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The more I keep looking at that, the more my inner struggle against laziness increases. While the guns the DG marines sport are nice enough, the HF pulse rifle is a perfect rendition of the Aliens gun. Luckily I only have a few HF pulse rifles left…for now.

I was recently asked to do a group shot of the terrain pieces I’ve finished for the Aliens board game, so I quickly rounded up the nine finished pieces and added some Colonial Marines and Aliens for style and scale. Below you can see the set piece of a valiant CM last stand.

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Personally I think the miniatures and terrain pieces go together very nicely. What’s most important to me is that they capture that Aliens feel. Then again, I might just be blind to my own work, what do you think?

Also, I have to mention that I just got a new job as a project expert, working on a project focusing on preventing video gaming and gambling addiction in adolescents. So happy about this, as I actually get to combine my degree (MA in Education) with my interests and get paid to do it!

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

The item is another case of trash bashing. It consists of a deodorant spray bottle cap, some bug screen, a gadget piece from an old Ral Partha Shadowrun mini, a few decorative beads, electrical conduit tubing and a hefty amound of silicone paste. I gave it my normal paintjob for this project. The metal parts were drybrushed first with Vallejo Oily Steel and then Vallejo Natural Steel. The Alien goo was given a drybrush first with Citadel Codex Grey and then Citadel Fortress Grey. It was then washed over with Citadel Badab Black and given a gloss varnish. The OSL from the red warning lights was simply drybrushed on with Citadel Blood Red. It gave me quite a headache, as I had to repaint it from the start once – you know, the “I’ll just add a little..ARGH! Well, I’ll fix it up with some more…ARGHHH! Just a little more then..ARRRGHG it looks horrible!” syndrome.

The colonist is a chopped up pre-painted plastic mini from the Horrorclix Aliens set. Too large to use with most 28mm miniatures, I’ve been trying to find a use for him as I have several. Here I chopped off his feet, crudely repositioned his arms (the paste handily covers the rough cuts on the shoulders), drilled a hole in his chest and then added some detailing with Procreate putty. The model has a suitably horrified expression as the original model is fittingly enough about the get attacked by a Xenomorph. I gave him Bishop-style blue-grey coveralls as they immediately remind me of Aliens. I think he turned out pretty nice, I guess all that zombie painting has helped with the dead look.

I’m very happy with how the piece turned out. The different parts fit together to form a nice whole. In my opinion, it’s the nicest yet on the board! I really liked constructing this, as it was kind of like a mini diorama. I might add an Alien egg on a separate terrain piece in front of the colonist to complement this one. Comments welcome, as always.

I’m leaving for Malaysia for two weeks tomorrow for some kung fu training, so the blog will be quiet for a while. Fear not, I’ll get back to updating once I’m back here in sweet Finland.

I had this werewolf from West Wind, who I originally painted for my Underworld project (now sadly defunct), and happened to need another werewolf for my Blood Bowl team, the Drakwald Ravens.

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A quick pant and base repaint later, I had a new player, Anti-Christian Wolff. Apart from the base and the pants, I didn’t change the model and the differences apparent are due to photography. This repaint was actually a step back, due to my decision to not highlight the black on the Ravens’ uniform. It does make for a sleek, sporty wolf though.

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Anti-Christian’s debut started out pretty impressive, as he scored what proved to be a winning 2-1 goal against the crafty bourgeoisie dwarves of Blackpit Arsenal. A few turns later a disastrous sequence of dice rolls meant that poor Anti-Christian dropped dead – from heart failure due to the elation from the goal, we concluded.

That’s Blood Bowl for you.

It’s rare for me to be at a loss for words.

I always listen to music when I paint. Usually it’s just for background ambience or some jolly singalong, but every now and then it’s for inspiration. Lately I’ve been in a scifi mood a lot. After playing through Mirror’s Edge and Deus Ex: Human Revolution I was in such a cyberpunk state of mind, that I just wanted to keep going with that. That turned into a Spotify playlist.

With this intro, I present to you my Cyberpunk list. It’s mostly a combination of video game (Mass Effect, Deus Ex, Mirror’s Edge) and movie (Blade Runner, Underworld, TRON: Legacy, Matrix Reloaded, Contagion) soundtracks with some other selected pieces (Jarre, Burial, The American Dollar)  thrown in. It’s designed mostly for moody, atmospheric background listening, so there isn’t too much dramatic or loud stuff.

Enjoy! If you have suggestions for additions to the list, feel free to send them in.

I’m currently working on a group of four minis, who will all join the ranks of my CM force as various specialists. First up is a medic. Unarmed and -armoured, she doesn’t really seem to be geared for combat. The model’s posing still suggests that she’s out in the field, so maybe she’s been called up in an emergency situation or perhaps she’s aiding some civilians.

