Nemesis — The Crew

So, at the end of last year I got another of my kickstarters: Nemesis.

It's a survival horror boardgame, and the gameplay feels very much like you're in an alien movie. The models and theme are just different enough to avoid IP issues, and give it its own flavour, but the inspiration is clear.

I've only now finished painting the crew. Each has their own semi-unique card deck for performing actions, giving everyone unique advantages when trying to complete their objectives—and sometimes that objective can making sure someone else doesn't make it off the ship…

The whole crew, from the front. I tried to incorporate as much of the character colour as possible into each mini.

And from behind, showing off their rigs/hardsuits. It might not be visible in this image, but I even painted little indicator lights on their mag-boots, inspired by some scenes in The Expanse.

The Captain. Reasonably good at combat with his revolver, which never runs out of ammo—instead, it reloads one bullet at a time.

He can also spy on another player's objective, and motivate or command other players to do his bidding.

The Pilot. Her shotgun isn't great, but she knows the ship inside out, and how to make it work for her. So much so that she can often use any room for free.

The Pilot can also unlock an escape pod, or instantly skip to the end of the turn, forcing everyone—and the Intruder aliens—to miss any remaining actions.

The Mechanic. The mini only has a pistol, but in game he starts with the stupidly powerful sawn-off shotgun. He can repair literally anything, including doors damaged or destroyed by Intruders.

He also has the ability to search empty rooms, and to move through the ship's technical corridors—an option no one else gets.

The Scout. Average combat potential with a rifle, but most of her abilities are based around movement, and scavenging supplies.

She can also unlock a motion scanner, allowing her to move more safely than any other crew member when exploring.

The Scientist. Not useful in combat. His pistol barely tickles Intruders. His actions are based around the ship's computer network, and remotely activating other rooms.

The Scientist can also unlock the ability to basically become a mobile lab, to better discover the weaknesses of the marauding aliens.

The Soldier. If you're going in to combat, this is your man. His assault rifle (sized more like an HMG to be fair) can tear Intruders apart if he goes full auto. Almost all of his actions are based around combat, and using ammo to suppress enemies.

He can unlock an ability to reload instantly if he has the right items in his inventory, and also to ignore any one attack with his heavy armour.

The Unwholesome Feast, Forest & Fire

It's been a loooong time since I posted anything (for those actually following/checking timestamps).

I have got stuff done, although my progress is slow. I get easily distracted by writing, videogames, and playing shiny new games with the group here.

I digress, so back to the point: Tcho Tcho, in all their unnatural pinkness.

The whole faction. Unique amongst the other factions in that they have 3 High Priests, regardless of whether or not the High Priest expansion is in use.

Many Tcho Tcho Spellbooks revolve around the use, sacrifice, and recruitment of High Priests.

 Cultists. These were the first to come with custom sculpts, rather than the standard "robed acolyte" type.

I have the custom cultists for all other factions, and will paint them in sets, after my next project is complete…

High Priests. All atop a mound of bones, chanting their blasphemies. Their key spellbook is Martyrdom, allowing a single kill against a High Priest to turn all other kills into pains instead.

 Proto-Shoggoths—not particularly powerful as monsters go (Tcho Tcho are not a combat heavy faction), but they can get a spellbook to either boost their attack, or drain enemy attacks.

These guys were painted using zenithal techniques, along with some very heavy washes and light drybrushing. Feathering was used extensively to blend the flesh colours into the pink shades.

Ubbo-Sathla, restrained by stone tablets of eldritch power. Ever reaching, ever ravenous. 

 It was quite simple to paint Ubbo, most of the problem being how to block out and break up that much pink. Iridescent paint was used on the erupting masses/tumours, while green was feathered on to the top surfaces to show the limits of containment.

Cthugha, king of the fire vampires, and perhaps my most ambitious attempt at OSL and fire effects.

I used a lot of washes and shading down from white on the fire, rather than blending up from black. There are also numerous mid-stage glazes to try and blend the fire effects as seamlessly as possible.

The OSL I couldn't quite get on this scale, so I went with an edge wash and narrowing highlight instead.

Chaugnar Faugn, the horror from the hills.

Despite the elephantine appearance, I wanted to use a more naturalistic palette, trying to make it look more like part of a forest had come to baleful life. This is also the reason for the flock, leaves, and foliage scattered on the model.

