Glad you like the Talos Barzam - also nice to see my Rangers being used for scale comparison, double Nice in fact.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
BTW - there has certainly been talk of the Talos in 28mm, and the 3D models themselves were sculpted with a view to that, much more detail than we see at 15mm in fact.

Well, thank you for making such nice figures. That the Talos might see 28mm figures in the future is very good news. Not something my wallet wants to hear, though.

Talos in 28mm? Hoping to get 28mm Fiddler as well

Well, my main February challenge is done. On to the stretch goals!





Interesting news day though for miniatures. First, I get news that there may someday be 28mm Talos figures, then I find out that North Star is making multi-part hand plastic gnolls. Now, I got an update from Rocket Games about the fate of Last Saga. As many people were fearing, they announced their bankruptcy and closure. The guys they had originally contracted to produce their figures basically took them for a ride. They did a half-assed production (which did actually produce some figures that were pretty decent) and then pretty much disappeared with all of their funds. They had been in talks with other companies to take over the production, but by that point they were pretty much sunk. Zenit Miniatures actually stepped in though and will absorb Rocket Games and take on the production of Last Saga. The Rocket Games staff will continue to develop it under Zenit and Zenit, once their current Kickstarter obligations are fulfilled, will then finish fulfillment on everything that remained from Last Saga. So, interesting news there that, in the long run, should actually be pretty good. It looks like someday I may actually get the rest of my stuff.

Wow that sucks about that whole KS situation. Seems like my reticence to back lesser established projects (even though they're the ones that truly need the funding) may not be unfounded.

Cool about the other stuff. I may have to look into frostgrave and North star.

Nice artillery thingies.

Yeah, it does suck, but at least they were more or less able to come out okay in the end. They all just will work for Zenit now instead of Rocket Games and at least fulfillment will still happen. I think given the situation, this is probably the best outcome.

Heeeey, I got made some progress tonight! Four figures finished, though two were 15mm.

I knocked out one of my two remaining Clearhorizon spec-ops figures and another White Dragon Marine.



Of more interest to probably a lot more people, I also painted up a Circle of Orboros Druid Wilder that I picked up two weeks ago.



She'll be seeing action in that KOW Herd army I had mentioned. I'll be using her as a Shaman, which is apparently a Hero class unit. As you can see from how I painted her, purple and silver will be the dominant colors for the army.

Finally, I finished the first of this month's stretch goals. I chose what is probably the easiest of the Burrows and Badgers figures I got, Morticia Blackwing.



As you can see, she is a bat. Specifically, she's a Noctule Bat, which are pretty small. As a result, she's actually pretty small as well. She's classed as a necromancer, but if I ever use her for anything, I doubt that'll be the role I give her.

The next stretch goal I tackle will be Jon Sable, the fox brigand. Now, his face sculpt is a bit different from my previous fox, and with a name like that, I think I'm going to have to attempt to paint him as a Silver Fox.

I like the druid, especially the silver on her skirt. How did you darken the recesses? The black is very clean.

That was a smart choice from the designer.. grafting the sword to the body on that 15mm model, I like the results as well.

good stuff all around.

JoshInJapan wrote:I like the druid, especially the silver on her skirt. How did you darken the recesses? The black is very clean.

It was very simple. No tricks. I just applied a couple of thicj layers of Nuln Oil to it, then lightly retouched some of the silver.

GrimDork wrote:That was a smart choice from the designer.. grafting the sword to the body on that 15mm model, I like the results as well.

good stuff all around.

For structural stability, that probably was the best way to go about it. I actually didn't like how it looked prior to painting him. Once he got some paint though, I'm happier with it.

I'm going to be house sitting for the next few days, so there won't be any painting going on. If I'm lucky, a Hobby Link Japan order I'm expecting will arrive though. Even if it doesn't, I am planning to build my Gundam Gusion at the very least.

I just got back from a weekend of house-sitting and not being able to paint. I just slapped some paint on my next February stretch goal and thought I'd share him with you.


This is Jon Sable, a fox Brigand. As I mentioned in my previous post, since his head has a slightly different shape from the previous fox, and with a name like Sable, I figured I would try something different and make him a different kind of fox, rather than the usual Red Fox. So, I went with a Silver Fox. Silver Foxes have an interesting looking coloration to their pelts, and it's one that is very difficult to properly pull off. So, I half-assed it a bit and simplified it to just be gray with a wash and some drybrushing. The result is close enough.



His tail still needs a bit of work since their tails appear to shift from silver to black to white. I think I can pull that off relatively decently with some drybrushing. The white I used for the tip of his tail was a bit too watery and kind of messed it up. I'll have to go back over it again. From here, he should be relatively easy. I'll probably give him a green jacket and use a light brown/tan for his quilted armor. I should be able to finish him up tomorrow relatively quickly.

I also finished up a couple more of my White Dragon Marines. These are Red Team's sniper and another trooper. only one guy left for this squad, and he's got their LMG.

The fox is very nice do far. I remain impressed by the 15mm guys. 15mm in general is a great scale for larger battles and involving vehicles and/or mecha, but in all my years I have never really found enough people willing to make the switch.

My Silver Fox brigand is now finished.

So... I was supposed to be painting a Beagle tonight. Instead I wound up painting a fish man.

(Click for a larger, zoomable image)


Man, most of the detail work I put into this just didn't show up. His armor has a lot more depth to it than what shows up in the picture. I suspect some people may have been somewhat disappointed that this wasn't a Space Marine Vanguard Marine. Nah, this guy is a Dark Mariner Vanguard Marine from Deep Wars, by Antimatter Games. Highlord Tamburlaine gave me this guy because he was an extra. Receiving him gave me a desire to get some more Dark Mariners. So, I bought some more, though they were from Shadow Sea. A neat thing about Shadow Sea and Deep Wars though is that both games are largely compatible with each other. Certain units don't have cross compatibility, but pretty much all of the Dark Mariners do, which is really cool. Another plus is that Shadow Sea and Deep Wars are based on the Song of Blades and Heroes engine, which means that the games are all compatible with each other. All I have to do to use him in SOBH is omit some of his special equipment rules.

About the colors, most Dark Mariners are depicted in a crustacean-like red and tan scheme with blue fleshy bits. I would've considered doing that, but Highlord Tamburlaine already has a Dark Mariner army in those colors. So, I had to choose something else. He had suggested doing greens, and I really liked that idea. So, I went with a sort of Death Guard vibe for him. He's got a really nice sickly green that fades into a bone white, but most of that is annoyingly missing. I plan to continue this scheme on my other Dark Mariners. Once I get some work done on the Beagle, I'll start another of these guys. This one was pretty fun to paint, so the others should be equally enjoyable.

Both fishman and foxguy are looking grand. I think I like foxguy better. The fur and muzzle colors really work

I really like the color scheme you went with, almost camo for deep underwater. I was interested in the game when I saw it come out, but I'm at that point with gaming that I need to stop buying new games as I never even get to play the ones I have.

That is factually incorrect Theophony.

You NEED Deep Wars/ Shadow Sea. They are super low model count games, so it's a good excuse to pick up a few random figures. I want to say there's rules for custom figures as well (again, due to being developed from the Song of Blades & Heroes rules). Most games play with between 3-8 figures per side.

It is sooooooo factually correct that I never get to play games . I was hoping that more time would free up when I finished my BS degree, but I'm locked into my current job fora other 8+ months or have to pay back the tuition reimbursement monies. I am looking to move to a better paying department, but even still my student loans are coming due, so I still cannot drop my part time gig.

It looked fun and j almost bought in in the KS, or picked up models at MM when they were in the clearance section. Probably eventually, just not soon. I will have to live under the sea through you guys....and the Beatles.

Well, there is another KS expansion coming for Deepwars. That would be a good opportunity to get in with some cheap starters.

February stetch goal #3 is down! I just finished my Beagle Tracker, Steffen Myles.



I should note, I didn't name these guys. Their names come from Oathsworn. Two more to go, and I pretty much need to get them started and finished this week in order to achieve all of my goals for the month. The next two are Rufuss Hardpaw, the Pug and Von Wodr the Otter. I expect the Otter to be the most difficult.

I also finished this fellow up today.



This guy is a Wold Watcher from Circle of Orboros. He'll be standing in as a Guardian Brute for my "Herd" army. I think most people use Minotaurs for those units, but I think a big stone golem is a better fit for something called a Guardian Brute. Now, unfortunately, I don't have any fluorescent purple paint and I didn't want to have to mix paints for his glowy bits, so unfortunately, I had to go with green, which is not really in keeping with my army. I did manage to squeeze in a tiny bit of purple to help tie him in though. It's hard to see, but his eyes are purple.

Hah, that dog-dude with his big puppy eyes, perfect

More fish-man fun. I painted up another Dark Mariner. This time we have the Lightning Sniper. As you might guess, he specializes in long range shooting. I'm not quite sure, but I think he's actually from Shadow Sea. It ultimately doesn't matter which line he's from, because his stats allow him to be used in both games.



This guy has a rather more crusty appearance than the Vanguard Marine does. I think he's actually an older sculpt. His details aren't quite as sharp and his proportions aren't as good as what's on the Vanguard Marine. I'll admit, I like this guy, but after seeing his card art, I'm severely disappointed. He looks NOTHING like the artwork on his stat card. The art has him with much smoother armor and he's proportioned like the Vanguard Marine. Much more muscular, yet lithe. Not the squat, bulbous, crusty look he actually has. He has some weird details on his back, too. I'm not sure exactly what that thing is on his back. I think it's a water tank as it has a "hose" that runs from it up into the bottom of his helmet. I decided to paint it a bit differently just so it would stand out better though. I do like that he has a bit of shell coming out over the tank to help protect it.

I also repainted the Vanguard Marine's base rim.



The yellow I'd used wasn't doing it for me. I think I like the blue a lot more.

I want to say that the Lightning Sniper was originally put out by Cavalcade Miniatures, or something along those lines? Cavalcade or DragonBlood. One of those.

Same with a few of the other Shadowsea Dark Mariners. Pretty sure Shadowsea actually came before Deep Wars. Some of the stuff I've got, like the Leviathan, and the Dark Mariners Vanguard pieces were definitely before any of the Kickstarters.

Your Mariners are looking good. I like the blue bases on them too. Gives them a bit more aquatic feel.

I like the blue bases, too. I think I'll stick with them and should I do any of them with more typical crustacean colors like yours have, it'll help tell mine apart from yours. I'm thinking I'll keep the more reddish colors limited to the Cephalids though.

Now, the moment none of you have been waiting for, the entire reason I backed Burrows and Badgers 2, a Pug!



Rufuss Hardpaw. Bounty hunter. Thug. Pug. Badass.

Awesome.

Okay, I'm done. All stretch goals for February are complete. The only Burrows and Badgers stuff I have left are the freebies and considering one of them is a teeny tiny sleeping mouse, I don't really have any interest in painting those right now. Maybe next month if I'm desperate.

Anyway, Von Wodr, the Otter Landsknecht is done.



I absolutely did not enjoy painting him one bit. I didn't go for a colorful uniform for him and it was still an utter slog. No, I am never painting another Landsknecht again. I'm glad he's done. He turned out looking good, but I just didn't enjoy this one like I did the others. I know they're hard to see, but I did paint eyes on him as well. Now I can paint nice and leisurely for the next six days or so. I think I'll paint a Bones figure tomorrow. Something nice and easy.

I'm guessing it was the tedium of having to paint clean white, red, and black lines separating them?

 Barzam wrote:
He turned out looking good, but I just didn't enjoy this one like I did the others.

Sorry to hear the otter was so exhausting, but he did turn out nice

Have enjoyed all the fantasy animal peoples, as well as the Deep Wars interlude - dat armor!

- Salvage

Did you actually paint the black sections and then lay the white on top for the stripes, or did you cheat and ink it in?

Turned out well though.

You've been far more industrious than me this month. Hopefully I can catch up this weekend!

Grimdork pretty much hit the nail on the head. He was very tedious to paint. There's more to it though. I can't really describe it, but I just didn't enjoy painting this one. I'm sure you guys have had those projects where you weren't enjoying yourself. This was just one of those. He was kind of a slog to paint and I really had to force myself to finish him. I'll be painting something much simpler and more enjoyable tonight though to cleanse my pallette. I'll probably also get some Infinity figures prepped for painting, too. It's been a while since I last painted some Infinity.

I think I feel that way any time I try to paint white or black without picking the simplest/cheatery way of doing so.

I suspect that there may have been some burnout as well. I was really driving myself to get them done before the month ended. I wound up doing all of them except the fox in a single sitting, start to finish. So, that certainly didn't help things. I'm going to try and take things slowly for what remains of the month. I would hate to burn myself out right before the next challenge starts.

Oh, and there will definitely be more Dark Mariners. I have a starter and another blister. I've also got some scantily clad ladies that I'l eventually be getting to.

Alrighty, here's a pic of all of my Burrows and Badgers adventurers.



click for larger, zoomable version in the gallery. Now, this is everything I have from the line except 4 pieces. Those 4 pieces were freebies that were included with all of the pledges that received physical goods. They are: a mole friar sticking his head out of a mole hole, a mouse knight sarcophagus, a sleeping mouse adventurer, and a broken badger statue. Someday I'll get to those. Right now I just don't have the desire to paint those up, especially the sleeping moue since he's absolutely tiny. Like, smaller than the bat, tiny.

I said I was going to keep things simple today. Here's what I painted up, a Bones Barrow Warden I picked up a couple weekends ago.



Good 'n simple. I never noticed that his shield was a giant skull until I had him in hand. He's actually kind of big for a skeleton. He stands a full head taller than a Mantic skeleton and in terms of girth, he's almost as big as my Dark Mariners. I bet the metal version was pretty heavy, too. Someday I will pick up the Barrow Warden Guardian, which comes with an alternate helmet head.

Wow I need to go check mine and see if his shield is like that, crazy to miss. Looks good too. I was gonna use them as undead wights for KoW but they got bumped to ogre sized bases so i dunno.

Use 'em as Undead Ogres (trolls). That looks great. I wonder if I have that Skeleton? Was it from the Bones 2 core pledge or one of the billions of $50 add-ons?

Great work on the anthromorphic group, Barz. The Otter Landsknecht would have to be my own favourite of the lot, along with the silver fox. (Though the Beagle wins cutest face!)

Skelie looks nice.

Never realized about the shield either, until you pointed it out, and hell, I had one sitting by my computer for months too!

If you ever have the urge to order stuff from Reaper, let me know. We can pool our resources and save on shipping, as there's a few pieces I wouldn't mind getting!

Thanks, guys. The Barrow Wardens were in one of the $50 expansions if I remember correctly. I like these particular figures because they look like something you would fight in Castlevania. Even moreso the Barrow Warden Guardian, who unfortunately doesn't have a Bones figure. I really wish more companies did not-Castlevania figures. Symphony of the Nihgt on have all have really great enemy designs that would look great on the tabletop. Someday, when I find heads I like, I'm going to convert some Stormcast into Axe Knights.

I've resisted the urge to order from Reaper, but they do have some helmets I might be happy with for my Axe Knights. We'll see. Maybe we can put an order together next month.

When it comes to the animals, I have a hard time picking a favorite. I think maybe the silver fox, but I really like the pug, tok.

I did some assembling and priming last night while I was working on the skelly. I have about four figures now ready for paint. With luck, at least two should go very quickly. One is a Soviet, one is another animal (a frog in this case), one is another Dark Mariner, and one is an Infinity figure. Chances are, all four will be done by this weekend.

