A nose for history

Quintorius Kand, field historian

28mm scale

They say an elephant never forgets.  But Quintorius can never seem to recall where his copy of Bulrush's "Lore of the Known Realms" is.  Thankfully, he always has a backup, "Verified Explorations and Accounts" by Ning...

 

This figure is actually a character from "Magic: The Gathering", appearing on a number of cards.  I didn't even know there was an MTG miniature line until I found this guy hiding among the Nolzur's figures at my local store.  Anyway I really like this unarmed, non-aggressive figure; according to the fluff Quintorius is a mage-scholar who explores ancient ruins to discover the history of his people, the Loxodons.

"The long-lost Temple of Contemplation... where to start?"

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!

Dear Murderbot Diary

Freelance Murderbots
28mm

So, I’m awkward with actual humans. It’s not paranoia about my hacked governor module, and it’s not them; it’s me. I know I’m a horrifying murderbot, and they know it, and it makes both of us nervous, which makes me even more nervous. - "All Systems Red" by Martha Wells

 

 Designed as tough, obedient cybernetic fighters, a few SecUnit AI's were able to circumvent their own programming and become truly autonomous beings.  Some of these came to eschew violence altogether, preferring to live as civilians and binge-watch episodes of Sanctuary Moon.  But others chose to earn a living in the way they were still best-equipped to - as guards, mercenaries, and bounty hunters.

These stylish miniatures are Stargrave "Old Rogues: the Robots" from North Star Military Figures.

Ye Who Enter Here

Gothic Gateway
28mm scale

The gargoyles slumber through time
With patience they wait for the sign
These demons of obscurity
Shall fly once again, soon they'll be free

In the abandoned ruins, you come across a shattered arch.  Flanked by blocky pillars and carved grotesques, it once had an elegant crest, now lying in ruins below.  Nothing remarkable seems to lie beyond, but as you pass through, you sense that something has awakened...

When my son gave me a set of Nolzur's Marvelous Miniatures gargoyles for Christmas, I knew immediately that I didn't want to just paint them grey and base them.  The arch is blue insulating foam mounted on an MDF base, with dabs of moss made by mixing flock with Mod Podge.  Nice and atmospheric, I think...

Dark Disciple

Sinister Adept
28 mm

You will not be punished for your anger; you will be punished by your anger.

 

The Sinister Adept was once a monk, like so may others.  But over time, he grew to see his brothers with contempt.  To him, their meditation, praying, and humble daily rituals became the servile activities of weak, inferior beings.  He scoured the monastic library for deeper knowledge... not how to control the self and achieve inner peace, but how to control others: the mantras of terror and subjugation.  However, his impious researches could not remain secret for long.  Discovered, he departed the temple with his favoured volumes, leaving carnage and destruction behind him.

 The Adept is a Ganesha Games "Psi Paladin" from Alternative Armies.

Jolly Old Elf

Aviator Santa
28 mm

"Let's get this crate in the air!" Nicholas roared, above the drumming sound of ten rotary engines and the near-hypersonic whine of the temporal glaciator.  Elves frantically loaded the last of the cargo containers, packed with presents, through the belly hatch and secured the doors.  Pulling his scarf snug about his neck, he grabbed Mrs. Claus and gave her a big kiss.  "Smoke me a kipper, darling, I'll be back by morning!"  Then he climbed the ladder into the cockpit.  The elves pulled the wheelblocks, and the Sleigh thundered down the runway and lifted off into the Arctic night.

 

This one is a bit late, it only showed up in my mailbox days before Christmas.  It was a lot of fun to paint; I love his Heroic Pose and dashing flight cap and goggles.  I got it from North Star Military Figures, but it doesn't seem to be offered for sale there any more.  Perhaps next December :)

Hard-hitting Hannah

Hannah (Stargrave cyborg)
28mm 

Once I wanted to be the greatest
two fists of solid rock

A climate refugee born with tiny arms and hands in the chaotic, sprawling Frankfurt Displacement Zone, Hannah Gupta seemed destined for a hard life.  But her father scavenged and repaired a mismatched set of adult prostheses for her, and she grew up as the kid others came to if something needed to be fixed... or a bully needed to be taught a lesson with a very long right hook.

Now she works the ships, traveling across the solar system from Venus to Triton, but never too far to send her parents a video message and a credit transfer.  And she earns enough that her new arms are custom fitted, with swappable heat- and chem-resistant titanium hands for work, and tactile synthskin ones for play.

And these?  These are her fighting hands.

"A boxing match?  I think I pass, Earther... Perhaps we go drink instead?"

A Stargrave figure from North Star Military Figures.

Herd Warriors

Horgosi Prime and Neek warriors
15mm scale

Honour-seeking warriors of an alien empire, the Horgosi Prime and its squad of diminutive but fierce Neeks are formidable opponents...

Figures are from Loud Ninja Games via Alternative Armies.

Clapping Alien Cheeks

Area 51 Raid
15mm

Possibly I've seen too much
Hangar 18, I know too much

 

Remember 2019?  I barely do.  But something strange happened back then, back when we still had a measurable metric for "strange".  A bunch of nerds jokingly decided to raid a top secret US military installation and discover the aliens hidden there.

