Where is the painted stuff, Chris?

Random musings - or - why aren't there any updates, Scream?

Hello my fellow bloggers and followers. Some of you might have asked themselves why the post count on my blog became increasingly fewer and fewer over the recent weeks. That's due to two reasons: new job and my other major hobby: festivals!
Numero Uno - the new job. It's an entirely new field of working, some sort of job like I never did before (I have a craftsman background, now its an office job). Its taking its time to get used to and my painting mojo was not really that high within the last two months either.

And then number two: festivals. Over here in Germany the festival season is in full swing. And if its heavy metal or medieval folk rock/pagan or viking metal then we (that's me and the mates) just can't let it pass without going there to have a good time.

So, instead of painted miniatures something entirely new on this blog: real people :-)

Me and the mates. Btw, I am the guy with the black hat on the far right side.

Rapalje - covering Manowar's "The crown and the ring" !

 Give me a cup of (ice) coffee and no one gets hurt!

"Victor and his demons" are going to town...

Naseweis Met (mead) - what would we have done without you? Probably have gone home with more money still in our pockets... :-)

Thank god - finally some normal people.

Eluveitie. If you don't know them - check out this video

Oh, and before I forget: there are at least a few new painted miniatures. But since they are for Warhammer 40,000 you'll have to check out my other blog, too: www.swordofordon.blogspot.de
Stay tuned, more miniatures to follow soon. :-)

Chris

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Kurita's "Rifleman" finished

House Kurita's 60 ton "RFL-3N Rifleman" ready for action. Another repainted ExoSquad action figure.

Business end: two Imperator Class A AC/5s and two Magna Mk. III Large Lasers.

I added a samurai flag and cherry blossom paintings to make the Rifleman fit in with my other Sword Of Light Mechs.

Having only 10 heat sinks, the RFL-3N is inadequate for constant fire. Most of its dissipating heat is vented on its back, using large grilles.

AVP: Alien Eggs test

Some test models for my Alien eggs. I tried to drybrush them with different shades of brown and added glue to the opened one to simulate the "goo". These models won't win prices but they are good enough for gaming.
Resin models by Dark Art Miniatures (Alien Birthing Pods).

Tomorrow's War meets Battletech: House Davion's "Crusader" finished

House Davion CRD-3R Crusader Mech

"The Crusader has a well-deserved reputation as a reliable, versatile Mech. Commonly found in command and fire lances, the Mech is equally at home
alongside Marauders and Thunderbolts in close-assault units. Some versions
have even served as scout Mechs, but this is rare."

arm-mounted Magna Longbow-15 LRM 15s, Intek Medium Laser, M100 Machine Guns

note the hip-mounted Harpoon SRM 6s

Its been a while since I finished the last Mech. This time I have kit-bashed an Armored Valkyrie kit from Macross with a Gashapon action figure off ebay. Torso and shoulders are from the kit, legs and lower arms from the action figure. The lower arms and shoulders can re-posed as I did not glue them on.

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #3

upper turbine/rotor-shaft housing added, green-stuffed and brought into shape. Needs some filler and sanding and then I can finally start adding all the small details.

After hours of hacking, cutting and exhausting work with a saw, I salvaged an AH-1W Cobra sprue for the upper rotor-shaft and turbine housing to add it to my Venom. Slowly things come into place and the whole chopper starts to look like an UH-1Y...
Some green stuff was added to shape transitions between panels that I couldn't close with anything but putty. It has to dry now for at least 24 hours until work can continue (which means even more fine putty over the rather rough green stuff ;-) ).

FoF "Grundausbildung". A little gift to my fellow German gamers.

I've been asked by a couple of users of German wargaming-related forums I frequently browse through, if I could do some example of Force On Force gameplay in German.
After I asked Shawn at AAG for permission (which I received), I spent the whole day with translating examples that Shawn himself had created. He used drawn maps to give gamers a better understanding of what was described in the text. I went for a more appealing approach and set up a gaming table and brought my miniatures to get some exciting pictures taken.

