The Three Xiake

Wu Xia Masters of Water,  Fire, and Earth
15 mm

Justice consists not in being neutral between right and wrong, but in finding out the right and upholding it, wherever found, against the wrong. - Ancient Terran warrior T. Roosevelt

"These highly trained and equipped Xin warriors serve no specific master but follow their own code centred around the idea of righting wrongs where ever they may be found... They wear personalised Kuijia III armour and carry Gonglu Blasters and other weapons favouring exotic energy blades such as twin hook swords. Skilled warriors to be treated with respect when encountered."

Figures are Xin Youxia from The Ion Age.  I like these figures, they have similar armour to the regular troopers but their unique weapons and headgear really set them apart as hero characters.  Incidentally, these are some of the cleanest castings I've seen recently: they required so little cleanup it made me nervous I was missing things.

Mechanical Murder

5C-UD, Disposable Assassin Droid
28 mm

Buying a soft plastic Star Wars figure (not Imperial Assault, some kind of toy) with a pronounced "lean" inspired me to paint this mash-up of IG-88 and Scud the Disposable Assassin.

The Parasitoid Undead!

Worm Zombies

15 mm

Following infection by Gordius anthropophagus, a human victim slips into a days-long coma, only to awake ravenously hungry.  After days of savage, indiscriminate feeding, the higher nervous functions break down and the head lolls back as the parasitoid worm typically erupts from the neck or face.  The host body lurches to its feet again under its rudimentary control and the worm whips around voraciously seeking new hosts to inject its eggs into.

I was inspired to make these by thinking about the fungal zombies from"The Last of Us" and real-life horsehair worms, which are basically the hideous parasitoids that insects would make horror films about if they could.  As it is, their sheer horribleness is well-documented on YouTube.  Figures are Khurasan's "The Dead" and "The Raging Dead".

Kooky Tanuki!

Traveling Tanuki
15 mm scale

Tanuki, or raccoon dogs, are a common subject of Japanese folklore.  They're good-natured, even foolish trickster spirits capable of shape-shifting and disguise.  Traditionally, tanuki were often depicted in humorous art, wielding their preposterously large and prehensile scrotums as tents, hats, fishing nets, and many other useful items. While not including this particular feature, this sculpt from 15mm.co.uk. was still a cute, fun project to quickly paint up.

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And a sneak peek at a project I've just started.  It's what I believe is a... unique take on the "parasite" zombie concept.  Figures are from Khurasan.

Death in Vacuum

Grim Reaperbot
15 mm

Space travelers can be an oddly superstitious bunch, and lurid tales abound in ports across the galaxy about eerie and gruesome encounters out in "The Black".  One of the strangest, usually laughed off nervously by sensible folk, is of the Reaperbot... a metallic figure who appears out of nowhere to claim the lives of unwary spacers.  Nobody can claim they actually know someone who's seen it... but everyone knows the stories.

Miniature is Ion Age's "Grim Reaperbot", skulls are from 15mm.co.uk.

"You hear something?"

Family Ties

High Class Doctor and his Eccentric Sister
15 mm

"You gave up everything you had to find me. You found me broken. It's hard for you. You gave up everything you had." 
"Mei-mei, everything I have is right here."

The children of a wealthy family on a comfortable world, he saved her from government brainwashing and now they hide among the outlaws and smugglers of the outer rim planets, where she turns out to have disturbingly good survival skills...

Figures are, once again, by Ground Zero Games.  Still a nice set, but some of the sculpting here was really frustrating.  Even in 15mm, you don't make a painter's life any easier when you take a character who looks like this:

and sculpt him like this...

Fly the Friendly Skies

Cutie-pie Mechanic and Cheerful Pilot
15 mm

"Everyone's got somebody.  Wash, tell me I'm pretty."
'"Were I unwed, I would take you in a manly fashion."
"'Cause I'm pretty?"
"'Cause you're pretty."

 

Another pair of Ground Zero Games' spaceship crew.  This time it's the perennially upbeat yet lovelorn ship's engineer, and the goofy plastic-dinosaur-playing pilot.  These are also really fine sculpts which I made look sort of like Smurfs.  But still enjoyable to paint with a few opportunities for teeny tiny freehand.  I don't actually yet own the Captain, First Mate, and Security figures, but I do have the Physician and His Weird Sister that I can have a go at next.

Galactic Warrior of Dundee

Angus McFife XIII
15 mm

Angus McFife XIII my name
Scion of mighty Dundee
Intergalactic great hero of steel
Ruler of the whole galaxy

Wielding this ancestral weapon
The Hammer of Glory its name
The Kingdom of Fife will forever proclaim

Angus McFife the Thirteenth, king of the Intergalactic Empire of Fife, is the hero of the ridiculous(ly awesome) concept album Space 1992: Rise Of The Chaos Wizards by power metal band Gloryhammer.  Armed with the Hammer of Glory ("powered by lasers entwined in a star") and aided by his allies the Hollywood Hootsman and the Knights of Crail, he battles the evil space wizard Zargothrax, who intends to destroy the universe.

If this all sounds incredibly cheesy, that's because it is...

Warriors of planet Earth, hear my raging cry
For mighty Dundee, the demons will die!

Angus McFife is a converted Prydain Retained Knight from The Ion Age.

The Fat Controller

Drone and Controller
15 mm

The Controller roams wreckage-strewn battlefields with his motley collection of bots, looking for salvageable parts and technology to be repaired and sold on the interstellar black market.  While naturally legless and sessile, he has adapted a Taranis runner drone to give himself exceptional mobility and speed.

The bot and the Controller's legs are Taranis Runner Drones from The Ion Age, while the Controller himself is from 15mm.co.uk. I've only done these two figures, but as I acquire suitable robot figures I may expand the team. 

