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Is the mech from Robogear maybe?

 JoshInJapan wrote:
The Lethal Weapons are officially not being added to my playlist. They look like they are having fun, but their music just doesn't grab me.

No prob, I'm just incredibly amused by them. The singer is a friend of a friend. He moved to Japan and has been living there for a bit. Then last year he releases an album and I think it hit #1 on iTunes. Now they're performing in front of hundreds if not thousands of people. Kind of a crazy story. But, musically, not for all

Fun little airship crew. Now you need a scifi blimp for them to ride the timestream on.

 Theophony wrote:
Fun little airship crew. Now you need a scifi blimp for them to ride the timestream on.

That's an interesting idea. If our area goes into lockdown, I may have to try that.

After the airship pirates I posted last time, I was inspired to keep with the sf/Starbreach theme. I decided to go back to the Ghosts of Gaia, this time the set from the second KS.



The color scheme is loosely-based on Team U, with gray/black body armor over orange jumpsuits. The whole Ghost of Gaia range has a kind of '90's feel to it, so most of them get unnatural colors for their hair.



As you can see, I'm still a novice when it comes to painting camo.



This model has stubble on her scalp, and I tried to paint it that way, but it doesn't really show.



I painted the boots on this model white in honor of Nancy Sinatra.



The coat gave this model a lot of broad, flat surfaces, but I didn't want to do another sub-par camo scheme. I opted for a rank insignia on the shoulder instead. Also, I ran out of tufts, so I'm experimenting with different materials, Here, I used bristles from our broom, cut down to a nearly unmanageable length.



Most of the models in this range don't have sculpted eyes, but rather "pits" where their eyes should be. And that's fine, those are easy to paint. For this one, though, I think the sculptor tried to up his game. Sadly, instead of fabulous Jes Goodwin eyes, the model ended up with weird, unbalanced protrusions. I decided to hang a lampshade on them and paint them as glowing bionics.

Here's a group shot:



Overall, I'm pleased with how these models turned out. I have another six to complete this set, as well as some plastic Mantic dwarfs that my son assembled and then abandoned. Were not in lockdown, but we are staying home most weekends, so I hope to have something else to share soon.

They look great. And your camo is ace!

Very nice, and the camo coat is a real treat!

Don’t sell yourself short on the camo... It looks great!

Valete,

JohnS

Thanks for the encouragement, everyone. Sadly, in real life, as well as the super-sized images in the gallery (as opposed to on this page), the camo is weird and splotchy. I'll have to keep practicing, I guess.

Sorry to argue, but I think your camo looks good too. And "weird and splotchy" is kind of how camo is supposed to look, right? It's meant to be irregular, and look like a concealed body is instead many smaller unrelated pieces of vegetation and background.

By "weird and splotchy," I mean "you can see the brush lines where I dabbed the paint on." Still, thanks for the encouragement. If/When I next try camo, I'll try to clean up the edges of each splotch.

Welcome to lockdown, build that airship!

--Brian

Hm, airship...

Before I tackle something like that, I need to clear some room in the painting queue. These fellows, for example:


My son has always been a builder-- he still pulls out his Duplo blocks once in a while-- but he doesn't enjoy painting the models he builds. As a result, I've had ten Mantic dwarfs sitting on top of the printer, staring at me, for about three months. These two have battle standard icons on their hammers, which apparently designate them as elite soldiers.



The standard that comes on the orc command sprue has a severed dwarf head, so in retaliation, my son insisted we build this guy. As you can see from the side view, almost all of the Mantic dwarfs have their left hands open so they cen be armed with either two-handed weapons or shields, depending on which right arm you choose. This makes attaching shields kind of a hassle, as it's best to leave them off so you can paint the models' torsos. I superglued them on, but two snapped off when I was putting the models away after photographing them. I'll have to get some more contact cement.



Some dwarf dudes. Ranking them up is somewhat of a hassle.

Finally, a group shot:



Next up, the last six ghosts of gaia models, and then the dwarf artillery that my son assembled but doesn't want to paint.

Lovely crisp colours. Great job.

