Big Game

In touch with the ground
I'm on the hunt, I'm after you
Scent and a sound
I'm lost and I'm found
And I'm hungry like the wolf

Huntarr aliens
20 mm

So I finally acquired up some of Khurasan's "Huntarr".  These are technically 15mm scale but have been bulked up over their "Vacation Alien" cousins to be rather more intimidating!  There are a couple of sets available - typical lightly armed hunters, heavier rifle-toting shock troops and a chieftain.  I'll probably just paint these few guys up due to time constraints.

The obligatory size comparison, since pics of these figures are few and far between out there...

Danny Glover could still kick their butts, though.

Untoten Soldaten - finished

Nazi Zombies
15 mm
 

Corporal Bauer huddled inside the ruined bakery, listening for any hint the hideous creatures outside might have detected his presence.  The scratching and moaning continued to come from the street outside however, interspersed with wet sounds he was sure were his dead squadmates being dismembered and consumed.  After a day of heavy fighting, they had been caught by surprise, by what seemed to be a group of their own Waffen-SS... but empty-eyed men soaked with blood and stinking of death, attacking with bare hands and teeth.

A tiny scuffing noise made him look frantically around the debris-strewn room.  In one dark corner, a British soldier crouched, a heavy coating of grime and mud making him almost invisible.  Bauer spasmodically clutched his Mauser, but the Englishman only brought a finger to his lips, and with his other hand, held up a cloth bag bulging with heavy, egg-shaped objects.  Bauer stared for a moment, then glanced down at his own belt, where a single grenade remained...

---

It took me way too long to do these, but some days I feel like a zombie myself. I think I'll keep them to admire for a while before the go in the mail to my brother...  Anyway, you can check out a much, much more impressive 28mm WW2 zombie project, entitled "Don't Fraternize with Germans" at Anatoli's Game Room.  Amazing!

Nazi Z's in progress

The Obersturmführer:

The mooks:

So I guess they're Waffen-SS, for that extra dose of evil :O Finishing the leader (do zombies have leaders?) has definitely helped motivate me to work on the rank and file (all 5 of them, ooh!). So far so good, though I was hoping the uniforms would look "field grey" which is actually more green. Maybe I can fix that with the highlighting.

Untoten Soldaten

Zombie Nazis
15 mm

These guys will be a birthday gift for my brother, so if you are reading this M___, I guess you spoiled the surprise! Anyway, $11 got me a good handful of these from Rebel Minis, and they're going to be fun to paint. They're pretty cute little sculpts, I like the guy dragging his rifle and the missing-arm/carrying-an-arm pair (I based those two together).

The gift minis will have dirt-n-bushes bases to match M___'s Flames of War Panzergrenadier army... but if I ever get to paint some for myself, they'll have winter bases... Død Snø style :D

For my own future reference, FoW base sizes are:
Small: 1 1/4" x 1"
Medium: 2" x 1 1/4"
Large: 2 1/2" x 2"

Waterside weirdo

Cultist of the Octopus God
15 mm

God knows what the acolytes of the Tentacled One are up to down by the pier; it can't be anything but horrific.  Perhaps a shipment of ghastly idols and arcana, or doomed sacrificial victims being brought in from wherever they were kidnapped.  This guard is ready to skewer any interlopers with his sacred trident and send their remains to sleep with the Deep Ones.

A companion piece to these cuddly fellows.

Gun Crazy

Wasteland Gunslinger
15 mm

OK, after some delay, my last Khurasan post-apocalyptic figure!  This mysterious fellow with a big belt buckle and two pistols seems to be "all cowboy, no hat".  I guess thematic headgear is one more thing that's in short supply in the bleak, radioactive future.

And, the long-delayed group shot.  A pretty dangerous bunch...


Wharfside Cultist
15 mm 

Another little thing I've just started.  What's this sinister fellow doing down at the docks?  Some nefarious work to advance the return of the Old Ones, no doubt.

Removing his attached base was a fussy job with the rotary tool, but I wanted this to look a little different from the two I painted earlier.  The floating barrel is an Instant Mold cast of a Khurasan steel drum, not because I'm cheap but because sawing a metal one in half was surprisingly difficult.

Gun Molls

Wasteland Women
15 mm

The Apocalypse is a hard time to be a woman: sadly, the collapse of all civilization tends to strike a severe blow against gender equality, in addition to mutants trying to eat you. But between Gloria's cool hand on the 12-gauge, and Pippi's willingness to solve most problems with extreme aggression, it turns out the waste lands will have to have room for a feminine touch... or else!

Back in the saddle... maybe?

We're slowly settling into our new house, so I'd like to try and do a bit of painting in the wee hours.  I thought I'd start with two more of Khurasan's nifty little post-apocalyptic characters.

Wasteland Women
15 mm

 Two tough female survivors...  Packing heat and, apparently, hairspray.

Fun with Photoshop...

Just frigging around to unwind, after an evening spent painting... the new nursery.