I should totally have you come babysit all weekend so I can paint and you can help do Japanese homework!

Yeah, I don't think we'll be doing that.

And to show that I'm in a very productive mood right now, I finished two more minis today.

Soviet officer in NBC gear from Eureka minis.



Why do I have him? What am I going to do with him? Who knows. I just like the looks of those old 80s NBC suits.

The other figure I painted today was the Dark Mariner. This guy is called a Cavern Crawler Raider.



These guys are light infantry and are used as foot soldiers on land and in boarding operations.

The Burrows and Badgers adventurers look great! Really characterful minis.

EDC

That NBC guy is really neat. No shame in owning him, even if he never sees the tabletop.

The Deep Wars guys are turning out great. They are really interesting models, and your paint jobs really pop. I love the pink/purple octopus guy.

When my dad made that order from Eureka Miniatures (he was buying some of their Toy Town figures for himself and grabbed the NBC guy for me), they threw in a freebie figure, and my dad gave that to me along with the Russian.

What did they give him? A frog with a musket.



If you remember from a while back, I had painted up a frog with a drum for my mom. This guy's from that same line. So, I suppose I'll have a rifle wielding frog to hang out with my other animal adventurers.

Bizarre. Nice work!

How does that work in an animal that spends most of their time wet?

M.

BOOM.

I painted this guy up this afternoon.



For those unfamiliar with this guy, this is Boomer, a Hobgoblin merc from Deadzone. I thought he would be a bit more annoying to paint up, but he actually painted up very quickly. The only hassle I had with him is that his left arm snapped off right at the elbow when I was trying to remove the arm from the sprue. I'm not sure if it was supposed to separate that way, but I don't think so. It snapped off again when I accidentally dropped him during painting. I suspect that left arm will snap off again in the future as well.

Boomer looks much cooler than I remembered. I may have to revisit Deadzone sometime soon.

I really like your colors, stand up model there.

Thanks. I actually didn't really like Boomer until I had him in hand. He's much more fun than I had originally thought he would be. I wanted him to work with my Marauders, so I basically just used the same colors. I had no idea what color a Hobgoblin's skin is supposed to be though, so I totally guessed at that bit.

Tonight's plan is to work on a Ragik and my fourth Dark Mariner.

The animal adventurers might just land themselves in my Herd army eventually. Really fighting not to get into the Deepwars figures with the models you've painted. I know theres enough aquarium supply places near me to get some cool terrain too

Hey, you guys want to see a figure that's almost impossible to effectively photograph? Man, taking pics of this guy was a serious pain. My camera didn't want to focus on anything except the barrel of his gun and the camera's battery was dying.

Anyway, Ragik w/ Spitfire!



I really like the redesign for the Ragiks. I liked them before, but the redesign just made them look so much cooler. Since he's wearing different gear from my other Ragiks, I decided to change up his color scheme more, cutting down on the tan and making the greens more dominant. The redesigned Spitfire is a nice piece of kit as well. Its trimmed down design makes it look like an actual functional weapon, rather than the massive, boxy things Haqqislam had before. I hope they stick to this look for them.

Nice work on this one. That's an Infinity model, right? I don't really like the anime aesthetic (ironic, right?), and I'm not anxious to start a new game, but the stuff you, highlord tamburlaine and Grimdork post occasionally tempt me.

Yep, he's an Infinity figure. I love the anime aesthetic, so Infinity hits most of the right buttons for me. This guy is from the Haqqislam faction, Hassassin sectorial.

I'm happy to expose people to other lines. It seems like most people just want to paint 40k, so they miss out on some really great minis. Infinity has some of the best sci-fi minis around, I'm happy if I can get more people interested in it.

Join uuusssssss.....

Nice work Barzam, looks good to me. I like the colors.

As it turns out, those were the same colors I used on my previous Ragiks. I just changed their distribution a bit and favored the greens over the tans this time around.

Alright, I couldn't resist. I've been working on a new Dark Mariner tonight. I was going to save the photos until I was finished. He just has his shield and base left to do. But, like I said, I couldn't resist posting something. So, here's a little teaser.

Creepy!

A face only a mother could love.

That's one of the Vanguard warriors right? They're pretty nice and chunky models.

Yep, that's one of the Warriors. He's definitely chunky. He's bigger than any of my other Dark Mariners. I think he's on a 40mm base while the others are on 30s. His resin base insert doesn't give hime that much extra height, but he kind of towers over the others. His stats make him out to be a heavy hitter, too with Q3, C4. I may have to get another Vanguard Warrior at some point.

Here's the finished Vanguard Warrior.



I love how he's practically exploding out of his armor. I really need to get more of these guys. There's a really neat looking plasma gunner I'd like to get someday.

EDIT - thanks to FRP's sales, I just snagged myself a Fortune Hunters Angus McBain and a Dark Mariners Vanguard Warrior Commander. For those who aren't familiar with the line, Angus McBain is basically an undersea 40k Dreadnought. He looks like this.

I don't know if those will be the colors I use for him though. Now, hopefully FRP won't decide "Whoops, we're actually out of stock on those" in the next couple of days. Angus was all of $2! Hell of a deal!

Two dollars? Fudge, nice.

Cool undersea squiddudes too!

All looking great Barzam.

Alright. I didn't do much today, but I did finish half of my March pledge today!

Covenant of Antarctica Drone markers.



The ones on the bottom are facing forward and the ones in back are backwards. As you can see, I kept these things extremely simple. They're just too tiny to bother putting a ton of work into. Now that they're done, I have to move onto their controller units. Joy.

In my quest to procrastinate on working on this month's challenge, I went ahead and went a little out of order. I've already worked on two of the stretch goals. I painted up a pair of Sefadu Mercs.



I have no clue what the one on the left is supposed to be doing. Megacon's artwork shows him doing some kind of hunched over run, but the figure just looks awkward as all hell. I tried to repose him a bit to make him look like he's landing from a leap. The classes for these two are Assault on the left and Berserker on the right. I think Assault's class may have been changed though for MERCS: Recon.

One last thing, I thought I'd post an update to my Pile 'O Shame, as it's been a long time since we last saw it.



I'm pleased to see that there's been quite a bit of progress since I took the initial pic. However, there's still stuff I haven't gotten to yet and the actual pile, which sits next to my painting spot seems to have in fact grown bigger since I took that pic. I'll have to do an updated image some time soon.

Looks like you're knocking that thing out. Mine is growing faster than I can cull the herd.

Well, like I said, the pile has actually grown since I took the initial pic. Even while I whittled away at it, it kept getting bigger. Maybe someday I can finish it all off.

Today though, I didn't work on anything except some painting ideas. The one figure I have from the Dark Mariners that I'm not sure how I'm going to paint is a creature called a Dagathonian Manslayer. The Dagathonians apparently are humanoid fish people that the Dark Mariners engineered to be a slave race. There's more of them in the Scaly Horde faction, but Dark Mariners have at least this one. So, rather than ruin the one I have with half-baked ideas, I decided I would test them out first. I picked up a couple of Bones Tiiks to test my ideas on. I've only really worked on the Tiik Champion though. I've tried out two ideas on him so far and my takeaway is that I don't think I'll be able to use the wash based painting technique that I've been using on the other Dark Mariners. My idea just didn't work out on the Tiik at all. I tried a second idea I'd seen that I liked the looks of. Here's the results of that one.



This was all done very roughly to try and get an idea of what I wanted. Overall though, I wasn't happy with this one. I've sent him off for a Simple Green bath and I'll try again tomorrow maybe. I think my next attempt, I'll try and do something similar to the official art, which appears to be a green and tan banded scheme.

The other thing I did today was work with a couple of resin kits I've got. They've got some air bubbles in them that needed filling and other minor cleanup, so much of my hobbying today was spent working with Green Stuff. The final result of that, though was that I was able to finally build my 15mm Fiddler mecha!



Hopefully I can give it a paintjob that does it justice. I probably won't get to it for a little while though. I've got a 15mm dropship that still needs work and I want to do my 15mm vehicles together. So, it and the Proteus mech will just have to wait a bit longer.

Huh, that's suitably large in comparison to the little man next to it.

I can kind of see where you were going with the fishdude, what didn't you like about it, the colors together?

I didn't like the way the browns looked nor the way I had done any of the banding on him. It just overall didn't come out looking the way I wanted it to.

Certainly more detailed than any of the ones I painted at least.

I can tell it's supposed to be a Dagathonian at least.

Just got my FRP supply drop.

Good thing I saw all this in person, otherwise I wouldn't know what's in your upside down glare- filled photo.

My offer still stands for the going price for your portly little deep sea diver guy.

Or some badly glued Shael Han bathrobe wearing ninja dudes?

Yeah, I don't know what happened. I guess that's what I get for trying to post stuff with my phone.

Since it may be a bit hard to tell, what I got were the Fortune Hunters captain Angus McBain from Deepwars, A Dark Mariners Vanguard Warrior Captain from Shadowsea, Frau Tear from Secrets of the Third Reich (she was only 69 cents, how could I resist?), and Elara Tyro, an Elf solo character from Warmachine.

Tamburlaine, I told you what I wanted in trade. Dark Mariners.

Still dragging my feet on the monthly challenge, but hey, I finished painting my Haqqislam Naffatun!



Have I mentioned that I really like their designs? Well, I really like their designs. CB did a really good job with them.

Those are cool, look like bombsquad/with flamers.

I need to paint some more Infinity. I was weak again during the march madness sale... May have to get onto my limited Haqq stuff, will be coming here for inspiration for sure.

If I ever get to play a zombie/post-apoc game, I'm busting out all of my Naffatun. My collection of Naffatun isn't quite as bad as my Bolt collection, but I have six of the Naffatun painted now, with a seventh awaiting paint. The funny thing about the Naffatun though is that despite every Naffatun model being very heavily armored, they're all classed as light infantry and have an armor value of 1.

I think tonight I'm going to assemble some more metal minis, possibly even some Infinity, definitely another Dark Mariner, actually work on my March challenge, and continue working on my Tiik. Right now I'm attempting a Clown Fish inspired scheme.

Kind of like Morats, then? Y'know the guys that look like they could bend a mobile brigada over backwards but they're totally just light infantry for reals yo. Or how USARF Grunts have 3 armor but most of what they're wearing looks like cloth/ballistic fabric

Clown fish sounds reasonable.

Well, we'll see how he turns out. Where he is now he looks decent, but I haven't done the white bands yet. If I actually wind up happy with the look, I'll keep it. Otherwise though, I plan to make him extremely basic. Just go with grey with a soft drybrushing of silver to get that fishy shininess. We'll see for sure tonight.

Okay, here's how the Tiik Champion turned out.



I also did some paintwork on another MERCS figure. This time, a Kemvar Grenadier. Now, this guy, as far as I know, was not in the Kickstarter campaign, so this is the metal version. I've done a slight conversion as well. The regular head this guy comes with does not have a helmet, just a mask and his hair is all windswept and flowing. I didn't like that, so I used the spare head from my old Kemvar Assault Trooper.



That Assault Trooper was actually one of my earlier miniatures, so I've managed to save that spare head he had for quite a while. The Tiik pretty much just needs some basing to be done (I'm actually quite happy with it), but the Kemvar merc needs more work before he's finished. For one, I need to do some edge highlighting on him so he matches up with the others I've done. Following that, he needs some basing, which, to match up with the others means I need to bust out the Green Stuff again. After that, he needs to be dipped, then I'll have to retouch the white bits on his uniform and finally add in some OSL. Still a way to go on him, but you get the general idea of where I was going with this WIP pic.

I got a Slenderman for you tomorrow if you're interested...

Nice fishman!
The eyes are fantastic.

Fishman quite works. I don't exactly like clownfish...but that definitely looks like one, and is well executed

Love the clown fish guy.

Never mess with a guy in orange.....learned that working at Home Depot....or in prison.....can't remember which.

Really like the look of your fish dude, dude

Amazing job on Nemo there!

Wow. I'm really surprised how much people liked the Tiik. I think I got more responses on that one guy than I have in all of the posts I've made in the last month. I guess I should paint more fish, then.

So.... in that vein, how about another Dark Mariner? This time, it's the Vanguard Warrior Commander. He's got a little buddy with him. Can you spot him?



If you couldn't, look at his left shoulder. He's got a little octopus buddy on his shoulder armor. That actually affects his abilities. The commanders are all equipped with symbiotic, psychic creatures that grant them the "Leader" ability, so they can grant buffs to their troops and do group movements. It's neat, but it also significantly raises the cost of the guy. He costs 30 points more than a regular Vanguard Warrior.

So, here's how he compares to the regular Warrior.



It's looking like the Deepwars Kickstarter is going to launch fairly soon. Probably next week, but they haven't given a solid date yet. I'm planning to back it for sure as I'd like a hard copy of the updated rulebook. This also gives me an opportunity to really bolster my Dark Mariners forces. There's a $130 pledge level that gives you both the updated rulebook and the new expansion in hardcopy and pdf, the Nereid starter, the Beast of Blood Reef, and any starter of your choice. I'm planning to ditch the Nereids and the shark and go in for the Dark Mariner Biomecha along with their Deepwars starter. That should give me pretty much all of the figures I wanted from their faction. The best part is that any figures that are currently in production can be shipped early as long as Antimatter has them in stock, so no waiting until November.

Looking good, psychic octopus huh. Sounds like an interesting game though not directly up my alley. The colors are really appropriate though.

During Miniature Market's big sale, I picked up a few Infinity figures. Tonight I painted one of them.

This is the Kosuil Assault Pioneer.



I like a lot of the Tohaa aesthetics. The bio armor with the tech bits sticking out all over them make for an interesting look. Throw in some pointless coats and you have a fairly interesting looking army. The Kosuil now brings my Tohaa forces up to a grand total of two.



I'm finding myself wondering how I could work them into games other than Infinity. Would they work in TNT? I suppose I could run them as power armored Reclaimers. I don't know.

I also finally got around to finishing up one of my Weird War figures that has been sitting around nearly complete for like, half a year.



Now that is a figure I know I could work into other games.

That guy has a floodlight on top of his gun. Why?

That thing is HUGE.

He has a Vampir night vision device fitted to his StG44. That's actually a real piece of equipment from late in WWII. The spotlight is actually a n infrared spotlight fitted on top of the actual scope

Cool paint works, that fish guy is scary

The tohaa could be PA in TNT, or why not aliens and use whichever list. You can take up to two relics in any starting warband which covers their power armor and just take the large caliber upgrade for their guns to make them more powerful 'space guns'. Pick your list based on what abilities you'd like them to have, tribals and mutants can get psychics, raiders and peacekeepers have attack dogs, preservers can take lower armor and still have extra relic slots for lasers or power swords.

You'd need some mooks or followers. Maybe some other cult followers who worship the aliens? Or some raiders they Ed cowed into submission. I guess subordinates that go with the fsctin you used to get your tohaa the way you wanted them.

Also remember if you play them in a campaign you'll end up adding dudes pretty regularly and potentially having the main ones die but...anyway yeah you could work then in to TNT.

You tempt me, Grimdork. You're making me want to plan out fluff and list build. I suppose I could always purchase more Tohaa to replace them when necessary. Because, why not feed my addiction further?

Well, can you believe that I still had an Icestorm mini left? I could never bring myself to actually paint the CSU, but tonight I did it! The colors are unremarkable, but I'm overall pleased with her, aside from my lackluster skill when it comes to painting faces.



