ARACHNAPHOBES LOOK AWAY

 Greetings from a Galaxy far, far away Mr Star Wars here, but you can call me Star Wars guy ( You need to read Keith's latest round up to get this) here is my next entry for Monster May(hem) and will probably be my last entry for this year, but more on that later. This creature was the first I started this year but took the longest to finish, mostly due to all the work needed on all 6 legs, so what is it you say ? Well it's a Krykna, which is a six legged spider, this is what wookieepedia has to say :

Krykna were predatory, non-sentient, spider-like creatures native to Atollon. They were resistant to blaster bolts and highly sensitive to negative emotions, making them extremely difficult to tame with the Force. They were repelled by the signal emitted by sensor beacons.

These spiders were seen in the animated series Star Wars Rebels, but were based off the Ralph McQuarrie painting that he did for Dagobah for "The Empire Strikes Back" more recently the same painting inspired the ice spiders in the series " The Mandalorian" which were a lot closer to the original art, I have included the 3 reference pictures below for you to see after the model.

So why my last entry, as I normally try to squeeze in one right in the closing minutes, well I shall be away from my computer from Sunday for 8 days, so will have to catch up with all your lovely blogs then, and what will I be doing, I shall reveal all on my return, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

MOUNTING HORROR

 Two more models for Monster May(hem) today, the first is a Blurrg, this is what Wookieepedia says :

A blurrg (plural: blurrg or blurrgs) was a non-sentient, two-legged reptilian beast of burden found throughout the galaxy. Blurrgs were notably used by the Twi'lek Resistance and Free Ryloth Movement during the Clone Wars and the Imperial Era. They were also corralled by the moisture farmer Kuiil on Arvala-7.

These creatures have been around for a while, their first appearance was in the Ewok movie "Battle for Endor", then they appeared in the animated series "The Clone Wars", and "Rebels", then more recently in "The Mandolorian" , I have included reference pictures underneath the model from the 3 sources.

Next is Zero the Hutt, who was the uncle of Jabba the Hutt, here is what Wookieepedia says :

Ziro Desilijic Tiure, also known as Ziro the Hutt, was a Hutt male crime lord who, with the title of Master of the Hutt Clan, controlled seven star systems in the name of the Hutt Clan during the decline of the Galactic Republic. A native of the planet Sleheyron, Ziro eventually left Hutt Space in favor of the galaxy's Core Worlds and established his residence on Coruscant, the galactic capital of the Republic. In addition to his father and mother, Ziro's family included his son Hiro and Jabba Desilijic Tiure, his nephew who fathered the Huttlet heir Rotta. Gorga Desilijic Aarrpo was another influential relative of Ziro, serving as a member of the Grand Hutt Council.

In the year 22 BBY, Ziro formed a secret pact with Count Dooku—the leader of the Confederacy of Independent Systems—during the early days of the Clone Wars. With the help of the Separatists, Ziro had his great-nephew Rotta abducted and taken to a B'omarr monastery on the distant world of Teth. Knowing the Jedi Order would send their own to rescue the Huttlet, Ziro hoped that the deaths of Rotta's would-be Jedi saviors would lead to a conflict between Jabba and the Republic. With Jabba removed from power, Ziro would be in a position to seize control of their clan.

Ziro's role in the conspiracy was discovered by Senator Padmé Amidala, who confronted the gangster in his nightclub on Coruscant during the mission to rescue Rotta. With Rotta safely returned to his father on Tatooine, Ziro was taken into custody by the Coruscant Guard. However, as the war progressed, the Grand Hutt Council regarded Ziro as too dangerous to be left in a Republic prison, given his knowledge of their inner workings. As a result, the Hutts recruited the bounty hunter Cad Bane, who freed Ziro and turned him over to the Hutt Council. Although Ziro escaped the Hutts as well, he was ultimately murdered in 21 BBY by the Pa'lowick singer Sy Snootles, Ziro's one-time lover whom Jabba hired to kill his uncle and retrieve the Hutt Council records.

