Posts Tagged ‘From the painting desk’

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From the painting desk #25 – Kaiju hunting

April 24, 2014

The first mini I’ve finished in a long, long time is a CAV mech, Spitfire, from Reaper Miniatures. My painting skills and patience had rusted a bit, but the end result is still reasonable. White is a pain to paint, and I could have done a better job here, but eventually I decided to just be (somewhat) happy with it and move on to another miniature. And hey, I now have the first painted mini for my Pacific Rim project.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

I drew inspiration for the colour scheme from Tacit Ronin, a Mk. I jaeger in Pacific Rim, which can be glimpsed in the film’s introduction sequence:

tacitronin2

with the colour scheme nicely shown in this piece of concept art:

tacitronin

While painting the model wasn’t as fun as it could’ve been, finishing it sure was! The next one is already on my table and well on its way. This time I’m painting my favourite colour, red. I guess painting with your favourite colour is the miniature painter’s comforting chicken soup.

Posted in Giant monsters, Miniatures | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

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From the painting desk #24 – Ethnic diversity

September 22, 2013

Finished another three of Pig Iron’s Heavy infantry. I hate batch/assembly line painting, so I try to do my best to keep it interesting. This usually results in me adding different ethnicities in units. It not only makes the unit look more interesting, but also better reflects real world and my scifi visions. While WH40K’s Space Marines might be a race of genetically enhanced super-Aryans, I like to make my units a bit more multi-cultural. To illustrate, in 2008 Black and Hispanic members made up over a third of the US Army, and I think the diversity has been, is and will be on the increase.

Realism aside, it serves to break up the monotony of a unit wearing the same armour and BDUs. In the latest group of three, I picked three different skin colours. One was my regular caucasian skin tone, one a reddish mid-range brown and one a very dark brown.

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In my opinion the end result is quite nice, what do you think?

Posted in Miniatures | Tagged , , | 3 Comments »

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From the painting desk #23 – OPFOR

September 7, 2013

I’m slowly getting my painting groove back on, which means I finally finished a few models. They’re both Heavy infantry by Pig Iron Productions, a part of their mighty fine science fiction range. Like most of my scifi stuff, they’ll find use in my Utopia project. The Pig Iron minis will represent the heavy infantry of the Outer Colonies, a counterpart to the UTOPIA troopers the players are commanding.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

I used the casualty miniature to test the colour scheme. I wanted something very down to earth, so used a combination of browns and grays. In order to keep them from not looking too monotonous, I added a simple horizontal stripe camouflage. Another reason for the simple camo choice was that I wanted to keep these guys quick to paint. A lot of both models is painted using drybrushing and washes, with scratches in the armour and the camo adding extra detail. The casualty won’t be based, I just put him on a base to ease photography.

A special mention must go to the flag patches. To go with the typical “opposing force is always red” mentality, I was about the make the flag red as well. Luckily I decided to ask a non-gamer friend what she thought would look cool. “Maybe try green, with some yellow?” she said, and that I did. I love how it turned out, as the green really pops from the muted overall look.

The Pig Iron minis are a joy to paint. They have a lovely simplicity to them, reminiscent of Mark Copplestone’s work. As Mr. Copplestone is one of my all time favourites, this is high praise indeed.

As always, comments and critique welcome!

Posted in Miniatures | Tagged , , | 4 Comments »

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From the painting desk #22 – Security!

June 26, 2013

I recently bought some lovely Time Lift Security miniatures by Crooked Dice. Destined to become generic near future security guards (who will show up in a Utopia game report later), I gave the models a very toned down, dull look with khaki vests over grey overalls. To keep the models from getting too dull, I added some white in the form of the vest collars and belts. I think it gives them a bit of a retro look and nicely breaks up the otherwise low-key paint scheme. To add some ethnic diversity, I painted one of the models using very different skin tones. I would’ve loved to paint a few using darker skin colours, but the hairstyles and facial features simply weren’t suitable for that.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

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The models themselves were easy and quick to clean up and paint. They’re very neat little sculpts and I think they turned out pretty characterful. You can get them direct from Crooked Dice.

Comments and critique welcome!

Posted in Miniatures | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

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From the painting desk #20 – Synth pop

December 1, 2012

My ongoing game project is providing me with loads of painting inspiration. Here are three models I recently completed:

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The models on the left and right are from Victory Force miniatures, from their not-Star Trek range of space explorers. While (or because) they have have very short arms and big heads, they’re very characterful sculpts and were fun to paint. The one in the middle is a not-Bishop from Woodbine’s scifi range. As with other Woodbine models, the style is quite cartoony, making the model easy to paint. These were quick paintjobs, and I’m happy with the end result.

Androids feature heavily in the Alien franchise, so I thought it only appropriate to include them in my games as well. This trio featured in the second game of the Utopia campaign, where they were the assistants to a Weyland-Yutani scientist.

The simple paint scheme is based on the blue-grey overalls worn by Bishop in Aliens. They also tie these synths in with me previously painted combat synth.

Comments and critique welcome as always!

 

Posted in Miniatures, Sci-Fi | Tagged , , | 2 Comments »

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From the painting desk #19 – Two more for the corps

October 28, 2012

Some painted stuff for a change, with yet more troopers joining my Colonial Marine/generic scifi force.

The first is another one of Defiance Games‘ UAMC marines. While the crispness leaves much to be desired, they’re still fun to and simple to paint and make for a nice addition to the force.