With her done, Operation: Icestorm is now 100% painted.

So much cool stuff gets posted in here. It's really nice to see such a diverse collection of minis.

EDC

Glad you like 'em. The fact that I enjoy the painting and that I don't do much gaming let's me cherry pick a lot of random stuff and not worry about how I would use things in game. My collection is pretty random though.

I'm falling into a similar pattern though I dint have local shops to find weird little oddments to paint so I tend to run in themes more.

Had typed one of these earlier but I think the submit button never clicked. I like the CSU she looks good, grats on finishing icestorm. I think I'm only on my second model from it but I'm gearing up for a wave or two of Infinity so maybe soon I can join you in this Icestorm15 club.

Actually, most of my oddities have come from FRP sales.
speaking of, ii should have something.... interesting to show.

Excellent work on the CSU, it reminds me I have sooooooo much infinity in a box....somewhere

Hmmm, I have 99 Infinity minis ( yes, I spreadsheet these things) and all of 3 fully painted. (and many partially painted. Sigh.)

The variety of minis in your thread, this is part of its appeal, Barzam. Keep it up, good sir.

For eyes, get a pair of +3.00 reading glasses and use them as magnifiers to paint really tight details like that. It works for me... sometimes. Painting faces is always tricky.

Grammar edit.

She looks great! Maybe slightly surprised that her attache case just turned into a machine gun in the second pic?

I haven't even fully assembled all my Icestorm minis yet...

Nevermind the office lady, show off whatever weird stuff you got that I haven't seen yet!

Because I doubt it's any weirder than what I have sitting in front of me (some of which you purchased as well, so let that fester for a bit)...

Thanks for the kind words, guys.

I did promise you something weird, so how does a scarred up clown in a tutu wielding a knife sound to you?



Yeah, your eyes aren't playing tricks on you. I have a half naked clown wearing a tutu while waving around a knife. This charming fellow comes from Taban Miniatures' Eden line, specifically the Jokers faction. His name is Ievgeni. He was a gift from Highlord Tamburlaine quite some time ago. Unfortunately, he was missing his left arm. So, I decided in my infinite wisdom to try sculpting a new arm for him. I've had to do it a few times now, so I figured I could handle it. Now, my original plan was to give him a stumpy, deformed arm. Oddly enough, I'm not skilled enough to sculpt a short, deformed arm, but I'm apparently skilled enough to sculpt a perfectly normal, athough badly angled arm. Go figure. His hand was donated by a Mantic Ghoul and his knife came from a GW Chaos kit. Also, this guy seems to have recently received a significantly cooler looking resculpt from Taban back in January. The new version has more of a devil mask rather than a clown mask, and he's gained proper pants. The new version also doesn't appear to have a tutu anymore. Instead it looks like he has more of a pleated skirt. This version seems like he'd be a hell of a lot scarier though.

Now for something less creepy, I painted an elf!

This is Elara Tyro, a Retribution of Scyrah character solo who originated from the Warmachine RTS.



Not too much to say about her. What Retribution stuff I've painted has all had a desert theme to it, pretty much matching my Combined Army colors. I'd originally wanted a more military look for them and I think it works pretty well. I'm thinking I might dip her, so that's why I haven't done any basing yet. I also intend to add some glowy bits here and there on her armor. I'm undecided about the dipping though. She's nearly finished as it is and dipping would probably mess up the work I did on her blades. I may just do the double spray and call it good.

Nice clown.

I was wondering when he would finally show up.

Having looked at the photos and not read anything would have made me think that was the stock figure. I never would have guessed you stitched him up out of a bunch of other pieces! Good work!


I know I'm probably responsible for a few other oddities in your collection...

Great stuff! That clown reminds me a bit of BioShock splicers and the like.

I am scarred by that clown image . Well done.

I see that clown and keep thinking, "What if the Little Slasher in FO3 had grown up?"

Something tells me Ievgeni will be getting some use in TNT, whenever it arrives. I'd wanted to use him in Fear and Faith as well. He'll make a good slasher.

I couldn't decide what to work on today, so I worked on my other Tiik. This time, it's a Tiik Warrior. He had an Angler Fish style lamp on top of his head, but I cut it off because I wanted to do a more colorful scheme on him and deep sea fish aren't quite so colorful.



I'd seen pics of some funky tropical fish with colors like this. I thought I'd try it out. I'm please with it. I may pick up some more at a later date to do as deep sea types. Probably just do them in greens or dull greys.

I like the shiny and bright fish dude. Still frightening despite it's bold coloration.

Bloody hell, mate - you've really been churning them out in the past couple of weeks. There's a ton of cool looking aquatic/fishman/Deep Wars stuff and almost an equal amount of Infinity. And then some crazy gak to top it off.

I suppose I have been pretty busy. But, I have a reason. Next week I'm house sitting for my parents again, and they're going to be gone for a full week. I don't really have anywhere that's got good lighting for painting there and I don't want to lug all of my painting supplies along, so I'm not doing to be able to do any work while I'm there. Best to get a bunch of stuff done while I can. That means that I have to dedicate this week to finishing my March challenge, as well. I took tonight off from painting, but I'll be back at it tomorrow. I have yet another Deapwars figure I'm working on, too. This time it isn't a fishman though.

Really glad no one could see my screen when I scrolled past that clown...

I like the fish thing, vaguely reminiscent of a Lovecraft type creature.

EDC

I think Ievgeni mightbe the creepiest guy in his faction. He's certainly one of their crown jewels along with their dancing bear. The Jokers also have a mime, who is surprisingly not creepy. I think I may need a few more figures from that faction.

I came across a surprising deal yesterday at one of the lical shops. I scored a vintage 1995 Howling Banshees blister for $5 along with a Malifaux Freikorps Trapper. The Malifaux guy looks like he will work surprisingly well in post apocalyptic games. I think Highlord Tamburlaine wanted to have a little mini painting comp to see who could paint their Banshees fastest. He picked up a blister of Banshees as well.

Yeah, we'll get to those Banshees eventually.

We should start at the same time, even though in the end you'll certainly be done before I am.

All these fish monsters are awesome. They'd make great models for a Deep One-themed force.

Four-armed alien bug scientist diver is actually a pretty accurate description of this guy. Today, I painted At-Atck. Yep, that's his name. He's a named character for the Scaly Horde faction in Deep Wars.



He belongs to the Clal-Chk species, which from what I've read are actually aliens. They have very advanced technology and are apparently also masters of genetic manipulation. Much of their tech is biologically based, so a lot of their weapons and equipment are actually living creatures. That's fairly noticeable on At-Atck with his oxygen pack. They're also supposed to be extremely greedy and cowardly, often stopping in the middle of a fight to scavenge tech and treasure and running as soon as things appear to not be going in their favor.

At-Atck was actually an extra that Highlord Tambulaine had that he gave to me. Unfortunately, he didn't have his stat card with him. I'm not planning to run the Scaly Horde, but they do have some cool looking units in Deepwars. In Deepwars, the Scaly Horde consists of the Clal-Chk, the Gark, the Dagathonians, and the Draconids. Draconids are probably my least favorite, but the rest are pretty neat.

JoshinJapan, I put in for the Cthulhu Mythos expansion in the Bones 3 Kickstarter, so I will eventually have some actual Deep Ones. I think Deep Ones and the Tiik are better suited to the Scaly Horde though. I never could decide if I wanted to put in for the actual Dagon figure though. He's cool and I'd like to have him, but I don't have anywhere to put him and painting him seems like it would be a real pain.

 Barzam wrote:
Four-armed alien bug scientist diver is actually a pretty accurate description of this guy. Today, I painted At-Atck. Yep, that's his name. He's a named character for the Scaly Horde faction in Deep Wars.



He belongs to the Clal-Chk species, which from what I've read are actually aliens. They have very advanced technology and are apparently also masters of genetic manipulation. Much of their tech is biologically based, so a lot of their weapons and equipment are actually living creatures. That's fairly noticeable on At-Atck with his oxygen pack. They're also supposed to be extremely greedy and cowardly, often stopping in the middle of a fight to scavenge tech and treasure and running as soon as things appear to not be going in their favor.

At-Atck was actually an extra that Highlord Tambulaine had that he gave to me. Unfortunately, he didn't have his stat card with him. I'm not planning to run the Scaly Horde, but they do have some cool looking units in Deepwars. In Deepwars, the Scaly Horde consists of the Clal-Chk, the Gark, the Dagathonians, and the Draconids. Draconids are probably my least favorite, but the rest are pretty neat.

JoshinJapan, I put in for the Cthulhu Mythos expansion in the Bones 3 Kickstarter, so I will eventually have some actual Deep Ones. I think Deep Ones and the Tiik are better suited to the Scaly Horde though. I never could decide if I wanted to put in for the actual Dagon figure though. He's cool and I'd like to have him, but I don't have anywhere to put him and painting him seems like it would be a real pain.

That's one weird-looking monster. I like it.

I back RAFM's Call of Cthulhu KS, giving me several Deep One hybrids, two Father Dagons and one Mother Hydra. I think I need some of the fishy guys you've been sharing to go with them.

Latest deep dude is pretty cool, nice work. Cool spot colors.

I think I *did* order Dagon for some reason though all I can think to do with it is mount it inside a small fish tank with a little Ipswich style village on top...

all sorts of cool little minis you've been churning out lately. 4 armed bug alien in scuba gear is a real niche market

You are brilliantly and insanely prolific - how much painting time do you get a day? Are you just super-efficient? I love this thread because I am always guaranteed a delightfully painted new mini, that could be from ANY range, every time I visit

Thanks. I usually have about four hours or so to paint a day. Sometimes it can be more or less depending on what else I want to do or how drained I am from work. I'm pleased to hear that you like the variety. It can be really boring seeing the same stuff all the time.

Okay, finally got my March painting challenge finished. Six Orpheus Drone Controllers and six drone fighter tokens. Seems like it should be a quick and easy job, but they were oddly slow going.

(pic is actually quite large. Click to view zoomable pic in the gallery)


Here's all four angles of the Orpheus. It's an odd, blocky thing that doesn't look much like anything. It really isn't the most impressive vehicle in the Antarctic military.



I also painted something that's pretty much been sitting half started since I had lived in my apartment. I figured, what the hell? Went ahead and finished one of my Enforcer Peacekeeprs.



Lastly, I painted one of my Republic Pulse Mechs from Afterlife.



I'll be adding some debris to his base and a jump pack as well.

I'm glad I finished my monthly challenge before I had to house sit. Now I won't have that sitting in the back of my mind. Instead, I'll be working on some mecha models. We'll see if I actually post pics of them though.

I would love to have four hours a day to paint. You use the time wisely, don't have kids (or don't have more if you have some now). My time gets eaten up by work, kids, wife and church.

I really like that pulse mech, very nice sculpt and I like the colors you used.

I like that PK, you managed a much brighter white than I did.

Great stuff. The Afterlife guy looks great, and the little guys look pretty cool as well.

Nice work. I particularly like the Pulse Mech guy. Is he standing on little platform shoes?

Like the peacekeeper but the pulse mech is beautiful.

Thanks. Glad you guys like the Pulse. They're neat little suits. I think I'm getting withdrawals from not being able to paint anything. I have been busy building models though. I'll try and post some pics tonight of what I've been working on this week. I hope you don't mind crappy cell phone pics!

As of tonight, I have now built 3 kits.

First is Arthur, put out by PLUM.



PLUM is not a big company. If you've heard of them, it's because you're familiar with their Assault Suits Valken and Leynos kits. They have their own line, not based on any particular property, but mostly on historical figures called Pla Act, which is actually supposed to be short for Plastic Action. There are five kits in the series so far, with Arthur being the newest and the only one so far not based on an actual historical figure. He's also the only one based on a European as the rest of the line is based around historical figures of Japan's Warring States period. They have Sanada Yukimura, Masamune Date, Takeda Shingen, and Oda Nobunaga. All of the kits are based around a very highly articulated frame that has unique armor placed over it. The sixth release is going to be just a generic frame "soldier." The kits are mostly molded in the final colors. A little bit of painting is needed. The recessed areas on Arthur are supposed to be painted light blue, for instance. I also did some touchup paintwork on his eyes so that they would stand out better, though you can't actually see them here. Speaking of the eyes, the overall quality of the kit was pretty good, but there were parts that didn't quite want to fit, the eyes being one of them. This kit requires a teensy bit of glue here and there, such as on the white bits on the chest. However, there were a couple pieces that weren't supposed to be glued that really needed it. The eyes and part of the chest in the frame just didn't want to stay in, so I had to glue them. Those really were the only issues. Aside from those, I would actually recommend these kits.

Next, I built the 1/144 HG Gundam Barbatos.



Not much to say about this kit. It's really good. It even comes with some option parts to give it the appearance it had in the first episode. My one and only complaint about it is that the clips that are meant to hold the mace and sword on its back just don't hold the weapons very well. Other than that, this is a great and cheap little kit.

Last, and the one I just finished tonight, we have the 1/144 Imperial Japanese Army version of the Shiranui from Muv-Luv.



Muv-Luv is an odd series. It started out as a hentai dating sim, then morphed into a bleak, apocalyptic giant robot sci-fi action series. I'm not super familiar with the early games, but I do have some familiarity with the mecha series games as well as the two anime series produced based on it. I have to say, I actually really enjoyed the shows. The series overall has a very bleak tone. The mecha designs are great, too. All of the series' mechs are based on (mostly) real world aircraft. The only ones I don't think have real world analogues are this mech, the Shiranui, and the Takemikazuki, a very ornate machine used by the Japanese Imperial Guard. Kotobukiya's kits are all very good quality and this one is no exception. Aside from a little bit of blue detailing that's supposed to be in the knee joints, everything is pre-colored. That includes the eyes, the markings on the forehead, and the insignia on the shoulder. If you've built a Kotobukiya robot kit before, then you know that they have a lot of small, sharp parts. Their 1/144 Muv-Luv kits somewhat buck that trend. They do have small parts, but the parts count is much smaller than their usual fair and they have much simpler construction. However, they're still very complicated when compared to say, an HG Gundam kit. The articulation is very good, though the head is somewhat hampered by its design and the elbows could stand a bit more range of motion. The kit looks good and poses very well though. I was a bit disappointed with this purchase though because the version I got was the original release. This kit was re-released with components for a Build-a-Figure of a BETA Grappler Class alien. The first release version doesn't have that. So, if I ever wan to build a Grappler, I'll have to re-buy this kit.

During the week, I received an order from HLJ which contained another Muv-Luv mech. The new one I got is the upgraded F-15 Active Eagle. I won't be building that right now though. I'll probably wait until after this house sitting is over. I'm looking forward to being able to get back to painting miniatures again.

Neat giant robos! Also looking forward to the regular paint work resuming, but giant robos are cool too.

So Star Wars vs Star Trek style, which of this crop of mecha is the top dog, in a vacuum/hypothetically/just-for-fun ?

I can't speak for Arthur since there's no accompanying media, but between the Gundam and the Shiranui, the winner is hands down the Gundam. The Barbatos is supposed to be over 100 years old, yet is still in near perfect working order. It was made to be robust and take hits. We see the thing take quite a few hits over the course of the show, but it keeps coming. Combined with its unique pilot interface, its already high performance is boosted even higher, making it a nightmare on the battlefield. The Shiranui on the other hand, while yes, it is designed for close quarters fighting against hordes of alien monstrocities, they tend to get blown up surprisingly easily. Tactical Surface Fighters give humanity an edge against the BETA, but they still get overwhelmed very easily. When up against other TSFs, they don't tend to hold up very well against gunfire. Beam weaponry can one-shot them, too.

