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In my mind, the Ghosts of Gaia are members of team/gang, meaning they all have the same basic uniforms and equipment. With only minor variations (weapons and outrageous hairstyles, mostly), they paint up quick:


Ratty has a heavy smartgun. What makes a gun smart? Darned if I know. Maybe it has a fitness app?



Mina carries dual submachine guns. I painted her mohawk green, because if you're going to have a mohawk there is little need for subtlety.



Hera is carrying a plasma pistol and what looks like a chainsword. She has the same space helmet as Eve (the sniper) from the previous update. I probably should have given the visor another couple of layers of sepia wash.



Dusty has a comically-oversized flamethrower and a bionic arm. The lenses of her goggles are supposed to be green (like night vision goggles), but you can't tell in these photos.



Pris has a regular sized smartgun. I kept her ridiculous mohawk in more natural browns, because sometimes giant vertical hair plumes are enough of a statement by themselves.



Last up is Bianca. According to the color text on the KS page, she took off her respirator because she had either given up on life, or else had just begun to live. She has a big, unwieldy knife.

Here's the whole team altogether:


I think I can use them in Deadzone, Scrappers, or This Is Not A Test, assuming I ever actually play any of them.

Next up: I plan to revisit the Asterians, starting with some marionettes. Watch this space.

Wow, not a single comment on that last update? That's cold, guys....

As promised, here are some Asterian marionettes:


I went with blue to tie them in with all the other Asterians I have done to date. They aren't as dark as the cyphers because I assume the stealth fields aren't as strong (Asterians use stealth fields, right? I seem to remember that). These models painted up pretty quickly, but the lack of assembly instructions made putting them together rather a chore.

The marionette sprue contains almost enough parts for three drones. I'm torn between magnetizing or kitbashing to make up for the lack of parts. I should have it figured out soon. Watch this space.

 Kid_Kyoto wrote:
Really liking the Ghosts of Gaia gang. If I didn't have 6.02*10^23 unpainted minis already...

I'm in the same boat. Luckily(?), my son is getting interested in Daddy's toys again. Hopefully he will stay interested long enough that I can pass the torch to him. He's already finished one of my unpainted Dreadball teams...

evildrcheese wrote:Nice work on the Ghosts of Gaia gang. Some really characterful minis and top class painting.

EDC

Thanks. I really like those models, which made them quite easy to paint.

RobertsMinis wrote:Your Ghosts of Gaialook great. The Asterias are also rather striking give the simple scheme. Lovely tone of bluegrey.

The Asterians are quite nice models, although I wish they had come with an assembly guide.

cygnnus wrote:I love how the one thing that always seems to survive the apocalyptic end of society is Aquanet!

Great stuff as always Josh. I remain in utter awe of your production.

BTW, smartguns are smart cuz you can play Angry Birds or a roast Road on them when you are not shooting up xenomorphs.

Valete,

JohnS

I'm a lot less productive so far this year compared to last year. I'll have to try to make up the difference over summer vacation.

 Azazelx wrote:
Nice work on the Ghosts, Josh. Especially the first two models which you may have just sold me on - are they available individually? They could fit in with my Necromunda stuff. The Asterians don't look half bad either - from your talk of sprues, I assume they're the HIPS plastics?

All of the Ghost of Gaia are up for sale individually. I'd like to see what you do with them.

The Asterians are the HIPS kit from the Kickstarter. The tooling, and models themselves, are superlative, in my opinion. Mantic has come a long, long way since the Basilean MaA.

Having essentially finished the Orcs, I found myself at a loss for what to do next. For the time being, I am working on terrain:



This is a straight-up copy of insaniak's minehead, done up in the same greys I have been using for all my Deadzone stuff. It was an easy little build. The ME terrain sprue turns out to be pretty useful, so expect to see some more things like this.



This Brain In A Jar comes from RAFM's scenics line. I picked this up when I backed their Airship Pirates KS. I filled it with Tamiya clear epoxy, but got more bubbles and more distortion that I expected. It will work pretty well, I think, if/when I get around to building my Battlesystems terrain.



