By His Noodly Appendage

So I went to a New Year's party at a friend's, and received an impromptu request.  She recently got a copy of the board game "Abyss".  The game includes a marker for the Kraken, a game token which, she explains "follows the most unscrupulous player around the board".

So yes, obviously I'm painting this thing!  Looks like a good first project for 2019...

"Raise your hand if you think that was a Russian water tentacle."

Shieldmaiden

Thorrun, Shieldmaiden
28 mm

When I am dead,
Lay me in a mound.
Raise a stone for all to see
Runes carved to my memory

A Bad Squiddo Games figure, from their impressive line of female Vikings.  I think I spent more time on Hurstwic.org doing "research" than I spent painting this figure... gotta be accurate, right?  That said, while I wholly approve of historical revisionism in the name of fun, inclusive gaming, there's not a lot of evidence that Viking women warriors like Thorrun here were common.  And while stories of someone like Freydis Eriksdottir are known, I'm not sure she's what you'd call a good role model for your Norse daughter...

No step on snek.

Oh yes, and...  Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Fellowship of the Ring revisited

The Fellowship of the Ring
10mm

Working on all these 10mm fantasy figures lately got me thinking about the first time I explored this scale, with Copplestone's Fellowship of the Ring figures.  Hard to believe I tackled these paint jobs way back in 2007!  Anyway, I decided to re-base them in the style of more recent work, and see if I could bump up their look a bit.

Definitely an improvement, IMO.  In comparison to the figures from my previous post:

Teeny Greeny Tough and Meany

Marauding orcs
10 mm

I had a few 10 mm scale Copplestone fantasy figures left from my not-a-commission project a while back, and decided to paint them up a few days ago.  Fun!  I don't paint a lot of orcs either so their grimy green aesthetic is a bit novel for me.  The result is pretty standard Tolkien-style orcs, though I did borrow from Warhammer for the shield design :)  I have some corresponding heroes, painted over eleven years ago (!), that I now want to re-base to match them.

The brains of the operation

Space Brains
no fixed scale

Swooping down from space, their ray guns and menacing claws gleaming, their frontal lobes glistening, the Space Brains attack!  All they seek is total domination, the destruction of the planet, and possibly to grab and menace scantily-clad human women.
 
Cratered Hab Dome
15mm scale

I decided to base a couple of them on a resin scenery model to give them the appearance of hovering over a ravaged battlefield.  The Space Brains are Alternative Armies figures.  The Cratered Hab Dome is a 15mm scale Ion Age model.

"Aim for the squishy bits, troopers!"

No seat in Valhalla

Shaman and Draugar
15 mm

A couple more figures from the Barbarica "Northlander Characters" pack, painted as a mystical (or maybe just deranged) hermit and an undead Draugar warrior.  Draugar, the Norse undead "possess superhuman strength, can increase their size at will, and carry the unmistakable stench of decay".  They are also supposed to have "blue and evil looking" or black skin, and possess a variety of supernatural abilities.  Possessing insatiable appetites, they envy and hate the living, leaving carnage and misery in their wake.

Background's a Kleenex box.  Pretty good, huh? ;)

Lord of battle I pray on bended knee

Barbarian Adventurer and Witch
15 mm

While I generally don't paint a lot of fantasy subjects (do I?), I recently picked up a pack of Copplestone's 15mm "Barbarica" figures I've had my eye on for a while.  And they're great!  Classic characterful sculpts just over-the-top enough to qualify squarely as non-historical...  The "Northlander Characters" pack has a mix of burly warriors and primeval shaman types, so I started with one of each.

"You can take him!  I've seen much bigger ones around here..."

(Wolf monster courtesy of @winnipegmichael)

Wee Free Men 2

Fantasy Characters 
10 mm

I just finished up the 10mm fantasy project I've been working on.  It's been a lot of fun, and I really burned through these compared to even 15mm stuff!  Although really, the fell beast and rider are pretty much the equivalent of a small 25mm figure...  Anyway I'm very satisfied with the results, and I think the recipient will be too.

The whole gang!