Raul warily surveys his surroundings, the ruins of a once-great city.

Tex, a little off his head from eating some spoiled Fancy Feast, attacks an abandoned car while hallucinating that it's a "mutant red buffalo".

Psycho killers, qu'est-ce que c'est?

Fa fa fa, fa fa fa fa fa far better...


Wasteland Raiders
15 mm




In a world ravaged by war, and/or environmental collapse, alien invasion, sub-prime mortgage crisis etc, only the cunning and brutal can survive. Scavenge for gas and canned food, and count your bullets... save one for yourself when your luck runs out.

Gas being so precious, Tex doesn't always use a chainsaw in battle... but does keep it ready for when a psychological edge is required.  Raul del Oso wears the pelt of a giant bear he encountered in the ruins of San Diego, supposedly killing the beast using only his knife.


Run run run, run run run away!

A couple of small things

The move is getting close so these might be the last thing I post for a month or so. But I thought I'd get them done before it all gets packed up.

Xenomorph Eggs
15 mm scale



These are from Khurasan, sold as "Vespulid eggs" I believe. But we all know what they really are! Hard to see, but I added a bit of gooey alien stuff around the eggs for authenticity.

Riflething Drone
15 mm scale



A little UAV scratchbuilt from a 4 mm ball bearing, putty, and some plasticard.



Action shot...

Blog Roll: 15mm, aliens, and zombies, oh my!

Two sick parents plus one teething baby is not a household conducive to painting, but I'd like to post at least one more handful of things before we pack everything up to move to our new casa...

In the meantime, I thought I'd mention a handful of interesting blogs I've come across in the last week or so:

The Closet Gamer - 15mm sci-fi from Khurasan, Traveler and GZG. His latest posts are a bunch of nice LIGHTSABERS FOR EVERYONE conversions.

15mm Strife - more 15mm sci-fi including a nice Commander Shepard conversion.

Dawn of the Lead - Xenomorphs, zombies, and Blood Bowl.

Lucky Joe's Place - A LOT of zombies, and some nice terrain.

Last of the Things

Riflethings
15 mm



Finally done... And a group shot:

Khurasan, y yu torment me?

I literally JUST bought a handful of minis from Khurasan (none painted yet of course)... and they come out with more stuff I desire.



15 mm Deep Ones?! WANT. Just the thing to terrorize your troops on any expeditions that violate the Benthic Treaty. Of course, I bought some 25mm Deep Ones a while ago, and haven't painted them up yet...

Riflethings are almost done, by the way. So sloooow :P

Mi casa...

Well, As part of the Real Life Package TM it looks like we're buying a house:


(Artist's impression)

I normally try not to put too much personal stuff on this blog because, frankly, nobody cares. But one small reason I'm excited about this move is that I'll finally be able to replace this


Old painting space

with this


New painting space

Actually, right now I don't even have "a space" at all, and all my stuff lives in a little wheeled cart so I can paint at the kitchen table and then put it away. So needless to say I am looking forward to this :)

Some works in progress...

The Doctor's TARDIS
35 mm



The TARDIS. It's blue. When it's done, it'll be less-patchy blue, with a nice base.

Riflethings
15 mm



I thought I'd do these guys a little differently, to show them working as a team. Or, you know, hanging around a trash barrel, but whatever.

A couple of Things

Riflethings
15 mm




Just a couple of 15mm minis. I have two more of these Things to finish up... perhaps next week? I have a Khurasan order coming in with some oil barrels I'd like to add as base dressing. (I also finally ordered these, which I'm looking forward to painting... and I see there are some new Riflething sculpts available, if I want to expand my collection)

My available "hobby time" has settled down to ~ 5:30-6:30 am, which is nice because I've got a big cup of coffee in front of me, the house is quiet, and my wife and kidlet are asleep. The downside is that absolutely nothing noisy can be done, which rules out, eg. listening to some inspirational Bolt Thrower, or firing up the Dremel to grind off some attached bases :P

---

Also, for the record, I'd like to thank javi for producing this amazing piece in his inimitable style:



For those familiar with the game Half-Life, it's a... nose-crab. Not really any less parasitically horrific than the standard headcrabs, IMO.

Riflethings, Take 2

Riflethings
15 mm



I got a start on the rest of my Khurasan Riflethings. Nothing too exciting, the rest of these won't have quite the "hero" base that the first one did. It's neat, but looking at it in my display case, it's almost diorama-like and less like what one should put on members of a squad of minis (even for display). I think the last two Riflethings will be based together on a larger base, just to be different.

We come from the land of the ice and snow

Robot Yeti
28 mm



In between probing the mysteries of cancer biomarkers and looking after No Such Agency Jr-ette, I managed to paint this up. It's a Yeti from the 1967 Doctor Who serial "The Abominable Snowmen"... but I guess you could use it as a regular Yeti, too.

Alas, I think this guy really got his mother's hips.



"No, YOUR line is 'AAAAAAGH!'"