Here are a couple of the pics I used as an example:

The German version can be found here


Die deutsche Version der Beispiele für Force On Force Spielsituationen könnt ihr hier finden.



Ambush Alley Games recently has created a Wiki page that does include those example in their original English version. I do recommend to save that page in your favourites. There is more and more of free stuff for FoF gamers available and you'll always will find it there!

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP #2

Work has continued on my UH-1Y conversion. I have added the turned exhaust ports and the crew, used lots of green stuff to cover up all the cutting that was done to the fuselage to add the resin part etc. It is still a long way until I can add primer. There is plenty of detail still missing, but it already comes in to shape.

SHQ Miniatures were added for pilot and co-pilot.

the heavily modified back part of the fuselage. Don't mind the yellow part on top - I have been scavenging an old italeri kit to get this part.

The top is still unfinished. I need to use some putty to cover up were resin part meets plastic kit. After that I will add the final parts of where the rotor is being mounted in.

Battle For Skira: USMC Star Force 21 WIP

Italei's Twin Huey is what I used for the main parts.

The cockpit. Crew is still missing.

This side will get a door gunner with 7.62mm minigun. The other side a .50cal MG.

"Star Force 21" is the call-sign of the helicopter picking up and transporting Team Razor in the PC game ARMA 2. The helicopter is a UH-1Y Venom. Since there is no such kit available, I will scratchbuild one using parts from various other helicopters and Italeri's UH-1N Twin Huey.
Star Force 21 is going to get the complete overhaulin' to include crew, door gunners, sidemounts with Hydra rocket pods, 7.62mm minigun and a .50cal heavy MG. To finish it off, the whole model is going to be mounted on a flyer base from GW. That should give it a pretty stable mount for most game purposes.

AVP: "Young Tusk" Predator Youngblood

He is just gaining his reputation...

The first trophy of a successful hunt. The Elder of his clan will be proud.

I went with the same colours that I already used painting "Eager Youth". The miniature is a repainted Horrorclix action figure.

The recipe for a successful hunter: Cloaking Device, Melee Claws, Ceremonial Armor and Plasma Caster.

Young Tusk is the second of my Predator Youngbloods. Like his brother Eager Youth he just claimed his first trophy, lifting him into the caste of the true warriors of his clan.
I painted both the same way, symbolizing their bond as brothers. Since Youngbloods lack the experience of elite or elder Predators, they are allowed to hunt in packs of 2-3 warriors until they reach a certain reputation. I have plans to add at least two (maybe three) more Youngbloods to chose from for AVP miniature gameplay. After those its the heros next: elite and elder Yautja.

AVP: Carter C. Burke and Newt

Wayland-Yutani official Carter C. Burke and Rebecca Jordan, known as "Newt".

"I'm Burke. Carter Burke. I work for the company. But don't let that fool you, I'm really an okay guy..."

"...That's the plan. You have my word on it."

"We'd better get back, 'cause it'll be dark soon, and they mostly come at night... mostly."

"Newt. My name's Newt. Nobody calls me Rebecca, except my brother."

Burke and Newt. Finally, all Aliens movie characters are done. Apart from Dropship and APC all human items for team 1 are finished with those two.
Burke (Woodbine Miniatures) is only in use when playing scenarios out of the movie, otherwise he's just another civilian to be rescued by the Marines. Same goes for Newt (Hasslefree Miniatures) who will be just a generic child to be rescued in most cases, but if I want to play the movie scenes I now at least own an appropriate figure.

AVP: "Eager Youth" Predator Youngblood

"Eager Youth" is the youngest of my Predators. With his first trophy he now claims membership among his clan's blooded warriors.

The miniature is a complete repaint of one of the AVP Horrorclix figures included in the Predator set. The base once again comes from Fenris Games.

I went with glossy black for the Xenomorph trophy, flat black for the dreadlocks and bronze/iron mixture on all Predator metal surfaces. I think it looks pretty good the way it is.

