15mm terrain goodies

Shipping containers

 

My Instagram buddy @winnipegmichael generously sent me a bunch of nice corrugated craft paper, so naturally the first thing I made with it was that classic terrain piece, intermodal cargo containers.  If you own something manufactured, there's a good chance it once traveled in one of these...

I tried to make them look used but not totally abused.  The graffiti was fun, I did some of it with my child's Posca paint markers.

Wind turbine and solar unit

These two pieces were surprisingly easy for how good they came out looking. They're made from cardstock, corrugated paper, printed papercraft designs, and some toy parts.  The techy turbine blades are from a Kinder egg toy; there's a bit of Lego in there too.

Another Orctober Surprise

Bad Moon Boyz

15mm

The wealthiest and most ostentatious of the Ork klanz, the Bad Moons are idle, venal Orks with a reputation for showing off and using their wealth and status like a club to bludgeon other, less fortunate Orks into line.

Some CP Miniatures space orks, painted up as Bad Moonz from Warhammer 40,000.  Goofy little guys, but still definitely dangerous...

Sellsword and Scamper

Harry Fell and Chiseltooth
15 mm

 

"Fell, right? I heard you quested with Sir Roderick to defeat the Blood Baron of Skull Keep!"

"Defeated, all right, I struck the killing blow myself!  I'm actually wearing his armour. Heh heh... I wasn't risking my hide except for treasure. And that's where I found Chiseltooth here.  Good fighter he is, and smarter than any dog.  Now... even a Blood Baron's spoils don't last forever, so if you've a mind to retain me, best be saying something.  And I'll trouble you for another ale, too."

I'm not sure who makes these figures, I received them in a swap from my Insta buddy winnipegmichael, along with a bunch of other neat 15mm stuff (like these Alternative Armies Tengu he painted).

"Oh you want to eat crow, huh?  Sic em, Chiseltooth!"

Interstellar Pigs

Silt pigs of Kwiell
15mm scale

 

The Ikwen of Kwiell were first assumed to be, like Terran hunter-gatherers, a stone-age society.  But the first scientists to discreetly observe them were shocked to discover they possessed a wide variety of metal tools and ornaments, without any apparent mining activity.  It turned out the answer to this riddle was their domestication of "silt pigs", a species of humble grazing creatures.

Silt pigs eat vegetation, but a major part of their diet is a constant earthworm-like processing of rich mud, ingested through their extensible snout.  Mud passes through their elaborate gut, emerging as silty casings.  But periodically, the pigs expel a dense, dark-colored stool the Ikwen call the "fire pellet".  This stool contains a high concentration of bio-accumulated metal oxides.  The Ikwen smelt these in small forges to produce substantial quantities of copper, tin, and iron.  

These silt pigs have been grazing on soil rich in copper, hence the greenish hue of their dorsal spines.  Their tender carries a bioluminescent staff, and waves a coloured cloth to signal back to their village.

The silt pigs and their tender are from Loud Ninja Games via Alternative Armies.

An Ikwen herder, with their signature bioluminescent staff, checks
on silt pigs grazing in an estuary near a large fungal dome.

The New Mutants

Wasteland mutants
15mm

Nothin' left is sacred
So I've changed my point of view
You're the ugliest thing I've ever seen
And I think I love you

Ah, the apocalypse.  Mushroom clouds, fallout poisoning the air and land.  Maybe the disaster wasn't a nuclear war, and yet the world is still laid waste, survivors left to wander a bitter Earth seeking whatever remnants will help them survive one more day.  Crumbling reactors and chemical factories have disgorged tons of teratogenic waste; adults manifest tumours and growths, while new babies emerge with bizarre and horrific mutations.  In this new world, does the term "human" retain any meaning... or value?

This mutant gang and the Wasteland Witch (below) are Loud Ninja Games figures sculpted by Eli Arndt.

Raiders attack the witch's hovel!  The mutants, while outgunned,
are inhumanly tough and quick... who will prevail?

The Dodge Dart of Cthulhu

The Dukes of Al-Hazred
15mm scale

Yig Snake Daddy we come lookin' for you
We got a bored-out Chevy and a twelve pack of brew
Well we're a right-miffed party and it's easy to see
We've got a one-way ticket to the pit of insanity...

With a roar of supercharged pistons and a hazy contrail of eldritch energy, this rune-covered hot rod peels down the strip, its unspeakable riders cruising for... what exactly?  Well, it's probably better to just stay well out of their way.

Vanity plates, $300 well spent!

This is a Hot Wheels '68 Dodge Dart (I couldn't find a Dodge Charger) with an engine lifted from another car.  The riders are Khurasan cultist heads with fairly crudely sculpted bodies by me.  Worked surprisingly well...

I wish I could take credit for the titular pun on this one, but this car was squarely inspired by the album cover of "The Dukes of Alhazred", from the amazing Lovecraftian band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.  Ever wanted a song about shoggoths, Erich Zann, or the Dunwich Horror?  The Boston Molasses flood?  Coelocanths?  They gotchu, fam.

"Get in loser, we're wgah'nagl fhtagn!"

Herd Warriors

Horgosi Prime and Neek warriors
15mm scale

Honour-seeking warriors of an alien empire, the Horgosi Prime and its squad of diminutive but fierce Neeks are formidable opponents...

Figures are from Loud Ninja Games via Alternative Armies.

Clapping Alien Cheeks

Area 51 Raid
15mm

Possibly I've seen too much
Hangar 18, I know too much

 

Remember 2019?  I barely do.  But something strange happened back then, back when we still had a measurable metric for "strange".  A bunch of nerds jokingly decided to raid a top secret US military installation and discover the aliens hidden there.