So, basically, it would be a fight between the Gundam's durability and mobility vs. the TSF's agility and firepower. The durability of the Gundam is really what gives it its edge.

I have a couple of items to post today. I'm getting back into the swing of things. A lot of painting to do in the near future though. I started off by working on something that I've had for a while, but just never had to drive to finish.

This big guy was from the Mechadrome Kickstarter. I'd gone with a mining setup rather than a more military one because I thought having an industrial mech would be cool. It was a royal pain to paint though. Lots of nooks and crannies all over in hard to reach areas. This is really a case where I should have painted it before building. It actually isn't done yet. I need to redo the striping on the left arm and it needs a whole lot of weathering still. The plan is that it will eventually belong to my Forge Father Brokkrs.



Since I was feeling in the mood to paint space dwarves, I decided to actually paint one.

This guy is Lucas, from Hasslefree' s Grymn line. I want to make a fluffy Brokkr team for Deadzone that uses a private security firm for protection. So, I wanted to use Hasslefree Grymn to proxy some of the Forge Father units. This guy would replace one of the Brookr heavy weapon guys. I think they were called Mussell Gunners or something.



He actually is done. I liked the idea of him having an opaque, armored visor, so I left it yellow.

And, to give you ab idea of how big the mech is...



I think I need to get more Grymn. One of the squad packs should actually completely fulfill my needs.

They both came out good. I agree on the helmet- keep it opaque. Looks cooler. Mech came out really nice as well.

Am I to assume these will be Forge Father forces? You going to use them in Deadzone when we get the new rulebooks?

Yep, that's the plan. I need to pick up another hardsuit at some point too. I will need an autocannon variant.

Nice space dwarfs. Good color choice. Drill hands are pretty sweet.

Cracking Clour scheme

Really like the alternative Iron ancestor, seems fluffier for a Brokkr force.

Cool stuff with the not-squat and not-squat-mechabot. I think that's the first time I've seen a helmet painted that way with the opaque visor. It's looks a bit odd at first, but it makes as much sense as the useless eye holes in Stormtrooper/Clone Trooper/Mandalorian helmets (if you've ever worn one) - and I can't see Space Marine helmets being much/any better - so no reason the autosenses wouldn't be in there anyway.

I'm not sure if I'd actually be able to run that mech as an Iron Ancestor. It's really damn big compared to the actual Iron Ancestor. Now, the other, smaller mech I have from the Mechadrome line, that I could probably run.... if it actually had weapons on it. It's more likely I'd wind up using them in other games, like Mutants and Death Ray Guns or SOBH, where I can get away with having large machines like that.

Well, the 10th was my birthday. Sadly, I am now 31 years old. But, I won't let that get me down. I know I haven't posted too much in terms of painted minis this week, but that doesn't mean I haven't been working. Despite the work I've been doing though, I have got a lot more stuff to do thanks to the gifts I got. Here's a few that are relevant to this board.



Most of these came from my grandparents via the Miniature Market sale in March. The baggies on the left hand side and the Squalo were gifts from Highlord Tamburlaine. You probably won't be able to tell, but the baggies are 15mm figures from Khurasan Miniatures. Some really cool looking bug men and some soldiers in space suits that look suspiciously like the ones from Alien. I didn't photograph them, but I also got a platoon of Xin Hegemony soldiers from The Ion Age as well as one of their Jade Ape battlesuits from my dad. So, definitely a lot to keep me busy.

As I mentioned though, I've been painting quite a bit of stuff this past week. A lot of the work I'd been doing was finishing up stuff I'd dipped and a few pieces that I'd started but hadn't finished for whatever reason (hobby ADHD being the usual suspect)

I finished up my Naffatun, as you can kind of see here.



I also completed my Spitfire Ragik, who remains difficult to decently photograph.



Some of you may remember those Kryomek Cobra Marines I'd been working on. I finally got around to completing their third member.



And all three together, finally.



Not sure what I'll do with them. I can't really run 3-man teams in anything. Can't really proxy them for anything either. Maybe I'll try using them in TNT.

Now, as for new stuff, well, you've already seen the Grymn I painted and the work I'd done on the Mechadrome mech. I also worked on some Unity Guards from Afterlife.



They're not anywhere near as nice looking as MOTN's guys or the ones Dwartist did, but I'm happy with them.

I also painted up a Freikorp Trapper from Malifaux.



I know his rifle looks bent. That's because it is. No matter what I do, his rifle looks bent out of shape. It looks fine from the front, but bent from the back. The thing was bent at a 90 degree angle in the package, so I did the best I could. I'm just glad it didn't break when I tried to straighten it. Some of you might ask, "but Barzam, since when do you play Malifaux?" Well, I don't. I actually got this guy to use in Shadows of Brimstone. See, along with pirates, mermaids, centaurs, and overly bearded dwarves, I also don't care much for cowboys, and Shadows of Brimstone's player characters are almost exclusively cowboys. Thankfully, Malifaux, despite being a western, has some decidedly steampunk and un-cowboy looking models which I can use and manage to scale nicely with the actual Brimstone figures. So, I'll be using this guy to proxy a Lawman. The Lawman class seemed really effective in combat last time we played, and that's what I need. I also have a second Freikorps figure awaiting paint just because.

And lastly, we have another Eureka Miniatures Soviet in NBC gear.



Yeah, like the officer I have from that line, he'll work great in pretty much any post apocalyptic game. I'll probably use him and the officer as fodder grunts in TNT.

31? Hahaha. The brown stuff hits the fan around 35-36. Enjoy life until then.

Nice haul, and nice work on the painting. The Ragik, you need to photograph it from a greater distance, so that the whole mini will be in focus.

Happy Birthday, you share the day with my oldest daughter who turned 13(your reverse), 31 is a much better age than 13, so enjoy it young man. Nice haul and great work on the models you completed. Mecha drone looked fun but I passed on it due to funds.

Meh you only got one year on me and I dint feel too old...yet.

Excellent progress. Nice range of stuff.

I have the CA starter and Santiago knights and both look great, looking forward to your eventual results

Happy birthday also.

I did some work on some of the 15mm stuff I received recently. Even just painting these four took a surprising amount of time. These guys were basically test runs.

First, Khurasan Miniatures' Guncrabs (they have another name, but I forget what it is)



For 15mm figures, they're actually pretty chunky, coming in around the same size as some of my power armored figures. Despite that, they're still pretty small, so forgive the lack of detailing done on their guns.

I'd also made an order from Ground Zero Games on the recommendation of the Facebook 15mm Gaming Group. I kept the order pretty small, just getting two sets of power armors and a 25mm figure from their Stargrunt line. The power armors I purchased were the resculpted Japanese Power Armors and the much larger Cyclops Power Armors. I painted up two of the Japanese suits for the test run.





I actually really like these suits. Their big backpacks remind me of the hefty jump packs from the Starship Troopers anime and MADOX-01. For some reason, there are no pictures of painted samples of these figures online, and that also somewhat influenced my decision to purchase them. That, and I like their overall look.

I'm planning to paint the rest of the Guncrabs this week, then move on to my monthly challenge. After that, I plan to try to start working through my recent Brookhurst pile.

 Barzam wrote:
First, Khurasan Miniatures' Guncrabs (they have another name, but I forget what it is)

Itu'a Tarkhan Heroes aka Assault Crabs

Also excited to see them! I've been scheming for months now about how to use a lot of them, due to liking the sculpt and them being pretty cheap. Could you snap a scale shot for me? Up against something on a 25mm round base? Or just standing on a 25mm round base, merhaps

Anyway, yours look great, bone armor really suits these little gribblies.

- Salvage

Itu'a Tarkhan! That's what it was! Thanks. I can't give you a size comparison against a 28mm figure right now, but I can get one later tonight. The best I can offer right now is against another 15mm figure. If it helps, they're based on 1 yen coins which are 1, maybe 2 millimeters larger than a penny.

Those are some pretty cool looking figures no matter the size. I wish Tyranids had evolved along those lines.

Damn, you're a painting machine! I don't know how you manage to turn over so many models so quickly to such a good looking level.

As for old at 31... sheesh. I wish I could be 31 again. Only now with the things I've gotten since I was 31. I'd even be good with 32. or 35.

Boss Salvage, I took this pic for you.



I don't seem to have any Space Marines on hand, so hopefully the old Stormtrooper will do.

It's really just a matter of sitting down and forcing yourself to paint, Azazel. Usually I have some Youtube videos going as well to give me some entertainment and then I just paint away. I do it to unwind after work, so that helps me relax and gets me in the zone.

I finished the Itu'a tonight, btw. All six are now done. You'd think being so small that they would paint up quickly. But, no. They took a surprising amount of time to paint.



I'd picked up one of GZG's 25mm Stargrunt figures as well just as an experiment and I painted him up tonight as well. The crazy thing is, that figure took less time to paint than any of the Guncrabs. I knocked this guy out in under an hour. This is a New Swabian League soldier.



And for those curious, there is a definite size difference between the old 25mm Stargrunt figures and regular 28mm figures.



Still, despite the smaller size, the detail is actually quite good. Simple, but good. If I ever make another order to GZG, which I probably will, I might grab another NSU soldier to go along with this guy.

 Barzam wrote:
Boss Salvage, I took this pic for you.

And thank you much! That's a very helpful shot, looks like the Crabs could go on 25mm bases and be diminutive but not entirely out of scale. I've a red hair to do 100+ of them as gnoblars or something, looks like that could be a thing. Now a thing worth doing, that's another question ...

Crab squad looks solid all together

- Salvage

Crabs could be a good termagant substitute. The star grunt makes a good little man syndrome scifi warrior.

Happy belated Birthday

Great stuff as usual, look forward to what you do with the umbra

Thanks all. I think the crabs may be a bit small to be used as Tyranid replacements. They'll work great as 15mm Tyranids though.

Thanks Joe, but I don't think I'll be getting to the Umbra anytime soon. I have a ton of stuff to try and work my way through before I can get to him.

Speaking on, I have now completed my April pledge.

these are Pytheus class small flyers for the Covenant of Antarctica.



If you're wondering why the two planes in the front have different bases from the others, it's because for some reason my box was missing the bases for those two. Luckily, I had some Litko flight bases on hand that actually fit the planes better than the ones they came with. These planes came from my Covenant Aerial Battle Group, which includes these five planes, three medium sized airships, and one big ship. I've decided to split the battle group so that this month is the small stuff and next month will be the ships. The reason for this is that I want to hit more of my backlog and try to clear some of it out.

To that end, I've already finished my first stretch goal. This is the Proteus combat mech from White Dragon's Marine Tactical Unit Kickstarter.



And here it is with the rest of my White Dragon minis.



As you can see, it's another 15mm kit. This is one of the three variants that were available. The other two had a railgun and a cannon as weapon options and different poses. I know the scheme I chose is different from the rest of the troops. It actually wound up matching the Clearhorizon Sparrowhawk gunship I did. I intentionally chose a different color scheme for it because I wanted to paint something a little different after painting a bunch of tan 15mm guys. The next few stretch goals I hit will actually be more 15mm. Next up on the agenda is a dropship. I've applied a good chunk of the camo pattern to it tonight, but it needs more work still. With luck though, I'll be done with it tomorrow. Then, on to some more power armors. After that, back to 28mm with an old Warzone figure.

Nice. The giant mini gun mech looks awesome.

EDC

Hit another stretch today. I present the Condor Heavy Lift VTOL, from Clearhorizon Miniatures.



Drink it all in, folks. I think the may in fact be the one and only picture of this thing fully assembled and painted on the internet.

This guy was a daunting beast. Not the cleanest cast, though the rough bits thankfully don't really show in the pic and aren't noticeable at all at tabletop level. I actually had this thing done by 8pm today, but in my infinite wisdom, decided to give it a wash. I damn near ruined the entire thing. It took me HOURS to repair my mistake. I'd planned to work on other stuff today, but this wound up taking the whole night. I'm glad it's finally done though and I can move on. I did mod it a little. I added some large disc magnets onto it so that the engines can rotate. What good is a futuristic VTOL if you can't rotate the engines? With luck, I'll have it and some other stuff sealed tomorrow.

It is very cool. How large is it? Aren't Washes the devil?

Here you go. This should help give you some idea of its size.

Update time!
Two more figures done tonight, six on the workbench!

Tonight I changed my plan a bit and focused on some 28mm guys instead of the 15mm ones. I did do work on the 15mm stuff though, those'll be done tomorrow instead. Tonight I focused my efforts on working on a Brotherhood Keeper of the Art from Warzone and a CSO Sniper from Aberrant Games' Rezolution.

The keeper of the Art painted up real quick.



One can never have too many space wizards, especially when they're actually good looking minis. I know his robe is perfect for some freehand, but my skills just aren't up to snuff, sadly.

Here's the CSO Sniper from Rezolution.



I got this guy for .99 cents at Brookhurst Hobbies. Total Impulse buy. Rezolution is a bit odd. It has some decent sculpts, a few really good sculpts, and a ton of pretty terrible sculpts. There's maybe one or two figures from each faction that are actually decent and the rest are just bad. This guy is one of the better looking ones for the CSO. I've modded him a little bit though. His original pose had him mid stride, turning at the waist, and aiming through the scope. Who does that? So, with a bit of creative bending, I managed to get him into a decent firing stance. It actually really improved his overall look.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Hmm. Should I do something more with the things on the Keeper's back? It seems like he needs a little more color to me. Maybe paint them gold?

I've finished up my Ground Zero Games power armors. Now I'll be working on some 28mm stuff again.

Japanese Power Armors. You've already seen the first two I did. I didn't do anything different for the rest of the squad.



The Japanese armors are a good size, for 15mm kits. Believe it or not, they're actually multipart, so there's some posing options for them. Here you can see how they match up to a basic 15mm human.



I also painted up a pair of Cyclops Battlsuits.



The Cyclops is a fair bit bigger and has a much chunkier integral base, hence my decision to base them on regular 25mm bases. I know it's a bit hard to tell, but the one on the left was actually painted in camouflage. I probably should've chosen a lighter base since the wash I added really washed the colors out. The one on the right matches with the Golem Suits I did from Heavy Gear. It was a scheme somewhat inspired by the old anime MADOX-01.

Here you can see how the Cyclops compares to a normal human. Even without the added height of the base, the suits are still pretty big.



I think I'd class them as light mecha rather than power armor.

One thing I'd also been curious about was how big the Cyclops compares to Khurasan Miniatures' Corsair Battledress armor, another "suit" that I'd also class as more of a mech than a power armor.



As you can see, they're pretty big compared to a regular 15mm person, or even the Japanese armors.

Stop making me want 15mm power armor and mecha!

I got enough junk I need to stop collecting, why you trying to add more to it?

Neat stuff!

Cool stuff! The bigger suits definitely look more like mechs. Though it could just be them using liberty with the term like calling gundams mobile suits? But yeah those things definitely have cockpits as opposed to being worn like armor. Neat!

I bet you could have a guy "wear" those Cyclops suits. If I ever use them in a game though, I'm totally classing them as mechs though.

Highlord, you technically do have some 15mm mechs. You've still got all your Master Grade and other 1/100 Gundam kits, don't you? They're all in scale.