There are actually three different "___ in a jar" options: the brain, the naked lady, and the empty one. I kitbashed/sculpted this from Mantic zombie and Citadel skeleton parts, with some kneadatite for the fleshy parts. I imagine this guy as being a source of spare parts, kind of like in that one episode of Angel. You know the one, right?



Finally, the Forge Father team for Dreadball. I played a few games with my son over Golden Week, and he got all fired up to paint some different teams. We (mostly he) cranked out the Veer-myn as well as a seven-year old can, and then started these guys. He lost steam essentially after priming them, and I worked on them off and on while doing the above terrain pieces. I'm pretty happy with the way they turned out, and once again I regret not getting in on the DB1 kickstarter. It really is a fun game.

I still don't have an overall theme for my painting yet, but I'm currently working on another SF buidling, some old-school Jes Goodwin Elves, and some DZ Asterian cyphers.

Feel free to comment-- I need validation!

No, go ahead and do them. The world needs more tiny body parts in tiny jars.

Thanks, edc. They were all fun to work on.

I've been at a loss for what project to work on. I thought I could crank out some more Asterians, but the paint scheme I chose for the Cyphers turns out to be a real drag-- lots and lots of edge highlighting, mostly-- and I just couldn't get started. Just to keep my numbers up, I pulled out a few Oldhammer elves:




These first three are from the command packs. The spear guy is based on the same pose as the other two heroes I posted months ago. The other two are Champions. There's one more in this series, but I haven't stripped him yet.





And here are three wardancers. I felt a little weird at first when I started painting the female's butt at crotch, but the spear guy is showing as much if not more, so I was able to power through it. All three are showing a lot of skin. I almost added woad, but I was too happy with how their skin turned out to risk ruining it.

Here's everyone together:


These were all easy and fun to paint, so I think that I'll stick with this project for a while. I have some cavalry models in the works, assuming I can locate their plastic spears.

Comments, critique and validation welcome, as always.

Azazelx wrote:Wardancers! Great old-school elves, Josh. Really like them, and that Eternal Guard (?) model looks amazing. I'll have to try and track down some of those...

The scenery looks looks great, particularly the body parts in jars. The clear resin is very effective and they're generic enough to fit into many sci-fi games.

If, by "Eternal Guard" you mean the guy with the giant helmet, he's just an Elf captain. He is a nifty model, though.

The specimen jars were a lot of fun to paint. They'll go nicely with my Battlesystems set, assuming I ever take it out of the box.

Polonius wrote:I love the models, and the paint job is great! You manage to make them look more appropriate for a modern game, while also staying old school.

You should have seen them before I stripped them. Lots of pinks, yellows and greens, and 80's hair metal makeup on the wardancers. I was very much a product of my time...

Thanks for the kind words, everyone. Knowing that someone is reading this pblog helps keep me going.

I started working on a unit of Oldhammer elf cavalry last week:


I decided to work on the horses first, due to my long- and deeply-held dislike of painting horses. As cygnnus alluded to above, my first attempt at painting these models way back when involved a layer of ink from the old Expert Paint set over bare metal. I got a lot of ribbing for having red, blue and purple horses in my army, but at least the stupid things were done. I decided to try real horse colors this time. They turned out pretty well, I think, especially given that I opted to not use the glazes I have some to rely on so much. The bases are 25x50 pill bases from Warbases. Now that I'm redoing the elves on round bases, the old rectangles these guys came on just didn't fit, and 40mm circles just feel odd to me. I like these much better.

The riders are about half finished. I hope to have them ready to show mid week. As always, feedback, comments and general validation is most welcome.

@Slinky: Thanks! This is the third time I've painted these models so I've had lots of practice with them. I really like the LotR elves, but have never been in a position to pick any up. maybe you can paint them up and I can enjoy them vicariously...?

@bbb: Thanks, I have always loved these models.

@cygnnus: Maybe I'll do something with the next set, when I get around to them.

