The Carceral State

Alien prisoners and guards
15mm

Early one morning
The blues came fallin' down
I was all locked up in jail
And prison bound

 

Technology and culture may evolve but apparently throwing society's rule breakers into confinement always stays in fashion... this group of non-human convicts might be petty hustlers, violent career criminals, or even hapless political prisoners of a despotic regime. Their heavily-armed guards march them around, tolerating no disobedience or attempts to escape.

I think these two CP Models sets (boiler-suited aliens and guards) that come with a choice of heads are such a great idea.  Depending on the head used, the characters really turn out feeling very different, especially the guards who could be anything from simple gas-masked near-future humans to genetically-engineered apes or very weird aliens!  The "boiler suits" can easily be spacers' jumpsuits, uniforms, or as here, prison garb.

"Stay in line, scum, or it's the box for you!"

More human than human

Cyborg Specialist
28mm

I am doll eyes, doll mouth, doll legs

I love this CP miniatures figure!  Is she a remorseless android killer, or a superhuman hero in an era when even humanity itself is a vague designation?  As a "Ghost in the Shell" fan, I obviously chose the latter... But still, the cyborg Major Kusanagi cuts an eerie figure, a living doll with a human brain, who rains destruction on lesser foes and has more in common with her enemies than her allies.  This model isn't the closest version of her out there, but it's close enough, and it has a great transhuman-cyborg aesthetic with the human head and visibly artificial, jointed body.

 

A figure whose body is largely monochromatic isn't always so interesting to look at, so I thought I'd try some ambient light effects on this piece.  I pictured her walking through an area with coloured neon lights on both sides reflected on her skin, and on the wet pavement and detritus beneath her.  Once I'd finished that, it seemed that a painted backdrop would suit her too...

 

🎶 Put on my best Sunday dress
And I walk straight into this mess of mine 🎶

 

The sincerest form of flattery

Mimic chest
28mm scale

Sometimes you hunt the treasure... sometimes the treasure hunts you

 

Mimic chests are a very popular subject for miniatures right now for some reason and I've wanted one for a while.  This Nolzur's version is perhaps not the most unique, but it's definitely iconic. I love the lunging motion, and that giant tongue whipping out to snare unsuspecting adventurers into that horrible mouth :O

This was a quick paint job; it's not going to win any contests but I'm very pleased with the result!  Nolzur's minis are generally really easy to paint, the one drawback being that their multipart nature means there are often deep recesses that are hard to get paint INTO.  The mouth here is a good example.

"Why does the boss even keep this thing around?  It's a menace!"

There has never been a time without unicorns

Unicorn
28 mm scale

A long time ago when the earth was green,
And there was more kinds of animals than you've ever seen,
They'd run around free while the earth was being born,
But the loveliest of them all was the Unicorn.

This lovely unicorn was one of the offerings in Bears Head miniatures' last kickstarter, and I knew I had to have one.  I love its real feeling of bulk and power; it's not a gracile, vulnerable
"The Last Unicorn" style creature but a lot more like a war horse.

To me the unicorn represents hope...  I didn't know how thematic that'd be when I ordered it late last year... sure do now.

I recently picked up a bottle of metallic medium and lightly applied that to the unicorn's back, mane and tail to give it a bit of enchanted sparkle.  It didn't really work that well for photos, but in person it definitely adds something extra :)  I'm also pretty happy with this nature base.  It had some growing pains as I had to scrape off a really bad static grass attempt, but the second try with a mixture of flock, foam foliage, and Italian seasoning along with some Gamers Grass clumps worked a lot better.

(Idyllic setting courtesy of the Oxfam Canada calendar)