Spiga

Kumonga (クモンガ) is a kaiju from the Godzilla franchise known to English-speaking audiences as Spiga, and inspiration for the Arduin creature of that later name.

GIANT ARMORED SPIDERS. 50% MAGIC RESISTANT VS. 11TH LEVEL MAGE SPELLS. ITS WEB HAS A RANGE OF THIRTY FEET. IT CAN SPIT UP TO SIXTY FEET. THE LARGER ONES ARE ARMOR CLASS 2.
SUGGESTED BY THE FILM "GODZILLA'S REVENGE".

– All The World's Monsters, Volume 2

The original spider is described as being 45m in height and 45m in length.

Kumonga 1967

The more recent version is described as 35m in height and 60m in length.

Kumonga 2004

Hargrave is said to have envisioned the spiga as having a body almost 50' long, but since there is a range of HD for these spiders, I imagine that there are others that are a lot smaller.

SPIGA: HD: 5+1 to 24+1; AC: 2 to 2+5; Speed: 16" to 36"; Dext: 18 to 24; Numbers: 1 to 4; % Liar: 95%; Attacks: 2 leg hits for 1-4 to 3-36, 1 bite for 1-6 to 4-48, plus a paralyzing venom that is 1/2 of the Spiga's HD or 1 web (a 25' to 90' long by 15' to 45' wide cone). The web will hold anything caught in it equal to its own HD plus 50%. Looks: Metallic silver, gold, or blue giant armored spiders. Notes: They are 50% magik resistant, 100% lightning, fire, poison/venom, and paralysis proof. Cold does 50% more damage. They are cruel and intelligent and hate humans.

– The Arduin Grimoire, Volume 1

I chose plastic Warhammer Giant Spiders from the Forest Goblin Spider Rider set to represent my spiga (which I guess might fall in the 5-8 HD category). There are a total of eight spiders in the kit.

The eight spiders can be sorted into four varieties based primarily on differences between their abdominal carapaces.

Three of the four varieties look like proper giant spiders, but I felt the fourth with the skull pattern on the back was a bit hokey (says the person painting garish metallic colored spiders).

The models are single piece, so no assembly is required, but I modified some of them so that their forelegs were in different positions. I might modify the rear legs on some of the spiders later as well.

Spiga poised to attack or cast spells.

Overall, I like the spiders. The legs do not look overly thick like with many spider models, though having all the legs touching the ground for stability would have been nice. The underside of the models are poorly represented, with a blocky sternum and hollow abdomen, but most people won't view them from that angle anyway.

I'm not sure if the metallic colors can be made to look more "realistic" given how unnatural they are in the first place, but I suppose an option could have been to use iridescent colors. Still, I am fine with being literal and taking Hargrave's description at face value.

Killer Clams

Tridacna gigas

Giant clams were at one time scurrilously portrayed as capable of trapping divers underwater until they drowned, and the myth persists despite evidence to the contrary.

I have been searching for giant clam miniatures for a long time because I wanted to represent the Arduin monster known as the Mantrap (aka Leg Eater, Jaws, Big Mouth), which was essentially a giant land clam.

It probably seems strange that I would be interested in such an obscure monster, but I bought my first Arduin book when the film Dark Crystal was released, and when I saw the sequence at 0:27 in the following clip, it crystallized the image of the Mantrap in my mind.

The thought of fighting giant clams in RPGs seems rather silly (ala the giant mutant fire clam from World of Synnibar), but I was surprised to find that monster clams did appear in real world mythology.

In Chinese mythology, there is the shèn/chèn (蜃), a giant clam (or sometimes dragon-like creature) that released bubbles or mist from its siphons that rose to the surface of the ocean and appeared as fabulous structures or landscapes to observers.

Meretrix lusoria

The ideograph for shèn is incorporated into the Japanese (and Korean) word for "mirage" (蜃気楼; shinkirō, shèn breath tower). The shèn also makes an appearance in the series Naruto as the ōhamaguri.

A giant clam is also found in the Tahitian myth of Rata and its derivatives. Pahua-tu-tahi (Coral Rock Standing Alone) was a sea god in the form of a giant clam the size of a mountain. It attacked by rising from the depths and opening its valves so that its victims were drawn in with the rushing water that filled its mouth. Then it would close its shell to entrap them for leisurely digestion.

In some legends, Pahua-tu-tahi has been transcribed as just Paua. It was also known as one of the Children of Puna.