@Archer: I don't play AoS, and have little interest in doing so. LotR uses 40mm bases for cavalry though, and that's how I based the Melniboneans I did last year. I've never really been happy with how they look on such large bases, though, so I'm pleased that I found these.

@Camkierhi: Thanks for the kind words. And speaking of riders:









I cranked these guys out in about five morning sessions (about 45 minutes each), relying a lot on glazes to make up for the speed. Three of the riders are identical models, mostly because they stripped cleanly-- other, more varied poses are still soaking in alcohol. I did their shields all in one go while still on the sprue-- I'm running out of unpainted Citadel shields. The spears were a hassle-- the hole in the hand doesn't fit the peg on the model's wrists very well, so I had to build up the join with putty, which explains why none of them are holding their spears at the same angle.

Here's a group shot:

I really like the pill bases. The models rank up nicely, and the lack of square corners mean they look good in a looser formation, meaning I can use them in both Kings of War and Dragon Rampant and/or Songs of Blades and Heroes.

As always, comments, criticism, and validation are most welcome.

Archer wrote:They look really good as a unit. Well done. It is amazing how dynamic the old horse sculpts are compared to a lot of the more modern stuff.

I haven't really painted many cavalry models recently, but I remember thinking how much better these horses and the Metal chaos steeds from this era were compared to the plastic horses Citadel released shortly after.

cygnnus wrote:Do you need more unpainted old citadel shields? I should have a Baggie of them running around somewhere...

The riders look great, btw!

Valete,

JohnS

I have plenty of shields, but almost all are off the sprue and poorly painted. I was mostly remarking on how rare it is to find a whole, unpainted sprue among all my bitz.

amazingturtles wrote:They look great together. the armored horse is interesting in how robust it looks for it's size.

The barded horse is a solid hunk of metal; not quite as deadly as a 3rdEd Dreadnought, but stuffing it in a sock it would make a pretty good cudgel.

Azazelx wrote:The cavalry (and horses alone, as well) look great. The pill bases suit them perfectly, both in shape and size, and yeah - they work great for both skirmish and "block" games like that. That grey spotted horse looks particularly nice. I'll have to keep an eye out for that captain as well.

I wouldn't completely write off AoS though - While I personally discard the background for the most part (my couple of games took place in The Old World, because I decided they did) it's a reasonable little ruleset and the GHB is very reasonably priced while the rest is free. I've got that little skirmish book coming now as well.

Llamahead wrote:Yes but it's a reasonable ruleset where Dragon's Rampant is a good ruleset....Excellent Elves by the way Josh nice gritty look more Melnibone than Ulthuan.

Azazelx wrote:I own both. It's ok to like and play more than one thing. Having said that, I haven't had time to read and digest LR/DR, let alone teach it.

Llamahead wrote:It certainly is and maybe I was to harsh. Equally the way combat is resolved in DR/LR is one of my favourite systems whereas AoS where you don't resolve both sides of the combat at once just annoys me for some reason. I also like the unit flexibility of DR/LR far more.

I have only ever given AoS a cursory glance. I think I prefer Dragon Rampant for the same reason I liked DBA/Hordes of the Things. Cosmetic differences aside, troops with similar arms fulfilling similar battlefield roles can get along just fine with one common profile. I have yet to try AoS, though, so maybe the rules would win me over? Of course, I like having everything I need in one book rather than spread out over several different PDFs, so...

Well, WHFB is still out there, just not supported by GW. I plan to use these for Dragon Rampant, Song of Blades and Heroes/Of God and Mortals, maybe even Frostgrave and Kings of War. Old models never die, they just get rebased for use in other games...

Speaking of other games:


I started these guys just after I finished the Asterian marionettes, but before I got bored and moved on to elves. The marionette sprue comes with the "heads" for three different drones, but only one grav-platform. That offended me, so I broke out the bitz box. The Comm drone (the one that looks like a robot head) is mounted on an eldar Wraithlord torso, with the fancy shoulderpad for a marionette command-type to break up the lines. The little cloaking device thing is on the backback for the same command-type model. I mounted them on round Mantic bases, flipped over and filled with putty. They don't match the older restic drones that come with cyphers, but they look alright next to the marionettes.

