From the painting desk #15 – Marine medic
April 2, 2012After a moment of despair and bafflement I’m back on the painting track. I’ve decided to keep adding to my Colonial Marine force, slowly expanding it outside the Alien canon and building it more into a generic human scifi army. This means I finally get to paint all sorts of wonderful stuff I’ve collected over the years. Maybe I’ll even find a new use for some old models.
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):
Click for a larger version
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
Dawn of the Lead 
Thats a good use for that somewhat dodgy old clix. It will be interesting to see what other oddments you come up with to bulk out your Marines.
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The repaint is a definate improvement. I’m surprised it fits so nicely in scale with the other minis, most of the clix figure I have seem to be widely differing in scale.
If you find yourself at a bit of a loss for projects again maybe try something along the lines of Lucky Joe’s Zombiepocalypse
http://ljshobbyspot.blogspot.com/
He does good work and the two of you share a love of zombies.
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Thanks for both the compliment and the tip Jon, Lucky Joe’s blog certainly is inspiring! Haven’t been painting zombies in a long while with all the scifi and Blood Bowl stuff eating up my attention. I’ll definitely return to my undead friends at some point.
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This repaint definitely is an improvement on the original. Good to see your new medic goes nicely with your other Colonial Marines (She’s a tall girl!).
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Thanks OBM! I was a bit worried about her fitting in with the rest, but then again I pretty freely mix sizes anyway.
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Defiance Games is a minis company that’s about to drop set of 28mm Marines that could be used as Colonial Marines. They are plastic, and I’m guessing you’re more of a white metal fan, but I’ve always found metal unforgiving and difficult to work with. Either way, I’ve read alot of your articles on your Colonial Marines and figured you may be interested. http://defiancegames.com/index.php/shop#ecwid:category=1831024&mode=product&product=7831674
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Hi John! I’m already aware of the DG marines. In fact, I’m already set to receive a review set once available, so they’ll be added to the Colonial Marine review. As for the plastics, the GW Cadians have been used to pretty good effect: http://color-crayons.blogspot.com/
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Also, are there any decent plastic CM stand ins? I noticed you talking about the em4 plastic sets, but honestly, those are not that great. I love the Copplestone ones, but, again, metal is a bit of a drag.
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