Well, I said I would do more 28mm, and I meant it. I just got a score on Ebay for some more Sons of Rasputin and they came in today. I got a Kommandant and 4 Northern Sons. Just a few more figures to go, and my Sons of Rasputin will be more or less complete.

Here's Herr Kommandant.



Dude's a badass, that's for sure. I'm working on three other figures at the moment. I'll probably start sneaking some of the Northern Sons into the queue along with them.

Dang, that Warzone guy is bulky.

Wait 'till you see how he compares to the Russians I'm painting. This guy's like an Ogryn in comparison.

And he's metal, right? I bet he weighs a ton.

He has a good heft, but I think the HMG guy might be heavier. I suspect the flamer guy and the Jaeger win out as heaviest, chunkiest figures in the SOR range. For the life of me, I can't figure out why the Sons of Rasputin appeal to me though. They're such ugly, badly proportioned figures, yet I can't help but love them.

I finished up my Soviet Guards Riflemen. They were quick jobs.



Not the most interesting couple of figures, are they? I've got two more of these guys and another psychic NKVD officer. They're going to wait a bit, though I would like to have those three finished before the end of the month. Shouldn't be too hard.

As I mentioned, that Sons of Rasputin figure is huge compared to these guys. There's a bit of a size difference between heroic scale and true scale.



Currently in the queue, I have a Dreadball figure (Medibot), two Infinity figures, one Malifaux figure, and the first of the four Northern Sons from Warzone.

Cool stuff mate. I think I've got a few of those Sons of Raputin floating around somewhere, though I've not gotten around to even thinking of painting them. If I ever find them, would you be interested in them?

The Soviet WW2 models look pretty cool. Which range are they from?

Seriously, Azazel? Yeah, I'd totally be down for some more Rasputin guys. Especially if you have the guy with the dual flamer. The Soviet guys are from Blackball Games' AEWWII line. I've painted up a few figures from that line before, like the American Airborne, the American power armor, the psychic NKVD officer, and a few of the Germans. The figures are a bit fiddly, but I like a lot of their more fantastical designs and their quality is generally pretty decent. I have a quite a few figure from that line that I haven't mentioned before or even opened, like US Jet Rangers or German reanimated cyborgs.

I painted up my first Northern Son today.



I got home pretty late tonight, so I wasn't really able to work on my other stuff beyond slapping a few paint layers on. I don't really have anything going on tomorrow though, so I might actually get some serious painting time in.

As an added bonus, I swiped Rat Man Do from my parents for the weekend. A combination of a busy day with lots of company and a car ride left him pretty tired, but he hung out with me while I did my painting.

Cool stuff Barzam

And cute looking dog (soo dog broody at the moment)

I hadn't heard the term Dog Broody before, so I had to look it up. Ratty is a cute dog. I get dog broody very frequently, especially since I volunteer at a dog shelter. *sigh* I'd love it if I could have a big 'ole German Shepherd or a Belgian Malinois. If I could take a dog to work, then my biggest obstacle to having a dog would be removed. Someday.

Today I had a free day. It's rare that I get a day with absolutely nothing going on. I slept in real late, got my car washed, and spent some time painting figures. And you know what? Even with all that free time, I only managed to actually paint one figure! Well, if I can at least get one a day for the rest of the month, I should manage to make a decent dent in my pile. Hopefully. It's gotten pretty big since my birthday.

So, today I painted the new sculpt Alguacile Hacker for the Nomads.



I didn't really need this guy since I have the Corregidor box, but I'd come across him marked down for a decent price a little while back, so I went ahead and got him. Even if he's a bit redundant, I do like having more variety among my fodder grunts, so I think he was worth the cost. Plus, he looks cool.

I also had a PM request for some additional size comparison pics, so I'll include those, too.

Today's update brings us a nearly finished Rasyat, who needs to be dipped and get some lights.



And my Freikorps Librarian from Malifaux.

I went to an Angels baseball game on Tuesday and wound up getting home pretty late, so I wasn't able to work on anything. So much for my plan of getting at least one figure done a day. I finished my Rasyat Wednesday night though. I find that I actually like this figure a lot. The studio colors never did anything for me, but having one in my own scheme, I really like the way he looks. I actually wouldn't mind getting the other one.



Tonight I should hopefully be finishing up my Dreadball Medi-bot and starting up on some Ion Age stuff.

Medi-Bot from Dreadball Extreme is all finished up. I don't feel like I did all that great of a paintjob on him, but I'm also not that bothered by it. It's a restic Mantic figure, it's never really going to look "good," so I don't feel so bad about doing a rough, somewhat rushed paintjob on it. It'll get the job done and it does actually look decent at tabletop level. Chances are, I'll probably wind up using it in TNT or Mutants and Death Ray Guns. Or, I suppose I could maybe use it in Dreadball... I guess.

You do have a few random dreadball teams, correct? Mutants and robots I believe?

I guess I could be bothered to sit down and read the rules at some point...

The basic DB rules are pretty simple-- my then-five-year-old son figured them out pretty quickly, and even beat me in half of the games we played. I don't know about DBX, though.

The bot looks good. I wonder if I got one...

That medi-bot, holding out the bed, reminds me of the myth of Procrustes. Scary.

The rasyat looks pretty good. And I agree, the studio colors are a bit meh.

Bot looks fine I think. Nice clean white.

I like the old Rasyats too but they're so different to the new morat look ;/

 Barzam wrote:
Seriously, Azazel? Yeah, I'd totally be down for some more Rasputin guys. Especially if you have the guy with the dual flamer.

Honestly, I can't recall what I have. Well, I had the 2-pistol guy that you showed, though one or both of his hands were sawn off for conversions. I also had the standard bearer, whos standard was used elsewhere, but I should have a few others. Just a caveat - I don't know where they are, and I've owed Bob a bunch of figure parts from Mantic's KoW1 which I haven't been able to find, either - so it could be a decent wait....

Infinity guys are looking good, as always. Pretty cool to see you (mostly) keeping to such an impressive workrate. The only way I manage to do anything like that is with batch-painted units of models, not individuals like you're getting done!

highlord tamburlaine wrote:You do have a few random dreadball teams, correct? Mutants and robots I believe?

I guess I could be bothered to sit down and read the rules at some point...

Nope, no mutants. I only have robots. I have the regular robot team and the Mechanite team. You can take your time though. I haven't completed either team and probably won't build the Mechanites according to the rules' standards for them.

JoshInJapan wrote:The basic DB rules are pretty simple-- my then-five-year-old son figured them out pretty quickly, and even beat me in half of the games we played. I don't know about DBX, though.

The bot looks good. I wonder if I got one...

Simple is good. Simple is very good. Too much record keeping and modifiers and my eyes tend to just glaze right over. The simpler and easier something is to pick up and play, the better, I say.

Red Harvest wrote:That medi-bot, holding out the bed, reminds me of the myth of Procrustes. Scary.

The rasyat looks pretty good. And I agree, the studio colors are a bit meh.

Damn, if I played rpgs, that would be a great storyline hook to use with the robot. Glad you liked the Rasyat. I think he was my favorite of the week.

ckig wrote:Bot looks fine I think. Nice clean white.

I like the old Rasyats too but they're so different to the new morat look ;/

That whtie doesn't look so smooth in person, but like I said, this is a restic figure. I didn't even bother cleaning off most of his mold lines. I'm not that torn up about it looking rough.

Azazelx wrote:

 Barzam wrote:
Seriously, Azazel? Yeah, I'd totally be down for some more Rasputin guys. Especially if you have the guy with the dual flamer.

Honestly, I can't recall what I have. Well, I had the 2-pistol guy that you showed, though one or both of his hands were sawn off for conversions. I also had the standard bearer, whos standard was used elsewhere, but I should have a few others. Just a caveat - I don't know where they are, and I've owed Bob a bunch of figure parts from Mantic's KoW1 which I haven't been able to find, either - so it could be a decent wait....

Infinity guys are looking good, as always. Pretty cool to see you (mostly) keeping to such an impressive workrate. The only way I manage to do anything like that is with batch-painted units of models, not individuals like you're getting done!

Hey, I don't mind waiting. That's no problem at all.

Despite my work rate, I've barely made any dent in my piles. I really need to start clearing out my birthday stuff. Those Infinity boxes feel so much more daunting than the blisters though.
I suppose I have made up for my missed day this week. I did two "figures" today. On my birthday, I made an order from The Ion Age. Fortunately, they had a sale with free shipping on orders over 10 pounds, had some of their vehicles 25% off, and had a freebie figure I liked. I didn't order too much, just three 15mm vehicles and two 28mm figures. We'll see how those guys turn out. Two of the vehicles are called Adders, and they're skirted hovercrafts. One is intact, the other is wrecked and the third vehicle is a patrol gunship that I'm still working on. Tonight's focus was the Adders.

Here's the intact version, the Red Adder.



I tried to keep it pretty similar to the studio colors, though I went for more of a gray than a tan. There's several types of Adders, each with a different turret and specialization. Each type has a different color associated with it as well. The Red Adder is an anti-infantry type.

Here's the wrecked version.




It's a great little piece of terrain. I know it's hard to tell, but I actually painted the wrecked version exactly the same as the intact one. The weathering I did just really dirtied it up. I wanted it to look like it's been sitting around in the elements for a while. I'd say I pulled it off. I really wish they had wrecked versions of the other types though. I'd kind of like to have another.

Are you going to put that hovering one on a floaty base, or just let it scoot along the table?

Needs a small Jackie Chan Rumble in the Bronks figure, also a weathered Lamborghini .

Love the hair on the Alguacile Hacker

And the crisp job on the Medi bot

 Theophony wrote:
Needs a small Jackie Chan Rumble in the Bronks figure, also a weathered Lamborghini .

Quoted for truth

Bwahaha Jackie Chan and the hovercraft, good stuff.

You too Barzam, nice lot of minis lately. The 15mm stuff intrigues me and thechover tsnk is quite neat. Auglacile and the rest of the CB figures are quite fancy as well.

I loved Rumble in the Bronks, but tried watching it again not too long ago....the action holds up well, but everything else made me wish I hadn't watched it again.

Also if anyone wants a similar martial arts thrill to see check out any of Tony Jaa's movies, he is the younger version of Jackie Chan.

Sorry to go off topic there, back to hovercrafts

Hovercraft gets no base. It'll just scoot along on the table.

To be completely honest, Rumble in the Bronx is probably my least favorite Jackie Chan movie. And I'm including Fantasy Mission Force in that lineup, too. I've only seen Rumble in the Bronx once and I recall it striking me as being surprisingly boring.

Today I got to work on some more stuff from my Ion Age order. Ad I mentioned, I bought two of their 28mm figures. I have to mention, these guys are actually pretty old sculpts. I used to have some waaaaay back when I was a kid in the early 90s. So, since they're pretty old, their sculpts aren't the most amazing or the sharpest. But, they have a ton of character. They're very reminiscent of the old Rogue Trader era sculpts. One of the figures I absolutely needed to get is a Prydian Retained Knight lighting up a cigarette.



You just don't see figures doing that, which is really weird. The sculpt is rough in some areas and really looks best when viewed from certain angles, but I can't help but love it. Obviously I was going for a Crimson Fist vibe on his armor's colors. It seemed fitting. Interestingly enough, these figures have integral bases, but Alternative Armies actually threw in 30mm resin bases with them. I was really surprised by that. I have one more of these guys and I'll be doing him in a red scheme. I'm not sure what I'll do with them, but I'm actually kind of thinking that they would make pretty nice power armored Reclaimers for TNT.

I also worked on the April 2016 freebie figure today. A really nice thing about The Ion Age is that Alternative Armies not only has a rewards point system, but they also give freebie figures every month regardless of how much you spend. On top of that, each month's figure is unique and once the month is over, you can't get that figure until the end of the year when they budle all of the freebie figures into a purchasable set. The April 2016 figure is called "The Hand of the Duxis." The Duxis is a heavy power armor and the figure itself is supposed to be a maintenance technician for the suits. The name obviously comes from the fact that she has one of the suits' hands.



Apparently there are going to be rules for this figure as well. I'm really curious what May's freebie will be.

On the 30th of April, Highlord Tamburlaine and I split an Imperial knights: Renegade boxed set. I wound up taking the instructions first and got my Knight assembled, then wound up working on it for pretty much the entirety of last week. I just finished it late Friday night. I think the Knight is the biggest model that I've had to completely hand paint. Rather than go with the LItany of Destruction's color scheme (though I do like it), I chose to paint my Knight to match my Stygies VIII Mechanicus army.



I can take more pics if you guys want, but there he is in all of his glory. I haven't named it yet though. I couldn't think of one. The cog tooth pattern on the neck cowling was hand painted, but the other markings are all decals. I mostly built it straight, but I modded the arms so that they're magnetized. If I should ever get more weapons or actually finish painting the Chainsword, I will be able to swap the weapons out. This guy was also my May challenge for the "Tale of XX Painters."

I've actually been busy Friday and Saturday and did some other work besides the Imperial Knight. I painted up the second 28mm Prydian Retained Knight from The Ion Age.


Bad luck though, my light is washing out the detailing from the wash I'd done on him. He's not the only one affected by my lighting in this batch, either. I also painted my 15mm Duxis Battlsuit.



As you can see, the lighting again washed out the shading. As you might guess, this battlesuit is where the arm in "The Hand of the Duxis" came from. She's supposed to be a mechanic for these suits. The Duxis is actually supposed to be a powered armor, but like the Cyclops and the Corsair suits, it's actually pretty big for 15mm. That's actually a 30mm base it's standing on, for example. More for my own interests, I took some size comparison shots. First comparing against smaller power armors, then 15mm figures from Ion Age and Peter Pig, and then against other larger suits.



I also finished painting my Skylark Patrol Gunship from The Ion Age. It's a smaller sized VTOL craft. The sculpt isn't the best, but it's not terrible. It isn't as nice as any of the other vehicles I got in that order from The Ion Age though. I had decided to go with a blue scheme with the idea that it would be a local security craft. I'm not especially enamored with how it turned out though. I think if I ever get another (I'm planning on getting a crashed one for sure) I'm going to just go with a simple gray scheme like I used on my Adder hovercraft.



And compared to a Peter Pig figure. I modded it though and magnetized the rear engines so that they can rotate for some VTOL action.



Okay, one final thing. In March, Alternative Armies released a new faction for The Ion Age, the Xin Hegemony. There'd been a few releases for the range as monthly free figures, but in May they finally did the official full release. For my birthday, my dad got me a platoon of their infantry as well as one of their heavy battlesuits. So, that platoon deal gave me regular infantry, support troops, assault troops, and a command squad, plus a special officer figure that only comes in the platoon deal. Also, when they released them, the monthly promo figure was a small monkey robot for the Xin, so I've got that and the Jade Ape battlesuit as well. The Xin have a pretty cool look to them, going for a medieval Chinese meets 40k look. I hadn't started on them yet because I couldn't settle on a color scheme. I finally settled on a simple gray scheme. I really like how it turned out though, so I'll be continuing this scheme for the rest of the platoon.



This particular figure is one of the assault troops. They're all armed with swords and wrist guns. To bring things into 40k terms, the basic infantry would actually be equal to Space Marines. They're all decked out in light power armor. They have warrior monks that would be equivalent to Terminators, and the Jade Ape would be analogous to a Dreadnought. Similarly for the Prydians, the Muster would probably be equivalent to Scouts, the Retained would be Space Marines, the Destria would be Terminators, and the Duxis would be a Dreadnought.

