Arashikage Clan ninja brothers

Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow
15mm

The stars are burning bright 
like some mystery uncovered
I'll keep moving through the dark
with you in my heart
My blood brother

Working on the somewhat lacklustre ninjas featured in my last post gave me a few pretty decent ideas for follow-up projects. This is definitely the best of the lot.

Like a lot of people my age, I had a substantial collection of GI Joe toys as the child in the 80s. And these were by far the coolest. These two mysterious characters, one Joe and one Cobra, were created to tie in with the contemporary ninja craze. I was never familiar with a lot of the extensive background presented in the comic books, but the Coles' Notes version is that Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow were both adopted and trained by a clan of ninjas called the Arashikage. Storm Shadow was implicated in their master's murder and fled, joining Cobra, while Snake Eyes was recruited by GI Joe.

Storm Shadow's archery skill is a big part of his character so I was lucky the Rebel minis bow ninja is one of the best sculpts; I just added an arrow.  Snake Eyes is a conversion of a figure that I've painted before, I just gave him a sword and his signature mask and Uzi SMG.

And thanks to Doctor Merkury for always providing so, so much fantastic 80's toy theme inspiration :)

"I must complete Cobra's mission,
Snake Eyes.  Don't make me do this..."

Small Shadow Warriors

Ninjas and Torii Gate
15 mm scale

I've had a bunch of these Rebel Miniatures ninjas kicking around for ages; I was honestly disappointed when I got them.  Some dicey sculpts, but mainly, their hands are AWFUL, literally like Easter hams stuck on the ends of their arms.  Anyway I found these ones half-painted the other day, and decided to finish them up.  I may tackle some of the others at some point, the archers and naginatas aren't too bad.

In classic wag-the-dog fashion, I also decided to make a small terrain piece to go with them: a Torii gate, traditional boundary of sacred space at a Shinto shrine and iconic Japanese scenery item.  It's made of wooden odds and ends from my bitz box.

I'm quite happy with how it turned out!

"Ninjas! At a temple too, shameful! Well, tanuki, it looks like you'll have
to do that thing with your magic testicles."

Stealthy Slayers

“When we’re on a mission, I keep count of how many ninja my father kills. He says not to keep count, only to pray for their souls. But if I don’t keep count, I don’t know how many souls to pray for. So I keep count. So far it’s three hundred and forty-two.”

 
Honestly, Rebel Miniatures' ninjas are not the best figures out there.   They have some weird proportions, giant hands and some oddly-placed lumpy bits, and some more weapon variety would be nice.  But "90% of success is showing up", and for under twelve bucks you get a big bag of them, so hey.

As usual, I don't have time to paint the whole horde...  I did a minor weapon swap on one of them, rope for spear.  I tried to position the lariat so he poses well with other figures:

Worked pretty well, I think!  Perhaps not so sturdy for gaming but it might make for some fun photos.

Marine Miscreants

Bennet's Buccaneers
15 mm

Well, they're done!  And the obligatory group shot:

Seagoing Scalawags

Bennet's Buccaneers
15 mm

My pirate crew got a bit derailed by Real Life as well as the fun hovercraft in my previous post, but I'm trying to get them finished here.  These are fun little figures with lots of character, but since they're individuals they do take a fair bit more work to paint than a uniform "squad" of soldiers.  Anyway there are four more to finish and hopefully I'll get those posted soon too... because I just ordered some brand spanking new Ion Age stuff that I'd love to paint up!  The eternal struggle...

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Speaking of the Ion Age, I've slowly been working on these Geo Shelters for a while.

 
So far they're just base coated and washed, but I like the look already, kind of grimy and industrial. They're kind of small for a factory installation etc., but would make good colony lab or workshop buildings, or a small military camp.  I have to say that, as with the Corbal Hardpoint, the airbrush was really helpful for laying down a nice even base colour on these, though I haven't even a novice's grasp of its more elaborate uses.

Yo ho ho!

Oh the year was 1778
How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now!
A Letter of Marque came from the King
to the scummiest vessel I've ever seen
God damn them all!

I got a couple of sets of these great little pirate figures from Rebel Miniatures back in January.  They're so much fun!  I guess I needed a break from so many "sci-fi space trooper guys".. or maybe my daughter's frequent viewings of "Jake and the Neverland Pirates" are getting to me ;)  I picked up a pack of 24 male pirates, and one with a few women for diversity's sake.  I love that in 15 mm, that was for the cost of like, one Space Marine.

(Dave Graffam Models has some downloadable paper scenery that'd go perfectly with these guys.  Might need to shell out a few more bucks for a suitable photo setup.)

2015: Heavies and Stealth Agent

Puritan Power Armour

15 mm scale

I got these Puritan superheavy troops from Khurasan last year, and just decided to paint a couple up as post-holiday slump-buster.  I don't know what, if any, fluff to assign them yet so I held off on markings etc.  They seem like they'd be nice Neo Soviet/sci-fi-communist elite troops of some kind (especially painted red like this).

