Welcome to Dark Souls

Dark Souls Fighters

28mm

I picked up a deeply discounted set of "Dark Souls" boardgame figures a while back, and they're FUN.  Interesting designs, and easy to paint.  I know almost nothing about the game, so I've been painting these with few preconceptions.

"The Deprived"

This is one of the starting classes in the game.  Initially weak, but able to use almost any equipment they find.  I imagined him as a Spartacus-like escaped slave rebelling against his former masters.

 

"Knight of Catarina"

This is an NPC character you can rescue in the game, and also a cool set of armour you can use yourself.  I like the unique bulbous look!

"Adventurer Armour"

I don't know what the weird crystals are, but they were fun to paint as a vivid contrast to the rest of the figure.  The weird helmet is based on one given to Henry VIII by... some real weirdo?

"Black Iron Armour"

A stalwart figure.  I sponge-painted the purple on the shield and really like it!

"Vulture Knight" 

This one's actually a minor conversion of the Black Knight Armor using a GW bird skull since I didn't like the original helmet.  I also added a matching skull boss on the shield.

Now, only eleven more miniatures in the set, to work on at my convenience 😄

Life and Death on the Nekroplanet

"Nekroplanet Grob" is an incredible, spooky, and grimly whimsical sci-fi setting created by Ana Polanšćak, also known as Gardens of Hecate.  It's a tomb world of red sand and mysterious ruins, protected by terrifying skeletal automatons and bizarre phenomena.  Nevertheless, raiders travel from off-planet to risk everything in search of the treasures of the long-ago tomb-builders...

Tomb Raider 

28mm

Raiders arrive on the necroplanet with heavy weaponry, power armor, and advanced scanners, in the hopes of uncovering mysterious and valuable artifacts, and detecting the planet's defenders before they arrive.  It's always a deadly game of chance, as weapons and sensor technologies you don't always work the way you expect, and the planet has defenses that even the most skilled adventurers have never encountered before...

An EM4 miniature.

Traveling Hexahedron and Hedral Pillars  

Traveling Hexahedrons are black cubes of unknown composition and apparent indestructible nature, which slide across the planet's surface seemingly at random.  As they move, they will indiscriminately crush any creatures in their path.

Hedral Pillars exist in sporadic clusters on the planet's surface. They seem to attract traveling hexahedrons, but a space in between at least three pillars is the only place on the surface a creature cannot be crushed by the Hexahedrons' movements.

(The Traveling Hexahedron concept is created by Ana Polanšćak.  The Pillars are my idea.  Both are created from cheap puzzle toys.)

Nekroplanet Blitzer

The Nekroplanet's Grobnik infantry are lethal and resilient in their own regard, but their heavier support can be truly terrifying.  Although Annihilators are more heavily armed, Blitzers move across the treacherous nekrolith at high speed, seeking intruders on their own or rapidly arriving to reinforce Grobniks in battle.

The Blitzer is made from a dollar store Halloween decoration and the wheels for a toy car.  And it's definitely inspired by the band Megadeth's mascot "Vic Rattlehead"...

Hunting Party

Bounty Hunter and Enhanced Raptor

28mm

Artemisia Kian doesn't use unnecessary violence. But she did choose a career where a lot of violence is usually necessary. Hunting down the scum of the solar system on the run from the law, or their creditors, is just violent work. Fortunately, she doesn't have to do it alone. Her cybernetically-augmented neoraptor partner Belinda is fully equipped both naturally and technologically to track down the most evasive prey.

Artemisia is a Starfinder figure, Belinda is a converted D&D figure.

The Alien With No Name

Kisathi Gunslinger

28mm

"If you're gonna shoot, shoot. Don't talk."

 

A dusty town... who is this blue-skinned humanoid facing down a notorious bandit, his gun hands twitching?  Nobody knows him... is he a grim heroic figure protecting the innocent from cruelty?  Or just another bounty hunter mercilessly taking down his target?

