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Thanks, guys. I really do like these Mantic ogres, despite the material and their skinny little legs.

I'm late to this party but the Samurai look great, a lots of thought has clearly gone into them.

The ogres are looking great too, I like the fire dude.

EDC

Between my son's first track meet at elementary school on Saturday and a community clean-up project on Sunday, I found essentially no time to paint over the weekend, meaning that this is all I was able to finish in May:


I have six ogre berserkers on my painting tray, but the models are so darn busy that I just can't seem to get motivated to finish them. It looks like June will be Deadzone month, as my DZ:I stuff arrived a couple of weeks ago, increasing the already ludicrous amount of unpainted DZ stuff in the closet. I will start, I think, with pathfinders...

Looking good! Looking forward to seeing your DZ stuff

Thanks. Painting some futuristic stuff will make a nice change.

I think I'm in the same boat its needing a change of things to paint. That or I just need to do some scratch building.....

The samurai are all so interesting, I love watching you crank these out because I've never seen banners like these in the movies or anywhere else.

Nice work, Josh. I'm also in agreement in feeling I need to paint something different. 6 months is a long time to concentrate on one kind of thing, and does start to wear on you after awhile.

Regardless, the stuff you've got there looks excellent!

Theo: I can't really take credit for most of the samurai stuff that I've done. There are hundreds if not thousands of suits of armor, and heraldry is exhaustively documented. All I do is copy whatever looks interesting.

Az: burnout is a real thing. Thankfully, I have enough models from various Kickstarters lying around that I can jump around a bit while staying true to my pledge.

Having focused so heavily on samurai for the last couple of months, I wanted to do something different, something SF-related. Thankfully, Mantic sent me my DZ2 pledge right about the time I was debating what to do next. First up, Forward Observer N7-117:


This was a pretty simple model to paint. The armor is Tamiya NATO green (the same color that I use for all my Enforcers), washed with Devlan Mud, then drybrushed back up to the base color. I'm not really a fan of the full-face visor--I prefer the standard Enforcer helmet-- but it painted up pretty easily (Mithril Silver with a heavy Gryphonne Sepia wash). I added unit and rank insignias with transfers from Company B.

I also cranked out a sprue of Pathfinders:






The armor plating is the same as N7-117 up there. Their guns are AP armor grey with a heavy Payne's Grey glaze. In general these models are pretty good, although the mold quality is a little primitive. From the front and back the detail is good enough, but lateral details are lacking, if not non-existent. Also, check out the delts on the guy that final photo. Back in my 20's, I was into bodybuilding (until I realized that I couldn't afford all the supplements and didn't want to live at the gym), and I would have killed for that level of definition. All of the arms on the sprue are like that. I suppose I could have painted them in flesh tones, but instead I opted to make them bionic. After all, regular Enforcers must be cyborgs (how else could they fit inside that armor), so pathfinders must be unfinished Enforcers, kind of like Space Marine scouts are Marines that haven't been fitted with The Emperor's Shield. That would also explain the MC Hammer parachute pants these guys were-- their legs are also bionic, ready to be fitted with armor plates.

Finally, a group shot:


Next up: five more pathfinders, along with their DOGs.

Nice work here, Josh. The pathfinders have come up well. How do you think they'd mix with Marine Scout parts?

 Azazelx wrote:
Nice work here, Josh. The pathfinders have come up well. How do you think they'd mix with Marine Scout parts?

After a quick glance at some sniper scouts on sprue, I'd say not very well at all. The pathfinder parts are pretty much in scale with regular enforcers, so the limbs would look pretty spindly on a scout torso, while scout heads would look monstrous on pathfinder bodies. I'll try to do a Blu-tac mockup in the next day or two to make sure.

So chaos scouts is what your saying then

Huh. Now I see your painted pathfinders I really wanna put mine together and paint them up. Mine are kind of silly space soldier colors though (white and black, but not specifically storm trooper motif) but I really like your more realistic and down to earth green/etc.

I think pathfinders are not only *not* baby enforcers yet to get their power armor, but they're slightly more elite than average. Like special forces in an army that's already all special forces. They just don't wear the full armor kit for stealth purposes (I guess). They sneak around and do all the commando shutting down the defense grid painting the targets kinda stuff. Their rifles tag their targets so bigger strike teams can come liquidate them, etc. But fluffwise, not n00bs like the space marine equivalent.

More like older edition space marine scouts who had the same skills (and were an elite choice!) but not the strength or save from the power armor etc.

Anyhooo... lovely work, and those samurai up the page as well!

That's a fine interpretation, and I can get behind it. I'm mostly trying to justify the massive guns both the male and female pathfinders have, as well as the teeny-tiny helmets on the regulars. Don't get me wrong,though-- I love everything Enforcer, and I still consider them the best models Mantic has ever released.

Nice work on the DZ stuff.

That red circle in the May Samurai confused me, I was staring at it and thinking what has he circled...then I realised it's the banner.

EDC

 evildrcheese wrote:
Nice work on the DZ stuff.

That red circle in the May Samurai confused me, I was staring at it and thinking what has he circled...then I realised it's the banner.

EDC

That made me smile

I'm not wholly certain what that banner is supposed to be, so I just went old-school 'Eavy Metal and painted it red.

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 evildrcheese wrote:
Nice work on the DZ stuff.

That red circle in the May Samurai confused me, I was staring at it and thinking what has he circled...then I realised it's the banner.

EDC

That made me smile

I'm not wholly certain what that banner is supposed to be, so I just went old-school 'Eavy Metal and painted it red.