Wow, not a lot of love for the dwarfs this time around...

While we're not on lockdown, the family and I are spending pretty much all of our time at home. This gives me a little more time than usual for hobby stuff, including three more Ghosts os Gaia models:



Like all Bad Squiddo models, these come with integral bases. I mount them on Mantic round bases for stability, and if the integral base is small enough, I trim it to fit into the hole, requiring less filler. Unfortunately, this model now sits so far forward that she falls over easily. I will probably go back and add some sort of coutnerweight.



Seeing this model up close in these photos, I realize that I need to go back and line the grenade a bit. I'm pretty happy with how the stubble on her scalp came out, though.



I like the clunky, low-tech bionics on this model. I'm also happier with the camo than on the model I showed last time.

Here's a group shot:


I have three more GoG to go, then it's back to dwarfs-- my son assembled a couple of war machines, but as usual it's up to me to paint them.

These are excellent, particularly the pink haired lass. They'd be extremely good for Dredd methinks...

Nice work on those minis, the camo cloak is really nice. Love the bright orange on them.

That is an excellent scalp.

Hey Josh, these are looking great!

One hint on powder weathering. If you use brush-on matt varnish as a liquid medium, you can dab or even wash the powder on.

Doesn't give the same effect as putting it on dry, but has its uses.

inmygravenimage wrote:These are excellent, particularly the pink haired lass. They'd be extremely good for Dredd methinks...

They got some use in a game of Starbreach over the long holiday. I don't actually have the Judge Dredd rules-- are they worth looking into?

Viterbi wrote:Nice work on those minis, the camo cloak is really nice. Love the bright orange on them.

Thanks. I'm not 100%satisfied with it, but I'm getting better. The orange jumpsuits were inspired by the Earth Defense Force uniforms from Ultraman Saga.

bbb wrote:That is an excellent scalp.

Thanks. It pays to take a little more time on these little details.

Momotaro wrote:Hey Josh, these are looking great!

One hint on powder weathering. If you use brush-on matt varnish as a liquid medium, you can dab or even wash the powder on.

Doesn't give the same effect as putting it on dry, but has its uses.

I haven't been using weathering powders, but I'll give this a try.

From the end of April through the first week of May, there are four national holidays, plus a weekend. This period is called Golden Week, and is usually one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Right before the start of Golden Week, PM Abe declared a National Emergency, and everyone was asked to stay home. Between walking the dog, working in the garden, and trying to keep my son entertained, I managed to get in some painting. First, the last of the Ghosts of Gaia:




Not much to say about these that hasn't already been said. I really enjoyed painting these models, so much so that I ordered a couple more to round out the collection. They should be here in a week or so. In addition to these, I started on some Alien Bounty Hunters from Antediluvian Miniatures. I got them in a KS many years ago, and then left them packed up in their box and forget about them until last week or so. They are all unique sculpts, which was a nice break from the GoG models and their mostly-identical colors. First, Side Eyes:


His skin colors were inspired by the naked mole rat. I originally painted him with just the overalls, but it looked weird, so I went back and added the shirt.

Here's Buckland Rogers:


I'm not sure where the name comes from-- possibly an in-joke from the sculptor?

Finally, Macaria:


I went with an off-white armor, highlighting up from dark chocolate brown to nearly-white. At arm's length, it looks like I hit the model with a sepia glaze over a white basecoat, which would admittedly have been much faster.

Here's a group shot of everything from this week:


There are a few more models from this set in the pipeline, as well as my entry for this month's Dakka Painting Challenge:

Looking good. I can certainly appreciate Macaria . I’d assume Buckland Rogers is a play on Buck Rogers, but I’m afraid that is where my assistance on that ends...

 Arakasi wrote:
I’d assume Buckland Rogers is a play on Buck Rogers, but I’m afraid that is where my assistance on that ends...

Yeah, that's as far as I got as well. He doesn't look anything like Gil Gerard, much less Buster Crabbe.

Love the hillbilly mole rat bounty hunter, his paintjob and pose is just great.

Yeah, no idea why Buckland Rogers is a lizard, loved the show as a kid.

