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.

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.

Square dealer

Valter the Vendabot
15 mm

A retail droid who surpassed his programming, Valter can be found wheeling and dealing on the streets of Dropfall City.  His sales pitches for everything from children's travel holos to illegal stim packs can be quite persuasive.  In return for the occasional tip, law enforcement fail to inform his former owners of his whereabouts.

One of The Ion Age's monthly freebies from last year.  Paintjob inspired by the 2000 AD/Judge Dredd character "Walter the Wobot" as painted by sho3box.  Paper terrain from World Works Games (and Google image search).

The Floating World of Lady Urokubi

The Lady Urokubi
15 mm

An influential socialite and traveler in human space, Urokubi has used the most advanced cybernetics, repulsorlift and micro-teleportation technology to give herself a truly extreme body modification.  Nutrients, blood supply and neural impulses are transmitted freely between transmat gates in her body's neck and her head, while brain implants allow her to effortlessly control her body while her head hovers independently of it.

The figure is a slightly modified "SGF23 Rokurokubi" (Japanese headless vampire) from 15mm.co.uk.

"You are as lovely as ever, Lady.""And you, as obsequious as ever, Ambassador."

Edit: here's a scan of the rug pattern for those who liked it:

Cult Movie Alien

Cult Movie Alien
15 mm scale

"Sorry to interrupt your recreation, fellows, but it is time for Sgt. Pinback to feed the alien."

John Carpenter's 1974 film, "Dark Star", is a weird, fun, low-budget story about a cranky crew of oddballs dealing with life in space and trying to save themselves from an intelligent bomb that has decided it wants to explode.  A major subplot features the shenanigans of a maliciously mischievous beachball-shaped alien (obviously made from... a beachball, and a pair of Halloween fright hands) which wreaks havoc on the ship while moving around via the ventilation ducts.

Dark Star was co-written by (and co-starred) Dan O'Bannon, who went on to write a rather more well-known 1979 film about a cranky crew of oddballs whose spaceship was destined to self-destruct, confronting a malicious alien traveling through the ventilation ducts:

"Look, we have actual money now!"

Shia Khan conversions (and big news)

Garafraxian Black Guards
15 mm

The quasi-humanoid, photosynthetic Garafraxians (colloquially called "Chloros") use heavy armour to protect their fragile bodies during combat.  Their long eye stalks give them excellent depth perception and peripheral vision however, so they generally extend them out of their suits except when in immediate danger.  The suits are lined with red-LED arrays to maintain their metabolism far away from their home star's nourishing rays.

We have another baby on the way... arriving in only a few weeks now, whoa! So I expect that I'll be posting pretty sporadically for a while.  But just like last time, I'll be back, so stay tuned :)

I did want to squeeze in at least one more fun project before our due date, however.  I wasn't sure what to do with these cool Shia Khan Pioneers when I ordered them, but once I got a good look at them I knew I couldn't not convert them into something weirder.

As Chloro shock troops poured in from the docking ring, Fett found himself
in the uncomfortable position of fleeing away from his ride off the station.

Kind of a goofy B-movie look here, but I like it.  All I really did was stick in wires with drops of epoxy on the ends, and sculpt the tentacle/pincer things over their human hands.  Well within my constraints of talent, fortunately.

"They Came From Planet Tubby"

Mysterious Tele-Aliens
15 mm

The origins of these strange biomechanical aliens are shrouded in mystery.  They dance and babble in childlike voices, until they suddenly disappear, only to turn up on a new world.  Strangely, they can communicate instantly with others of their kind via their abdominal view screens, and so have become a widely used faster-than-light messaging network for other species.  They have been known to alarm some human religious leaders, but are considered an extremely useful oddity by most sentients.
 

(This "squad" was my entry in the Dropship Horizon 15mm SF painting contest.  A lot goofier than my original plan, but time was tight.)

The figures above were my original plan for this contest.  Khurasan GOTA Clan riflemen with Mekanoid Melee Bots for support, on scratchbuilt starship bases.  But my KM order just arrived this week and there's no way I could have finished them nicely for the 15th.  So, Tubbies it is ;)