Defiance Games UAMC marine

Click for a larger version

The second mini is a different story altogether. Hasslefree Miniatures‘ McKenzie has been a favourite of mine since I first saw pictures of the green on the FU-UK forum years ago. You know how some miniatures are just so nice that they almost intimidate you into not painting them? That’s what happened to me here. Eventually I managed to tackle the task and I’m very happy with how the model turned out. It’s a great sculpt, with plenty of detail without getting too cluttered. I also think that the Colonial Marine paint scheme fits the model something lovely.

Hasslefree McKenzie

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As always, constructive critique and other comments more than welcome.

Posted in Miniatures, Sci-Fi | Tagged , , , | 5 Comments »

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From the painting desk #18 – A not-purple worm

September 22, 2012

After reviewing the Reaper Bones purple worm I was left with a sloppily washed model sitting on my desk. Since it was already somewhat started, I figured I’d paint it up properly. Not really wanting an actual purple worm, I went for an earthy palette for the colours.

As tends to happen to me, I was very lazy with the mould lines, and they ended up showing a bit too much for my liking. Something I might add to the review: on the soft plastic the mould lines are somewhat difficult to remove. Filing results in a mess, cutting easily takes away to much and scraping works, but not as well as with hard styrene. Of course due to the worm’s round surfaces and textures, mould line removing was more difficult and time consuming than usual.

A question has been raised on the nets about whether the Bones models can be painted without priming. I didn’t prime the model (apart from the wash) but instead started painting with the base colour – in this case GW’s Dryad Bark. The model took the paint without any issues, so I’d say that’s definitely a time and paint saver on the Bones range.

Click for a larger version

It’s a simple paint job, with progressively lighter brown drybrush layers over the Dryad Bark (GW’s Graveyard Earth, VGC’s Khaki, VGC’s Bonewhite and Elfic Flesh) followed by a wash of GW’s Devlan Mud. The teeth were painted individually with the idea of “the more the merrier”. The worm is based on a 50mm round plastic base and the moulded scenic base blends in nicely with my standard sand texture.

All in all, for all its simplicity, I think the finished model looks fine. It was very quick to do, which is nice considering I still have seven more to finish…

Posted in Miniatures | Tagged , | 1 Comment »

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From the painting desk #17 – More Colonial Marine specialists

August 30, 2012

It’s a busy time here, with plenty of work. I’ve got a few new projects in the pipeline, and surprisingly this doesn’t even mean I’ve dropped my old ones. The Colonial Marines are still rolling out and they’re slowly moving towards a more generic futuristic army. My latest addition to the force consists of three models from three different manufacturers.

A while back, Paul a.k.a Sho3box commented on how he felt that the Colonial Marines deserved better leadership than that of the inept Lt. Gorman in Aliens.

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Enter this officer from Copplestone Castings. With his simple stance and his hands behind his back, he really looks like he means business. I’m guessing actual combat drops instead of simulated.

Next up is a CM operating a sentry gun. The model is from Woodbine, and I really like the pose, with the trooper sitting on his knees and casually holding his rifle. I painted the laptop’s screen to suggest that it’s being used to control the sentry gun. I like the way his paintjob turned out, and I’m especially happy with the five o’clock shadow I painted on his face. The sentry gun is from the same set, and it’s a very nice piece of hardware as well. It will join my four em4 sentry guns to help my marines dish out loads of automatic, motion tracking death. The laptop’s screen didn’t photograph too well, due to the gloss varnish on the screen.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

Speaking of em4, they produce the third model of this trio. I decided that attaching some form of special forces to the Colonial Marine strength would be fun, so I’m currently painting up these troopers in berets. I settled for a black beret with a silver/steel badge, and in my opinion it looks suitably special force-y. What do you think?

Click for a larger version

A fun batch to paint, all were minis that painted up nicely. I ran into a terrible hitch during spray varnishing, as for some reason – humid weather I guess – my Army Painter matt varnish left the models with a horrible, gritty texture and turned all the blacks grey. After some brooding I went back and did a lot of fixing on the minis. The next run with the same can of spray went without a problem, so despite the setback the minis are finally finished.

As always, comments and critique welcome!

Posted in Miniatures, Sci-Fi | Tagged , , , , | 3 Comments »

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From the painting desk #16 – Marine specialists

June 3, 2012

My Colonial Marine force is steadily progressing from being a small group of models to be used in Space Hulk towards being an actual fighting force of troopers, maybe eventually used in one game or another. My fairly relaxed approach to this project has enabled me to use all sorts of minis as USCM, and this post details another such case. This time it’s three different specialists. They’re all straying from the Aliens movie – you don’t see these guys in the film.

First up is a sniper. The model is a Games Workshop Imperial Guard trooper from the Schaeffer’s Last Chancers set. I’ve cut down the barrel way back when I bought them to make it look less like a lasgun. Looking back, I don’t really regret it.

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The second model is a support weapon gunner from Defiance Games. Part of their multi-part UAMC marines, I painted this one up to see how they look like when painted as Colonial Marines. Can’t say I’m disappointed, so the DG marines will definitely be joining my force.

Click for a larger version

The third one is a conversion. Not a very complex one though! He was originally an em4 trooper carrying a laser. In my opinion lasers and CMs simply don’t go together, so I chopped down the barrel and added a massive flamer nozzle from GW’s plastic Catachan set. To further enhance the flamer look, I added a small canister from the same plastic flamer to the side of the backpack. I like how it turned out, as it does look like a pretty bad ass heavy flamer.

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Finally, here’s a group shot of all three. I think they work nicely together despite different manufacturers. As I’ve said, uniform basing and …uniform goes a long way.

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From the painting desk #15 – Marine medic

April 2, 2012

After 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):

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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.

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Click for a larger version

Posted in Miniatures, Sci-Fi | Tagged , , | 8 Comments »

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