For the rest of the week, I'm going to challenge myself to see if I can paint a Nemethis the Sacrilegeous from Confrontation for Tamburlaine to sell at Brookhurst this coming weekend. Anything else I can get done will be an added bonus and I'll probably also try to work on some of my Dystopian Wars air ships.

Great work on the Mechanicum Knight Barzam, Renegade was a great deal if splitting it like yourself and Highlord. You have left yourself plenty of time for May stretch goals as well, keep it up!

Wow random knight. Sweet. Kudos for knocking that out, seems like the kinda thing a person might buy and never ever paint. Looks good, plus all of the other smaller stuff .

The knight is looking great

Just a quick update. I got some more Kickstarter stuff in yesterday. I received my Deadzone: Infestation Forge Fathers. Didn't get my Enforcers though. I'm wondering if they're coming in a separate shipment. I sent an email, but we'll see if I actually get an answer. I also received my Wasteland Survivors from Brigade Games. Now that was a quick turnaround. I'll probably start working on them next since I only purchased three figures from that KS.

For now, I painted another couple of Soviet Guards Rifles.



And here's all four together.



I'm not sure why that guy on the left looks like he has a different colored jacket. It's exactly the same as everyone else's.

It wasn't much that needed doing, but I finally got around to actually finishing the two Sefadu guys I painted a few months ago.



And here's all of them together. I wonder why Megacon sculpted them all to be running?



Lastly, I painted another figure from my Xin Hegemony platoon. This figure is a junior officer from the command squad.



I actually picked several guys at random from the bag to paint and this one came up first. I should be able to easily enough get two more done today.

Those Sefadu guys look like a bunch of lizards!

I think that may be intentional. Their heavy weapons guy even has a tail. It just isn't so noticeable in their red and yellow studio colors.

Those Sedafu guys are nice. Way back when I was thinking about getting into Mercs, I picked up their starter box, but it's been sitting, unopened, in the closet ever since.

I think Sefadu is something of an acquired taste. At first, their concept seems really cool. But, then you see them and their weird poses and equipment designs and they can be pretty off-putting. I think colors also play a big part in making them more appealing. The studio colors aren't really that good and there actually aren't many examples of them in other schemes online.

Anyway, today I've got another Xin Hegemony trooper done. This time it's just a regular soldier.



Probably more interesting is that on Monday, I got my stuff from Brigade Games' Post Apocalyptic Wastelander Kickstarter. Man, that was a hell of a turnaround on that one. It ended on April 7th and everything was sent out by March 9th. Damn.

So, I only got three figures from this one. I figured, what the hell. I can get all three done pretty quick. Why not just have a go at them? So, first guy is already done.



I'll have the other two finished tonight.

Here I thought post apocalyptic stuff was popular. Man, I'm not getting much in the way of views today. Hopefully this update will spice things up a bit.

As promised, I finished the other two Wastelanders from Brigade Games.

Here's the shotgunner.



And here's the spearman. It seemed appropriate to give him a rusty spear (which looks like he took it off of a wrought iron fence)



I think I'm getting a nice little batch of wastelanders now. They should get some play in TNT.



Now, you might be wondering, who the feth is Nemethis the Sacrilegious Devourer Priest? Well, he's this guy.



With a name that awesome, how can I not type the whole thing out? He's one of the evil Wolfen from Vile-Tis from Rackham's Confrontation line. Dude is huge and metal. Highlord Tamburlaine had won some Vile-tis models off of Ebay and since he already had a Nemethis, he gave me this spare. I actually already had one of my own, so I figured I'd paint this one up for him to try and sell it at the Brookhurst miniature swap this weekend. I unfortunately can't go. This figure, like the rest in the lot it came in were kind of shoddily put together. Lots of glue globs and greenstuff, not to mention the homemade basing that wanted to flake off. I cleaned things up for the most part and I'd like to think I did a pretty good job salvaging him.

Here's the turnaround.



I figure this'll be the prototype for whenever I get around to painting my own Nemethis. So, that's why he's wearing purple. I wanted him to match my Goritsi.
As I mentioned though, the guy is big.

He came out nice.

You almost ought to keep him.

Plus he isn't *that* big. It's just your other guys are really small!

I like the wastelanders. Everything in this update has a nice, desaturated palate, like Zak Snyder painted them or something.

I think it's actually my lighting giving that impression. If you notice, the shot of Nemethis from behind looks brighter and not as washed out. I really need a better setup.

I already have a Nemethis of my own that I haven't done anything with. Some day, I'll actually do something with him, too. I don't really need two of him though, so I have no problem re-selling him.

Lovely work, Barzam. The wastelanders look great, but Nemethis is an amazing job on an amazing model. I got a fair few Wolfen in the day, but missed out on a fair few of the great looking heroes. Just read back some more. Nice knight. Very nice work.

Cracking stuff Barzam

Love the paintjob on the wolfen dude

Always such a variety of minis ^^

Great work on all of them.

You, sir, continue to kill it. Most effectively.

Great bit of work recently. I especially like the giant doom priest and the wastelanders, great stuff. Those wastelanders are kind of inspiring, may have to make some caravaners after all.

If it's crusty wastelanders you're after, check out Wreck-Age. There's some pretty good ones mixed in there. I have been eyeing a few lately and have to keep telling myself that the pile of unpainted metal comes first. You should also keep an eye on Brigade Games. With luck, the line my wastelanders came from will be up for general retail soon. There was a very nice variety in there.

Unfortunately though, I am house sitting. Again. So, that means another hiatus for my painting unless I can sneak back to my place once or twice during the week. If I can sneak back over, I'll be able to show you guys a few figures I painted up this weekend. Namely, a 15mm Boomer, a 15mm Landmate, and a Weird War II American Rocket Trooper.

I swung by my place today (with dogs in tow) to do a little bit of painting. Naturally, I forgot the stuff I was planning to take with me. Instead, I decided to finish painting Enforcer N7-117.



Not the best pics I could've taken. I didn't photograph her in my usual spot, so everything is super washed out. Since she's an homage to Shepherd (N7) and Master Chief (117), I figured I should find some way to integrate the two. I managed to find a shade of green that matches Master Chief's armor damn near perfectly and I included the red and white stripes on the right arm. I need to clean those up a bit though. I also feel like I should do somethign that that square spot on the right side of her chest armor. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be, but it feels odd to leave it blank like that. If I were confident in my ability to freehand, I would paint a 117 there.

Really cool. Give the freehand a go. Worse case scenario you have to take a few stabs at it

Thinking of painting mine as the chief as well

Looks great. I still haven't played Mass Effect (no doubt they'll remaster them all for PS4/XBone) but I immediately saw Master Chief before I even read the text.

Yeah, I didn't realize they changed the sculpt to look that much like MC. Good stuff, very recognizable colors and well done.

Thanks for the info about the wastelander stuff. I'm presently buried under a mountain of stuff but regular wastelanders are something my kitbashing doesn't exactly approximate well.

Confrontation minis now? Excellent. And nice work on it.

I'm not working on any Confrontation atuff atm, but once I get through my current stuff that's on the table, I can try working on some of my Confrontation minis.

I may try doing a bit of freehand on N7's chest. That square bugs me with nothing on it.

I really wish I could take a month off from work and just work through my Pile of Shame. The thing just keeps getting bigger. Yesterday I saw that Noble Knight actually got a restock on Urban War and Void. So, of course I needed to order a few of the figures that have been out of stock for months . I managed to get another Artmeis Biosynth, so it looks like my Mechanicus will be getting another nude cyborg.

Not to help you add to your pile of shame, but I noticed FRP had some "Iron Brotherhood" guys from some tiny manufacturer for half off. Were very reminiscent of AdMech stuff, and a heck of a lot cheaper.

I still think I've probably got a bigger pile than you...

They're from Micro Art. They're tempting, but there's something about those figures that I don't quite like. They feel a bit too junky to me. They also feel like they are better suited for the Dark Mechanicus. I think I prefer my cyborgs to look a bit cleaner.

Nice work channelling the Master chief there. You got the green right for sure

I did some more work on 15mm stuff while working on some 28mm stuff I got from Noble Knight. Banged out a couple more Xin troops and some other odds and ends.

I finished one of the heavy weapon support troopers.



And I finished the standard bearer. I will eventually put [i]something[.i] on his standard. Just don't know what.



You can also see that I've been attempting to work on NMM gold on these guys. It isn't easy, but I think working at this smaller scale, I can pull it off better. I think the standard bearer was one of my better attempts.

I got a couple of corpse tokens, too.




Ignore the dice in the shot. I needed something to prop them up. It's a little hard to tell, but the masks they're wearing are different colors from the rest of their uniforms, and the first guy is wearing a hat while the second one is wearing a helmet.

But hey, now I have a crew to go with my downed Adder.



This guy was kind of hard to photograph. I got him from Darkest Star Games, who list him as a "Combat Cyborg." He's totally a Boomer though.



Lastly, we have that Weird War 2 US Rocket Trooper I mentioned earlier.

Nice batch of stuff. Better the the Knight Sabers on that guy before he starts absorbing all of your vehicles.

I have a Mechanicus themed update tonight! Of course, none of it is actual Mechanicus, but that won't stop me! To be honest, it's all from Void/Urban War. As I mentioned, Noble Knight seems to have restocked a lot of the harder to find figures from Void and Urban War recently. i guess they must've finally got around to placing an order with Scotia Grendel. Regardless, I thank them. I've been wanting some of these for a while.

So, I'll start with the most boring of the bunch first. This is a Viridian Strike Commando from Void.



She'll be playing the role of officer to my Menials. I'd wanted this figure because there's very few decent pics of the Strike Commandos online. I've only really been able to come across a few zoomed out blurry pics and some from someone's collection who had put such a heavy camouflage pattern on them that you couldn't actually make out any of the details. So, I wanted one for myself. I may someday get some more of them.

Next we have the Androsynths. For some reason, Urban Mammoth resculpted a bunch of the figures and I'd been curious about some of the earlier sculpts of the Androsythns. So, I grabbed a pack of the early types armed with whatever Grape Guns are. I thought it was just going to be a pack of two, but it was actually four figures! So, for the hell of it, I wound up painting one as a unique one. I call him Skull-Face, for obvious reasons.



And here's the rest of them in their "standard" colors.



I don't know what the Grape Gun is, but I'm thinking it's some kind of shotgun. However, their guns clearly have lenses on them, so they must be some sort of energy shotgun. I'm actually very pleased with how the lenses turned out. I figure I can use them and my other Androsynths as some type of heavily augmented Skitarii.

Lastly, we have the nekkid cyborg lady!



Another Artemis Biosynth. I'd wanted to get more of them, but they've been largely unavailable for a long time. I had to buy one when I saw it in stock at Noble Knight. Now my Magos has two honeys as bodyguards.

Here's the entire Noble Knight order together.



These guys and the 15mm stuff from my previous update (and a few others I haven't posted yet) have been my focus this week. I've been fairly productive this week, I'd say. And yet, I have much more to do.

For those interested though, here's a shot of my completed Mechanicus army so far.



Ignore that stuff in the background. Those are Deep Mariners and a Ythian. I know, there's a lot of unpainted bases in there. I don't care. I'm calling them all done, anyway. However, I'm not done! I have more troops to add and more unofficial Servitors! Those guys specifically will be my focus next week.

That Dougram mech is not a Deep One!

Some interesting stuff. Why does that Androsynth only have one boot? Bizarre.

I like Skull Face and the other's. Interesting backpacks they've got.

The Biosynth? She has one boot because. .. cyborg?

Maybe I should've posted that Dougram 'bot vack when I finished it? I suppose I still can. I should have some mechs to post tonight, anyway.

Nice stuff! The mechanicus is loaded up on big uns.

I'm surprised. Only two replies and barely any views. Here I thought Mechanicus stuff would be popular. Oh well. I have a couple new 15mm mechs to add to my galleries tonight.

First, the Steornede Battlesuit from Ion Age.



This is a mech suit used by the Planetary Militia, which is pretty much a generic PDF force. The two figures flanking the suit are so far my only PDF figures. There's two loadout options for the Steornede, dual machine guns or dual missile pods. I chose the guns. It looks like it probably has an anti-air/anti-armor role for the PDF.

Speaking of PDF, here's a better look at the two figures.



One is a female PDF officer, which was Ion Age's May freebie figure, the other is a demolitions specialist which was a freebie from either last year or the year before. According to the fluff, the demolitions guys are pretty much armed with Melta Bombs.

The other mech I have to share is the Hoplite CAM (I don't know what CAM means) from Conflict Horizon. Conflict Horizon is pretty small still and hasn't really officially launched, though you can buy some of the mechs.



I had to have this when I first saw it. It is VERY clearly based on the Knightmare Frames from the anime Code Geass. Code Geass may have been okay at best, but it had some really cool mecha designs. The casting on this thing was surprisingly really good for such a small operation. I'm going to have to get at least another at some point.

For those curious, here's how it stacks up against the Proteus and a regular human.

Looks like a nice generic/workhorse mech. Good paintwork all around. The quad guns and machine gun remind me of armored core. If they made those in some reasonable scale I'd probably want some. Still have a dreadnought sawn in half that was slated for conversion into one lol.

As for the views, I've posted 40 photo battle reports that have gone unnoticed while everyone hops on to respond to two sentences of nonsense . Time of day and in the week has a big impact. But I wouldn't let it bug you.

Here's a little something I've had done for a while, but just never bothered to photograph. You old school Battletech fans may know this machine by the name of Thunderbolt.



To us anime nerds, this is the Hasty F4X Ironfoot from Dougram. This kit comes from Max Factory of all places and is 1/72 scale. It's almost entirely snap together and really no paint needed. I did paint the pilot figure, but he's almost impossible to see and equally impossible to photograph. So much effort painting him and it was pretty much all for nothing since you can't see him. The kit is my first Max Factory model and I've got to say, the quality is really good. Everything fit perfectly and the engineering on the joints is top notch. It's knees are interesting designed. They have a sliding mechanism that gives you access to a very flexible double joint that is normally completely hidden. I would definitely have to recommend this kit if you're a fan of Dougram or old Battletech. I'd love to track down a Blockhead sometime. Max Factory announced their next kit will be the Bushman, which looks to be another winner.

Whoa! A blast from the past. I think Revell made a version of this kit, but it was pretty primitive, IIRC.

 Barzam wrote:

The other mech I have to share is the Hoplite CAM (I don't know what CAM means) from Conflict Horizon. Conflict Horizon is pretty small still and hasn't really officially launched, though you can buy some of the mechs.



I had to have this when I first saw it. It is VERY clearly based on the Knightmare Frames from the anime Code Geass. Code Geass may have been okay at best, but it had some really cool mecha designs. The casting on this thing was surprisingly really good for such a small operation. I'm going to have to get at least another at some point.

That's a really nice mini. What was it like to assemble?

JoshInJapan wrote:Whoa! A blast from the past. I think Revell made a version of this kit, but it was pretty primitive, IIRC.

They did! They repackaged the Takara kits along with some Arii and Imai Macross kits as well as some Orguss kits and released them under the Robotech name, prior to the actual Robotech tv series. What's really weird is around that same time, DC Comics released a comic called ROBOTECH: Defenders, which utilized Dougram mechs in some entirely new story and setting involving some humans using the various Dougram mechs- which were sentient for some reason- to fight some ugly looking lizard people. So, Dougram mecha have been used in at least three different properties.

Dreadclaw69 wrote:That's a really nice mini. What was it like to assemble?