He appeared in both the animated Clone Wars film and series, I don't know how I'll use him in a game, but it was just one of those characters I just had to have.

Still got 1 more model I'm working on for the challenge, let's see if I can get it done in time, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

BALANCE

 For this post I have two very different models, from two different sources, but as the title suggests, it's all about balance. The first model is one I've made based off a creature I saw in the series "The Book of Boba Fett" it's called a sand bat this is what Wookiepedia has to say about it :

The sand bat was an animal native to the desert planet of Tatooine. The Tusken Raiders used its venom as a weapon to kill Krayt dragons during rites of passage.^[1] The species crowed at sunrise.^[2]

Made with greenstuff, wire frame, and the wings are acetate to keep them thin, painting I've tried to match the reference picture below.

When I first saw it and listened to it crow, it reminded me of the 1981 film "Caveman" starring Ringo Starr, in the movie every so often you'd see a dinosaur and it would either crow, or howl like a coyote ! LOL

The next model is an old 1980's model by GW which was sold as a Chaos Demon, this was back before they had come up with the different factions, so all the demons were generic, but I still get a very Slaaneesh feel about it, and used this as a basis for one of the gibbering hoard, I have no idea what to use it as yet, could be another spawn model, or a demonette herald.

I'll have to wait for Keith's adjudication if they both count towards my Monster May(hem) total. When I recently visited my local GW to pick up some paint, the manager made a comment that I didn't do their hobby anymore, now as you've seen recently, I still work on 40K armies, but do I follow GW's throw away what you've got and get this new shiney model instead, then I guess no I don't and I'm good with that, and I'm happy with what I do.

That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

GIBBERING HORDE

 One of the cool things the Lost and the Damned army list added was the Gibbering Horde, effectively they were minor Demons for other factions other than Nurgle, but followed the same rules as Nurglings, I was hoping they would release some models for them, but that never came to pass, so was going to require some creativity on my part. As this army was originally going to be for a tournament list, I started by getting a chaos familiar for each stand, so GW would have no problem with the bases, then set about building the rest. I tried to follow the basic premise for Slaanesh throughout, with using ideas that had appeared in their other demons, and working on the premise of excesses. I went for the Slaanesh number 6, so had 6 models to each base and 6 bases.

Since it is no longer part of a tournament list, I've moved them into my Demon Army list, which is now completed, if you want to see the rest of the army, it's all in the Emperor's Children section, Not doing too bad this year, as I've now finished two armies this year, and one unit away of finishing a third.

Will have to wait for Keith to adjudicate if these count towards Monster May(hem) due to their diminutive size, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

HOW TO BEAT A DRAGON ?

 Been a little while since my last post, two factors have played into this, one was a real world issue, which I am hoping is now resolved, the other was trying to build a new piece. Now when Keith announced this years Monster May(hem) he mentioned he was looking forward to seeing how I could equal or beat last years Krayt Dragon, now size wise this would be difficult, unless I fancied building a Zillo_Beast which I had no need for, then I thought what if I changed scale !

So today I have a Purrgil, here is what Wookieepedia has to say about them :

Purrgil were a semi-sentient species of massive whales that lived in deep space, traveling from star system to star system. Some of them were only the size of a small starship while others were much larger. They had streamlined bodies with a smooth-looking bluish-purple skin, four large hind tentacles, a single dorsal fin, and two side fins. Their heads had a characteristic bulbous shape with one eye on each side. Living in groups consisting of up to dozens of individuals, they were able to fly through hyperspace by creating simu-tunnels. The natural ability of the purrgil inspired sentients to develop hyperdrive technology and wayfinders that were used for hyperspace navigation.

