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 Adventurers - Villains (WIP)

Space Baddies
15 mm

Evil for profit

Evil for principle

I'm just getting a start on the last two figures from this set - the bad guys! It took me days to get the basing and prep work done, in a parent's typical 5-10 min. leisure increments.  Dremeling the attached bases off was as usual a nerve-wracking exercise!  But they're ready to paint now and I'm really looking forward to it.  These happen to be two of the most dynamically posed figures in this set and really, they're head and shoulders above a lot of 15 mm sculpts in that regard.

Stay posted for the completed paint jobs...

Savage Sidekick

Leela
28 mm

Leela was a warrior of the savage Sevateem, a tribe of regressed humans. She joined the Fourth Doctor on his travels and with him fought for good causes. Although quite clever, she knew little of technology, and was continually amazed by her surroundings and the tasks she faced. Leela never lost her primitive edge, and remained quick to take up arms throughout her time with the Doctor. - Tardis Index File

Yay, another Doctor Who mini, though one that might not mean anything to non-fans.  I like this character because, starting in her debut in the excellent Tom Baker episode "The Face of Evil", she was never satisfied with not understanding something, rejecting magical beliefs and trying to rationally comprehend even the most bizarre things she encountered.  A scientific mind, despite her stone-age origins.  Although attempts to make her a proper Victorian lady failed ("The Talons of Weng-Chiang"), she eventually settled on Gallifrey, home of the Time Lords.

I again used my jungle base technique for this mini, effectively I think.  And it's always nice to have time to do 28 mm minis, they are where I started in this hobby.

"I know, there's no such thing as magic."
"That's right. To the rational mind, nothing is inexplicable; only unexplained."

"You're just a mechanical man!  You're not real!"

Third Doctor & TARDIS

The Third Doctor & TARDIS
28mm

I don't do a lot of 28mm painting these days, and these pieces probably demonstrate why.  I got the TARDIS as a Christmas gift last year, and quickly basecoated it... and yeah.  Just finished it this week.  As for the Third Doctor, I've definitely done better paint jobs.  I tried to set up a contrast between his grey wool cloak and his flamboyant clothes underneath, but overall he just isn't that interesting-looking.  Also, there's some pretty slapdash layering on this one :(

The signs on the TARDIS were actually made using this image, printed off on a regular laser printer at 10% zoom.  The result looks amazing, IMO:

Gingerbread 2012

Since, shockingly, the Mayan Armageddon failed to appear, I put together this year's Christmas gingerbread house.  Or, in this case, castle.  No real-life architectural inspiration this time; if anything it's inspired by the plastic tower from "Battle Masters" ;)  Little plastic men (unpainted, alas) were an obligatory addition.

"Camelot!"  "It's only a model!"

"Get me closer, I want to hit them with my sword!"

Two men enter... one man leaves!

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!

Easy sci-fi basing with Instant Mold

For the next couple of 15 mm figures I'm doing, I wanted nice, high-tech "spacey" looking bases that would complement the minis' genre. The trouble is, the found objects I was going to make them out of are composed of soft, non-paintable plastic - ever try to paint those green vinyl army men?  (Also, sometimes an original object may be valuable or unique and one doesn't want to use it up to make bases.)

Enter my Instant Mold, and here I'm going to show you how I easily made multiple great-looking bases from a single textured original. Not rocket science, for sure, but since my basing posts here seem to get a good response, I thought I'd show you how I did it.
 

The object I'm using is an "embedding cassette" used to prepare tissues for microscopy.  Looks sort of cool and tech-y... but it's an unsuitable material.  Here, I've trimmed it down and stuck it to a tape backing.

Pressing the Instant Mold firmly onto the original produced a nice impression.

I usually base 15 mm figures on a Canadian penny, so this, covered with green stuff, is the substrate here.

The putty-covered coin is pressed onto the mold.  I tried to ensure that the putty layer wasn't too thick, and was of even thickness to produce a ~ flat "floor" for the mini to stand on.

