Posts Tagged ‘Velrock Art’

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From the painting desk #82 – Colonial…mercs?

April 3, 2026

Life carries on here in Norway (until the end of this month), and I’ve managed to get some more painting done. As the city is now very much quieting down for Easter holidays, today is a great day for a new blog post!

Work on Containment continues, and I’m still painting minis for use with the game. The game features different mercenary crews – sorry, private security contractors – which gives me a great opportunity to paint up more futuristic soldier types. I know I have a fair bunch already, but what can I say, I’m pretty much always up for more scifi military minis. Enter these printable colonial marines by Velrock Art Miniatures:

Renders of six colonial marine miniatures by Velrock Art Miniatures.
Picture © Velrock Art Miniatures

The minis have exactly what is needed for the game, with the different specialist roles represented (support, medic, sniper, comms/tech), one of them even touting a shotgun which is a weapon option in the game.

Years and years ago I painted up a ton of colonial marines as part of my various Aliens projects, and there’s even a painting tutorial I made sixteen years ago (and which has held up surprisingly well). However, because of that, I wanted to paint these up in a different colour scheme, something that was less “national military” and more “mercenary company”. Here’s what I settled on:

Six painted colonial marine miniatures by Velrock Art.
Click for a larger version

I feel like the rust red and khaki complement each other nicely and really help these minis look like they are not colonial marines, even despite the very recognisable weapons. I think I was inspired by an old 40k Imperial Guard colour scheme from way back! The lovely red was done using the great Rust and abandoned set from AK. I went with minimal small detail for easily readable minis. The sniper had their shoulder lamp snap off in transit (and impossible to glue back due to the tiny surface), but then again I figured it would not be needed anyway for that line of work. For the medic, I did add some bright splashes of colour for the gloves and the medkit and while they do stick out, I don’t think it’s too excessive. I also gave a touch of Jacques Cousteau for scanner guy’s hat.

Unusually for me, I’m showing off these minis with unfinished bases as I wanted to post about them but they won’t be based until a month from now when I get back home – while I did bring my paints and brushes, lugging over tubs of basing sand was where I drew the line!

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From the painting desk #79 – Fembruary 2022

February 27, 2022

Wow, late February and it’s the first post this year. Better late than never!

The Fembruary challenge, a brainchild of Alex from over on Leadballoony, is one of my favourite things in the online miniatures scene – heaven knows our little corner of the hobby world benefits from more representation.

I’ve been painting a lot this year (apparently instead of blogging), and these three models are my entry to this year’s Fembruary:

First up is a rogue trader type character, the leader of my Five Parsecs from Home gang. Dubbed Nura Aleh by the wonderful Realm of Plastic 40k name generator, the mini is a 3d printable one from Studio Sol Union, kitbashed with a printed head from Knight Soul Studio. I think the combination makes for a pretty cool whole. My vague background story, based on the Five Parsecs random background generator for the character is that she’s a former or renegade inquisitor. For the clothes I went for a gold/purple combination – a tried and true combination and nicely a bit flamboyant.

Photo of miniature with long coat and pistol, views from the front and the back

Click for a larger version

The second model is another member of the Five Parsecs gang, the wasteland nomad mercenary Esma. The model is an old, OOP Infinity Ariadna scout sniper by Corvus Belli that I picked up years back at the local RPG convention if I recall correctly. I’d always considered the character to represent a woman, yet when I started to paint it, I realized that there were no gender identifiers there – which is actually kinda cool. A female model does not have to be super strongly (and stereotypically) coded as a woman with breasts, high heels or the like. For the paintjob I drew inspiration from the background, a wasteland nomad didn’t really speak to me of ostentatious clothing, so I went with very muted tones.

Photo of miniature with assault rifle, dressed in a cloak. Front and back views.

Click for a larger version

The third and final mini is my rendition of a Vindicare Assassin for my 40k army. Originally a Tempest guardsman sniper by Velrock Art, I removed the cloak before printing. The sculptor has intentionally made modifications to the minis wonderfully easy, as the cloak was simply a single element that could be removed using Meshmixer. This was a bit of a tricky model to paint, as it’s very, very black. I went for a few different tones, painted some sharp highlights on the bodysuit and made the armour and knee and elbow pads a bit more dull. I gave the hair an auburn look for a spot of colour, and painted the eye lenses red for a bit of extra contrast and menace. Overall, I’m pretty happy with it!

Photo of assassin miniature with rifle, dressed in all black. Front and back views.

Click for a larger version

To wrap up this post, a shot of the trio in more fitting surroundings.

Photo of three miniatures, an assassin, a rogue trader, and a mercenary standing on a metal walkway with scifi scenery in the background.

Click for a larger version