For the past few months, this has been my main project: Painting Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps, by Gale Force Nine. It’s done.
First: the Xenomorphs. These guys were super-easy to paint. All 16 took me about 2 hours and I think they look great, especially for table play. I used The Esoteric Order of Gamers method, which couldn’t be simpler; but I decided against using any gloss finish. YMMV.
Of course, the Alien Queen doesn’t come with the core set; she’s only available in the “Get Away From Her, You Bitch!” expansion. I bought that too (see below), so here she is.
On to the Colonial Marines. The core set includes (L-R) Vasquez, Frost, Ripley, Hudson, Newt, Gorman and Hicks. Fun fact: not only do I hate painting camouflage, I really hate Colonial Marine camo. It’s fucking weird; and no two people paint it the same.
A couple of close-ups of Frost and Vasquez, then one showing Hicks, Hudson (Game over, man!) and Newt.
Closeups of Ripley.
This is the “Ultimate Badasses” expansion. (L-R) Drake, Wierbowski, Burke, Crowe, Apone, and Dietrich. Spoiler Alert! With the exception of Burke, all these marines were dead by the first 30 minutes of the movie, so calling them “ultimate badasses” is a bit of a stretch…
Closeups of Carter Burke, Weyland-Yutani douchebag.
Finally, Bishop, “Gooey” Bishop, Enraged Ripley and Ripley in the Power Loader. Gale Force Nine sells these miniatures (and all the others, too) in a separate sets containing only the miniatures. This one was called “Sulaco Survivors”. I bought it thinking I got a great deal before I realized it’s ONLY the miniatures and you don’t get the stuff you need for the actual game. For that, you need to buy the “Get Away From Her, You Bitch!” expansion, which also includes these miniatures (and the Queen). Confusing and annoying, since now I have two sets of these (one of which is still on the sprue).
I really like the Bishop models. The Ripley sculpt is pretty iconic, but I’m pretty “meh” about it. Do I really need three versions of Ripley?
Finally, Ripley in the power loader. This one wasn’t fun, either. I hate painting yellow, and this miniature wasn’t easy to paint. Although I was wise enough not to fully assemble it before painting, I should have assembled it even less. It was tough to get the brush everywhere it needed to go. Compounding that with the color yellow (which is a notorious asshole) meant I needed to do a lot of repainting of the same areas to cover accidents. Still, it does look pretty cool…
Now, I’m ready to play! Just in time for another (likely) lockdown!
I can play this one solo, at least…
I think you missed a word out of your title Keith, but can understand keeping it PG ! LOL Wonderful work on all of the models, they all look perfect for your games. Was interesting to read that certain sets are duplicated model wise but rules are only available in certain ones, what sets do you need to get all the models with the rules ?
Having painted a larger scale power loader, I think you’ve done an excellent job on this scale version mate.
I actually forgot the word in question, Dave. Never worry that I’ll try to keep it PG. In order to get all these models, you need the core set, the “Get Away From Her” expansion (which includes the Queen, Bishops and “Enraged” Ripley; and the Ultimate Badasses expansion, which contains Burke and the other marines. Anything else is just a miniature expansion. OH yeah: GF9 also sells a miniatures expansion that contains eggs, facehuggers crates and terminals. You don’t need them for anything…but of course they sell them separately anyway. I’m not buying those.
Thanks, Dave!
Oh man, these are just fantastic! The aliens themselves look amazing, and I have to admit to being happy that you didn’t go with the glossy look. The Queen is outstanding, really well painted and suitably menacing.
Great job on the humans, too, and I love how the “ultimate badass” edition includes all the Marines who are killed off in a five-minute stretch of the film! And excellent work on Burke’s checkered shirt, one bit I would have probably not bothered with.
All three Ripleys look excellent and the sculpts and paintjob really bring them to life. Newt’s pose is just spot on. I feel your pain at painting yellow, but the power loader looks great and is totally iconic.
Can we expect an AAR?
Thanks so much, Matt! I’ve never done a AAR for a board game before…but I suppose there’s a first time for everything. Since I’m likely playing it solo anyway, anything’s possible!
Very nicely done, I still have my (not) Colonial marines in the loft somewhere, mine came from Denizen miniatures and are 25mm (remember 25mm, those where the days!)
That’s a bit of a shits trick by GF9 on the figures pack front.
Will be interesting to see how this game plays out, and how close to the movie it follows, or else why do you need all the different versions of Riply/newt/Bishop? (apart from that the they are very cool of course!!).
Cheers Roger.
I would imagine you use the different versions for specific scenarios, but I haven’t actually looked at the missions much. I did read the rules, though, and it seems pretty fast-paced. There are a lot of play videos on YouTube, if you’re interested.
Yeah, I was a bit annoyed buying the miniatures without the game stuff, especially since it was “on sale”. I thought I was getting a good deal, but soon I realized I just bought a sprue, but if I wanted to use the miniatures in the game I needed the expansion (which contains the miniatures). Why they even sell them separate is beyond me; although I guess it’s for collectors or people who want to use their own rules.
Thanks for the kind words!
Hey Keith, these are excellent! I love the range of stuff here, and Ripley in the loader is my personal fave. Second is Newt!
Thanks, Mark! Now I just need to like…actually USE them in a game. 🙂