These guys actually got off to a bit of a rocky start when, right after I basecoated them, my youngest decided he was going to help paint them while I wasn't looking!  Welp!  Into the dip, and lesson learned...

Birthday Monster

Lizardman Soldier
28 mm

You hear the door come crashing down
The birthday monsters are in town!

This is kind of a special project for me.  My 4 year old daughter thoughtfully selected this Reaper Bones mini for me for my birthday this year, and I wanted to paint it up as soon as I could to show my appreciation.  It's a good figure, a bit "flat" but still exhibiting a dynamic character.  The Bones plastic was even softer than I'd expected, but the hot water trick worked to straighten the spear and generally make him stand more upright.

I'll admit you can tell my skills have slipped in the last few years, but on the other hand, painting 15 mm has made me accustomed to using strong contrast, which I think suits this scaly guy.  The other figure she got me might have to wait a bit, I have some 15 mm projects I'm anxious to get going on once the back-to-school madness settles down.

Claw Patrol

Hell Divers theropod rider
15 mm

As intelligent and loyal as dogs, fast and immensely powerful; large predatory dinosaurs from the Chuhuac home world are used by some human allies as mounts for military expeditions.  Though vulnerable to weapons, their trainability and versatility make them ideal mounts for elite scouts in challenging environments.

Converted, as mentioned here, from a Schleich toy dinosaur and a Clear Horizon infantry figure.

Patrolling on a lush jungle world... beautiful, but hidden threats await.

Sneak peek (theropod rider)

As summer winds down, I'm finding a little more time to paint, and at the top of my queue is my dinosaur rider!  I'm still amazed at the detail on the Schleich models...

Also, I was recently surprised with a lovely birthday gift: a couple of Reaper Bones figures personally selected by my 4-year-old daughter.  That's never happened before!  She made good choices too: 77050 Lizardman Soldier, and 77092 High Elf Adventurer.  I don't paint much 28 mm any more but I'll have to have a go at one of those soon.

The flesh and the word

Courtesan and Preacher
15 mm

 "So, would you like to lecture me on the wickedness of my ways?"
 "I brought you some supper. But, if you'd *prefer* a lecture, I've a few very catchy ones prepped. Sin and hellfire. One has lepers."
 "I think I'll pass.  But thank you for this."

Two of Ground Zero Games' not-quite-Firefly crew figures.  These were challenging to paint, as the sculpting is very fine (though not quite to the extremes of Tom Meier's work).  I did not do the lady justice at all; her face was almost impossible to paint well, though I have seen others who pulled it off.  Her glamorous sari-like dress is very in character, I'll admit.  The preacher's humble attire and downcast face were easier to approach and I quite like the result.

Riders of the saurian age

Hell Divers theropod rider
15 mm

Anyone on the 15 mm sci-fi Facebook group has already seen this, but I just started a fun little project.  I adapted a Clear Horizons "Hell Diver" figure to be the rider and sculpted a saddle out of putty.  There could be various explanations for soldiers in the future riding dinosaurs, but I can think of at least one based on fluff I've written in the past...

I mentioned the high-quality Schleich toy dinosaur in a previous post but never had a good idea what to do with it.  With a bit of putty added to cover up the embossed text on the belly, I think it's at least as good as most dino sculpts intended for gaming.  As oddly good as Schleich's paint jobs are, for some reason the primed model really gets my creative juices flowing...

Cowabunga!

The various tasks and leisures of summer have put a considerable dent in my painting progress, so I'm afraid I don't have anything of my own to show you.

But I do want to showcase this.  I didn't even know there were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Clix figures, but the proprietor of Menace Miniatures really hit these out of the park:

Yeah, wow.  I always loved the old TMNT comics, and these really evoke the surprisingly gritty spirit of the Eastman and Laird originals.  There are a couple of other good pics on his blog so head over and check it out!

Moon walkers

Spacesuited research team
15 mm

Wearing light-duty environmental suits for planetary surface exploration, these civilian scientists carry various sensor gear.  A semi-autonomous rover accompanies them with larger instruments and communications equipment.

Figures are Ground Zero Games  SG15-V10 and SG15-V17 (astronauts) and V15-69C (rover).

The rover.  It's intended to be a military sensor drone, but I think yellow suits it.

After the horrific events of November 22, 2048, the artifact must now be kept
in hard vacuum and studied only by personnel wearing fail-safe devices.

Some kind of mushroom...

Myconids
15 mm scale

Myconids are a peaceful, telepathic race of mushroom creatures who live in the D&D world's "Underdark" caverns.  These Khurasan figures could be peaceful Myconids wishing to be left in peace by more aggressive species... or menacing and harmful Cursed Myconids defending themselves with bursts of necrotic spores.

The Sentinel

Ominous Xenoartifact
65 mm tall

I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire-alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. 

I do not think we will have to wait for long.

- Arthur C. Clarke "The Sentinel", 1951

A Fenris Games resin model.  It makes an impressive 15mm piece, or a merely disturbing 28mm one ;)

Addendum: a better idea of the scale here...

Nerf Herders

Free Traders/Adventurers
15 mm

Myriad, overlapping, and sometimes contradictory commercial regulations can often make it difficult for interstellar traders to stay on the right side of the law.  Sometimes the best way to make an honest living is to just go with your own personal definition of "honest".  This human and his imposingly furry co-pilot do just that, trading in high-value commodities and frequently having some exciting and dangerous life experiences along the way.

... like raiding a heavily-guarded Cultural Collective data core.  "Never tell me the odds!"

Miniatures are from The Ion Age and a slightly converted 15mm.co.uk "Wildthingian".