Board Games

Eldritch Horror

I’ve been a fan of the Lovecraft Mythos since long before I knew what the who Lovecraft was. His work is so pervasive in modern culture it’s impossible not be familiar. I tried Arkham Horror second edition, and whilst I loved the setting and storyline, I found it very clunky to play. But when I finally got a copy of Fantasy Flight’s Eldritch Horror this year, everything clicked into place. It’s streamlined, quicker to play than AH, and yet still has all the glorious Lovecraftiness.

And of course, me being me, I wanted to do something hobby related. The obvious thing to replace is the standees for the investigators. They’re all fantastic pulp tropes, but really are begging for a third dimension.

I spent a long (loooong) time browsing miniature sites. Pulp Figures have some amazing models, as do Crooked Dice. The trouble is to get the 12 models I needed it would have ended up very pricey (Pulp Figures only sell multipacks, and Crooked Dive are a bit spendy). But then I looked at Black Cat Bases, where I’ve bought a couple of small items before. They have a huge selection and with a few artistic liberties here and there, they gave me everything I needed.

Charlie Kane – The Politician
A fairly straight forward find, Mr Big is clearly a king pin, but a fat cat in a suit smoking a cigar (definitely not a carrot).. perfect.

Eldritch Horror Charlie Kane

Diana Stanley – Redeemed Cultist
Surprisingly hard to find a 28mm female cultist that works. In the end I went with a generic Praying Cultist. I suspect it’s a bloke, but who’d presume to know what lies beneath the cloak?

Eldritch Horror Diana Stanley

Jacqueline Fine – Psychic
I looked for something suitable frail looking, but in the end decided to go with The Librarian. A little austere, but a well sculpted, non-sexualised female will work.

Eldritch Horror Jacqueline Fine

Jim Culver – Musician
Now I know he’s clearly African American and holding a trumpet, but I think with minor tweaks to the clearly caucasian hair the Saxophonist will work. Musician minis, just not much demand I guess.

Eldritch Horror Jim Culver

Leo Anderson – Expedition Leader
A clear Indiana Jones type by description, but I love how haggard he looks in his profile shot. Regardless, I went with Adventurer 1. Good hand options and no bullwhip.

Eldritch Horror Leo Anderson

Lily Chen – Martial Artist
Another time when the obvious trope (Asian female martial artist) was surprisingly hard to come by. In the end I went for the Female Gun Fighter. I’ll swap out both hands, in fact one of the others comes with a great open palm.

Eldritch Horror Lily Chen

Lola Hayes – Actress
The femme fatale, the one model I was spoilt for choice on. I ended up choosing Miss Scarlet, fantastic model and an assortment of tools to hide behind her back.

Eldritch Horror Lola Hayes

Mark Harrigan – Soldier
A nice generic looking bloke with a tommy gun. Easy to find, I went with Private Eye with tommy gun.

Eldritch Horror Mark Harrigan

Norman Withers – Astronomer
Another character with lots of model options. I decided to go for The Professor. Slightly shy on the beard front, but he’s holding a book and an amulet, he deserves to be in a Lovecraft game like Eldritch Horror.

Eldritch Horror Norman Withers

Silas Marsh – Sailor
Ok this is where the artistic liberties really had to kick in. You’d think finding pulp era Sinbad would be easy right? In the end I went with the Fisherman with hook and chain. I’m going to have to break out the greenstuff and give him an eye patch and hair. Two things I’ve done before so I’m fairly confident.

Eldritch Horror Silas Marsh

Akachi Onyele – Shaman
So I spent hours looking for a female Shaman. Sure they exist, but finding them on a site that carries other things to keep postage costs down was a pain. In the end I gave up. Then Black Cat Bases sent me a couple of free gifts (part of there ‘sorry Covid ballsed up delivery times’ thing). One of the freebies was the Dancing Girl from their Tavern Accessories range. And you know what, that could work! We’ll see how the painting goes, but it has potential.

Eldritch Horror Akachi Onyele

Trish Scarborough – Spy
Finally the only model I didn’t get from Black Cat. This was a mini I already had, ordered from Artizan Designs‘ awesome Thrilling Tales range. Currently there’s none listed on their site, I can only assume Covid-19 strikes again. But Lily from the Sky Pirates range will work nicely.

Eldritch Horror Trish Scarborough

That’s it so far. The minis have arrived, total spend was less than £30 which I’m happy with for 12 minis. I need to do the conversions then get them painted up.

However this project doesn’t end with that, I’m working on a display base which I’ll cover in part 2 of this Eldritch Horror article.

Big thanks to Black Cat Bases for getting the minis dispatched at decent speed despite the current madness. And thanks for the freebies!

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