The miniature itself…well, what can I say. It’s a repaint of a Heroclix Paramedic. This was pretty much what I was working with (pic lifted from eBay):

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While I did strip the model of paint with acetone, I was still left with some gritty, uneven surfaces, flecks of paint etc. Also, I didn’t notice some glaring mould lines until I was far into painting, so I had to go back and scrape them off. To be honest, this was a miniature I just wanted to paint quickly as it had been sitting (with a twin sister) in my miniatures cupboard for ages, so I didn’t do a very thorough job . Some will certainly be bugged by this, for me it was much more important to just finish the mini before I got frustrated by the soft detailing.

I think the model turned out ok. There are problems with it, especially a lack of detail on some parts. For example, a large part of the hair strands have been painted on. The paint coat is very uneven and frankly ugly in some parts, but the varnishing will help a little with this. Below is the medic on her own, as well as with a selection of other Marines. I think she fits in nicely.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

I’m stuck with an amazing problem that I never thought I’d have: I don’t have a miniatures project to work on. Ok, that’s not entirely true, as the Aliens board game thing is still very actively in the works. I’ve already painted all the models I need for it, though, so I’m left with terrain building. That’s fun in its own right, but I love painting miniatures. I also love the feeling of picking new miniatures for a project and splurging on them.

I guess this is the fault of being far too active this year. All the Colonial Marines I currently need are painted, and I want a small break from them anyway. Same goes for the Aliens and the Predators. My Blood Bowl team is painted, down to the coach. I could of course add to both projects, but there aren’t currently any must-do things there.

There are a few criteria to a new project:

• It should be gamable. Even if I never get round to actually playing a game, the potential needs to be there to experience that “oh this’ll be such a cool game” vibe.
• It should be inspiring. Well, naturally.
• Suitable miniatures should be available.
• The project should be scifi-ish. As much as I like vampires, werewolves and zombies, I’m not really in the mood currently.

Simple, right?

There are a few possibilities, which I’m liking at a 75% level. One is expanding the Colonial Marines force outside movie canon, into the comic book and fiction territory. I have somewhat done this already with a combat synthetic. This is a definite possibility. There are plenty of cool things out there. Battle suits, more combat androids, specialist teams, colonists, Xenomorph variants and the like.

Another is some opposition for the Marines. Aliens and Predators I have. Who else? I’ve never been that big of a Terminator fan, and the miniatures might be a tad boring to paint. Any other suitable scifi baddies come to mind?

Any ideas, dear readers? Fiction, comic or movie recommendations? Cool minis for me to look at? Everything will be considered!

Funnily enough, this lack of inspiration -post is the 200th I’ve made, yay!

Ruuminen has built a reputation for solid positivity in our Blood Bowl league. It should be no surprise, as this is what his real-life counterpart looks like:

That open smile, that wonderful moustache!

After the games, he tends to spout lines such as

Against an opponent like that, a tie can be seen as a victory, as can a narrow loss. Even a crushing loss, such as today, should be seen as a positive learning experience, and as such, a victory.

Coming up with a suitable model to represent him on the sidelines was a grueling task. You wouldn’t think so, but it was. Out of sheer curiosity, how many smiling human miniatures do you own? Check it out, you might come away empty-handed. I did, at least. I spent a good while browsing through different manufacturers’ catalogues, thought about sculpting my own, asked around on forums and was left with no great solution to the problem. The few smiling miniatures were stylistically unsuitable for my uses.

Finally I happened to notice a model that was sitting on my desk. It was one that I received from fellow blogger Sho3box as part of one of our trades. The model was that of a man dressed for a wedding, about to pull a gun from inside his jacket. Now, it’s a cool miniature and there’s even a matching bride, but for the life of me I couldn’t figure out how I could best use him.

A bit later I had my coach. I used ProCreate putty to add the all-important moustache and to turn the mini’s fairly gruff expression into a smile. I sculpted the pistol grip he was holding into a handkerchief, and that’s pretty much it. I did a very quick job on him, and painted his eyes larger and more cartoony than usual. He came out looking like a kindly magician from a kids’ movie. Not my smoothest or neatest paintjob at any rate, but still: great success!

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I can’t keep myself from posting a song relating to Muurinen/Ruuminen. It laments the coach moving on. The chorus says:

“Wind, blow to where my walrus lies, play a moment with his moustache! Tell him of my love, tell him how I miss him, tell him that I’m still waiting.”

The song, a parody of this one (go ahead, treat yourself to some quality Finnish pop music – English lyrics included!), has become something of a running joke in our Blood Bowl games. Quite deservedly so.