Mantic Games - Deep Space Pest Control

If I do get an advent calendar it tends to be alcohol based, but in 2024 Mantic Games was offering an advent calendar that turned into a board game. Plus it had minis and terrain that could be painted! And so over the course of December I gleefully gathered the components as one by one they came out of the little doors. 

Once I had all the bits I could then sort them into groups. The Teraton mercenary, whom I named Space Blastoise, I put into his own group. The four Veer-myn also went into their own group. For the scatter terrain, I grouped them into lab equipment which would be predominantly white and military equipment that would be rusty silver. 

Teraton mercenary

Starting with Space Blastoise I first cleaned him up of any mold lines I could get to then primed him Colour Forge Standard Grey. I then gave him a zenithal highlight with Archive-X Reefer White. Ordinarily I use Liquitex Titanium White acrylic ink for this but I had the Reefer White out to basecoat the lab terrain (spoilers). 

Moving onto the colours I painted the scales with Militarum Green, which turned out to be a nice muted green perfect for reptiles. Playing on the Pokémon theme I painted their bodysuit with Army Painter Speedpaint Highlord Blue and the shell with Garaghak’s Sewer. For the remaining details, I painted any pouches with Gore-Grunta Fur and their weapon and scanner with Ratling Grime. To make the tubes on their shoulder stand out a little more, I painted them with Scale75 Dwarven Gold. To finish things off I drybrushed the weapon and scanner with Necron Compound to give them a metallic finish, and painted Warp Lightning on the scanner screen.

For the base I started by basecoating it with a couple coats of Vallejo Khaki. With that done I spread on a nice thick layer of Agrellan Earth. Once that had fully dried and cracked nicely I gave the base a wash of Army Painter Strong Tone. This will both bring out the texture and help to lock down some of the more fragile cracks. I then gave the base a drybrush of Tyrant Skull before painting the rim of the base with a matt black. 

Veer-myn

I wasn’t sure what colour scheme to paint the space rats, I was initially tempted to paint them in a drab green Nurgle scheme. But poking around the Mantic website most of them look to have yellow armour. Well that was all the excuse I needed and got the miniatures primed with Colour Forge Standard Grey followed by an all over basecoat of Vallejo Game Air Squid Pink.  I then painted the weapons with Two Thin Coats Death Reaper and the blade of the sword with Two Thin Coats Carcharodon Grey. With that done, the models were then given a zenithal highlight with white ink through the airbrush. 

Moving onto the colours proper I started by giving any skin areas a coat of Gulliman Flesh. Which over a basecoat of Squid Pink actually looked kind of terrible. So I hastily repainted the skin with Two Thin Coats Griffon Claw before anyone noticed. The weapons, aside from the power blade, I painted with Ratling Grime before drybrushing with Necron Compound to give them a metallic finish. For the main event, I painted the armour with Imperial Fist. In the areas that had been turned white by the zenithal highlight it remained a bright yellow, but where the Squid Pink remained in the shadows it turned the Imperial Fist to a rich orange colour. I did need to break up all the yellow however, so I picked out a few panels with Vallejo Russian Uniform and any pipes and wires with Scale75 Thrash Metal. To finish things off I painted any leather pouches with Gore-Grunta Fur and the tails with Vallejo Dwarf Skin. 

To tie everything together and to bring out the texture I hit everything with a black wash that I made from Liquitex Carbon Black acrylic ink, matt medium, water and a drop of flow improver. As a final detail I picked out the lenses with Blood Angels Red. 

For the bases, I started by covering them with Vallejo Red Oxide texture paste. Once that had fully dried I gave the bases a wash of Reikland Fleshshade and a drybrush of Kindle Flame to bring out the texture. Finally, I painted the rims with a matt black. 

Lab terrain

For the terrain I started by priming everything with Colour Forge Standard Grey and then basecoating everything with Archive-X Reefer White. The off white is perfect for the not so sterile lab equipment. 

The off white was also ideal to paint everything with Speedpaints and Contrast paints. I painted any paper with Skeleton Horde and the books with Militarum Green. Any wooden details, such as the clock and test tube racks, I painted with Wyldwood. Any glass bottles or test tubes I painted with Army Painter Speedpaint Runic Grey. Lastly I painted any metallic details such as the bases of the shelves and cabinets with Army Painter Speedpaint Broadsword Silver. 

The vat, or perhaps tank, was looking a little plain so I dug through my decals to see if I had anything that could make it a bit more visually interesting. I eventually settled on some Tau decals as they look generically sci-fi. To lock them down I gave the area a coat of matt varnish. 

Like with the Veer-myn I then gave them a coat of my homemade black wash to bring out the detail and dirty them up a bit. Or a lot. To bring back a bit of brightness I used a bit of sponge to add chipping with Reefer White around the edges of the models. I then repeated the process using Army Painter Matt White. Lastly for the chipping I sponged on small amounts of Rhinox Hide. Finally, I used Warp Lightning for the screen on the cabinet drawers. 

Military terrain

For the final pieces of terrain like the weapon rack and screens I started by priming them a rusty red-brown. I then gave them a zenithal highlight with Vallejo Metal Colours Magnesium, enough to make them look metallic but still showed some of that rust colour in the shadows. 

To make them stand out a little better I painted the weapons on the rack with Scale75 Black Metal. At this point I also blocked in all the screens with Two Thin Coats Carcharodon Grey and painted the tubing with Black Templar. 

Everything then got a coat of black wash and a drybrush of Necron Compound. To really emphasise the rusty nature of these models I used Greenstuff World Liquid Pigments Light, Medium and Dark Rust to add some extra rust in key areas. As before I used Warp Lightning for the screens, and additionally Evil Sunz Scarlet for the large buttons.