That has been known to make 'em go fasta!

Valete,

JohnS

 cygnnus wrote:

 JoshInJapan wrote:

 evildrcheese wrote:
Nice work on the DZ stuff.

That red circle in the May Samurai confused me, I was staring at it and thinking what has he circled...then I realised it's the banner.

EDC

That made me smile

I'm not wholly certain what that banner is supposed to be, so I just went old-school 'Eavy Metal and painted it red.

That has been known to make 'em go fasta!

Valete,

JohnS

That's some old school humour there!

Next up-- more Pathfinders!






I don't have much to say about this lot. I painted them using the exact same techniques as the five I posted last time. I will say that I had a little trouble getting their wrists to line up. I probably should have used a thicker, slower-drying plastic cement. Ah, well, so it goes.




Each sprue of pathfinders comes with a Deployable Offensive Gun. Two sprues means two DOGs. I'm really, really glad they redesigned these rather than using the original ammo-box-on-legs design. I added a couple of transfers to break up the vast fields of green. The unit insignia works well enough, but the stencils on the sides were too big and too clean. I tried dirtying them up, but I'm not sure it worked. If it really bugs me I'll go back and paint over them.

Overall, I'm pleased with these models. Some of the lateral details fade into nothing, but you don't really see it once they are assembled, painted, and then viewed at arm's length. Between these ten and the restic pathfinders that came with DZ1, I think I have as many as I will ever need. Speaking of which, here are all my pathfinders to date:

Very nice work, making me want to get at mine. I think I just have the ten myself, and maybe two of the character from DZ1. Oh and the on/off bike pathfinder lady. Green is really effective on these guys.

Thanks. The design of the enforcers really lends itself to more traditional military colors rather than the bright heraldic designs of Space Marines, IMO.

Nice work, Josh. Your and Grim's work on the Mantic enforcer models keeps tempting me to do something with some of mine.

Cool Enforcers Josh

Thanks, guys. I really enjoyed working on these models. Very simple, very fast. Not so with the Asterians I'm working on now, though...

Continuing with the Deadzone theme, here are some Asterians:





I used the same paint scheme as for all the other asterians I've done to date: GW Necron Abyss basecoat,Vallejo Andrea Blue edge highlight, Vallejo Stormy Blue glaze. I tried for a little OSL on the eyes, I'll let you decide if it worked. I still really like Asterians (which is fortunate as I'm getting an army of them from the Warpath KS), but they get pretty samey after a while. Here's a shot of them all together:


Next up: plague zombies and the Abomination.

Asterians look great , they would be excellent night fighters with that dark camouflage.

Interested to see what you have coming up with your zombies.

 Theophony wrote:
Asterians look great , they would be excellent night fighters with that dark camouflage.

That's how I envision them. I seem to recall that Asterians cloak their ships when they attack a Deadzone, so it didn't seem much of a stretch that they would do the same to their cyphers.

 Theophony wrote:
Interested to see what you have coming up with your zombies.

Well, don't get your hopes up too high-- they're just DZ zombies, and I have too many of them to make them all masterpieces...

They are looking nice Josh, and thats coming from someone who isn't a fan of mantics Eld...I mean Asterians

Continuing with the Deadzone theme for the month, here are some new Plague units. First, the Abomination:





I know, I should have filled in the gap in his neck. It doesn't show as much in person. I painted him pretty much identically to the Stage 1A-- AP Chaotic red, highlighted up to AP barbarian flesh, and Delta Ceramcoat highlighted up to AP Skelton bone for the bony parts. The base is from Escenorama, part of my reward from their disastrous Indiegogo campaign.

Next, zombies:





There are two different body types on the sprue, planetary militia/GCPS troops, and damaged containment suits. These models are, in general, disappointing. The shoulder joints are spacious and V-shaped, not unlike the Shieldwolf moutain orcs. which provides ample options for posing but give the models weird proportions. Just like the Pathfinders, the lateral detailing is minimal-to-non existent. For most of these models, the arms can be placed to compensate, but that doesn't work with the gut-munching guy-- the jaws, neck, and guts are all one solid, flat surface, making the model difficult to read from the side. There are extra heads on the sprue, so I won't have to build any more of this guy.

Despite my reservations, these guys painted up pretty quickly, and the basecoat/brush dip gives adequate results, which will be important if/when I get around to cranking out the other 70 that I have packed away upstairs...


Finally, plague swarms. I wasn't planning on painting these models, but the one on the right has been staring at me accusingly ever since I stripped it after a false start two or three years ago. Somewhere along the line, I lost of of the centipede heads, and replaced it with a leftover Mantic Ghoul head. I probably should have done either the rats or the centipedes in grey rather than brown, but I don't to go back and do these models again. Maybe if the rats, slugs and bugs had come separately they would have been more fun to paint. In fact, I may dig through my Bones 1 Vampire box for vermin and see if I can't make a better one by myself. Not today, though.

Finally, a group shot:


The Abomination is really, really big. At arm's length or further, everything works well enough. There are three painting days left in June, so I hope to have one more set of models to share by the end of the week. Stay tuned!

Nice work! I like the zombies. Not perfect but fairly cheap especially the rate they were going for during the KS. Somewhere in there with bones minis but hard plastic. Lot of fun with other kits too. The dude hunched over nomming is a bit of a static thing .

I see soldiers and bio suits but you didn't see any civilians in the mix? I admit I used a few fantasy zombies to make dresses but I've got a couple guys with jeans and shirts out of my pile. Maybe the odd shoulder pad but hey, maybe they're back in style