Sneak peek (theropod rider)

As summer winds down, I'm finding a little more time to paint, and at the top of my queue is my dinosaur rider!  I'm still amazed at the detail on the Schleich models...

Also, I was recently surprised with a lovely birthday gift: a couple of Reaper Bones figures personally selected by my 4-year-old daughter.  That's never happened before!  She made good choices too: 77050 Lizardman Soldier, and 77092 High Elf Adventurer.  I don't paint much 28 mm any more but I'll have to have a go at one of those soon.

The flesh and the word

Courtesan and Preacher
15 mm

 "So, would you like to lecture me on the wickedness of my ways?"
 "I brought you some supper. But, if you'd *prefer* a lecture, I've a few very catchy ones prepped. Sin and hellfire. One has lepers."
 "I think I'll pass.  But thank you for this."

Two of Ground Zero Games' not-quite-Firefly crew figures.  These were challenging to paint, as the sculpting is very fine (though not quite to the extremes of Tom Meier's work).  I did not do the lady justice at all; her face was almost impossible to paint well, though I have seen others who pulled it off.  Her glamorous sari-like dress is very in character, I'll admit.  The preacher's humble attire and downcast face were easier to approach and I quite like the result.

Riders of the saurian age

Hell Divers theropod rider
15 mm

Anyone on the 15 mm sci-fi Facebook group has already seen this, but I just started a fun little project.  I adapted a Clear Horizons "Hell Diver" figure to be the rider and sculpted a saddle out of putty.  There could be various explanations for soldiers in the future riding dinosaurs, but I can think of at least one based on fluff I've written in the past...

I mentioned the high-quality Schleich toy dinosaur in a previous post but never had a good idea what to do with it.  With a bit of putty added to cover up the embossed text on the belly, I think it's at least as good as most dino sculpts intended for gaming.  As oddly good as Schleich's paint jobs are, for some reason the primed model really gets my creative juices flowing...

Cowabunga!

The various tasks and leisures of summer have put a considerable dent in my painting progress, so I'm afraid I don't have anything of my own to show you.

But I do want to showcase this.  I didn't even know there were Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Clix figures, but the proprietor of Menace Miniatures really hit these out of the park:

Yeah, wow.  I always loved the old TMNT comics, and these really evoke the surprisingly gritty spirit of the Eastman and Laird originals.  There are a couple of other good pics on his blog so head over and check it out!

Moon walkers

Spacesuited research team
15 mm

Wearing light-duty environmental suits for planetary surface exploration, these civilian scientists carry various sensor gear.  A semi-autonomous rover accompanies them with larger instruments and communications equipment.

Figures are Ground Zero Games  SG15-V10 and SG15-V17 (astronauts) and V15-69C (rover).

The rover.  It's intended to be a military sensor drone, but I think yellow suits it.

After the horrific events of November 22, 2048, the artifact must now be kept
in hard vacuum and studied only by personnel wearing fail-safe devices.

Some kind of mushroom...

Myconids
15 mm scale

Myconids are a peaceful, telepathic race of mushroom creatures who live in the D&D world's "Underdark" caverns.  These Khurasan figures could be peaceful Myconids wishing to be left in peace by more aggressive species... or menacing and harmful Cursed Myconids defending themselves with bursts of necrotic spores.

The Sentinel

Ominous Xenoartifact
65 mm tall

I can never look now at the Milky Way without wondering from which of those banked clouds of stars the emissaries are coming. If you will pardon so commonplace a simile, we have set off the fire-alarm and have nothing to do but to wait. 

I do not think we will have to wait for long.

- Arthur C. Clarke "The Sentinel", 1951

A Fenris Games resin model.  It makes an impressive 15mm piece, or a merely disturbing 28mm one ;)

Addendum: a better idea of the scale here...

Nerf Herders

Free Traders/Adventurers
15 mm

Myriad, overlapping, and sometimes contradictory commercial regulations can often make it difficult for interstellar traders to stay on the right side of the law.  Sometimes the best way to make an honest living is to just go with your own personal definition of "honest".  This human and his imposingly furry co-pilot do just that, trading in high-value commodities and frequently having some exciting and dangerous life experiences along the way.

