Finally putting the “flora” into my Deathworld/Alien Flora and Fauna project, the first seeds lovingly nurtured to bloom are these alien plants.
Pod Plant Bases
I picked up the seven piece Alien Plant Set (a space cactus thing, four pod-heavy bases of various sizes plus two big, toothy, man-eating bases) and a metal Alien Man Eating Plant from Armorcast last year.
The blue pods above may feature as interactive, scenario trigger terrain at some point, but for now they will just be visually interesting additions to the jungle.
More Man Traps
The Venus Man Trap features in the original Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader game. Its a common or garden giant carnivorous plant, like these guys.
“Im a mean green mutha, from outer space and Im bad…
These models will add a bit of alien colour to my jungle terrain (lot more space-jungle stuff to come) as well as serving admirably for use as Venus Man Trap style hazards.
“Feed me Verhoeven, feed me now!”
Man-eating plants are a fairly common sci-fi trope, but there is only one with a personal name that also sings as far as I know…
“Mean, Green, Baaaaaaad!”
Audrey II features in the movie (and play) “Little Shop of Horrors”. The songs from that film looped in my head during the entire assembly and painting process, which is both a good and bad thing.
That did make me realise that while it might be interesting to go for an original colour scheme when painting the Man-Traps, there probably wasnt any point. As I will be humming “Suddenly Seymour” and “Feed Me” every time that these models hit the table, I decided that I might as well paint the carnivorous plants in a scheme similar to the movie monster, so thats what I did.
L to R: Spiker Victim, Spiker, Imperial Assassin
As well as simply looking pretty, this astro-cactus will star in the role of another old Rogue Trader plant, the Spiker:
“The Spiker is a type of plant found on many Death Worlds, such as Catachan. They are considered by many to be one of the most dangerous plant forms in the entire galaxy.
Spikers are vaguely cylindrical in shape, and tend to be man-sized, about 2 meters tall and upright. They are covered with a thick layer of hair-like leaves, out of which protrude the countless thin, sharp spikes that give the plant its name. These spikes, which are fired at nearby animal forms, are what make this plant dangerous.Piercing the skin of an animal, they release a mutagenic chemical into the bloodstream that reforms the victim’s body into that of a Spiker.
A human taking a spike in the arm will soon find his arm become hairy and immobile, and within a short time his whole body will be covered in spikes. Although the victim remains mobile for some time, the physiological changes destroy the mind, so that the victim wanders aimlessly and is unable to react to the horrifying process. Eventually all mobility is lost, and the host completes his transformation into a Spiker”
I will go into a little more detail about the model pictured above to represent the horrifyingly processing victims as in a later post.
A big ol’ pod.
The Armorcast stuff benefits from being quite large, with the biggest man trap looking like it could devour an ogryn without too much strain, which is cool. The models will look evocative and pulpy on the gaming table, in addition to providing a source of grisly demise for the occasional redshirt.
That paint job on these models was a straightforward drybrushing and ink sort of affair. I dont really believe in spending as much time on pieces like this as I would on “proper” miniatures, but they came out pretty well all the same I think. I have lots more deathworld jungle flora to come over the next couple of weeks. I will get a few more photos of the lot set up together once I have finished those other items off.
Filed under: Miniatures, Terrain | Tagged: 2014, 40K, 40K Skirmish, Alien Flora & Fauna, Armorcast, Deathworld, Ramshackle Games, Rogue Trader, Sci-fi, Spiker |
sho3box 
Very cool jungles. My own Sci Fi jungle could benefit from some of these.
Speaking of Sci Fi jungles have you played the console/pc game Bullet Storm? There is lots of inspirational Sci Fi plants in that, including the old Venus Fly Trap.
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I played an hour or two of Bulletstorm and even though the cyborg, space pirate and alien jungle filled pulpy setting is right up my street, I couldnt get into it.
I might give it another go some time but for the last year or so I have found myself moving further from video games and getting more toy soldier stuff done: the two things are in direct competition for the same free time.
Your jungle has been a direct reference for this project for a couple of visual reasons so these plant models would fit in with your terrain quite well I think. I have wanted those Armorcast plants for well over a decade, so getting them fully finished is a kick 🙂
Thanks for the feedback.
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Funny you should mention that as I have been moving from video to table top too.
Thanks for the feedback on my stuff…and as promised a tutorial on making Triffids.
http://mattblackgodsworld.blogspot.co.uk/2014/02/back-in-sept-2012-yikes-has-it-been.html
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Thats a really good tutorial. I will definitely add a few triffids to this project at a later date.