Wee Free Men

Fantasy Characters
10 mm

One of my Instagram contacts recently asked me to paint some 10 mm stuff for him... I don't normally do "commissions", but I was convinced to do a favour in return for some new figures :)  These are the first four models I completed, from Copplestone Castings' 10mm fantasy range.  Still to go are a dwarf, an archer, a ranger, and a spectral fiend riding a winged beast.

There's something special about very small models, you really have to distill their essence into so little space.  These are exceptional sculpts and a real pleasure to paint.  Also, I can get each one done quite quickly, which is satisfying!

28mm, 15mm, 10mm... *rubs eyes*

Fearless Forest Fighters

Ikwen heroes
15 mm

"The gods of my tribe have spoken, they have said 'do not trust the pilgrims'... and for all these reasons I have decided to scalp you, and burn your village to the ground."

The persecuted Ikwen return!  Hounded in their own lands by resource-hungry humans, they take up arms to strike back!  Larger and tougher than the average Ikwen, these fighters have distinguished themselves as fearless and cunning foes of the militarily superior Earthers.  While their traditional meteorite-steel kukri blades slice lethally through armour and flesh, they don't shun the powerful blasters provided by their new off-world allies.

These strikingly dynamic figures are (half of) the "Ikwen Hardened Fighters" set, sculpted of course by Eli Arndt of Loud Ninja Games.  They definitely stand out among regular Ikwen, and provide a bit of close quarters mayhem...

The most dangerous game...

The Great Khanate Returns

Shia Khan Troopers and Armored Vehicle
15 mm

Sentinel of destiny
Enemy engaged
Numbered with the dead
Take your glory to the grave

On the smoky, chaotic battlefield, cris-crossed with lethal energy beams and pounding projectiles, the soldiers of the Shia Khan receive support from numerous tanks and armored transports.  Specialized for steady advance into withering fire, they help their soldiers inch towards yet another objective...

It's been a hot, slow painting month, but I've revisited the Shia Khan, the grinding trench warriors of my SF universe.  Their transport is Alternative Armies' Charger APC, a nicely high/low-tech model which I've up-armored with some sort of force field emitters or cage armour.  I have no idea what that long pole device the one guy is carrying is... a weapon?  Teleport beacon?  Reverse-phase matter depolarizer?  Anyway, it looks cool.

Iron Lady

Feminine Navigational Droid
28mm

Cabin's purged by satellites, now we're flying high
We've got a lady pilot, who's not afraid to die

This figure started life as a Space Bunny Arts sculpt.  It was a fun conversion, and an extensive one:

I liked the original, but after seeing "Solo: A Star Wars Story" its passing resemblance to Lando Calrissian's passionately droid-emancipating co-pilot L3-37 prodded me to do a conversion.  L3-37 was one of my favourite supporting characters in the movie, partly because "she" finally addressed (in spades) the awkward question of droid ownership in the SW universe, and partly because she was just well-written.

Man of the World

Corto Maltese
28 mm

I won this figure a few months ago from North Star figures in a (very unexpected) random draw at Lead Adventure forum.  This Mark Copplestone sculpt is an homage to the 1970s Italian comic book hero Corto Maltese, a sort of Han-Solo-like roving ship's captain and adventurer who meets exotic people, defends the underdog and generally champions liberty and fairness wherever he goes.  I'll confess I wasn't familiar with the books, but I should be; the art is stunning:

It Followed Me Home

New friend
15 mm

"Hey guys, this is Genet-Subspeaker Slaa, I think he's like, a kind of plant or something.  But he's cool... can he come in?"

Just a silly project I put together from some figures (girl: GZG; Slaa: Ion Age) I've been trying to decide what to do with.  Inspired by the possibility that First Contacts might not always be the exclusive domain of giant inscrutable spaceships showing up and asking to speak to the leader...

Sinister Synthetics

Android Hunter-Killer Team
15 mm

Ja tvoi sluga, ja tvoi rabotnik

Sigh. I remember the good old days, when a google search for "killer robots" led to popular movies, and not news articles...

These Khurasan figures are ostensibly "police bots", but I think adding skull masks gave them a really menacing military look.