... like raiding a heavily-guarded Cultural Collective data core.  "Never tell me the odds!"

Miniatures are from The Ion Age and a slightly converted 15mm.co.uk "Wildthingian".

The Art of War

Leonardo da Vinci and his tank
15 mm

I stand alone
And gaze upon the battlefield
Wasteland
Is all that's left after the fight
And I'm searching a new way to defeat my enemy
Bloodshed
I've seen enough of death and pain
- Sabaton, "The Art of War"

In 1482, Leonardo da Vinci, already an accomplished artist, came under the retainer and patronage of Ludovico Sforza, the Duke of Milan.  Ludovico desired to make his city-state renowned for the arts and skilled crafts, as well as adorning his own court with elegance and splendour.  War never being far from his doorstep, he was also greatly interested in Leonardo's claims of expertise in military engineering.

One of Leonardo's military concepts was his "tank", a mobile wooden fortress bristling with cannons which could wheel across the battlefield immune to arquebus and pike.  Like many of his concepts it was likely never built, but one could imagine Ludovico, mindful of his surrounding enemies, financing the creation of a prototype.

Decorated with the family crest of the Sforzas.

Tank or no tank, in 1499 Ludovico was forced from power a French invasion of Milan, and Leonardo fled to Venice.  He spent the rest of his legendary career serving patrons such as the Cesare Borgia and Pope Leo X, before dying in France in 1519.

 As mentioned in my previous post, these lovely miniatures are from 15mm.co.uk.

Star Port Hustlers

Horansi spice broker
15 mm

Even in a galaxy full of amazing sights and experiences, most species which consume food appreciate a "taste of home".  If they desire an obscure, rare or merely delicious food supplement or flavouring, this merchant might just have some stashed in the slew of leather and fabric sachels slung about its body.  Horansi drive a notoriously hard bargain, but even if it doesn't have what you want, it can usually find it, for a price.

A slightly modified (tail and vertebral plates added) 15mm.co.uk figure.

Space port mechanic
15 mm

Eking out a living repairing shuttles, cargo lifters and speeders, this technical individual might get your ride back in the air just when you need it... or he might try to recharge your displacer coils with counterfeit fullerenes.  Buyer beware.  Another converted 15mm.co.uk figure.

Leonardo and his Tank

"You up for a little reconnaissance?"
"You mean where we all sculpt and paint and stuff?" 
"No, that was the Renaissance."
- Buffy the Vampire Slayer

I normally don't bother to just post stuff I bought these days but I have to share this one.  15mm.co.uk recently released miniatures of Leonardo da Vinci and his famous concept "tank", one of many inventions of his that was so far ahead of its time that it was, as far as we know, never built.  Leonardo was a military engineer for the Duke of Milan, producing other more practical deadly mechanisms and fortifications, as well as overseeing the Duke and Duchess' opulent wedding.

They're really nice models: well-sculpted crisp casts with lots of detail.  The tank is two resin halves with sixteen (!) metal cannon barrels, and you get two versions of Leo: mounted, and unmounted holding blueprints and a tiny model of the tank!  Too cool.  I can't wait to paint these up.

It's pretty big too.  With other figures for scale.

Kill for Gain/Jacked In

Mercenary
15 mm

Kill for gain or shoot to maim
But we don't need a reason
The golden goose is on the loose
And never out of season

'Net Runner
15 mm

In the bloodlit dark behind his eyes, silver phosphenes boiled in from the edge of space, hypnagogic images jerking past like a film compiled of random frames. Symbols, figures, faces, a blurred, fragmented mandala of visual information. - "Neuromancer"

Two Ion Age miniatures, from the recent "Precinct Adventurers" set.

Space Cannon (finished)

Ion defense cannon
15 mm scale

It took a little while to get back to this project, but I finally fired up the airbrush and quickly painted it up.  I used a not-very-SF "woodland" camo scheme to match my Multiverse Terrain MDF command bunker; the result is, I think, a mid-near-future or mid-tech look.  Or something.  I added a few hazard signs and some weathering to break up the greeny brownyness a bit, and also "fix" the scale to my 15mm figure collection.

A truly remote outpost...

He's back!

