Alien Vegetation From Drinking Straws

I don't want to take credit for this idea, since I got it from a fellow forum meber over at the Lead Adventure Forum. I don't remember where he got the idea from, but maybe it was at Terra Genesis.

I believe these plants can be done in many different ways, so use your imagination and be creative in your design.

Here is how I did mine...

Some of the materials I used (of course I forgot some).

1. Drinking straws

2. Washers for bases

3. Pliers to hold the straws

4. A pair of scissors

5. Hot glue gun

6. Masking tape

7. A candle

I also used a lighter, sand and some paint...

First I cut out the straws in different lenghts.

This how they looked after I gave them a go over the candle.

Remember to use the pliers to hold the straws, you don't want to get melted plastic on your fingers.

It can be hard to avoid melting holes through the straws, but try out a bit and it gets easier. 

Here I have put the masking tape on the holes in the washers.

Using the hot glue gun I attached the straws in clusters of 7-9 each.

Here I have added sand to the bases and painted the straws.

What is left is painting up the bases in the colours of my gaming table and then they should be ready for use.

Also, remember to do this in a well ventilated room or outside, the fumes is probably very toxic!

More Ambulls

As soon as I had painted my first Ambull I knew I needed some more, so I searched Ebay for some time and was lucky enough to get two more, each for a reasonable price.

I would like to get more, so I can make a whole colony, but right now my economy (and my wife) say no. But I guess three is better than nothing.

I painted up the two new Ambulls in similar colours as my first one and I updated my first one a little bit.

Also on my paint station right now is a bunch of mercenaries of several different origins, I finished the first one which is from the Black Hat Miniatures Cobalt-1 line.

The two new guys and the Cobalt-1 mercenary.

 An unfortunate space explorer gets ambushed...

This trio of Ambulls is the last thing this guy will ever see...

The lone mercenary will be joined by a selection of mixed space scum later on and will find use in all sorts of sci-fi gaming. The Ambulls will be usefull for random encounters and fit into any Deathworld fauna.

Feral Cultist

Did I ever tell you that I love Black Cat Bases? No? Well I do. They have some of the best customer service I ever experienced and their catalogue just have so many different and awesome miniatures to chose from.

Granted, I wouldn't know what to use most of the stuff for, but does it matter? Sometimes it is just fun to browse through the vast number of oddeties and grap some random goodies to paint. They can always be tweaked into a setting later.

But there is of course also lot of stuff which I find very useful. Among this stuff is these Feral Cultist. I have had these lying around since last year sometime and I thought it was about time to give them some paint. They are sculpted by Moonfleet Miniatures, but is now a part of the Black Cat Bases catalogue.

I painted them up as dirty wasteland dwellers using a simple and easy colour scheme.

The cult gathers for a raid.

Armed with pulse rifles, an autogun and a jezail.

I still don't know exactly what these will be used for, but their potential is pretty big. From any wasteland setting, Necromunda underhive or post apocalyptic future. They will fit fine with most skirmish sci-fi settings we game these days.