I should have a few more elves to show off by the end of the week. As always, comment, criticism, encouragement and validation are welcome and appreciated!

 Miguelsan wrote:
Need to get you close to Kansai for a game of Warpath Josh.
That way I might even paint some stuff too.

M.

Or you could come up here to Tohoku. Either way, it would be great to actually play with all these models I've been painting.

These days, my criteria for wargaming rules include:
Low model count. Kings of War is grandfathered in, but I want to be able to transport enough models for six people in one Reaper case. Even with 1 hour every morning, I just don't have time to paint hundreds of models just for a starting game.
No proprietary miniatures. One of the reasons I won't play 40kv8 is that I don't want to have to update my already extensive Ork and Eldar armies to make them legal.
Second-grader friendly. Sadly, my current life schedule doesn't allow me to get to game nights, so my main opponent is my son. Frostgrave, SoBaH, and DR are playable because he doesn't have memorize a ton of special rules-- just roll dice and add modifiers.

I had a day off from work yesterday, so instead of being productive, I finished these guys:



A couple of wardancers, in startlingly drab colors. There appears to be some gender bending on the one with the spear-- those guns don't match those hips.



One of Scarloc's archers. Note that I forgot to give him a shield. The tip of his bow is broken off, which is pretty common with these models. I have the skin tones done on five more of these guys, so this one won't get lonely.



A mounted archer. The sculpting on hIs face is really weird. Jes Goodwin is usually so consistent, but something must have happened here. Maybe he was getting tired of this particular assignment?




Finally, a mounted wizard. I was originally planning to do the crystal ball in a Dikto-esque cosmic starscape, but I couldn't get it right, so I went with this simple blue instead. All of the models in this set are in fairly dynamic poses, with their hair blowing in the wind, but the heroes' steeds are all static. You'll have to pretend that this guy is leaning into the wind.

Finally, a group shot:

My supply of Oldhammer elves is pretty much neverending. If i include my Fantasy Warrior plastic archers, I have enough for a 2000-pt army in 4th edition points.

The pill bases are from Warbases, but I suspect that any online source of bases will have something like them.

I'm not really sure why the spear-armed WD is so butch, as the other two based on the same sculpt are much more feminine. That's OK, though, as wardancers probably shouldn't be as "fey" as a standard elf.

As for 40kV8, I may wait until the hype dies down and pick up a rule book from one of the many players here who will buy multiple boxed sets. I'm still not sure I'll ever play, especially if I have to buy a codex for each army...

Thanks, G.D.

Here are some more elves. Will I ever run out?




I've got these guys down to a science. The first session is scraping/filing, followed by basing-- in this case with sand and ballast. The second session is black gesso for primer, with a heavy layer of Delta Ceramcoat hunter green to keep the sand in place. The third session is their skin--AP fur brown for the base color, layered up with AP barbarian flesh, followed by a wash of AP soft tone. The fourth session is the browns or grays/greens and metallics, covered with my homebrew glazes; if I have time, I do the opposites. Finally, I touch up the bases and hit them with brush-on matte lacquer. Five models in less than one week. It helps that these old models are essentially the same sculpt with minor variations in equipment.

As always, a group shot:


As always, comments, criricism, encouragement and validation are appreciated. Next up, even more Oldhammer elves.

Slinky wrote:More winners there!

I think they look better on round bases than they did on 20mm squares, too...

Thanks, I think so too. Square bases look good for tightly-packed troops, which is why I still use them for my Samurai for KoW, but these elves really benefit from a looser formation.

youwashock wrote:You really hit the mark with those archers.

I see what you did there .

I am not by nature a morning person, but we have dogs that wake up at the crack of dawn wanting to go for a walk. I bit the bullet when my son was much younger and required more help to get ready in the morning. Now, my circadian rhythms are set to 4AM, no matter what I do or how tired I am.