For giant monsters like Pahua-tu-tahi, there are lots of aquarium decorations or even real clam shells that can probably be used to represent it.

Tridacna squamosa

Normal sized 1/72 scale giant clams are more difficult to find. It is only recently that I've discovered some nice giant clam models from Morland Studios in their Sea Accessory Set 2. The set comes with one sprue consisting of two giant clams, and another sprue with four small clams.

The giant clams work well for moderately large giant clams, but the small clams are oversized, and probably better suited for 1/35 or 1/32 scale.

While the Morland clams are very nice, options for the largest specimens of giant clam remain elusive. I did stumble across a toy that was part of the Matchbox Mega Rig Shark Adventure playset, but it scales out to 10.5' wide, which is about twice the width of a large giant clam.

Unfortunately, the Matchbox clam is toy-like, with hinges and a socket underneath that detract from its appearance. It also has poor shape when viewed from overhead and the folds of the shell are not well defined. Still, with a little work, I believe it could make a passable giant clam.

X-Ray Beast

I was surfing the net and found this picture by Carol Rode.

It depicts an X-Ray Beast, which was created by Dave Hargrave for All the Worlds' Monsters. I don't have my copy of the book on hand, so I don't have any particular details on it except those gleaned from the Old School FRP tumblr. The beast can project x-ray radiation from it's eye, and thus can see through walls etc.

Anyway, when I saw the picture, I was reminded of an old toy hippopotamus figure that I had, so I dug it up and decided to convert it into an X-Ray Beast.

I just cut off the eyes, and then pinned one of them to the center of its head. Some J-B Weld was then used to smooth out the surfaces and emphasize some areas which were not molded very well on the original figure.

I think it would be fairly safe to say that this is currently the only miniature of an X-Ray Beast in existence.

I need to dig up my copy of All the Worlds' Monsters to see if there are any more details about the beast's appearance before painting it up (though I really want to paint its eye like Ray Milland's from the 1963 movie X: The Man with the X-ray Eyes).

Arduin Monsters

My first exposure to the world of Arduin was through a copy of The Runes Of Doom that I picked up one summer when visiting some older, college-aged friends in Pasadena. I think it was the art of Greg Espinoza that first captured my attention and triggered my buying decision, but after reading the book, my mind was reeling. The overpowered character classes, over-the-top magic items, crazy monsters, and all of the little snippets of information laced throughout the book became fuel for my imagination.

Over time, I purchased all of the digest-sized booklets, and even though we never played a game of Arduin Grimoire, monsters, magic items, and background found in the books would make appearances in my campaign.

Not too long ago, I picked up a copy of Arduin Eternal Bestiary & Treasures, as I was interested to see if there were any changes made to the monsters that I remembered so fondly. Whereas the old books described each monsters in about 6-8 lines, the new book presents a page of information for each monster. About half of the space is devoted to stats, followed by a section on combat style, and some additional information on monster physiology.

To tell the truth, I was a bit disappointed with the book, but this is mainly due to the fact that I had no interest in the actual mechanics of the current version of the game. My major issues are that the book does not catalog of all of the Arduin monsters from the original volumes (where are the Ghost Crab and Hell Maiden?). Secondly, despite the expanded text, I did not feel that the description for each monster was any more in depth than what was presented in the classic digests. But like I said before, this is because my interest is more in the Arduin fluff.

Anyway, on to my monster miniatures. All of them were produced by Archive and are now OOP, except for the vroat which is still being sold by Center Stage Miniatures.

Doom Guard: "Dull black plate armor... They must litterally [sic] be dismembered to stop."

Hell Maiden: "Voluptous bodies valkyrie like warrior women with bare skull heads."

Octorilla: For some reason I couldn't find the stats or description for the Octorilla in the original books.

Shadow Golem: "Looks are also obious [sic] and so also omitted."

Vroat: "Mutational cross between giant toads and crocodiles, thus earning the nickname "Jumping Jaws"!"

Wobra: "Emerald green winged cobra with ruby red eyes."

The miniatures are relatively large with respect to 1/72 figures, but I think they could all be used without a problem, although the Doom Guard and Hell Maiden would probably have to represent exceptionally large specimens.

Emperor's Choice currently makes some monsters for Arduin, but I'm not fond of the sculpts in that they have a 3D modeled regularity and smoothness that make them too artificial in appearance for my tastes.