Ta da!  Looks pretty good!  Once the putty was set, I peeled the mold off and carefully cut away the excess putty with an X-acto knife.  By varying the location on the mold where I pressed the putty, I made multiple  slightly different bases with the same general appearance.  And of course, green stuff is always guaranteed to be workable and takes paint well.

I can easily imagine a single dollar-store toy or random thing you found by the side of the road generating many bases using this method, and with a little ingenuity different textures could probably be combined on one base. I should also try it with rocks and other natural materials to see what kind of surfaces I can produce.

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...

I saw "Iron Sky"

It's been reviewed properly elsewhere, but MY capsule review:

1. Not great
2. LOVED it!  So much fun!

For those of you who haven't heard about this B-grade, crowd-funded indie-blockbuster film, it's very briefly about Moon Nazis invading the Earth.  It's 2018, and US President cough totallySarahPalin has sent a mission to the moon to boost her popularity.  The astronauts quickly encounter a secret Nazi moon base, and the survivor is captured, precipitating some wildly improbable adventures and eventually a full-on Moon Nazi attack.

Yeah, it can't quite decide if it's slapstick, goofy political humour, dark political satire, an action film, or what.  Surprisingly good at times (especially for a $6 million budget), painfully clunky at others, if you like Weird War 2/dieselpunk/wacky Nazis and don't take it too seriously it's definitely worth a watch.  Also, the heroine Renate is just about the cutest little National Socialist since Helga from "Allo Allo".

Its ok, she doesn't KNOW she's a baddie, or that she looks eerily like Claire Danes c. 1996

Dead Snow

Nazi Zombies
15 mm

After finishing the Untoten Soldaten for my brother, I liked them so much I decided I wanted some too!  I gave these ones snow bases, obviously inspired by the Norwegian zombie film Død Snø (Dead Snow).

Grr Argh!

(Hey, apparently the whole film is on YouTube... for now.  It's probably the second bloodiest zombie film I've ever seen, I think Peter Jackson's Dead Alive wins first prize.)

Jungle floor bases

So I've had a few requests in the comments here to explain how I made the forest floor bases on my Huntarr.  Pictures = 1000's of words etc.,so I've put together a quick demo.

Most of the materials I use: oregano flakes, a stick, paints, white glue and clear coat.  I'm using a 25mm base for visibility.

Some cut-up pieces of stick become broken saplings and logs on the ground (I forgot to take a pic of this step).  For 15mm scale you don't need to cut these very carefully.  Glue them down with epoxy or white glue... crazy glue will just soak into the wood.

The basic cover of oregano is laid down by sprinkling over white glue.  This will generally need to be touched up by adding single flakes to fill the gaps.  Then, a tool is used to squish the flakes down and compact the surface.

The leaf litter is liberally soaked with a mixture of acrylic matte varnish, brown, green and black paint.  This will darken it and help to physically consolidate it.

The litter is drybrushed with lighter greens and browns, all mixed with a light tan to desaturate them.  The logs are just drybrushed with bleached bone.

This should all give you a passable jungle floor for 15mm, or even larger scales if you are a bit fussier with how it looks.

Huntarr - finished!

Huntarr Aliens
15 mm scale

It's been a challenging couple of weeks in parenthood, but I managed to squeeze in a few minutes here and there to finish these mean boys off.

 

The figures themselves: Honestly not my most careful paint jobs ever, but I like em!  They have the "feel" I was going for, and as a bonus I managed to not break the one guy's spear.  I swear I thought it would never survive...  The chieftain's cloak is supposed to be some sort of scaly reptilian hide, I'm not sure if it's from a BIG animal, or a bunch of Garn skins sewn together ;D

Basing:  I'm still not sure about the green plants, but I think the forest floor effect turned out really well. It's not out-of-scale either which is good, because I've used this method for 28mm minis as well.