Flowers? Hm. Basing is, and has always been, my least-favorite stage in painting. Static grass is a relatively recent thing for me, and I've never even considered doing more than that. Any recommendations for flowers/leaves?

OK, I'll see what I can find domestically. I was looking for some stuff to add to my Battlefield in a Box swamps anyway.

@Camkierhi: already a 10? You flatter me. Keep doing that.

Another day, another set of models to share. This time, they're wardancers:



This is the third model based on the "crouching female" pose. Check out her fingers. On the other two, I decided that there must either be some terrible mold slippage, so I painted to cover it up rather than file the fingers down to nothing. Working on this one, I decided that they must be fingerless gloves. That would have been era-appropriate, so I went with that.

Also, remember me complaining about how masculine this model's face is? I didn't feel that was when I first painted these, and when I was stripping the old paint off of this one, I remembered why. I was a big fan of hair metal back when these were new, and I painted almost all of my wardancers with ugly 80's makeup-- lipstick, blue eye shadow, that sort of thing. The makeup was a visual signifier, I guess, so it didn't bother me then. Now, I think I prefer them with more natural faces.




These two are, as you can see, essentially the same model with some cosmetic differences. I had a hard time fielding the guy with the throwing spear, as that wasn't an option for wardancers in any of the editions I played. In fact, I never had enough models with similar equipment to build a full WYSIWYG unit. I was pleased when they were changed to only have dual weapons with no other options.



Most of Jes Goodwin's elves from this era had either mohawks/fauxhawks like the models above, or else long, wavy windblown hair. This guy, with his Johnny Ramone bowl cut, is the lone Punk holdout versus the Glam movement. I wasn't really a fan of this model back in the day, but now his ugly hair, "f*** i" expression, and businesslike, just-standing-there pose really appeal to me.



This last one is not actually a wardancer, but rather one of the elf animal keepers. The adverts showed her with three lion/wildcats/whatever, but I only remember having one. I supplemented her little unit with two Pan Tang sabertooth cats, but even that wasn't enough for a viable unit. Ever the nerd, I based her original look on Cheetara (from Thundercats, for those who had girlfriends in highschool). I decided to keep the look, but drabbed it way down to match my current sensibilities. Remember how I said I prefer the makeup-free faces a couple of paragraphs ago? That may have been a lie, as I like how this warpaint looks. I'm no Azazelx, so I'm not going to even try tattoos, but a little warpaint here and there might add a welcome splash of color to these otherwise drably-painted models.

Finally, a group shot:


Also, inspired by Camkierhi's flattery and Azazelx's google-fu, I have ordered a bunch of flower tufts and model railroad plants to spruce up the bases on all these elves I've been painting. I'll share photos when they arrive. As always, comments, criticism, feedback, validation and flattery are most welcome.

Thanks, as always, for the comments. Knowing that someone is looking really inspires me. And right now, I'm running out of inspiration. I've had a blast working on these old elves, but I think I'm ready to switch themes. Before I do, though, I need to finish off a few larger pieces I have started. For example:




I used this model as my general when playing WHFB 3/4/5. Originally, he had a spear molded in his hand, but being lead it was bendy like a Crazy Straw. I replaced it with steel wire and and spear tip from a goblin (I think). The spear tip looked a little incongruous to me when I stripped him, so I replaced it with a Basilean spear-- the nifty weapons being the only bitz I kept when I binned the sprue that came with my KoW1 kickstarter pledge. It's a little hard to see in these photos, but his nose got mashed while he was in the package, so he looks kind of like a boxer. I went with the same drab Wood Elf colors I've been using for all of these guys.




Another mounted hero. This is the same basic sculpt as the guy above, but with much different equipment. I wonder how he fires his bow-- he doesn't have a scabbard for that sword. His eyes were a beast to paint. Did you notice the heart motif? I tried three times to paint them like gemstones, but I just couldn't get it right. I ended up using a heavy red wash over Mithril silver. I'm not wholly satisfied, but it will work until I figure it out.




