Posts Tagged ‘From the painting desk’

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From the painting desk #4

May 30, 2010

I’m happy to report that my Colonial Marine project is actually coming along nicely. Here’s my first full five-man (although there’s one female there too) squad for your viewing and commenting pleasure. I’d already forgotten the old WHFB feeling of how nice it is to have  a bunch of minis with a coherent paint scheme. The picture also clearly shows the size difference between Copplestone Castings (the mini on the left) and em4 (all the others). Guess the scanner operator just happens to be a big guy.

Click for a larger version

I’m also churning out Aliens at a fairly good rate, but couldn’t bother photographing them since they pretty much look like these ones shown previously.

Up next for this project is a second squad of Marines, as well as some Predators. All of this stuff has been sitting in my cupboard for ages, so it’s about time for it to get painted. That’s the great thing about collecting far too many minis to paint. When you return to something you’ve bought years ago, it’s like Christmas every time!

Posted in Miniatures, Sci-Fi | Tagged , , , | 11 Comments »

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From the painting desk #3

May 10, 2010

Since it’s over a year from the previous one, I figured I’d resurrect this series of posts. As I posted earlier, my inspiration for miniatures is back with a vengeance, and the results are already showing. Unsurprisingly, I’ve been painting stuff from my Aliens/Predator/Marines project, and here they are. In colour!

Click for a larger version

I’ve had these HorrorClix Aliens half finished for ages, meaning they’ve been based and sprayed black. The required very little work to finish. A couple of layers of drybrushing, some black ink, glue for Alien gunk effects, a coat of gloss varnish and what do you know, three more Xenos to fill those motion trackers. The HorrorClix Aliens are very nice for the painter. They could basically be used as is, but with a little work you can make them even nicer. They’re the only models that I don’t dull down with a matt varnish after gloss varnishing.

I also started on a new batch of Colonial Marines. I wanted to recreate the look of the troopers from Aliens, so went hunting for reference material. Turns out that the net is filled with movie stills and people that are into movie props and cosplaying, so I had a lot of stuff to work with.

Click for a larger version

Click for a larger version

"We've got movement!"

I think I nailed it pretty well, and overall I’m really satisfied with how the model turned out. I even made an effort to get the motion detector right. There’s a motion blip there, probably just a little girl. The model is sculpted by Mark Copplestone and can be found in the Copplestone Castings Future War range, in the pack FW22.

On this model I tried some simple weathering effects, so the bare metal you see on the armor is painted on to represent chipped and scratched paint.

The next marines are already on the painting desk and well on their way. Here we go again.

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

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From the painting desk #2

May 2, 2009

As time goes by, I find myself painting less and less for gaming purposes and more for painting’s sake. For me the best aspect of the hobby is probably the part where I get all excited about some new genre or line of miniatures (which will take years to paint), start a modeling project (that never gets finished) or buy a new rule set (that gets played a few times). Of course I still buy miniatures with the idea that they’ll be used in one game or the other, but I always seem to skip the whole gaming part. Hence, I have a ton of unpainted SWAT for those eventual massive zombie apocalypse games, a fair amount of near future troopers and Horrorclix Aliens for gaming the whole Aliens vs. Colonial Marines scenario, not to mention cops, bikers, terrorists, bank robbers, werewolves, vampires, dragons and whatnot. The fact that I have all these unfinished projects naturally doesn’t stop me from adding to them whenever some new models catch my fancy. Happily, though, I find that I’m not really alone with this situation. Seems that at least every other miniature enthusiast shares the problem(?) of a massive backlog of unpainted lead. Oh well, at least I’ll have something to do when I retire in 40 years or so.

With this introduction, here are the lates minis I’ve painted. You can click on the pictures for a closer view, but in all honesty my level of painting doesn’t really encourage such a thing. You have been warned.

The first is a lieutenant from em4 miniatures for my unit of modern/near-future troopers. These guys serve a double duty as both Colonial Marines dying at the claws of xenomorphs and generic military for trying to contain zombie outbreaks and ending up as nom. They’re clothed in simple urban camouflage gear to suit either of these settings.

Lieutenant

Click for a larger version

The second model is a female from Foundry. She could be used for a lot of things. A corporate bodyguard, a businesswoman-turned-survivor, an assassin, a bank robber? I like how the model turned out, especially the face and the red of the clothing.

Babe with gun

Click for a larger version

I’m happy with both models, and they were a joy to paint. Both were simple, clean and crisp sculpts with well defined detail. Regardless of whether they’ll ever see any gaming use, they’ve already justified me buying them.

Posted in Miniatures | Tagged , , | 1 Comment »

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From the painting desk #1

April 28, 2009

Lately I’ve been painting zombies by Mega Miniatures. The Screaming Alpha has posted an excellent review of these, which I completely agree with, so instead of typing all that again I advise you to pop over to TSA and read the review. And while you’re there, subscribe to the feed, it’s an excellent blog!

The Mega Miniatures zombies are a joy to paint. While they aren’t the most detailed or crisp of sculpts, they can be brought to life (awful pun, sorry) by relatively simple painting. In fact, the upcoming zombie tutorial got started while I worked on these fellows. I hope the few pictures below serve to illustrate on one hand the roughish sculpting but on the other hand the way the characterful models start to look a lot lovelier with a suitable paint job. Click on the images for larger pics.

And a final shot with all of my so far painted MM zombies, including a few lovely zombie kids and the delightful zombie hooker. Don’t let her nom on your junk.


Posted in Miniatures, Zombies | Tagged , | 2 Comments »

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