Yeah.  You remember now.  A critical component of the raid was the Naruto Run, intended to allow people whose exercise mainly consisted of playing "Sonic the Hedgehog" to outrun bullets:

Alien cheeks, here I come!

The Air Force were fully briefed.

 

It must have worked, because nobody got shot.

The figure is a Khurasan zombie whose pose I suddenly recognized a while ago.

Undead Bosses

Lich and Mummy Lord
28mm

Carving your way through the horde of inept, shambling skeletons and zombies, you sense a greater malevolence at work.  Not a human necromancer, but a supremely evil intelligence, itself risen from beyond the grave...

These two sinister figures are actually a set from WizKids Deep Cuts.  Although rather an odd figure, the mummy was fun and easy to paint.. and I like the translucent cloud that attaches to its base to give it a bit of a dramatic appearance.

The Lich's pose and the rising figure at the base appealed to me, but I felt that the sculpt's tidy robes didn't suit the character. So I draped it with PVA-soaked tissues and scraps of cheesecloth to produce a grungy and decayed appearance suggesting a long interment in the earth..

FYI I'm still playing catch-up with blog posts, but in the next few weeks I hope to have presented everything I painted this year...

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...

Deaf forever to the battle's din

Scrap Thrall and Necro Captain
28mm

Win or lose, naught to choose
All men are equal when their memory fades
No one knows, friend or foes
if Valhalla lies beyond the grave

The undead come in many forms... whether reanimated by sheer will and hatred, arcane necromancy, or the unnatural sciences, they lurch malevolently through the world, formidable foes for the living...

 

These two figures have been stuck in my lead pile for many years, because I just don't paint many skeletons!  But I wanted something spooky to paint for October, so here they are.  An odd couple, to be sure; I went with thematically matching paint jobs while giving each one a distinctive look.  I'm glad I'd learned the foam smoke technique I used here, I can't imagine the Thrall looking right without it.

The creaking, smoking minion wasn't much help searching the
swamp, but the Necro Captain did rely on it to mindlessly savage
any enemies they might encounter

Big Bird

Terror Bird
28mm scale

This large and muscular flightless bird could be a species of Gastornis/Diatryma (55 mya) or the more recent and savage Phorusrhacid Titanis (1.5 mya).  

I included this amazing Antediluvian Miniatures figure almost as an afterthought when I ordered Mary Anning.  They have some other really nice looking prehistoric creature figures referencing the history of paleontology itself.

The filming of "Lemurian Explorers", 1928: Burt Hardcastle couldn't help feeling that this was awfully realistic for a special effect...

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...

Ancient Lurker in the Woods

The Troll
15mm scale

"Stay near the village!" they warn their children, "Or the troll will get you!"  Some believe it a survivor of the ancient war between the Pah Trolls and the sky gods, or a cursed earth spirit.  Once, emboldened by rice wine and brave songs, some villagers went hunting it with nets, spears, and axes.  Only one returned, telling how the troll spit lances of fire and crushed men beneath its huge feet.  They call the dark, marshy area of the forest where it lurks the "Pah Troll roots", and nobody goes there.

The Troll is an Ion Age "Steornade Battlesuit" from Alternative Armies, generously spackled with moss and a mix of fine flock and PVA.

The terror emerges, its eyes aflame...

Raiders of the lost paintjob

Pulp Adventurers
15mm

"Do we need the monkey?"
"I'm surprised at you. Talking that way about our baby. He's got your looks, too."

These figures were a lot of fun... I received them from an Instagram friend to paint as a trade.  I don't know where they're all from: I suspect Rebel Miniatures and perhaps somewhere else?  Anyway, they have a lot of great "Indiana Jones" energy :)

On a whim, I made a little "jungle altar with gold idol" piece to go with them... I'm sure it's not booby trapped.

15 mm catch-up

Wasteland Witch
15mm

 

 

I'm a little behind on blog posting!   Anyone following my Instagram can see it all there, but I've neglected this site :(

The Wasteland Witch is a great Loud Ninja Games figure, that I got from Alternative Armies in the "Mutants 1" pack.  Perfect for offering post-apocalyptic PCs a side quest, or rare items.  I liked her so much I made her a little hut or hovel to lurk in:

"Seeking answers, you have come!  Yes... about the Before Times!"

 

Robot Hound
15 mm scale

They sent a slamhound on Turner's trail in New Delhi, slotted it to his pheromones and the color of his hair. It caught up with him on a street called Chandni Chauk and came scrambling for his rented BMW through a forest of bare brown legs and pedicab tires. Its core was a kilogram of recrystallized hexogene and flaked TNT.

He didn't see it coming. The last he saw of India was the pink stucco facade of a place called the Khush-Oil Hotel.

An Alternative Armies figure... I added the tail.  Is it a loyal space pooch or a deadly assassination device?  Cyberpunk writers definitely lean to the latter...

Caught at close quarters, they didn't stand a chance...

Soldat de Vide
15 mm

This amazing one-off Steampunk-style Alternative Armies figure caught my eye a while ago, and I'm blown away by it in person.  First, it's just a really cool design; I love the diving-suit-style helmet and old rifle.  But as an Instagram follower said "It looks like 28mm".  I don't take any credit for that, it's such a great quality sculpt that it COULD be bigger and still considered excellent!

If Victorian SF/Steampunk was a slightly larger and less saturated market already, this could easily be the basis for a really cool army...