I recently entered this figure in a painting contest at my local game store, The Dragon.  It didn't win, but I did have a lot of fun conceptualizing the character of an alien spaghetti Western gunfighter and capturing the look I wanted.

His poncho is a piece of "Kimwipes" brand lint-free tissue soaked in PVA glue and paint, and carefully draped over the already-basecoated and shaded figure.  I had to paint over it one it was dry, but pre-tinting it saved a lot of work.  In the end, I think I created a nicely Clint Eastwood "Blondie"-like character...

Dare to be Punk

"Maggie, You ****"

28mm

Twenty five quid to live on
Seven days a week to survive
Five and twenty pictures of the queen
You won't see the starvation in her eyes
Twenty five quid to dish out
And you're already ten in debt
So with fifteen singles left over
The landlord gets the rent

Maggie, Maggie you c*** Maggie, Maggie you c*** Maggie
Maggie you c*** Maggie Maggie Maggie Maggie you fucking c***

- The Exploited, "Maggie" 

This is my entry for the Instagram "Punk Dare" contest run by Dark Elf Erin.  I envisioned a Britain where the Falklands war dragged on, depressing the economy to desperate lengths, and where the 1984 attack by the IRA succeeded in wiping out most of the British Cabinet.  In response, Margaret Thatcher institutes emergency measures and turns Britain into a real police state.  But some people still resist...

 I tried to load this figure up with old-school punk style: red Royal Stewart plaid, ripped fishnets, and a bold mohawk... contrasted with the totalitarian propaganda posters plastered over old punk material on the wall behind her (and already torn down and defaced).

I also decorated the back of the piece, with some fun old punk show posters:

Check out all the superb contest entries here: https://www.instagram.com/explore/tags/punkdareentry/

Graveyard Watcher

"Angel of Death" Statue

28mm scale

Not a ghost bloodied country
All covered with sleep
Where the black angel did weep

A deserted churchyard... neglected, moldering headstones and blowing leaves.  And a tall, masked figure, its wings spread ominously behind the scythe looming in its grip.  "Just a statue", you say... "Just the moonlight", you say...

This was my utterly non-seasonal pre-holiday project from a few weeks ago.  It's a really old Ral Partha figure, dating back to 1979 and sculpted by the legendary Tom Meier!  It was part of RP's original extensive and characterful lineup.

 

I threw together a few old graves with mossy headstones to go with it, they should make good scenery for some ghoulish character at some point.

Cetacean cyborg

Jones
28mm scale

Jones heaved half his armored bulk over the edge of his tank, and I thought the metal would give way. Molly stabbed him overhand with the Syrette, driving the needle between two plates. Propellant hissed. Patterns of light exploded, swarming across the frame and then fading to black. We left him drifting, rolling languorously in the dark water. Maybe he was dreaming of his war
in the Pacific, of the cyber mines he'd swept, nosing gently into their circuitry with the SQUID he'd used to pick Ralfi's pathetic password from the chip buried in my head. - "Johnny Mnemonic"

Jones is a cybernetically enhanced dolphin, used by the navy to sweep and hack sea mines during the last war, and addicted to amphetamines to ensure his obedience.  He somehow left the service with his implants intact, but to feed his addiction he now lives in a tank at a grubby fun park, as a low-rent attraction for the children of Nighttown... "Talk to the War Whale!".  One day, razorgirl Molly Millions comes to him with a challenge: a data courier with an encrypted program in his head that only Jones' implanted superconducting quantum interference device can unlock...

 

He was more than a dolphin, but from another dolphin's point of view he might have seemed
like something less. I watched him swirling sluggishly in his galvanized tank. Water stopped
over the side, wetting my shoes. He was surplus from the last war. A cyborg.
He rose out of the water, showing us the crusted plates along his sides, a kind of visual pun,
his grace nearly lost under articulated armor, clumsy and prehistoric. Twin deformities on
either side of his skull had been engineered to house sensor units. Silver lesions gleamed on
exposed sections of his gray-white hide.

