Infestation - part 6.

Here we go then, my first completed model of 2024, I would have posted sooner, however work has been a pain for the start of the year, so I've only just managed to get a good block of hobby time to paint with.

To start with, let's have a introduction;

    This is the 'Doom of Malan'tai' a Zoanthrope special Character from 5th edition 40k.

It's basically a super Zoanthrope and Vampire mixed into one and really fun.

The creature never got an official model from Games Workshop*, so my model is a 3D printed one which I found on  Cults3D (or the 'Purple Site' as its known).

A good quality print, some cork, skulls and detonator wire and I was ready to get started;

It's tiny arms hadn't printed well, so I dived into my bits box and discovered a pair of scything talon arms, so they were quickly repurposed here, and I chopped up a set of flesh hooks and added them to the bottom-most stumps which again, didn't print correctly, not exactly arms, but it does the job**.

So, on with the painting and I followed the usual Tyranid scheme, and even tried following a tutorial for painting marble on the column which the creature is wrapped around:

I hadn't noticed until I flipped open my 5th edition Tyranid codex, but the 3D sculptor had really captured the old artwork of the beast:

I had originally thought that those "ribs" which enclose the BIG BRAIN of the bug were just their interpretation and to make it different from a regular GW Zoanthrope, but it turns out they were part of the image used, so I was happy to discover that.

Here is the model with an Imperial Preacher for scale, the Doom is mounted on a 70mm base and the Preacher on a 32mm base:

One thing I started to do was to keep track of how long it took me to paint, and thanks to Cardboard Fortress's recommendation, I started using an Ap on my phone called Brushrage.

This tracks how long you spend painting, gives you a daily reminder to paint, and allows you to add a pallete of paints to a project, so you can save time and just grab those ones when starting the painting session.

Here is the stats for Doom of Malantai:

2:44 hours in total, that doesn't include drying time between stages, I paint other things in-between. I don't think that's too bad for a big beastie like this and as we're gearing up for another Guard Vs Tyranids game in February, I should be able to add a swathe of units to the force in time***.

So this is now crossed off of my "To-Do" list, i can add some points to my AHPC counter.

As this is quite a large model and about the size of a Space Marine Dreadnaught in mass, I'm going to count it as a 28mm Vehicle for points and claim 20 points towards my total of 300.

Until next time, have nice day...

*a not uncommon feature back in the days before the chapter house saga way back when. This was a time when the rules writers could make something cool and not worry about the miniature being produced. Some would go on to later have miniatures, such as Thunderwolf Cavalry, a lot, especially character just wouldn't and you'd be expected to convert the character...fun times.

**I think this is one of the limitations of 3D printing in general, and why it won't actually replace plastic kits from the big sellers.

Whilst you can get some really crisp prints, most printers are nowhere near the detailed quality of plastic, unless you go in an change each setting, etc.

As a home printer, I don't think most people would do that, as we live in the age of "plug and play" mentality, and it should just work out of the box.

***Provided work doesn't get in the way like the previous two weeks!