The Lost and The Damned › MINIATURES! › Fantasy Painting and Modeling

Mutant Arachnid Creature

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As you might have guessed I like weird miniatures, especially if I know some of my players are going to find them repulsive. It's for this reason this miniature is one of my favourites, this bizarre creature combines the features of a spider, scorpion and fly all in one monstrosity. When used in our games the creature has a Giant Scorpion's Stinger Attack, a Giant Spider's Web ability, the fly eyes give it Night Vision and it's also very fast on it's spider legs and can climb walls like an insect/spider. As you can imagine it posses quite a challenge for PCs.

Believe it or not this miniature is not a conversion (in fact the only major work I did on it was using some Green Stuff and gravel to extend the detail on the integral base to fit the 40mm round base I mounted it on). This bizarre creature is a monster from Ral Partha Europe's Das Schwarze Auge range called a 'Maraskanian Tarantula', this range contains all kinds of odd creatures and I recommend anyone looking for something a bit different to keep even the most zooalogicically aware players guessing should check out this range.

When painting this mini I kept to a limited pallet of reds, browns and terracotta type colours to give the impression that, although it's body parts seem to belong several different species this is still 1 whole creature. I think this an important thing to keep in mind when painting any fantasy 'compound animal' type monster (Griffins and Manticores being 2 classic examples). Often it's all too tempting to paint the different body parts in different colour schemes and the end result tends to look less believable. Better results are achieved by considering such a creature as a whole and working out how the different body parts relate to each other in the over all anatomy of the creature.

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BobbieTheDamned

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

hmm that is one odd looking beastie, I can see that combination of special abilities being pretty leathal.

Saw

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

I think I saw one of these bad boys in Iraq. I had to shoot it 3 times, just to make it go away.....lol
As for the paint job.....excellent!
I agree about keeping the colors the same on all part, to keep the overall look realistic. I wonder if you can find black static grass.... that would be awsome to see on it's back, and legs...that would really mes with the arachniphobics.....

Please see www.sawstudios.blogspot.com for all the Saw maddness

MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

Ah yes, the 'Maraskanian Tarantula' dose bare some resemblance to a Solifugae (or ‘Camel Spider’) which I assume is the creature you saw?

Are they as big as I’ve heard?

It’s pretty cool when real life comes so close to fantasy. But rest assured arachnophobes; although the Solifugae is real, the 'Maraskanian Tarantula' is purely fictional (unless I get that genetic engineering lab I want for christmas! [Dr Insano laugh])

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Saw

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

dude, there huge & scary.... we used to fight them against scorpions... mixed results on victors.....lol

Please see www.sawstudios.blogspot.com for all the Saw maddness

BobbieTheDamned

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

hahaha, nicely done!

I've heard the best thing you can do to a live insect or archnid is stick a syringe of formaldehyde in them, they'll solidify and embalm very very quickly, brutal!

Billiam Babble

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

The one colour definitely makes it seem more plausible. Illustrations and figures of compound creatures (I think there's another term ... must check out those cryptozoological books ...) can make or break a game for players I reckon. Chimeras - even with the finest blending can still look like a taxidermist's joke.

(Why is it that in all computer games, no matter how large or small, that spiders freak the hell out of me? I'm all right with them in real life - to a point, beetles and exotic wasps still scare me in a almost primal way. Spider-scorpions? No!!! :o )

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Billiam Babble

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

MortiS-the-Lost wrote

Ah yes, the 'Maraskanian Tarantula' dose bare some resemblance to a Solifugae (or ‘Camel Spider’) which I assume is the creature you saw?

Are they as big as I’ve heard?

Remind me not to look at this post when my girlfriend is looking over my shoulder.

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MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

I found an even weirder looking arthropod creature!

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~

Billiam Babble

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Yaaaargh!!!

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MortiS-the-Lost

Re: Mutant Arachnid Creature

In reply to this post by MortiS-the-Lost

Spotted this in the illustration on the back of my Bendy Dungeons Walls box-set.
It appears to be another 'Maraskanian Tarantula'

-----------------------------------
~The ravings of a single mad Goblin is bad enough, but such a power-hungry, malice-filled creature as Mortis can never hope to be understood~