An offer you can't refuse

Dirty Thirties Gangsters
15mm

I painted this buncha wise guys for the same person who sent me some 10mm fantasy characters a while back.  They're Khurasan's "LC-103, Sheparton's gangster henchmen" from his eldritch horror range.  These may have spurred some light research into men's fashion, prompted by such questions as "did hats match suits?" and "who wore spats?" (in this case the two dapper goons on the right).

You came to the wrong neighborhood

Alien thugs
15mm

The streets of Dropfall are home to a wide array of unsavory and dangerous characters... these two nonhumans make a career out of violence and petty theft.

Figures are from Alternative Armies: Kardul and Oni.

"Look at humans!  Fancy pair is them... Think they took wrong turn, yes?"

"You again!"

Children of the 80's

As a kid in the 80s, I played with the classic 80's toys - especially GI Joe and Transformers - almost every day.  In the last while I've run into the blogs of a few hobbyists who are tabletop-gaming 28mm GI Joe...  It's a pretty cool idea, and presents the chance for lots of fun hobby projects.  From Katsuhiko Jinnai's "The Realm of Jinnai":

Wow... stunning work, and nostalgia overload :O  I am unsure where he gets all these amazing figures; some are clearly conversions but many seem to be custom sculpts?!

Now I've found a very cool new thing.:

For Cobraaaaa!

For Eterniaaaaa!

Like Jinnai, Doctor Merkury does a lot of converting to produce his Joes... and He-Man characters!  And my personal fave: he 3-D prints Transformers!  What?!

As a bonus, both these bloggers are fantastic photographers who use backdrops and terrain pieces to maximum effect showing off their work... which I can really appreciate :D

Hail to the chief

Barbarian War Chieftain
15 mm

OK, this is going to be the last Barbarica figure for a while.  These guys are some of the best 15 mm figures I've had the pleasure of painting, but I need a change of scenery!

Here's a group shot.  A fine looking bunch, I think!

Everybody Dance Now

Barbarian Dancers
15 mm

All alone I have cried
Silent tears full of pride
In a world made of steel
Made of stone...

Whether preparing for battle, celebrating a victory, or just hailing the end of another long winter, every barbarian feast needs some drumming and dancing.  Hopefully, the dancers' ritual will please whatever wild pagan gods their people worship, and herald another year of prosperity...

Once again, models are Copplestone's 15mm Northlander Characters, via North Star Military Figures.  Since someone mentioned it below, the skin tones and highlights on these two figures are all Army Painter Warpaints "Barbarian Flesh" mixed with white.  My previous Barbarica figures used this as well as some Vallejo Pale Flesh and GW Vomit Brown.

"Sigrid, I'm not sure I approve of her new style..."

Undersea Boat

The Nautilus
scale unknown

“I am not what you call a civilised man! I have done with society entirely, for reasons which I alone have the right of appreciating. I do not, therefore, obey its laws, and I desire you never to allude to them before me again!”

This unusual model is actually a game piece from the board game "Nemo's War", painted for a friend.  She requested I follow the box art as closely as possible, and I think the resulting deep aqua turned out quite well.  This is a small piece, under 50mm long, but with very good detail for a board game token.

Looks like fun!

Adeptus Caduceus

Space Marine Medic (1988)
25mm scale

Well, this Marine is a real blast from the past... he dates all the way back to my earliest teenage years in the hobby!  He first appeared in the 1988 Citadel catalogue alongside a horde of other charming sculpts:

Space Marines were definitely a different breed back then: a lot less like walking tanks and more like elite soldiers, and the sculpts reflected that.  More personality, fewer skulls and purity seals.  And we walked uphill to school, both ways, it was a golden age, etc.

Anyway, I bought this guy for cheap on eBay many years back, a satisfying score.  His backpack is from the remnants of the old plastic "Beakies" set I keep in my bitz box.  He might not be my best work ever, but I think I captured that old White Dwarf painting style pretty well.

"By the Emperor, I think it might be too late for this one..."

The Return of Javi

Good news, everyone! 