Really cool models. I’m really enjoying seeing alternates to the big companies. Really looking forward to more of your ghosts when they arrive. Awesome paint jobs on the ladies as well.

Why, when I look at Buckland Rogers, do I sing in my head:

“Slicey slicely
Once-y Twice-y
Fang and Claw will
Kill Dredd Nicely!”

Great looking figured as always. Keep up the amazing work. Your volume and quality continue to put 99% of us to shame.

Now, if you and Bruce would just go skiing, maybe I’d have a chance!

Valete,

JohnS

Buckland Rogers is indeed excellent. Yes, the Dredd game is a lot of fun indeed. Intuitive with some really interesting mechanics. Judges basically ignore being shot at, whereas perps quake in fear; judges (or particularly lethal perps) can take multiple actions so feel like, well, judges.

Viterbi wrote:Love the hillbilly mole rat bounty hunter, his paintjob and pose is just great.

Yeah, he's a delightful model.

Theophony wrote:Yeah, no idea why Buckland Rogers is a lizard, loved the show as a kid.

Really cool models. I’m really enjoying seeing alternates to the big companies. Really looking forward to more of your ghosts when they arrive. Awesome paint jobs on the ladies as well.

Thanks. I haven't bought any GW models since the first SM Heroes set. Everything is just too big, too ornate, too expensive, and various combinations thereof. Thankfully, I have enough unpainted models to last me the rest of my life.

cygnnus wrote:Why, when I look at Buckland Rogers, do I sing in my head:

“Slicey slicely
Once-y Twice-y
Fang and Claw will
Kill Dredd Nicely!”

Great looking figured as always. Keep up the amazing work. Your volume and quality continue to put 99% of us to shame.

Now, if you and Bruce would just go skiing, maybe I’d have a chance!

Valete,

JohnS

Oh,yeah, I'd totally forgotten about those guys. Is Bruce still alive? He seems to have fallen off the radar.

inmygravenimage wrote:Buckland Rogers is indeed excellent. Yes, the Dredd game is a lot of fun indeed. Intuitive with some really interesting mechanics. Judges basically ignore being shot at, whereas perps quake in fear; judges (or particularly lethal perps) can take multiple actions so feel like, well, judges.

I'm a little leery about getting into a game with essentially two predetermined sides (Judges v. Perps, Empire v. Rebels). I've been leaning toward more universal rulesets for this reason.

Golden Week is over and I'm back at work, so I've slowed down a bit. I did manage to finish one more Bounty Hunter:


This guy's name is Gunther, but his weird hair and ratty clothes remind me of Taserface from Guardians of the Galaxy v2, so that's what I've been calling him. I've also put in some work on my entry for the lastest Dakka Painting Challenge:


Usually, centaurs are depicted as having fully human torsos and fully equine bodies, but that didn't feel quite Chaosy enough. To make them feel more like mutated animals, I decided to give them the same horsey colors all over, with the human parts a little bit lighter to imply a thinner coat of hair. While working on these guys, I remembered reading somewhere that horses are extremely difficult for artists to draw because their anatomy is so different from ours. Apparently, it's just as difficult to sculpt horses, because their horsey parts are so weird. I did my best to imply some musculature on their shanks (or whatever you call the hips/buttocks on a horse), but I'm not convinced it worked. Anyway, I should have these guys finished by this time next week.

He is a fitting fill in for taserface .

Wow, almost forgot about those centaurs. Great work on them.

Bounty Hunter looks good. Doesn't scream "Taserface" at me at all. Centaurs are coming along nicely. Interesting take on the skin colouring. One of the advantages of using a different colour is for the contrast, but I'm sure the other details will make up for it. I take it red skin was out of the question / not Chaos-y enough . Looking forward to seeing them finished. Might even do mine this year...

One vote for, one against. At the very least, he's closer to the film version than the comics version: link

I'm treating the centaurs as mutated animals rather than mutated humans, much like my other beastmen and beastmen-adjacent models. I prefer natural colors for those, while more outrageous colors are for human followers of Chaos-- in my collection, at least.