Thanks!
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Wow, these for sure add a lot of life to any board!
PS: Ehrm… a lot of life… or a lot of death, that depends…
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Thanks Suber.
A campaign set on a Lifeworld isnt high on my agenda, but never say never 😉
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Very impressive painting on those, especially if it’s just a quick paintjob. You’ve really got a good painting groove on, haven’t you! I strongly suggest you give Bulletstorm another go – it was my go-to game for relieving work stress a year or so ago. Nothing like kicking a post-apocalyptic barbarian into the waiting maw of a flytrap or the spikes of a giant cactus.
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Thanks Mikko.
Part of the reason that I am in the hobby groove is that I am avoiding video games in fact. I don’t get the same satisfaction from a weekend spent on the Xbox as I get from the same time glueing things together in the man-cave.
I will bump Bulletstorm up the game queue. Then I can get stuck into a Bulletstorm miniatures project using this terrain and the frankly amazingly entertaining looking Fistful of Kung Fu ruleset that I just got. That should cover some of the more exotic Bulletstorm maneuvers quite well 🙂
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I love those plants. They remind me of the red era death world photos in the WD battle reports. A fantastic job.
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Thanks wachinayn.
The Red Era stuff has its ups and downs for sure, but I did always like the cacti and other home made space-jungle stuff that used to show up in photos. Thats definitely a vibe that I want from my Deathworld terrain, even if I dont actually want everything painted red on a Goblin Green base :).
Thanks for the feedback.
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These look great. Terrain is so often an afterthought, but these fellows will add some spice (and possibly agonising death) to the table. Lovely.
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Thanks Mr S.
If the spectacle is your thing (and I dont understand why anyone would bother with toy soldiers otherwise) then terrain is arguable more important than the armies really. There is little point in maneuvering those heavily customised, OSL illuminated, miniature badasses around tatty heaps of assorted Lego and cardboard and offcuts. Terrain at so many clubs and events looks like car boot sale contents tipped onto a moth-eaten piece of felt.
Conversely, when visiting a big game show like Salute its always the cool terrain that I remember.
Its hard work to get a complete set of fully finished, easily stored, themed terrain pieces completed though. For example, I have been sticking together bits to make generic jungle pieces to go with the flora above on and off for the last couple of weeks. Even though thats largely just gluing aquarium plants to bases and then texturing the bases its a big, messy, time-consuming project. I do think that it will look cool and that it will cover my miniature jungle needs from here to the grave, but it is starting to wreck my head a bit.
So, nice terrain is crucial for enjoyment, but also quite hard to achieve.
Thanks for the feedback 🙂
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I couldn’t agree more. Bad terrain takes the joy out of a game instantly. I went on a terrain making binge a couple of years ago when I realised things as basic as several copses of trees (featuring trees that don’t constantly topple over) were lacking in my collection. I feel another flurry is in order though.
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“Flurry” and “binge” sum up my terrain making bouts too. About once a year I get an urge to make a big mess with big brushes rather than just the usual small mess with small brushes. It takes up all of my hobby time for a week or three and then thats that for another 6-18 months. It definitely reinvigorates my games, so its always worthwhile.
I am getting sick of the jungle now though. Im looking forward to painting some robots or something 🙂
Im looking forward to seeing you tackle terrain. I both enjoy and dislike the loose process required to get a serviceable amount of it finished. so I am curious to see how good you are at loosening your grip of the reins 🙂
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Your pod reminds me of the creature in this short story: http://www.e-reading.co.uk/chapter.php/71735/4/Farmer_-_The_Classic_Philip_Jose_Farmer_1952-1964.html
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Ill take a look 🙂
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These are great, very characterful paint job, adding the aquarium plants is an excellent idea to make them look less monolithic. I’ll be hunting for resin flora and fauna at Salute this year.
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Thanks Subedai.
I could have been a bit heavier with the application of aquarium plant bits to these pieces perhaps. That said too many would probably make them too “busy” and only a couple are required on each piece to integrate the visually with the pure aquarium plant jungle pieces (coming soon) anyway.
Ramshackle Games make some nice resin Mutant Plants (also coming soon, possibly this morning), but they are a lot smaller. Fun though.
Let me know if you find anything suitable at Salute please. I can see myself adding some more alien jungle items to the terrain set as time goes by.
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[…] Deathworld Jungle: #1 – Armorcast Alien Plants […]
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[…] Next up are a couple of giant killer clam plants, honest. These are again Armorcast models. Some fine painted examples of which can be seen here on Sho3box’s blog. […]
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