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Splinter Assassin

15 mm

The first figure from my latest Rebel Miniatures order (a solid handful of 15 mm pirates and ninjas remain untouched as yet).  This guy is obviously "inspired" by the protagonist of the Splinter Cell video games and his not-very-stealthy green head lamps.  A very nice little sculpt!

Basic bitz box basing...

Hellspawn Hero

Hellboy
15 mm

"Don't mess with me, lady. I've been drinking with skeletons!"

This miniature is released by my favourite mini company as part of a pack called "friendly demons".  Its a pretty good proxy for Mike Mignola's wisecracking demonic comic book hero.  I whipped up a couple of spectral foes for him too, using Rebel Minis' Nazi zombie pack:

"Aw crap!  Nazi ghosts?  Worst kind of ghosts!"

Now I just need a 15 mm pyrokinetic woman, amphibian man and homunculus, and maybe a plague of frogs.  Anung Un Rama...

The Underground Menace

21st-century biological research revealed that naked mole rats possessed truly remarkable abilities:  resistance to pain, low-oxygen atmospheres and ionizing radiation, as well as the effects of cancer and aging.  However, centuries passed before the mechanisms behind these were fully understood, and the necessary technology available to transfer these advantages to genetically engineered human beings.

Astr-O-Myne Corporation's interest in exploiting the mineral riches of newly-explored extrasolar planets conveniently coincided with these advances.  Robots were fine for chewing through relatively homogenous space rocks.  But for planetary mining, Astr-O-Myne required a new and exceptionally hardy breed of human workers.  Arrangements were made with certain Terran governments wishing to reduce crowded prison conditions, and the first genetic experiments were a spectacular success.  The new miners were stronger, tougher, and instinctively knew their way around tunnel networks.  And best of all, they had little choice in the matter: aside from their lifetime contracts with the company, the gene transfer resulted in a pallid, warty appearance that set them apart from normal human society.

"Mole Men"
15 mm

 

It was only a matter of time, however, before these underground super-men and women felt their working conditions had become intolerable, and decided to throw off their corporate shackles...

Insurrectionist miners emerge from a reconnaissance tunnel to search a company outpost.

I've been working on these for a while, and figured I'd finish them up before I really got going on my Half-Life figures.  These miniatures are "Titan Scouts" from Rebel minis.  The papercraft buildings are "IKubes" and a PODS container, downloadable for free from Topo Solitario papercraft.


(Obligatory link to Spacejacker's different take on the same figures)

Dead Snow

Nazi Zombies
15 mm

After finishing the Untoten Soldaten for my brother, I liked them so much I decided I wanted some too!  I gave these ones snow bases, obviously inspired by the Norwegian zombie film Død Snø (Dead Snow).

Grr Argh!

(Hey, apparently the whole film is on YouTube... for now.  It's probably the second bloodiest zombie film I've ever seen, I think Peter Jackson's Dead Alive wins first prize.)

Untoten Soldaten - finished

Nazi Zombies
15 mm
 

Corporal Bauer huddled inside the ruined bakery, listening for any hint the hideous creatures outside might have detected his presence.  The scratching and moaning continued to come from the street outside however, interspersed with wet sounds he was sure were his dead squadmates being dismembered and consumed.  After a day of heavy fighting, they had been caught by surprise, by what seemed to be a group of their own Waffen-SS... but empty-eyed men soaked with blood and stinking of death, attacking with bare hands and teeth.

A tiny scuffing noise made him look frantically around the debris-strewn room.  In one dark corner, a British soldier crouched, a heavy coating of grime and mud making him almost invisible.  Bauer spasmodically clutched his Mauser, but the Englishman only brought a finger to his lips, and with his other hand, held up a cloth bag bulging with heavy, egg-shaped objects.  Bauer stared for a moment, then glanced down at his own belt, where a single grenade remained...

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It took me way too long to do these, but some days I feel like a zombie myself. I think I'll keep them to admire for a while before the go in the mail to my brother...  Anyway, you can check out a much, much more impressive 28mm WW2 zombie project, entitled "Don't Fraternize with Germans" at Anatoli's Game Room.  Amazing!

Nazi Z's in progress

The Obersturmführer:

The mooks:

So I guess they're Waffen-SS, for that extra dose of evil :O Finishing the leader (do zombies have leaders?) has definitely helped motivate me to work on the rank and file (all 5 of them, ooh!). So far so good, though I was hoping the uniforms would look "field grey" which is actually more green. Maybe I can fix that with the highlighting.

Untoten Soldaten

Zombie Nazis
15 mm

These guys will be a birthday gift for my brother, so if you are reading this M___, I guess you spoiled the surprise! Anyway, $11 got me a good handful of these from Rebel Minis, and they're going to be fun to paint. They're pretty cute little sculpts, I like the guy dragging his rifle and the missing-arm/carrying-an-arm pair (I based those two together).

The gift minis will have dirt-n-bushes bases to match M___'s Flames of War Panzergrenadier army... but if I ever get to paint some for myself, they'll have winter bases... Død Snø style :D

For my own future reference, FoW base sizes are:
Small: 1 1/4" x 1"
Medium: 2" x 1 1/4"
Large: 2 1/2" x 2"