So for the past year or so I've been missing the guy I once called my "most loyal reader", who seemed to be on a lengthy hiatus from blogging.

Well, sculptor and blogger javi started posting again this week, and right out of the gate he does not disappoint, posting this unique and striking original creation:

I love it!  Anyway, if you've visited his blog in the past, drop by and say welcome back.  And if you haven't... go check it out.  It's worth it :)

Saucer Sighting

After all the fun I had making my last "budget project", the Ion Cannon, I thought I'd have a crack at something else that appeared on my worktable recently.  Our "Stranne" lamp from Ikea has been flickering for a while and I replaced the cord switch, leaving me with this surplus item:

Yeah.  The project potential was obvious so I popped over to the craft store and bought some 1/2" wooden balls. These I sawed in half - surprisingly difficult to do evenly.  Fastened to the underside of the switch, they give us a retro-chic "Adamski" UFO look that many people probably recognize.

I decided to leave the cord holes, but added mesh inserts to make them look like some kind of sensor or port, and scribed some lines suggesting a ramp or hatch on one side.  Lastly, I added some view ports made from smallest brass washers I could find, and primed.

After a couple of coats of silver spray, and a few accents (ramp borders in steel and viewports in gloss black), I had a UFO!  Not too bad if I say so myself; a bit "clean", but it seems to suit the subject.  And as befits a budget project, it came in at around $8.00 (and some of that was Canadian Tire money!), including a fresh can of silver spray paint.

Scale is about right for a small "scout" type UFO...

(Note my lazy failure to fill the screw holes)

"'Klaatu Barada what', Mulder?"

Blindsight/Singing Sentinel

Blind Gunman
15 mm

Unable to finance costly cloned replacements or a set of bionic oculars, this freelancer has hacked a black-clinic neurode array to receive visual data from the scope on his blaster.  Great for gunfights, not so great for social situations.  An Ion Age miniature.

---

Calamite Cantor
15 mm

While not a populous race, Calamiti are familiar to most other sentients, especially travelers.  The Calamiti believe in the Drowsy Gods, powerful beings who protect the universe from incursions by hideous, unspeakable terrors from other realities.  Their complex, multi-tonal chants, a familiar sound in many starports, are intended to keep the Drowsy Gods awake despite aeons' worth of age-weariness.  Musicologists have noted disturbing mathematical similarities between their songs and certain prayer chants described in the writings of the ancient human Abdul Al-hazred.

Space cannon WIP

Ion defense cannon
15 mm scale (?)

Someone on the 15mm sci-fi gaming Facebook group posted a link to this set recently, and I cavalierly commented that it'd be cheaper, and easy to just build one.  Normally when I say things like this I'm full of crap wishful thinking, but this time I thought "Don't be that guy", and decided to put my hobby tools where my mouth is.

The inspiration: $40 USD

I wanted this to be a cheap project; partly to prove a point and partly because I don't really have any use for it.  So it's made out of bitz, card stock, and repurposed items:

One Canadian craft beer, one papier mâché Xmas craft ball.

Can end cut down and tabs folded over for stiffness.

 

Decorated with bitz and card.  I went for a longer cannon; size matters.

The result, even when just spray-primed, is surprisingly decent-looking:

At 15 mm scale this is much smaller than the famous "Hoth cannon" from The Empire Strikes Back, but I was careful to avoid any obvious scale-betraying details, so it could be used as a turret for 28 mm, or a planetary defender for 6 mm.  I anticipate the rough papier mâché texture being a bit of a problem when I go to paint it, but my plan is to obscure it with painted-on details if needed.

Boarding party backup

Chuhuac "Vasseth" Strike Tank - Shipboard Configuration
15 mm scale

Sometimes even a routine policing mission just needs "more dakka", so Chuhuac marines have a special ace up their tail-sheath for boarding actions encountering heavy resistance.  The compact Vasseth tank has been modified for off-planet use; its grav units supplemented with a deployable air-cushion and reaction jet systems for use in centripetal pseudogravity and even limited zero-g maneuvering.  Twin beamer turrets are highly lethal while avoiding explosion damage to friendlies in close quarters.

 I also finished up my remaining few Chuhuac special forces figures to go with this:

The pirates guarding the airlock are about to have a bad day.