Dave Stone’s Season of Scenery started July 1st, and I’m determined to do SOMETHING this year after sitting out 2022. A while back, I purchased these “Assets and Hazards” objectives from Gale Force 9, for their Aliens: Another Glorious Day in the Corps board game that I still have yet to play (much like almost all the board games I purchased during the pandemic). They’ve been sitting in the box on the sprue ever since, even though I painted all the marine and xenomorph miniatures almost 2 full years ago!
Well, now they’re done. The box contains 16 Weyland-Yutani supply crates, 6 MU-TH-ER computer terminals, 8 alien eggs, 2 sentry guns and 2 face-huggers. Now everything is painted and I have no excuse whatsoever not to play this game. Just need some friends, is all…
One major quibble with this set: there are only 2 face-huggers, and they are fucking fragile as hell, because whoever sculpted them decided standing them on their tail would be a good idea. This is a weak point of contact and is easily prone to breakage. I know because 50% of my face-huggers broke and needed to be repaired. They have 8 fucking legs and run around like spiders. Why not sculpt them like that? That way they won’t break!!!! It’s simple physics, GF9!!!! (mutter mumble grumble).
I plan on completing another project in August, but I just wanted to get this one in the books. Not the most exciting terrain to paint, but it was a quick and easy job and I’m glad it’s done.
Excellent work on all Keith, the tones and details on the eggs and facehuggers give them a real organic feel, whereas the tones and dirt on the crates and terminals make them look manmade, so all in all a perfect set of terrain I would say. Look forward to hearing your thoughts on the game, and can’t believe it was two years ago, that you got all the marines and aliens painted, only seems like yesterday ! LOL
I’m looking forward to GIVING my thoughts on the game, Dave. Just need to play it first! Thanks as always for the support!
Sorry to hear about the weak point on the face huggers. I do like the pose though, but perhaps them having a piece of scenery supporting that weak point would have been a good idea. Or having them about to leap off of something would have been cool. Nice paint-job nonetheless.
Thanks! It’s just so annoying and so avoidable, Simon. I get the aesthetic appeal, but this is a board game. How the hell are these supposed to survive play? I’m considering buying some 3D printed facehuggers. I’d have more than 2, and I wouldn’t worry about breakage.
Oh!! Please let me know who you go with, as I might have a look myself. Papsikels do an incredible range of Alien STLs – I’ve printed loads – though I don’t think I’ve seen/done any Facehuggers.
Thanks, Simon. It depends on whether or not the facehuggers see a lot of use in the game, which, as I said, I have yet to play. I doubt they do, as there are no facehugger models in the core set. I’m pretty meh about 3d printed models in general, mainly because I’ve ordered some and they arrive broken or looking like shit. Too many purveyors of 3D prints like to advertise their product by showing the STL picture, not the actual printed product; which is pretty shady practice. That being said, PolyMorph Miniatures on Etsy does a set that looks good.
Fantastic stuff, Keith, the eggs in particular are amazingly well done! The MU-TH-ER (and I never knew that was an acronym) terminals look great too, as do the crates and sentry guns.
I can totally see your point about the facehugger sculpts, it’s such a silly pose. I realise they’re supposed to be leaping up at a Colonial Marine, but at the same time they’re asking to be broken. But you’ve painted them really well to match their movie originals.
Also, was it really two years ago that you painted the figures? Jesus, where did it go?
Thanks, Matt. Yes, two years and counting, and I still haven’t played the game (or any other game in person, anyway). I find as I get older that things like facehuggers in stupid poses make me genuinely angry instead of mildly inconvenienced. I need to mellow out a bit.