The face of the miniature wasn't that nicely sculpted, but I still tried to represent the colours of the open mouth with its manibles as seen in the movies. It adds a little colour to the whole warrior.

 

This is the first time ever that I had to paint Predator skin. Looking at pics around the net gave me so many variations, that I decided to go with a base tone of khaki that was highlighted on muscle packs with two colours and finally toned down with watered down Armypainter Soft Tone. I will try to make the next Yautja a little brighter.

I tried to resemble the red blinking letters in Predator language on the controls for the Cloaking Device on "Eager Youth's" left arm.

So here it is now - my first ever painted Predator figure. I never had painted one before so this was quite challenging. There is so many pics and variations of the skin pattern around the net, that picking a suitable one wasn't that easy.
In the end I just painted away and added or washed over on the go.
Based upon Vallejo Khaki, that was highlighted with GW Kommando Khaki and finally GW Dheneb Stone, it was finished off by painting the sprinkles with GW Scorched Brown, before being washed over with heavily thinned Armypainter Soft Tone.
The mouth was highlighted with Vallejo Medium Flesh followed by GW Dwarf Flesh and finally GW Tentacle Pink. Teeth were done with GW Iyanden Dark Sun, Bleached Bone and finally Skull White. Same colours were picked for the nails on the fingers, which are almost claw-like.
The metal furfaces where basecoated in GW Tin Bitz before being highlighted with Revell Iron/Eisen and toned down with a wash of Armypainter Strong Tone.
All leather was done with Vallejo Saddle Brown and highlighted with GW Bestial Brown before receiving a wash with Armypainter Strong Tone.
The Xenomorph head (trophy) was painted Tamiya Flat Black, highlighted with GW Shadow Grey and its teeth with Boltgun Metal. I then coated it with the old GW Black Ink to give the upper part a shiny and glossy finish.
The spear was painted in Revell Iron/Eisen and Armypainter Weapon Bronze before being inked with Dark Tone.
The lettering on the cloaking device control pad was done in three steps: GW Crimson Gore, Blood Red and Fiery Orange.

I like how it turned out but I will replace the Khaki basecoat for the skin with something brighter on my next try.

AVP: 1LT Campbell, Ripley and Sentry Guns

UA 571-C Remote Sentry Weapons System (EM4 Miniatures)

Pulse Action Machine Gun, 500 times 10mm x 28 HEAP rounds, IR and ultrasonic tracking unit as well as ambient light optics. 60° sensor cone, 360° sweep radius when set up.

"This area is off limits. We mean it."

Four of EM4 Miniatures' beautiful sentry guns. I didn't do anything to them, they were built out of the bag and placed upon Sulaco Series bases from Fenris Games. I tried to paint the lenses to reflect IR and ambient light sensors. Cute little things.

EM4 Miniatures' soldier to represent 1LT Campbell and Woodbine Miniatures' Ripley before entering the hive - all geared up for a fight.

Campbell with M4A3 pistol, Ripley with duct-taped combo of M240 Flamer, M41 "Pulse Rifle" and a PDL (Personal Data Locater) in order to find Newt.

Unlike Gorman, Lieutenant Campbell is a veteran - he prefers BDUs over formal uniform. Ripley also carries a bandoleer with spare 30mm HE grenades.

Not much to say about Ripley other than she's in a pissed off mood represented in that Woodbine Miniature. Its her just before she enters the Alien Hive on Acheron. The miniature actually shows all the gear Ripley took with her: Flamer, Rifle, Grenade spare ammo and the PDL she was using to locate Newt's whereabouts.
So who the hell is Campbell I hear you say?! Well, since I will need more than one squad of Marines I have to come up with another section that also needs to be lead by a Lieutenant. Campbell is the LT that was included in the 1997 AVP collectible card game. He and all of his Marines will be based upon those playcards. That will give me another set of 12 characters for the humans.

Stay tuned. More to come...(Ripley searches for Newt. Maybe she'll find her once I have painted the figure :-D )