Filth and Unwholesome Feasting…

Some things finished, and some more painting progress over the last week.

First up, that which is finished

Abhoth, lord of filth and pestilence. In the mythos, things grow in Abhoth's lair, repulsive, unwholesome things that are often re-absorbed or eaten by Abhoth itself.

In the game, Abhoth spawns Filth tokens, which are a sort of monster, and Abhoth's spellbook is acquired, Filth prevent enemy gates from gathering power.

 Another side shot, showing off the brain and tendrils again. Lots of ragged flesh too—and during the painting of which I learned a lot about wet-blending, an advanced technique. I'm actually trying to use more advanced techniques as I move through my collection here so I can improve myself as a painter.

A reverse shot showing decaying skin, bone, and some unfortunate soul slowly dissolving in Abhoth's trail of filth…

A low angle shot, showing dripping slime on the tendrils and body—and also giving an idea what those poor mythos investigators must be seeing.

 Along with finishing up Abhoth, I managed to complete the great old one for the Tcho Tcho faction.

Ubbo-sathla is a writhing mass of flesh and hungry mouths bound by arcane powers to feed the plots of the Tcho Tcho.

 In game, he's nothing special—except he gets summoned for free in the Doom Phase if you sacrifice a priest, and his power grows even he's dead…

No wet-blending here, more playing with OSL (object source lighting) to show off the glow on the stone tablets.

Cultists for the Tcho Tcho—these are custom sculpts, and were part of Onslaught 2. Having just received Onslaught 3 I now have custom cultists (unpainted as yet) for all factions. Expect a large picture dump to show off everything.

Proto-shoggoths, the only monsters the Tcho Tcho get access to. Pink make for an interesting faction colour to work with—and I'm trying to work within that limited palette, rather than around it.

That said, I have blended down to red, and then used some heavy washes & drybrushing to give better definition, but overall it still looks very pink, and characteristically repulsive, which is the point.

The Sleeper wakes; Tsathoggua hungers…

Bit of a delay between posts, I know, but they're finally done. Sleeper has been completed. Apologies about the bad lighting, but it was an improvised setup. I might try and make a decent lightbox in the near future for better photography of stuff like this.

The Sleeper faction, in its entirety. Painting so much orange was an interesting challenge. I've also stayed within what seems to the meta for painting Sleeper bases and have glowing lava in the cracks on black rock.

Top down of 4/6 cultists, showing off the individual spellbooks they each have. Each spellbook is either related to an actual Sleeper spellbook, or a game action (like building gates, or summoning).








The other 4/6 cultists (yes, I caught the middle two twice). Spellbooks, and you can see the attempt at the lava effect on their bases much better here.

Close up on a single cultist, showing the faction glyph on the tabard, and the dagger at his belt.

These guys are the Wizards. Not much in combat, but their spellbook is outstanding… they can take an action in the area where a battle occurs before the battle starts. Any action.

Figuring out a decent colour scheme for these guys was actually quite challenging, and in the end I had to go with a lizard style beast, and a simple human rider.

The Serpent Men, who are more useful outside of combat than in it. This is because outside of combat, they can copy the unique ability of any faction. The possibilities for insane combos are excellent.

My first attempt at snakeskin. Note that these were actually mostly painted before I started Yig and his many snakes…




Formless Spawn… these bad boys are where Sleeper gets most of its combat heft. They're expensive, and weak at first, but the more there are, the stronger each one gets, and stronger still if Tsathoggua is present.

The OSL glow on the maws was actually easier than expected. The underglow from the bases was much harder, and involved many steps of shading and drybrushing, but I think the end result was worth it.


Showing off some more detail on the great beastie himself, Tsathoggua. The skin was painted to be like the lizard flesh of the Wizards, embedded with solidified versions of the material the Formless Spawn are made from. The orange fur was mostly to make it easy to tell which faction he belongs to—but it works well against the lizard skin and black rocks.

The base is painted with OSL techniques as if the lava was immediately below it. I'm not 100% sure I got the technique right, but for now, it's good enough for me.

They stir, but do not wake…

So, weekly progress starts with the cultists and the Serpent Men. Just a few finishing touches required here and there, and then basing. Serpent Men just need basing really. Cultists need cult glyphs and skin shading, along with inked spellbooks.