I first read "Johnny Mnemonic" in high school in the 80s and poor Jones stood out to me as one of the great characters in a story crammed with delicious cyberpunk detail.  I clearly wasn't the only one; Jones made a memorable appearance in the cheesy Keanu Reeves movie (loosely) based on the story.  I opted for a sleeker look here than in the film when I converted a WizKids dolphin.

"Why are we here?"  "Because Allison doesn't really have any
cyberpunk minis.  Also the dolphin was lonely."

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!"

In the Barbie World

Barbie's Dream Post-Apocalyptic Gun Truck
15mm scale

The Dream House... Barbie's eyes grew distant as she re-counted their remaining bullets. It felt like a thousand years ago. So many windows, they couldn't hold it... and then Skipper, oh god! The flames as they ran... She slammed the crate shut. "Move it, Ken! Get that gear on board. We can't stay here, it'll be dark in twenty minutes!"

The Hot Wheels Barbie Dream Camper was an obvious choice for a post-apocalyptic Gaslands-style conversion job!  Because of HW's variable sizing, the end result is actually very close to 15mm scale, so it makes the perfect ride for those post-apocalyptic survivors hunting zombies/fascists/mutants in the grim future.

Total working time was about an hour, and I didn't even repaint the main body.  It's just coated with matte varnish and then dirtied up with Agrax Earthshade and a bit of brown paint.  Gotta keep that candy pink and Barbie branding!

Eye Scream

Eye-terrors
28mm scale

Eye-terrors lurk in the dark heights of dungeons and forests, waiting for unsuspecting prey to pass below.  Dropping onto the victim's head, they rapidly infiltrate the nervous system with their tendrils and take over control of the body. The head is then digested and the eye-terror is free to roam, seeking sustenance. It uses potent psionic attacks to subjugate prey, which it then consumes with its digestive tentacles.  The host body inevitably withers, and at some point it is discarded and the eye-terror seeks a high place to perch and wait for its next host...

Here we see a pair of vicious leucrottas that have fallen victim to the eye-terrors' ambush.

The eye-terrors are based on a pair of Nolzur's leucrottas models, which I found rather uninspiring by themselves, but playing with a handful of ball bearings at the bike shop gave me an idea...

The Maiden's Embrace

Iron Maiden
28mm scale

Yo, I'll hug a girl like it don't mean nothin'
Then turn around and start huggin' her cousin
I don't love 'em, end of the f***in' discussion
Got 'em tucked between my wings like thanksgiving stuffing

Forced into the chamber, the hapless victim screams in terror as the doors are slammed closed, impaling them on countless iron spikes.  A horrific fate for usurper, rebel, or heretic...

Despite the Iron Maiden's central place in everyone's imagination of what a medieval torture chamber would look like... there's no actual evidence that any such device was constructed or used prior to the modern era. The most well-known example, the Maiden of Nuremberg, is a replica of a 19th century construction.  Nevertheless, any "torture museum" tourist trap worth its salt can be expected to have one on display.

This particular example is from WizKids Deep Cuts, with the skeletal victim added by me.

In the catacombs beneath his new home,
Howard makes a gruesome discovery...

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...

Shock to the System

Cyberzombie Revolutionary
15mm

It was a night
Hell of a night, L.A., it really was
Oh what a riot
I said yeah, come on
It makes my life feel real
Fear police and civil corruption oh yeah
Is there a man who would be king
And the world stood still

In 1993 Billy Idol released his fifth album, "Cyberpunk".  Its questionable musical merits and cultural impact aside, it gave us the absolutely bomber song "Shock to the System"... and its slightly cheesy but enjoyable video.

The video's loose storyline is of a civil riot of some kind.  A lone camcorder-wielding man witnesses a group of police beating somebody. When they discover that he's seen them, they badly beat him in turn.  The smashed fragments of his camcorder incorporate themselves into his battered body to produce a lurching technological monstrosity with an enormous camera protruding from one eye socket. Totally not a metaphor for anything...

"It'd sure be weird if everyone could record what's
happening around them at any time..."

 

This conversion is based on a Khurasan zombie.

"This won't seem so farfetched in 2021, folks."