One more guy based on the same pose. As I recall, his tab read "wardancer," but of course mounts were never an option for Wardancers. I based his mount on Silver, the Lone Ranger's horse. I plan to hide that black tab on the forefoot with some model rail plants that I ordered a few days ago.

Finally, a group shot:


As always, comments, criticism, flattery and validation are all welcome. next up: Treemen!

 Azazelx wrote:
What's next on the horizon after you take a break from the Elves?

I'm not sure. After the treemen, I have a couple of Elven Attack Chariots that need some love, so that should keep me busy through July. After that, I may switch to SF/Ppost-apoc, samurai, or else try to power through my Mantic goblins. I'll put up a poll when the time come.

Slinky wrote:Oooh, the original elf chariots? Looking forward to seeing those given a new lease of life!

Hopefully you won't be disappointed. One of them is incomplete, so I'm trying my hand at pressmolding with kneadatite for the missing parts. Wish me luck!

cygnnus wrote: I think the naturalistic color palette is working a charm on the wood elves and, yeah, the horses look much better now. Can't wait to see how you can punch up the bases with the silflor-type stuff.

Valete,

JohnS

It's like the end of an era, isn't it? Also, don't get your hope up too high re: tufts. It's mostly just a matter of sticking them on the otherwise finished bases.

When are you going to paint something?

I have something called "plastic clay," which I think is the same thing. I've played around with it, but this will be the first time I've ever tried to make something for real. I should have a WIP to show tomorrow.

Yeah, that's the stuff. Mine is pink, though, to keep my son from claiming it for himself.

Instamold is a little tricker to work with than I originally thought. I'm on my third try for one of the parts I need to fabricate. Hopefully it works this time. In the meanwhile:



This is, of course, the first Treeman made under the Marauder imprint. Originally, he was painted in lush browns and greens, not unlike the studio paint job in White Dwarf. This time, I decided to go with more natural colors. I went with these pale browns and greys based on the trees in our yard. The brown is Ceramcoat chocolate brown and Army painter monster brown, the greys are the same chocolate brown and Army painter ash grey. The patches of lichen and moss are AP army green highlighted with AP necrotic flesh, washed with GW sepia ink. The mushrooms on his raised arm are based on mushrooms that grow on trees here. The direction they are growing in imply that this guy pretty much never lowers that arm. Speaking of which: "Hi, John!" (exactly one Dakkaite will get that reference).




And here's the other one. Following everyone's advice, I invested in some grass and flower tufts. One of the sets I ordered was the Fuschia Bushes you see here. They are much to big to use on human- or cavalry-sized models, but they fill these bases nicely. It's hard to believe that these guys were originally on 40mm square bases. These 60mm rounds work much better, I think. As always, a group shot:


with one of my son's assembled-but-not-yet-painted Marines for scale. Both of these treemen are pewter, making them potentially dangerous weapons. The limited palette made them quick to paint, despite their size.

I'm still planning on doing the chariots next, but I have to get those missing pieces replaced before I can start in earnest. As always, comments, criticism, flattery and validation are most welcome.

Azazelx wrote:Really sweet work on these two. Classic models that I'm not sure have been bettered (to me, anyway) and seriously top-tier work on the colours and finish. The tufts and basing foliage really add that extra complimentary level to them as well. If I were to do mine again today, I'd go for colours like yours here. I think I only have one of them finished, though, so maybe...

Thanks. I would enjoy seeing your take on these models. Also, thanks for your advice re:tufts. I admit that I was resistant at first, as I find highly-decorated bases distracting at best, and downright ugly in a lot of cases. That's one reason I dislike the vocal mulitbasers playing Kings of War. These little tufts-- grass and flower-- really do add a little something to the models.

Theophony wrote:Those are excellent treemen. They really do look alive...for a tree.

Thanks. I was a little surprised at just how drab most trees are in the real world, but I'm pleased with the results on these models.