The Christmas Loot

I hope everyone had a good holiday-of-your-choice. For me it was Christmas... and I finally got some hobby-related gifts! From my brother:




Yep, that's a 28mm scale TARDIS among the resin stuff in pic 1. Also some nice resin industrial/spaceship bases and a Lovecraftian pillar thing. I'm eager to try out the magnifying visor whenever I have time to paint my next project :) Might make painting eyes easier on my rapidly-aging eyes.

Tasty... and Trans-Dimensional

One of my readers *cough javi cough* reminded me of my Christmas gingerbread tradition recently... so here's this year's creation:

Lighthouse
230 mm



Perhaps not overly elaborate, but I try to make each one a little special. The light is a little LED tea light, covered by a clear plastic cup. This will be a gift for some friends, but I'll probably make a second similar one to keep.

---

Also, I thought in the spirit of much of my recent painting, I'd post this very old work:



On the back in my dad's writing is "Dr. Who's TARTUS (sic) Gingerbread house, Christmas 89 with K-9 mechanized dog". Any inaccuracies can be blamed on the fact that I rarely actually got to watch Doctor Who at age 15, and I was probably working either from memory, or the illustration on the cover of one of the episode novelizations...

The Fourth Doctor

The Fourth Doctor
28 mm




My favorite Doctor, all done! Just in time to reconcile the Tesh with the Sevateem, and defeat the Zygons, and the Sontarans, and the Rutans, and Weng-Chiang, and Sutekh, and become President of Gallifrey...

I'm pretty satisfied with the red/burgundy colour of his jacket, despite pinkish highlights which admittedly seem realistic enough. Apart from the eyes, which were not well sculpted and a challenge to make just manic enough, the scarf was probably the toughest part to get looking right. But that was almost the most critical part, considering how iconic it is:

"101 uses for Tom Baker's scarf"


Fortunately, someone has devoted a whole website to careful descriptions of the scarf, including instructions for how to knit your own... I love you, internet.

The colour out of space

Red is a pain to work with, everyone knows it. Transparent, lousy coverage, generally hard to make it look the way you want. I generally use a warm primary (GW Blood Red) for most red things, but for the Fourth Doctor's burgundy-ish jacket I chose a cooler crimson. I used this random Mage Knight mini as a test piece to try and work out the troublesome red highlighting issue, and hopefully learn something:



Left side: Games Workshop Crimson Gore/Scorched Brown base coat, shaded with Scorched Brown, highlighted up with mixtures of C.G/yellow. A very warm result.

Center: Games Workshop Crimson Gore/Scorched Brown base coat, shaded with Scorched Brown, highlighted up with mixtures of C.G/white. This gave me the pink highlights that people tend to try and avoid.

Right side: Games Workshop Crimson Gore/Scorched Brown base coat, shaded with Scorched Brown, highlighted up with mixtures of C.G/Bleached Bone. The result is slightly less pink than mixing with white.

I'm not sure either look is particularly satisfying, but as always, this is a learning experience. And... this isn't for the Golden Demons or anything. I just want my growing Doctor collection to look pretty good :)

Less Human than Human

Khurasan Riflething
15 mm



I managed to squeeze this little guy in before the end of my parental leave... only one of five, but I did want to test my colour scheme before I (some day) paint up the rest of the squad. Inspiration was the Overwatch Elite from Half Life 2.

Still working on my Fourth Doctor. Not surprisingly I'm not the first person who thought Dalek parts would make good base decoration. But I'm glad I didn't have to hack up a metal figure to do it :)

Objective...ist.

I'm in the middle of some things now, so: a "look what I found" post to keep the blog flowing while I paint away...

I'd never heard of Lead Bones before... but this is pretty cool. Anyone who enjoyed "Bioshock" should recognize these 15mm heavies:



Sure to keep your underwater temple to Ayn Rand safe and secure from any pesky players roaming around out there! They're available at Recreational Conflict, along with a 28mm version! I'll have to pick up a set someday, when I've finished painting everything else in my stash. It's a pity their shipping charge to Canada is $12; it's enough to make me "Go Galt"... :P

EDIT: the seller posted on Lead Adventures to clear up the postage thing, you should pay less for small orders that fit in an envelope instead of a box.

"Would you like a jelly baby?"

I'm pretty busy these days... but I still managed to start a new project, in between diapers and naps...

The Fourth Doctor
28mm



Between the dark and creepy nature of many of his adventures, and his character's Bohemian charm, the Fourth Doctor, played by Tom Baker, is many North Americans' favorite Doctor Who, and is definitely mine! This is another Black Tree miniature, a nice sculpt that is instantly recognizable.

I decided this figure deserved a unique base, and I came up with the idea of using my new Instant Mold to steal some detail to jazz it up. It was pretty easy to duplicate parts of an unpainted Dalek figure to make the wreckage seen here. The result looks pretty good, and fits well with his satisfied expression. I know the Fourth Doctor never encountered white Imperial Daleks... but I was never much for continuity anyway :)