Yeah.  You remember now.  A critical component of the raid was the Naruto Run, intended to allow people whose exercise mainly consisted of playing "Sonic the Hedgehog" to outrun bullets:

Alien cheeks, here I come!

The Air Force were fully briefed.

 

It must have worked, because nobody got shot.

The figure is a Khurasan zombie whose pose I suddenly recognized a while ago.

Mind over matter

Psykers
15mm

If you could read my mind, love,
What a tale my thoughts could tell...

The first children born with what was called "Mehdi's Syndrome" were seen as isolated birth defects: smooth, almost reptilian facial features, large hands, and complete hairlessness.  Many simply underwent facial surgery and led seemingly normal lives.  As they matured, however, it became apparent that almost all of them possessed truly bizarre mental abilities: strong telepathy, telekinesis, sometimes even limited precognition of future events.  Some were taken into government programs, others fled to the lawless demi-monde or remote areas to escape.  All were considered a threat, but also an opportunity for those who sought to control and harness their power...

The Psykers are Alternative Armies figures.

Cyberpunk Oni
15mm

Tough, brutal, yet surprisingly intelligent, Oni are sought after as enforcers and soldiers by many an underworld boss...

I've painted this Alternative Armies figure before, but I got another one in a trade and thought I could do even better!  It definitely needed more than a new colour scheme though, so I added a bit of greenstuff and an old 28mm Necromunda laspistol.  This guy's hands are so big, it doesn't even look out of scale.

Two Special Unit psykers snare a
dangerous foe...

Ancient Lurker in the Woods

The Troll
15mm scale

"Stay near the village!" they warn their children, "Or the troll will get you!"  Some believe it a survivor of the ancient war between the Pah Trolls and the sky gods, or a cursed earth spirit.  Once, emboldened by rice wine and brave songs, some villagers went hunting it with nets, spears, and axes.  Only one returned, telling how the troll spit lances of fire and crushed men beneath its huge feet.  They call the dark, marshy area of the forest where it lurks the "Pah Troll roots", and nobody goes there.

The Troll is an Ion Age "Steornade Battlesuit" from Alternative Armies, generously spackled with moss and a mix of fine flock and PVA.

The terror emerges, its eyes aflame...

Raiders of the lost paintjob

Pulp Adventurers
15mm

"Do we need the monkey?"
"I'm surprised at you. Talking that way about our baby. He's got your looks, too."

These figures were a lot of fun... I received them from an Instagram friend to paint as a trade.  I don't know where they're all from: I suspect Rebel Miniatures and perhaps somewhere else?  Anyway, they have a lot of great "Indiana Jones" energy :)

On a whim, I made a little "jungle altar with gold idol" piece to go with them... I'm sure it's not booby trapped.

15 mm catch-up

Wasteland Witch
15mm

 

 

I'm a little behind on blog posting!   Anyone following my Instagram can see it all there, but I've neglected this site :(

The Wasteland Witch is a great Loud Ninja Games figure, that I got from Alternative Armies in the "Mutants 1" pack.  Perfect for offering post-apocalyptic PCs a side quest, or rare items.  I liked her so much I made her a little hut or hovel to lurk in:

"Seeking answers, you have come!  Yes... about the Before Times!"

 

Robot Hound
15 mm scale

They sent a slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street called Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystallized hexogene and flaked TNT.

He didn't see it coming. The last he saw of India was the pink stucco facade of a place called the Khush-Oil Hotel.

An Alternative Armies figure... I added the tail.  Is it a loyal space pooch or a deadly assassination device?  Cyberpunk writers definitely lean to the latter...

Caught at close quarters, they didn't stand a chance...

Soldat de Vide
15 mm

This amazing one-off Steampunk-style Alternative Armies figure caught my eye a while ago, and I'm blown away by it in person.  First, it's just a really cool design; I love the diving-suit-style helmet and old rifle.  But as an Instagram follower said "It looks like 28mm".  I don't take any credit for that, it's such a great quality sculpt that it COULD be bigger and still considered excellent!

If Victorian SF/Steampunk was a slightly larger and less saturated market already, this could easily be the basis for a really cool army...

Ain't no party like an Edo party

Japanese Adventurers
15mm

I finished a whole party of Japanese adventurers to go with the two I posted a while ago.  There are two archers (Ronin and peasant), two fighters (sumo and ona-bugeisha), and a magic user.

 

Here's a closer look at the figures I haven't already posted.  I rather like the archer despite her plain appearance; her facial expression turned out well.  And the mage really looks good with the spell effect I added using wire and painted flock.

Oni
15 mm scale

What's an adventure without powerful and terrifying foes?  This ogre certainly fits the bill...

These figures fit very well with ninjas from Rebel Minis (r)...

Japanese adventurers

Hoshi the Hammer
15 mm

Who is this beefy brawler waving an enormous mallet?  An ex-Sumo seeking his fortune?  A sinister thug seeking to brutalize and rob?  His double-line arm tattoo marks him as a two-time convict under the penal system of the Edo period, but men run afoul of the law in so many ways...

Forehead tattoo for murder, arm for theft.

Red Ronin
15 mm

Masterless samurai whose daimyos had died or discharged them, ronin roamed the country, offering their services to lords as mercenaries or guards.  Some engaged in banditry or other less-than-honorable trade as well.  This ronin still has his armour, but lacks the traditional samurai's pair of swords, either through choice or the desperate necessity of selling them...

Both these miniatures are from Alternative Armies' "Sengoku" line of Japanese fantasy figures.