Cheetors Alien Brains: Thralls 06/10/15

[cheetor]

I recently painted some Ramshackle Tentacle Brains and posted the three figures in my 40K Skirmish thread.  I enjoyed painting them and decided to add a few more brain aliens to the skirmish force, so I figured that they deserved their own thread.

First off I painted these three guys (plus the remains of a deceased Tentacle Brain) from Ramshackle Games.




I have since added these two Cerabalites from CP Models...




...and these 15mm Medusharks (also from CP Models) used as small tentacle brain aliens in 28mm...




Lastly, a gaming buddy gave me an Eye Beast from his Reaper Bones Kickstarter haul last week, so I painted it to fit in with these guys...




I enjoyed painting the daft, OTT, pulp colour scheme on these guys.  I have plans to add a vehicle over the next week or two, but beyond that Im not sure if I need to add any more models to the force.  That said, if I see any other suitably weird figures I might add them anyway.



More info on my blog.  Comments and criticisms all gratefully received

[Dr.Falkenhayn]

ooh shiney  loving the medusharks,with those markings they look artifical,Kaiju cloning Technique? 

[matakishi]

Fantastic stuff! 

[Froggy the Great]

What's your method for doing the teeth?

[commissarmoody]

they do look pretty cool.

[ink the troll]

Nicely painted, fitting choice of colours, fun minis- good stuff all around.

[Andym]

That's brill!  At first I thought you'd painted leopard print on the tentacles of the big beastie but I see its just the texture of them.

[Westfalia Chris]

Outstanding work, and a great choice of colours - those will serve as a beautiful opposing force for your rather dark and subdued Space Dwarves, who apparently dug too deep in their greed...

How did you find the "Bones" material to work with? My FLGS has a couple of interesting Bones figure types, but I am discouraged by the repeated cautionary tales I read.

[Vanvlak]

Really inspiring - the Medusharks are particularly spectacular though, love the paint on these.

[beefcake]

Please don't post any more pics, i have too many projects on the go as it is... but seriously, really nice stuff those ramshackle brains look great and I may get me some just for the fun of it.

[Mr Tough Guy]

  They all look great and they really look very good together, really nice job and that colourscheme is just brilliant

[redshadows]

Great stuff 

Would it be OK if I steal the Photo of the two Cerabalites from CP Models that I sculpted for my website when I get it up and running?


Thanks
George

[stone-cold-lead]

That's a brilliant collection of models from different manufacturers. Bloody lovely paint jobs too. And the old 40K Inquisitor in the last pic looks great as well. A few of those pics have gone into my inspriation folder. 

[cheetor]

Thanks for the positive feedback everyone

loving the medusharks,with those markings they look artifical

I wanted the brains to look like they have some sort of ridiculous society and tech level, rather than a hive mind mentality (plenty of bug aliens out there to fill that niche).  So I added some sort of markings to "hard" grey elements when it was suitable (the Tentacle Brain and Medushark armour).  I will repeat something similar on the vehicle that I have planned.

What's your method for doing the teeth?

All of the grey areas went like this:
GW Adeptus Battlegrey
Drybrush GW Astronomican Grey
Wash with Army Painter Strong Tone (Devlan Mud equivalent)
Edge (or layer on the teeth really) with Astronomican grey
The teeth had an extra bit of Astronomican Grey/VGC Off White mix added to the tips.  I also painted Army Painter Dark tone into the recesses between the teeth to improve definition.

The finished effect is a bit chalky, a little bit scratchy, but as it adds another visual texture to the models I was happy to leave it that way.

Outstanding work, and a great choice of colours - those will serve as a beautiful opposing force for your rather dark and subdued Space Dwarves, who apparently dug too deep in their greed...

I have plans...

Inquisitor Verhoeven (shown above) will investigate hostilities from the Ursa Miner dwarfs and after an obligatory getting-to-know-you scrap with them, uncover that the dwarfs have been mind controlled (using unconvincing double-exposure spiral cinematography techniques) by Brain Aliens.  An uneasy alliance will form between the Inquisitor and the Ursa Miners to oust the evil brain aliens from the planet.  All via 7TV early next month with a bit of luck

How did you find the "Bones" material to work with? My FLGS has a couple of interesting Bones figure types, but I am discouraged by the repeated cautionary tales I read.

With all of the vitriol doing the rounds about Sedition Wars at the moment I am hesitant to get into this here for fear of a huge derail, but as its you asking Chris

Mould lines have to be cut not scraped off.  I didnt really even bother to try to sand or file those areas smooth, I just got them to a "good enough" level.  A few mould lines are still visible as quickly cleaning them off textured surfaces (such as the tentacles) proved to be hassle, but they cant be seen in the photos due to sneaky posing by me.  I used super glue for assembly and hot glue to attach it to the base as its integral base was a little warped.

I used gesso to undercoat (I heard that sprays can cause problems) and then followed that with regular black acrylic to get an even finish and then painted as normal.  Paint adhesion seems adequate, although I have a feeling that if I were to transport the figures a lot that it might start to come off.  The detail is sharper than it looks, although not quite as sharp as the metal equivalent of the same model.  The textures on the Eye Beast shown should illustrate that the detail is plenty sharp enough I think.

Bottom line is that the Eye Beast above costs $15 in metal and $3.79 in plastic on the Reaper site.  With that sort of disparity in cost I am willing to take the rough with the smooth regarding materials.  You can add to that that a metal figure of that size and design is an accident waiting to happen anyway, so the plastic version is better IMO.  As the Bones are so cheap its worth giving them a try for sure.  There must be very many people willing to give you a bit of their unpainted white plastic mountain to try out anyway surely.

Would it be OK if I steal the Photo of the two Cerabalites from CP Models that I sculpted for my website when I get it up and running?

Help yourself George, Im glad that you like them.  A credit/link when you post it up would be nice.

The Cerebalites were very nice to paint, crisp and well defined.  Nice sculpting work.

That's a brilliant collection of models from different manufacturers. Bloody lovely paint jobs too. And the old 40K Inquisitor in the last pic looks great as well. A few of those pics have gone into my inspriation folder. 

Thanks!  My Inquisitor and other oddball skirmish 40K stuff has been going up on this thread (and my blog obviously).  A few of his henchmen and other associates are there if you want a look.  I will be adding a few more to them soon.

Again, thanks for all of the feedback guys.  I am on the lookout for other suitable brain things to add to the force, so if you have links then feel free to share them

[leonmallett]

Lovely work as always, and a truly bonkers idea for a force. Great stuff.