28mm Blue Moon - Things that go Bump in the Night - I Had Such a Howling Good Time - Part 1 of 2

Only a handful of figures remain that will be predominantly in Citadel Contrast paints. It's been a fun experiment and, as I've stated elsewhere, has really improved my output for the year. The experiment may not yet be over though as I am torn between doing all the many gravestones I've been collecting or some 15mm buildings for the ECW. Not quite sure just yet. The remainder of the year however, will feature much more traditional entries.

Meanwhile, Things that go Bump in the Night is a one-pager set of rules designed for gaming the standards of the classic horror genre: werewolves, vampires, mummies, zombies, etc. Box 1 included these four miniatures, as well as four protagonists to oppose them. The latter, like the "Wolf Skins" in the West Wind - Empire of the Dead set will need to be painted up in the traditional way being standard adventurer type figures.

This one is Citadel Contrast Cygor Brown over Wraithbone primer. It is also the first appearance of Cygor Brown here. I was reluctant to get this color as I noticed it was very dark in all the preview shots online, but I always can use a dark brown for this and that so thought I'd give it a shot anyway. As as a one shot and done application (like so many of the other Contrast paints provide) I hated it immediately- way too dark. To fix, I went back in with a drybrushed highlight with Wriathbone to bring back some contrasts. Came out pretty good I think if not still a little flat.

For the next one, I wanted to try mixing that dark Cygor Brown with Liquitex Matte Medium to see how that would come out if I reduced the ratio of pigment to medium. It's good, but I think I actually prefer Wyldwood for this kind of fur instead of this rather ruddy result. Like the other wolf see above, I went back in and drybrushed with Wraithbone to bring back some highlights. 

Speaking of highlights - the Woodland Scenics clump foliage looks really flat here and could use some tonal variation.

This one is, like most of the other four legged wolves, simply Contrast Templar Black - no additional highlighting. Eyes, mouth, base, done.

The sculpt on the teeth of this guy though is a mess: looked like maybe gore, maybe slobber? In any event, the teeth were long and undefined. Let's try the gory route, says I. My first pass was terrifically bloody - so much so that I had to tone it down a lot for the final.

Oof that clump foliage is bugging me with it's evenness.

Easily the biggest werewolf I own, this one rolls the d20 and has to be the leader of all the lycanthropes in my collection. This head was the wildest of the three provided and is a little too straight ahead. But that provided the most secure fit, though I do think I'd have liked to see it as a crazy angle like seen on the box.

For bushes of this size I used the Dark Green clump foliage from Woodland Scenics and glued the light green Super Leaf over the top to give it a highlighted appearance. It worked out OK, I didn't think about breaking up some small trees to decorate the large empty base until it was too late. You know, as if he had just burst into a clearing.

For most minis, I don't care for the Blue Moon style of a finished and framed integral base, so On all of these I put on washers, built up the sides and slopes with some modeling paste then added model railroad ballast over the lot to being it together. It takes some doing, but it also adds a lot of real estate that needs landscaping.

A potential action shot featuring two West Wind figs! The four antagonists that came in the box, which will be Part 2 of this entry, are in line but not next.

I have a number of other things nearing completion to look forward to for Halloween (hopefully), so until then, thanks all for looking - questions, comments, followers are welcome and encouraged!