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.

Pistol Packing Smuggler

Sola Haru
28 mm

Here's my second Space Bunny Arts figure, a roguish smuggler who's not afraid to fly dangerous cargo or sling a blaster or two around (I wish I could say this paint job was inspired by Emily Ong's gender-bending Han Solo cosplay from about 5 years ago, but I didn't see that until I was mostly done).  I stayed pretty close to the iconic Star Wars outfit, but put the red "Corellian Bloodstripes" on the jacket sleeves where they'd be more visible.

And a group shot with my other SBA figure, Abi bin Qanubi (sold as "Jehn Kibo")

Master Blaster

I got a start on my second Space Bunny Arts figure today... the roguish "Sola Haru".  Another crisp, characterful sculpt from SBA, but initially I was puzzled by her fairly generic handguns.  Plain boxy bodies, round barrels; oddly not up to the standard of the rest of the sculpt...?

And then I realized... they're that way for a reason.  You're supposed to do things to them.  And so I chose the obvious route, making them look as much like a certain space smuggler's iconic pistol as possible.  Some fussy work, and bits from my trusty 1:700 Soviet navy spare parts sprue, and voila:

Obviously, you could easily go a different route.  Perhaps something more Western-inspired, or stubby and ugly-looking.  Sometimes with an off-the-shelf figure, "less is more"...

Warrior Hermit

Abi bin Qanubi
28 mm

So I finally got my first Space Bunny Arts figure painted!  I interpreted her as an older woman, who's spent years hiding in a remote desert from... something.  Possibly an evil galactic empire.  This is a lovely sculpt: well-posed, with cleanly rendered features and amazing fabric drapery.  A lot of fun to paint.

I feel like this paint job is similar to, and owes a lot to, Matt Sullivan's excellently-painted Imperial Assault figures... but it's hard to say how.  I have spent a lot of time admiring his work.  Anyway, I think this figure would fit in really well with that line.

"You're NOT the droid I'm looking for!"

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.

A Dark Lord Unmasked

So I don't often do blog posts about other people's blog posts, but I recently came across something too cool to pass up.  Matt S. at Oldenhammer in Toronto recently posted this conversion of a Star Wars Imperial Assault Darth Vader figure which blew me away:

He has a bit to say about it too:
If there's anything scarier than Darth Vader in his mask, it's Darth Vader with the top down: the bruised eyes, the long unhealed wounds, and the skin pale as a moonscape. There is no better subject if you want a miniature as a portrait of a person in pain.

It's a powerful portrait of one of our favourite sci-fi villains in all his hideous glory...  If you like it, don't just tell me.  Tell him!  (He's also posted some other really nice Star Wars stuff more recently, so check that out too.  I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this blog from now on.)

Rude Mechanicals

Droid buddies
15 mm

I thought I'd do something fun with some of the robots I got in a recent 15mm.co.uk order.  Honestly, these aren't the crispest figures out there, but with a bit of work I think they turned out... okay.  Any resemblance to anything else at all is purely coincidental.

Originals: HOF43, HOF45 and HOF70

"Staging" miniature photography

I've been envying certain bloggers' terrain collections for a while.  Not because I want it for gaming, but because with the right set-up,  it can produce some really impressive photos of miniatures that "bring them to life" as it were.  Some good examples from some of my favorite painters:

Yeaaaaaah, pretty nice.  I don't have nearly the time to make this kind of thing, or the space to display it, but some kind of thematic backgrounds might be an improvement over the blue-white gradient or simple coloured paper I use now.

The other day I found a page with a pretty amazing collection of  free Star Wars-themed downloadable paper terrain, that I thought might do the trick and be simple to use. I printed some off, and quickly whipped up this super-basic backdrop:

Your typical Death Star corridor, nothing to write home about.  But even this produces some fun photos:

"Only a master of evil, Darth!"

Trying something a little more elaborate:

"Hey, what's HE doing here?"

Wow, right out of the movies!  OK, maybe not exactly, but I like it.  And it gives the figures a bit more "story" or context, which any even halfway-decent sculpt should already be trying to evoke.  Also, while it's not very creative on my part, I could print these at different scales to display 15 or 28mm minis.

Space Adventurer #5

The Dark Warlord
15 mm

Hatred is like a long, dark shadow... It is like a two-edged sword. When you cut the other person, you cut yourself. The more violently you hack at the other person, the more violently you hack at yourself. - Haruki Murakami, "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle"

Of course I saved the best for last... and this is such a great figure too!  The sense of aggressive forward motion is really there, with that cape billowing behind him.  Seemingly beyond redemption, he charges into combat cutting his enemies down without mercy.  His powers are impressive, but his main allies are his own hate and anger.

My source lighting on this one is definitely inspired by dis's excellent version of this figure.  I think the figure looked pretty good without it, but that's no excuse to get lazy, now is it? ;)  The base is actually super simple - a piece of an old model kit that has a treadplate texture on it.  I wanted something cool but not so elaborate it distracted from the figure itself.