According to Hera Syndulla, leader of the Spectres rebel cell, most spacers considered purrgil to be pests due to their habit of approaching and flying into starships near their flight paths, and for ships crashing into their swarms during hyperspace travel. Numerous spacer deaths could be attributed to purrgil-related incidents, leading most spacers to fire upon them on sight. However, Jedi Padawan Ezra Bridger, another member of the Spectres, was able to establish a connection to the whales when he encountered a group of them together with the rest of his crew at a gas refinery. He later used that bond to ally with a group of purrgil against Imperial Grand Admiral Thrawn's 7th Fleet during the liberation of the Outer Rim planet Lothal, ultimately removing the fleet from the planet by having the purrgil wrap their tentacles around Thrawn's starship and jump to hyperspace.

I've used the same method as the Krayt Dragon, using a foam core to make the centre then skinning with green stuff.

As you can see in the last shot I've included a Y-Wing for scale purposes, now I just need to see if Keith thinks I've managed to equal last year ! LOL That's all for this post, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

MAY THE 4 th BE WITH YOU

 For the second year in a row, I've actually remembered to have some Star Wars models ready to post up on the Star Wars celebration day, and this year I was even organised enough to have models for Monster May(hem) that fit both criteria. Now on Keith's opening ceremony he said he looked forward to seeing what I come up with this year to surpass or equal the Krayt Dragon I did last year, and at this time I don't know that's possible, but will endeavour to see what I can come up with.

So I'm going to start small and see where it leads, so for my first submission I have a pair of Wampa's, for anyone who doesn't know what they are, they come from the ice planet Hoth, and are the planets apex predator. They first appeared in " The Empire Strikes Back", and in the original you barely saw it's face and a bit of an arm, when the extended versions were released, we were treated to a full shot of the creature devouring Luke's Tauntaun.

Below are the original face shot, and the full extended version, I've based my colours on the extended version.

What's that you say not enough for a celebration ! Okay with a recent order off of Ebay I received a bonus couple of models, two poses of the Mandalorian Armourer that featured in the series "The Mandalorian", this was a very pleasant surprise, but I thought I only really need one, so I'll paint up both, and then decided which one I'd use, and unsurprisingly I've gone for the action pose, so will pass along my good fortune and give the second one away.

You're still here ! But the credits are rolling and everyone is leaving. Oh you're waiting to see if there is an Easter Egg in the credits, okay here's one more for Monster May(hem). In the recent series " The Book of Boba Fett" there was a new creature shown in episode one, from a little bit of research I've found it's being called a Tatooine Sand Ape, as soon as I saw this creature, I knew I wanted one, as it would be a great random encounter in my games, and planned to build one. Then recently I spotted that someone was selling two versions of the creature, when the prints came through, the quality was excellent, no 3D lines, and no clean up, which meant I could get straight onto painting them. I've tried to match the colours, and used multiple different glazes to get all the different tones I spotted in the reference picture to come through.

Okay that really is all now, so until next time stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave

TRAITOR

 As May will be mostly Monster May(hem) I wanted to get what I had got completed for the Lost and the Damned army list posted up, now GW way of doing traitor guard seems to be add spikes to it, as was evident with the Blackstone Fortress game that was released and can be seen below.

I wanted to go a different route for my traitor guard, so I present my Chem Dogs, the thought behind these was that they would pollute the water supplies of an area with mind bending toxins, so the population could later be harvested to create new elixirs for the followers of Slannesh. The unit is a full squad of 15 as the codex required this if it was one of the compulsory units. 

As you can see above I started with the Steel Legion models and then modified the heads to look like rough hoods or shrouds, originally I was going to do all the same hood as seen on the missile launcher crew but decided this would be too uniform for Chaos. You will also see that the missile launcher crew has a causality marker built in. All of these models have been painted since the HQ post of this army and 13 of them had to be converted first before painting.

I've also based the two squads of Cultists I have as well, now the list doesn't have an entry for cultists, but these could easily be taken as more Traitor Guard units, as can you really have enough guard models. 

I only have one unit left to finish for this army a squad of 30 mutants, but these will have to wait until later, as I want to concentrate on Monster May(hem) which I should hopefully have the first post up on May the 4 th, so until then stay safe and have fun !

Cheers Dave