Interstellar Pigs

Silt pigs of Kwiell
15mm scale

 

The Ikwen of Kwiell were first assumed to be, like Terran hunter-gatherers, a stone-age society.  But the first scientists to discreetly observe them were shocked to discover they possessed a wide variety of metal tools and ornaments, without any apparent mining activity.  It turned out the answer to this riddle was their domestication of "silt pigs", a species of humble grazing creatures.

Silt pigs eat vegetation, but a major part of their diet is a constant earthworm-like processing of rich mud, ingested through their extensible snout.  Mud passes through their elaborate gut, emerging as silty casings.  But periodically, the pigs expel a dense, dark-colored stool the Ikwen call the "fire pellet".  This stool contains a high concentration of bio-accumulated metal oxides.  The Ikwen smelt these in small forges to produce substantial quantities of copper, tin, and iron.  

These silt pigs have been grazing on soil rich in copper, hence the greenish hue of their dorsal spines.  Their tender carries a bioluminescent staff, and waves a coloured cloth to signal back to their village.

The silt pigs and their tender are from Loud Ninja Games via Alternative Armies.

An Ikwen herder, with their signature bioluminescent staff, checks
on silt pigs grazing in an estuary near a large fungal dome.

Water of Life

Moisture vaporators
28mm scale

Water, water everywhere, nor any drop to drink

Not an easy life, farming on a desert planet.  In fact, there's really nothing to farm.  A few hardy souls make a living at it though, running vaporators that concentrate water out of the air and pump it to underground cisterns.  On such an arid world, that earns enough cash to own a cozy home and maybe even send a kid to the Academy...

These great laser cut MDF models are from Multiverse Gaming.  

On a remote farmstead, a duel to the death: bounty hunter vs. mystic warrior.

The New Mutants

Wasteland mutants
15mm

Nothin' left is sacred
So I've changed my point of view
You're the ugliest thing I've ever seen
And I think I love you

Ah, the apocalypse.  Mushroom clouds, fallout poisoning the air and land.  Maybe the disaster wasn't a nuclear war, and yet the world is still laid waste, survivors left to wander a bitter Earth seeking whatever remnants will help them survive one more day.  Crumbling reactors and chemical factories have disgorged tons of teratogenic waste; adults manifest tumours and growths, while new babies emerge with bizarre and horrific mutations.  In this new world, does the term "human" retain any meaning... or value?

This mutant gang and the Wasteland Witch (below) are Loud Ninja Games figures sculpted by Eli Arndt.

Raiders attack the witch's hovel!  The mutants, while outgunned,
are inhumanly tough and quick... who will prevail?

Cetacean cyborg

Jones
28mm scale

Jones heaved half his armored bulk over the edge of his tank, and I thought the metal would give way. Molly stabbed him overhand with the Syrette, driving the needle between two plates. Propellant hissed. Patterns of light exploded, swarming across the frame and then fading to black. We left him drifting, rolling languorously in the dark water. Maybe he was dreaming of his war
in the Pacific, of the cyber mines he'd swept, nosing gently into their circuitry with the SQUID he'd used to pick Ralfi's pathetic password from the chip buried in my head. - "Johnny Mnemonic"

Jones is a cybernetically enhanced dolphin, used by the navy to sweep and hack sea mines during the last war, and addicted to amphetamines to ensure his obedience.  He somehow left the service with his implants intact, but to feed his addiction he now lives in a tank at a grubby fun park, as a low-rent attraction for the children of Nighttown... "Talk to the War Whale!".  One day, razorgirl Molly Millions comes to him with a challenge: a data courier with an encrypted program in his head that only Jones' implanted superconducting quantum interference device can unlock...

 

He was more than a dolphin, but from another dolphin's point of view he might have seemed
like something less. I watched him swirling sluggishly in his galvanized tank. Water stopped
over the side, wetting my shoes. He was surplus from the last war. A cyborg.
He rose out of the water, showing us the crusted plates along his sides, a kind of visual pun,
his grace nearly lost under articulated armor, clumsy and prehistoric. Twin deformities on
either side of his skull had been engineered to house sensor units. Silver lesions gleamed on
exposed sections of his gray-white hide.

I first read "Johnny Mnemonic" in high school in the 80s and poor Jones stood out to me as one of the great characters in a story crammed with delicious cyberpunk detail.  I clearly wasn't the only one; Jones made a memorable appearance in the cheesy Keanu Reeves movie (loosely) based on the story.  I opted for a sleeker look here than in the film when I converted a WizKids dolphin.

"Why are we here?"  "Because Allison doesn't really have any
cyberpunk minis.  Also the dolphin was lonely."