Very simple! Legs are one piece, torso is one piece, then you have the arms, head, two gun options, and the smoke launchers. Assembly is very easy and straightforward. There were a pair of bayonets that I left off, too. The fiddliest bit in my build was getting the smoke launchers to stay on, and those are entirely optional anyway.

Part of my June challenge is to finish up my Dystopian Wars airships as well as my Raging Heroes stuff. I'm starting the airships, but I went ahead out of order and worked on some of the Raging Heroes. I have two of the seven figures finished. I'd gotten my hands on a couple of the metal editions of some of the Iron Empire characters when Raging Heroes had their free shipping. For some reason, the metal versions only seem to be available from them direct.

First up, Lieutenant-Colonel Kruger.
Upon Highlord Tamburlaine's suggestion, I did her without her helmet.



I don't enjoy painting eyes. I had to redo hers several times, and this was the best iteration. I'd also wanted to go with a much more detailed paintjob, including non-metallic metal gold, but the details were just too small for my noobish abilities. So, I gave up and went with just doing a tabletop quality paintjob.

The second one I did was Lieutenant Drakkan.



The figure definitely has presence, even if the pics don't convey it. She's pretty hefty in metal, too. I had to go with the helmet option for her. Her helmet is just too cool to leave off. It's probably really hard to tell, but I did paint the eyes and the little sensors around them. It's just very hard to see and the details are extremely tiny. The other Iron Empire stuff I have left to do are a box of the Iron Storm heavy troops to go with Drakkan.

Following them, we have another Eureka Miniatures Soviet in NBC gear. This time, it's a sniper.



Finally, we have another 15mm item. This time is the Xin Hegemony's (currently) lone vehicle, the Guaiwu, also known as the Jade Ape Battlesuit.



My Jade Ape is obviously not green. I had actually done a largely green scheme on it, but I didn't like how it looked, especially with my other Xin troops, so I went back are redid it in basic grey to match the rest of my Xin. In the fluff, the Xin operate mostly in the form of a massive trade fleet. The Sanbao, their troops, are primarily meant to be security for the trade fleet. The Jade Ape is primarily meant to be a cargo handler for the trade fleets. So, that's why I went with the hazard stripes. They're supposed to also function very well as frontline combat suits as well though, so when they're under attack, these things will function essentially like tanks for Xin.

I think you went with the right choices for the Raging Heroes stuff. Drakkan really stands out with that helmet on.

How big is your Jade Ape? I was checking some out myself, but was good and abstained from making any more orders.

Nice job on the Toughest Girls! I've been looking forward to seeing some of their stuff with some paint, so thanks!

Great work on the Raging Shiroz models there. Soviets look good but not spectacular, just as they should. The Grape Ape looks very cool. It could almost fit in with some Iron Warriors with that scheme.

I like Kruger's headsculpt, but I don't think I was able to do it justice. I kind of wish I'd just gone with helmets on both of them.

Now, I thought I'd uploaded it, but I guess I forgot about it. I did have a size comparison for the Jade ape against another Xin.



MacPhail, one of the reasons it's taken me this long to actually get started on the Toughest Girls at all has been the lack of painted pictures of them aside from the studio ones. It's kind of annoying that there'll be these high profile Kickstarter projects like Toughest Girls with tons of backers, and yet it's almost impossible to find some other painted examples. It's an issue I have with Void and Urban War, too. There's really not that many painted examples of the stuff I'm looking for when I'm hunting for inspiration.

Azazel, Kickstarter drama aside, the Toughest Girls figures are actually pretty nice. Well, the metal ones are, anyway. I haven't really messed with the resin ones other than opening my troops to make sure I had everything. Thankfully, I think getting just a few more should satisfy me with that line. Just need the two Regulatrixes and the tank commander. I wouldn't mind having a box of the regular troops at some point though.

Those Soviets are, thankfully, very easy and quick to paint. I painted that sniper up last night while watching a movie and Netflix and building a Gundam kit. I'm hoping that I'll be able to find a use for those guys in TNT or MDRG eventually. Who knows if the Grape Ape will ever see any tabletop action though. Alternative Armies is doing a preorder for their new supplement for their 15mm rules though. I'm going to have to grab a copy of that, I think.

I told you I have a box of Iron Empire girls if you're interested. They had so many little parts I just went "NOPE" and have permanently set them aside for the time being.

Which didn't stop me from a hefty pledge for the 2nd Kickstarter...

Those Raging Heroes miniatures are bang on Barzam, some excellent work there.

Kruger looks better without the helmet. Use magnification to see the eye detail better ( I use +3.00 reading glasses) . And keep the paint really thin. There are lots of really good tutorials on painting eyes if you look.

The raging hero stuff (and should it not be Raging Heroines anyway?) looks pretty good.

The 15mm minis are very well done.

Great crop of recent progress Barzam, keep it coming

Thanks all. I'm continuing to work on my monthly challenge. I've sworn to finish my Dystopian Wars Aerial Battlegroup this month as well as my Toughest Girls. I've started working on the Dystopian wars stuff and the first of the three Icarus Class ships are done.



It's nice to finally see even one of these done after having their unpainted resin sitting there in my pile, mocking me since December. Just two more Icarus Class ships to go and then on to the Daedalus Class.

Another item I mentioned I would work on as long as I have the drive to do so is my Mercs: Recon Kickstarter stuff. Well, on a whim I actually started a couple of the figures tonight. Granted, the ones I chose to start with are very simple, but still, starting it is the hardest step, right?



These guys are the Infected. They're part of the Myth crossover and they have their own campaign add-on to the Mercs: Recon game. You can also use them in the Lockdown game mode as well. They aren't actually supposed to be undead zombies, but rather still living humans who have been infected by a bio-weapon. They're classed as civvies in-game, so you get punished for killing them. While you're not supposed to kill them, they can still infect your guys and turn them against you. This is especially hazardous in Lockdown mode. I'm not sure how much work I actually want to put into them. I might do maybe a highlight layer on their skin, maybe paint some white eyes and that'll probably be it. They're simple sculpts, so they don't need a ton of detailing.

Along with that stuff, I've been working on terrain of all things. Granted, it's for 15mm, but still. I'm amazed at myself for even working on terrain, let alone finishing some. These are a pair of Geo Habs from The Ion Age.



The unit on the left is designated as a laboratory whiel the one on the right is supposed to be an actual habitation unit. I will probably get some more of these things as I really like them. They make a nice, quick little colony camp or research station. However, the next ones I do, I'm using a black wash instead of an orange one. The orange wash really muddied everything up and wound up just making more work for me.

Lastly, for this update, we have a little unofficial Briareos Hecatonchires from Appleseed.



He's just a tiny little 15mm figure though. He's made by Darkest Star, who also happen to have a few other Appleseed and Ghost in the Shell "inspired" mecha and figures.

That's a nice batch of stuff. How well does Recon play? I have Myth, and I'm pretty sure there is a good game hiding in there, but I can't get together with the local gamers often enough to really treat it as a campaign. Does Recon work as a one-and-done game?

Wow, that is a straight up Bullyeros from Appleseed as produced by Main guh Entertainment!

God that was a terrible dub. Not that the aneemay was any better mind you...

Does that Darkest Star make any other Shirow landmates? Or Briareos' landmate suits he uses later in the manga? I wouldn't mind having them.

Josh- My understanding is that Recon plays well single player, just a lot of bookkeeping. Not that either of us have played it, despite both of us pledging for the whole shebang.

Did mine come yet Barzam?

No clue if your stuff has shown up yet. I'll check tonight

Darkest Star doesn't have any other Landmates just yet. He showed renders for some Opfor Landmates a while back though, and when I asked about the old Police ones they used to have, I was told they were being redesigned with digital sculpting. So, it may still be a while yet, but we should eventually see more Landmates.

As Highlord Tamburlaine says, we haven't actually played the game yet. In my cade, it's because I haven't painted any of it yet. my own defense, I was waiting until I had all of my stuff before I started working on it. Now that I have everything, I'm going to start working from the stretch goals and add-ons backwards towards the main game components. I did watch the gameplay videos and it does look like the game should be pretty fun and hectic once you start blowing rooms apart. Recon should definitely work as a one and done type game though. Especially if you are playing Lockdown. It will be a glorious day when I have the whole thing painted and I can actually play the game.

Just a little update for tonight.

Though it will most certainly be hard to tell, I did a bit more work on the Mercs: Recon Infected. I added highlights that the camera doesn't show, added eyes and teeth that barely show on the camera, and I painted the pustules on the chubbier Infected.



The details I added are all pretty visible in person, but the camera just doesn't want to show it. I bet if I took the shot with some actual daylight, those details would show. I'm thinking that for the other two, I'm going to paint them using washes, just to add some visual variety.

The other thing I worked on, aside from carving spaces for magnets on my Dystopian Wars airships, was trying out one of my new plastic Enforcer Pathfinders.



Obviously this is not my typical Enforcer scheme. I have two sprues of these guys, so I'm going to do some in more woodland-ish colors to go with N7-117 while I do the other sprue to match my regular Enforcers. Likewise, I plan to eventually paint my plastic regular Enforcers in a green scheme similar to N7-117 whenever I get around to them. This guy was also a test run for working on my USAriadna. I've actually been pretty intimidated by the USAriadna box. I want to paint them in woodland camo, but I just don't think I can pull it off very well. So, I figure I should practice on some other figures. You'll note the lack of camo on this guy though. I actually did do a camo pattern on his pants, but I wasn't happy with it and got rid of it. The way I painted his armor though was practice for painting the USAriadna armor, so at least I got some experience with that. I'm thinking that USAriadna is going to wind up being one of my big challenges for the next Tale of Painters challenge.

Nice Pathfinder. How do you feel about the accessories on the sprue? I have opted not to attach any to mine because there don't seem to be any good places for most of them-- pouches and holsters stick way out, at least to my eye.

I only clipped out the bits to make this guy as a test run, so I didn't mess with the other accessories, really. Chances are, aside from the knife sheath I'll leave them off as well though. My problem is more that there simply aren't enough little greeblies to put on everyone. So, I'll probably save most of them for my plastic Enforcers or Peace Keepers.

Limited accessories aside though, I think the new Pathfinders are actually pretty nice. The details for the most part seem really good. I thought they felt a bit shallow and soft on the armored Enforcers, but that doesn't seem to be the case here. They're definitely an improvement over the restic Pathfinder and the female biker one, as well.

Nice work on the Pathfinders, and horrible looking infected. Marouda just said "eurgh, what are those?" so I guess they're hitting their intended effect...

Great stuff Barzam

Really like the infected and the pathfinders.

Very nice work. The specific things you mentioned about the Infected may not be noticeable but there's something subtle about that that looks better.

That enforcer pathfinder guy looks great. I need to get mine out, the ones you guys have been putting together trump the stock photos.

I got lucky with my USARF scheme, tried something out and liked it. It's really close to the box scheme in that 'look at what they did and figure out how to do it as lazily as possible' kind of way, but it works. I look forward to yours though, as you'll actually be taking the time to think it out and the results will likely show that effort.

Well, I'm glad you've got confidence in me. I'm going to have to practice more and try different patterns. I've got a Dozer coming soon, he should be useful for practicing on.

Oh, hey look! I painted a Stormcast!



Yep, just a regular 'ole Stormcast. Why? Why not? This is one from the starter set. I picked up a Knight Vexillor with the intention of using him in Silver Tower, whenever Highlord Tamburlaine gets around to building/painting it. I used this guy as a test for the scheme I wanted to use on the Vexillor. I like it.

I also finished the Mercs: Recon Infected. Here' s the other two.



And all four together.



These guys were freebie stretch goals. I didn't get the "Blood Contagion" expansion, which was supposed to have more Infected, a scenario for using them, and additional tiles and cards. So, my batch here are only good for Lockdown mode and throwing them in with the rest of my zombies. But hey, I actually did some work on my Mercs: Recon pledge! I think I might work on the Lost Margin Raiders next. They'll be good for practicing camo on.

The last little update tonight is that I got the second of three Icarus Class Medium Flyers finished.



Work shall commence on the third ship this weekend and, with luck, I'll finish it before Monday. Then it's on to the Daedalus and some Tough Girls.

Woohoo progress

Banged out a couple of the Lost Margin Raiders from Mercs: Recon over the weekend while working on other stuff. The Lost Margin are supposed to be areas where the megacorps have pulled out and governments have collapsed, resulting in Mad Max-esque anarchy. Six Lost Margin Raiders were included as freebie stretch goals. There's an expansion for them, but I didn't get it. There's two sculpts, one of which was actually a pre-existing metal figure, but as far as I know, that guy was only available direct from Megacon's webshop.

I'll start with the guy that was based on the old metal.



I wanted to have some graffiti on the shield, but I couldn't think of what to put, so I used a Chaos decal thinking that it fit the bill pretty well. It did, but as you can see, it was oddly trasnparent. Oh well.

Here's the second, which as far as I can tell, is a modification of the other sculpt and is new to the Kickstarter.



An interesting thing about these guys is that they're using Sefadu gear. I thought that was an interesting touch. As you can see, I went for a Tacti-cool look for these two. I think I'll try camo uniforms for the next too. I would've loved to have placed a big 'ole Umbrella logo on them, but aside from the shield, there wouldn't really be any room for one. Bummer.

Neat. Don't want to run into them in a back alley.

Really like them Barzum

Did a little bit of work this evening. Decided to bite the bullet and give woodland camo a go. So, I painted up an Ariadna Dozer, because USAriadna would need one of those guys anyway, right?

Looks pretty good to me sir. I can't decide if I'm willing to get any Dozers or rescue service or what have you for my USARF guys. I mean I wouldn't mind having people do those jobs but I'd rather them come from within USARF.

Are you happy with the camo? Looks pretty camo-ish to me. Is he wearing one of those skull face balaclavas?

Yeah, I think I'm happy with how the camo came out. I have a Spetsnaz on the table right now, so I'll be giving it a go with a different base color. The Dozer used Khaki as a base while the Spetsnaz will be using US Tank Crew green, the same color I used on N7-117's armor, the drone controller on the Dozer's base, and my Weird War rocket troopers' pants. I think it'll be a better base for woodland camo.

And yes, I did try to do a skull balaclava like in the lineart, but I kind of flubbed it. It's such a tiny space though, I think I'll just leave it be.

I like that the Dozer is not unique to any particular sectorial. I think he can fit in equally well with USARF as he can with the Kazaks. Visually, he really isn't ties to any particular group. Emergency 112 though, not so much. That guy very clearly belongs to Merovingia as he's wearing a French firefighter's helmet. I still like that figure, though and plan to someday get him. Both the Dozer and the 112 would make great zombie fighters, especially the 112.

Honestly I think it works. And it *is* a tiny space to work within.

Yeah, using the USARF as modern/post apoc us military survivors/remnants I definitely see those guys fitting in better.

I painted up that Spetsnaz tonight. Gave woodland camo another go. I think I'm happy with it. It helps that I really like this figure anyway. Still WIP though. I'm planning to dip both of these guys along with a couple others. I'll do his mask lenses after dipping.



Again, I really like this figure. He would be awesome for post-apoc games. I actually kind of messed up painting him. I had originally intended to paint his pants using the Soviet Afgantsy camouflage from when Russia invaded Afganistan. I was supposed to base his pants using Khaki, not green. Instead, I accidentally did the Dozer in khaki. Kind of got them mixed up and I didn't really feel like redoing them, so I just went with it. I also didn't paint the striped shirt on him. That was mainly because I didn't want to paint stripes AT ALL. Still, I'm actually very happy with how he turned out.

