Bêlit slays the enemy captain herself!

A great introduction to this game system. I was the sorcerer Hadrathus, and I used my spells to drain my life to support Bêlit- pleading with her to use my gift wisely! It really came down to the final rolls, with Bêlit and her foe clinging on and attacking each other.

Other games played included:

Falling Sky, about Caesar and the Gallic revolt

Mansions of Madness

Time of Crisis, about 3rd century Rome

Middle-Earth Quest

Scythe, about pastoral Europe with steam mechs

Twilight Imperium, a space opera

And finally, Here I stand, about reformation Europe. I was England, and very stressed about having a son before Mary Queen of Scots comes along. Heretics were burned, Ottoman raiders were at the gates of Vienna, the New World was plundered, it was suitably epic.

The intense boardgaming was a success, allowing us to get longer, more complex, and multiplayer games to the table. We intend to do it again. I got a bit happily gamed out and have only just picked up a brush again!

Mansions of Madness: Sanctum of Twilight

I picked up another expansion for MoM recently- it came with four figures that were quick and fun to paint.

Charlie Kane is the avuncular, charismatic, and helpful politician.  Modern popular culture teaches you not to trust politicians, but he is the exception and decidedly a Good Guy. He's is a very useful figure for all sorts of games.

Charlie Kane

Lily Chen is ready to crane-kick those eldritch horrors right between their squamous rugosities. She gets bonuses for being unarmed. Her traditional dress ended up being more orange than I had intended. Reds, yellows, and oranges are the hardest colours- I think I'm getting better at yellow.

Lily Chen

The Wraiths can shift through walls. I rebased them on Renedra 40mm rounds.

Wraiths

I've had a few games of MoM recently, which have been fun. We actually won!

Mansions of Madness: Streets of Arkham

I've painted up the figures from the latest Mansions of Madness expansion, Streets of Arkham. The quality of the sculpts has greatly improved compared to the first edition.

First, the investigators. Tommy Muldoon is the rookie cop. He's got something of a young Peter O'Toole going on in his cheekbones.

Tommy Muldoon

Finn Edwards is a bootlegger. His face is great, but didn't photograph well. I tried to paint him carrying a bottle of illicit whisky, which was tricky.

Finn Edwards

Diana Stanley is the former cultist with a heart of gold. Her face is a little featureless, unfortunately. I gave her green details, as most of my Cthulhu stuff has green in it. I quite like how the candle flame and wax look.

Diana Stanley

Marie Lambeau is a jazz singer who learnt about monsters and spells from her grand-mère in the bayou. A lovely sculpted face.

Marie Lambeau

Not all the foes they face are supernatural: the hired guns with their derby hats became some clichéd Irish hitmen under my brush. I enjoyed layering their trenchcoats.

The skeletons are suitably 19th century with their watch chains and waistcoats.

My favourites are the Star Vampires. These are invisible creatures which can be heard faintly tittering, and become visible by being filled up with their victims' blood. They're a chaotic mess of teeth and tentacles- perfect. I based them on 60mm bases.

Star Vampires

Finally, the Lloigor. It is some sort of invisible reptile thing, and I'm not really fond of the sculpt- it is a monster designed by a gaggle of schoolkids. It's got two legs, four arms with claws, four arms with pincers, eight eyes, a pincer on the tail, armour on the back of its neck, floppy looking spines- it really reminds me of the Black Beast of Arrgh! I persevered with multiple thin layers of grey, and am satisfied with the outcome. It's big- I based it on an 80mm mini-disc.

Lloigor

Mansions of Madness- Beyond the Threshold expansion

Akachi Onyele is a shaman, and I love her hair and the bright primary colours. Wilson Richards is  a handyman, and I like his drab utilitarianism with moustache and shotgun.

These women are in thrall to a malignant intelligence, and remind me of Akira! I do think they are a bit more 1950s than 1920s, but I'm not an expert in early 20th century women’s fashion.

I painted these in February for AHPC VII, but somehow they have evaded my blog until now. I’m clearing my desk for AHPC VIII!

(That’s just a figure of speech; actually my desk is overflowing with figures for the challenge...)

Mystery Investigators

These intrepid souls are perfect investigators for Kooky Teenage Monster Hunters. I can also see them in a Mansions of Madness adventure- maybe where instead of going mad, you run away, or need to have a sandwich.

"Help me pull off Great Cthulhu's head- why, it's just that old Mr Lovecraft!"

These are from Hasslefree, and I really enjoyed painting the brighter colours. They were my entry for the AHPC VII theme round 'Character(s) and/or Scene from a Movie, TV Program, Book or Piece of Music', and I'm pleased to say I received third place!

Mansions of Madness monsters

There are a variety of new monsters in Mansions of Madness 2nd edition. The bases they come with are, like the first edition, truly awful. I rebased and painted the figures and added them to my eldritch collection!

The Hunting Horrors were stuck to Citadel flight stands I had had lying about for years.

The rioters come three to a base, but I've left them individually based for use in other games if necessary.

The cultists are the first edition ones, so I didn't re-do them. The High Priest of Dagon is a little too fluorescent, and I may do some more work on him.

The deep one hybrids really came to life with a blue-green lower lip, and some dodgy eyes. Suitably batrachian!

The child of Dagon looks more like a zombie.

The deep ones were easy to paint with a mix of green and blue washes. I wasn't a fan of these initially, but now I think they're my favourite.

The ghosts were easy to paint, with a green wash over white.

The star spawns are suitably large whilst somewhat static in pose, but look fine after a green/ brown paint job.

Here's the second edition content, and the combined first and second edition.

Ia! Ia!