 Tsathoggua, the Formless Spawn, and the Wizards. Wizards got a lot of progress this week, as did the Formless Spawn, which are now nearly done save for basing and the last stage on the teeth.

Mother Hydra, something I have completed this week. The flesh is about 17 different stages of layering, washes, highlights, and glazes.

The scales were metallic blue, with a wash of Secret Weapon Stormcloud, followed by a thick coat of my iridescent blue-gold paint.

And another angle on Mother Hydra, better showing off the hair (painted to be like kelp), and the gill slits down her side. Most unwholesome.

The fins on her arms were painted the same way as the scales.

From N'kai, and the Abyssal Depths (WIP)

So, another week down, and some more painting done. Also got to play a 3-player game of Nemesis on Tuesday night (the Intruders won).

So, on to the painting. First up are the cultists. They just need speelbooks, faction glyphs, and some skin. The example cultist on the left has albino skin, which I think is most fitting for the cave dwelling Sleeper faction. The Serpent Men in the background just need some more runes on their cloaks, and then basing. They're actually the closest models to being complete.

The Formless spawn. Full OSL on the mouth and teeth of the finished model, and ready to apply the orange candycoat after shading and drybrushing the rest of them.

Wizards, who have rather more paint than last time. I finally decided to go with a naturalistic scheme, and have the riders orange robes be the tie in with the faction colour (along with the bases, that is).

The blue OSL from the beasts maw may or may not extend across the base, I'm not sure yet.

Tsathoggua, flesh and fur done, and 'arm rocks' glowing like the Formless Spawn. Said rocks also need an orange candycoat to knock the colour back a bit.

This is Mother Hydra, my other painting project for when doing so much orange/bronze/gold drives me nuts. I've gone for blue-green metallic mer-scales, with an unhealthy swarthy but greenish flesh.

The 'hair' is going to be painted like kelp, but only has a shade layer down right now.

Another view of Mother Hydra. The gill slits down her side will be painted pink inside, to look as much like fish gills as possible.

She's meant to be most unwholesome, and in-game serves as a maternal counterpart to Father Dagon's crippling influence.

Stirrings in lightless N'kai

With the recent move I've found a lot more time to be painting. It's quite good actually, and means my Sleeper forces are progressing apace.

The cultists so far. The one on the left is nearly complete (spellbook, basing & glyph required), the others are in various stages of having the finishing touches done.








This is the Formless Spawn, just one for now as I try to figure out how best to integrate black and orange into a unified scheme. Most of it is reverse highlights (highlighting as if the light source was underneath) using mixes of black and orange, then an orange candy coat, and some OSL for the mouths.

The Wizards in the background haven't seen much love, but I'm still working out a hybrid scheme for them and their bonded creatures.

The back of a Serpent Man's cloak. It may be a bit hard to see the ophidian runes (really just Futhark, with some angles changed to soft curves) around the edges, but the Sleeper glyph in the middle helps set off the block colour wonderfully.

The big gribbly himself only has some basic colouring for fur and flesh, but I plan to do the 'rocks' on his arms in the same way as the bodies of the Formless Spawn in order to tie them together.

New Year, New Yig

So at the end of last year I didn't get a lot done due to preparations for moving house, and all the crap involved with that (and a number of screw-ups and damages along the way, most of which came from the moving companies).

Anyway, onto the new year, and I've already completed one monster this year: Yig, Father of Snakes.

This is the father of snakes. In Mythos lore he turns those that have displeased him into snakes, specifically spotted snakes. As such, a number of the snakes making up his 'head' are spotted, speckled, or use patched patterns found on vipers and pythons.

The other snakes are far more colourful, ranging from deadly coral snakes and the infamous black mamba to the relatively harmless milk snake and the emerald tree boa.

I figure the father of snakes should represent as many families of snake as possible…









The view from the back of Yig. The plates were given a heavy drybrush of khaki over over a german green-brown base, followed by a wash of chestnut ink, then another moderate drybrush of khaki and a highlighting drybrush of buff.

The scales had the base, but were given a highlight of 50/50 khaki/buff before the wash. The belly scutes (more visible in other pictures) were painted buff, then given a shading wash of 3:2 stone:dark sepia.

A low angle view showing off what puny mortals might see.

The rocks were painted much like the back plates, but used desert yellow for the heavy drybrush, and a wash using the same mix as the belly scutes for the recesses, then a very thin wash to knock back some chalky highlights.