Your Camo/Natural tone stuff is really good Barzam...that Spetsnaz is excellent...as you say it is an excellent sculpt.

The Lost Margin Mercs are damned cool as well.

The camo on that guy is really nice. Does he need dipping? The shading is remarkably effective already.

My Strong Tone dip is actually pretty light. The main purpose is just to help blend the camo together a bit and to provide a better seal than what the gloss/dull combo can do. Hopefully my stuff is still good. Last time I handled it, it seemed like it was starting to dry out.

Yeah that model is definitely post apoc friendly. And well painted too

I don't blame you for skipping the striped shirt!

You've gotta watch that dip stuff, if it's anything like stain it will betray you given any opportunity, really really likes to dry up.

Great Ariadna minis Barzam.

Nice work on these guys and their camo. It's come up well.

Alright! Last two airships are done! This completes my main goal for the month and anything else is bonus! Thus, I have completed all goals every month during the first Tale of [x] Gamers challenge!

Here's the third Icarus Class ship.



And here's the big Boaty McBoatface himseld, the Daedalus!



And the entire airfleet!



I'll have to get a picture of my entire Antarctican army together.

Look nice.

Certainly far more Dystopian Legions stuff than I have gotten around to painting...

That airfleet is pretty slick. The rest make that big one look especially imposing.

The Daedalus is actually a pretty big chunk of resin. Here's some more shots of my finished Covenant of Antarctica army from the Tale of Gamers challenge.



Higher angle



and a crappy shot with the Prussians I painted at the beginning of the challenge.

Nice work on the Space boats. Packed full of detail.

EDC

Yeah looks good. Seems like the army favors the air mostly, are all of the factions Ike that or is that an Antarctica thing?

No, that's actually just due to me having the aerial battlegroup box, which is supposed to be a starter set while my ground forces are comprised of just a few blisters. All of the major factions are fairly well balanced between air, land, and sea. I have a naval starter set for them, too. I just don't have any desire to work on it for now. Since nobody else has bothered to build or paint their armies anyway, I can leave it be for a while.

Man i always laugh at those wang drones.

the game of boat is super fun.

i never got into land though.

Yeah, I'm not a fan of those drones. Actually, I'm not a fan of most of Antarctica's smaller fliers. The Pytheus and the Ptolemy are just ugly compared to the other nations. But, their ships look so much cooler.

I decided tonight I would do something simple and work on a couple of civvies from MERCS: Recon. These are just the two generic worker sculpts. There are others that have specific classes, like janitors, pilots, engineers, etc. I don't really know if the civvie classes paly any role, but I know that you can capture workers in the game and interrogate them. It's nice to have a bunch of generic civilians though, and this Kickstarter really delivered on that front.

Here's the Office Lady, who appears to either be yawning or gasping in shock. I think she's yawning, though.



And the cowering in fear Office Man, who is likely to get blown away at least once.



The figures and the others that I got will definitely see use in other games. Backers got a bunch of extras of these sculpts, too. So, expect to see these two a few more times in different colored clothes.

Those are pretty neat. I really like most of MERCs miniatures. Just cartoony enough to entertain, while still fitting in with other companies' stuff.

Very iconic colors and well done. Look pretty useful.

Helpful Honda guy?

Best Buy Employee. Just needs a little yellow logo on his shirt.

I rather like the idea of making him a Best Buy employee. Doesn't make any sense in the context of the game, but I like it.

Tonight, I painted something random (what a twist!)! You're shocked, right? You totally are. Tonight I painted a Skorne Cyclops Brute, from Hordes. Do I play Hordes? No. If I did, would I play Skorne? No. Why the hell did I paint this then? Because it looks cool, that's why. Skorne has some cool stuff, and Cyclops Samurais are among the top of that list of cool stuff.



I decided to try (for me) a rather different color scheme. I thought turquoise would look good on him. turns out it does look good. This guy was actually a $5 consignment case rehab project. He's been sitting on my table for months with just a splattering of primer on him. I finally got some inspiration and went at him. I'm very pleased with the results. The Tseench logo on his banner could've been better, but I don't really care that much. I'm fine with it. Don't know if I'll hang onto him or try and flip him back at the FLGS. I'm actually a little tempted to get another so he can have a buddy to hang out with.

I also decided to take a tiny photograph of my other US Rocket Trooper from AEWWII that I've had finished for about the last two weeks.

Cool. That rocketpack dude is a great mini. Excellent work.

EDC

got a couple more MERCS: Recon figures done. A medic for the CCC and a Saboteur for House 9 (I think?). The Saboteur belongs to one of the two FCC factions, I just forget which. For some reason he was a freebie stretch goal while the rest of his faction box wasn't.

Here's the Medic.



I like this guy's design a lot. He's pretty much the basic trooper design for CCC. I think he may have even been the Assault Class originally. The colors I used here did not come through in the pic at all. While it looks like he's white with red markings, he actually isn't. The white looking color is more of a grayish tan and the red is a reddish brown. This figure also kind of bugs me. I like the design a lot, but the casting of this particular specimen just wasn't very good. Lots of soft detailing and very prominent, hard to reach mold lines that didn't want to come off. He's good enough for table top gaming, but certainly no display piece. I'd like to track down the metal version of him since it would have sharper details, but for some reason nobody has any in stock. Not even Ebay, apparently.

Here's the FCC Saboteur



His cast was much better and sharper. This guy just looks like he's having so much fun. Like one day he just stood up from his cubicle, started laughing hysterically, then starting running amok.

Indeed. he looks mental.

Here's a little something I just finished up. I painted one of the Rippers from the Genestealer sprue that came with my copy of Lost Patrol. Since I don't really have a use for the things, I figured I'd use them with my 15mm figures. They're a lot more terrifying when they're the size of a person.

Nice use for the ripper

Mercs dudes look cool too, I like the medic's design as well.

I finally got around to finishing my original Infinity Dog-Warrior and Dog-Face set. The Dog-Warrior form itself has been done for months, I just never got around to basing it. The Dog-Face form though has been languishing in a half painted state for almost as long. I just never felt happy with how he looked and couldn't bring myself to finish him up. For some reason, tonight it just clicked and in about 30 minutes, he was totally finished.

Dog-Face



Dog-Warrior



Neither of this guy's forms are anywhere near as badass or menacing as the current Dog-Warrior sculpts, but I think he definitely still has some charm. He's not going to fit with the rest of my Ariadna with that desert scheme, but I suppose he could be a Dog-Warrior from the southern part of USAriadna. that's supposed to be a more arid and desert-like environment.

Still, good work on that older Dogface design.

Let me know what you think of my take on the newer version on my thread? http://www.dakkadakka.com/dakkaforum/posts/list/7590/326377.page

Hey, it's time for difficult-to-photograph figures, Raging Heroes edition! I pledged this month that as stretch goals for my monthly challenge, I would start work on MERCS: Recon and my Raging Heroes. I've held true and started work on both, as you've been seeing. It's the final week of June though and I haven't actually finished all of my Raging Heroes figures. I still have the Iron Hammers command squad left to do in addition to the two heroines that I already finished. I've had something of a painter's block on them though, which is odd because I really only have to copy Drakken's colors, which isn't exactly a complicated or diverse selection. Still, they've been languishing. So, today I forced myself to work on them. I've got three of the five done! And boy, do their poses make it hard to take decent photos of them.



See what I mean?

The officer is the worst offender. Her pose is so exaggerated she's almost impossible to photograph decently. Nevermind actually getting the camera to focus on her. It's hard to tell, but I did paint the eyes on her mask.



Here's a basic trooper. Again, difficult to get a good shot of her, especially of her mask. Like the officer, I did paint the eyes, but they're really hard to see.



And for a special weapon, I chose the grenade launcher. It's something different, for me. Usually I go with a flamer or plasma rifle, but I thought I'd try to be a wee bit different this time.



I'm actually very pleased with how her face turned out.

I have to say though, I'm glad I got the metal versions of those heroines. The spin-cast resin they used just plain sucks. The stuff is super brittle and the sprue have tons of attachment points on the pieces, so cleaning them up can be very difficult. The butt of the grenade launcher snapped right off when I was removing the several pieces of sprue attached to it. I also had some difficulty getting glue and paint to stick to them, which was an issue I also had with Defiance Games *shudder* spin-cast Germans. I'm really not a fan of this stuff.

They look nice.

That comment about the resin vs metal makes me incredibly worried about the stuff coming up soon...

I always prefer metal over resin and even plastic. It's my favourite material oddly. Nice looking figs, liking the metallic armour.

I will order Papa Kurganov in Metal then, I have the sister Kurganova in metal.

These troops were from the Kickstarter. It's possible that they've improved their formula since then. I would just stick with the metals whenever possible.

I like plastic or even restic in the right places. Metal is pretty cool though. I know why we've moved away from it in terms of general hobby but I do enjoy my infinity figures.

That face did come out well.

The face looks better in person, too.

While waiting for the primer on the remaining two Iron Hammers, I went ahead and finally finished my AEWWII Buffalo Powered Armor. You've seen it before, but not with basing or the windows done.

I'm very happy with how those windows came out, btw.

Shades of Dorvack and M.Ka SAFS that guy is. Interesting.

It isn't July yet, so I met my challenge goals for the month! You've already seen the main pledge, which was the Dystopian Wars flyers and you've already seen the MERCS: Recon stuff I managed to complete. I just finished painting the remaining two Iron Hammers from Raging Heroes. Oddly enough, both are running poses.



I'm happy to be done with them. Now I won't have them looming over my shoulder anymore. Here's all of the Iron Hammers with their boss, Drakkan.



While waiting for things to dry, I finished my female Xin Youxia from Ion Age. She was another monthly freebie from a previous year.



Since the Youxia are supposed to basically be hero characters, I figured she should be painted different from the rest of the Xin. I'm pleased enough with how she came out.

And lastly, I painted up a couple more zombies.

Great stuff Barzam.

Really liking the mercs some stuff you've put up. how do the minis compare size wise with infinity?

My metal MERCS figures seem to scale just fine. The Recon plastics seem like they're a tad larger, to me. I can't quite be sure though. Either way, they scale just fine with the newer Infinity figures, but can look kind of massive against the older figures.

Today, I finished a FLGS consignment case rehab project. People have been selling off their 40k armies again and someone dropped quite a few Tyranids. I found a first generation metal Warrior with Devourer last week and this week I found a 3rd generation metal Lictor. The Lictor was completely unpainted and the only work I really needed to do was glue one of his large mantis claws back on. I've always wanted one of these guys, so I'm pleased to have him.

Gaze upon Dr. Zoidburg in all his glory

Awesome scheme and execution sir.

That lictor is fantastic. Far more menacing than the bright primary colors of the studio models.

I'm getting to a slow start with this month's challenge. For this month, my plan was to get five Infinity figures done, and five Deep Wars figures. So far, I've managed two Infinity figures.

The old Azra'il, which is now rendered completely useless in Infinity thanks to the new Ahl Fassed profile going through a complete redesign.



And, in a more completed state due to me not having to dip him, the old out of production Ariadna Scout Sniper.

Just a quick update. I completely finished the old Azra'il.



Obviously I ditched the camo. I wasn't especially happy with it as the brown I'd chosen was a bit too red for my taste. I'd originally chosen the camo because I was going to use him as an Ahl Fassed, who I have painted with desert camouflage. But, since the Ahl Fassed has been completely redesigned, much like the Azra'il was, this guy and my other Ahl Fassed figures are now useless. Since he's now useless, I figured I could try using him as a test figure for the GW gloss washes. I picked up the gloss Agrax Earthshade and used it on him. I actually rather like it. I'd heard that it doesn't change the colors like the regular version does and instead pretty much just fills the cracks and panel lines. In fact, it does! It works almost exactly like my strong tone Quickshade, only without needing 24 hours to dry, nor ruining my brushes or making a mess. It does actually tint the colors just a bit, but it does so about as much as the Quickshade did and does a very nice job of filling in the cracks and crevices. I think I'll be using this stuff to finish up my earth toned Infinity figures now instead of dipping them.

Whoa, seriously OOP minis. They look good still. I liked the '80's style desert camo on the Azra'il. But the change works well too.

The old Azra'il is now an Ayyar proxy. Until we see the new Ayyar. November at the earliest I'd bet.

Which one is the Ayyar? Did that unit have a figure before? I actually do like a lot of the OOP sculpts. A good chunk of my PanO are OOP figures. Some of those sculpts are hard to come by now, like the old Ghulams or the old Veteran Kazak. I really liked the design of this old Scout figure, so I figured I ought to get him while ihad the chance. I'm not sure if I am happy with how his cloak came out. It's my first time trying that particular woodland scheme. I think it could have been done better. I think it's the scheme I'll be using on my USARIADNA from here on out.

Three more figures for my monthly challenge have been completed, which brings me half way to my goal. All three are from Deep Wars/Shadow Sea and the other two from that half of the challenge are still being worked on.

First, we have a character! A Cephalid who I believe is counted as a mage, Yochloth- The Stealer of Minds.



Then we have a Vanguard Marine Captain, whose entire left arm appears to have been replaced with a parasitic psychic octopus.



All of the leader type figures for the Dark Mariners have those octopi on them. They're supposed to be psychic and allow the commanders to relay orders to their troops.

Lastly, we have an Immolator Biomech.



I don't know why they class this guy as a Biomech. He shares none of the visual characteristics with the others. All of the other Biomechs are clearly mechanical with organic components. This guy is just big. In fact, his concept art classes him as a Heavy Weapons Vanguard Marine. So, to me, that's what he is.

Those Deep Wars guys are wonderfully bizarre. I love the aquatic colors you used.

I agree with Josh, exactly what he said. Crazy minis, awesome paint work

Those deep wars guys are great Barzam

Fantastic creations, as others have said the colors really do give them an otherworldly visage.

Thanks guys. Glad you're liking the Dark Mariners. They're fun to paint and thanks to the recent Kickstarter, I have nearly the entire faction. I'm just missing a few Cephalids, some characters, and the two other gladiator guys. The next two I have to work on won't be matching the aesthetics of these guys, though.

Great work recently. There's such a contrast between the realistic, earthy, camolfagued schemes you're using on the infinity models (great camo, btw!) and the almost luminous blues and pinks on the Deep Wars stuff.

The great thing about the Dark Mariners is that I've been able to paint most of them using just washes. It makes things much faster and easier. Plus, it's pretty easy to paint multiple figures at once using that technique.

As I mentioned, the next two Dark Mariners are a bit different in terms of aesthetics. They're also not being painted the same way. They're being done more traditionally. Tonight, I finished the fourth Dark Mariner, the Dagathonian Man-Slayer. The Dagathonians were apparently engineered by the Dark Mariners as a slave species. They must've rebelled or something though since most of them are actually in the Scaly Horde faction. This one guy is the lone Dagathonian working for the Dark Mariners.



I decided to forgo the more flamboyant color schemes I'd been practicing for him in favor of just going with greens. I actually like how they look on him. It's kind of funny, he's one of the smaller figures in the Dark Mariners faction, and yet, look how tiny those severed heads are on him. He's still huge compared to a regular human.

That's a cool looking model and scheme. Has a real "Deep Ones" vibe to him.

Man, Deep Wars has some great, gribbly sculpts, which always seem to paint up so well. These lads are no exception

- Salvage