Space Adventurer #4

The Bounty Hunter
15 mm

Certainly there is no hunting like the hunting of man, and those who have hunted armed men long enough and liked it, never really care for anything else thereafter.
- Ernest Hemingway
 

A coolly amoral villain full of menace and mystery (or at least he once was, before we learned all about his childhood and his many adventures in elaborate detail).  There aren't a lot of characters I'm willing to paint twice, in two different scales, let's put it that way ;)

"I shall call him... Mini Me."

Space Adventurer #3

Warrior Hermit
15 mm

Now and again it is necessary to seclude yourself among deep mountains and hidden valleys to restore your link to the source of life.
- Morihei Ueshiba, founder of Aikido

This one ended up being quite... Cecil B. DeMille.  Perhaps this mystic is parting a sea of sand, instead of the Red Sea?

Ordinary men hate solitude. But the Master makes use of it, embracing his aloneness, realizing he is one with the whole universe.
- the Tao Te Ching

Also, it's ok to lie to people who trust you about their dead or missing parents.

Space Adventurers #2

Lone Hand and the Big Furry Oaf, space smugglers
15 mm

"Dantes had not been a day on board before he had a very clear idea of the men with whom his lot had been cast... the people without name, country, or occupation, who are always seen on the quays of seaports, and who live by hidden and mysterious means which we must suppose to be a direct gift of providence, as they have no visible means of support. It is fair to assume that Dantes was on board a smuggler."
- The Count of Monte Cristo

Well these guys are what those bases in my last post were designed for.  Again, I'm not saying where I got them, but they're really nice.  They're good likenesses, and I think the contrast of tight/extended body poses make them also look good as a pair.

I've also now been reminded how nerve-wracking it is to grind attached bases off of tiny, tiny miniatures with a Dremel cutter.  But once again, nobody and nothing that wasn't supposed to be ground off, was ground off.  Whew!

Another daring escape!

Space Adventurer #1

Star Walker
15 mm

Starwalker, he's a friend of mine
You've seen him looking fine
He's a straight talker, he's a Starwalker
Don't drink no wine
- Buffy Sainte-Marie

I can't say too much about the origin of this mini, for obvious reasons.  Anyway the set is a really nice one, they're not super-detailed sculpts but they capture the essential characters quite well and the poses/proportions are well-done.  They're all a bit on the tall side of 15 mm, so they might not mix seamlessly with some other lines, but they're close enough.

Also... OSL on a 15mm mini?  Insanity.  Actually no, because it works exactly the same way and you have less area to paint.  But I'm not good at it, and it's hard to pull off on light-coloured surfaces.  And stills from the films were NO help:

Yeah, it was rotoscoped in post-production.

Lastly, I really like how the brown backdrop looks in these shots.  I may have to re-shoot all my Huntarr with more thematic dark green backdrops now...

Star Wars Blog Extravaganza

I just came across this Star Wars mini blog via the Lead Adventures forum... "Scotty Speed" apparently has about six hundred SW miniatures, some WEG, some custom conversions and sculpts of his own!  He's a really good painter too:

I've painted the middle pilot figure myself.  Never seen the others before...

Sy Snootles and the Max Rebo Band, aww yeah!

 
Hmm yeah.  Nice!  Seriously worth checking out if you're even a quasi Star Wars fan.

Another Weird War Project

Valkyrie Walker
15 mm scale



More German WW2 stuff that never happened. I really enjoy these little models, I don't feel nearly as much self-pressure to strive for technical perfection in my paint job, and I can have fun meddling with them without risking mangling a large and costly kit. In this case, I built a turret, added a tank commander from the bits box, and sculpted a rolled camo net to hide the ugly casting flaws on the rear end (that's what $16 gets you, apparently).

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Star Wars Cake Toppers
Approx 50 mm

Speaking of alternate reality, since when was Princess Leia Bengali? Since my charming friends Siham and Sean decided to get married, that's when!



This was pretty easy, since I didn't have to repaint the whole figure, and Han was perfect the way he was. But they turned out looking so cute, and it's always nice to make myself useful...

Chick Challenge 2008

Rebel Alliance Pilot and droid
25mm


"They're moving our base to Dantooine, R5. It looks pretty safe and out of the way to me."

This is my Chick Challenge 2008 entry, in the Sci-Fi category. No chance of winning anything, of course, since the quality of the other entries is pretty high. The miniatures are 80's-era Grenadier figures, the holo generator is made from Zoid toy parts.

"The Empire will compensate you if he dies."

Boba Fett
25 mm



"You like to hurt folk."
"Part of the job."
"That's why you TOOK the job."
- River Tam and bounty hunter Jubal Early, "Firefly"

Well, he's done. I think he looks fantastic too, the saturated colours give him a comic book vividness which doesn't really match his appearance in the films, but works well on this scale. The figure is kind of small (for a miniature, even) so this helps to make the details more distinct as well.

Again, thanks to treide for this great figure.

Progress

Amid the post-holiday work blitz, I'm getting a bit of painting done... I like how the high-contrast look is turning out on Boba here.