From the painting desk #21 – More Utopia
April 14, 2013Wow, this is actually my 250th post. While the blog hasn’t been updated as frequently as before, I ensure you it’s still going strong. As the blog now has a quarter of a thousand posts, I figured I’d give you a look at what’s up.
As you can’t have failed to notice, I’ve been running a near future military scifi campaign for a while now. With seven games played (AAR #7 coming soon!) this is the longest campaign I’ve run in good long while, and both I and the players have really enjoyed it. You can find the associated posts by checking out everything tagged Utopia. The campaign has not only allowed me to use a lot of my miniatures, but also has really inspired me to paint minis and build terrain a lot. Deadlines help too!
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Anyway, it’s on with the minis in chronological order. First up is a hunting beast for my Predators. The miniature is actually a hellhound by Heresy with the choice of a skeletal head. I really liked the idea of Predators using dog-like hunting creatures as shown in the Predators film. This one’s by no means a full match, but I think it looks fearsome and alien enough. Like practically all of the Heresy multipart minis, I had plenty of work getting the hound to a paintable state. There were some heavy mould lines and the fit of the parts really wasn’t stellar. After I’d all but finished painting it, I found out to my delight that I’d missed a glaring mould line on the hound’s side. As I didn’t want to ruin the paintjob, I painted some scarring over it, which I think turned out nice.
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Next up is a conversion. While originally painted for Utopia, this fellow hasn’t appeared on the field so far. It’s actually the late-ish Pvt. Jane, who was captured fighting the Terminators. As you can see, he has been subjected to horrible experimentation and has been made into a cyborg. The model is a warbot from Pig Iron Productions with a head from Puppetswar and a minigun from Maxmini. I think the parts work nicely together and combine well to make a really intimidating figure. The paintjob is super simple, with basically just washes and drybrushing on the bulk. I paid more attention to the face, and I think it turned out looking pretty good. That resin head is pretty awesome, and I basically made this conversion just so I could justify buying the head…
L to R: Trill, Cohl, Abdul, Dastevan. Click for a larger version
Up next is a bunch of Utopia troopers – Trill, Cohl, Abdul and Dastevan. Nothing too special here, they were all given my typical trooper treatment. Trill is a Hasslefree mini, Cohl is a SWAT sniper from Foundry and Abdul and Dastevan are both from em4. I think Cohl is a good example of how a paint job can really change the way a model looks.
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Topping off the post is General Hyun – set to appear in the upcoming Utopia AAR #7. Hyun is a Copplestone Castings miniature and I’m really really happy with him. Somehow those greys just turned out lovely and the uniform looks very crisp. I rarely get the feeling that I really nailed a mini, but with this one I’m patting my own back. Please refrain from posting ego-crushing comments!
Dawn of the Lead 
Lots of cool stuff here.
The hunting beast look very nice. A good choice of washed out palette for them and perfect models to act as predator hounds.
Cyborg Jane looks the part too. There is something 1980s about his look that I approve of. I quite enjoy sticking bits together to make over-the-top cyborgs. The former-colleague-turned-horribly-mutilated/upgraded-foe aspect should provide ample plot threads for your campaign too. Even faceless robotic hordes are more fun to play when the occasional one has a face.
The generals suit makes him look like a stickler, as is appropriate. I imagine that under that hat is a haircut that you could set you watch by.
How many USCM/Utopia troopers do you have painted now? It must be somewhere between 20 and 30 I guess. Quite a sizable force (for skirmish games anyway).
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Thanks for the comment Paul! Cyborg Jane was supposed to make an appearance, but the scenario in which this was supposed to happen turned out to be a disaster for the troopers, and being the kind soul that I am, chucking CJ into the mix would’ve just been cruel. I left his fate unresolved, though, so I can bring him in at a suitable time. While it doesn’t show in the pictures, the Terminators were given a glossy, shiny look whereas Jane is more matt, clunky metal.
I did a quick headcount of the troopers, and the total with officers and pilots is 37. I still need to paint more, as I’m aiming not to use the same model to represent two different characters.
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Lovely work on these – some awesome figures here! I love Copplestone’s sculpting, clean characterful sculpts. I have some cops and various other vagabonds on the painting table at the moment for a superhero project I’m working on.
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Thanks for the comment and the kind words, Chris! Copplestone is definitely one of my all time favourites. As you said, the keyword is “clean”, the miniatures are very easy and fun to paint without being overly simplistic.
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[…] This one was a great opportunity for me to field my lovely new Pig Iron Heavy infantry and my cyborg Jane conversion. Now, what should I paint […]
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