Undead Master of Knowledge

Count Orlok, Scholarly Vampire
28mm

Immortality... a gift, and yet also a burden.  A vampire can only enjoy rampant carnage for so long before even the hunt becomes a chore.  The weight of centuries can lead to apathy, immobility, descent into near-stasis... or a realization that all that time opens up new potential.  Some like St. Vigeus embark on martial conquest, amassing a vampire army and putting humans to the sword as well as the fang.  But for others, their intellect guides them.  An infinite quest for knowledge, discovery of lore and arcane secrets, and possibly immense power! With nothing but time, they scour the world for obscure tomes, magical artifacts and substances, hideous rare beasts, and other arcana.

A CP miniatures figure, with a scratchbuilt desk and accessories from WizKids Deep Cuts.  I also added a few details to his base, implying some tentacled horror imprisoned beneath his floor.

"Ah... nothing like a bottle and a new book.  It's a pity there's nobody
here to share them with... oh right, I hate company."

Brutally Enhanced

Grafted nightmare
28 mm

There's no shortage of possibilities in artificial body modification.  Many mods are sleek, streamlined or even invisible, greatly augmenting their wearers' abilities without even changing their clothing size.  But for others, the visibility is intentional: bulging vat-grown muscle tissue, extra or extended limbs, and bulky cybernetics.  The most extreme mods go beyond even the minimal legal restrictions, and must be sought from overseas black clinics, or just a medical school dropout operating in a dirty garage with stolen tools.  The results are often horrific: barely-human monstrosities driven by social disengagement, distorted self-image, and violence...

This miniature is a real mystery! I received it in a swap many years ago, and have no idea who made it or what exactly it's supposed to be.  It kind of has shades of "Weapon X" from Marvel comics, and "Adam" from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

"Stay back... This guy's one of those Shinjuku jobs..."

 

Dark Troopers

Viridian Marines
28 mm

I got no face, no name, I'm just a killing machine

These sinister soldiers, Viridian Colonial Marines from Scotia Grendel, have been sitting in my lead pile for a LONG time (so long that I'm very surprised they're still in production).  These sure aren't my best paint jobs, but I decided it was time to get them done.  I always imagined them resembling the horrible fascist troopers in the anime "Jin-Roh", and that's definitely the look here.

I tried a variant of gently drybrushing with a fairly wet brush to speed-paint them, but they definitely turned out looking... drybrushed.  As chalky as a glass of metamucil.  Oh well.

"Halt!  Who are you?  You're in the wrong place, citizen..."

The Dodge Dart of Cthulhu

The Dukes of Al-Hazred
15mm scale

Yig Snake Daddy we come lookin' for you
We got a bored-out Chevy and a twelve pack of brew
Well we're a right-miffed party and it's easy to see
We've got a one-way ticket to the pit of insanity...

With a roar of supercharged pistons and a hazy contrail of eldritch energy, this rune-covered hot rod peels down the strip, its unspeakable riders cruising for... what exactly?  Well, it's probably better to just stay well out of their way.

Vanity plates, $300 well spent!

This is a Hot Wheels '68 Dodge Dart (I couldn't find a Dodge Charger) with an engine lifted from another car.  The riders are Khurasan cultist heads with fairly crudely sculpted bodies by me.  Worked surprisingly well...

I wish I could take credit for the titular pun on this one, but this car was squarely inspired by the album cover of "The Dukes of Alhazred", from the amazing Lovecraftian band The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets.  Ever wanted a song about shoggoths, Erich Zann, or the Dunwich Horror?  The Boston Molasses flood?  Coelocanths?  They gotchu, fam.

"Get in loser, we're wgah'nagl fhtagn!"

We Can do It!

Wanda the Welder
28mm

All the day long, whether rain or shine,
She's a part of the assembly line.

"I always tell them how long it will ACTUALLY take to fix up their pile of flying trash... these space cowboys think they can fly in here with life support offline, hull plates falling off, and the engine mounts cracked, and be up in the air again in a day.  Well... it doesn't work that way.  And in business, it never pays to make promises I can't keep".

This great WizKids Starfinder plastic figure is half of a blister pack called "Human Mechanics".  I really like how perfectly greasy and working-class she looks, as well as the fact that the character is completely non-combatant... not all that common.  Not even a holster.

It's an extremely detailed sculpt, but honestly not very crisp.  I had to emphasize details with some strong contrast... which fortunately is my style anyway.  And I didn't get all the mold lines, but oh well.  This line seems to fit in nicely with the Stargrave minis I've been painting recently; it's thinner and more gracile but not enough to appear out of scale.

"I don't normally work on bots, but I'll see what I can do to help you."

Treasure planeteer

Captain Karzen Alessandro
28mm

Do what you want 'cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!

The right of salvage falls to any spacers who find a wrecked ship with no survivors.  But some are not above bending that condition, including the part about it being wrecked in the first place...  Karzen is a veteran captain who has survived numerous close quarters shootouts, explosions, and decompressions, though not without horrendous scars.  His cybernetically-attached plasma blaster is a brutal but effective weapon, and he never misses.

 This is a Stargrave figure from North Star Military Figures.

 

"Trying to poach my salvage, space squid?  I stole it fair and square!"

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 :)