The sculptor and painter I once titled my "Most Loyal Reader" has returned!  After a lengthy (I feared permanent) hiatus, Javi, proprietor of Lazy Minis, has started posting again, with two vibrant and creative offerings in his own inimitable style!  Check out his blog, it's a lot of fun :)

"Beware Contrarium"

"Cool Comeback... Or Not"

Definitely a style apart from mine... but he's got talent, and a real sense of humour!  Javi, don't ever stop :D

A bloodsucker born every minute

Cyberpunk Vampire
28 mm

Before the morning can break we retire
The searing heat of the sun we avoid
Await the dark, proud Walachian fighters
Armata strigoi

I have absolutely no idea where this amazing figure is from; I found it in a bitz bin at Nexus Games in Kingston ON a few years ago.  It's cast in delicate light blue resin with a fair amount of flash, so I don't think it was from a board game:

Anyway I was very excited to finally paint it, and it didn't disappoint!  What a cool character.  He's got a mix of high-tech and medieval style armor, and he's wearing an IV that constantly feeds him blood for that all-night vampire fix...

"You must be new in town!  No wonder you haven't met Mr. Pointy..."

A sucker born every minute

"Kraken" game piece
no scale

I'm happy to say I finished the "Abyss" Kraken game piece in record time!  It helps that it's only three colours, all based on the same blue shade to tie it together... but still.  That's a lot of suckers!  I wanted a murky but richly-colored deep-sea look so I tried to avoid my usual near-white highlights here.  It's a bit shiny; I gave it a durable (I hope) satin clear coat to keep it looking good for many plays.  Fun, and a bit different :)

By His Noodly Appendage

So I went to a New Year's party at a friend's, and received an impromptu request.  She recently got a copy of the board game "Abyss".  The game includes a marker for the Kraken, a game token which, she explains "follows the most unscrupulous player around the board".

So yes, obviously I'm painting this thing!  Looks like a good first project for 2019...

"Raise your hand if you think that was a Russian water tentacle."

Shieldmaiden

Thorrun, Shieldmaiden
28 mm

When I am dead,
Lay me in a mound.
Raise a stone for all to see
Runes carved to my memory

A Bad Squiddo Games figure, from their impressive line of female Vikings.  I think I spent more time on Hurstwic.org doing "research" than I spent painting this figure... gotta be accurate, right?  That said, while I wholly approve of historical revisionism in the name of fun, inclusive gaming, there's not a lot of evidence that Viking women warriors like Thorrun here were common.  And while stories of someone like Freydis Eriksdottir are known, I'm not sure she's what you'd call a good role model for your Norse daughter...

No step on snek.

Oh yes, and...  Merry Christmas, everyone!

The Fellowship of the Ring revisited

The Fellowship of the Ring
10mm

Working on all these 10mm fantasy figures lately got me thinking about the first time I explored this scale, with Copplestone's Fellowship of the Ring figures.  Hard to believe I tackled these paint jobs way back in 2007!  Anyway, I decided to re-base them in the style of more recent work, and see if I could bump up their look a bit.

Definitely an improvement, IMO.  In comparison to the figures from my previous post:

Teeny Greeny Tough and Meany

Marauding orcs
10 mm

I had a few 10 mm scale Copplestone fantasy figures left from my not-a-commission project a while back, and decided to paint them up a few days ago.  Fun!  I don't paint a lot of orcs either so their grimy green aesthetic is a bit novel for me.  The result is pretty standard Tolkien-style orcs, though I did borrow from Warhammer for the shield design :)  I have some corresponding heroes, painted over eleven years ago (!), that I now want to re-base to match them.

The brains of the operation

Space Brains
no fixed scale

Swooping down from space, their ray guns and menacing claws gleaming, their frontal lobes glistening, the Space Brains attack!  All they seek is total domination, the destruction of the planet, and possibly to grab and menace scantily-clad human women.
 
Cratered Hab Dome
15mm scale

I decided to base a couple of them on a resin scenery model to give them the appearance of hovering over a ravaged battlefield.  The Space Brains are Alternative Armies figures.  The Cratered Hab Dome is a 15mm scale Ion Age model.

"Aim for the squishy bits, troopers!"

No seat in Valhalla

Shaman and Draugar
15 mm

A couple more figures from the Barbarica "Northlander Characters" pack, painted as a mystical (or maybe just deranged) hermit and an undead Draugar warrior.  Draugar, the Norse undead "possess superhuman strength, can increase their size at will, and carry the unmistakable stench of decay".  They are also supposed to have "blue and evil looking" or black skin, and possess a variety of supernatural abilities.  Possessing insatiable appetites, they envy and hate the living, leaving carnage and misery in their wake.

Background's a Kleenex box.  Pretty good, huh? ;)